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Karl Bryullov was born in 1799 and was the third son in a family of hereditary painters. Until the age of 5, Bryullov was bedridden by illness. His first teacher was his father. Bryullov had to draw a certain number of wax figures and horses every day, and only after that he received breakfast. Bryullov made drawings from engravings of old masters and, like all members of the family, every day he drew, drew, sculpted. Father, Paul Brullot, a Frenchman by birth, was a teacher at the Academy of Arts. Karl almost did not know his mother, she died early. The father brought up the children in severity, taught them the arts.For a poorly completed lesson, he could deprive him of food or resort to corporal punishment. The master's father, Pavel Ivanovich Bryullov, was a very demanding teacher. He taught ornamental sculpture at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He wanted his son to become the best, and one could become the best only if the emperor paid attention to your work. This is where the main problem lies. Nicholas I had no artistic taste at all. The ruler liked everything to be smooth and monumental. In terms of the sleekness of the images, Karl Bryullov had no equal.But the artist achieved this mastery through pain and suffering. For every mistake, the teacher-father beat little Bryullov on the ear. After one of the blows, the child's eardrum burst. The artist remained deaf in one ear for life, but he learned the price of mistakes. From now on, he did not do them. All models turned out perfect, but completely lifeless. Such a peculiar Instagram of the XIX century.
At the age of 10, Karl Pavlovich entered the Academy of Arts, where his older brothers were already studying at that time, which he graduated in 1821 with a gold medal. The most prominent masters of Russian art of the early XIX branch - A. I. Ivanov, A. E. Egorov, V. K. Shebuev - noted Bryullov's rare abilities and perseverance from the first student years. According to his friend, he took out a handful of awards from the Academy, received all the Small and Large silver medals. However, the teachers were extremely dissatisfied with those works of the young artist in which he violated strict academic rules. The teachers said they didn't know what to teach the little genius.He was loved by classmates, although usually they don’t like such seemingly “upstarts”. But Bryullov cannot be called a darling of fate. For a romantic who yearned for freedom of creativity, the academy was to a certain extent an oppression, because you had to write according to the rules, but you wanted to write in your own way. In 1821-1822 he worked in St. Petersburg, painted several portraits of cultural figures and compositions on themes of national history.
Having left for Italy as a pensioner of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, he lived and worked there in 1823-35. There he was at the excavations of Pompeii. Overwhelmed by a thirst for a great historical theme, in 1830, having visited the excavation site of the ancient city, Bryullov begins work on the canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii". The result is a majestic "catastrophe picture", which iconographically adjoins a whole series of congenial works by the masters of romanticism (T. Gericault, W. Turner, etc.) - works that arise as a series of political upheavals caused by an initial seismic impulse The Great French Revolution covers different countries of Europe.The picture of the death of the ancient city and people who do not lose their beauty and fortitude even in suffering, shocked by the romantic sincerity and grandeur of what was happening. The painting was exhibited in Italy, France and St. Petersburg (now located in the Russian Museum). The picture made a great impression on contemporaries. “And the “Last Day of Pompeii” became the first day for the Russian brush,” wrote E.A. Baratynsky.
Bryullov was not even 35 at the time, but he told his students that he could not create a second such picture. And for the rest of his life, the brilliant artist argued with himself in his own work.
The tragic pathos of the picture is enhanced by the violent plastic expression of the figures and sharp light and shade contrasts. Bryullov managed to depict a crowd of citizens seized by a single impulse at a fatal moment of its historical existence, thereby creating the first example of that multi-figured historical picture-total, which all Russian painting of the 19th century recognized as its most important task. Bright talent, comprehensive education, independence and independence (. ..) attracted the attention of contemporaries to Bryullov. Not surprisingly, his studio in Rome on Via Corso was popular.
"The Last Day of Pompeii" makes a splash - both in the master's homeland and abroad. In Italy and France, the picture is hailed as the first triumph of the Russian art school. N. V. Gogol dedicated an enthusiastic article of the same name (1834) to it, calling it "a complete, universal creation," where "everything was reflected," reflected in the image of "strong crises felt by the whole mass." The political charge of "Pompeii" was sensitively felt by A. I. Herzen ("The New Phase of Russian Literature", 1864). The Italians literally showered the artist with flowers.
Bryullov's work in Rome began with the study of the Vatican frescoes by Raphael and ancient sculpture. In the art of the great painters of the past - Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt - the artist was attracted by the truth of life. "The first thing I acquired on the voyage is that I became convinced of the uselessness of manners," he wrote to his elder brother Fyodor.
Contrary to the warnings of the Society, Bryullov enthusiastically took up genre painting; his "Italian Morning" (1824, location unknown), "Girl Picking Grapes in the Outskirts of Naples" (1827, Russian Museum), "Italian Noon" (1827, Russian Museum) appear. The joy of life permeates these paintings. Bryullov sees the beautiful in the fullness of life sensations, in the immediacy of human feelings, in the simple and everyday.
Bryullov's views on the tasks of art were especially evident in "Italian Noon". A young Italian woman in the dense greenery of the garden plucks a bunch of grapes. In the soft outline of the head, shoulders, arms, in the blush of the cheeks, in the brilliance of moistened eyes, the joy of being sparkles, a cheerful and full-blooded feeling of life, merging with the environment. The sun's rays pierce the foliage of the vineyard, glide over the hands, face, clothes of the girl; creates an atmosphere of living connection between man and nature.
In 1835 Bryullov traveled around the East, creating a series of new works. In 1836-1849. lived in St. Petersburg and taught at the Academy of Arts. Among his students were such artists as P.A. Fedotov, A.A. Agin. At the same time, Bryullov created a gallery of wonderful portraits: I.A. Krylova, N.V. Gogol, A.K. Tolstoy, N.V. Puppeteer, self-portrait, etc. Bryullov painted a portrait of V.A. Zhukovsky, which was raffled off in a lottery for the ransom of the poet and artist T.G. Shevchenko. He wrote, but did not complete the historical painting "The Siege of Pskov". In 1843-1847 he worked on painting the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral.
Before returning to his homeland and taking a professorship at the Academy of Arts, Bryullov, with the "artistic expedition" of V.P. Davydov, went to Greece, Turkey and Asia Minor. In 1835, on the way from Italy to his homeland, he created sketches of the Eastern Mediterranean, combining dreamy lyricism with subtle archaeological and everyday observation. Later, oriental motifs come to life in the painting "The Fountain of Bakhchisaray" and adjoining sketches on a harem theme. Masterfully mastering the technique of drawing, sepia and watercolor, the artist created a suite of sketches about Greece.Solemnly welcomed in his homeland as the first artist of Russia, he, prompted by Emperor Nicholas I, turns to the Russian past. But the painting "The Siege of Pskov by Stefan Batory" (1836-37, Tretyakov Gallery) did not become a new masterpiece, since it failed to achieve a convincing compositional and ideological unity of military and church history. The artist enthusiastically takes on monumental and decorative projects; antique-mythological motifs acquire full-blooded vitality in the sketches of the murals of the Pulkovo Observatory, primarily in the composition "Sleeping Juno and the park with the baby Hercules". Etudes and sketches of angels and saints for St. Isaac's Cathedral (1843-48) are imbued with inner strength and grandeur, but here, as in Pulkovo, the final results turn out to be much colder than the original idea.
The portrait gallery of contemporaries created by Bryullov in St. Petersburg (he painted about eighty portraits) is the most valuable in his legacy. Ceremonial portraits, which brought success to the artist back in the 20-30s, occupy a significant place in the St. Petersburg period of creativity. Among them are portraits of V. A. Perovsky, E. P. Saltykova, sisters O. A. and A. A. Shishmarev; the portrait-painting "Countess Yu. P. Samoilova, leaving the ball with her adopted daughter Amacilia Pacchini" stands out in particular.This work of Bryullov has a peculiar allegorical meaning. In the depths of the picture, the emperor is depicted in the costume of a sultan, and the courtier with the rod of the god of trade Mercury points to a girl in a white veil personifying innocence. Briullov associated the masquerade with the idea of falsehood and the emptiness of high society. In the portrait, he is contrasted with the images of the proud and independent Yu. P. Samoilova, the thoughtful, gentle Amazilia Pacchini. The portrait remains the area where Bryullov's talent reigns sovereignly and brilliantly. He still paints bravura secular portraits, impressive for their strong colorful and compositional effects.(Materials from the book: Dmitrienko A.F., Kuznetsova E.V., Petrova O.F., Fedorova N.A. 50 short biographies of masters of Russian art. Leningrad, 1971)
A different, contemplative-calm mood dominates in the images of people of art, more restrained in color, which, as it were, flickers from the inside of the form, emphasizing the spiritual significance of the models ("Poet N.V. Kukolnik", 1836; "Sculptor I.P. Vitali", about 1837, both - in the Tretyakov Gallery; "V. A. Zhukovsky", 1837-38, Kyiv Museum of T. G. Shevchenko; "I. A. Krylov", 1839, "A. N. Strugovshchikov", 1840, both - in the Tretyakov Gallery). Adjacent to this cycle is Self-Portrait (1848, Tretyakov Gallery), written in a warm tone and light brush, but imbued with moods of deep melancholy, fatigue and ill health.
At the age of 35, Bryullov learned from doctors that he could die at any moment, he had such a sick heart. Therefore, he painted portraits only of happy people, he has almost no dramatic portraits and no tragic portraits at all. Rich, famous and handsome, but internally unhappy, Karl Pavlovich remained alone all his life. And although girls fell in love with him, he did not believe that he was really interested in anyone. In 1849 he went abroad for treatment. Until 1850, Bryullov lived on about. Madeira and toured Spain.
Since 1849, Bryullov, weakening from illness, lives on about. Madeira, and from 1850 - in Italy. And in the last period of his life, the master creates expressive portraits full of subtle spiritual grace ("Archaeologist M. Lanchi", 1851, Tretyakov Gallery; unfinished painting "G. Tittoni as Joan of Arc", 1852, private collection, Rome), sketches of folk life warmed by poetic humor.(Materials from the book: Dmitrienko A.F., Kuznetsova E.V., Petrova O.F., Fedorova N.A. 50 short biographies of masters of Russian art. Leningrad, 1971)
As a professor at the Academy of Arts in 1836-49, Bryullov had a great influence on Russian fine arts as a teacher. However, the direct representatives of the Bryullov school (Ya. F. Kapkov, P. N. Orlov, A. V. Tyranov, F. A. Moller and others), in themselves interesting masters of genre and religious painting, as well as portraiture, in general they only continued the style of the teacher, without enriching the latter with anything significant. T. G. Shevchenko, who was also his student, adjoined Bryullov’s romantic school as an artist.
In 1850-1852 he was in Rome, despite his illness, he worked hard, creating portraits of participants in the roar. 1848 in Italy, a sketch of the philosophical canvas "All-Destroying Time", many drawings. Died suddenly. Buried in the Roman cemetery. Bryullov's works have become part of the treasury of Russian and world artistic culture.(Materials from the book: Dmitrienko A.F., Kuznetsova E.V., Petrova O.F., Fedorova N.A. 50 short biographies of masters of Russian art. Leningrad, 1971)