“Portrait of Russian History” was shown in St. Petersburg. This is not just an exhibition but the beginning of a large and promising project of the Russian Museum to create the National Portrait Gallery – and the first part of it, the masterpieces of the 17th-19th centuries, can now be seen in the Mikhailovsky (Engineer) Castle. The idea of such a gallery belongs to the famous art historian Alexandre Benois, and today, a century later, it is being brought to life – perhaps at a time when it is most needed.
The first lobby welcomes guests in darkness – or so it seems? This is the history of Russian portraiture, even before it appeared as such. It all starts with a parsuna, a portrait using iconography. For example, here are three images of Tsar Theodore III's wife, Marfa Matveevna – when she was a bride, with a small dog in her arms; as a wife – in a kokoshnik and with a fan; and a widow – dressed in black.
The exhibition opens before the audience's eyes in each unique chapter. The further one goes, the more elegant, sophisticated, brilliant and solemn the painting becomes. It is enough to read the names of the people described, and the history of our whole country opens before our eyes, page by page. Volkonskys, Muravyov-Apostles, Golitsyns, Yusupovs, Arakcheevs, Gorchkovs, Naryshkins…
General Director of the Russian Museum Alla Manilova assures: “There are no random people at this exhibition. – Of course, after admiring the skills of the artists, I wanted the guests of the exhibition to follow with interest: who are these people and what did they do?
And it must be said that admiration is inevitable: along with famous “portraits”, the heroes of this exhibition are our best painters, whose works are located at Mikhailovsky Castle. Kramskoy, Kiprensky, Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Ge, Repin, Makovsky and many others – and here is another layer of the exhibition and another list of famous names that you cannot miss.
The exhibition displays 300 works by 150 artists
The Russian Museum has a special relationship with Karl Bryullov – and as if continuing the blockbuster film dedicated to the master's anniversary, the museum has done something almost unbelievable: for the first time exhibited a painting by Bryullov, a painting that people have only heard about but never seen. This is the “Marietti Family Portrait” – it was shown to the public only once, in Milan, in 1834. The rest of the time, the work was kept by private collectors and in St. Petersburg (and, in fact, world) “premiere”, it also came from private hands.
– In the list of works by the Great Charles, I rank this painting in second place after “The Last Day of Pompeii” – in terms of visual power, expressiveness and sincerity of the characters. From beginning to end, it is the embodiment of spirit,” said exhibition curator Grigory Goldovsky.
Another interesting room is the children's portraits. For example, a painting long known as “Boy with a Gun” was put on display – the boy turned out to be Paul II. And on Makovsky's incredibly touching painting “Portrait of the Stasov Children” there are three children, one of whom is a girl, Elena Stasova, in the future a revolutionary and secretary of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. And there are so many such interesting stories in this exhibition, you just want to see them.
They said that in the future, at the Russian Museum, the National Gallery will cover the entire history of Russian portraiture. The second part will be about masterpieces from the mid-19th century to the end of the Silver Age, and the third part will cover Soviet painting.
