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Portrait of Catherine Sergeyevna Avdulina
Orest Adamovich Kiprensky • Painting, 1823, 81×64.3 cm
Description of the artwork «Portrait of Catherine Sergeyevna Avdulina»
"Portrait of ES Avdulin" was highly appreciated by contemporaries of Kiprensky, however, the current art critics, recognizing the undisputed mastery of the artist, find in this portrait a kind of “alarming cold”. The fact is that in the “Portrait of Avdulin” there is no longer that close and lively contact between the artist and his model, which helps to reveal the deep layers of the nature of the portrait and who, in fact, was famous for Orest Kiprensky.
“Portrait of ES Avdulin” was written in the period when the artist had already experienced the highest point of his fame and skill and was approaching a complex creative crisis. Perhaps this explains the somewhat elegiac sound of the picture.
Ekaterina Sergeevna Avdulina - who is she?
Not much is known about the heroine of the Kiprensky portrait. She came from a very rich, but not distinguished nobility of the family, was married to Major General Alexei Avdulin. Together with her husband, Ekaterina Sergeevna patronized writers and artists; she was friends with Russian actress Alexandra Karatygina and Italian singer Angelica Catalani. The Avdulins' house was put on a grand scale, and balls were regularly given, at which even Pushkin sometimes went. As for the portrait of Kiprensky, then the circumstances of its creation is known only that it was not written in Russia, but in France or in Italy.
Technical skill Kiprensky and orientation to artists of the Renaissance
It should be noted how completely Kiprensky, living in Italy, learned the technique of painting the transfer of jewelry and fabrics. The patterned Persian shawl of a complex mustard color, the foaming gooseberry cap, the distinct cold luster of pearls shading the tenderness of carnation (images of open parts of the body) - all this even eclipses the heroine, about which one of her contemporaries said: "There is a soul in her physiognomy".
The composition in which the heroine is depicted against the background of a dark wall and fragmentary visible landscape, as well as “Djokondovskiy” hand drawing speak about the orientation of Kiprensky on the Renaissance painting samples, including famous painting by Leonardo da Vinciwhich the artist saw in the Louvre.
Flying around white Levkoy (in another version - hyacinth) against the background of an alarming purple sky has an allegorical meaning. Hyacinth was a symbol of sadness and dying nature, and Levkoy, according to superstitions, fell at the moment of death of one of the household. Thus, by means of a flower, it hints at sad events in the fate of the heroine, remaining outside our competence, but partly explaining the minor mood of the portrait.
Author: Anna Yesterday
“Portrait of ES Avdulin” was written in the period when the artist had already experienced the highest point of his fame and skill and was approaching a complex creative crisis. Perhaps this explains the somewhat elegiac sound of the picture.
Ekaterina Sergeevna Avdulina - who is she?
Not much is known about the heroine of the Kiprensky portrait. She came from a very rich, but not distinguished nobility of the family, was married to Major General Alexei Avdulin. Together with her husband, Ekaterina Sergeevna patronized writers and artists; she was friends with Russian actress Alexandra Karatygina and Italian singer Angelica Catalani. The Avdulins' house was put on a grand scale, and balls were regularly given, at which even Pushkin sometimes went. As for the portrait of Kiprensky, then the circumstances of its creation is known only that it was not written in Russia, but in France or in Italy.
Technical skill Kiprensky and orientation to artists of the Renaissance
It should be noted how completely Kiprensky, living in Italy, learned the technique of painting the transfer of jewelry and fabrics. The patterned Persian shawl of a complex mustard color, the foaming gooseberry cap, the distinct cold luster of pearls shading the tenderness of carnation (images of open parts of the body) - all this even eclipses the heroine, about which one of her contemporaries said: "There is a soul in her physiognomy".
The composition in which the heroine is depicted against the background of a dark wall and fragmentary visible landscape, as well as “Djokondovskiy” hand drawing speak about the orientation of Kiprensky on the Renaissance painting samples, including famous painting by Leonardo da Vinciwhich the artist saw in the Louvre.
Flying around white Levkoy (in another version - hyacinth) against the background of an alarming purple sky has an allegorical meaning. Hyacinth was a symbol of sadness and dying nature, and Levkoy, according to superstitions, fell at the moment of death of one of the household. Thus, by means of a flower, it hints at sad events in the fate of the heroine, remaining outside our competence, but partly explaining the minor mood of the portrait.
Author: Anna Yesterday
