Why artist Rokotov is called a painter of Russian Masons and what is his mystery

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Fyodor Rokotov is the most mysterious artist of the second half of the 18th century. As one of the main portrait painters of his time, he carried out orders for the St. Petersburg and Moscow aristocracy. Why is Rokotov called a mysterious painter and did he really participate in the Masonic movement?

Biography

Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov was born in the 1730s on the Vorontsov estate. It was suggested that Rokotov could be the owner's illegitimate son, possibly the son of Prince P. I. Repnin, who gave him freedom in his youth. More formal sources claim that Rokotov from serfs and in his youth bought his freedom himself. In 1755, Rokotov's rapid growth began under the auspices of Count Ivan Shuvalov, a favorite of Empress Elizabeth I Petrovna and founder of Moscow University and the Academy of Arts.

The role of Shuvalov in the formation of Rokotov as an artist

I. I. Shuvalov came to Moscow to recruit gifted young men. He noticed Rokotov and helped him move to St. Petersburg and get an education. Initially, the young man entered the First Cadet Corps, the director of which was I. I. Shuvalov.

Having received the rank of captain, he retired from military service and entered the Academy of Arts. Subsequently, he was invited to Moscow to paint the coronation portrait of Catherine II, and just two years later Rokotov was awarded the title of academician. It was thanks to Count Shuvalov that 20-year-old Rokotov was given the opportunity to paint a portrait of the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (later Peter III). In 1762, at the presentation of his portrait of Peter III, who had just ascended the throne, Rokotov was made a court painter. A year later, he painted a portrait of the new Empress Catherine II (1763).

Rokotov's participation in the Masonic movement

From the late 1760s to the early 1790s, the artist painted "everyone in Moscow", including whole cycles of family portraits (for example, Count Vorontsov), depicting people of two or three generations. In Moscow, he avoided all official requests for paintings as best he could, but willingly painted members of Moscow society in small, intimate portraits. They were shoulder-length or waist-length portraits, their shades based on delicate faded tones, lit so softly that contours were blurred, canvas shining through fragile colors.

In 1772, Rokotov became one of the founders of the Moscow English Club. It was at this stage of his career, at the peak of his success, that Rokotov, according to some assumptions, entered the Masonic brotherhood. Perhaps Rokotov was a member of the secret lodge of Freemasonry. It is interesting that Rokotov, according to one version, was the illegitimate son of Minister Petr Repnin, also a member of the Clio Masonic lodge. Soon the artist signed up for Novikov's magazine Morning Light. It published translations of the texts of German Masons, philosophical articles on religious topics.

In the 1790s, the freemasons began to be oppressed - and at the same time the artist's creative activity came to naught. The canvases of this period have an extremely meager palette, almost monochrome. These features are usually explained by the weakening of the artist's vision.

Portrait of Vasily Ivanovich Maikov

Among the works of F. Rokotov, the portrait of Vasily Ivanovich Maikov stands out. Vasily Ivanovich Maikov is a Russian poet and playwright, the greatest master of the heroic poem in Russian literature. A gifted poet and son of a landowner. He served in the Semenovsky regiment, and later held various civilian positions. Maikov moved in the society of Freemasons, wrote odes, spiritual poetry and other lyric plays.

In his face, behind languid eternity, the insight and ironic mind of a talented poet is guessed. Maikov's sensual face is written tangibly materially, and the palette of green and red emphasizes the vitality of the image even more. This work is one of the most significant in the art of the 18th century. Maikov himself, the author of "comic poetry" and fabulist. Judging by the portrait of Rokotov, the hero knows his own worth, knows the value of life and values his dignity. Rokotov captured the triumphantly sensual complacency of a man who seemed to be condescendingly broadcasting: "Live, taste the sweetness of an innocent life." Maikov tried to live "as the duty and honor dictate" and called for moral self-purification and resist anger.

Portrait of Alexandra Struyskaya (1772),

Portrait of Alexandra Struyskaya (1772), sometimes referred to as the Russian Mona Lisa and admittedly the most famous female portrait of the 18th century. For the third century, the portrait of the young Alexandra Struyskaya takes the souls of admiring spectators. This girl is impossible to forget.

The charm of the portrait has passed through the centuries and in the twentieth century amazed the poet N. Zabolotsky. Think about it - a girl who lived for a long time became the poet's muse.

Although he was a serf by birth, there was no trace of his humble origin in Rokotov's work. On the contrary, the faces in his paintings were marked by a sophistication that was absent in other portraits of the time. Despite the dizzying successes that secured him imperial orders, the title of academician and nobility, he never forgot his origin.

Looking at the portraits of Rokotov, it seems that each person was a unique phenomenon for the artist. Perhaps it was this that influenced the fact that Rokotov avoided painting ceremonial portraits with a large amount of jewelry and ornaments. Instead, he was one of the first Russian artists to create a psychological portrait with an emphasis on optical and atmospheric effects.