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The Making of an Artist as National Hero: The Great Karl Briullov and His Critical Fortunes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2018

Katia Dianina
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Abstract

This article examines the uneven reception of the famous Russian artist Karl Briullov and problematizes the canonization of the classics in imperial society. Drawing on contemporary literary and artistic sources, broadly available at the time but largely forgotten in the years since, I argue that Briullov's status as a cultural icon grew out of the wide-ranging controversy that followed the artist throughout the decades. Now feted as the national genius, now dismissed as a fraud, Briullov became part of the popular imagination as a complicated character of sundry written texts, a literary figment more than a historical person. The discursive aspect of this cultural scenario was crucial in fashioning the image of the artist as national hero: Briullov's canonization was propelled by the written word more than pictorial imagery. Moreover, in a peculiar Russian twist, it was Briullov's association with the great poet Aleksandr Pushkin that advanced the artist's reputation decisively.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 77 , Issue 1 , Spring 2018 , pp. 122 - 150
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Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 2018 

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References

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76. “K 70-letiiu dnia rozhdeniia I. E. Repina,” Niva, no. 29 (1914): 561–77Google Scholar. Young Kornei Chukovskii, who had been Repin’s friend and neighbor in Kuokkala since 1907, took an active interest in preparing this special issue, as well as the volume of Repin’s reminiscences, Dalekoe blizkoe. Chukovskii also participated in another commemorative publication in conjunction with Repin’s 70th anniversary—a special Repin album, which was issued as a supplement to the journal Solntse Rossii in 1914.

77. According to some sources, Briullov’s drawing, rarely reproduced, is presently at the Kirov Art Museum. See: Gavrilova, E. M., “Pushkin i Karl Briullov,” in Alekseev, M. P., ed., Vremennik Pushkinskoi komissii (Leningrad, 1972), 54Google Scholar. According to others, the original has been lost, and what has been reproduced in several editions of Briullov’s works is a copy. See analysis by RusKul΄turEkspertiza, an independent research institute specializing in the evaluation and attribution of historical objects of art at http://rosculturexpertiza.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=124%3Aproblemexperiza&catid=37%3Aexpertise&Itemid=58&lang=ru (last accessed February 12, 2018).

78. Mokritskii, “Vospominanie o Briullove,” 145–84, esp. 165–66.

79. See Repin’s letter to Lerner from February 18, 1912: I. Repin, in his Izbrannye pis΄ma v dvukh tomakh, 1867–1930, ed. Brodskii, I. A., 2 vols. (Moscow, 1969), 2:287–88Google Scholar. Repin himself was uncertain about the location of the second sketch. See: Golubev, V., Pushkin v izobrazhenii Repina (Moscow, 1936), 98–99Google Scholar. The sketch published in Niva, dated 1912, is presently at the Pushkin Museum in St. Petersburg.

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93. Gracheva, I. V., “Poet i khudozhnik: Pushkin i Briullov,” Literatura v shkole, no. 2 (1999): 11–18Google Scholar; Diana Klochko, “Velikii Karl, proigravshii svoe vremia,” Den΄, December 23, 1999, http://day.kyiv.ua/ru/article/kultura/segodnya-ispolnyaetsya-200-let-so-dnya-rozhdeniya-velikogo-russkogo-zhivopisca-karla (last accessed January 11, 2018).

94. Nadezhda Prokazina, “Akademiia i salon,” Nezavisimaia gazeta, December 16, 1999, http://www.ng.ru/culture/1999-12-16/7_academy.html (accessed January 15, 2017).

95. Boris Sadovskii, “I. E. Repinu,” http://www.sadovskoi.ru/poems/repinu.html (last access January 11, 2018)

96. The announcement of Pushkin’s death was published in Literary Supplement to the newspaper Russkii invalid. See: Literaturnye pribavleniia, no. 5 (January 30, 1837).

97. Ekaterina Degot΄, “On byl naznachen na post Solntsa russkoi zhivopisi,” Gazeta Kommersant”, no. 146 (August 6, 1994); http://kommersant.ru/doc/86017 (last accessed January 11, 2018).

98. Between 1891 and 2011, more than seventy of Repin’s exhibitions opened in the country. Churak, Galina, “The Contemporary Reception of Ilia Repin’s Solo Exhibition of 1891,” in Blakesley, Rosalind P. and Samu, Margaret, eds., From Realism to the Silver Age: New Studies in Russian Artistic Culture (DeKalb, 2014), 120Google Scholar.

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100. “Na Madeire otkryt pamiatnik Karlu Briullovu,” Fond podderzhki i zashchity prav sootechestvennikov prozhivaiushchikh za rubezhom, (August 30, 2013) http://pravfond.ru/?module=articles&action=view&id=278 (last accessed January 11, 2018).

101. See, for instance, Moller-Salli, Stiven (Steven Moller-Sally), “‘Klassicheskoe nasledie’ v epokhu sotsrealizma, ili pokhozhdeniia Gogolia v strane bol΄shevikov,” in Günther, Hans and Dobrenko, E.A., eds., Sotsrealisticheskii kanon (St. Petersburg, 2000), 509–22Google Scholar.

102. Grabar΄, Igor΄, Repin, vol. 2 (Moscow, 1937), 213–15Google Scholar.

103. Grabar’, Igor’, “Mesto Repina v russkom i mirovom iskusstve,” Khudozhestvennoe nasledstvo 1(1948), 9Google Scholar.

104. Degot΄, “On byl naznachen na post Solntsa russkoi zhivopisi.”

105. See, for instance, Anton Chekhov’s letter to Modest Tchaikovskii, the younger brother of the composer. Chekhov, A. P., “M. I. Tchaikovskomu. 16 marta 1890, Moskva,” in his Sobranie sochinenii v dvenadtsati tomakh (Moscow, 1963), 11:404–405Google Scholar. An explicit pairing of Repin and Pushkin can be found in the recent popular volume devoted to the artist: El΄shevskaia, G. V., Il΄ia Repin (Moscow, 1996), 5Google Scholar.

106. Kudriashov, Konstantin, “Naravne s Tolstym: Khudozhnika Repina schitali podobnym Khristu,” Argumenty i fakty, no. 32 (August 6–12, 2014): 33Google Scholar. Curiously, the cover of this anniversary issue features a caricature of the EU leaders as barge haulers dragging the very heavy word “sanctions,” an all too obvious reference to Repin’s masterpiece.

107. Bobrikov, Aleksei, Drugaia istoriia russkogo iskusstva (Moscow, 2012), 430Google Scholar.

108. Elizabeth Kridle Valkenier pioneered this work in her Ilya Repin and the World of Russian Art; for details on Repin’s canonization as the father of socialist realism, see esp. 199–203. See also Degot΄.

109. Natalia Oss, “Stoiat΄ za svoe: Pochemu Serov sobral bol΄she liubykh mitingov,” lenta.ru (January 23, 2016), https://lenta.ru/columns/2016/01/23/serov/ (last accessed January 11, 2018).

110. Nataliia Solomatina, Oleg Antonov, “Znamenityi i neizvestnyi Karl Briullov,” Zhurnal “Tretiakovskaia galereia,” no. 2 (2013), http://www.tg-m.ru/articles/№2-2013-39/znamenityi-i-neizvestnyi-karl-bryullov (accessed March 3, 2017).

111. Liubov΄ Shirizhik, “Kartina maslom: Kak ‘Khristos vo grobe’ popal v muzei,” lenta.ru (May 3, 2016), https://lenta.ru/articles/2016/05/03/kartina/ (last accessed January 11, 2018). In the most recent development of this story, the Supreme Court decreed that the painting should be returned to its lawful owner. See: http://www.theartnewspaper.ru/posts/4638/ (last accessed January 11, 2018).