Grigory Grigoryevich Chernetsov (, 1802,
Lukh — 1865,
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
) was a Russian painter. He is notable mainly for
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
s of various parts of Russia, produced during his travels, but he also was active as portrait and genre painter.
Biography
Chernetsov was born in Lukh, currently part of
Ivanovo Oblast
Ivanovo Oblast () is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It had a population of 927,828 as of the Russian Census (2021), 2021 Russian Census.
Its three largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, cities are Ivanovo (the administrat ...
, Russia. His father and older brother, Yevgraf, were
icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...
painters. His brother,
Nikanor Chernetsov, three years younger than Grigory, became a landscape painter as well, and often worked together with Grigory Chernetsov.
In 1819, Grigory Chernetsov, encouraged by
Pavel Svinyin, who was earlier travelled to Lukh, arrived in Saint Petersburg where he wanted to enroll in the
Imperial Academy of Arts. He was not admitted.
However, he got permission to work there two hours per day. He was not granted a fellowship and had to live with the support of his father, being constantly low on money. In 1822, he was granted the small Silver Medal for his drawings and accepted to the academy, where he studied under
Alexander Varnek and
Maxim Vorobiev. In 1823, Nikanor joined him at the Academy. The brothers graduated in 1827 with small Gold Medals.
After graduation, Grigory Chernetsov was hired as a staff painter at the court. His duties included producing paintings of official events such as military parades or official receptions. In particular, his best known painting, ''The military parade on October 6, 1831 in Tsaritsyn Lug, Saint Petersburg'' incorporates portraits of a number of his famous contemporaries, including
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...
,
Vasily Zhukovsky,
Ivan Krylov, and
Nikolay Gnedich. The painting was created from 1832 to 1837 and was eventually bought by the state and given as a present to the future Tsar,
Alexander II.
From 1837 on, the Chernetsov brothers worked together. In 1838, they travelled down the
Volga
The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...
between
Rybinsk
Rybinsk (, ) is the second-largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Yaroslavl Oblast in Russia. It lies at the confluence of the Volga and Sheksna rivers, north-north-east of Moscow. Population:
It was previously known as '' ...
and
Astrakhan
Astrakhan (, ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the Caspian Depression, from the Caspian Se ...
, making landscape sketches on their way, and later using these sketches to make paintings. They also produced a long panorama of the banks of the Volga which eventually was accepted as a gift by
Nicholas I. In the 1840s, they travelled over Italy and the Middle East, but attempts to sell the resulting lithographs in Russia were highly unsuccessful. When Grigory Chernetsov died in 1865, his brother did not have enough money to bury him.
In 1833, the Chernetsov brothers lobbied creation of the first high school in Lukh.
Works
File:Painted-portraits-of-writer.png, Collective portrait of Ivan Krylov, Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...
, Vasily Zhukovsky and Nikolay Gnedich
File:1837. Пушкин в Бахчисарайском дворце.jpg, Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...
in the Bakhchisaray Palace
File:Grigory Chernetsov Syukyeevsky Mountains.jpg, A view of the Syukeyevo "Mountains", on the Volga
The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...
, in the Kazan Governorate
Kazan Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, and the Russian SFSR from 1708 to 1920, with its capital in Kazan.
History
Kazan Governorate, together with seven other ...
[In the ]Russian Museum
The State Russian Museum (), formerly known as the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (), on Arts Square in Saint Petersburg, is the world's largest depository of Russian fine art. It is also one of the largest art museums in ...
, Saint Petersburg. (1840)
File:Чернецов Григорий Григорьевич - Парад по случаю открытия памятника Александру I в Санкт-Петербурге 30 августа 1834 года (1839) ГТГ.jpg, Parade in St. Petersburg in 1834 (1839)
File:Чернецов Григорий Григорьевич - Парад в Кремле в 1839 году (1841).jpg, The parade in the Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin (fortification), Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Mosco ...
in 1839 (1841)
References
Literary sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chernetsov, Grigory
19th-century painters from the Russian Empire
Male painters from the Russian Empire
1802 births
1865 deaths
19th-century male artists from the Russian Empire