Karl Pavlovich Bryullov ( Brüllo<!--A Britannica claim of the gallicised naming to be Bryullov's birth one seems to be very wrong.-->;<!--Better be placed when speaking of Bryullov's students--> ; – ) was a Russian painter and draughtsman during the Romantic period, remembered among the greatest visual artists in the history of Russian art.

Biography

Karl Bryullov was born on 12 (23) December 1799 in St. Petersburg, in the family of the academician, woodcarver, and engraver Pavel Ivanovich Briullo (Brulleau, 1760—1833) who was of Huguenot descent. He felt drawn to Italy from his early years. Despite his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1809–1821), Bryullov never fully embraced the classical style taught by his mentors and promoted by his brother, Alexander Bryullov. After distinguishing himself as a promising and imaginative student and finishing his education, he left Russia for Rome where he worked until 1835 as a portraitist and genre painter, though his fame as an artist came when he began doing historical painting.

His best-known work, The Last Day of Pompeii (1830–1833), is a vast composition compared by Pushkin and Gogol to the best works of Rubens and Van Dyck. It created a sensation in Italy and established Bryullov as one of the finest European painters of his day. After completing this work, he triumphantly returned to the Russian capital, where he made many friends among the aristocracy and intellectual elite and obtained a high post in the Imperial Academy of Arts.

An anecdote concerning Bryullov appeared in Leo Tolstoy's essay "Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves?" and later in the same author's book What Is Art?.

While teaching at the academy (1836–1848) he developed a portrait style which combined a neoclassical simplicity with a romantic tendency that fused well, and his penchant for realism was satisfied with an intriguing level of psychological penetration. While he was working on the plafond of St Isaac's Cathedral, his health suddenly deteriorated. Following advice of his doctors, Bryullov left Russia for Madeira in 1849 and spent the last three years of his life in Italy. He died in the village of Manziana near Rome and is buried at the Cimitero Acattolico there.

Characteristics of art

Bryullov's work is the pinnacle of late Russian Romanticism when the sense of harmonic wholeness and beauty of the world is replaced by a feeling of tragedy and conflict of life. In the forefront of the historical picture, but its main theme - not the struggle of heroes, as in classicism, and the fate of the huge human masses. In his central work "The Last Day of Pompeii" Bryullov combined the drama of action, romantic lighting effects and sculptural plasticity of figures. The painting brought the artist great fame both in Russia and in Europe.

An outstanding master of both ceremonial and chamber portraits, Bryullov evolved in his art from the joyful embrace of life in his early works to the intricate psychologism of his later ones, thus anticipating the achievements of such artists like Ilya Repin in the second half of the 19th century. Bryullov had an enormous influence on Russian artists, among whom he had many followers and imitators.

Selected artwork

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File:Karl Brullov - The Last Day of Pompeii - Google Art Project.jpg|The Last Day of Pompeii, 1833, Russian Museum

File:BrullovKP OsadaPskovPolGTG.jpg|Siege of Pskov by Polish king Stephen Báthory, 1839—1843, Tretyakov Gallery

File:Брюллов Явление Аврааму трех ангелов у дуба Мамврийского.jpg|Three Angels Appearing to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre, 1821, Russian Museum

File:Брюллов Нарцисс.jpg|Narcissus, 1819, Russian Museum

File:Briullov, Karl - A Dream of a Girl Before a Sunrise.jpg|A Dream of a Girl Before a Sunrise, 1830—1833, Pushkin Museum

File:Brjullov Italianskoe Utro.jpg|Italian Morning, 1823, Kunsthalle Kiel

File:Brjullov Italianskij Poldenj.jpg|Italian Midday, 1827, Russian Museum

File:Karl Bryullov (Bryullo) - Вирсавия - Google Art Project.jpg|Bathsheba, 1832, Tretyakov Gallery

File:Girl gathering grapes in the vicinity of Naples (1827), by Karl Briullov.jpg|Girl, gathering grapes in the vicinity of Naples, 1827, Russian Museum

File:1832. BRULLOV VSADNICA1.jpg|Horsewoman (Daughters of Pacini, Giovannina and Amazilia), 1832, Tretyakov Gallery

File:Svetlana at fortune-telling by K.Brullov (1836, Nizhniy Novgorod museum).jpg|Fortuneteller Svetlana, 1836, Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum

File:Portrait of Sophia Shuvalova (married name Bobrinskaya).jpg|Portrait of Sophia Andreevna Bobrinskaya (Shuvalova), 1849, Hermitage Museum

File:Ivan Krylov.jpg|Ivan Krylov, 1839, Tretyakov Gallery

File:Yuliya Samoylova.jpg|Portrait of Countess Julia Pavlovna Samoilova moving away from the ball with her adopted daughter Amazilia Pacini (Masquerade). Not later than 1842. Russian Museum

File:Karl Briullov 01.jpeg|The Death of Ines de Castro, 1834, Russian Museum

File:Брюллов Распятие.jpg|Crucifixion, 1838, Russian Museum

File:Христос во гробе.jpg|Christ in the Tomb, 1845—1846, Russian Museum

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Notes

References

Further reading

  • Karl Bryullov at the Russian Academy of Arts' official website
  • Karl Bryullov at the Web Gallery of Art
  • Paintings by Bryullov Karl - high res
  • Online gallery of Briullov paintings
  • Brullov's paintings at the Russian Art Gallery
  • Karl Brulloff. The Last Day of Pompeii