Portrait of Maria Lopukhina

Портрет Марії Лопухіної

ArtistVolodymyr Borovykovskyi

MovementRomanticism

Year1797

MediumOil on canvas

LocationState Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

His most famous portrait, an icon of Sentimentalism, of a young noblewoman against a soft pastoral landscape.

About the Artist

Volodymyr Borovykovskyi

1757–1825

Born in Myrhorod into a Cossack family of icon painters, Borovikovskyi worked in Ukraine into his thirties before moving to St. Petersburg, where he became the foremost portraitist of the Sentimentalist era.

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Movement

Romanticism

Romanticism—an ideological and artistic movement in European and American culture from the late 18th century to the first half of the 19th century—is characterized by the affirmation of the intrinsic value of the individual’s spiritual and creative life, the depiction of intense (often rebellious) passions and characters, and the portrayal of nature as inspiring and healing. It spread to various spheres of human activity. In the 18th century, anything strange, picturesque, and existing in books rather than in reality was called romantic. At the beginning of the 19th century, Romanticism became the name for a new movement, opposed to Classicism and the Enlightenment.

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