Grigorii Gagarin
Moscow: Belyi gorod, 2004. sewn cl. Gagarin (1810–1893) was educated by tutors in Italy, where his father was ambassador under Alexander I. Still a boy, he took art lessons from Karl Briullov. His career in the foreign ministry led to posts in Munich and Constantinople while he was still in his twenties. He was appointed to Nicholas I’s suite for the tsar’s trip to the Caucasus; Gagarin later fought there with the Russian army and was decorated for bravery. In the 1840s he served in Tiflis and fought against the Chechens. Throughout his varied travels he drew and painted. Prince Gagarin’s social status and government posts muted his reputation as an artist, but as this selection of his paintings and watercolors demonstrates, he had a mastery of technique that could not be characterized as amateur. Especially beautiful are his landscape paintings of mountains; vivid indeed are his drawings of mountain peoples in native dress; they are both works of art and accurate ethnographic documents. His scenes of Tiflis and Constantinople are in the best traditions of Romanticism. Works from the 1820s to the 1840s. 48p., 31 cm, approx. 80 color and b/w illus., Rus. Item #718
ISBN: 9785779307215
Price: $42.00