Zbruev, Alexey Alekseevich

During his studies at the Moscow Commercial School, Alexey Zbruev showed great success in drawing, and upon graduation he was accepted for a scholarship from the Russian Empress Maria Fedorovna as an official pensioner to the Imperial Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg , in the engraving class. But since, because of his young age, he could not be accepted as a pupil, he was, on March 22, 1819, enrolled in the number left at the Academy for improvement ^{[2] [3]} .

In 1823, for the third exam, Aleksei Alekseevich Zbruev received his first award - a silver medal of the 2nd dignity ^[2] .

In 1824, he was entrusted with the engraving of the Mother of God from a painting by Professor Egorov; for this work he was awarded a certificate of the 2nd degree; the next 1825 he received a first- degree silver medal, and two years later for a print “ engraved by him with a grab-pin from a painting by Leonardo da Vinci representing Herodias, holding the head of John the Baptist on a platter ”, he received a second- degree gold medal. This print was at the academic exhibition of 1827, and critics found that it “was very successfully executed, especially in the decoration of Herodias’s face a lot of softness and pleasantness. The color in the original picture is very dark, but the young artist did everything he could to avoid monotony . " This printmaking was dedicated by A. Zbruev to his patroness, Empress Maria Fedorovna ^[2] .

The career of the artist, which began so brilliantly, was interrupted for unknown reasons; Aleksei Alekseevich Zbruev did not compete for the first gold medal, but left the Imperial Academy and moved to the city of Moscow , where he began to work as a drawing teacher; there he died - according to Jordan - from cholera in 1832 ^[2] .

Information about the death of A.A. Zbrueva in 1932, set forth in the "Detailed Dictionary of Russian Engravers of the 16th-19th Centuries" by D. Rovinsky (p. 241) and other sources, are unreliable. In fact, he lived another 15 years and, with the rank of titular adviser, died on October 5, 1847. With this rank, he served the nobility for himself and his descendants. He was buried at the Danilovsky Cemetery in Moscow, as indicated in the Moscow Necropolis directory, published in 1907 (Volume 1, p. 467). ^[four]

Some of the works of A.A. Zbruev that have survived to our time are in the storerooms of Moscow museums:

- The State Tretyakov Gallery: drawings "Grandmother and Grandchildren" of 1820, "Betrothal of Mary" in 1820, "Mercy of the Roman" 1822

- State Historical Museum: "Portrait of A.I. Herzen", 1830s. (canvas, oil).

Of the other works of Zbruev, the most famous engraving of A. Notbek’s drawing “ Tatyana with a letter” in the “ Nevsky Almanac ” for 1829, about which Prince Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky wrote to the poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin the following: “ What is your Tatiana drunk in the“ Nevsky Almanac “with a little bulging and a belly button that comes through from under his shirt? If you see Aladyin (although during the pancake week), tell him to send me his “Nevsky Almanac” to Penza: I want to introduce our Penza young ladies to them in paint. In Moscow, your Tatyana scared everyone ” ^[5] . Pushkin himself also responded to the illustration for the passage of " Eugene Onegin " with a very biting epigram:

According to P. N. Stolpyansky , A. V. Notbek’s drawing cannot be called artistic, but A. A. Zbruev’s participation, which was expressed at least in the engraving of the drawing for the “Nevsky Almanac”, to a certain extent testifies that he already enjoyed fame engraver and managed to make connections among the best writers of that time ^[2] .

• “Pushkin Correspondence” (Acad. Ed., Volume II, page 85).
• Petrov P. N. , “Materials for the history of the Academy of Arts”, vol. II, p. 172, 188, 190, 207, 214.
• Rovinsky D. A. , “Dictionary of Engravers”, p. 241.