In the heart of Russian artist culture, the teenaged boy secretly slipped into free drawing classes at the Imperial Academy of Art (a ruse that would have been impossible in America). In 1799, at the age of twenty-three, his owner allowed Tropinin to attend classes at the Academy as a non-degree student.
In the heart of Russian artist culture, the teenaged boy secretly slipped into free drawing classes at the Imperial Academy of Art (a ruse that would have been impossible in America). In 1799, at the age of twenty-three, his owner allowed Tropinin to attend classes at the Academy as a non-degree student.
Vasily Andreevich Tropinin was a Russian Romantic painter. Much of his life was spent as a serf; he didn't attain his freedom until he was more than forty years old.
Background
Vasily Tropinin was born in 1776 as a Russian serf. He grew up in the small village of Korpovo of the Novgorod guberniya, an area in northwest Russia slightly southeast of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The Munnich family which owned Tropinin's family, gave him as part of their daughter's dowry to the Morkov family. They apparently recognized his nascent talent and intelligence sufficient to send him to St. Petersburg to learn the trade as a confectioner (a maker of cakes, cookies, candy, and the like).
Education
In the heart of Russian artist culture, the teenaged boy secretly slipped into free drawing classes at the Imperial Academy of Art (a ruse that would have been impossible in America). In 1799, at the age of twenty-three, his owner allowed Tropinin to attend classes at the Academy as a non-degree student.
In 1804 Tropinin's “Boy Grieving for a Dead Bird” was exhibited in the Annual Academy of Arts exhibition where it caught the eye of a Russian Empress. The President of the Academy tried to intercede on behalf of Tropinin to get him freedom. However, Count Morkov, his owner, afraid of losing such a valuable possession, instead recalled his artist from St. Petersburg to his Ukrainian estate. There Tropinin was crudely reminded that he was only a slave.
Vasily was ordered to copy the works of European and Russian painters and produce portraits of the Morkovs. During the following years in the Ukraine, Tropinin continued to study art. He created a broad variety of portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings. The most notable works of this period are a portrait of his wife from 1809, and “Head of a Boy”, a tender, loving portrait of his son from about 1818, as well as a second one done two years later in 1820.
As a result of continuous urgings from his friends, in 1823, at the age of 47, Tropinin was finally given his freedom. He immediately moved to Moscow where he set up a portrait studio. The same year he presented his painting, “The Lace Maker”, and two other works to the Imperial Academy of Arts, whereupon he received the official certificate of a painter.
The following year Tropinin was elected an Academician, which meant he could then teach painting at an academic level. One of Tropinin's most famous portraits, that of the famed Russian poet, playwright, and novelist Alexander Pushkin derived from this period. Starting in 1833 Tropinin taught Public Art Classes which later became the famous Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He taught there until his death in 1857. During his lifetime he painted over three-thousand portraits.
For him, art was uplifting in a literal sense. His “Boy with a Dead Goldfinch”, from 1829, is not literally a self-portrait, but captures in many ways the dreamlike determination that allowed him, through his art, to lift himself from abject slavery to freedom, and eventually, some degree of wealth and acclaim as a portrait artist.
Quotations:
"I studied little... at the Academy, but I learned... in Malorossia. There I painted from nature without rest, painted everything and everyone and these works, it seems, are the best of all of those created by me thus far."
Membership
In 1843 Vasily was elected an honorary member of the Moscow Art Society.