20 Works, December 12th. is Karl Bryullov's day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #248

Brulloff Karl (1799 - 1852)

Juliet Tittoni as Jeanna D'Ark, c. 1850-1852

Oil on canvas

Tittoni family private collection

Having become close in Italy with the Tittoni family, Bryullov created portraits of almost his entire family, and in 1852 he painted a portrait of Juliet Tittoni.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (12 December 1799 – 11 June 1852), original name Charles Bruleau, also transliterated Briullov and Briuloff, was a Russian painter. He is regarded as a key figure in transition from the Russian neoclassicism to romanticism.

Brulloff Karl (1799 - 1852)

Diana, Endymion, and Satyr, c. 1849

Oil on cardboard

46.5x58.5 

The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

The painting ‘Diana, Endymion and Satyr’ was based on the erotic novel of the 18th century by the Italian poet Giambattista Casti. The myth about beautiful Endymion who seduced goddess Diana was very popular in Russian art. More on this painting

Diana is known for her affair with the beautiful mortal Endymion, the young shepherd who used to sleep on a mountain, and with whom she had fifty daughters.

Karl Bryullov

Satyr and Bacchante, c. 1824

Oil, canvas

25.5 x 21 cm

I have no further description, at this time

The satyr, recognisable by his cloven hooves, is a rural divinity symbolizing temptation and desire. Bacchantes are nymphs linked to the cult of Dionysus (or Bacchus). They are always depicted naked or scantily clad, wearing a crown of flowers, dancing or playing music. The two figures are rarely shown together.

Karl Bryullov was born in the family of the academician, woodcarver, and engraver Pavel Ivanovich Briullo who was of Huguenot descent. He felt drawn to Italy from his early years. Despite his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1809–1821), Bryullov never fully embraced the classical style taught by his mentors and promoted by his brother, Alexander Bryullov. 

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

Italian morning. 1823

Oil on canvas

Kunsthalle, Kiel, Germany

In 1825 the Russian public met with enthusiasm the first completed in Italy painting by Bryullov "Italian Morning" (1823, Kunsthalle, Kiel, Germany). The Society for the Encouragement of Artists presented it to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, her husband Nicholas I expressed a desire to have a pair for her. Then Bryullov conceived the "Italian noon". 

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)
Italian noon (Italian woman picking grapes)

Oil on canvas

22 x 27

State Tretyakov Gallery

Both paintings make up a series. Here, for the first time, the artist's favorite type of slightly common southern female beauty appears. It is no coincidence that the Society for the Encouragement of Artists reacted rather coldly to the picture, to which the painter objected: "I decided to look for diversity in those forms of simple nature, which we often meet and often even more like than the strict beauty of statues" ... The version in the Tretyakov Gallery is more modest, conditional, the girl depicted rather resembles not a real peasant woman, but an ancient maenad, a companion of the god of winemaking Bacchus. More on this painting

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

Hope feeding love, c. 1824

Oil on canvas

22 x 27

I have no further description, at this time

Karl Bryullov

In a Harem, c. 1823 - 1835

Oil, canvas

I have no further description, at this time

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

Portrait of Countess Julia Pavlovna Samoilova moving away from the ball with her adopted daughter Amazilia Pacini (Masquerade), c. 1842

Oil on canvas

249 x 176 cm

The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian.

Countess Yuliya Pavlovna Samoylova was a granddaughter of Count Martyn Skavronskiy and the last scion of Skavronskiy family. She grew up in the house of Count Yuliy Litta due to early death of her mother. Samoylova became an owner of Grafskaya Slavyanka manor. On January 25, 1825 she married Count Nikolai Samoylov, but later divorced him as well as several other persons. Samoylova had strong affiliations with Karl Briullov, whose The Last Day of Pompeii (See below) among others shows the idealized figures of himself and Samoylova. In 1840 Samoylova sold Grafskaya Slavyanka and left Russia for Italy. She was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. More on Countess Yuliya Pavlovna Samoylova

BRYULLOV, Karl Pavlovich

Portrait of Princess Elezabeta Pavlovna Saltykova, c. 1841

Oil on canvas

200 x 142 cm

State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

Horsewoman

Portrait of the pupils of Countess Y.P. Samoilova - Giovannina and Amatsilia

Oil on canvas

209.8 x 293

State Tretyakov Gallery

The sisters Giovannina and Amatsilia Pacini, pupils of Countess Y.P. Samoilova, are depicted. The eldest of the sisters abruptly stops the heated horse, but she herself remains absolutely calm. Wild power, subjugating fragile beauty, is one of the favorite motives of romanticism. The girl's face is perfect. The Italian type of appearance was considered perfect at the time of Bryullov, and the artist plays with it with pleasure. Refined play of colors, sparkling fabrics - every detail as if proclaims the magnificence of this "best of worlds". More on this painting

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, c. 1849

Oil on canvas

86.5 х 76 cm

Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts

The Fountain of Bakhchisaray is a poem by Alexander Pushkin, written during the years 1821 to 1823.

Pushkin began writing The Fountain of Bakhchisaray after having visited The Fountain of Tears at the Khan Palace in a town in central Crimea in 1820. More on The Fountain of Bakhchisarai

Karl Pavlovich Briullov

Scene from Willhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

Watercolour over pencil on paper

Private collection

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship is the second novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1795–96.

The eponymous hero undergoes a journey of self-realization. The story centers upon Wilhelm's attempt to escape what he views as the empty life of a bourgeois businessman. After a failed romance with the theater, Wilhelm commits himself to the mysterious Tower Society. More on Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

Herminia at the shepherds

Based on the story of Torquato Tasso's poem "Jerusalem Liberated" 

Oil on canvas

138.2 x 99

State Tretyakov Gallery

Young Herminia, daughter of the Saracen king, in love with a Christian knight, went to seek his beloved for war, fearing for his life. Dressed in armor, she suddenly heard the magical sounds of the pipe - the old shepherd was playing. Following the wonderful sounds, Herminia came to the old hut, where she saw a family of shepherds weaving baskets. Noticing the girl in military uniform, the old shepherd began to convince her of the charms of a secluded quiet, and most importantly, peaceful life. 

Despite all the harmony of the picture, it was never finished by the painter - the master's fascinating nature drove him forward, forcing him to start new subjects. More on this painting

Jerusalem Liberated is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, first published in 1581, that tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Christian knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem. More on Jerusalem Liberated

After distinguishing himself as a promising and imaginative student and finishing his education, he left Russia for Rome where he worked until 1835 as a portraitist and genre painter, though his fame as an artist came when he began doing historical painting.

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

Invasion of Henzerich on Rome

Oil on canvas

118.6 x 88.5

State Tretyakov Gallery

Henzerich, the king of the Germanic tribe of the Vandals, in 455 attacked Rome and subjected the city to a fourteen-day sack, as a result of which he consolidated his power in the Western Mediterranean. 

In this interpretation of the plot - Hanzerich orders his African assistants to seize the Dowager Empress Eudoxia and her daughters - speaks of the artist's acquaintance with Nikolai Gogol's article "On the Movement of Nations at the End of the 5th Century", which was part of the writer's collection "Arabesques" (1835). In the depths - a group of vandals is dragging as a trophy a seven-branched candlestick from the Jerusalem temple, taken out in 70 during the sack of the city by the Romans. On the right is a man dressed as a priest, possibly Pope Leo I the Great. Bryullov conceived the painting back in Italy, but he painted the sketch by order of A.A. Perovsky (writer Anthony Pogorelsky) already in Moscow, where A.S. Pushkin. The poet wrote to his wife: "... Perovsky showed me the Taking of Rome by Genseric (which is worth the Last Day of Pompeii), saying: ... How could he, this pig, express his canal, brilliant thought, he is a scoundrel, a beast. ... Scream". More on this painting

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

Siege of Pskov by the Polish king Stephen Bathory in 1581, c. 1843

Oil on canvas

482 x 675 cm

Russian Museum

The siege of Pskov, known as the Pskov Defense in Russia, took place between August 1581 and February 1582, when the army of the Polish king and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stephen Báthory laid an unsuccessful siege and successful blockade of the city of Pskov during the final stage of the Livonian War of 1558–1583. 

The Pskovian garrison undertook frequent sallies. There were 31 attacks by Polish troops during the five-month siege. The siege dragged on, with neither side able to end it; in the meantime diplomatic negotiations, in which the Vatican became involved, led to the end of hostilities. More on Siege of Pskov

Soon after his arrival in the capital of Russia, Bryullov started the Siege of Pskov commissioned by Nicholas I. The work on the picture lasted for many years. But in 1843 he abandoned the painting never to return to it. The failure may partly be accounted for by the general crisis of Russian historical painting, and to the end of his life Bryullov never worked with historical subjects. More on this painting

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

The Last Day of Pompeii, c. (1830 - 1833)

Oil on canvas

Height: 456.5 cm (14.9 ft); Width: 651 cm (21.3 ft)

Russian Museum

The picture shows the  eruption of Vesuvius on August 24, 79 AD . A visit by the painter to Pompeii in 1827 is clearly documented. He was so impressed by the Via dei Sepolcri that he decided to capture the events in a painting. Letters suggest that Brjullow had read Pliny the Younger's eyewitness account and used it as a model for the painting.

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

A Turkish Girl

Oil on canvas

79.8 x 66.2

State Tretyakov Gallery

In 1835 Bryullov took part in the "artistic and literary expedition" organized by Count V.P. Orlov-Davydov to the Ionian Islands and Asia Minor, but in Athens he fell ill and was forced to go to Constantinople, and from there to Russia. The artist stayed in Turkey for more than three months. The works of this period are distinguished by the vitality of the episodes, the accuracy of the characteristics, the gentle humor, the subtle perception of the national flavor. In the works performed upon his return to Russia, among them "The Turkish Woman", and painted according to old impressions, oriental exoticism comes to the fore. A young woman languidly, relaxed reclining on the sofa, motley embroidered clothes set off her "non-European" beauty. The glowing background sharpens the feeling of bliss and sensuality that fills the picture. More on this painting

His best-known work, The Last Day of Pompeii (1830–1833) (See above), is a vast composition compared by Pushkin and Gogol to the best works of Rubens and Van Dyck. It created a sensation in Italy and established Bryullov as one of the finest European painters of his day. After completing this work, he triumphantly returned to the Russian capital, where he made many friends among the aristocracy and intellectual elite and obtained a high post in the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

Bathsheba

Oil on canvas

126.5 x 175 

State Tretyakov Gallery

The plot is borrowed from the 2nd Book of Kings of the Old Testament . Bathsheba is the wife of the commander Uriah, who served King David. David saw Bathsheba while bathing and ordered to send Uriah to certain death, after which he took Bathsheba to his palace. As a punishment for this sin, David's firstborn died on the seventh day. Bryullov is interested not so much in the plot as in the ancient oriental culture, its spicy beauty. The motif - a naked body illuminated by the sun - allowed the artist to show off his decorative gift. The heroine's face remains in shadow, but the silhouette is highlighted, which creates the feeling of living flesh; colored reflections are scattered here and there on the canvas. The marble whiteness of the skin is set off by the figure of a black servant. More on this painting

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

St. Alexandra, c. 1845

 Holy Queen Alexandra, Ascended to Heaven

Oil on canvas

State Museum-Reserve Tsarskoe Selo, Pushkin

Saint Alexandra was the reputed wife of Emperor Diocletian and secretly converted to Christianity. Jacobus de Voragine listing her name as “Alexandria” describes her as the wife of Dacian, the Roman Prefect who persecuted Saint Caprasius of Agen and Saint Maginus. While Saint George was being tortured, Alexandra went to the arena, bowed before him, and professed her faith openly. When she questioned whether she was worthy of paradise and martyrdom without being baptized, Saint George told her, “Do not fear, for your blood will baptize you.” She was denounced as a Christian and imprisoned on her husband's orders in Nicomedia, then sentenced to death.

Her husband was so outraged by her conversion that he is said to have uttered, “What! Even thou hast fallen under their spell!”. Alexandra quietly accepted her sentence and prayed as the guards walked her to the place of execution. She asked if she could rest for a moment. The guards allowed this. She rested by the place of Saint George's execution at Nicomedia's City Wall. More on St. Alexandra

Karl Bryullov  (1799–1852)

 Nuns of the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Rome, singing at the organ, c.  1849  

Oil on canvas

I have no further description, at this time

While teaching at the academy (1836–1848) he developed a portrait style which combined a neoclassical simplicity with a romantic tendency that fused well, and his penchant for realism was satisfied with an intriguing level of psychological penetration. While he was working on the ceiling of St Isaac's Cathedral, his health suddenly deteriorated. Following advice of his doctors, Bryullov left Russia for Madeira in 1849 and spent the last three years of his life in Italy. He died in the village of Manziana near Rome and is buried at the Cimitero Acattolico there. More on Karl Bryullov

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