Romantic portraits by Vasily Tropinin

Vasily Tropinin was a Russian painter, master of romantic and realistic portraits.
Vasily Andreevich Tropinin was born on March 19 (30), 1776 in Karpovo, Novgorod Province, into the serf family. Since childhood the boy painted people.
In 1798, Vasily was sent to the pastry shop in St. Petersburg as a student. Confectionery business also required the ability to depict the figures of people and animals. Later he entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, where S. Shchukin was his teacher. Vasily won the first place in the Academy competitions twice and according to the tradition that was established at the Academy he was to get freedom. Instead he was recalled to the new estate of Count Morkov in Ukraine in 1804. There he became servant, shepherd, architect and artist of the count. The artist married a free villager and the husband and wife were supposed to have equal status, but instead of granting freedom to Tropinin, the Count made his wife a serf woman, so their children were supposed to become eternal serfs of Morkov and his heirs.

But Tropinin, as a kind person, wrote in his memoirs that he was grateful to the owner, since Ukraine had made him a great artist. Until 1821 Vasily lived mainly in Ukraine, where he painted a lot, then together with the Morkovs he moved to Moscow.
Finally, in 1823, at the age of 47, the artist got freedom. After a while his relatives became free. In September 1823 he gave some of his pictures to the Council of the Petersburg Academy of Arts and received the title of an artist. In 1824, for the Portrait of K.A. Leberecht the artist was given the title of Academician. Ten years later Tropinin was elected an honorary member of the Moscow Art Society.
In total, Tropinin created more than three thousand portraits.
Vasily Tropinin died on May 3 (15), 1857 in Moscow. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
In 1969, the Museum of V. Tropinin and Moscow artists of his time was opened in Moscow.

Romantic portraits by Vasily Tropinin