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Video: The rise and fall of Orest Kiprensky: Why was the author of the best portrait of Pushkin thrown with stones and who saved him
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Orest Kiprensky was gladly received in the homes of the nobility not only in Russia, but also in France and Italy. His talent gained recognition in Europe and, it seemed, nothing could prevent his ascent to fame and fortune. However, a tragic accident at one point destroyed all his hopes and aspirations. Orest Kiprensky had to prove his worth step by step again at home and abroad.
On the road to glory
Serfs Anna Gavrilova and her husband Adam Schwalbe were recorded as Kiprensky's parents, but the fact that Orest is the illegitimate son of the landowner Dyakonov could not be hidden. However, Aleksey Dyakonov himself gave his son freedom, as soon as he reached the age of 6. At the same time, under the patronage of Dyakonov, Orest Kiprensky was assigned to a school at the Academy of Arts. Here children were given basic knowledge in all subjects, taught languages, and also given the opportunity to comprehend the basics of drawing. At the age of 15, in 1797, Orest became a student at the Academy of Arts, focusing on portrait and historical painting. Ugryumov and Doyenne became Kiprensky's mentors.
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Already at the beginning of his studies, the young man gained fame as a talented and diligent student, and repeatedly received Academy awards. The best student of the Academy after graduation could apply for a so-called retirement trip to Europe to improve his artistic skills. Despite the fact that Orest Kiprensky was one of the best, after graduating from the Academy he did not manage to win the trip.
The young artist did not despair. The director of the Academy went to meet the talented student and his patron Alexei Stroganov and allowed Kiprensky to study at the Academy further, for three more years.
A year later, in 1804, the artist first took part in an exhibition of the Academy with a portrait of his official father Abram Schwalbe. And already in 1805, to participate in the competition for the Big Gold Medal of the Academy, Kiprensky presented the painting "Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo Field". This time, luck was on his side, and he got the right to a retirement trip to Europe. True, it was postponed due to the Napoleonic wars.
Murder in the house of Kiprensky
The artist set off on a long-awaited creative trip to Europe only in 1816, having previously won fame in his homeland as one of the most talented portrait painters. The retirement trip took place largely thanks to the patronage of Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, who appreciated the artistic talent of the master.
The artist first visited Germany, then went to Rome, where he not only studied Italian art, but also continued to write. Portraits and historical paintings of Kiprensky drew the attention of the Florentine Academy and soon the painter received an offer to paint his portrait for the Uffiza gallery, where self-portraits of the most famous artists were exhibited. This was an unconditional recognition, because Kiprensky was one of the first Russian painters to be awarded this honor.
At about the same time, he painted the portrait "Girl in a Poppy Wreath", for which Anna-Maria Falcucci posed for him. In different sources, the story of the little model is presented in different ways. In some, the girl is called the daughter of an adult model of the artist, in others it is indicated that the little girl was brought to the artist by a completely different woman.
Kiprensky was imbued with almost paternal feelings for the little Italian and was seriously concerned about her fate. The tragic events that took place in the painter's house drastically changed the fate of both Orest Adamovich himself and his little pupil.
One day the artist's model was brutally murdered. She was wrapped in a canvas and simply set on fire. Orest Kiprensky considered his servant the murderer of the woman, who died a few days after the murder. However, there were persistent rumors that the artist himself was involved in the death of the model.
Kiprensky's life in Rome became unbearable. As soon as he left the house, the street boys began to throw stones at him, and the doors of all houses slammed shut in front of the artist.
Revival
Orest Kiprensky did not disregard his little pupil, even leaving Italy. Before leaving, he was able to assign the girl to be raised in a boarding house at the monastery, fully paying for her maintenance, while the girl's real mother prevented this in every possible way, trying to blackmail the artist.
Kiprensky managed to achieve the deprivation of the mother of parental rights, and the Italian authorities, in order not to provoke new scandals around this situation, themselves chose the monastery to maintain Mariucci, as she was called.
Rumors of a murder in the Kiprensky house in Rome, meanwhile, reached Russia, and therefore the homeland greeted the artist unkindly. Before returning, the painter visited Paris, and then arrived in Russia.
Here, thanks to the participation of Count Sheremetev, Orest Kiprensky again took up the brush. A workshop was equipped for him in the palace of Dmitry Sheremetev, and he became the count's personal painter. Over time, the tragedy in Italy was forgotten, Kiprensky began to receive orders for painting portraits. In 1827, he painted a portrait of Alexander Pushkin, which became the most famous and widespread depiction of the poet. At the same time, the genius of Russian poetry was a very capricious customer, but he frankly admired the portrait by Kiprensky.
And in 1828, the artist left his homeland forever, going to his beloved Italy. Many years passed before he managed to find his former pupil. When they met, they both burst into tears from an excess of feelings and the joy of meeting. Soon Kiprensky married 25-year-old Anna-Maria Falcucci, converting for this to Catholicism. And three months later, he died of pneumonia.
In 1792, N. Karamzin's sentimental story "Poor Liza" was published, and 35 years later the artist Orest Kiprensky painted a picture of the same name based on the plot of this work. It was based on the tragic story of a young peasant girl, seduced by a nobleman and abandoned by him, as a result of which she committed suicide. Many considered Karamzin's words “And the peasant women know how to love” as a key phrase explaining the idea of Kiprensky's painting. However, the artist also had deeply personal motives that made him turn to this topic.
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