Karl the Great. 225th Anniversary of the Artist’s Birth

December 12 (23), 2024 marks the 225th anniversary of Karl Brullov’s birth (1799–1852).

Karl Brullov needs no special introduction. He was the only Russian classical artist of the 19th century who gained fame in Europe in his lifetime and worldwide recognition after his death. He certainly had natural gift for painting. Moreover, he was a highly qualified professional of brilliant and fascinating personality. Brullov was best known for his ingenuity, immense erudition, independence of mind and behaviour, noble indifference to material values, official awards and honours, incredible freedom in actions, as well as for his enduring devotion to artistic endeavour. Only Brullov was honoured with a kind of title “Karl the Great” that showed the appreciation and admiration of his colleagues, art connoisseurs, and students during his lifetime. He was a true artistic genius, an innovator and Pushkin of Russian painting.

The main and best-known Brullov’s work – the grand painting The Last Day of Pompeii (1833) – is a gem of the collection of the State Russian Museum. This year it underwent a comprehensive restoration to become a key exhibit at the monographic exhibition. Nevertheless, “Karl the Great” definitely cannot be called a master of one painting, since he created a variety of portraits, genre paintings, and works on historical and religious subjects.

As a painter, Brullov was a master of portraits – works appearing under his brush always impress the public with his light and free manner of painting, diversity of imagery, virtuosity of composition, and fine taste in colouring. 

Brullov managed to express his groundbreaking ideas of the purpose of art through simple everyday scenes in genre paintings made in Italy. The artist had the courage to break old aesthetic canons that existed in the academic world by painting from nature and finding beauty in simple everyday life.

Brullov worked hard on religious subjects in the 1830s and 1840s. Christ Entombed (1846, State Russian Museum), the altarpiece for Count Vladimir Adlerberg’s chapel, will be presented at the exhibition for the first time ever. Many experts considered it as Brullov’s best and most profound work on religious theme. The altarpiece is a recent discovery of art historians that will become an absolute sensation of the upcoming exhibition project.

The watercolour and drawing section will be extremely extensive and significant. Brullov was an unquestionable innovator, almost a revolutionary in these fields. It was he who, according to reasonable views of many researchers, “… inculcates the culture of drawing as an intrinsically valuable work in Russian society.”

The anniversary exhibition of the ‘Great Carl’ shows about 160 paintings and 200–250 watercolours and drawings by the artist. The works have been provided by many Russian museums: Ilya Mashkov Museum of Fine Arts, Volgograd; Ivan Kramskoi Regional Art Museum, Voronezh; National Pushkin Museum, St Petersburg; Vasnetsov Brothers Art Museum, Kirov; State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; Vladimir and Suzdal State History, Architecture and Art Museum and Reserve; State Historical Museum, Moscow; Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow; State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan; State Literary Museum, Moscow; State Museum of the History of St Petersburg; Tsarskoye Selo State Museum and Reserve; Alexei Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow; State Hermitage, St Petersburg; Ivanovo Regional Art Museum; Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House), Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg; Kostroma State History, Architecture and Art Museum and Reserve; Academic and Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, St Petersburg; Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum; Novgorod State Unified Museum and Reserve; Pskov State Unified History, Architecture and Art Museum and Reserve; Rostov Regional Museum of Fine Arts, Rostov-on-Don; Samara Regional Art Museum; Alexander Radishchev State Museum of Art, Saratov; Tambov Regional Picture Gallery; Yaroslavl Art Museum; as well as private collectors from St Petersburg and Moscow: I. Grishin, V. Kanovsky, Karisalov family, S. Podstanitsky, E. Rumyantseva, G. Tyokhmenyov, T. Udras.

Karl Brullov’s anniversary exhibition will definitely become one of the main events in the artistic life of St Petersburg in 2024, as the impression of his works cannot be stale. Any one of them overwhelms the most unsophisticated viewers. Experienced and unbiased connoisseurs constantly rediscover the masterpieces created by “Karl the Great”.

Age restriction: 6+

General sponsor: VTB Bank