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Another romantic painter who chose his own
way and made an important step towards realism was Vasilii Andreyevich
Tropinin, 1780-1857. He was born a serf, and as a boy he was among those whom
the master gave as part of the dowry to his son-in-law. The beautiful designs
of the young Tropinin attracted the attention of his new master, Count I.
Morkov, who decided to send him to St. Petersburg for schooling. At the Academy
he worked under Shchukin and was there at the same time as Kiprenskii, whom he
must have known. After graduating, Tropinin had to return to his master; this
was the law of the country, and for many more years he worked for Markov,
mostly as administrator of his property, and tutor to his children. In his free
time he designed or painted, mostly depicting his fellow peasants from the same
village. Finally, already in his forties, Tropinin was granted his freedom. A
year later he was already an academician and a portrait painter, solicited even
by the nobility.
Tropinin's work is less powerful and less romantic but more realistic than that
of Kiprenskii. Simplicity, confidence and faithfulness to nature are his other
characteristics. His best works were painted while he was still a serf, such as
"The Old Coachman", "The Old Beggar with a Stick",
"The Lace Maker", "The Old Woman
with a Hen", the portrait of his son, who was also a painter, and several
other portraits of peasant women, a series of Ukrainian types. Idyllic
simplicity mixed with kindheartedness and openness are seen in the expressions
on their faces. When he was an academician, his clientele changed to rich
merchant women and aristocrats, including S. M. Golitsin, State Councelor and
member of the famous Golitsin family. His self-portrait, painted in 1844, shows
a solid gentleman who could be easily taken for a west-European painter if it
were not the Kremlin that had served for the background. Here is his "krushevnitsa"
This is his portrait of Bulakhov.
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