In-folio format (52x40.5), complete with an original folder made of green cardboard, embossed and floral ornament.
35 x 30 cm;
09/15/1905In 1831, Orest Adamovich Kiprensky received an order for a painting from Count Dmitry Sheremetev. The Count undertook to pay for the work as soon as it was completed. The amount of six thousand rubles was very tangible for the artist, but the count delayed the payment. The following year (1832), Kiprensky exhibited the painting first in Rome, then (1833) sent it to an exhibition in St. Petersburg at the Imperial Academy of Arts. The painting was exhibited under the title "Four Portraits, Half-length Figures, One Reading a Newspaper and Others Listening." The painting in the center depicts four young men. The man on the left is reading a piece of newspaper aloud, while the others are listening attentively. Orest Kiprensky called the men depicted on the canvas Russian. Art historian Nikolai Romanov, who wrote the introductory articles for this album, suggested that the four young people were Poles living in Italy. In the foreground are Anthony Edvard Odynets, Adam Mickiewicz, Zygmund Krasinsky and Alexander Pototsky. To the right, behind the young people, is the awakened volcano Vesuvius. At the time of O. A. Kiprensky, his contemporaries considered the volcano a symbol of the revolution. So symbolically the artist expressed his sympathy for public sentiment. The person reading the newspaper aloud is still holding a dog in his hands, which is peeking out from under the newspaper sheet. With this detail, the artist draws the viewer's attention to the newspaper article, emphasizing its importance. Portraits of four young people became the first in the group portrait genre. We can say that this picture is fundamental in this genre.
The album of the Moscow Rumyantsev Gallery was considered the most perfect of all similar publications on fine arts published in Russia.
Reproduction of paintings in the technique of heliogravure was made in Vienna, special paper of two grades was ordered from England and Holland,
the explanatory text for the edition was printed in Leipzig in a font specially designed for it.
