Background

Ethnicity: Karl Bryullov's parents were of French origin; they descended from the Huguenots.

Bryullov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on December 12, 1799, in the family of the academician, woodcarver, and engraver Pavel Ivanovich Briullo (Brulleau). Not only his father but also his great grandfather, grandfather, and two elder brothers, Fyodor and Aleksandr, were all artists.

Education

Karl Bryullov's first teacher of painting was his father. From 1809 till 1821 Bryullov studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts (today the Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture) under the direction of such artists as Aleksey Yegorov, Andrey Ivanov, and Vasily Shebuev. With his outstanding talent, Karl advanced much faster than his fellow students.

During that period of time, education at the Academy was based on the principles of Classicism, and Karl Bryullov's early artworks reflected them clearly. Despite stylistic constraints, art education in Russia was excellent in quality. Its goal was to teach the artist to think philosophically, historically, ethically and morally. Drawing was Bryullov's speciality there. When Bryullov painted something demanding encyclopedic knowledge and compositional skill, he worked playfully and with ease.

In 1821 Karl Bryullov graduated with honours from the academy. He received the 1st-degree diploma and the First Gold Medal.

Career

In the summer of 1822 Bryullov accompanied by his brothers went to Italy. This journey took them almost a year and they travelled through Germany, Austria, Venice and Florence, eventually arriving in Rome. On the way, they devoted much time studying contemporary European art and architecture and also visiting museums.

At first, they didn't accept the aesthetics of Classicism, be it Italian primitives, Durer, Correggio, Holbein, or artworks by the artists of the contemporary German Romanticism. However, little by little they began to appreciate paintings of the schools other than those of Classicism. After this journey, Karl Bryullov came closer to the principles of Romanticism that dominated European painting of the time.

In Rome Karl Bryullov plunged into work, studying the art of ancient Italy, producing copies from the antique in the museums, and making a lot of drawings in the streets of the EternalCity. Concurrently, he painted portraits and began an extensive series of genre scenes from every-day life in Rome. The most important among the genre paintings of the period was his Midday (1827).

In 1827 Bryullov visited the excavation site of Pompeii, a town in southern Italy destroyed and buried under a layer of ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD. The artist was greatly impressed when he saw the ancient town, perfectly preserved under the ash. Six years later, Bryullov's huge 24 square meters (456.5cm x 651cm) canvas known as The Last Day of Pompeii appeared, on which he was working for three years.

In Italy, Bryullov produced some 120 portraits in various techniques. Among them are the portraits of the Russians residing in Italy, including painters, writers, sculptors, and aristocracy, for instance, he painted the family of the Russian envoy Prince Gagarin, Princess Z. Volkonskaya, Yulia Samoilova, Bryullov’s brother Alexander, and also singers D. Pasta and F. Persiani, Italian authors and statesmen, F. Guerazzi and G. Capecalatro, sculptor C. Baruzzi, among others. Though different in characters, the portraits have a lot in common. They all show people at a moment of highest spiritual elevation. From 1824 to 1828, the artist was copying the School of Athens, a huge fresco by Raphael.

Karl Bryullov returned to Russia at the end of 1835. On his way to Saint Petersburg, he spent about six months in Moscow. There Bryullov painted several portraits, including those of the writer Perovsky, actress Semionova, and poet and playwright Alexey Tolstoy. In the city, he met many painters, poets, and actors, in particular, the best portrait-painter in Moscow, Vasily Tropinin and the great poet Alexander Pushkin, with whom Bryullov very soon became friends.

Soon after his arrival in Moscow, Bryullov started his work on the Siege of Pskov, which was commissioned by Nicholas I. He was working on it for many years. Eventually, in 1843 he abandoned the painting never to return to it. Meanwhile, he worked on other commissions, for example, he created the portrait of Nestor Kukolnik in 1836; his first attempt at painting a psychological portrait.

By the late 1840s, Bryullov's health deteriorated due to his unrestrained lifestyle, unhappy marriage and his hard work. Following his doctors’ advice, Karl Bryullov went to Madeira to improve his health. On his way, he visited Belgium, England, and Portugal. During the year of recuperation on Madeira the artist worked hard, creating a number of portraits and gorgeous watercolours. His supreme achievement in this field is undoubtedly his self-portrait completed in 1848 after a long and severe illness.

His last two years were spent in Rome with the family of Garibaldi's partisan Angelo Tittoni, with whom he was very close. He created several remarkable pieces during those years, including portraits of the Tittonis.

Achievements

• Karl Bryullov was an outstanding representative of the academic style, which was combined with Romanticism. His enormous (6 m wide) melodramatic composition brought him European fame and inspired Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel The Last Days of Pompeii (1834).
  
  Bryullov's great achievements were also the portraits of G. Gagarin, A. Lvov, his brother Alexander, and a series of self-portraits, that brought him international acclaim. He was the first Russian artist of pan-European dimensions possessing a mastership that amazed his contemporaries. Bryullov has consistently been praised as an outstanding master.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Rider

    (Portrait of Giovanina and Amacilia Pacini, the Foster Chi...)

  • Promenade.

    (Portrait of the Duke of Leuchtenberg, E. Mussart, Ye. I. ...)

  • Portrait of Count A. A. Perovsky

    (The Writer Anton Pogorelsky.)

  • Child in a Swimming Pool

    (Portrait of Prince A. G. Gagarin in Childhood.)

  • Siege of Pskov by Polish King Stefan Batory in 1581

  • Male Portrait

  • Portrait of the Artist Prince G. G. Gagarin

  • Girl Gathering Grapes in a Suburb of Naples

  • Bathsheba

  • Italian, Expecting a Child, Looking at His Shirt, Her Husband Cobble Together a Cradle

  • Portrait of Teresa Michele Tittoni with Sons

  • Innocence, leaving the Earth

  • Portrait of Maria Kikina as a Child

  • Self-Portrait

  • Portrait of I. A. Krylov

  • Portrait of the Professor of the Moscow Medical Academy K. A. Janish

  • Temple of Apollo in Phigalia

  • The Last Day of Pompeii

  • Portrait of the Secretary of State Piotr Kikin

  • The head of Bacchus

  • Kleobis and Biton

  • In a Harem. "By Allah's Order Underwear Should Be Changed Once a Year"

  • Portrait of S. A. Schubert

  • Italian Woman with a Child by a Window

  • Portrait of P. A. Chikhachev

  • Forced to Swim

  • At noon

  • Portrait of F. D. Gverazzi

  • Hylas, Carried Along by the Nymphs in Water

  • An Interrupted Date

  • In a Harem. "By Allah's Order Underwear Should Be Changed Once a Year"

  • Portrait of the Shishmariov Sisters

  • The road in the Sinai after the storm

  • Portrait of the Italian Singer Fanny Persiani-Tacinardi

  • Portrait of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna

  • Dreams of Grandmother and Granddaughter

  • Portrait of P. V. Basin

  • The Model

  • Portrait of Volkonskis Children with Blackamoor

  • Portrait of S. G. Likhonin

  • Portrait of Baroness I. I. Klodt

  • Portrait of an unknown

  • Portrait of Ye. Mussart and E. Mussart

  • Portrait of V. A. Perovsky

  • Silen, Satyr and Bacchanals

  • Portrait of S. A. Bobrinsky

  • Portrait of Angelo Tittoni

  • At the Mother of God Oak

  • Portrait of the Architect and Painter Alexander Brulloff

  • An Interrupted Date

  • Greek lying on a rock

  • Portrait of the Singer Pauline Viardot Garcia

  • Portrait of M. A. Kikina

  • Portrait of Mariano Tittoni

  • Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna

  • Italian Woman Lightning a Lamp in front of the Image of Madonna

  • Sophia Bobrinskaya

  • Siege of Pskov by Polish King Stefan Batory in 1581

  • Portrait of V. A. Kornilov on Board the Brig Themistocles

  • Ivan Riboper

  • Portrait of a Musician M. Vielgorsky

  • Self-portrait

  • The Narcissus

  • Portrait of an Unknown Woman in a Turban

  • Portrait of Countess O. I. Orlova-Davydova and Her Daughter

  • Portrait of Aurora Demidova

  • Portrait of Maria Kikina as a Child

  • The Nymph

  • Genserich's Invasion of Rome

  • Lazzaroni and Children

  • Portrait of Ye. I. Durnova

  • Portrait of M. A. Beck and Her Daughter M.I. Beck

  • Confession of an Italian Woman

  • A Turkish Girl

  • Portrait of the architect A. Bolotov

  • A Merry Return

  • Portrait of the Actor A. N. Ramazanov

  • Portrait of O. P. Ferzen on a Donkeyback

  • Portrait of U. M. Smirnova

  • V. A. Musin-Pushkin

  • The Judas kiss

  • Portrait of A. N. Lvov

  • Death of Inessa de Castro, Morganatic Wife of Portuguese Infant Don Pedro

  • Portrait of Julia Samoylova with Giovannina Pacini and black boy

  • Fountain in Bakhchi-Sarai

  • Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis

  • Self-portrait with Baroness Ye. N. Meller-Zakomelskaya and a Girl in a Boat

  • Self-portrait

  • Portrait of S. A. Sobolevsky

  • Portrait of I. A. Beck

  • The Last Day of Pompeii

  • Portrait of an Architect I.A. Monighetti

  • Sweet Waters Near Constantinople

  • Portrait of Princess Z. A. Volkonskaya

  • Walk of Louis XV in Childhood

  • Voltigeur

  • Pifferary in front of Madonna

  • Portrait of a member of the State Council of the book A. N. Holytsyna

  • Girl in a Forest

  • A Dream of a Girl Before a Sunrise

  • Greek Morning in Myraca

  • Portrait of the Poet and Playwright Nestor Kukolnic

  • Participants of the expedition to Mount Vesuvius

  • Italian Woman Blowing a Kiss

  • Bivouac on a Crater, Vesuvius

  • Delphi Valley

  • Portrait of a Man from the Tittoni's family

  • Head of an Abbot

  • Portrait of Singer A. Ya. Petrova

  • Portrait of Ya. F. Yanenko with Armour

  • Head a girl

  • Portrait of Count V. A. Perovsky

  • Portrait of the Poet and Playwright Alexey Tolstoy as a Youth

  • Portrait of Francesco Ascani

  • Portrait of Vincenzo Tittoni

  • Portrait of Catherine Tittoni

  • Nun's Dream

  • Portrait of Antonio Tittoni

  • Alexander Ribeaupierre

  • Portrait of V. V. Samoilov

  • Portrait of F. F. Golytzin

  • Portrait of M. A. Beck

  • Portrait of A. N. Demidov, Prince of San-Donato

  • Pheb in His Chariot

  • Portrait of Zavyalov Fedor

  • Political Demonstration in Rome in 1846

  • Portrait of the Poet and Translator A. N. Strugovshchikov

  • Portrait of Count C. A. Pozzo di Borgo

  • Plafond

  • Portrait of the Archeologist Michelangelo Lanci

  • Italian Midday

  • Village of San Rocco near the Town of Corfu

  • Portrait of the Military and His Servant

  • Delphi Valley

  • Portrait of P. Sokolova, the artist's sister

  • Portrait of M. A. Obolensky

  • Sleeping Juno

  • Self-Portrait

  • Portrait of V. A. Zhukovsky

  • Portrait of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna and Her Daughter Maria

  • Portrait of G. N. and V. A. Olenin

  • Portrait of an Architect M.O. Lopyrevskiy

  • Vespers

  • Portrait of a Young Woman Embroidering

  • Satyr and Bacchante (Bacchanalia)

  • Portrait of the Actress Juditta Pasta as Anne Boleyn

  • Anatole Demidov

  • Ruins in Park

  • Scene at the Entrance of a Cathedral

  • The Last Day of Pompeii

  • Mother Awoken by Her Crying Child

  • Portrait of Archbishop Giuseppe Capecalatro

  • M.P. Volkonskaia

  • Portrait of Captain A. M. Kostinich

  • Portrait of Sculptor I. P. Vitaly

  • Pilgrims at the Entrance of the Lateran Basilica

  • Aleksandr Turgenev

  • Cliffs and Moon at Night

  • Nuns Convent of the Sacred Heart in Rome

  • Portrait of the Artist Sylvester Shchedrin

  • Portrait of Princess A. A. Bagration

  • Wounded Greek, falling from a horse

  • Portrait of the Architect K. A. Ton

  • Italian Morning

  • Portrait of A. A. Abaz

  • Diana, Endymion and Satyr

  • Ascension Baron Shieling

  • Self-portrait

  • Mark the Evangelist

  • Portrait of Alexander Bruloff

  • Hylas and the Nymphs

  • Self-portrait

  • St. Alexandra

  • Erminia and the Shepherds

  • Portrait of a Greek insurgent Theodore Kolokotroni

  • Portrait of Alexander Bruloff

  • Stroll at Albano

  • Portrait of Princess Ye. P. Saltykova

  • Profile of Glinka

  • Genius of Art

  • In a Harem. "By Allah's Order Underwear Should Be Changed Once a Year"

  • Juliet Tittoni as Jeanna D'Ark

  • Portrait of K. A. and M. Ya. Narishkin

  • Mountain hunters

  • Portrait of F.A. Bruni

  • Harbour in Constantinople

  • Hope feeding love

  • Portrait of the architect A. Gornostaev

  • Portrait of Ye. I. Ton

  • Portrait of Princess Ye. P. Saltykova

  • Portrait of Countess Yu. P. Samoilova and Her Ward Amacilia Pacini Leaving a Ball

  • Flying Angel Mourning Victims of the Inquisition

  • Grape Harvest Celebration

  • The Last Day of Pompeii

  • Svetlana Guessing on Her Future

  • Portrait of V. A. Perovsky on column capitals

Views

Bryullov realized the necessity of democratic and true-to-life art, the idea that was current in the Russian society at the time. Bryullov understood that without associating with the “way of thinking and feeling” of the nation a talent, great as it may be, would be result in nothing.

Personality

Karl Bryullov was named Charles Bruleau until 1822.

Bryullov was a victor, a romantic personality as well as an irresistible celebrity.

Physical Characteristics: Bryullov was described by his contemporaries as "a shortish man with plump little hands, delicate little legs and an antique head as beautiful as that of Apollo of Belvedere, his high lion’s forehead is crowned with free golden curls, the eyes radiate inspiration, wit, genius, and thought."

Interests

• Artists

  Raphael

Connections

Countess Julia Samoilova was Karl Bryullov's sitter, friend and the only woman he loved. The two had an illicit romance, but they never married. Later on, the artist married to another woman and they gave birth to one child.

Father:

Pavel Ivanovich Briullo

Brother:

Fyodor Bryullov

Brother:

Aleksandr Bryullov

Friend:

Julia Samoilova

References

• Karl Bryullov: Selected Paintings Book by Sevdalina Georgieva. Volume 19.
  2017
• 194 Color Paintings of Karl Bryullov Karl Bryullov book includes 194 high quality reproductions of his greatest masterpieces with title and date.
  2013