Russian artists painted many outstanding portraits of beauties, many of which are now in museums. In addition to the well-known masterpieces, such as Kramskoi's “The Stranger”, there were also portraits less promoted, which, however, does not detract from their artistic merits. We will talk about portraits that reflect the ideal of Russian beauty in this article.
Konstantin Makovsky (1839-1915) was the highest paid and most popular artist of his time. His success was largely predetermined, and in life he managed everything easily and effortlessly.
Konstantin Makovsky. Self-portrait.
In addition, the paintings of itinerant artists were in demand, their exhibitions gathered crowds of people, and rich customers paid for the paintings of leading artists, such as Ilya Repin or Vasily Perov good money.
Except that Makovsky's work differed strikingly, to write the people he was willing, but to show their suffering - no, please. In his paintings in the foreground was beauty, there are even peasants all in clean and good clothes and did not look “humiliated and insulted”. Makovsky did not share and many of the ideas of the Itinerants, often wrote portraits of wealthy merchants, manufacturers and aristocrats to order.
Boyarina at the window
The artwork came very easily to him, and he gradually built up his hand so much that he managed to paint a standard portrait in a few hours. However, when the portrait was ready, he simply put it in a far corner, and told the customer to come back for it in a month. He went away, convinced that the artist all this time, the artist has been working on the portrait, gradually bringing it to perfection, and therefore takes so expensive.
At the seventh exhibition of the Peredvizhniki in 1879 Makovsky instead of the standard for Peredvizhniki paintings presented a canvas “Mermaids”, which is an artistic embodiment of folk legends about them.
Mermaids
However, he wrote it in his own style - colorful and somewhat provocative for the time. Call it Makovsky in any other way, write not mermaids, and the usual, bathing naked under the moon girls - the scandal would be thorough. And so the picture was liked by all and it was purchased by the Emperor Alexander II. In Russian painting in general to write Nude was somehow not accepted, for example, Tretyakov never bought such artwork, although there were exceptions, such as Ilya Repin's painting “Sadko”.
But gradually Makovsky, when the requirements for morality became less stringent, began to write and paintings in the style of Nude, depicting and modern girls as on the canvas “Beauty, preparing for bathing” in the early XX century.
A beauty preparing for bathing
It is painted closer to the Impressionist manner, without careful drawing of the background, noticeable strokes are visible, it depicts the moment “here and now” and the theme is taken quite in the spirit of the Impressionists - admiration for the beauty of the bathing girl. All this does not fit at all with academism, in the style of which many of Makovsky's canvases are written. But he was not an ardent adherent of one direction in painting, and in his later artwork paid attention to the fashionable and advanced at that time Impressionism.
However, Makovsky became famous more for his colorful portraits and genre paintings, idealizing Russian antiquity. Boyariny in rich Russian national costumes, large-scale feasts with baked swans on the tables, old Russian customs - these are common themes for paintings Makovsky. He and ordered portraits in Russian national dress, such as, for example, “Portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova”, and it is really beautiful.
Portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova
Fyodor Rokotov (1735-1808) was a Russian portrait painter. He came from a family of serfs, but there are suggestions that he was the illegitimate son of Prince Pyotr Repnin, so he became free even at a young age. His father took care of his son - at first he arranged for him to go to the Army noble corps to study military science, but when he saw that he was not bad at drawing, he put in a good word with Ivan Shuvalov, who was then a favorite of Elizabeth Petrovna, and at the same time the founder of the Academy of Arts.
At that time, the Academy of Fine Arts did not even have its own building, and it was located in the personal house of Shuvalov, teachers - all the same foreign artists. However, Rokotov quickly learned and showed great ability to paint, and already in 1757 wrote the first serious “Portrait of a young man in a Guards uniform.
Portrait of a young man in a Guards uniform
It is believed that this is a portrait of the artist himself in his youth. Soon came quite favorable orders from aristocrats and high dignitaries - the good acquaintance with Shuvalov and low competition from other artists had an impact. Then good home-grown painters in Russia was few, and order portraits from foreigners, some customers are already tired of - Rokotov took for artwork cheaper and wrote not worse. And most importantly - Rokotov had the opportunity to write portraits of members of the imperial family. It was very prestigious and attracted other customers - every courtier was flattered to order a portrait from the artist who painted even the Empress.
Portrait of Catherine II
The famous “Portrait of Catherine II” Rokotov wrote in 1763. Historians are still puzzled why Rokotov got the right to paint a portrait of the Empress herself. There were more noble and venerable artists, such as Ivan Argunov, but it was Rokotov who was awarded such a high honor. And after all, he was not even 30 years old, and the serf origin of the status did not add.
However, the picture turned out to be very successful. Largely due to the correct, though quite rare at the time, perspective - in profile. Catherine II looks majestic and noble - she is intelligent, thirsty for power, ready to fight for it and certainly will not give it to anyone, but at the same time ready to do a lot for the good of her country, at least to remain in the memory of posterity as a worthy ruler who patronized the arts and led a thoughtful foreign policy.
However, Rokotov had other portraits of beauties, for example, “Unknown in Pink”.
Unknown in pink.
Alexander Evgenievich Yakovlev (1887-1938) was a Russian painter and illustrator. He came from a very distinguished family. His father was a naval officer, his mother was a doctor of sciences, his sister was an opera singer, and his brother was an aviator. It was necessary to match and not to shame the honor of the family, and Alexander succeeded. He became an artist and illustrator, in 1913 he joined the art association “World of Art”, exhibited at exhibitions organized by this association of his paintings, and for the paintings “In the bath” and “Bathing” received the right to a boarding trip abroad, which he gladly took advantage of. On the revolution of 1917, Yakovlev learned on a business trip to the Far East and here, perhaps, acted too cautiously, even cowardly. He simply went abroad, leaving his son and wife at the mercy of fate. Their fate was unhappy - the son died in 1918, his wife committed suicide in 1929.
And Yakovlev continued to travel around the world and write paintings. One of his best paintings is “Portrait of Anna Pavlova”. He wrote it in Paris, where he rented a small apartment on the street of artists - Montmartre.
Portrait of Anna Pavlova
Portrait of Anna PavlovaThe portrait is painted in the style of neoclassicism, in a special manner peculiar to Yakovlev. Pavlova is beautiful and graceful, a true prima donna, a ballet star. Exquisite dress, unusual dancing pose, as if she were still on stage, not descending the stairs of the Mariinsky Theater. It is unlikely that he would have been able to paint such a painting while living in the Soviet Union - his fate as the son of a naval officer would have been a sad one, but is it any easier for his wife and son who remain in the homeland?
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