Vladimir Borovikovsky – Outstanding Painter

Ivan Bugaevskiy-Blagodatny. Portrait of the artist Vladimir Borovikovsky

Vladimir Borovikovsky was an outstanding Russian portraitist, master of religious painting. Numerous portraits of the highest figures and the Petersburg nobility brought him fame. By the way, he was an Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts.
The boy was born on July 24 (August 4), 1757 in Mirgorod into a Cossack family. You know, father, uncle and brother of the future artists were painters. In his youth, Vladimir studied icon painting under the guidance of his father.
In 1774, the boy served in the Mirgorod Cossack regiment.
In the first half of the 1780s Borovikovsky retired and devoted himself to painting. He drew for the local churches.
Moreover, in the 1770s the artist decorated the room in the house in Crimea, destined for the reception of the Empress. Catherine II noted the work of the artist, and ordered him to move to St. Petersburg. Borovikovsky was in the company of poets whose interests and ideas were linked to the new wave in literature – sentimentalism. At the center of his attention there was man’s inner world and unique individuality.

What is more, in 1795, Borovikovsky was awarded the title of academician for the portrait of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich. And in 1803 he became an adviser to the Academy of Arts.
At the end of the 1790s, Borovikovsky became famous portraitist. In female images he embodied the ideal of beauty of his era.
Also he is a recognized master of portrait miniatures. His creativity is a combination of classicism and sentimentalism.
In his last years Borovikovsky returned to religious painting. Actually, he painted some icons for Kazan Cathedral, the iconostasis of the Church of the Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg. His icons are now in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Museum of V. Tropinin and artists of his time (Moscow), in the Tver Regional Art Gallery, the State Russian Museum and other collections.
Vladimir gave painting lessons to the young artist Alexei Venetsianov.
The artist died on April 6 (18), 1825 in St. Petersburg and was buried at the Smolensky Cemetery. In 1931, the remains were reburied in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. You know, he had neither wife nor children and bequeathed his property to the needy.