Description of the painting “Horsewoman” by K. Bryullov. The picture is full of joy from meeting after a short, but still absence

During his stay in Italy Karl Bryullov written by one of the most mysterious portraits. "Rider" caused a lot of controversy about who the artist actually depicted - his beloved Countess Yu. Samoilova or her pupils Jovanina and Amatsilia.

Bryullov’s painting was commissioned by his beloved, Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, one of the most beautiful and richest women early XIX V. Count Y. Litta, the second husband of her grandmother, Countess E. Skavronskaya, left her a huge fortune. Due to divorce scandalous reputation and daring behavior in a conversation with the Emperor, Samoilova had to leave Russia and move to Italy. There she lived in grand style, bought villas and palaces, and held receptions. The whole flower of Italian society gathered with her: composers, artists, actors, diplomats. Frequent guests The countesses were Verdi, Rossini, Bellini, Pacini.

Samoilova often ordered sculptures and paintings for her villas. One of them was ceremonial portrait, made by Bryullov. The Countess's collection was very popular in Italy: art connoisseurs often came to Milan specifically to see her collection of paintings and sculptures.

K. Bryullov painted “The Horsewoman” in 1832, at which time the painting was exhibited at an exhibition in Milan. "Horsewoman" had great success in Italy. The newspapers wrote: “An excellent painter appeared this year with big picture, written oil paints, and exceeded all expectations. The manner in which this portrait is executed makes one remember wonderful works Van Dyck and Rubens."

Disagreements about who was depicted in the portrait were caused by the artist himself. Samoilova was about 30 years old in 1832, and the girl depicted in the portrait looks much younger. But she also does not look like the countess’s young pupils depicted in other portraits of that time, in particular, in the portrait of Yu. Samoilova with her pupil Giovannina Pacini and the black little boy, created in 1834.

For 40 years the painting was in Samoilova’s collection. Shortly before her death, completely bankrupt, the countess was forced to sell it. In 1893, “The Horsewoman” was purchased for the Tretyakov Gallery as a portrait of Countess Yu. Samoilova. For a long time it was believed that she was depicted as a horsewoman. However, later, art historians managed to prove that the picture shows not the Countess herself, but her pupils Jovanina and Amatsilia, and that this particular work is mentioned in the artist’s personal notes under the title “Jovanina on a Horse.” This version is also supported by the portrait resemblance between Yulia Samoilova and her students depicted in other paintings.

Bryullov painted portraits of Countess Samoilova more than once, and in all the paintings one can feel his warm attitude towards the posing woman. A. Benois wrote: “Probably thanks to his special attitude towards the person depicted, he managed to express so much fire and passion that when looking at them, all the satanic charm of his model immediately becomes clear...”

Giovanina and Amatsilia were Samoilova's adopted daughters, although they were not officially adopted. There is a version that Jovanina is the niece of Samoilova’s second husband, opera singer Perry, born out of wedlock. According to another version, both girls were the daughters of the composer Pacini. The countess did not have any children of her own, and she took Giovannina and Amatsilia into her upbringing.

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picture horsewoman Bryullov portrait

IN recent years first stay in Italy, in 1832 K. Bryullov painted the famous “Horsewoman” (see Ill. 7), gracefully sitting on a magnificent horse.

At the center of the work is a young girl who has returned from her morning walk. A horsewoman at full gallop stops a hot horse. The Amazon's confident dexterity evokes genuine admiration from the little girl who runs up to the balcony, as if calling on the viewer to share her delight.

The excitement is transmitted to the shaggy dog barking fiercely at the rearing horse. The landscape with tree trunks tilted from the passing wind is also agitated. Cirrus clouds run anxiously across the sky, the rays of the setting sun breaking through the thick foliage fall in restless spots on the ground.

Portraying a young girl, Giovannina, and her little friend, Amacilia Pacini, Bryullov created an inspired canvas glorifying the joy of life. The charm of “The Horsewoman” is in the spontaneity of the animation that permeates the entire scene, in the courage compositional solution, in the beauty of the pre-storm landscape, in the brilliance of the palette, striking in its richness of shades.

The overall silhouette of the rider and horse forms the semblance of a triangle - a stable, long-favored form of constructing a ceremonial portrait. This is how many compositions were solved by Titian, Velazquez, Rubens, and Van Dyck. Under Bryullov’s brush, the old compositional scheme is interpreted in a new way. The artist introduces the figure of a child into the picture. The little girl, hearing the horse's tramp, quickly ran out onto the balcony and stretched out her hand through the bars. Both delight and fear for the rider are expressed on her face (see Fig. 8). A note of living, direct feeling tempers the cold majesty of the portrait, giving it spontaneity and humanity. The girl, incomparably more lively than the horsewoman, fits well into the work, conveys the mood of sincere childish delight, ease of perception of the world and deprives the portrait of pathos and seriousness, which usually comes from the majestic equestrian portraits of other artists of that era.

Enthusiastic Italians compared Bryullov with Rubens and Van Dyck, writing that they had never before seen an equestrian portrait conceived and executed with such art. This exaggeration is due to the unusual nature of Bryullov’s creation. The equestrian portrait was always a ceremonial one. He inevitably concealed within himself hidden meaning: a rider who has saddled and subdued a hot horse is a man of power. Here is not a commander leading an army into battle, not a conqueror entering a captured capital, not a monarch being crowned king - the girl returned home from a walk.

In this work, Bryullov finally combines a ceremonial portrait and an everyday scene. He himself called the work “Jovanin on a Horse,” but for everyone it is “Horsewoman.” "Jovanin on a Horse" tells a little about "Jovanin" herself - Jovanina; little Amazilia - admiration, impulse, the charm of childhood.

Bryullov painted the picture with a feeling of completeness and joy of being, admiring the beauty and picturesqueness of the world, with the feeling that lived in him, and which he found in these girls, Giovanina and Amatsilia.

In a large canvas, Bryullov managed to organically link the decorativeness of the solution with the truthfulness of direct observation. “The Horsewoman” can rightfully be called an example of a portrait-painting in the art of the first half of the 19th century century. In this uniqueness creative idea one cannot help but see the expression of the bold will of an artist who violates established traditions. The very appearance of the young horsewoman acquired a certain conventional generality.

The portrait of Giovannina, exhibited in Rome in 1832, caused a lively exchange of opinions. Here is what was said, for example, in one of the newspaper articles published at that time: “The Russian painter Karl Bryullov painted a life-size portrait of a girl on a horse and another girl who is looking at her. We do not remember having seen an equestrian portrait conceived and executed before with such skill. The horse... beautifully drawn and staged, moves, gets excited, snorts, neighs. The girl who sits on him is a flying angel. The artist overcame all difficulties like a true master: his brush glides freely, smoothly, without hesitation. without tension; skillfully, with understanding. great artist, distributing the light, he knows how to weaken or strengthen it. This portrait reveals in him a promising painter and, more importantly, a painter marked by genius."

According to the fair opinion of the poet Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Blyullov was considered “the best painter in Rome.” (Pikuleva G.I. /Gallery of Geniuses: Bryullov/ - M.: OLMA-PRESS Education, 2004.)

An article attributed to Ambriozodi that appeared in the same year said: “If anything may seem incredible, it is that a beautiful rider either does not notice the frantic movements of the horse, or, from excessive self-confidence, does not tighten the reins at all and does not bends towards her, as perhaps it would be necessary.”

Bryullov’s “omission,” noticed by his contemporaries, was partly explained in the tasks that he set for the art of large portrait paintings during this period. The creator of “The Horsewoman” could be suspected of being unable to convey facial expression, if not for the image of a little girl clinging to the balcony railing in a fit of delight. The play of feelings is so vivid on her sharp face that doubts about the brilliant talents of Bryullov as a portrait painter immediately disappear. By the beginning of the 1830s, Bryullov took one of the leading places in Russian and Western European art. His fame as an outstanding master of portraiture was cemented by The Horsewoman.

Without a doubt, "Horsewoman" is a success. She created a sensation among her contemporaries. They talked about her, wrote about her, discussed her, rumors, versions and assumptions about the personality of the person depicted circulated around her. It was an unconditional hit in the top ten.

"Horsewoman" was purchased for the gallery of P.M. Tretyakov in 1893 in Paris, as a portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova. It was believed that she was depicted as a horsewoman.

Later it was proven that this is the same painting that the artist called “Zhovanin on a Horse” in the list of his works, and that it depicts two of Samoilova’s pupils - Giovannina and Amatsilia. This was established by comparing the girls depicted in “The Horsewoman” with them in other Bryullov paintings.

If you can see, if you look at the “Portrait of Countess Y.P. Samoilova with her pupil Giovannina and the little black arap”, dating back to 1834, and the “Portrait of Countess Y.P. Samoilova leaving the ball with her adopted daughter Amatsilia” (see Ill. 5), begun in 1839 during their visit to St. Petersburg.

The artist himself gave the reason to be mistaken about who is represented in the image of the horsewoman. Although the girl looks younger than Samoilova, who was about thirty years old in 1832, she seems older than the teenage girl that Giovannina is depicted next to the countess in Bryullov’s portrait of 1834. By the way, this is not the only misunderstanding related to the definition of the heroine of “The Horsewoman”.

In 1975, the famous opera house La Scala has published a book dedicated to the outstanding singers whose voices sounded from its stage. "The Horsewoman" was presented as a "Romantic Portrait of Malibran" from the La Scala Theater Museum. The name of Maria Felicita Malibran-Garcia, sister of Pauline Viardot, belongs to one of the most striking legends in history opera art. Masterfully mastering a marvelous voice, possessing a hot temperament and the gift of acting transformation, combined with a romantic canon female beauty appearance - slim figure With a pale face under blue-black hair and large sparkling eyes, she seemed created to embody the heroines of musical dramas on stage.

A passionate lover of horse riding, Maria Malibran died from bruises received in a fall from a horse. She was twenty-eight years old. The untimely death cemented the legend that was born during the singer’s lifetime: one Milanese lawyer, who donated an engraving from the painting “Horsewoman” to the La Scala Theater Museum, believed that it depicted Malibran.

The director of the Theater Museum, Professor Gianpiero Tintori, said: “I understand what confuses you. When, having arrived in Moscow, I visited the Tretyakov Gallery, I realized that the fair-haired horsewoman (in Giovannina’s life she was a redhead) cannot portray the fiery brunette Malibran. I talked about this to those who selected illustrations for the book, but they only added the epithet “romantic” to the word “portrait,” that is, they presented the picture as a kind of fantasy on the theme of the singer’s passion for horse riding.”

The picture is filled with emotion and movement. A happy young girl, excited by the walk, the gallop, the wind in her face, reined in her horse abruptly, her little friend ran out enthusiastically to meet her - and the rider’s excitement was immediately transmitted to her, intensifying many times over; the black horse crosses its eyes, snores, tries to rear; sensing the mood of the owners, the dogs are worried; the wind bends the treetops; clouds are running across the sky: everything is excited, excited, alarmed, but this is joyful excitement, the joyful excitement of happy people.

Giovanina Paccini in a portrait by Karl Bryullov is shown in a fashionable, rich and elegant equestrian costume, a brocade blouse with puffy elbow-length and narrow wrist-length sleeves, a lace collar, a long skirt below the heels, which reflects the wealth and refined taste of its owner. Neatly curled curls, soft features of the face, only slightly turned to the side, contrast with the movement that filled the whole picture. A light cloud of a veil, trailing with the wind. The face of the just returned rider is quite calm, but not devoid of pleasure from the ride. (see ill. 9) She behaves arrogantly and majestically, like a brave commander on the battlefield.

The horse's front legs raised while running, as if the hind legs were ready to jump; you can almost hear the neighing of a horse and the frightened barking of a dog on the right. The equanimity of such a fragile girl is amazing; without a shadow of effort or fear, she restrains the ardor of a frisky horse, bursting with health, strength and power. The sun plays on the muscles of his black satin body. Flared nostrils and an open mouth show all the impatience, all the resistance of a rearing horse. The horse gets excited, but the rider sits straight and proud, confident in herself. All his power is completely subordinated to the young rider, calmly sitting on his back.

Attracted by the clatter of hooves and the neighing of a horse, the little girl on the left who jumped out of the house is also all in motion - her right leg bent at the knee, her hands clutching the parapet bars. Even the static nature of the entrance arch, the parapet and the pedestal in which the parapet is mounted is disrupted by the image of pieces of earth flying out from under the horse’s feet and sticking to the pedestal. All this conversation piece as if to emphasize the seething emotions inner world horsewoman, but, shackled by the conventions of noble decency, she does not show this in her facial expression.

Wild strength submitting to fragile beauty, tenderness and sophistication dominating over power is one of the favorite motifs of romanticism, the pinnacle of which was the work of Bryullov.

The girl’s entire pose is filled with grace and ease. It seems that she is not even sitting in the saddle, but is hovering above him like a light, almost weightless blue-white cloud. The smooth curve of the arm, sloping shoulders, thin neck give tenderness and smoothness to the figure. The folds of the dress and the developing veil only enhance the effect.

The position of the head and the antique calm on the porcelain face of the eldest of the Pacini sisters contrasts with the composition of the entire painting, filled with movement and emotion. The Italian idealized type of appearance was considered perfect during the time of Bryullov. Which is not surprising, because a purely realistic image does not always give that touch of romanticism, so beloved by Karl Pavlovich’s contemporaries.

Today, looking at this work, you understand how right the Italian art connoisseur was when he called the young Karl Bryullov a brilliant artist just for this one portrait. The master boldly combines the warm, gentle tones of the girl’s pink dress with the black steel of the velvety black fur of the horse and the white luminous robe of the rider. Bryullov gives a complex harmony of pink-red, bluish-black and white shades. The contrasts are striking color solutions, in which red is combined with brown-beige, dark brown, almost black - with bluish-lunar, lead-gray - with yellow-blue, white-pink - with bluish-black, and black - with yellow.

The painter, as it were, deliberately chooses not close, but contrasting, especially complex in painting, combinations. But each tone was developed masterfully by the master, in many subtle gradations. The pictorial layer is not overloaded anywhere, and this enhances the sound of the paint on the light ground. Bryullov achieved a special tonal harmony here. There are almost no careless, sluggishly painted places in the portrait. The school of the Academy of Arts left its mark on the picture: the figures of a girl, dogs and especially a horse are anatomically accurately depicted.

The combination of textures and light is also skillfully used. Graphic, angular folds of shining fabric next to the softness of animal fur. The artist uses light to determine the main action and the main characters of the painting. Here, in the bright morning light, against the backdrop of a dark garden and monumental stone slabs, the figures of the sisters are captured, the animals are slightly less illuminated. On the broken curves of clothing, the light lies in the same bright fractures, like fragments broken mirror. And on the moving object itself - the horse, on the contrary, there is more diffused light. The morning sun plays on his tense muscles, lying on the edges of the smooth, and not chopped like a dress, curves of his chest, legs and neck, emphasizing their roundness and allowing the viewer to see and feel their rolls and movement.

There is a sense of space and perspective in the work. The shaggy dog depicted on the canvas helps to create the impression that in the painting the space unfolds not only in depth, but also exists in front of the characters. The feeling of depth is also enhanced by the light breaking through somewhere in the distance, through the trees of a dense garden.

We are all familiar with the reproduction of this painting from childhood. We admired this beautiful horsewoman and the little girl who looked with envy at her older friend.

The painting was painted by Bryullov in 1832 during the last years of his stay in Italy. The painting depicts a walking scene. Y. Samoilova’s pupil Giovannina drives up to the entrance of her foster mother’s house, sitting on a black horse. The composition “Horsewomen” is full of dynamism. The horse, heated by the ride, snorts and rears up, the shaggy dog (on the collar of which there is the customer’s surname - “Samoylova”) barks, circling under the horse’s feet, little Amatsilia, dressed in pink dress and green shoes, runs out to meet her and looks admiringly at her older friend.

Both girls are Italian. Amacilia Pacini was the daughter Italian composer Giovanni Pacini.friend of Yu. Samoilova. Little is known about Jovanina. There is a version that her real name is Giovanni Carmine Bertolotti and she is the daughter of Clementina Perry, the sister of Samoilova’s second husband. The artist called his work “Giovanin on a Horse.”

Bryullov created an inspired canvas glorifying the joy of life. The confident dexterity of the Amazon evokes genuine admiration from the little girl who ran up to the balcony, as if calling on the viewer to share her delight. The excitement is transmitted to the shaggy dog barking fiercely at the rearing horse.

The landscape with tree trunks tilted from the passing wind is also interesting. Cirrus clouds float anxiously across the sky, and the rays of the setting sun breaking through the thick foliage fall in restless spots on the ground.

The overall silhouette of the rider and the horse forms the semblance of a triangle - a stable, long-favored form of constructing a ceremonial portrait. This is how many compositions were solved by Titian, Velazquez, Rubens, and Van Dyck. Under Bryullov’s brush, the old compositional scheme is interpreted in a new way. The artist introduces the figure of a child into the picture. The little girl, hearing the horse's tramp, quickly ran out onto the balcony and stretched out her hand through the bars. Both delight and fear for the rider are expressed on her face. A note of living, direct feeling tempers the cold majesty of the portrait, giving it spontaneity and humanity.
The shaggy dog depicted on the canvas helps to create the impression that in the painting the space unfolds not only in depth, but also exists in front of the characters.

There was a long debate about who is depicted in the painting “Horsewoman”. It was purchased for the Tretyakov Gallery in 1893 as a portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova. Later, art historians proved that this is the same painting that the artist called “Zhovanin” in the list of his works on a horse."

When the painting was shown in Rome, they wrote about it: “We don’t remember having seen before this an equestrian portrait, conceived and executed with such skill. The horse... beautifully drawn and staged, moves, gets excited, snorts, neighs. The girl who sitting on it, it's a flying angel."

"Russian painter Karl Bryullov painted a life-size portrait of a girl on a horse and another girl who is looking at her. We don’t remember having seen an equestrian portrait before, conceived and executed with such skill. The horse... beautifully drawn and staged, moves , gets excited, snorts, laughs. The girl who sits on him is a flying angel. The artist overcame all difficulties like a true master: his brush glides freely, smoothly, without hesitation, without tension, skillfully, with the understanding of a great artist, he distributes the light; knows how to weaken or strengthen it. This portrait reveals in him a promising painter and, more importantly, a painter marked by genius."

Some Italian critics noted the lifelessness of the expression on the face of the young rider. A beautiful rider either does not notice the frantic movement of the horse, or, from excessive self-confidence, does not tighten the reins at all and does not bend towards it.”

K. Bryullov. Portrait of Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova leaving the ball with her adopted daughter Amazilia Paccini

Giovanina was an orphan and a distant relative of the Countess's husband. She was raised in the Samoilova family from childhood. She later married the Austrian officer Ludwig Aschbach and went to Prague. Another girl in the picture is Amalizia Paccini. She is the daughter of the Italian composer Giovanni Pacini, also a pupil of the Countess, Fate Her life was not entirely successful. She married twice and remained a widow twice. She died in Milan in an orphanage at a monastery. Such is the fate of the girls in this picture.

Today, looking at this work, you understand how right the Italian art connoisseur was when he called the young Karl Bryullov a brilliant artist just for this portrait alone. The master boldly combines pink dress girls, the velvety black color of the horse’s fur and the white robe of the rider. Bryullov gives a complex harmony of pink-red, bluish-black and white shades. The painter, as it were, deliberately chooses not close, but contrasting, especially complex in painting, combinations. But each tone was developed masterfully by the master, in many subtle gradations. The pictorial layer is not overloaded anywhere, and this enhances the sound of the paint on the light ground. Bryullov achieved a special tonal harmony here. There are no careless, sluggishly painted places in the portrait.

When “The Horsewoman” was created, Karl Bryullov was thirty-three years old. Ahead was the triumph of Pompeii, series famous portraits contemporaries, friendship with Pushkin, Glinka. There was a whole life ahead...

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov is one of the famous Russian masters of painting. Watercolorist, adherent of 19th century academicism. In 1822 he was sent on a mission to Italy, the purpose of the trip was to collect financial assistance Society for the Encouragement of Artists. The master created a creation called “Horsewoman”. Depicted is a portrait of Amalicia Pacini, Giovannina - the wards of Countess Samoilova. Those interested in who painted the painting “Horsewoman” often come across another interpretation of the title - “Amazon”. The work was published in 1832.

The history of the painting “Horsewoman”

Y. Samoilova asked to create the creation. The artist was known as a close friend of the beauty. The beloved's surname is noticeable on the canvas (who noticed the dog's collar). Presumably, the young people met in Italy. Julia ordered a portrait of her wards from the artist. Amalicia (the youngest girl) is the daughter of the composer Giuseppe Pacini. Interesting fact: previously operatic work given musical author“The Last Day of Pompeii” inspired Karl to create the work of the same name.

The painting was created in a villa (outskirts of Milan). The work was shown at the Brera Gallery in Milan. The canvas instantly received a lot of reviews, positive and negative. Italian newspapers called Karl unsurpassed master brushes Comparisons were made with Rubens and Van Dyck. Critics noted: the rider’s face was lifeless, simply frozen without emotion. The job description was as follows: main character sits too freely on horseback. The feeling of speed and the idea of dynamics are neutralized.

For four decades the work was part of the Countess's collection. Julia was rich, bought and sold houses, estates, works of art. But towards the end of his life the situation changed. Shortly before her death (1872), Julia, already bankrupt, sold the work to Parisian art connoisseurs. Fate brought Karl Bryullov’s creation, “The Horsewoman,” to St. Petersburg. In 1874, a letter was sent to Tretyakov: the painting was for sale. Tretyakov was late with the acquisition, but in 1893 the desired item was added to the collection.

According to a considerable number of assumptions, the canvas depicts Countess Samoilova. Experts have refuted the assumption. A different representative of the fair sex was written. A reproduction of the painting “Horsewoman” by Bryullov is housed by the State Russian St. Petersburg Museum. The work continues to receive many responses.

Description of the painting “Horsewoman” by Bryullov

The central figure is Giovanina, riding a magnificent horse. The beauty is self-confident. This is noticeable in the position: he sits, keeping his back straight, his head raised, even if the horse is prancing. Giovannina returned from a walk, which is indicated by a slight blush touching her cheeks. The facial expression is a little distant. The beauty's clothes are fashionable: light blue tones, a dark green veil blown by the wind.

The canvas is permeated with dynamics: the horse rears up, the dog runs towards. Amalicia on the balcony. The girl heard horse tramping. The girl's face expresses both admiration and fear. The baby is fascinated by the young rider, her sister is adored. Amalicia is dressed unpretentiously: lace pantaloons, a house dress pink color. A real feeling of admiration, childishly spontaneous, gives some softness to the portrait of the arrogant beauty.

How many animals are in the painting “Horsewoman”? 3 - 2 dogs and a horse. The background of the canvas is a shady park. The trees sway from the strong wind. The skies are tightening storm clouds. Karl, like a considerable number of creators, used classic shape formation of a ceremonial portrait - triangular. The approach is typical for the works of Rubens, Titian, Velazquez, Van Dyck. The silhouette of a rider and a horse forms a triangle. But the artist breaks the traditional approach: he appears new figure. An unusual addition is a shaggy dog. The presence of an animal creates the impression that there is space in front of the characters in the picture. Then an equestrian portrait could not be done without the presence of the rider as a crowned person. Karl violated the postulate. The young pupil of his beloved sits in a regal pose on a black horse.

The picture is filled with joy from meeting after a short absence. Contemplating the work of a great artist takes your breath away. The viewer finds himself in joyful atmosphere. Karl professionally presented the atmosphere that was then in the estate of the woman he loved, Countess Yulia Samoilova.

Karl’s painting was rightfully chosen as a model portrait painting 19th century. The author of the painting “Rider on a Horse” created impeccable proportions. The audience is presented with an unsurpassed unity of colors, details are worked out. Visitors to the gallery can fully enjoy the art carried through the years.