“Portrait of Alexei Andreyevich Arakcheev” - a painting by George Dow and his workshop from the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace.
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| George Dow and the workshop | ||
| Portrait of Alexei Andreevich Arakcheev . 1824 year | ||
| Canvas, oil. 70 × 62.5 cm | ||
| State Hermitage Museum , St. Petersburg | ||
| ( inv. GE-7813 ) | ||
The picture is a chest portrait of the artillery general Alexei Andreyevich Arakcheev from the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace [1] .
During the Patriotic War of 1812, Arakcheev was the head of the Department of Military Affairs of the State Council , was under Alexander I and was engaged in the recruitment of troops and the organization of the people's militia . During overseas campaigns he was the head of the Imperial Camping Chancellery [2] .
Depicted in the general's uniform of the grenadier count Arakcheev regiment of the sample of 1814. On the neck there is an oval medallion with a portrait of Emperor Alexander I, a silver medal “In memory of the Patriotic War of 1812” on the St. Andrew’s ribbon is visible from under the medallion; on the right on the chest is the star of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky . At the bottom left are the artist's signature and date: Geo. Dawe Pinxit 1824 . On the back of the picture there are inscriptions: Ct Araktcheeff and Geo Dawe RA pinx t [3] . Signature on the frame: Graf A.A. Arakcheev, General of the Artillery .
The portrait was painted by Dow in 1824 and delivered to the Hermitage on September 7, 1825. This portrait is the second version. Initially, the Dow wrote a compositionally identical version, but instead of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, he mistakenly depicted the ribbon and star of the Order of St. Andrew the First - Called - Dow and could not have imagined that the second person in the Empire (after Emperor Alexander I himself) did not have a higher state order . Later, an error was discovered, and Dow had to paint a portrait again. The “wrong” version of the portrait is stored in the vaults of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve [4] .
In 1825, Dow performed a repetition of the Hermitage portrait, which is currently in Yerevan at the National Art Gallery of Armenia .
In the 1840s, in the workshop of Karl Krai , a lithography was made from the portrait, based on a drawing by I. A. Klyukvin , published in the book “Emperor Alexander I and His Companions” and subsequently repeatedly reproduced [5] .
Dow also painted a full-length portrait of Arakcheev, compositionally very close to a portrait from the Military Gallery. Here Arakcheev is depicted standing against the barracks of military settlements in Gruzino . This portrait contains the signature and date of “Geo Dawe RA Pinxit St Petersbourg 1823” (oil on canvas, 88 × 61 cm). It once belonged to Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich and was published by him in the publication Russian Portraits of the 18th and 19th Centuries [6] , after the October Revolution he was nationalized and transferred to the Hermitage , from where he entered the Russian Museum (inventory number Ж-6349) [7] .
Another version of the full-length portrait, with the author's signature and the date “1825” , was previously in the Artillery Museum and in 1951 transferred to the Hermitage (oil on canvas, 87 × 60 cm, inventory number ERZh-746) [8] . For an unknown reason, it is not listed in the printed catalog of English painting compiled by E. P. Renne [9] .
Notes
- ↑ State Hermitage Museum. - Dow, George. "Portrait of Alexei Andreyevich Arakcheev."
- ↑ Dictionary , p. 297-298.
- ↑ Renne, 2009 , p. 259.
- ↑ Podmazo, 2013 , p. 87.
- ↑ Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, T. 6 , No. 26.
- ↑ Russian portraits, vol. V , No. 6.
- ↑ Timing catalog, t. 2 , p. 172-173.
- ↑ State Hermitage Museum. - Dow, George. "Portrait of Count Aleksei Andreyevich Arakcheev."
- ↑ Renne, 2009 .
Literature
- State Russian Museum - catalog of the collection / Under. ed. G. N. Goldovsky . - SPb. : Palace Editions, 2002. - T. 2: Painting of the first half of the 19th century (A – I). - 256 s. - ISBN 978-5-935298-25-0 .
- Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky A.I. Emperor Alexander I and his associates in 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815. Military Gallery of the Winter Palace. - SPb. : In the printing house of Karl Kraj, 1848-1849. - T. 6.
- Podmazo A. A. Images of the heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812: Military Gallery of the Winter Palace. - M .: Russian Knights, 2013 .-- 864 p. - ISBN 978-5-903389-62-9 .
- Renne E. P. British Painting of the 16th — 19th Centuries: Collection Catalog. - SPb. : Publishing House of the State Hermitage Museum, 2009. - 416 p. - ISBN 978-5-93572-376-7 .
- Russian portraits of the XVIII and XIX centuries / Edition of the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich. - SPb. : Expedition for the procurement of government securities, 1909. - V. V.
- Dictionary of Russian generals, participants in the hostilities against the army of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1812-1815. // Russian archive. The history of the Fatherland in the evidence and documents of the XVIII — XX centuries. : Collection. - M .: TRITE studio N. Mikhalkova , 1996. - T. VII . - S. 288-645 . - ISSN 0869-20011 . (Comm. A. A. Podmazo )