Visual arts have always been considered closely related to the mystical realm. After all, any image is an energy imprint of the original, especially when it comes to portraits. It is believed that they are able to influence not only those from whom they are written, but also other people. There is no need to look far for examples: let us turn to Russian painting of the 19th - early 20th centuries.
Delightful beauties, who stare at us from the canvases of great painters, will always remain just like that: young, charming and full of vitality. However, the true fate of beautiful models is not always as enviable as it might seem at first glance. It is very easy to see this in the example of the famous portrait of Maria Lopukhina, which came out from under the brush of Vladimir Borovikovsky.
Maria Lopukhina, descended from the count family of Tolstoy, immediately after her own wedding (she was 18 years old) posed for Vladimir Borovikovsky. The portrait was commissioned by her husband. At the time of writing, Maria looked just great. Her face radiated so much charm, spirituality and dreaminess ... There could be no doubt that a long and happy life awaited the charming model. An incomprehensible fact, but Mary died of consumption when she was only 23 years old.
Much later, the poet Polonsky wrote "Borovikovsky saved her beauty ...". However, immediately after the death of the young beauty, not everyone would share this opinion. After all, at that time there was talk in Moscow that it was the unfortunate portrait that was to blame for the death of Maria Lopukhina.
From this picture began to shy away, as if from a ghost. It was believed that if a young lady looked at her, she would soon die. According to some reports, a mysterious portrait killed about ten girls of marriageable age. It was said that Mary's father, a famous mystic, after his daughter died, lured her spirit into this canvas.
However, after almost a hundred years, Pavel Tretyakov was not afraid and acquired this visual image for his own gallery. After that, the picture "pacified". But what was it - empty gossip, a strange coincidence, or is there something more behind the mysterious phenomenon? Unfortunately, we will most likely never know the answer to this question.
It is unlikely that anyone will argue that Ilya Efimovich Repin is one of the greatest Russian painters. But there is one strange and tragic circumstance: many who had the honor of being his sitters died soon after. Among them are Mussorgsky, Pisemsky, Pirogov, Italian actor Mercy d'Argento. As soon as the artist took up the portrait of Fyodor Tyutchev, he also died. Of course, in all cases there were objective reasons for death, but here are the coincidences ... Even the hefty men who posed for Repin for the painting “Barge haulers on the Volga” are said to have prematurely given their souls to God.
"Barge haulers on the Volga", 1870-1873 However, the most terrible story happened with the painting "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581", which in our time is better known as "Ivan the Terrible kills his son." Even balanced people, when looking at the canvas, felt uneasy: the scene of the murder was written too realistically, there was too much blood on the canvas, which seems real.
The canvas exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery made a strange impression on visitors. Some sobbed in front of the picture, others fell into a stupor, the third had hysterical seizures. And on January 16, 1913, the young icon painter Abram Balashov cut the canvas with a knife. He was sent to a mental hospital, where he died. The canvas has been restored.
"Ivan the Terrible kills his son", 1883-1885 It is known that Repin thought for a long time before taking on a picture of Ivan the Terrible. And not in vain. The artist Myasoedov, from whom the image of the tsar was painted, soon, in anger, almost killed his young son, who was also called Ivan, like the murdered prince. The image of the latter was written from the writer Vsevolod Garshin, who later went crazy and committed suicide by throwing himself into a flight of stairs ...
The story that Ivan the Terrible is a son-killer is just a myth.
It is believed that Ivan the Terrible killed his son in a fit of anger with a blow of a staff to the temple. The reasons for different researchers are called different: from domestic quarrels to political friction. Meanwhile, none of the sources directly states that the prince and heir to the throne was killed by his own father!
The Piskarevsky Chronicler says: “At 12 midnight in the summer of November 7090, on the 17th day ... the repose of Tsarevich John Ioannovich.” The Novgorod Fourth Chronicle reports: “The same (7090) year, Tsarevich John Ioannovich reposed at Matins in Sloboda.” The cause of death is not named.
In the 60s of the last century, the graves of Ivan the Terrible and his son were opened. On the skull of the prince there were no injuries characteristic of a brain injury. Therefore, there was no sonicide? But where did the legend about him come from?
Antonio Possevino - representative of the Vatican in Russia during the times of Ivan the Terrible and the Great Troubles Its author is the Jesuit monk Anthony Possevin (Antonio Possevino), sent to Moscow as an ambassador from the Pope with a proposal for the Orthodox Church to come under the authority of the Vatican. The idea did not meet with the support of the Russian tsar. Possevin, meanwhile, allegedly became an eyewitness to a family scandal. The sovereign was angry with his pregnant daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Ivan, for "obscene appearance" - either she forgot to put on a belt, or she put on only one shirt, while it was supposed to wear four. In a temper, the father-in-law began to beat the unfortunate staff. The prince stood up for his wife: before that, the father had already sent his two first wives to the monastery, who could not conceive from him. John Jr. was not unreasonably afraid that he would lose the third - his father would simply kill her. He rushed at the priest, who, in a fit of violence, struck with his staff and pierced his son's temple. However, apart from Possevin, not a single source confirms this version, although later other historians, Staden and Karamzin, willingly picked it up.
During exhumation, remains of poisons were found in the bones of the prince. This may indicate that John the Younger died of poisoning (which is not uncommon for those times), and not at all from a blow with a hard object!
Nevertheless, in Repin's painting, we see precisely the version of sonicide. It is performed with such extraordinary plausibility that you involuntarily believe that everything actually happened. Hence, of course, the "deadly" energy.
Repin's self-portrait Once Repin was ordered a huge monumental painting "The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council." The painting was completed by the end of 1903. And in 1905, the first Russian revolution broke out, during which the heads of the officials depicted on the canvas flew. Some lost their posts and titles, others even paid with their lives: Minister V.K. Plehve and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the former governor-general of Moscow, were killed by terrorists.
In 1909, the artist, commissioned by the Saratov City Duma, painted a portrait. As soon as he finished the work, Stolypin was shot dead in Kyiv.
Who knows - maybe if Ilya Repin had not been so talented, tragedies might not have happened. Back in the 15th century, the scientist, philosopher, alchemist and magician Cornelius Agrippa Nettesheim wrote: "Beware of the painter's brush - his portrait may turn out to be more alive than the original."
P. A. Stolypin. Portrait by I. Repin (1910) The picture miraculously survived two periods of mass interest in itself, and in completely different eras. For the first time - after writing in 1883, it was considered the embodiment of aristocracy and was very popular with the sophisticated St. Petersburg public.
Unexpectedly, another surge of interest in the "Unknown" occurred already in the second half of the 20th century. The apartments were decorated with reproductions of Kramskoy's work cut out of magazines, and copies of The Unknown were one of the most popular commissions from artists of all levels. True, for some reason the picture was already known under the name "The Stranger", perhaps under the influence of the work of the same name by Blok. Even sweets "Stranger" were created with a picture of Kramskoy on the box. So the erroneous title of the work finally "came into life."
Long-term studies of "who is depicted in Kramskoy's painting" did not yield results. According to one version, the prototype of the "symbol of aristocracy" was a peasant woman named Matryona, who married the nobleman Bestuzhev.
At first glance, there is nothing mystical in the portrait: the beauty is driving along Nevsky Prospekt in an open carriage.
Many considered the heroine of Kramskoy an aristocrat, but a fashionable velvet coat trimmed with fur and blue satin ribbons and a stylish beret hat, coupled with darkened eyebrows, lipstick on her lips and a blush on her cheeks, betray her as a lady of the then demi-monde. Not a prostitute, but obviously the kept woman of some noble or rich person.
However, when the artist was asked if this woman exists in reality, he only grinned and shrugged his shoulders. In any case, no one has seen the original.
Meanwhile, Pavel Tretyakov refused to purchase a portrait for his gallery - perhaps he was afraid of the belief that portraits of beauties "suck strength" from living people.
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy "Stranger" began to travel to private collections. And very soon gained notoriety. Its first owner was abandoned by his wife, the house of the second burned down, the third went bankrupt. All these misfortunes were attributed to the fatal picture.
Kramskoy himself did not escape the curse. Less than a year after the creation of Unknown, two of his sons died one after the other.
The "damned" picture went abroad. They say that there she also caused all sorts of troubles to her owners. In 1925, "The Stranger" returned to Russia and yet took its place in the Tretyakov Gallery. Since then, no more incidents have occurred.
Maybe the whole point is that the portrait from the very beginning should have taken its rightful place?
"Unknown" is the most famous work of the artist Ivan Kramskoy. Having given the picture the name "Unknown", Kramskoy forever endowed his work with mystery and understatement.
The painting depicts a young woman driving in a carriage along the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg. The lady is dressed in the latest fashion: she is wearing a Francis hat trimmed with elegant light feathers, “Swedish” gloves made of the finest leather, a Skobelev coat decorated with sable fur and blue satin ribbons, a muff, a gold bracelet - all these are fashionable details of a women's costume from the 1880s, claiming expensive elegance. However, this did not mean belonging to the high society, rather the opposite - a code of unwritten rules ruled out strict adherence to fashion in the highest circles of Russian society.
Ivan Kramskoy, "Unknown", 1883, oil on canvas, 75.5 x 99, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Most likely, before us is the lady of the demimonde. Criticism called her “cocotte in a carriage”, “expensive camellia” and “one of the fiends of big cities”, since the woman’s features in the picture have some demonic character: she is strong-willed, but refined and sensual, with a deep and penetrating look.
The painting "Unknown" was painted in the style of realism and stands on the border of a portrait and a thematic painting. At the very first exhibition in which the picture participated, it was a huge success, and acquaintances tried to find out from Ivan Kramskoy who was depicted in the picture. Kramskoy declined to answer.
Ivan Kramskoy kept the secret of the identity of the "Unknown" to the end: he did not leave any information about who this woman was in any records.
There are several versions of who it is:
That the portrait was painted from Maria Yaroshenko - the wife of the artist Yaroshenko;
That the portrait is a collective image of a lady in the 1880s;
That this is the Georgian princess Varvara Turkestanishvili, who, allegedly, was the favorite of Alexander I and the maid of honor of Empress Maria Feodorovna;
What is this - a portrait of Ekaterina Dolgoruky, the Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya.
And the most common version - what is it Matryona Savvishna Bestuzheva, a former Kursk peasant woman who married Bestuzhev.
In particular, the Kursk Encyclopedia (compiled by Goizman Sh.R., Kursk, 2004-2016) contains the following information:
“In the 1870s, K. was friendly with the Bestuzhev family, in particular, with Matryona Savvishna Bestuzheva, which came from peasants with. Milenino Fatezhsky district. However, under pressure from his relatives, Bestuzhev annulled the marriage, and Matryona Savvishna decided to return home. When parting with her, K. agreed on a correspondence, but, without waiting for the letters, he went to Fatezh himself and learned the sad news: on the way M. S. Bestuzheva fell seriously ill and died in the Fatezh Zemstvo hospital. According to the order that existed in those years, only townspeople were buried in the city cemetery, therefore M.S. Bestuzhev buried in the cemetery of her native village. During his stay in Fatezh and in the village. Milenino K. made several portrait sketches of fatezhans and rural landscape sketches, which were later used to paint such famous paintings as "Woodsman" (1874, Tretyakov Gallery) and "Country Smithy", "A Man with a Bridle" (1883, Museum of Russian Art) , Kiev) and others. K. also painted a portrait M. S. Bestuzheva, which later became widely known under the name "Unknown" (1883, Tretyakov Gallery). This portrait (see illustration for the article) was painted by him under the influence of the story Matryona Savvishna about a chance meeting with his mother-in-law, a former lady of Fatezh, on one of the St. Petersburg streets.
Ivan Kramskoy, "Unknown. Etude”, 1883, Collection of Dr. Dushan Friedrich (Prague)
There is also a sketch of the "Unknown", it is in a private collection in Prague. In this version, arrogance, insolence, satiety are read in the eyes of a woman, which are not in the final version.
The painting "Unknown" by Ivan Kramskoy is part of the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery and is exhibited in the department at the address: Moscow, Lavrushinsky lane, 10, hall 20.
Picturesque study for the painting "Unknown", which is kept in Prague, in a private collection (1883).
This is perhaps the most famous work of Kramskoy, the most intriguing, which remains misunderstood and unsolved to this day. Calling his painting "Unknown", the clever Kramskoy fixed an aura of mystery forever behind it. Contemporaries were literally at a loss. Her image caused anxiety and anxiety, a vague premonition of a depressing and dubious new - the appearance of a type of woman who did not fit into the old system of values. “It is not known who this lady is, decent or corrupt, but a whole era sits in her,” some stated. Stasov loudly called Kramskoy's heroine "cocotte in a carriage." Tretyakov also confessed to Stasov that he liked Kramskoy's "former works" more than the last ones. There were critics who connected this image with Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, who descended from the height of her social position, with Fyodor Dostoevsky's Nastasya Filippovna, who rose above the position of a fallen woman, the names of the ladies of light and demi-light were also called. By the beginning of the 20th century, the scandalousness of the image was gradually covered by the romantic-mysterious aura of Blok's "The Stranger". In Soviet times, Kramskoy's "Unknown" became the embodiment of aristocracy and secular sophistication, almost like the Russian Sistine Madonna - the ideal of unearthly beauty and spirituality.
A pictorial study for the painting is kept in a private collection in Prague, convincing that Kramskoy was looking for the ambiguity of the artistic image. The etude is much simpler and sharper, the said and more definite than the picture. It shows the impudence and imperiousness of a woman, a feeling of emptiness and satiety, which are absent in the final version. In the painting "Unknown" Kramskoy is captivated by the sensual, almost teasing beauty of his heroine, her delicate dark skin, her velvet eyelashes, the slightly haughty squint of her brown eyes, her majestic posture. Like a queen, she rises above the foggy white cold city, driving in an open carriage along the Anichkov Bridge. Her attire - a Francis hat trimmed with elegant light feathers, "Swedish" gloves made of the finest leather, a Skobelev coat decorated with sable fur and blue satin ribbons, a clutch, a gold bracelet - all these are fashionable details of a women's costume of the 1880s. years, claiming expensive elegance. However, this did not mean belonging to the upper world; rather, on the contrary, a code of unwritten rules ruled out strict adherence to fashion in the highest circles of Russian society.
The refined sensual beauty, majesty and grace of the "Unknown", a certain aloofness and arrogance cannot hide the feeling of insecurity in the face of the world to which she belongs and on which she depends. With his painting, Kramskoy raises the question of the fate of beauty in imperfect reality.
The appearance of this painting by Kramskoy, in which we are accustomed to seeing the embodied image of femininity, at the 11th exhibition of the Society for Contemporary Art, was accompanied by almost a scandal. The author himself added fuel to the fire, calling it that way - “Unknown” (in the “everyday” consciousness, another name took root - “The Stranger”). It was as if he guessed a riddle, which the public began to solve with passion. In the end, the majority agreed that Kramskoy depicted in his work a “lady of the demimonde” - or, to put it more clearly, a rich kept woman. V. Stasov also came up with a biting definition - "Kokotka in a stroller." And no matter how much the adherents of “high femininity” later argued with this, Stasov, it seems, guessed the riddle of Kramskoy. The thing is,
that later the sketch for the painting became known, and on it the characteristic vulgarity of the model leaves no doubt about what she does in life. But does it matter now? The established interpretations of works of art often have nothing to do with the author's intentions. Something similar happened with the "Unknown". The Russian commitment to literary allusions first made her Nastasya Filippovna from Dostoevsky's Idiot, then Anna Karenina, then Blok's Stranger, and then completely the embodiment of femininity. It is curious that P. Tretyakov did not want to buy this work. It appeared in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery only in 1925 as a result of the nationalization of private collections.
The heroine is dressed in the latest fashion (the season of 1883) - this is what experts in the history of the costume say.
The pink frosty haze is written out so masterfully that it seems to bring a feeling of cold to reality. Kramskoy knew how to paint light and air when he wanted to.
The place of action is beyond doubt - this is Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. Well-known buildings were drawn by Kramski, on the one hand, quite sketchy, and on the other, quite recognizable.
I.N. Kramskoy "Unknown" 1887. Moscow. Tretyakov Gallery.
WHO IS SHE, this captivating woman, that she leaned back so proudly on the back of the carriage? Whoever saw her at least once, in the morning winter fog in St. Petersburg, passing by the Anichkov Palace, is unlikely to forget this picture ... Why did this secular lady, dressed with all the luxury of fashion, excite the imagination of the democrat artist I. N. Kramskoy? Why did he paint her portrait?
Dressed in the latest fashion of the 1880s, with a proud, mysterious and slightly haughty look, she looks like a queen against the backdrop of a white foggy city. She is wearing a hat with light feathers, a coat trimmed with sable fur and satin ribbons, a gold bracelet, a muff, thin leather gloves. All these details characterize expensive elegance, but do not speak of belonging to high society, rather, on the contrary.
The image of a woman is not immersed in the atmosphere of a frosty winter landscape, but is placed as if in front of it. With great care, the artist paints all the details of the lady's wardrobe - there is a feeling of challenge, as if beauty is on display.
Fragment of a painting. Unknown".
The sensual beauty of a woman, her graceful posture, swarthy skin, dark eyes and velvet eyelashes seem to tease the viewer. But at the same time, in the eyes of a woman, one can also guess some sadness, some kind of drama - perhaps the author wants to show a sense of insecurity in front of the falsehood and cold calculation of the society in which she lives.
THERE ARE SEVERAL VERSIONS OF WHO IS SHOWN IN THIS PICTURE.
FIRST of them, that the portrait was painted from the wife of the artist Yaroshenko - Maria Pavlovna Yaroshenko., Or from his niece, because. there is some resemblance in the face.
Portrait of Maria Pavlovna Yaroshenko. 1875. Art. Yaroshenko
The SECOND version is that the picture depicts a collective image of a lady of the 1880s, dressed fashionably and tastefully. The slightly arrogant look of an experienced woman who has seen life, on the one hand, and the deep sadness of half-closed eyes, on the other, does not leave any viewer indifferent ... The soft fur of the collar emphasizes the warmth and amazing velvety of the skin, and behind the back - the frosty St. , and at the same time, warm, alluring, almost alive - it seems that he is about to take out an elegant hand in a leather glove from the clutch and give it to get out of the carriage ..
The NEXT version is that the Georgian princess Varvara Turkestanishvili posed for Kramskoy, who allegedly was the favorite of Alexander I and the maid of honor of Empress Maria Feodorovna.
EAT and a rather sensational suggestion that the "Unknown" is a portrait of Catherine Dolgoruky, the Serene Princess Yuryevskaya ...
In 1878, Emperor Alexander II became a father, his daughter was born. But ... his daughter was born not by the legitimate empress, but by his beloved woman, his last and most ardent love - Ekaterina Dolgorukaya. And the emperor asked I. Kramskoy to paint her portrait. The artist prepared to write it, but all this was kept in deep secrecy. Ekaterina Mikhailovna and her children were not recognized by the relatives of the emperor, and this offended her greatly. Therefore, when posing for Kramskoy, she expressed a desire to look proud and independent in the portrait, and indicated the place by which she should pass in the carriage in the picture. This is the Anichkov Palace, where the emperor's heir lived with his family.
THE MOST ROMANTIC VERSION and therefore perceived as the most truthful. According to this version, the painting depicts Matryona Savvishna, Bestuzhev's wife, a former Kursk peasant woman.
Bestuzhev was so fascinated by her beauty, seeing her in the maids of his landowner aunt, begged her and brought her to St. Petersburg, where she was taught etiquette, dancing, and literacy. Introduced her into high society. He took care of upbringing and education, invited the best teachers. The student turned out to be extremely capable. Later he married her.
Matrena Savvishna was unusually beautiful and had a strong pleasant voice. Word of her beauty spread far and wide. She was kind and truthful. She made many friends. But the high society was partial to the young woman and viciously slandered her. The secular nobility could not forgive her simple origin. It was said that one day Matrena Savvishna met her mistress on the road. The landowner waited for the former maid to bow to her, but Matrena Savvishna rode in a rich carriage and did not even look at her. This act literally infuriated the lady, but she was already powerless to do anything to Matryona Savvishna.
Perhaps the artist I. N. Kramskoy, who was familiar with the Bestuzhev family, heard this story and painted a picture in which Matryona Savvishna is depicted in a stroller. How much noble dignity in her proud posture! Kramskoy wrote the image with deep truth; this simple Russian; women, with great love showed her spiritual beauty
However, Bestuzhev's family life did not work out: because of the beauty of his wife, he several times initiated duels with especially active gentlemen, which ended in reconciliation, but still left a negative mark on family life. Then their only son died ... And the Bestuzhevs' relatives asked the church to dissolve the marriage, which was done.
Upon learning of this, Kramskoy considered it his duty to see off Matryona Savvishna - she decided to return to her native village to her older sister. At the same time, they agreed that she would write to him. For a long time there was no news. Kramskoy himself wrote a letter to the village, but received no answer. Arriving in Fatezh, Kramskoy learned the sad news: on the way, Matryona Savvishna fell seriously ill and died in Fatezh, in the Zemstvo hospital.
Unknown. Etude. 1883. Collection of Dr. Dushan Friedrich. Prague.
A pictorial study for the painting is kept in a private collection in Prague, convincing that Kramskoy was looking for the ambiguity of the artistic image. The etude is much simpler and sharper, the said and more definite than the picture. It shows the impudence and imperiousness of a woman, a feeling of emptiness and satiety, which are absent in the final version.
The appearance of the "Unknown" at the exhibition caused a great stir. Almost all of St. Petersburg came out to look at this mysterious lady. Proudly leaning back in the carriage, looking at the audience with a tantalizing gaze of half-open twinkling eyes, enticing with a delicate rounded chin, the elastic smoothness of her matte cheeks and a lush feather on her hat, she rode under the pearly sky of a huge canvas, as in the middle of the world.
Unable to calm his excitement, Kramskoy decided to leave the exhibition, where his "Unknown" was first shown, and return by the end of the opening day. A noisy crowd met him at the entrance and carried him in their arms. The success was complete. With the keen eye of an artist, he noted that everything is here: princes and officials, merchants and contractors, writers and artists, students and artisans...
Tell me who is she? - pestered friends to the artist.
- "Unknown".
Call it what you want, but tell me where did you get this treasure?
Invented.
But did he write from nature?
Maybe from nature...
This is perhaps the most famous work of Kramskoy, the most intriguing, which remains misunderstood and unsolved to this day. Calling his painting "Unknown", the clever Kramskoy fixed an aura of mystery forever behind it. Contemporaries were literally at a loss. Her image caused anxiety and anxiety, a vague premonition of a depressing and dubious new - the appearance of a type of woman who did not fit into the old system of values. “It is not known who this lady is, decent or corrupt, but an entire era sits in her,” some stated. In our time, Kramskoy's "Unknown" has become the embodiment of aristocracy and secular sophistication.
HOW DO YOU LIKE? WHICH VERSION IS MORE CREDIBLE?
VICE SQUAD!!! ALLOW YOUR YELLOW PASSPORT, MADAME BELLA?!
A lot of literature has been written about Kramskoy's painting "Unknown", which reveals the secret of this masterpiece. The canvas depicts a young woman riding in an open carriage along Nevsky Prospekt near the pavilions of the Anichkov Palace. To the right behind her is the Alexandrinsky Theater. She is dressed in the latest fashion of the 1880s. She wears a velvet hat with feathers, a coat decorated with fur and ribbons, a muff and thin leather gloves. The look is regal, mysterious and a little sad and even mysterious. In any case, connoisseurs of Ivan Kramskoy's work say so.
However, the old operas from the group of the Commissioner of Qatar decided to deal with this lady and not rely on the opinions of exalted connoisseurs. We reviewed many portraits of the past and came to a startling conclusion. So, let's start with the clothes: her outfit - on her head is a Francis hat trimmed with elegant light feathers, Swedish gloves made of the finest leather, a Skobelev-style coat decorated with sable fur and blue satin ribbons, a muff, a gold bracelet. All these are fashionable details of the women's costume of the 1880s, claiming expensive elegance. However, they did not mean belonging to the high society, rather the opposite - a code of unwritten rules ruled out strict adherence to fashion in the highest circles of Russian society.
In the 19th century, a secular lady had a different attitude to fashion than now, and her clothes were determined by the rules of the imperial court, but not by French fashion designers. The last craftsmen served completely different ladies who had nothing to do with high society.
So, we reveal the secret of "The Stranger" Kramskoy. This picture depicts a lady called camellias, the highest rank of women of free conduct, the most common prostitute in search. The picture shows an empty seat on the left in the carriage, which was supposed to be occupied by either the husband or the servant. Decent ladies never traveled themselves, because it was a sign "I'm looking for a rich lover." Camellias gave themselves to wealthy lovers and often received fortunes from them. Today, art critics claim that no one can identify this lady, since Kramskoy did not leave any information about her. We absolutely do not understand such a formulation of the question, since as soon as we started to deal with this portrait, which is on the verge of a thematic picture, we found evidence of the artist himself and his friends, who called this lady "Countess Zaletova".
Of course, no such countess existed in the Russian Empire, but there was Bella Cooperfield, the daughter of the tailor Solomon Cooperfield from the Ukrainian town of Zhmerinka. Bella, however, called herself Marie and at one time worked on the stage. However, the career of the actress did not work out, and the merchant of the 1st guild, Mishka Khludov, a millionaire and reveler, immediately appreciated the charms of the "Countess". With his light hand, this lady went from hand to hand, changing many rich gentlemen. By the way, she is sitting in Khludov's carriage, and the picture was painted in 2 stages, by superimposing one image on another. You know, gentlemen, it seems that there is not a single true place in Russian history, and only charlatans work as art critics in the Tretyakov Gallery.
We have already talked about Repin's painting "Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan" and explained that the well-known painting is just a friendly caricature of a Ukrainianized society under the Kiev governor. The real picture hangs in the Dnepropetrovsk Museum and there are no bloomers or crooked sabers with "settlers" on it. There are quite decent Cossacks, similar in clothing to the Don Cossacks of that time. The question arises, what can be believed in the explanations of art historians who do not know the rules of decent behavior for a woman of the 19th century? We do not argue about the aesthetic value of this picture, but we want to say that it is time to engage in science for people who are not striving to achieve the career of an academician in it, but to return to nuggets like Lomonosov, Stoletov, Mendeleev, Fomenko and other decent people capable of a feat. And do not blindly trust those who simply rewrite each other's outright nonsense of pseudo-scientific abstracts.
Not good, gentlemen art historians, very bad! And we strongly advise you, dear readers, before visiting museums, first to understand their exposition at home, and only then, having your own opinion, inspect rarities. As a rule, caretakers are not able to answer elementary questions, not to mention the subtleties.
For example, while inspecting the Colosseum in Rome, our colleague asked what kind of sign is located at its entrance on the right side. A completely unattractive sign, the presence of which was a discovery for a venerable guide. And only when he was brought to her, he read in amazement: "PIVS.VII.P.M.ANNO.VII". No wonder, because if you translate it into Russian, then there is a text like this: “THE SEVENTH YEAR OF POPE PIO VII”. Since this pope ruled from 1800-1823, the reference is to 1807 CE. e. The Roman Colosseum is a reconstruction, allegedly on the site of ancient ruins, and the progress of this construction of the ruins is depicted on the frescoes of the Borgia halls in the Vatican.
Here is a remake, gentlemen, a building of the early 19th century, made in the form as you see it today. Not destroyed by the barbarians, but built. Moreover, completely torn off from the real Coliseum in Istanbul, which is the REAL ROME. After reading this, many will want to swear, as we wanted to. Sometimes we are terribly sorry that Qatar forbids us to do this in communication with readers. And so I would like to bang with heavy boots, and tell the whole truth about Ivan Kramskoy and his lady from the Institute of "Jewish Wives".
OSG Commissioner of Qatar
