Vasily Tropinin

Vasily Tropinin
Self portrait
Born	Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (1776-03-30)30 March 1776 Korpovovillage, nearNovgorod,Russian Empire
Died	16 May 1857(1857-05-16)(aged 81) Moscow,Russian Empire
Resting place	Vagankovo Cemetery,Moscow
Nationality	Russian
Alma mater	Imperial Academy of Arts (1804)
Known for	Painting,Drawing
Movement	Romanticism

Vasily Andreevich Tropinin(Russian:Васи́лий Андре́евич Тропи́нин;30 March [O.S.19 March] 1776 – 16 May [O.S.4 May] 1857) was a RussianRomanticpainter. Much of his life was spent as aserf,not attaining freedom until he was more than forty years old. Three of his more important works are a portrait ofAlexander Pushkinand paintings calledThe Lace MakerandThe Gold-Embroideress.

Biography

Lace making beauty, 1823

Vasily was born as a serf of CountMunnichin the villageKorpovoofNovgorodguberniya.He was transferred to Count Morkov as part of the dowry of Munnich's daughter. Soon he was sent toSaint Petersburgto study the trade of a confectioner. Instead of learning his trade Tropinin secretly attended free drawing lessons in theImperial Academy of Arts.

In 1799, his owner allowed Tropinin to study at the Academy as a non-degree student (Postoronny uchenik). He took lessons from S. S. Schukin and was supported by the President of the AcademyAlexander Sergeyevich Stroganov.In 1804 Tropinin's workBoy Grieving for a Dead Birdwas exhibited in the Academy's exhibition and was noted by the Russian Empress at the time (most probably the Dowager EmpressMaria Feodorovna).

At the dawn of his success, Count Morkov recalled Tropinin from St. Petersburg to hisUkrainianestate Kukavka. Tropinin was appointed a confectioner and alackey.Soon the owner changed his mind and assigned Tropinin to copy the works of European and Russian painters and produceportraits of the Morkovs.Tropinin also painted the local church. Tropinin spent around twenty years of his life in Ukraine, and many of his works from that time were ofUkrainianpeople and the Ukrainian countryside.

Still Tropinin continued to work and study. As a well-established portraitist, he wrote:

I studied little...at the Academy, but I learned...inMalorossia.There I painted from nature without rest, painted everything and everyone and these works, it seems, are the best of all of those created by me thus far.

The most notable works of that period arePortrait of A. I. Tropinina, the Artist's Wife(1809),Portrait of Arseny Tropinin, son of the artist(c. 1818),Portrait of the Writer and Historian N. M. Karamzin(1818).

Academician

In 1823 at the age of 47 Tropinin at last became a free man and moved toMoscow.The same year he presented his paintingsThe Lace Maker,The BeggarandThe Portrait of artist Skotnikovto the Imperial Academy of Arts and received the official certificate of a painter (Svobodnyj Khudozhnik). In 1824 he was elected an Academician.

Since 1833 he mastered theMoscowPublic Art Classesthat later became the famousMoscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.In 1843 he was elected an honorary member of theMoscow Art Society.He died in 1857 and was interred inVagankovo Cemetery.During his life Tropinin painted more than 3,000 portraits.

In 1969 theTropinin Museumwas opened in Moscow.

Works

• Vasily Tropinin's works
• 
  Girl fromPodolye,1804-1807
• 
  Family portrait of counts Morkovs, 1813
• 
  Portrait of Arseny Tropinin, son of the artist, 1818
• 
  Portrait ofNikolay Karamzin,1818
• 
  Coachman1820
• 
  Ustym Karmeliuk,1820s
• 
  Konstantin Ravich, 1823
• 
  Woman at the window, 1841
• 
  The Gold-Embroideress, 1826
• 
  Portrait ofAlexander Pushkin,1827
• 
  Portrait ofVasily Karatygin,1842
• 
  Portrait Of A.F. Mazurina, 1839

External links

• Tropinin's gallery