Portraits of beautiful women of the 18th century. Portrait of a woman at the end of the 19th century in Russia

A visitor to the Russian Museum, moving from the icon painting exhibition to the hall of Peter I, experiences sensations similar to those experienced by Neo in the film “The Matrix”, who took the red pill from the hands of Morpheus. Just now we were surrounded by spiritual images, bright colors and harmonious lines, which only vaguely resembled what was visible around us, but with their incorporeal beauty they represented in our world the law and order established during the creation of the Universe. Welcome to reality - crossing the threshold, we descend into this world dark colors and deliberate physicality, relief faces sculpted by light, as if peeling off from black backgrounds. We came to look, but we ourselves found ourselves in the crossfire of views: almost all the exhibits here are portraits. From this time on and for the entire coming century, the portrait will become synonymous with Russian painting.

The history of the Russian portrait of the 18th century is a picture of the visual self-awareness of the nation, the unfolding process of the Russian person acquiring a “face” unfolded over time. In the era of Peter the Great, people became accustomed to the appearance of an individual embedded in the social hierarchy. From the class standard, fixed in a rather limited repertoire of poses and facial expressions, the portrait goes to building more subtle relationships between the appearance and the inner world of the character. With the advent of sentimentalism, it is the life of the soul that becomes a value, a sign of a personality that harmoniously combines nature and civilization. Finally, romanticism and the era of 1812 will allow, probably for the first time in Russian art, the image of an internally free person to be born.

Speaking about the portrait, we need to remember a few things. First of all, in a class society, he is a privilege, a marker and at the same time a guarantor of the model’s status. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the heroes of the portraits were representatives of the highest social strata. A portrait in which the necessary image conventions (pose, costume, surroundings and attributes) are observed and agreed upon will automatically certify a high social status your character. The portrait reflects and transmits standards of social behavior. He seems to say: “This is a noble man in front of you. Be like him! Thus, for centuries, a noble portrait represents not only a nobleman-activist, but also a person who is characterized by graceful ease, that is, a property that has long served as a physical expression of nobility and education, and therefore, belonging to the elite.

Portraiture is a kind of industry. The very nature of the portrait market suggests high degree unification. Portraits are quite clearly divided into ceremonial (ceremonial) and more intimate (private). They, in turn, presuppose a certain set of formats, poses and attributes, as well as a corresponding price list, which takes into account whether the artist himself executed the portrait from start to finish or entrusted less responsible areas of work to apprentices.

From his first steps in Ancient world the portrait played a magical role: it literally replaced the person depicted and extended his existence after death. The memory of these archaic functions accompanied the portrait even when it became one of the genres of painting and sculpture of the New Age. It was conveyed, in particular, by literary works that described imaginary communication with a portrait: poetic “interviews” with it, stories about falling in love with portraits, and in the era of romanticism - scary stories about images coming to life. They always say that the portrait is “as if alive,” he “breathes,” he only lacks the gift of speech, etc. As a rule, the pictures described by poets were the figment of their imagination. However, the tradition itself, preserved by literature for centuries, set the way of perceiving the portrait and reminded that it belongs not only to the world of art, but is directly related to the problem of human existence.

Classical art theory does not place a high value on the portrait. This genre also occupies a corresponding place in the academic hierarchy. IN late XVIII century, for example, it was believed that “in a portrait... kind only one figure is always made, and for the most part in the same position... This kind of... cannot be compared with the historical one...”. At this time, portraiture, associated with the imitation of an imperfect nature, should not have become a prestigious occupation. Meanwhile, a different situation has developed in Russia: a portrait in demand by society has become one of the artist’s surest paths to success. Starting with Louis Caravaque, Ivan Nikitin or Georg Groot, the creation of portraits was one of the main tasks of court painters. But the artist of the first half - mid-18th century is still a multi-studio worker: the Sheremetev serf Ivan Argunov fulfilled the various whims of his owner and ended his career as a housekeeper, leaving painting; Andrei Matveev and Ivan Vishnyakov supervised the architects and decorators of the Chancellery from buildings; Alexei Antropov had similar responsibilities at the Synod. However, for just one copy of his own coronation portrait Peter III, ordered by the Senate, the artist received 400 rubles - only a third less than his annual synod salary.

With the founding of the Academy of Arts in 1757, the situation began to change. Previously, the Russian portrait painter, like a Renaissance apprentice, learned his craft in the studio of a practicing artist or took lessons from a visiting celebrity. Forty-year-old Antropov improved under the guidance of Pietro Rotari, a painter with a European reputation who moved to Russia. Argunov studied with Groot, and at the behest of the empress he himself taught painting to singers who had “slept from their voices,” among whom was the future historical painter Anton Losenko. Now, the basis of the artist’s education was the holistic method proven by generations. The portrait class at the Academy was founded in 1767.

Despite the seemingly low status of the genre, of the nine first-time students who graduated from the Academy, five graduated as portrait painters, and only two specialized in historical painting. Portraits occupied important place at academic exhibitions and allowed the artist to make a full-fledged career - to become an “appointed” (that is, corresponding member) or even an academician. Borovikovsky received the first title in 1794 for his depiction of Catherine II on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park, and a year later - the second, for the portrait of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. A portrait of a person of a creative profession in itself could symbolically increase his status. Levitsky depicted the architect Kokorinov in 1769 according to the standard of a portrait of a statesman: the rector of the Academy of Arts with a sword and in a luxurious suit worth his annual salary, with a gesture filled with nobility, points to the secretary with the academic treasury, the seal Academy and its plan. Four years later, the artist will literally reproduce this scheme in the portrait of Vice-Chancellor Prince Golitsyn.

Vladimir Borovikovsky. Catherine II on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park. 1794State Tretyakov Gallery

Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. 1795Chuvash State Art Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of A.F. Kokorinov. 1769

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Vice-Chancellor Prince A. M. Golitsyn. 1772State Tretyakov Gallery

The second half of the century opens up an alternative for the portrait painter - working on private orders. Fyodor Rokotov most likely came from serfdom, but served as a nobility in the military department. When his career at the Academy of Arts did not work out, he moved to Moscow in 1766-1767, and the noble nobility of the old capital formed an extensive clientele for the artist. Using his example, we can get an idea of ​​the position of a sought-after painter. For written on my own initiative royal portrait Ekaterina awarded Rokotov 500 rubles. The first historiographer of Russian art of the 18th century, Jacob Shtelin, testifies that even in St. Petersburg the artist was “so skillful and famous that he could not alone cope with all the works ordered to him... He had about 50 portraits in his apartment, very similar, nothing was finished on them except the head [this probably implied the participation of apprentices].” If in the 1770s his standard portrait cost 50 rubles, then in the 1780s it was already valued at a hundred. This allowed the artist to purchase a plot of land for 14,000 rubles, build a two-story stone house on it, become a member of the English Club and earn the irritated remark of a contemporary: “Rokotov became arrogant and important after fame.”

The contrast between the icon painting and the portrait of the 18th century clearly shows the radicalism of Peter the Great's revolution. But the Europeanization of visual forms began earlier. In the 17th century, masters of the Armory Chamber and other isographers created a hybrid of icon and portrait - parsuna (from the word “person”, which in the first half of the 18th century replaced the word “portrait” in Russia). By the end of the 17th century, Parsuna was already using with might and main the scheme of the European parade port, borrowed through Poland and Ukraine. From the portrait came the task - the appearance of a person in his social role. But visual arts In many ways, they remain iconic: the flatness of form and space, the conventionality of the structure of the body, the explanatory text in the image, the ornamental interpretation of clothing and attributes. These features are also in XVIII century For a long time they were preserved in provincial noble portraits, in portraits of merchants and clergy.

Peter's pensioner Ivan Nikitin, who studied in Italy, is the first Russian master who “forgot” about the parsuna. His portraits are quite simple in composition, he uses only a few iconographic types, rarely paints hands and prefers a dark color scheme. His portraits are often marked by special verisimilitude, the face is interpreted in emphatic relief, recognition prevails over idealization. Chancellor Gavriil Golovkin - perfect image meritocratic monarchy of Peter: the elongated pyramid of the figure, caught in the light, is crowned by an oval face framed by a wig. Calm dignity, pride and self-confidence are conveyed to the hero by his restrained but natural pose and the direct gaze that greets the viewer. The ceremonial camisole with orders and ribbon almost merges with the background, allowing you to focus all attention on the face. The dark environment pushes Golovkin out, the hand of his left hand marks the boundary of the space of the canvas, and the filigree blue order bow seems to break through it, emerging into our space. This pictorial trick, enhancing the illusion of presence, at the same time helps to reduce the psychological and social distance between the model and the viewer, which was insurmountable in the pre-Petrine parsuna.

Andrei Matveev, who returned from the Netherlands, created a portrait of himself with his young wife around 1729. If we agree with this identification, generally accepted today, then we have before us not just the first known self-portrait of a Russian painter. This image of commoners shows a balance between men and women, unexpected for Russia at that time. With his left hand, the artist ceremoniously takes the hand of his companion; with his right hand, hugging her protectively, he directs her towards the viewer. But the entire formal meaning of these gestures of domination and appropriation is unexpectedly erased. In a very simple organized canvas female figure not just located right hand from the man, but also occupies exactly the same picture space as him, and the heads of the spouses are located strictly along the same line, as if scales frozen at the same level.

The mid-century portrait is, for the most part, a portrait not of personality but of status. Typical example- the Lobanov-Rostov spouses, brushes by Ivan Argunov (1750 and 1754). Despite all the familiarity of the characters, the viewer sees first of all the “noble nobleman” and the “gracious beauty,” whose position is once and for all fixed by their uniform, ermine mantle and dress with silver embroidery. The artist of the mid-18th century - Russian and foreign - extremely carefully conveys the costume and its elements: fabric, sewing, lace; writes out jewelry and awards in detail. In these portraits by Argunov, the character’s body is constrained by space, unfolded along the plane of the canvas, and fabrics and decorations are painted with such detail that they make one remember the parsuna with its decorativeness and a special, superficial vision of the human body.

Ivan Argunov. Portrait of Prince I. I. Lobanov-Rostovsky. 1750State Russian Museum

Ivan Argunov. Portrait of Princess E. A. Lobanova-Rostovskaya. 1754State Russian Museum

Today we value more those works of Russian portraiture of the 18th century, in which the conventional image seems to have lost its integrity, and the decorum (the balance of the ideal and the real in the portrait) is violated in favor of verisimilitude. Obviously, this is where the charm that the image of ten-year-old Sarah Fermor (1749) has for the modern viewer stems from. Her father’s subordinate in the Office of Buildings, Ivan Vishnyakov, presented the child in the image of an adult girl, fitting the fragile figure into the ceremonial composition with a column and curtain-weight in the background. Hence the attractiveness of such images, where a face devoid of external beauty seems to be the key to a truthful conveyance of character: such are Anthropov’s portraits of state lady Anastasia Izmailova (1759) or Anna Buturlina (1763).

Ivan Vishnyakov. Portrait of Sarah Eleanor Fermor. 1749State Russian Museum

Alexey Antropov. Portrait of State Lady A. M. Izmailova. 1759State Tretyakov Gallery

Alexey Antropov. Portrait of A. V. Buturlina. 1763State Tretyakov Gallery

In this row are portraits of the Khripunov couple by Argunov (1757). Kozma Khripunov, an elderly man with a massive nose, clutches a sheet of folded paper in his hands and, as if looking up from reading, stops the viewer with a sharp gaze. His young wife holds an open book in her hands and looks at us with calm dignity (according to the confessional books, Feodosia Khripunova is hardly more than twenty years old: the characters in 18th-century portraits often look older than their age). Unlike modern France, where in the era of the Encyclopedia a book was not uncommon even in an aristocratic portrait, characters in Russian paintings of the 18th century are very rarely represented reading. Poor in attributes and restrained in style, portraits of the Khripunov couple in Europe would be classified as portraits of the third estate, reflecting the values ​​of the Enlightenment. In them - as, for example, in the portrait of the doctor Leroy by Jacques Louis David (1783) - what is important is not the status, but the activity of the hero, not the goodness of appearance, but the honestly presented character.

Ivan Argunov. Portrait of K. A. Khripunov. 1757

Ivan Argunov. Portrait of Kh. M. Khripunova. 1757Moscow Museum-Estate "Ostankino"

Jacques Louis David. Portrait of Doctor Alphonse Leroy. 1783 Musée Fabre

For the first time in modern Russia, the names of Rokotov and Levitsky are associated with the idea of ​​a strictly individual manner, which seems to subordinate the model to itself: now one can safely talk about a lady “stepped out of Rokotov’s canvas”, about a gentleman “from Levitsky’s portrait”. Different in manner and spirit, both painters make you see in their portraits not only images of specific people, but also feel painting as such, which affects the brushstroke, texture, color - regardless of the subject. Obviously, this is evidence of a gradual change in the status of the artist, his self-esteem and the emerging public interest in art.

Rokotov is Russia’s first master of emotional portraiture. The development of his style is associated with the influence of the Italian Rotary, whose girlish “heads” are generally considered to be piquant rococo trinkets. But Rokotov could see in them an example of diverse, subtle, elusive intonations - what distinguishes the images of the Russian artist himself. From the dark background of his predecessors, Rokotov moves away to an indefinite background, like a haze, not so much bringing the figure closer to the viewer as absorbing it. The body dressed in a uniform or dress acquires a subordinate meaning, the face is now completely dominant. It is worth taking a closer look at how Rokotov paints eyes: in such things as the famous portrait of Alexandra Struyskaya (1772), the pupil is painted with fused strokes of similar colors with a bright highlight - the gaze loses clarity, but gains depth. The vagueness of the surroundings, the smoothness of the contour, along with the blurred but intense gaze of the characters, create a feeling of multi-dimensionality of character that has no analogues in Russian portraits, in which - especially in women - emotions play a decisive role. In this regard, Rokotov’s characters are people of sentimentalism, in which the priority is not social roles and ambitions, but the emotional depth and mental mobility of a person.

It seems no coincidence that Rokotov’s sophisticated, but devoid of external effects, style took shape in Moscow with the tradition of private life, nepotism and friendship that it nurtured. At the same time, in the aristocratic and court capital of Catherine, following world artistic fashions, the most brilliant painter of Russia of the 18th century, Dmitry Levitsky, flourished. In the work of this native of the family of a Ukrainian priest who graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Russian painting reached the European level for the first time. He was endowed with the gift of creating full-blooded and noble images, the ability to mesmerizingly accurately convey a variety of textures - fabrics, stone, metal, the human body. At the same time, a number of his works introduced Russian art in the context of the advanced mental movements of the era.

Thus, the ideas of subordinating autocracy to law, relevant for the Russian Enlightenment, were embodied by Levitsky in the painting “Catherine II - Lawgiver in the Temple of the Goddess of Justice” (1783). Ceremonial portrait The ruler always embodies his official image. Levitsky's canvas is a unique case when the image of the monarch, fully meeting the canons of the genre, is a message from society to the sovereign, conveying the aspirations of the enlightened nobility.

Empress in laurel wreath and the civil crown, sacrificing his peace, burns poppies on the altar standing under the statue of Themis with the inscription “for the common good.” The profile of Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, is carved on the pedestal of the sculpture. The imperial eagle sits on the tomes of laws, and in the sea opening behind the queen the Russian fleet is visible under the St. Andrew's flag with the rod of Mercury, a sign of protected trade, that is, peace and prosperity. In addition to the educational idea of ​​the rule of law, other political overtones are also possible here. It was suggested that the canvas was supposed to become the center of the ensemble of portraits of the Duma of Knights of the Order of St. Vladimir and be located in Sofia in Tsarskoe Selo, thus becoming part of Catherine’s ideological apparatus.

This portrait, the program of which belongs to Nikolai Lvov, and the commission to Alexander Bezborodko, was probably the first work of Russian painting that turned out to be a public event. It is consonant with the ode of the State of Wine, which appeared in the same year of 1783. At the same time, Ippolit Bogdanovich published a stanza to the artist, to which Levitsky, unfolding the ideological program of the portrait, was the first case of a Russian painter directly addressing the public. Thus, the portrait took on the functions of a narrative historical canvas, which formalizes ideas that excite society and becomes an event for a relatively wide audience. This is one of the first signs of a new process for Russia: fine art ceases to serve the utilitarian needs of the elite (representation of political and personal ambitions, decoration of life, visualization of knowledge, etc.) and gradually becomes an important element of national culture, organizing dialogue between different parts of society.

Seven canvases of the “Smolyanka” series, written in 1772-1776, depict nine pupils of the Smolny Institute of noble maidens of different “ages” (periods of study). This is a monument to an experiment that reflected the key ideas of the European Enlightenment: the education of a new person, advanced education for women. They also clearly indicate a gradual change in attitude towards the periods of human life: if previously a child in a Russian portrait was, as a rule, presented as a small adult, then the Smolyanka women demonstrate steps on the path to adolescence, which was first presented in this portrait series - falls into a separate, independent stage. The girls dance and perform theatrical roles, but the two images of “senior students” Glafira Alymova and Ekaterina Molchanova that close the series seem to sum it up, embodying the two hypostases of an enlightened woman. Alymova plays the harp, representing the arts that are associated with the sensual nature of man. Mol-cha-nova represents the intellectual principle. She poses with a book and a vacuum pump - modern instrument, allowing us to explore the material nature of the world. From a portrait attribute, it turns here into a sign of advanced knowledge based on scientific experiment.

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Feodosia Rzhevskaya and Nastasya Davydova. 1771–1772State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Ekaterina Nelidova. 1773State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Ekaterina Khrushcheva and Ekaterina Khovanskaya. 1773State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Alexandra Levshina. 1775State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Ekaterina Molchanova. 1776State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Glafira Alymova. 1776State Russian Museum

Dmitry Levitsky. Portrait of Natalia Borshchova. 1776State Russian Museum

The works of Vladimir Borovikovsky, a student and fellow countryman of Levitsky, clearly show that sentimentalist values ​​in the last decades of the 18th century became the basis for the representation of a private person. Now the portrait is clearly divided into front and private. The image of the “diamond prince” Kurakin (1801-1802), so nicknamed for his love of jewelry and ostentatious pomp, shines with deliberate luxury. Like a number of Goya’s paintings, it shows that the splendor of painting becomes one of the last arguments in favor of the greatness of the aristocracy: the models themselves are no longer always able to withstand the pathos dictated by the genre.

A hybrid characteristic of the “era of sensitivity” is an image of Catherine II in Tsarskoe Selo (see above). The full-length portrait against the backdrop of the monument to military glory is designed in a distinctly intimate mode: it represents the empress in a dressing gown during a solitary walk in the alleys of the park. Catherine did not like the portrait, but, most likely, it suggested to Pushkin the mise-en-scene of Masha Mironova’s meeting with the Empress in “The Captain’s Daughter.” It was with Borovikovsky that landscape, for the first time among Russian artists, became the constant background of a portrait, denoting a whole complex of ideas associated with the ideas of naturalness, sensitivity, private life and the unity of kindred souls.

Nature as a projection of emotional experiences is a characteristic feature of the culture of sentimentalism, indicating that the inner world of a person becomes an unconditional value. True, in many of Borovikovsky’s works, the character’s “involvement with nature” takes on the character of a cliché, indicating that sensitivity and naturalness have turned into fashion. This is especially noticeable in masterfully executed female portraits, following the ideal of young “natural” beauty and replicating the poses and attributes of the model. On the other hand, this frame of a pastoral portrait made it possible to include serfs among the characters. Such, for example, are “Lizynka and Dashinka” (1794) - courtyard girls of Lvov, who patronized the painter, almost indistinguishable in appearance from young noblewomen.

If, in the person of Levitsky and Borovikovsky, Russian painting became in line with modern artistic trends, then the next generation of Russian portraitists decided new task: their art has finally built a dialogue with great painting Europe XVI-XVII centuries, the tradition of which was absent in pre-Petrine Russia. The prerequisites for it were the formation of a Hermitage collection of unique quality back in Catherine’s era, as well as long trips abroad by young artists who had successfully graduated from the Academy. Karl Bryullov constructed his own image based on the patterns of the “old master” and at the same time recreated on Russian soil the splendor of the Vandyck ceremonial portrait with its symphonic luxury of color (“Horsewoman”, 1831; portrait of the Shishmarev sisters, 1839).

Orest Kiprensky. Portrait of the artist's father Adam Karlovich Schwalbe. 1804 State Russian Museum

In the portrait of Pushkin (1827), a dialogue with tradition is built at the level of iconography, still understandable to a European at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. The poet's arms crossed on his chest and his gaze directed into space are an echo of the personifications of melancholy - a temperament that, since the Renaissance, has been considered as a sign of genius.

The generation of 1812 became the collective hero of Kiprensky’s works. These portraits are distinguished by the relaxed “behavior” of the characters, unprecedented in Russian art. The comparison of the “formal” portrait of Colonel Evgraf Davydov (1809) and the series graphic portraits participants in the Patriotic War of 1812-1814 (Alexey Lansky, Mikhail Lansky, Alexey Tomilov, Efim Chaplits, Pyotr Olenin and others, all - 1813). The first varies characteristic of Europe XVIII and the beginning of the 19th century, a type of noble portrait. Davydov’s pose not only demonstrates detached ease, it iconographically ennobles the character, since it goes back to the famous “Resting Satyr” by Praxiteles: the perfection of a classical statue guarantees the dignity of the hero of the canvas. But the sensual bodily peace of a satyr is only the other side of his animal nature, and Kiprensky makes excellent use of this memory of the prototype (at the same time symbolic and plastic), creating the image of a hero who is in relaxed peace, but capable of straightening out like a spring. Each of the pencil portraits of young “veterans” is also to some extent subject to some portrait cliché, but together they demonstrate unprecedented graphic freedom and a variety of formal solutions: body turns, head tilts, gestures, glances. In each individual case, the artist proceeded not from predetermined roles, but from the personality revealed to him. This ease of the characters, together with the demonstrative ease of execution, act as a visible embodiment of the internal “self-standing” of the generation - a feeling of freedom unprecedented in Russian history until then.

1.Cleopatra

You might think there's something you don't know about her. Well, let's pretend that you fell from the moon and tell us. Lived in the 1st century BC. e. Lady of Egypt. Mistress of Caesar and Mark Antony. Famous for her beauty, she is a lover of milk baths and rubbing of dissolved pearls. Died due to technical problems with the snake. By the way, the images on the coins are the only one hundred percent proven portraits of the queen. And they all look something like this.

2.Lina Cavalieri

3.Phryne

4.Cleo de Merode

5.Ninon de Lanclos

6.Praskovya Zhemchugova

7.Diane de Poitiers

8.Ann Bolein

9.Messalina

10.Empress Theodora

11.Barbara Radziwill

12.Simonetta Vespucci

13.Agnes Sorel

14.Nefertiti

15.Marquise de Maintenon

16.Marquise de Montespan

17.Zinaida Yusupova

18.Wallis Simpson

19.Madame Recamier

20.Yang Guifei

21.Veronica Franco

22.Aspasia

23.Isadora Duncan

24.Kitty Fisher

25.Harriett Wilson

26.Mata Hari

27.Tullia d'Aragona

28.Carolina Otero

29.Liana de Pugy

30.Countess di Castiglione

31.Ono no Komachi

32.Empress Xi Shi

At the beginning of the 19th century, during the Empire era, naturalness and simplicity were in fashion. The ladies even tried to achieve a cosmetic effect using natural methods: if they needed paleness, they drank vinegar, if they wanted blush, they ate strawberries. Even jewelry goes out of fashion for a while. It is believed that the more beautiful a woman is, the less she needs jewelry...

In Empire times, the whiteness and delicacy of hands were so valued that they even wore gloves at night.

The outfits clearly imitate antique clothing. Since these dresses were made mainly from thin translucent muslin, fashionistas risked catching a cold on particularly cold days.

Madame Recamier is a famous Parisian beauty, the most famous owner of a literary salon in history.

“Portrait of Madame Recamier” is a painting by the French artist Jacques Louis David, painted in 1800.

To create spectacular draperies that beautifully depict natural characteristics, ladies used a simple technique of ancient sculptors - they moistened their clothes; it is no coincidence that the mortality rate from pneumonia was very high in those years.

The French "Journal de Mode" in 1802 even recommended its readers to visit the Montmarte cemetery to see how many young girls had fallen victim to "naked" fashion.

Teresa Cabarrus

Parisian newspapers were full of mourning chronicles: “Madame de Noël died after the ball, at nineteen, Mademoiselle de Juinier at eighteen, Mlle Chaptal at sixteen!” In just a few years of this extravagant fashion, more women died than in the previous 40 years.

Theresa Tallien was considered “more beautiful than the Capitoline Venus” - her figure was so ideal. She introduced the “naked” fashion. The most light dress weighed 200 grams!

Only thanks to Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign did cashmere shawls come into fashion, which were widely popularized by the emperor’s wife, Josephine.

In the 20s years XIX centuries, the woman’s figure resembles an hourglass: rounded “swollen” sleeves, a wasp waist, a wide skirt. The corset came into fashion. The waist should be unnatural in volume - about 55 cm.

Vladimir Ivanovich Gau. Portrait of Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova-Pushkina.

The desire for an “ideal” waist often leads to tragic consequences. So, in 1859, one 23-year-old fashionista died after a ball due to the fact that three ribs compressed by a corset pierced her liver.

V. Gau. Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova. 1842-1843

For the sake of beauty, ladies were ready to endure various inconveniences: wide brims of ladies' hats that hung over their eyes, and they had to move almost by touch, long and heavy hems of dresses.

P. Delaroche. Portrait of the singer Henrietta Sontag, 1831.

In the authoritative British journal The Lancet in the 1820s, the opinion was expressed that women should blame the weight of their dresses, which was about 20 kilograms, for muscle weakness, diseases of the nervous system and other ailments. Ladies often got confused in their own skirts. Queen Victoria once sprained her ankle by stepping on her hem.

In the second half of the 19th century, the desire for artificiality was revived. A healthy complexion and tan, a strong, strong body became signs of low origin. The ideal of beauty was considered to be “wasp waists,” pale faces, delicacy and sophistication.

The laughter and tears of a society beauty should be beautiful and graceful. The laughter should not be loud, but crumbly. When crying, you can drop no more than three or four tears and watch so as not to spoil your complexion.

Camille Claudel

Sick femininity is in fashion. It's like mental illness, in which imbalance borders on madness, the symbol of such a beauty can be Camille Claudel, the muse and student of the sculptor Auguste Rodin, and body diseases, like Marguerite Gautier, a mortally ill courtesan with tuberculosis - the heroine of the novel “The Lady of the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas.

To give their faces a matte pallor, ladies took crushed chalk three times a day (well-purified chalk could be obtained in drugstores; use chalks intended for card game, it was impossible) and drank vinegar and lemon juice, and the circles under the eyes were achieved due to a special lack of sleep.

The 18th century is a period in which colossal transformations took place in all spheres: political, social, public. Europe introduces new genres into Russian painting: landscape, historical, everyday life. The realistic direction of painting becomes predominant. A living person is a hero and bearer of the aesthetic ideals of that time.

The 18th century entered the history of art as the time of picturesque portraits. Everyone wanted to have their own portrait: from the queen to an ordinary official from the province.

European trends in Russian painting

Famous Russian artists of the 18th century were forced to follow Western fashion at the behest of Peter I, who wanted to Europeanize Russia. He attached great importance to the development visual arts and even planned to build a specialized educational institution.

Russian artists of the 18th century mastered new techniques European painting and depicted on their canvases not only kings, but also various boyars, merchants, patriarchs, who tried to keep up with fashion and often commissioned local artists to paint a portrait. At the same time, artists of that time tried to enrich portraits with household items, elements national costume, nature and so on. Attention was focused on expensive furniture, large vases, luxurious clothes, and interesting poses. The depiction of people of that time is perceived today as a poetic story by artists about their time.

And yet, the portraits of Russian artists of the 18th century differ in striking contrast from the portraits of invited foreign painters. It is worth mentioning that artists from other countries were invited to teach Russian artists.

Types of portraits

The beginning of the 18th century was marked by the turn of portrait artists to semi-ceremonial and intimate views. Portraits of painters of the second half of the 18th century give rise to such types as ceremonial, semi-ceremonial, chamber, intimate.

The front door differs from others in the image of a man in full height. The brilliance of luxury - both in clothing and in household items.

The half-dress look is an image of the model knee-deep or waist-deep.

If a person is depicted against a neutral background up to the chest or waist, then this type of portrait is called intimate.

The intimate view of the portrait suggests an appeal to inner world the hero of the picture, while the background is ignored.

Portrait images

Often Russian artists of the 18th century were forced to embody portrait image the customer's idea of ​​himself, but not his actual image. It was important to take into account public opinion about a particular person. Many art historians have long concluded that the main rule of that time was to depict a person not so much as he actually was, or as he would like to be, but as he could be in his best reflection. That is, in portraits they tried to portray any person as an ideal.

The first artists

Russian artists of the 18th century, the list of which is generally small, are, in particular, I. N. Nikitin, A. P. Antropov, F. S. Rokotov, I. P. Argunov, V. L. Borovikovsky, D. G. Levitsky.

Among the first painters of the 18th century are the names of Nikitin, Antropov, Argunov. The role of these first Russian artists of the 18th century was insignificant. It boiled down only to painting a huge number of royal images and portraits of Russian nobles. Russian artists of the 18th century are masters of portraits. Although often they simply helped foreign masters paint the walls of a large number of palaces and make theatrical scenery.

The name of the painter Ivan Nikitich Nikitin can be found in the correspondence of Peter I with his wife. His brush is the portrait of the Tsar himself, Chancellor G.I. Golovin. There is nothing artificial in his portrait of the hetman. The appearance is not changed either by a wig or court clothes. The artist showed the hetman as he was in life. It is in the truth of life that the main advantage of Nikitin’s portraits lies.

Antropov's work was preserved in the images of St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kyiv and portraits in the Synod. These works are distinguished by the artist’s penchant for yellow and olive colors, because he is a painter who studied with a master of icon painting. Among his famous works are portraits of Elizaveta Petrovna, Peter I, Princess Trubetskoy, and Ataman F. Krasnoshchekov. Antropov's work combined the traditions of original Russian painting of the 17th century and the canons of fine art of the Peter the Great era.

Ivan Petrovich Argunov is a famous serf portrait painter of Count Sheremetyev. His portraits are elegant, the poses of the people he depicts are free and mobile, everything in his work is precise and simple. He is the creator of a chamber portrait, which will later become intimate. Significant works artist: the Sheremetyev couple, P.B. Sheremetyev in childhood.

One should not think that at that time no other genres existed in Russia, but the great Russian artists of the 18th century nevertheless created the most significant works in the genre of portraiture.

The pinnacle of the 18th century was the work of Rokotov, Levitsky and Borovikovsky. The person in the portraits of artists is worthy of admiration, attention and respect. The humanity of feelings emerges distinctive feature their portraits.

Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov (1735-1808)

Almost nothing is known about Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov, an 18th-century Russian artist from the serfs of Prince I. Repnin. This artist paints portraits of women softly and airily. Inner beauty is felt by Rokotov, and he finds the means to translate it on canvas. Even the oval shape of the portraits only emphasizes the fragile and elegant appearance of women.

The main genre of his work is the semi-ceremonial portrait. Among his works are portraits of Grigory Orlov and Peter III, Princess Yusupova and Prince Pavel Petrovich.

Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky (1735-1822)

The famous Russian artist of the 18th century - Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky, a student of A. Antropov, was able to sensitively capture and recreate in his paintings states of mind and characteristics of people. Portraying the rich, he remains truthful and unbiased; his portraits exclude servility and lies. His brush includes a whole gallery of portraits of great people of the 18th century. It is in the ceremonial portrait that Levitsky reveals himself as a master. He finds expressive poses and gestures, showing noble nobles. Russian history in faces - this is how Levitsky’s work is often called.
Paintings by the artist: portraits of M. A. Lvova, E. I. Nelidova, N. I. Novikov, the Mitrofanovs.

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757-1825)

Russian artists of the 18th and 19th centuries are distinguished by their use of the so-called sentimental portrait. The artist Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky paints the thoughtful girls who are depicted in his portraits light colors, they are airy and innocent. His heroines are not only Russian peasant women in traditional dresses, but also respected ladies of high society. These are portraits of Naryshkina, Lopukhina, Princess Suvorova, Arsenyeva. The pictures are somewhat similar, but it is impossible to forget them. is distinguished by the amazing subtlety of the characters conveyed, the almost elusive features of emotional experiences and the feeling of tenderness that unites all the images. In his works, Borovikovsky reveals all the beauty of a woman of that time.

Borovikovsky's legacy is very diverse and extensive. His work includes both ceremonial portraits and miniature and intimate paintings. Among Borovikovsky’s works, the most famous were the portraits of V. A. Zhukovsky, G. R. Derzhavin, A. B. Kurakin and Pavel I.

Paintings by Russian artists

Paintings of the 18th century by Russian artists were written with love for man, his inner world and respect for moral virtues. The style of each artist, on the one hand, is very individual, on the other hand, it has several common features with others. This moment determined the very style that emphasizes the character of Russian art in the 18th century.

Most 18th century Russian artists:

1. "Young painter" Second half of the 1760s. The author Ivan Firsov is the most mysterious artist of the 18th century. The painting depicts a boy in a uniform who is painting a portrait of a little beautiful girl.
2. “Hector’s Farewell to Andromache,” 1773. Author Anton Pavlovich Losenko. Last picture artist. It depicts a plot from the sixth song of Homer's Iliad.
3. “Stone Bridge in Gatchina near Constable Square”, 1799-1801. Author Semyon Fedorovich Shchedrin. The painting depicts a landscape view.

And still

Russian artists of the 18th century still tried to reveal the truth and true characters of people, despite the conditions of serfdom and the desires of wealthy customers. The portrait genre in the 18th century embodied the specific features of the Russian people.

Undoubtedly, it can be said that, as it were, visual arts The 18th century was not influenced by European culture, but it nevertheless led to the development of national Russian traditions.

Beauties of the 17th-18th century.

Ninon de Lenclos is a famous French courtesan, one of the most charming women and famous women of the 17th century, although calling her a courtesan is not entirely fair, because... She didn’t make a profession out of it and money didn’t play any role for her, she didn’t trade her charms, but gave them to those she liked, and immediately abandoned her lover as soon as she got bored with him. One day Ninon refused Cardinal Richelieu, who offered fifty thousand crowns if she agreed to become his mistress.

“An elegant, superbly built brunette, with a complexion of dazzling whiteness, with a slight blush, with large blue eyes, which simultaneously showed decency, prudence, madness and voluptuousness, with a mouth with delightful teeth and a charming smile, Ninon behaved with nobility, but without pride, with amazing grace." This is how one of her contemporaries described the already thirty-year-old courtesan.
:
Moreover, she remained very attractive until a very old age. Count Choiseul, later Marshal of France, fell in love and began to court Ninon when she was sixty years old, although he was twenty years younger. When Louis 14, the “Sun King,” wanted to see the famous Ninon, he expressed regret that “this amazing woman refused to decorate his court with the brilliance of her irony and gaiety.” Indeed, when the all-powerful favorite Maintenon offered her a place at court, Ninon replied: “At court you have to be two-faced and have a forked tongue, but it’s too late for me to learn hypocrisy... By the way, Ninon can be considered Voltaire’s “godmother.” At the death, she met a ten-year-old boy named Arouet, an aspiring poet, saw talent in him and, in her will, left him 2000 francs to buy books until the end of his days. Voltaire retained the warmest memories of the “beautiful aunt”.

The first two of the presented beauties of the 18th century became famous not only for their extraordinary beauty, but also to some extent influenced foreign policy. The first lived during the Catherine era, the second during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Sofia Witt - Pototskaya.

At the age of 13, this little beggar Greek girl and her sister were sold by their own mother. The elder sister became a concubine, who bought them to the commandant of Kamenets-Podolsky, Joseph Witt, but pretty soon he got bored, then Witt drew attention to Sophia, who had grown up and began to become an extraordinary beauty. But that was not the case; Sophia had not only beauty (and apparently considerable confidence in it), but also character. As a result, the beggar tramp became not a concubine, but the wife of first Commandant Witt, and then the noble and fabulously rich Polish gentleman S. Potocki. Between them, she also captivated Field Marshal Saltykov and even His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin with her charms. To some extent, she contributed to the fact that Poland was annexed to Russia, because It was Potocki who depended on the signing of the relevant act. “The cunning fox” Potemkin sent Sophia Witt to Warsaw, practically betting on her, and he was right. Stanislav Pototsky fell madly in love with the beauty and actually chose the latter between the freedom of the Motherland and Sophia. For his beloved woman, Pototsky arranged a park of fantastic beauty, called “Sofievka,” the opening of which was timed to coincide with Sophia’s birthday. The guests were amazed by the luxury. The appearance of the Countess was the main miracle - she appeared in the light of a thousand fireworks, surrounded by "naiads", dressed in a Greek chiton with a diamond diadem on her flowing hair. And in the dark sky the letters S and P burned and sparkled - Sofya Pototskaya.

The Countess did not appreciate such love and soon cheated on her husband with his son, the incorrigible gambler Yuri. The Count did not survive the double betrayal, and Sophia remained rich and free. She broke up with her young lover only when he lost his entire fortune and incurred huge debts. Towards the end of her life, Sophia was involved in business and even charity work. Her life was like an adventure novel, and her death was like a mystical legend. After the earthquake in Uman, the temple where Sophia was buried collapsed and among the ruins a coffin shimmered, apparently brought to the surface by tremors. The people said that the earth does not accept the sinner countess. In the end, Pototskaya’s ashes rested in the village cemetery.

Emma Hamilton is the wife of the English ambassador in Naples, Lord Hamilton, who became solely thanks to her unearthly beauty, since she was of completely ignoble origin. Before meeting Hamilton, Emma was a model and actress (she presented “living pictures” based on works of art) and was very popular; even Goethe was counted among her fans of her art.

Having met the English Admiral Nelson, Emma fell in love with him for the rest of her life, just as he fell in love with her. Being friendly and having some influence on the Queen of Naples, and through her on King Ferdinand, she greatly helped the British fleet in the fight against Napoleon. But after Nelson’s death, she was left with her little daughter without any support and died in poverty. A number of books and films are dedicated to this extraordinary and charming woman, as well as a song performed by A. Malinin.

The romantic and at the same time tragic image of Lady Hamilton in the film of the same name was created by one of the most beautiful actresses - Vivien Leigh.

Princess Maria Cantemir is the daughter of the Moldavian ruler Dmitry Cantemir, the sister of the poet Antioch Cantemir and last love Peter 1.

She spent her childhood years in Istanbul, where her father, according to a long-standing tradition, was actually held hostage by the Turkish Sultan. Nevertheless, Maria received an excellent education for those times: She studied ancient Greek, Latin, Italian, the basics of mathematics, astronomy, rhetoric, philosophy, and was interested in ancient and Western European literature and history, drawing, and music. At the end of 1710 the family returned to Russia. Maria first met Peter 1 in her father’s house, on an estate near Moscow. After moving to St. Petersburg, she became the Tsar’s mistress, which was not prevented by her father, who dreamed of becoming related to the Tsar and with his help freeing Moldavia from the Ottoman yoke. And Peter 1 wanted to get an heir from Mary, which Queen Catherine, who did everything possible to prevent this child from being born, could not allow. After the birth of a stillborn boy, Maria and her father left for their Oryol estate, where the ruler soon died. And soon Peter 1 also passed away. More recently, central television A film was shown about the love of the emperor and the Moldavian princess, in which the image of Mary was recreated by Elizaveta Boyarskaya.

Alexandra Petrovna Struyskaya (nee Ozerova) - her unearthly features are conveyed in the portrait by F. Rokotov. Most likely, the portrait, or rather paired portraits of the newlyweds, were commissioned from the artist immediately after the Struyskys’ wedding, which means Alexandra Petrovna is about 18 years old in it.

Struyskaya’s portrait inspired the poet Nikolai Zabolotsky to write one of his best poems, “Love painting, poets.”
... Do you remember how, from the darkness of the past,
Barely wrapped in satin,
From Rokotov's portrait again
Was Struyskaya looking at us?
Her eyes are like two fogs,
Half smile, half cry,
Her eyes are like two deceptions,
Failures covered in darkness...
When darkness comes
And the storm is approaching
From the bottom of my soul they flicker
Her beautiful eyes.

Madame Recamier (Julie Bernard) is undoubtedly the most beautiful woman in France of the era french revolution, born in 1777 to a minor official and his beautiful wife. When the girl was not yet 16 years old, she married banker Jacques Recamier, who was 26 years older than her. Relations between the spouses were rather friendly; Recamier gave his young wife complete freedom, which she used quite wisely. Having received a beautiful house in Paris as a gift from her husband, she organized her own salon, which soon became very popular.

Julie's charm, intelligence and political views attracted many famous people to her salon. One of his contemporaries, Mr. Lemonnier, wrote about her this way: “Madame Recamier never wears diamonds, her dress of exquisite simplicity does not allow anything other than pearls... Her beauty has the peculiarity that it is more attractive than blinding at first sight. The more you see her, the more beautiful you find her.” Julie had amazing grace, a special internal musical rhythm, and without a doubt her beauty had no equal in Europe. According to the fashion of that time, she wore transparent dresses that did not hide her impeccable forms, reminiscent of an antique statue. But appearance is not the main reason why her salon for several decades was one of the main literary, political, and intellectual centers of France, and perhaps all of Europe. She had not only beauty and charm, but also an amazing talent for attracting extraordinary personalities. Over the years, her salon was visited by the most famous people that era: the scientist Andre - Marie Ampère, Eugenie Beauharnais, Bernadotte - the future king of Sweden, writers Prosper Marime and Stendhal, artists J-L. David and Eugene Delacroix. It was the color French art and sciences, names included in world culture, Madame Recamier managed to unite them all.
She makes friends, among them Honore de Balzac and Victor Hugo, as well as the famous Madame de Stael, with whom Juliette later had many years of friendship. Julie's amazing beauty attracted many fans to her, incl. Prince Augustus of Prussia. The prince fell in love with Juliette, and this was the man in response to whose love her heart began to beat faster for the first time. Prince Augustus wanted to marry Julie, she also wanted this, but she could not break with her husband, feeling sorry for him, who had already become old and almost a beggar.
In 1803, Napoleon expels Madame de Staël from Paris, and Juliette openly goes into opposition to the authorities: “A man who expels such a woman ... cannot be, in my opinion, anything other than a ruthless despot. From now on, my whole being is against him.”
Fouche, one of her then friends, was very eager to introduce her to the court and even hinted to Madame Recamier about the possibility of a more intimate relationship between her and the emperor. The beautiful Julie proudly rejected such a prospect. But her charm is so great that even Napoleon’s court artist J.L. David could not resist painting a portrait of a woman who went down in French history as an implacable opponent of Napoleon Bonaparte. His most famous “Portrait of Madame Recamier” is now in the Louvre. She later inspired another great artist, François Gerard, and then the sculptor, Mr. Shinard, who created a beautiful bust of Madame Recamier.
In 1811, Bonaparte expelled Madame Recamier from Paris. In 1813, in Italy, she became close friends with Queen Hortense and Caroline Murat, and in Rome her French salon had the same attractive power as in Paris. Among his visitors here were Balanche and the sculptor Canova, who made her bust, which he later remade into Dante’s Beatrice.
When Julie turned 40, she suddenly forgot about her principle of building her relationships with men on the basis of only friendship and fell in love, passionately and for a long time. It was the famous writer Rene Chateaubriand.
. “Beauty, unparalleled in Europe, tarnished honor and noble character - what other wealth is needed in this sad life” - these are the words of Madame de Staël about her. Much later, another famous woman, Anna Akhmatova, would write: “And again Madame Recamier is good and Goethe is like Werther as a youth.”

And the name of Madame Recamier began to be called the type of couch on which she lies in the famous painting by Jacques Louis David.