Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky was a prominent Russian portraitist. His art may be regarded as the last phase in the XVIII century traditions of Russian portraiture. He was born in a small Ukrainian town, Mirgorod, into the family of Ukrainian Cossacks. His father, Luka Borovik, and his two brothers were icon-painters. Borovikovsky also started as an icon-painter for local churches. In 1787 he drew two pictures for the house in which Empress Catherine II the Great was staying during her visit to Ukraine. His work was noted and he was sent to St. Petersburg to become one of the court painters.
Borovikovsky was too old
to enter the Academy of Arts and he became a pupil of the Austrian painter
I.-B.
Lampi, who was working at the Russian court at the time. Also he was
supported and greatly advised by Russian artist Dmitry
Levitzky. In 1795 he was appointed an Academician. He became a very
popular portrait-painter and created about 500 portraits during his lifetime.
The most notable are
Portrait of Catherine
II, Empress of Russia (1794), Portrait
of E. N. Arsenyeva (1796), Portrait
of M. I. Lopukhina (1797), Portrait
of F. A. Borovsky (1799), Portrait
of Paul I, Emperor of Russia (1800), Portrait
of Prince A. B. Kurakin (1801-1802), Portrait
of Princess A. G. Gagarina and Princess V. G. Gagarina (1802).
Murtaza-Kuli-Khan (d. 1800)
brother of the Shah of Persia Aga-Magomet, was banished from his country
by his brother and lived in Russia in 1795-1800.
See: Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait
of Murtaza-Kuli-Khan.
Ekaterina Nikolayevna Davydova (1757-1825)
mother of Nicholas Rayevsky Sr., hero of the Napoleonic Wars, and grand-mother
of Nicholas Rayevsky Jr.
See: Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait
of E. N. Davydova.
Paul I, Emperor of Russia (1754-1801), son
of Catherine II and Peter III, he succeeded
his mother in 1796. His father's murder and his mother's neglect had exerted
a baneful influence on his character. After ascension he soon revealed
his violent temper and lack of capacity and irritated his subjects by vexatious
regulations. He was murdered, as a result of a conspiracy, by his own officers.
See: Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait
of Paul I, Emperor of Russia. Portrait
of Paul I, Emperor of Russia.
Fedor Rokotov. Portrait
of Emperor Paul I as a Child.
Dmitry Prokofyevich Troschinsky (1754-1829)
Russian statesman, was of low origin, but being a person of great abilities,
he carried high offices during the reigns of three Russian Emperors.
See: Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait
of D. P. Troschinsky.
F. A. Borovsky, Russian soldier, was in
military service in the 1760s-1790s and took part in all the campaigns,
which were done during this period, serving under Suvorov and Rumyantzev.
See: Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait
of F. A. Borovsky.
Count Peter Alexandrovich Tolstoy (1769-1844),
Russian soldier and statesman, was in active military service since early
youth, he took part in several campaigns, was praised by Suvorov for his
bravery in 1794. He also went on several diplomatic missions, being a Russian
Ambassador at the Napoleonic court in 1807-1808. He fought Napoleon during
the war with France in 1812-1814. Later Tolstoy took part in the Turkish
war in 1829 and other campaigns.
See: Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait
of Count P. A. Tolstoy.
Anne Louise Germaine Necker, Madame de Stael
(1766-1817),
French writer, was the only child of the financier and statesman Jacques
Necker. She married Baron of Stael-Holstein in 1786, the Swedish Ambassador
in Paris. The marriage was unhappy, although they had a son and two daughters.
She had many love affairs, her brilliant salon became the center of political
discussions, but with the Revolution and her father's fall she felt compelled
to leave Paris. She returned to Paris in 1795, 1797 and 1802. In 1803 she
was ordered by Napoleon to keep 40 leagues away from Paris and she left
France for 10 years of exile. She lived in Germany, in England and in Russia.
In 1814, she returned on invitation of Louis XVIII. Her main works are
Literature
et ses rapports avec les institutions sociales (1800),
Delphine
(1802), Corinne (1807), De l' Allemagne (1810). After her
death, her son and daughters published her unfinished Considerations
sur la Revolution francaise (1818) and Dix Annees d'exil (1821).
See: Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait
of M-me de Stael.
Sofia Alekseevna Rayevskaya (1769-1844)
was a grand-daughter of the great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov,
a wife of the Napoleon Wars hero Nicholas Rayevsky Sr. and mother of Nicholas
Rayevsky Jr.
See: Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait
of S. A. Rayevskaya.
Karadjordge (Djorje Petrovic or, "Black
George") (1752-1817), the leader of Serbs, founder of the ruling dynasty
of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He was a pig-dealer, who became the leader of
the first Serb Rebellion against Turkish overlords (1804-1813), since 1808
- a supreme leader of Serbia. After the defeat of the rebellion, he was
in exile in Austria and Russia. In 1817, after his secret return, he was
killed in Serbia.
See: Vladimir Borovikovsky. Portrait
of Karadjordge.
Bibliography:
Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky. By K. Mikhailova. Leningrad. 1968.
(in Russian)
Vladimir Borovikovsky and Russian Culture. Late 18th – early 19th
centuries. by T. Alexeeva. Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1975. (in Russian)