Grigory
Ivanovich Ugryumov

The artist is inseparably associated with the Academy of fine arts, her faithful son and an honest servant. Since 1770, at the age of six, Ugryumov gets in an Educational school at the Academy in the number of pupils of the third, since the Foundation, receiving. In early 1780-ies he's among the most capable students of the Academy. In 1785, after the program "the Exiled Hagar with a young son Ishmael in the desert" the young artist receives a small gold medal (most that year was not awarded) and the right to pensioner's trip to Rome, where copies of ancient statues, Veronese and Guido Reni - "the colorist" and "plastic" to learn something, and more quality. In the autumn of 1790 Ugryumov returned to St. Petersburg and the following year occupies the vacant place of the teacher in the class of historical painting, and since 1795 he already manages all scenic classes. In 1797 he received the title of academician for the painting "Test of strength Jan Usmarya", in 1800 a Professor. Smooth, confident promotion. Died Ugryumov at the highest post available to the artist, the rector of the Academy.

Ugryumov enjoyed among his contemporaries unlimited authority. In their eyes he was the "father of historical painting", perhaps the Creator of this genre, and his glory outshines the glory of Losenko. "What kind of Pecheneg forces in the Grappler! What is the advantage to the Winner of Kazan! What a solemnity in the sacred election of the young Michael! Painter, filled with love of the Fatherland, he is worthy of immortality to betray the glorious Russian heroes" - wrote about him an honorary fan of the Academy M. N. Ants. Figure Ugryumova, indeed, responded to the public demand for an artist who embodied the ideals of citizenship in the spirit of the Enlightenment and on the material of Russian history. Commitment to Russian subjects is a distinctive feature of creativity Ugryumova, although he was not a pioneer here. Another quality of historical painting Ugryumova, also had great impact on his contemporaries - the quest for the veracity of the historical situation, suit and all to a kind of naturalness portrayed, of course, within the academic system of the eighteenth century. In the picture "Solemn entry of Alexander Nevsky in Pskov after they gained victory over the German knights" (1793) are inaccurate and even oddities in the image, for example, the Pskov Kremlin suggests that the artist diligently used the sources which were considered reliable. Moreover, it puts the left quite so "non-canonical" group of characters: an old woman with a baby, the girl and the woman in the crown. In traditional overall academic picture, where everything is rigorous and every gesture is significant, this group brings discord, since its meaning is unclear. But the meaning appears to be, and should not look for: the appearance of these characters - the result of a somewhat naive attempt to make the image more "life".

Ugryumov was an outstanding teacher. Many Russian artists were involved in teaching, including in the Academy, but Ugryumov - from among those in respect of which this fact can not be taken into account. This again affects the identity Ugryumova academic walls, in which the transmission of traditions, cultivation of long-established norms, saving of certain laws art was the essence of how the learning process and their own creativity. Was in the history of the Academy teachers, whose role was limited to the preservation of the old and artificial to maintain it. Ugryumov, by contrast, has really become living link transmission of tradition. This is the originality of his historical role, and this is its value.

Ugryumov is the "teacher of teachers" who will be the biggest teachers of the beginning of XIX century - Yegorov, Shebuev, Andrey Ivanov. But in their head it binds the tradition Losenko (which he picks up to a greater extent than the direct pupils of a great painter) the art of budding romanticism. Ugryumov was a teacher Kiprensky, which, of course, more than Yegorov, useful lookofsky lessons the dramatic light, color, expressive painting of the story, not burdened with the dry details.

The most expressive, the most lookofsky spirit Ugryumova painting - "Test of strength Jan Usmarya" (1796-1797), or "In the presence of the Grand Duke Vladimir, the Russian soldier the son of a Tanner has his power over an angry bull." Ian Usmar, tearing the skin of the enraged animal, proves thereby his right to duel with the hero-Pecheneg. Tensions climax, the sharpness of the movement, accentuated by the still figure of a man that fell to earth, the stormy pathos, expressive light coming from the Baroque. Composition, of course, quite conventional, but still fairly unified, whole. The flavor prevail "Rubenesque" warm tone typical of academic painting, but here they are applied more intelligently, in accordance with the plot.

In "the Calling of Mikhail Romanov to the throne" (not later than 1800) lessons Losenko evident in the orchestration of gestures. Central group, obviously built according to the laws losenkova "Farewell of Hector with andromaha". Especially expressive, plastic, and light in a small sketch (1798).

In later years, Ugryumov does not receive orders, and large canvases so he writes. But they are sketches, in which something new emerges. The artist does not remain aloof from the heroic style of late classicism. His sketch "Minin appeals to the Prince Pozharsky on the salvation of the Fatherland" (early 1800s) imbued with the same spirit of strict heroics, the restrained pathos as the monument, the work of Martos. Similar to the famous sculptural group and the heavy plastic of the figures, which is not for the exquisite flexibility of the characters of "Alexander Nevsky" or "Vocation in the Kingdom...".

And yet Ugryumov has not gone the way of the cool classics of the sculptural forms, the static resulting from late classicism. The spirit of the XVIII century, always retained in his works. In the above sketch he appeared in a diagonal accents of the composition coming from the Baroque.

Ugryumov has done a lot for development of Russian drawing. Contemporaries believed that "he introduced the way of drawing more resolute, more free and useful for artist" and is apparently true. As a teacher and as a draftsman he drew attention to the expressive, picturesque role of light and shade. First at the Academy, he gives assignments on white paper (not tinted), on which the structure of the volume looks more specifically and clearly. The first gives the job to technicians mixed (sanguine and charcoal). In urumovska, free and creative, the spirit will draw in the Academy, Kiprensky and Bryullov.