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Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (russian: Орест Адамович Кипренский -) was a leading Russian portraitist in the Age of Romanticism. His most familiar work is probably his portrait of Alexander Pushkin (1827), which prompted the poet to remark that "the mirror flatters me".


Biography

Orest was born in the village of Nezhnovo in the Saint Petersburg Governorate on . He was an illegitimate son of a landowner Alexey Dyakonov, hence his name, derived from ''Kypris'', one of the Greek names for the goddess of love. He was raised in the family of Adam Shvalbe, a serf. Although Kiprensky was born a serf, he was released from the serfdom upon his birth and later his father helped him to enter a boarding school at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in 1788 (when Orest was only six years old). He studied at the boarding school and the academy itself until 1803. He lived at the academy for three more years as a pensioner to fulfill requirements necessary to win the ''Major Gold medal''. Winning the first prize for his work ''Prince Dmitri Donskoi after the Battle of Kulikovo'' (1805) enabled the young artist to go abroad to study art in Europe. A year before his graduation, in 1804, he painted the portrait of Adam Shvalbe, his foster father (1804), which was a great success. The portrait so impressed his contemporaries, that later members of the ''Naples Academy of Arts'' took it for the painting by some Old Master
Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
or van Dyck. Kiprensky had to ask the members of the Imperial Academy of Arts for letters supporting his authorship. After that, Kiprensky lived in Moscow (1809), Tver 1811, Saint Petersburg 1812, in 1816–1822 he lived in Rome and Napoli. In Italy he met a local girl Anna Maria Falcucci (''Mariucci''), to whom he became attached. He bought her from her dissolute family and employed as his ward. On leaving Italy, he sent her to a Roman Catholic convent. In 1828, Kiprensky came back to Italy, as he got a letter from his friend
Samuil Galberg Samuil Ivanovich Galberg or, in German, Samuel Friedrich Halberg (Russian: Самуил Иванович Гальберг; 13 December 1787, Haljala Parish - 22 May 1839, Saint Petersburg) was a Baltic-German sculptor and academician. Biograph ...
, informing him that they had lost track of Mariucci. Kiprensky found Mariucci, who had been transferred to another convent. In 1836 he eventually married her. He had to convert into
Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
from Russian Orthodoxy for this marriage to happen. He died by pneumonia in Rome later that year. He is buried in the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte.


Selected portraits

File: Orest Kiprensky 009.jpeg, Yekaterina Rostopchina, 1809 File: Kiprensky Davydov.jpg,
Evgraf Davydov , native_name_lang = , birth_name = , nickname = , birth_date = 1775 , birth_place = Tula Governorate, Russian Empire , death_date = 1823 (aged 47-48) , death_place = , placeofburial = , placeofburial_label = , pl ...
, 1809 File:Orest Kiprensky 030.jpg,
Vasily Perovsky Count Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky (1794–1857) was an Imperial Russian general and statesman. The illegitimate son of Count , who became Russia's Minister of National Education, Perovsky studied at Moscow University, then joined the retinue ...
, 1811 File: Uvarov the elder.jpg, Sergey Uvarov, 1815 File:Orest Kiprensky 020.jpg, Alexander Shishkov, 1825 File: Kiprensky Pushkin.jpg, Alexander Pushkin, 1827 File:Catherine Teleshova by Kiprenskiy.jpg,
Ekaterina Telesheva Ekaterina Telesheva (1804 – 1857), was a Russian ballerina.Плещеев А. А. Наш балет (1673—1899). Балет в России до начала XIX столетия и балет в Санкт-Петербурге до 1899 го ...
, 1828 File: Kiprensky Torvaldsen.jpg,
Bertel Thorvaldsen Bertel Thorvaldsen (; 19 November 1770 – 24 March 1844) was a Danes, Danish and Icelanders, Icelandic Sculpture, sculptor medallist, medalist of international fame, who spent most of his life (1797–1838) in Italy. Thorvaldsen was born in ...
,
1833


References


External links


Gallery of Kiprensky's works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiprensky, Orest 1782 births 1836 deaths People from Kingiseppsky District People from Yamburgsky Uyezd Russian Roman Catholics Converts to Roman Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy Former Russian Orthodox Christians Russian portrait painters 19th-century painters from the Russian Empire Russian male painters Russian romantic painters Imperial Academy of Arts alumni 19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire