Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (russian: Орест Адамович Кипренский -) was a leading

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this ...

ist in the Age of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. His most familiar work is probably his portrait of

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

(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 Saint Petersburg Governorate (russian: Санкт-Петербу́ргская губе́рния, ''Sankt-Peterburgskaya guberniya''), or Government of Saint Petersburg, was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia ...

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 The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the T ...

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 Saint Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy ( rus, Дми́трий Ива́нович Донско́й, Dmítriy Ivanovich Donskóy, also known as Dimitrii or Demetrius), or Dmitry of the Don, sometimes referred to simply as Dmitry (12 October 1350 – 1 ...

after the

Battle of Kulikovo The Battle of Kulikovo (russian: Мамаево побоище, Донское побоище, Куликовская битва, битва на Куликовом поле) was fought between the armies of the Golden Horde, under the command ...

'' (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 In art history, "Old Master" (or "old master")Old Masters De ...

–

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 tradition ...

van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh ...

. 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 Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population: Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russia ...

1811,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

1812, in 1816–1822 he lived in Rome and

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. In

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

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 A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...

. In 1828, Kiprensky came back to Italy, as he got a letter from his friend Samuil Galberg, informing him that they had lost track of Mariucci. Kiprensky found Mariucci, who had been transferred to another

. 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 largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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 Sant'Andrea delle Fratte ("Saint Andrew of the Thickets") is a 17th-century basilica church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to St. Andrew. The Cardinal Priest of the ''Titulus S. Andreae Apostoli de Hortis'' is Ennio Antonelli. History The current chu ...

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 o ...

, 1811 File: Uvarov the elder.jpg,

Sergey Uvarov Count Sergey Semionovich Uvarov (russian: Граф Серге́й Семёнович Ува́ров; 5 September O.S. 25 August">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 25 August1786, Moscow &ndash ...

, 1815 File:Orest Kiprensky 020.jpg,

Alexander Shishkov Alexander Semyonovich Shishkov (russian: Алекса́ндр Семёнович Шишко́в) (, Moscow - , Saint Petersburg) was a Russian writer, literary critic, philologist, memoirist, military and statesman, Admiral (1824). He created a ...

, 1825 File: Kiprensky Pushkin.jpg,

, 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 Danish and Icelandic sculptor medalist of international fame, who spent most of his life (1797–1838) in Italy. Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen into a working-class Dani ...

,
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