Today, in the Tretyakov Gallery opened an exhibition brings together some 200 works by Vladimir Lukic Borovikovsky (1757-1825) and dedicated 250 th anniversary of this outstanding Russian artist.

Name on the landmark exhibition gave to the author's portrait of MI Lopukhina line Ya Polonskiy: «... It is long gone, and there are already those eyes, //And a smile is not that silently expressed //suffering -- shadow of love, and thought - a shadow of sadness, //But the beauty of its Borovikovsky saved ».

Unlike most artists classics, past the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts School, a native of Malorossiya Vladimir Borovikovsky had no academic education. The first and principal teacher was his father - a painter and iconographer of Mirgorod receiving nobility Cossack sergeant. The turning point in the fate of 30-year-old artist has participated in the decoration of the palace Kremenchuk, where during a trip to the Crimea in 1787 stopped Catherine II. Noting glorifying its allegorical compositions, the Empress demanded to call the author to St. Petersburg. Invitation to the capital Borovikovsky received from the lords and poet Basil Kapnista in Petersburg was in the house well-known architect Nikolai Lvov, he wrote the recommendation of the icons for the cathedral in Borisoglebsky Torzhke, Iosifovskogo church in Mogilev. Perhaps the actual classes attended the Academy of Arts, he took lessons from the portraitist IB Lampi-senior .

Circle N. Lviv - one of the centers of intellectual life of St. Petersburg - a long predetermined range of interests and scope of Borovikovsky. He was friends with DG Levitsky , whose advice has benefited, GR Derzhavin and other writers and artists, in whose environment cultivated style «private life» and born Russian sentimentalism. In the early 1790's Borovikovsky turned to the genre of intimate portraiture, often depicting women in the home. In this vein, and the picture is written «Catherine II for a walk in the park Tsarskoselsky» (1794), where the empress appears as an individual, that it was unusual for the portraits of crowned heads. Although the portrait of Empress is not approved for this work was recognized Borovikovsky «designated» in academics. (The title of academician, he received a year later for a portrait of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich.) Portrait of Catherine II shown at the exhibition, which is divided into several thematic zones in accordance with the periods of creativity and range of customers Borovikovsky.

In the mid 1790's the artist was invited to Pavlovsk «small yard», where he created many portraits of Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, his wife and children. With these works the way the viewer begins to show. In the center of the room are the most spiritual women's images, which recognizes the best portraits of EG Temkina (1798), EA Naryshkin (1799), sisters AG and VG Gagarin (1802) and especially the portrait of M. Lopukhina (1797), exceptional lyricism and delicacy of mood painting (all - in the collection of The State Tretyakov Gallery). It is in the works Borovikovsky picturesque sentimentalism has reached the highest realization, surpassing Western counterparts. The artist has become a true creator of portraits canon Sentimentalism. Individually, the characteristic of his portraits, like the receding front of the ideal. Of reverie, with a touch of light melancholy characters retreat from the bustle of secular, meets with a beautiful range of subtle color nuances.

during the times of Paul I became the creative heyday Borovikovsky. Men's portraits of his brush with the idea of service and duty interwoven with the spirit of melancholic contemplation, usually remain in the shadows of women's images. In the ceremonial portrait Borovikovsky able to create a wonderful ensemble of lush, often «speaking» details (portraits of Murtaza-Kuli-Khan (1796, State Russian Museum), Paul I in a suit Grandmaster of Malta (1800, GRM), Duke AB Kurakin (1801, TG)). Since a par with Dmitry Levitsky, Duke AB Kurakin, Lopukhins and Gagarin in Masonic lozhu «Sphinx dying», founded in 1802 by Alexander Labzinym, artist portretiroval many Masons.

in the Alexander era Borovikovsky, responsive to the new aesthetic trends, and the haze of rokaylnoy sophistication Sentimentalism proceed to hammer silhouette, linearity and statuarnosti Empire. Characteristics of characters in these years, the artist gives features geroiziruyuschey pathetics peculiar style empire. At this time, a number of masterpieces such as the portraits of Countess AI Bezborodko with daughters (1803, GRM), navigator, JF Lisyanskogo (1810, TSVMM), Prince and Princess A. and MI Dolgoruky (both - 1811, TG). Gallery of images of intellectuals of the Enlightenment continues portraits Earl A. Khvostov (1801, TG), wife of poet Robert G. Derzhavina - DA Derzhavin (1813, TG), «Lady in turbans» (perhaps a portrait of the writer Germain de Steel, 1812, TG).

ends with a display of portraits of religious figures and obrazá for churches established Borovikovsky in recent years. At this time, disappointed in masonstve, the artist once again recognized as a critical iconography the scope of its activities. By Count A. Stroganova performed iconostasis the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, and shortly before his death - the iconostasis Trinity Church in Smolensk cemetery (now in the State Russian Museum), first exhibited in Moscow. In the 1819-1824 year was the mystical sect of «Union brotherhood», for which he wrote religious paintings. In pre-revolutionary Russia the religious paintings Borovikovsky advanced to the forefront, the samples were kept in private collections Pryanishnikova F., I. Tsvetkova, in the Rumyantsev Museum. In the Soviet era, a large part of the heritage of the wizard icon is lost, surviving icons and portraits of church hierarchs had been hidden in museum storerooms, inaccessible to researchers and closed to the public.

In the exhibition - works from the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, which has 70 works by masters, the Hermitage, the Historical, the Central Naval Museum and the Russian, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, palaces, museums and Gatchina Pavlovsk, as well as regional museums and private collections in Russia. From the Louvre portrait brought knyazhon EA and AA Kurakin (1802).

exhibition catalog accompanies the album, which included portrait miniatures and full-scale academic study, not included in the exhibition, first published epistolary heritage Borovikovsky from the archive of The State Tretyakov Gallery. CD-Rom «VL Borovikovsky. Painting. Icon. Fig. Miniature »exceeds the number of annotated catalog of reproductions. The exhibition prepared by an extensive education program that includes lectures Moscow museum staff about the culture of XVIII century, opened a workshop on technology XVIII century painting, interactive tours and concerts of authentic music.

curator of the exhibition - the head of department of paintings XVIII - first half of XIX century, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Dr. Art Lyudmila Markina.

Press conference will be held October 30 at 14.00, at 16.00 a preview. The exhibition can be visited from 31 October 2008 to January 18, 2009 at the State Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val.

Source: tretyakovgallery.ru