Portrait of Maria Lopukhina. The mystery of the portrait of Maria Lopukhina: a picture that brought death? The most poetic creation of all portraits in

Borovikovsky V. "Portrait of M. I. Lopukhina"

The 18th century went down in the history of Russian art as the “age of the portrait”, one of its best portrait painters is Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky.
An important role in his fate was played by the journey of Catherine II to the Crimea in 1787. Palaces and triumphal gates were erected on the way of the empress.
For one of these palaces, which was intended to receive the Russian empress, the Mirgorod leader of the nobility instructed V.L. Borovikovsky to write several allegorical paintings.
The queen especially liked two of them. On one, she herself was depicted in the form of Minerva, surrounded by seven ancient Greek sages, to whom she explains her mandate, on the second - Peter I, plowing the land, on which, again, she sows seeds, in some places already bearing fruit. Having learned the name of the artist, the Empress invited him to go to St. Petersburg.

V.L. Borovikovsky was incredibly industrious, he painted a lot of portraits, and he was instructed to paint portraits of all members of the imperial family.
The thoughtfulness of the picture, the skillful use of the brush, the freshness of color, the ability to depict all kinds of fabrics and clothes put V.L. Borovikovsky in a number of well-known portrait painters, although he did not receive a thorough classical education.
In the portraits of V.L. Borovikovsky shows the tenderness of the brush, the thin delicate drawing, the correctness of the forms and always the expression of thought on the face depicted by him. The portrait of Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina is the most poetic and feminine of all created by the artist. At the same time, he discovers the established moral and aesthetic ideal of V.L. Borovikovsky

The image of M.I. Lopukhina captivates the viewer with gentle melancholy, unusual softness of facial features and inner harmony. This harmony is conveyed by the entire artistic structure of the picture: both by the turn of the head and the expression on the woman's face, it is also emphasized by individual poetic details, such as roses plucked and already drooping on the stem. This harmony is easy to catch in the melodious smoothness of the lines, in the thoughtfulness and subordination of all parts of the portrait.

The face of M.I. Lopukhina, perhaps, is far from the classical ideal of beauty, but it is full of such inexpressible charm, such spiritual charm that next to it many classical beauties will seem like a cold and inanimate scheme. The captivating image of a tender, melancholy and dreamy woman is conveyed with great sincerity and love, the artist reveals her spiritual world with amazing persuasiveness.
Thoughtful, languid, sad-dreamy look, gentle smile, free ease of a slightly tired pose, smooth, rhythmically falling down lines, soft, rounded shapes, white dress, lilac scarf and roses, blue belt, ashy hair color, green foliage background and finally a soft airy haze that fills the space - all this forms such a unity of all means of pictorial expression, in which the creation of the image is revealed more fully and deeper.
M.I. Lopukhina is standing in the garden, leaning on an old stone console. The contour flowing around her figure - now lost, then appearing in the form of a thin, flexible line - evokes the contours of ancient statues in the viewer's memory. Falling, converging or forming smooth folds, the thinnest and most spiritual features of the face - all this makes up, as it were, not painting, but music.

Paints on the ground V.L. Borovikovsky applied a thick, but thin and even layer, achieving a kind of color vibration. When writing this portrait, the artist preferred a cold range - lilac-yellow and white, pale blue and yellow, muted green and ashy colors.
The figure of M.I. Lopukhina is surrounded by an airy haze of the landscape, but it does not merge with it, but acts as a clear plastic volume, rhythmically connected with it: hanging branches and tree trunks, depicted in the background, seem to echo the bowed torso and the position of the hand. Subtly models shapes and soft, gliding light.

V.L. Borovikovsky had previously introduced landscape backgrounds into his portraits. But just now, developed with all care, they become an important component of the artist's portrait characteristics, they get real meaning. Ears of ripe rye, delicate greens, cornflowers - everything is designed to emphasize not only the "simplicity" of the image, but also to express its dreamy mood. (Despite the fact that art historians note some conventionality in this landscape with “rural” signs.)
They also notice a share of some artificiality in the casually thoughtful pose of a woman. But at that time, the heroes themselves, as it were, demonstrated their ability for lofty feelings and heartfelt feelings, and after them, the artists (including V.L. Borovikovsky) had to depict these feelings, which were signs of a worthy and virtuous soul.
It is known that M.I. Lopukhina was never happy; a year after VL Borovikovsky painted her portrait, she died. But this woman concealed and carried in herself so much tenderness, love, purity of poetry, beauty of human feeling, which The poet Y. Polonsky's first impression of the portrait he saw was heartfelt poetic lines:

Portrait of Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina by Borovikovsky, one of my favorite paintings, is also in the Tretyakov Gallery.

The picture, which depicts the wife of the Jägermeister S. A. Lopukhin, the young Countess Maria Ivanovna, nee Tolstaya, the sister of the famous adventurer, Fyodor Tolstoy "The American", is often compared with the exciting and beautiful Mona Lisa.

Describing the famous creation of Da Vinci, they often say that Gioconda is mystically mysterious, her smile is elusive, and her eyes seem to be alive, and it seems that the girl is looking directly at you ... Similar sensations arise when you look at the portrait of Lopukhina.

In 1797, the famous portrait painter Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky, who was working at that time on a portrait of the imperial family, received another order. The Jägermeister at the court of Paul I wished to capture his beautiful bride, eighteen-year-old Countess Maria Ivanovna.

Borovikovsky V.L.

The cheerful, light young beauty made a strong impression on the forty-year-old Borovikovsky. Her natural charm and spontaneity prompted the artist to paint a portrait showing the deep, intimate sides of the girl's character, revealing her tender soul...

Looking at this picture, a huge range of opposing feelings and thoughts arises, the countess's expression every second seems different: either the girl looks at you with the arrogance of an aristocrat, or, practically, childishly touching.

This effect, exposing the inner world of the heroine, was achieved by Borovikovsky by using the traditional technique of a representative portrait, when the character is depicted surrounded by attributes and objects that reveal his image.

Only earlier such portraits were intended to indicate the social status of a person, his importance and viability. Borovikovsky, on the other hand, placed the beautiful Mary in a wonderful garden, partly decorative and conditional, but in which the features of the Russian landscape are traced.

Behind a delicate girl with a simple hairstyle, dressed in a light, simple dress with an azure belt, one can see the white trunks of Russian birches, blue cornflowers and ears of rye. The naturalness of the landscape echoes the simplicity of the image of the Countess, denoting the harmonious fusion of the pure soul of the girl with nature itself.

Scenery

The lines of the landscape repeat the curve of Lopukhina's fragile frame, the light birch trees are reflected in her dress, the golden ears of corn in the decoration on her arm, the cornflowers echo the delicate belt on her dress, and the light shawl on her shoulders exactly repeats the color of the rosebuds located in the right corner of the painting. the beauties who stare at us from the canvases of the great painters will forever remain just like that: young, charming and full of vitality. However, the true fate of beautiful models is not always as enviable as it might seem at first glance.

It is very easy to see this in the example of this famous portrait. Maria Lopukhina, descended from the count family of Tolstoy, immediately after her own wedding (she was 18 years old) posed for Vladimir Borovikovsky. The portrait was commissioned by her husband. At the time of writing, Maria looked just great. Her face radiated so much charm, spirituality and dreaminess ... There could be no doubt that a long and happy life awaited the charming model. An incomprehensible fact, but Mary died of consumption when she was only 23 years old. .

After her death, the portrait began to acquire mystical rumors. The dead woman looked so realistically, vividly and mysteriously from the canvas that people began to think that her father, the master of the Masonic lodge and the famous mystic, Ivan Tolstoy, managed to lure his daughter's soul into this picture.

It was said that if a young girl looked at the portrait, she would soon die. According to the version of secular gossip, the picture killed at least a dozen beautiful maidens.

The portrait, meanwhile, was kept in the house of Lopukhina's niece, daughter of Fyodor Tolstoy, and was revered as a family heirloom. It was here that Pavel Tretyakov first saw him in 1880. The magnificent picture made an indelible impression on the patron, and he did everything to buy it for his gallery.

Since then, the terrible rumors about the portrait have ceased. Now people admired this magnificent work of Borovikovsky, filled with depth of feelings, life authenticity and extraordinary poetry. …


Portrait of Lopukhina

In 1885, the poet Yakov Petrovich Polonsky wrote immortal lines about this beautiful girl, who will be admired by many more generations in the future:

“She has long passed, and there are no longer those eyes

Suffering is the shadow of love, and thoughts are the shadow of sorrow,

But Borovikovsky saved her beauty.

So part of her soul did not fly away from us,

And there will be this look and this beauty of the body

To attract indifferent offspring to her,

Teaching him to love, suffer, forgive, be silent.

Portrait of Lopukhina Once, almost a hundred years ago, the poet Polonsky saw a portrait of Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina painted by Borovikovsky at his acquaintances. The portrait by that time was also almost a hundred years old. The poet remained in thought for a long time in front of a small canvas. He knew next to nothing about this woman. He only knew that for some reason her life had turned out unhappily and that she died quite young.

The poet thought: "What a miracle - painting! Everyone would have long forgotten this beautiful Lopukhina, if not for the painter's brush ..."

And verses began to form in his head:

She has long passed - and there are no longer those eyes
And there is no smile that was silently expressed
Suffering is the shadow of love, and thoughts are the shadow of sorrow.
But Borovikovsky saved her beauty...

Of course, this is why we remember Lopukhina because Borovikovsky wrote it. Well, if we did not know who is depicted in the portrait, would we like him less or touch us less? Probably, not. That is why this portrait will forever excite us, that the artist not only similarly depicted the long-forgotten Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina, but created a beautiful image of a woman of sad and bright beauty, a pure and tender soul.
THANK YOU
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Among the many paintings of the famous Tretyakov Gallery, there is one around which many legends and mystical rumors still circulate.
This is a picture of a portrait of M.I. Lopukhina. The painting depicts a portrait of the young wife of germeister Lopukhin. I must say that according to historians, the personal life of this young and beautiful girl was sad.
She was unhappy in marriage, and 16 years later she died of consumption. But its beauty has been admired by hundreds and thousands of enthusiastic eyes for more than one century. There is something in her eyes that attracts and bewitches at the same time.

As if young Lopukhina plays with her contemplators, forcing them to stand near her portrait for a long time without moving. Until the time it got into the walls of the famous Tretyakov Gallery, the portrait of Lopukhina was in the house of a relative of the Lopakhins, the governor's wife Perfilyeva, where the poet Yakov Polonsky first saw him, he was delighted. Soon, the portrait of Lopukhina appeared for all to see, which caused a storm of genuine enthusiasm, both for the beauty of the girl and for the unique work of the artist.
It was even said that young ladies, admiring the beauty of the girl depicted in the portrait, often fainted. After several similar cases, a statement appeared that if a young unmarried girl looks at Lopukhina for a long time, and even more so looks into her eyes, then she will not have a happy marriage or, worse, an early death.

Some art historians were able to see another hidden mystical symbol in Borovikovsky's work. A kind of portal between life and death. In the first, upon closer examination of the picture, you can see that the girl is simultaneously in two dimensions. Next to her is a table and a vase with an already withered flower, and behind her, an endless wheat field and a blue sky.
But at the same time, it was possible to combine the seemingly incompatible. Spikelets of wheat and cornflowers depicted behind the girl's back also carry a secret meaning. If you turn to Slavic symbols, then rye is a symbol of life and prosperity. Cornflower is a symbol of the afterlife. We emphasize that the belt with which the girl is girded has the same cornflower blue color as the flowers in the picture.
You can not ignore the wilted rose - a symbol of death. Thus, Lopukhin is, as it were, between life and death. And so, we can conclude that the portrait of Lopukhina is a kind of mystical work of art. Since soon after writing it, the girl will fall ill and die.
Now this work by Borovikovsky adorns one of the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery and, perhaps, already carries the mysticism that it was shrouded in a hundred years ago, but gallery employees say that Lopakhina's expression sometimes changes and she still seems to communicate with those who have seen girls on her.
If you look at the picture from the professional point of view of the artist, then the colors are chosen very accurately. Particular attention is paid to the technique in which the face of a young lady is written. The artist very successfully picked up the colors, the freshness of youth and ruddy. In conclusion, I would like to say that the picture impresses not only with its unique history, but also with its incredible beauty.

Yakov Polonsky
"To the portrait of M.I. Lopukhina"
She has long passed, and there are no longer those eyes
And there is no smile that was silently expressed
Suffering is the shadow of love, and thoughts are the shadow of sorrow,
But Borovikovsky saved her beauty.
So part of her soul did not fly away from us,
And there will be this look and this beauty of the body
To attract indifferent offspring to her,
Teaching him to love, suffer, forgive, be silent

I have known this portrait for a long time, but I could not even imagine how unhappy the girl is depicted on it. And what was my surprise when I found out that this most beautiful creature rests right next to my work in a tomb in the Androniev Monastery. I want to go there and mourn.

Curriculum vitae:

Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina, nee
Countess Tolstaya, was the eldest daughter of Count Ivan Andreevich Tolstoy and
Anna Feodorovna Maykova. Her father served in the Semyonovsky regiment as a sergeant,
brigadier, major general. And besides, he was known as
leader of the Kologriv nobility.
Maria Ivanovna was not
the only daughter in the family, she also had 4 sisters: Vera, who
was married to the captain of the cavalry Khlyustin, Anna, maid of honor
courtier, Alexandra, who was married to von Moller, and
Catherine, who was married to the captain of the guard Chupinsky. AND,
in addition, Vera and Ekaterina were graduates of the Smolny Institute
issue of 1806. In addition, Maria had two brothers: Fedor and
Peter.

Perhaps the most odious figure in this family was Fedor
Ivanovich Tolstoy, Maria's younger brother, nicknamed "The American",
known for his duels and adventures. One day he tried to shoot
even with Pushkin. However, in order not to shoot himself, he suddenly began to eat
cherries and spit out the pits. This famous episode was later
based on the plot of the story "Shot" from "Belkin's Tales" ...

And the most
a famous story that is connected with the personality and fate of Fedor
American, this is that in 1803, when Krusenstern was sent to
world tour he went with him as a volunteer
of one's own free will, at one's own request. But while swimming
proved to be very undisciplined and for repeated
misdemeanors and violations of discipline was landed on the shores of the Russian colony,
for which he received the nickname "American". Living here for a while
Fyodor Tolstoy visited the Aleutian Islands, was forced to live here too
some time among the wild local tribes. And then by dry route returned to
Russia.

After numerous duels, he was stripped of his officer's
rank and demoted to the soldiers. But during the Patriotic War of 1812
year he fought bravely as a warrior in the militia and restored
his officer rank.
In addition to Pushkin, he was also familiar with other
prominent and outstanding writers of his time - with Batyushkov,
Baratynsky, with Vyazemsky, with Griboedov. And, by the way, Griboyedov
immortalized his image in his immortal comedy "Woe from Wit"
in the following words:

But we have a head, which is not in Russia,
No need to name, you will recognize by the portrait:
Night thief, duelist,
Was exiled to Kamchatka
Returned as an Aleut
And hard on the hand unclean.

Maria Ivanovna herself in 1797 married Stepan Avraamovich
Lopukhin, Jägermeister and real chamberlain at the court of Paul
First. And it was in this year that the famous portrait was painted - commissioned by
her husband, in connection with the wedding.

At the time of writing the portrait
Maria Ivanovna was only 18 years old. According to the few that have come down to us
memoirs of contemporaries, it can be assumed that she most likely did not
was happy in this marriage, which was concluded with a man older than her
for 10 years, an unremarkable person, and not out of love, but
most likely by the will of the parents ... After 3 years, the young wife
died of consumption...

Their marriage was childless. Spouse
buried her in the family tomb of the Lopukhins in Spas-Andronnikovsky
monastery in Moscow. This is the current museum and center of ancient Russian art
named after Andrei Rublev, in Taganka, in Moscow. A few years later he died and
he himself, and was buried in this tomb with her.

What
concerns the portrait, it was kept for a long time in the house of Maria's niece
Ivanovna, the daughter of that same Fyodor Tolstoy, the "American", who became
wife of the Moscow governor Perfilyev. It is in her house that the portrait and
saw Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov. This happened in the late 1880s.
years, and it was from there that the picture got into the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery,
where it is to this day...

It was a distant 1797. The artist, who has gained fame as a brilliant portrait painter, is working on portraits of the imperial family. Suddenly he receives a new order. One Jägermeister wished to capture his eighteen-year-old bride. However, some sources say that she herself wanted her portrait performed by Borovikovsky. Against the will of his parents, who did not recognize him as an artist.

The beautiful princess made such an impression on the master that, despising all the canons of painting, the artist depicted the heroine against a natural background in order to more fully reveal her inner world. In those days, portraits were supposed to indicate social status, which is why most are so gloomy. Only not a portrait of Mary!

When the work was completed, the princess got married. Unfortunately, she didn't get lucky. They did not have children with Lopukhin, and a few years later Maria dies of consumption. And this is where the fun begins!

The young girl looked so mysteriously from the picture, well, just like a living one! And people began to look for a mystical background. What’s more, they didn’t have to try very hard. The father of the princess, Ivan Tolstoy, was in the society of Masons. He even held the post of master. Guess what the gossips came up with?

Evil tongues said that the grieving father "lured" his daughter's soul into the portrait. And as if because of this, Maria is so beautiful. But they didn't stop there! Salon gossips have created a whole legend. According to her, it turned out that any young girl who looked at the portrait, even briefly, would certainly die! The public version said that the picture killed at least a dozen beauties.

All this time, the portrait was kept in the house of Maria's niece, and was revered as a family treasure. Until one day the famous philanthropist Pavel Tretyakov saw him. He liked the magnificent work so much that he bought it for his collection. Don't even ask how much work it cost him.

He brought his acquisition to the gallery and began to look for a suitable place for him. ABOUT! And here, just next to the portrait of Prince Kurakin, it is free. Both portraits were painted by the same artist, and Tretyakov considered it reasonable to hang the paintings side by side.

Everything was calm. Until morning! A collector comes to the gallery, and there the portrait of Kurakin is thrown on the floor. And not only did it fall, but the frame also fell apart. Tretyakov was interested in the behavior of the obstinate beauty, and he conducted an investigation. It turned out that even during her lifetime, Maria could not stand the aging prince, who had a bad habit of dragging women. I had to look for another place for the womanizer.

Since after the placement of the portrait in the gallery, there was no particular mortality of young visitors, rumors about her fatal abilities subsided. There she is still. Here we have such a “Russian Mona Lisa”. Mysterious, unique and amazingly beautiful.

She has long passed, and there are no longer those eyes
And there is no smile that was silently expressed
Suffering is the shadow of love, and thoughts are the shadow of sorrow,
But Borovikovsky saved her beauty.
So part of her soul did not fly away from us,
And there will be this look and this beauty of the body
To attract indifferent offspring to her,
Teaching him to love, suffer, forgive, be silent "(

The modern poetess Solovyova devoted a long poem to the canvas, in which she noticed one interesting feature of it - Mary's blue outfit, as it were, echoes the color of heaven.

Who was she, this sweet, charming girl? At what time in her life was she painted? "The portrait shows Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina(1779-1803), a representative of the Tolstoy count family, sister of Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy (famous for his duels - N.D.), wife of the Jagermeister S. A. Lopukhin (1769-1814), daughter-in-law of the Oryol governor A. S. Lopukhin. She died of consumption ”(Portrait of Maria Lopukhina - Wikipedia

Only a few lines are written about her in Wikipedia. While she “was the decoration of many secular salons. Many subsequently began to call her the Russian Gioconda ”(Vladimir Borovikovsky: a portrait of Lopukhina. History of creation, fb.ru/article/161740/vladimir-... copy (05/14/2017)). The beauty had a very unfortunate fate. Due to the imbalance of his character, Lopukhin could not give happiness to his lovely wife. She, having experienced horror and humiliation of insults, died three years later (according to other sources - 5 years later) after the wedding.

It was said that the girls who looked at the portrait were dying. This was facilitated not only by the unfortunate fate of Lopukhina, but also by the fact that Maria's father was known as a mystic and a freemason, however, the artist himself was also a freemason.

Under Soviet rule, wall calendars with this work by Borovikovsky were sold in huge numbers. And this fully proves that the picture was not dangerous.

Borovikovsky received an order for the painting from her husband Maria Lopukhina. His portrait was supposed to capture the youthful beauty of the future wife of Stepan Avraamovich. Maria is only eighteen years old, and the artist could not remain indifferent to this delightful creature. He was able to convey all her tenderness and purity, sadness in the eyes of this beauty and, as it were, even a premonition of tragedy. As if the artist M.M. Gerasimov said about her: “There are faces that can be read like a story ...” (Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina | Russian painting

Consider the features of the picturesque canvas of Borovikovsky.

“The portrait enchants us with the harmony of lines and shapes. All elements of the picture are interconnected. Each detail is subject to one idea - to shade the beauty of the model. The color scheme chosen by the artist is as follows: mauve, pale blue, pale green. This gives the picture a special charm" (

“Attention is drawn to the expressiveness of the volumes and plasticity of the depicted forms. Accuracy in the transfer of the individual features of the girl - all this is written with unusual ease. Maria's oblong eyes of a greenish tint, delicate, delicate facial features made the portrait the standard of a woman of the era of sentimentalism (Composition In JI Borovikovsky "Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina" (comp...

I really appreciate it when you can see real velvet, real nylon or copper utensils on a painting canvas, so one of my favorite contemporary artists is Alexander Shilov. In the portrait of Lopukhina, the painter also managed to convey the texture of the material. It was necessary to show her wealth and nobility. And we saw a real gold bracelet and waves of satin fabric.

"IN. Borovikovsky masterfully mastered the brush ”(Description of the Portrait of Maria Lopukhina Borovikovsky

“With whitewash strokes, he strikes diamond placers and pearls of jewelry, writes fur with light strokes, and flowing fabrics with extended strokes.
When it comes to facial modeling, Borovikovsky
sometimes he rubs paints into the canvas with his finger, sculpts forms like a sculptor” (Works by V. L. Borovikovsky “Portrait of M. I. - Answers Ma... otvet.mail.ru/question/188590503 03/18/16 copy (05/14/2017)).

The portrait of Maria Ivanovna showed the creative individuality of the author.

Shadows and penumbra play an important role here. “The brightest place on the canvas is the girl’s face. Her dress, hands, neck with their whiteness echo the light tones of the sky. Fluffy hair and a purple shawl are combined with muted shades of green that frames the girl's figure. All together - the gold of the hair and the complexion - create the glow of the canvas. This is a find by Borovikovsky. The human body, as in an icon, radiates light and true beauty ”(Composition V JI Borovikovsky“ Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina ”(sochi ... sochinenietut.ru / works / ... copy (05.14.2017)).

There is a presentation on the Internet dedicated to the painting. And it highlights 5 features of this work. These are: the musicality of the lines, the mysterious half-smile of the heroine, the light from nowhere, smokyness, sculptural forms.

A mysterious half-smile: “It is very difficult, almost impossible, to give an accurate psychological description of the state of the heroine of the canvas. Everything here is "half", everything here is contrasts and contradictions,

incompleteness and ellipsis ... half smile, half thoughtfulness,

half-sadness, half-tenderness ... And this is quite consistent with the style

sentimentalism with its attention to secret "feelings" (copy (05/14/2017)).

Sculptural forms: “The hand of the heroine of the canvas resembles

marble sculpture (especially in contrast to the completely "live"

rose written next to it), and this is not accidental: in this work,

there is undoubtedly a conscious appeal to classicism with its

admiration for ancient sculptural forms" (Presentation "Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky. "Portrait of Maria Iv... ppt4web.ru/mkhk/vladimir-lukich-... copy (14.05.2017)).

Smokyness: “The virtuoso technique of Borovikovsky is manifested in

amazing colour. He works with versatile strokes.

variable value and applies glazing, resulting in

smoky flavor with striking grace of color - art critics

found out, for example, that the color blue has seven shades in this work” (Presentation “Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky. “Portrait of Maria Iv... ppt4web.ru/mkhk/vladimir-lukich-... copy (14.05.2017)).

Light from nowhere: “When you look at this portrait, you get the feeling

That light appears as if from nothing. In fact, "from what",

Certainly. The color scale of a cloth - is gentle and iridescent. On

exposed parts of the paint body form an uneven layer capable of

reflect light. This is where the indicated sensation of pouring light comes from.

The musicality of the lines: “The harmony of the image is largely achieved

Due to the thoughtful "symphony" of lines, their doubling and tripling in

the space of the picture. So, for example, a birch trunk is a mirror

repeats the slightly inclined body of the model, and the curved line of the left hand sounds like an “echo” of the trunk and branches of the near “background” tree” (Presentation “Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky. “Portrait of Maria Iv... ppt4web.ru/mkhk/vladimir-lukich-.. copy (14.05.2017)).

How did contemporaries feel about this work?

Borovikovsky? First of all, they noticed the undoubted

similarities with the prototype, in addition, for them, the portrait was the embodiment of the ideal of femininity. After all, in it the natural beauty of the girl is in harmony with the surrounding nature.

“This was the golden age of the Russian portrait, and Borovikovsky was considered its recognized master. A. Benois wrote: “Borovikovsky is so original that he can be distinguished among thousands of portrait painters. I would say that he is very Russian ”(The mystery of the portrait of Maria Lopukhina: a picture that carried ..

I myself, perhaps, also appreciate this work of the master and for its Russianness too.

But in general, in the 20th and 21st centuries, we see and understand that “Borovikovsky reflected in the picture not only the aesthetic, but also the social ideal of a woman. The image of Lopukhina combines beauty and intelligence, nobility and virtue. Thanks to his deep visual abilities, V. L. Borovikovsky is a Russian artist of world significance ”(Composition In JI Borovikovsky“ Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina ”(comp...

*- the text says romanticism, but I think it's a mistake.