10 serfs. How much did famous artists charge for their portraits?

Painting portraits for Russian artists has always been a source of stable income. Some even specialized mainly in portraits - it allowed them to find influential patrons and make good ends meet, even if such work did not give them any pleasure, as, for example, Kramskoi. “Fed up with heads” - he once complained in a letter to his friend, ‘but I have to write them in spite of everything, otherwise there is not enough money for the family’. But how much received the leading portraitists for their famous paintings - this is what we will talk about in the article.

Fedor Rokotov. Portrait of Alexandra Struiskaya

Fedor Rokotov was one of the most famous and sought-after Russian artists in the 18th century. At the age of 30, he had already organized his own studio, where several apprentices worked, because one Rokotov could not fulfill all the orders taken. The price for a standard portrait was 50 rubles - for this money you could buy a strong healthy serf muzhik. Gradually he raised his fees to 100 rubles, and often most of the work was done by apprentice masters. Rokotov knew how to flatter the powers that be, so in 1763 he painted the famous portrait of Catherine II, which so pleased the empress that she paid 500 rubles for it.

Fedor Rokotov. Portrait of Catherine II

But this portrait was created not by Rokotov himself, but in his workshop. Rokotov developed the composition and put the finishing touches, while the rough work, painting the background and rich outfits were done by apprentices.

Fedor Rokotov. Portrait of Alexey Bobrinsky as a Child

However, for that time it was in the order of things, for example, Rubens organized a whole production, where he put the painting on the stream. He often only signed and completed the faces, and all other work was done by students. Written personally Rubens portrait cost several times more expensive, and could afford such expenses could only very rich and fastidious customers, usually monarchs and the most noble nobles.

Orest Kiprensky. Portrait of E. V. Davydov

Orest Kiprensky was considered one of the leading Russian portraitists of the XIX century, with appropriate fees. Thus, in 1824, he wrote an unremarkable ceremonial portrait of Count Dmitry Sheremetyev, for which he was paid 15 thousand rubles - the amount for those times a lousy, even ministers for the year received only about 12 thousand.

Orest Kiprensky. Portrait of Count Dmitry Sheremetyev

In 1827, Alexander Pushkin arrived in St. Petersburg after his exile in Mikhailovskoye. His friends ordered a portrait of the great poet from Kiprensky, having agreed on the sum of 1 thousand rubles - the price of five excellent racehorses.

Orest Kiprensky. Portrait of Alexander Pushkin

Even his workshop Kiprensky organized in the Sheremetev Palace, closer to his rich and noble customers, and it was there that Pushkin posed. But to Kiprensky's credit, the portrait turned out wonderful and is considered, according to art historians, the most successful portrayal of Pushkin. So his thousand he worked off in full.

Karl Bryullov. Italian Morning

Karl Bryullov, nicknamed “Great Karl” by his contemporaries, earned a very decent salary. For example, the patron Anatoly Demidov paid 40 thousand francs for the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”.

The Last Day of Pompeii

But the portrait of Vasily Zhukovsky in this list of profitable orders stands apart. It was painted to buy out of serfdom Taras Shevchenko, for whom his owner - landowner Pavel Engelhardt asked an unthinkable amount - 2.5 thousand rubles. To appeal to the conscience of Engelhardt was pointless, and several Russian artists and writers, familiar with Shevchenko, decided to still pay the money.

Karl Bryullov. Portrait of Vasily Zhukovsky

Bryullov painted a portrait of Zhukovsky, which was raffled off in a court lottery. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna purchased 400 rubles worth of tickets, Alexander II and Princess Maria Nikolaevna paid 300 rubles each, and the rest were distributed among the many friends and acquaintances of the lottery organizers.

Karl Bryullov. Italian Noon

True, Shevchenko was bought back free only 2 years after the portrait was written and raffled off in a lottery, and later this ransom played a bad joke on him. In 1847 gendarmes searched Shevchenko's house and found poems criticizing the then regime. “For him, the Empress paid her personal money, and he reads and distributes seditious poems.” The available guilt was enough to send Shevchenko, who already had the status of one of the most talented artists at the time, for ten years in exile in Orenburg province.

Ivan Kramskoy. Unknown

In the late 1860s, Tretyakov decided to commission artists to paint a series of portraits of prominent Russian writers and poets. One of the most famous works in this series was the portrait of Leo Tolstoy painted by Ivan Kramskoi. By that time Kramskoy was considered one of the most famous and highly paid artists in Russia and took for his work very expensive, while gaining so many orders that he worked to exhaustion. Not because he was too greedy for money, he just wanted to provide the best possible living conditions for his wife and children, who always lacked something.

Ivan Kramskoy. Beekeeper

But in the case of the portrait of Tolstoy Kramskoy pursued a noble goal. His friend - the artist Fedor Vasilyev suffered from tuberculosis, and he needed about 1 thousand rubles for treatment and a trip to the waters. Kramskoy appealed to Tretyakov with a request to give this money, in return he promised to paint a portrait of Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian writer lived not far from Kramskoy's dacha.

Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of Leo Tolstoy

However, Tolstoy did not like to pose, but Kramskoy replied: “Your portrait will hang in the museum in any case, the only question is when and who will paint it. Maybe it will happen in ten years, maybe in 50, but in any case it is better to do it from nature, not from a photograph, so it is worth worrying about it in advance”. Tolstoy agreed with Kramsky's arguments, and the portrait was created.

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