Portrait of Rep. Turgenev

The famous Russian writer has spoiled a lot of blood to the famous Russian painters, once from time to time adding a headache to each of them while trying to write successful images of him. Consider the walking through these tortures of a remarkable Russian artist, including a magnificent portrait painter, Repin Ilya Yefimovich, who painted a portrait of Turgenev more than once.

Artistic Karma

Indeed, contemporaries after the death of Turgenev noted that over the Russian classic hung a curse, because there was not a single truly satisfactory image of the writer, given what kind of grandees put their hand to this difficult mission. But within this material, we will not go into this strange karma. Let's note only that even the brightest portraitist of the present day of the writer could not realize Tretyakov's dream. Repin could not, despite two serious attempts to create a portrait of Turgenev, which would satisfy both the writer himself and the customer of his artistic image.

The first pancake is lumpy

By the way, about the customer, they were, as many already probably guessed, the famous Russian collector, entrepreneur, philanthropist, in general, all the regalia can not be listed. Speech, of course, about Tretyakov, a portrait, which, by the way, brushes all the same Repin, pleased the performer much more than the discussed creation. Yes, it was Pavel Mikhailovich who introduced the famous Russian writer and no less famous painter in St. Petersburg. But the story begins in Paris in 1874. Repin reacted to Tretyakov's order to paint a portrait of Turgenev with great enthusiasm.

The first session led to the appearance of a good under the artist's view, underpainting. However, the fate in the face of Pauline Viardot did not give the outline to become a portrait. The wayward singer criticized the work that was begun, which did not slow to affect Turgenev's desire to start work again. As Repin did, later he cursed himself for this concession, since the second call brought disappointment not only to the writer, but also to the artist himself. According to Repin, the image was boring and dry. The picture clearly failed from the point of view of the customer, since then the portrait went to walk around the collectors' hands from Tretyakov's entry. By the way, this work returned to the gallery only many years later, already in Soviet times.

Second attempt

It should be noted that all three kept the hope that a worthy portrait of Ivan Turgenev could still take place, despite the apparent presence of evil fate. And it happened several years later, this time in Moscow in 1879. Tretyakov for work, which he dreamed of for many years, allocated a place in his own apartment. Work on this picture lasted quite a long time. However, because Repin put so much effort into this work, nothing has changed. This picture disappointed the critics even more, and, therefore, the patron of art who was so upset that he proposed to paint a portrait of Turgenev to another artist - Kramskoy, about whom one can also tell a lot of interesting things, but that's another story.

Conclusion

Apparently, the life and works of famous people are always shrouded in a haze of attractiveness. Recognizing each time something new about the work of great writers, artists, you get not only an idea of their personalities, characters, but you begin to see something hitherto invisible, invisible in their works, gaining more understanding about them, and therefore possibilities for analysis , Comprehension. The briefly reviewed stories of how Repin painted Turgenev's portrait show us a simple life-long morality that we should trust our vision of the situation, if you have taken up the creative vision of the world. This should be wished to all beginners, and not only creative people.