Kolychev, Stepan Stepanovich

Miniature A. H. Ritt (1793), shown at the Tauride Exhibition in 1905

Stepan Stepanovich Kolychev (1756-1810) was a handsome court man of the Catherine epoch , at the end of this reign was a marshal and chamberlain . Grandson of the father of Russian heraldry, Stepan Andreevich Kolychev , cousin of the vice-chancellor Stepan Alekseevich Kolychev .

Born in the family of Captain Stepan Kolychev (1718-1756), who was involved in the Lopukhina case , and Barbara Fedorovna, born the Countess Golovina . Like many other Kolychevs of the previous 250 years, he was named Stepan in baptism.

Due to the early death of his parents, he was left orphaned, brought up by his father's brothers, and also Prince S. V. Gagarin , his mother's uncle ^[1] . Inherited up to 3,000 souls of peasants and plants equestrian, shepherd and distillery.

At the age of 9 he was enrolled in the Horse Guards and in 1777 he was promoted to cornets; two years later he was granted to the chamber junkers, in 1785 to the captain of the Life Guards Regiment, and in 1793 he was already a real Chamberlain and was under the Count d'Arthois .

In his youth, Kolychev was famous for his beauty and success with women. His relative Maria Naryshkina , who had weight at court, called Stepan "a perfect good girl." In Paris, he was so fascinated by French women, especially “comedians and dancers”, that he had delayed his leave, to the extreme displeasure of the empress.

Kolychev chose his wife from Russian dancers for a long time, but he never got married, since he could not “find anyone against the French Simonsha, for all the dancers here are pretentious”. In 1788, Naryshkina (quoting a letter) "found the bride of a pre-rank girl, a perfect beauty, with whom he was in love and was about to marry." However, the wedding did not take place.

Count Platon Zubov approached Kolychev, his permanent partner at the card table, and gave him sinecur ^[2] . At the same time, F. Rostopchin , a favorite of Pavel Petrovich , could not tolerate Kolychev, calling him “a stupid and eternally sleepy man” ^[2] . Immediately after the accession of Paul, he was dismissed from the position of the marshal, despite the fact that, as they say, he played violin duos with him as a child. He left the yard and went to the estate.

The Sepherot Foundation 's Liechtenstein meeting holds a miniature portrait of Kolychev, made in 1793 by the artist Ritt . The portrait is built on a successful combination of blue, white and red tones and is considered one of the best works of the artist ^[3] :

The blue color of the caftan, the picturesque interpretation of the silvery-white lush wig and Kolychev's jabot find correspondences in the image of the sky with light cirrus clouds, as in the natural element accompanying a person responding to his emotional state.

According to the recollections of relatives, S. S. Kolychev was distinguished by piety. He always carried with him the icon of the Overseas Our Lady of Honor in the Kolychev family and, during the stops, each time he lit a lamp in front of her. A. T. Bolotov , who mistakenly called Kolychev the grandson of the old prince Gagarin, says that he was “a good young man proud, unsociable, and secretive.”