What the deaf-mute artist of the Pushkin era, who was patronized by the emperor himself, painted: Karl Gampeln

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

How many opportunities did life give life to a person who was born deaf, and even at the end of the 18th century? A lot - and I must admit that Karl Gampeln took advantage of each of them. And most importantly, he devoted almost all of his time to what fascinated him from childhood: drawing and painting. Talent, perseverance, work, a little luck - and now the artist has a patron - the emperor himself.

How a deaf and dumb boy got a chance for success and fame and took advantage of it

In 1794, a boy was born into the Gampeln family, Germans who had moved to Russia from Poland. Karl turned out to be deaf, as a result - deaf and dumb, and since in the Russian Empire at that time there were no opportunities to educate children with such a pathology, the parents sent their son to Europe, to Vienna. Karl Gampeln, the first Russian student, was brought up there, in an educational institution for the deaf and dumb, where the increasingly popular methodology of Abbot de l'Epe, based on teaching sign language, was used.

From childhood, fascinated by drawing - which is understandable, of course, since painting and graphics were one of the very few ways for Gampeln to learn about the world and express his vision of this world, Karl was able to become one of the students of the Vienna School of the Society for the United Arts at the Austrian Imperial Academy of Arts. There he studied from 1810 to 1816. Gampeln showed himself as a talented draftsman, he enjoyed the patronage of the school director, mastered all sorts of areas of fine arts and crafts, including engraving.

In 1812, the Gampeln family, who moved to Europe with Karl, suffered a whole series of misfortunes - their house burned down and the father of the family soon died. The boy had to start working, he started teaching. And two years later, when the Russian emperor and his family visited this city in connection with the Vienna Congress, Gampeln was lucky. During the visit of the Grand Duchesses to the Academy of Arts, he was introduced to a deaf and dumb, but talented young man from Russia, he presented the guests with several of his works and, willingly or unwillingly, enlisted the support of the highest level. Whether he had a personal meeting with the sovereign is not known for certain, one thing remains indisputable - Alexander I paid for Gampeln's further education, allocating one and a half thousand guilders for this.

His studies were successful, Karl received a gold medal for success in engraving and other fine arts, and, after completing his studies in Vienna, went to St. Petersburg.

Life and career - in St. Petersburg and Moscow

Not without valuable recommendations: Empress Maria Feodorovna herself was busy about the future of the artist. She provided Gampeln with the patronage of Alexei Nikolaevich Olenin, at that time a prominent statesman, and in addition to that, a historian, artist and architect.

Olenin responded readily: he took both Karl and his brother Yegor under his roof. At the request of his patrons, Gampeln got a job in the institution for the deaf and dumb, created again by Empress Maria Feodorovna, where he taught drawing and engraving. Living in Olenin's house, Gampeln studied collections of paintings and graphics, enjoyed access to an extensive library, and got acquainted with the collections of archaeological finds. In addition, Karl got the opportunity to communicate with the most interesting people of his time: among his acquaintances were writers, artists, actors, officers and nobles. These meetings played an important role in his profession - it was among those who visited the house on the Fontanka that there were those who ordered the portraits.

There is a possibility that during Pushkin's visit to Olenin's house in 1818-1819, when the young poet graduated from the Lyceum, he met Karl Gampeln, but there is no exact information about this. But it is known that in 1827, when the poet, in love with Olenin's daughter Anna, made visits to the house of his subject of adoration, Gampeln was no longer there: shortly before that he had to leave for Moscow, in fact, into exile, since the artist incurred disfavor the new emperor after the December uprising of 1825.

The series of portraits that Gampeln created for the entourage of his trustee played a bad joke with the artist: many of those who posed for him were accused of preparing a riot, primarily the Konovnitsyn brothers. Numerous acquaintances made by Gampeln during his life in Petersburg at Olenin's house cast a shadow on his name and reputation in the eyes of the new emperor. And if the matter did not come to direct accusation, then the artist still had to leave - they made it so clear to him that he was an undesirable figure in the capital. By the way, shortly after the uprising of the Decembrists, Olenin's career as a statesman ended: Emperor Nicholas I did not come to court.

The further years of his life, apparently up to his death, Gampeln will spend in Moscow. However, there he was a celebrity for some time - his personality and work became the topic for magazine notes. There was no need to look for work, Gampeln continued to paint to order.

In 1831, the artist received the rank of collegiate registrar and continued his advancement up the Table of Ranks. In 1834, Gampeln married Natalya Markovna Rontsevich, and a son, Karl, was born in the marriage. It is known that the artist submitted a request to the Moscow Nobility Assembly to include his surname in the noble genealogy book, but for some reason was refused. It is believed that the artist died in the eighties of the last century - exact data on his death have not been preserved, however, he may have died earlier. The latest information about the artist's works dates back to the sixties of the 19th century.

Gampeln's legacy

Karl Gampeln left a significant number of works: portraits, both graphic and pictorial, predominated in his work. In addition, he painted scenes from the life of nobles, military men, merchants and peasants, depicted significant events from the history and life of society. He owns the famous engraving "Walking in Yekateringof", which is made on a long paper tape - its length is ten meters, and its height - just a little more than nine centimeters. Such a walk took place annually on May 1 - from the Kalinkin bridge in St. Petersburg to the palace in Yekateringof.

The Romanovs were also the customers of the portraits of Gampelnu: the artist painted a portrait of the nine-year-old heir to the throne, Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, in the future - Emperor Alexander II. Among the artist's works are oil paintings, watercolors, lithographs, engravings, miniatures. Gampeln signed his creations with the indispensable use of the French sourd-muet or, in rare cases, the Russian translation of these words - "deaf and dumb". According to Gampeln's contemporaries, he was almost proud of his peculiarity - after all, it made him feel unique among his craft colleagues.

Now the artist's works can be seen in the Hermitage, in the Russian Museum, in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Museum named after A. S. Pushkin and not only.

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