Description of the painting by Orest Kiprensky “Self-portrait”

Description of the painting by Orest Kiprensky Self portrait

Portrait painted in 1828.

This painting is able to tell us a lot about the artist. Before us is a man with a strong-willed face. He is dressed in an oriental striped robe. Face shaded bright white collar.

The strokes are so gorgeous that the surface looks like a mirror. The viewer wants to pay attention to all the details of this portrait, to consider the smallest features of shades and understand the role of every detail.

The artist looks right at us. Most likely, he portrayed himself at the moment when he creates. An incredible work of thought is read in all its features. Kiprensky preferred to portray himself at home. He appears to us a little dapper.

The painter is very masterful painted eyes. We see that they are a little reddish. This is the look of a man who is incredibly tired. He seems to want to ask about something. A smile on duty, which for some reason seems a bit pitiful, stood in the folds of his lips.

This is the confession of a weary worker. You can feel that he himself is afraid of that dullness, which is clearly readable not only in his eyes, but also in his entire face. In the portrait there are features of anxiety and some incomprehensible anxiety. Kiprensky conveys them most definitely from a psychological point of view.

If in the earlier self-portraits of the artist one could sense the romantic tension, here it completely disappears. In all the features shows some disappointment. Kiprensky knew that he could catch the movements of life and vigilantly peer into it. Here, he seems to forgive life completely for being so harsh.

At this time, the artist was experiencing a deep depression. Viewers can read on a self-portrait even a certain fear of the artist. The painter’s efforts were not appreciated. Viewers can read in the eyes of the hero the painter’s bitterness about the fact that they do not want to understand him.


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Description of the painting by Orest Kiprensky “Self-portrait”