Description of the painting by Orest Kiprensky “Young gardener”

Description of the painting by Orest Kiprensky Young gardener

Orest Adamovich Kiprensky is a debutant of romantic explorations of Russian painting and a great portrait painter. Constantly in the creative search, he dreamed of writing large-scale works based on historical and mythical stories. His technique and style was compared with Rubens, sometimes even taking the work of Kiprensky himself for the works of a Flemish artist.

Contemporaries called him Russian Van Dyck. Portraits brought him the greatest success. Works in this genre of drawing were really amazing and uniquely beautiful, bringing satisfaction and comfort to the “rebellious soul” and the artist himself.

He was always attracted by the topic of writing a person. Inspired by the attempt to penetrate and uncover the mystery of someone else’s life. At a certain moment, the portrait becomes the central direction in the work of O. Kiprensky. He first begins to develop a portrait composition in which the

social identity of the model loses its original meaning. The artist puts in the first place an interest in the personality of a person, the values ​​of him per se.

One of the famous portraits of O. Kiprensky – “Young Gardener” or “Italian Gardener”, written by him in 1817. Creating a picture coincided with the stay of the artist in Italy. At that time it was a country of eternal beauty, poetry and harmony with nature. All these characteristics are reflected in the direction of Italian painting, as “Italian genre.” Orest Adamovich, studying the work of Italian artists, perfectly reflected in this picture the first attempt to work in this style. O. Kiprensky managed to avoid blind imitation and introduce his own, personal. He opened the Italians to Russia and was honored to receive a private order from the Uffizi Gallery.

An adorable cute boy whose posture is full of peaceful apathy. The latter reflects a complex compositional technique for the artist, based on a circle. The gardener’s gaze is fixed on space, absent-minded and indifferent. Flowers pressed by hand and a small stream of water spouting out of stone bring serenity and tranquility. There are new color effects, engravings, the finest “enamel” study, giving the skin a smooth and radiant look. The image of a young gardener breathes joy and innocence.


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Description of the painting by Orest Kiprensky “Young gardener”