The story of the painting "The Stranger". "Unknown" or "Stranger"
Plot
A young woman rides in an open carriage along Nevsky Prospekt near the pavilions of the Anichkov Palace. To the right behind her is the Alexandrinsky Theater. Woman's costume - by last word fashion of the 1880s: a velvet “Francis” hat with a curled ostrich feather, a “Skobelev” style coat of dark velvet, lined with sable, thin gloves made of Swedish (that is, weaved, like suede) leather.
"Unknown", 1883
Such tendentiousness of the outfit was provocative and even indecent at that time. The aristocracy gradually became poorer and could no longer afford to follow fashion so zealously. On the contrary, in high society it was customary to deliberately lag behind new trends in clothing. Ladies of the demimonde: courtesans and kept women could afford themselves an emphasis on fashionability.
The critic Stasov even called her a cocotte in a stroller. The fact is that at that time the venerable lady did not travel alone. This was done either by prostitutes or by women who sought emancipation and challenged society with their demonstrably independent behavior. Anna Karenina, for example, behaved the same way.
Study for a painting, found in Prague in a private collection
The look of the Unknown combines arrogance, royalty and sadness. This inexplicable combination, coupled with the absence of the woman's name, creates a mystery.
Context
Before the exhibition of the Itinerants, at which the public was supposed to get acquainted with the “Unknown,” the artist was extremely excited. He even left the opening day. And when he returned, he was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd. Kramskoy was picked up and carried in his arms. And everyone was tortured - who is depicted in the picture?
Ekaterina Dolgorukova
The mysterious silence of the painter gave rise to a lot of legends. According to one version, Kramskoy wrote “Unknown” based on his daughter Sophia. According to another, this is a certain peasant woman Matryona Savvishna, who, against the will of her mother, was taken as a wife by the nobleman Bestuzhev. Allegedly, Kramskoy met her in St. Petersburg and was enchanted. Another hypothesis says that this is Ekaterina Dolgorukova, the mistress of Alexander II, with whom the emperor had four children.
“Girl with a cat”, 1882. Portrait of Sophia, Kramskoy’s daughter
No hypothesis stands up to testing. There aren't any left diary entries Kramskoy or letters where the name of the muse would be clearly stated.
The fate of the artist
Ivan Kramskoy came to painting from photography. In the Voronezh province there were no people with knowledge of the matter who could teach Ivan how to draw. And his father, a clerk in the Duma, didn’t have any extra money either. To earn a living, Kramskoy got a job in a photo studio, where he retouched photographs using watercolors.
At the age of 19, he moved from the Voronezh province to St. Petersburg, where, after a year of the same Photoshop work, he entered the Academy of Arts. There he met like-minded people who would later form the Wanderers Partnership. In the meantime, 14 students staged a riot, demanding to be allowed to choose their own subjects, rather than write mythological paintings.
Self-Portrait (1867)
Later, it was Kramskoy who was the ideologist of the “Association of Mobile art exhibitions" He promoted ideas public role the artist and his responsibility, insisted on the need for realism on canvases.
(1872)
He was known and appreciated as a portrait painter. Kramskoy himself was tired of this series of orders. Several times he turned to Pavel Tretyakov with a request to provide him for a year - during this time the painter planned to implement his creative ideas, not related to portraits. But alas, I did not find understanding from the philanthropist and collector.
Kramskoy did not live long, but died while working on a portrait of Dr. Rauchfus: the artist suddenly bent over and fell - an aortic aneurysm. Ivan Kramskoy was 49 years old.
One of the most outstanding works of the Russian school of painting of the second half XIX century is the painting "Stranger". Kramskoy painted it in 1883. The painting was first presented to the public in the same year at the exhibition of the Itinerants in St. Petersburg. Its original name is "Unknown". After the public saw her, many rumors immediately appeared. Who is the young lady that Ivan Kramskoy depicted in the picture? It was not possible to obtain an exact answer to this question until today. The study of the artist’s diaries and personal correspondence also failed to clarify the situation: Kramskoy never mentioned the identity of the woman who became the main character of his most famous work.
Search for the prototype of an unknown girl
There are several versions about whose image the painting “Stranger” conveys. the Kursk beauty of the peasant woman Matryona Savvishna, who became the wife of the nobleman Bestuzhev, best suits the heroine of the canvas. Some researchers of Kramskoy’s work believed that the model posing for him while painting was his daughter Sofia. Some art critics were of the opinion that the prototype of the girl from the canvas was Anna Karenina, others attributed her resemblance to Barashkova, the heroine of the novel. At the beginning of the 20th century, the young lady from the painting began to be associated with the gentle and mysterious Blok’s “Stranger.”
Critics rating
Many of Kramskoy’s contemporaries believed that the painting “The Stranger” was painted with the aim of exposing the moral foundations of society, which could not serve as an example to follow. Art critic V. Stasov called the beauty on canvas “a cocotte in a stroller.” According to N. Murashko, the canvas depicted a “dear camellia,” that is, a woman of easy virtue. Describing “The Stranger,” critic P. Kovalevsky called it “one of the fiends
Description of the young lady
What is the painting "The Stranger"? Kramskoy depicted a beautiful young woman riding in an open carriage across the Anichkov Bridge. The young lady, looking regal against the backdrop of snowy St. Petersburg, is dressed expensively and fashionably. The artist describes all the details of the stranger’s elegant wardrobe with special care. A luxurious coat with blue trimmed sable furs, a hat with feathers, gloves made of gold bracelets - all this reveals her as a wealthy woman.
The beauty's gaze, framed by fluffy eyelashes, is arrogant, contempt for others slides through it. But at the same time, in her eyes you can read the uncertainty characteristic of all people who depend on the world in which they live. Despite the disdainful attitude, the girl is very beautiful, graceful, and attracts admiring glances. The unknown young lady clearly did not belong to high society. Dressing style latest fashion, as well as painted lips and heavily penciled eyebrows indicate that she was most likely the kept woman of some noble gentleman.
Czech find
Approximately 60 years after the painting of “The Stranger,” a sketch for this painting was accidentally discovered in one of the private Czech collections. In it, the young lady is dressed in a dark closed dress, her hair is tied up. The woman depicted in the sketch is strikingly similar to the “Stranger,” however, contempt for others is even more visible in her gaze. Kramskoy portrayed the beauty as arrogant and smug, giving her facial expression a certain caricature. From the sketch it is clear that the master had long been nurturing the idea of creating an accusatory portrait, ridiculing the vices of society.
Rumors about the curse of the painting
Not only the mystery of the image main character The painting "Stranger" attracts art lovers. The artist created a truly mystical work, because for decades it has attracted troubles and failures to its owners.
Having painted the canvas, Kramskoy invited Tretyakov to buy it for his gallery, but he refused, being sure that the portraits beautiful women capable of drawing strength from a living person. “Stranger” found shelter in private collections, first in Russia, then abroad, but it brought misfortune to all its owners. A curse hung over Kramskoy himself: a few months after the picture was released, his two sons passed away one after another.
After long travels in 1925, the mysterious “Stranger” returned to Russia and finally took its place in the Tretyakov Gallery, where it remains to this day. Since then, she has stopped bringing misfortune to others. Admirers of Kramskoy’s work are confident that if the painting had initially ended up in Tretyakov’s collection, then it would not have gained notoriety, because that’s where it should have been from the very beginning.
March 2, 1883 in the building Imperial Academy Sciences in St. Petersburg opened the 11th exhibition of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. The painting “Unknown” by Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy became a sensation. Visitors tried unsuccessfully to guess the name of the lady captured by the master. The leader of the Itinerants answered all modest and not so modest questions evasively, which only provoked the scandal-hungry public.
Woman from Nowhere
One of the most famous and mysterious paintings of the Russian school of painting appeared as if out of nowhere. In Kramskoy’s extensive epistolary heritage there is not a word about work on “The Unknown”. The diaries and memoirs of contemporaries do not clarify the situation - nothing anywhere. Some kind of mysterious “figure of silence” instead of a thoroughly documented creative background of the creation of the masterpiece called “Russian Mona Lisa”. The conclusion is: famous artist, who had wide circle customers in different strata of St. Petersburg society - from rich noble and merchant houses to grand ducal and royal palaces - he deliberately wrote "The Unknown" in secret from everyone. For Ivan Nikolaevich, such secrecy was unnatural: as a rule, he willingly shared his creative ideas.
The intrigue continued to unfold... Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov did not buy for his gallery the undoubted masterpiece of the Itinerant and constant correspondent so valued by him and refrained from commenting.
But why? What did contemporaries see in this portrait that we do not see?
And your humble servant tried to look at female portrait through the eyes of the first visitors to the “picture exhibition” of 1883, claiming aristocracy and strict observance of secular decency.
Yes - a woman rides in a stroller. Note - double. That is, this is either someone’s departure (which is an indicator of a high position) or, at a minimum, an expensive reckless driver. At the same time, the heroine is alone in the stroller. Although it would be fitting for a decent lady to travel with someone - her husband, father, brother, finally, a friend or companion...
The aristocrat would never allow herself such a demonstrative violation of the rules of the world. An aristocrat would not have dressed the way “Unknown” did.
And this is already a clue for the search, in which the research of specialists in the history of costume helped me 1.
Manto in memory of Skobelev
A small velvet hat "Francis" with a curled white ostrich feather, a coat "Skobelev" with sable fur, expensive leather gloves- things were super fashionable for 1883. The real trend of the season, as they would say these days: " white general"Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev passed away under very mysterious circumstances in the summer of 1882, and the death of the young military leader continues to haunt minds. But for a lady from high society to wear so many expensive and fashionable things at once is bad form. She has a sense of style. rich woman put on one thing that emphasizes her status - and that’s enough. Dressing up in the “very best” is the manner of the nouveau riche.
Let us remember that the picture was painted in the years of the birth of Russian capitalism, when the then “new Russians” entered the arena - railway magnates, bankers... It was they and their ladies who boasted of luxury, which caused grins - the upstarts were amusing their complexes. Pushkin precisely said about the future:
And silently exchanged glances
He received a general sentence.
The conclusion is obvious: the lady depicted by Kramskoy either does not belong to secular society, or has the unique opportunity to violate the rules of conduct accepted in it with impunity. The “Unknown” is removed from the jurisdiction of the omnipotent and cruel secular rumor and realizes her own lack of jurisdiction: the harsh sentences of the world are not for her.
This is possible in one and only case: the lady is supported by the Emperor himself, who does not want to keep his special relationship with the “Unknown” secret. All that remains is to say her name. This is Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova (1847 - 1922), who was close to Alexander II (1818 - 1881) for 14 years. And letters to which he always began with the words: “Hello, dear angel of my soul” 2.
Second in a stroller
Both the emperor himself and his favorite viewed this closeness not as a sinful relationship, but as a secret marriage union, for which they received a blessing “from God.” The State Archive of the Russian Federation contains extensive correspondence of this couple: 3,450 letters from Alexander II and 1,458 letters from the princess.
Having studied the correspondence, a historian from St. Petersburg and the author of “Motherland” Yulia Safronova wrote a wonderful book “Ekaterina Yuryevskaya. A Novel in Letters”, in which she very delicately, but psychologically accurately wrote about this incident. From the very beginning of the relationship, the couple developed their own “love formulas”:
"Katya even wrote about them mutual feeling, as of an event predestined in heaven: “We are created to form a sacred exception.” This constant self-hypnosis made it possible to avoid discussing the illegality of an extramarital affair. The novel was never thought of in terms of sin, but, on the contrary, as following God's command. At the same time, the couple understood that from the outside their relationship could be assessed differently. The insecurity hidden from ourselves is visible in the obsessive repetition: “We alone fully understand the sanctity of this feeling, of which we are happy and proud.” ...Another way to answer internal doubts was to declare one’s feeling unique, inaccessible to anyone, and therefore not subject to general laws: "...we are the only couple who loves with such passion as we do, and who knows the joy of the worship that God has instilled in us." The extreme degree of isolation of oneself from the world was the declaration of everything external as insignificant, without meaning..." 3
The couple repeatedly violated the unwritten rules of behavior in society. During her vacation in Crimea, the princess could go for a walk alone. The Empress's maid of honor, Countess Alexandra Andreevna Tolstaya, recalled with poorly concealed indignation how she once saw Princess Dolgorukova "on the road, in front of everyone... walking" 4 . An even greater violation of social decency was lovers walking together in an open carriage. On June 30, 1872, the princess wrote to the Tsar: “I adore driving your convertible, clinging all the way to your beautiful body, which is mine, I would have eaten it all" 5.
Based on this intimate confession, Alexander II could be located in the free space to the left of the “Unknown”. It is possible that Kramskoy originally intended to depict the Tsar next to his morganatic wife. Moreover, the emperor was often depicted either in a sleigh or in a carriage. In Yaroslavl art museum Nikolai Egorovich Sverchkov’s painting “Riding in a Stroller (Alexander II with Children)” is kept. Do a little thought experiment: in your own imagination, transfer the figure of the king from this canvas and sit him in the free place next to the “Unknown” - and may art critics forgive me for such blasphemy!
An engraving with a dotted line and a burin at the end of the first is also known. quarter of the XIX century: Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich ( future emperor Nicholas I, father of Alexander II) with his wife Alexandra Feodorovna sits in a carriage and masterfully rules the horses. The august couple is depicted against the background of the Anichkov Palace, in which they then lived 6. But to the left of the “Unknown” we also see the Anichkov Palace, which during the reign of Alexander II belonged to Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich.
A strong emotional arc ensues. The artist’s art unexpectedly removes the thick veil hiding an important secret of the Romanov dynasty.
Change of scenery
On July 6, 1880, after the death of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, the sovereign hastened to marry the princess in the “camp” church of Tsarskoe Selo. Ekaterina Mikhailovna received the title of Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya, and with her the children born before marriage - son George (Goga) and daughters Olga and Ekaterina; another son, Boris, died in infancy. Already in September 1880, the sovereign transferred Special Capital, amounting to 3,409,580 rubles 1 kopeck, to the disposal of Princess Yuryevskaya. Vera Borovikova, the princess’s maid, recalled that Alexander II began to openly ride in the same carriage with her mistress two weeks after the wedding: “... and everyone saw it in Tsarskoe Selo, but no one spoke aloud about the wedding” 8.
The high society was in shock, realizing that the matter would not be limited to walks between the emperor and his morganatic wife.
The dynastic crisis again came very close to the threshold of the House of Romanov. Actual Privy Councilor Anatoly Nikolaevich Kulomzin recalls: “... There were ominous rumors about the sovereign’s desire to crown Princess Yuryevskaya... All this worried to the core. ... It was ordered to find in the archives of the Ministry of the Court the ceremony of the coronation of Catherine I by Peter the Great. Having learned about In this case, the heir announced that if this event occurred, he and his wife and children would leave for Denmark, which was followed by a threat from Alexander II, in the event of such a departure, to declare George, born before marriage from Yuryevskaya, heir to the throne..." 9
The "Unknown" could have been crowned Catherine III.
Should have cooked Russian society to what in the novel “What is to be done?”, a cult book of several generations of Russians, was called “a change of scenery.”
Alexander II, who had reigned for a quarter of a century, dreamed of abdicating the throne and spending the rest of his life as a private person with Katenka - in Cairo or America. “Ah! How tired I am of everything, and what would I give to give up everything, go somewhere with you, angel of my soul, and live only for you” 10.
It was at this time that the recognized luminary portrait painting Kramskoy and received an order to paint a portrait of Princess Yuryevskaya. They asked not to advertise the order. This is my hypothesis. It is based on facts.
Can't see faces
In the fall of 1880, another fashionable and very expensive metropolitan artist, Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky (the tsar called him “my painter” 11), painted in Livadia ceremonial portrait princesses. Count Sergei Dmitrievich Sheremetev, the Tsarevich’s favorite adjutant, wrote impartially about the unbearable atmosphere that had developed in the imperial residence: “... I witnessed a lot that I would not want to see, and an eyewitness to a troubled and gloomy era (the complete decay and decline of the charm of the tsarist power) ... Makovsky was making a portrait of Princess Yuryevskaya at that time; it was necessary to go and admire it. family life royal family It was hell."
The ceremonial portrait of Princess Yurievskaya, painted by Makovsky, which was considered lost, was recently discovered in Stockholm and on December 13, 2017, was sold at auction for a record 11 million crowns ($1.304 million).
Sergei Makovsky, the artist’s son, remembered a colorful detail: the artist began the painting in Livadia, painting the model’s face from life, and finished it in St. Petersburg, using the services of a model, who, for greater authenticity, posed for him in the blue hood of Princess Yuryevskaya. Apparently, Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna clearly lacked patience and perseverance. And portrait painters had to take this feature into account.
IN private collection Dushana Friedrich (Prague) keeps a sketch of Kramskoy from the time he worked on “The Unknown” - a young woman in a stroller in the same pose. Something like the heroine of the picture. Although the face is rougher, and the look is certainly defiantly arrogant. In the entire appearance of this model there is some kind of unbearable and daring vulgarity.
Who is pictured? Most likely - a model. Perhaps a woman of easy virtue. Kramskoy wanted to capture the pose he needed, and at the same time painted the face for memory. The master prepared in advance so that when working on the portrait of Princess Yuryevskaya, he would not waste time on working out the details. Who knows if the impatient princess will want to pose for many sessions?!
But Kramskoy was not able to realize this plan.
Canceled order shadow
Followed everyone famous events: On March 1, 1881, Alexander II was killed by a Narodnaya Volya bomb, his son took the throne Alexander III. Princess Yuryevskaya cut off her luxurious hair ( long braid reached the floor) and placed them in the emperor’s coffin. Under open pressure from Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, the inconsolable widow first left her apartment in the Winter Palace, and then left Russia with her children and settled in her own villa in Nice.
Kramskoy found himself unwittingly involved in someone else's family drama, and at the same time to everyone's " acting persons"he treated well (to Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna too, their portraits by Kramskoy are known). The order disappeared by itself - well, okay. But then what - spit and forget? Alas - that’s not how an artist works! An idea that sunk into soul, does not let go, it hurts, develops into another... In general, he begins to feverishly work on a completely different canvas.
Of course, there could now be no talk of any portrait resemblance between the “Unknown” and Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna.
Take another look at "Unknown". The heroine is alone in a double stroller. Logically, next to her there should be... Who is the man she loves? But he is no longer there. Dead? What's on the canvas in the background? Anichkov Palace is the one in which Alexander III lived quite recently. The heroine is leaving Anichkov Palace forever! And in her eyes there is an amazing range of feelings: pain, sadness, arrogance... But arrogance is of a special kind: you, the crowd on the street, have no right to gossip about me, to judge me...
And I no longer want to discuss the pretentiousness of the outfits of the proud and sad beauty riding along Nevsky. Kramskoy worked for centuries - who, centuries later, remembers the subtleties of the then fashion? Look at her face! It's stupid to say that this is someone's portrait. This is not a portrait at all. This picture is a different genre. And it was no longer Princess Yuryevskaya who was written. There is something in the heroine, perhaps from the model from the sketch. Something from his daughter Sofia, who often posed for her father. And most of all - from a woman about whom the artist himself thought. And don't ask who she is.
She is "Unknown".
“Unknown” appeared in the State Tretyakov Gallery only in 1925 - after the nationalization of one of the private collections.
1. Kirsanova R.M. Portrait of an unknown woman in a blue dress. M.: Kuchkovo pole, 2017. P. 370, 390.
2. Safronova Yu.A. Ekaterina Yuryevskaya. A novel in letters. St. Petersburg 2017. P. 107.
3. Ibid. P. 121.
4. Ibid. P. 172.
5. Ibid. P. 163.
6. Rovinsky D.A. A complete dictionary of Russian engraved portraits. T. I: A - D. St. Petersburg. 1886. Stlb. 34. N 86.
7. Safronova Yu.A. Ekaterina Yuryevskaya. A novel in letters. St. Petersburg 2017. P. 162.
8. Ibid. P. 226.
9. Kulomzin A.N. Experienced. Memories. M.: Political Encyclopedia, 2016. P. 313, 329.
10. Safronova Yu.A. Ekaterina Yuryevskaya. A novel in letters. St. Petersburg 2017. P. 122.
11. Makovsky S.K. Portraits of contemporaries. M.: Agraf, 2000 // http://e-libra.ru/read/229599-portrety-sovremennikov.html
"Unknown" is the most famous work artist Ivan Kramskoy. By giving the painting the title “Unknown,” Kramskoy forever endowed his work with mystery and understatement.
Description of the painting by Ivan Kramskoy “Unknown”
The painting depicts a young woman driving in a stroller along the Anichkov Bridge in St. Petersburg. The lady is dressed according to the latest fashion: she is wearing a “Francis” hat, trimmed with elegant light feathers, “Swedish” gloves made from the finest leather, a “Skobelev” coat, decorated with sable fur and blue satin ribbons, a muff, a gold bracelet - all this is fashionable details women's suit 1880s, claiming to be expensive elegance. However, this did not mean belonging to high society, rather the opposite - the code of unwritten rules excluded strict adherence to fashion in the highest circles of Russian society.
Ivan Kramskoy, “Unknown”, 1883, oil on canvas, 75.5 x 99, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Most likely, before us is a lady of the demimonde. Critics called her “a cocotte in a stroller”, “dear camellia” and “one of the fiends big cities", since the features of the woman in the picture have a certain demonic quality: she is strong-willed, but sophisticated and sensual, with a deep and penetrating gaze.
The painting “Unknown” was painted in the style of realism and stands on the border of a portrait and a thematic painting. At the very first exhibition in which the painting participated, it was a huge success, and friends tried to find out from Ivan Kramskoy who was depicted in the painting. Kramskoy avoided answering.
Who is shown in the picture
Ivan Kramskoy kept the secret of the identity of the “Unknown” to the end: in no notes did he leave information about who this woman was.
There are several versions of who it is:
That the portrait was painted from Maria Yaroshenko - the wife of the artist Yaroshenko;
What is a portrait? collective image ladies of the 1880s;
That this is the Georgian princess Varvara Turkestanishvili, who allegedly was the favorite of Alexander I and the maid of honor of Empress Maria Feodorovna;
What is this - a portrait of Catherine Dolgoruky, His Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya.
And the most common version is what it is Matryona Savvishna Bestuzheva, a former Kursk peasant who married Bestuzhev.
In particular, the Kursk Encyclopedia (compiled by Goizman Sh.R., Kursk, 2004-2016) provides the following information:
“In the 1870s, K. was friendly with the Bestuzhev family, in particular with Matryona Savvishna Bestuzheva, who came from peasants from the village. Milenino, Fatezhsky district. However, under pressure from relatives, Bestuzhev dissolved the marriage, and Matryona Savvishna decided to return home. When parting with her, K. agreed on correspondence, but without waiting for the letters, he himself went to Fatezh and learned the sad news: on the way M. S. Bestuzheva became seriously ill and died in the Fatezh Zemstvo Hospital. According to the order that existed in those years, only townspeople were buried in the city cemetery, therefore M.S. Bestuzhev buried in the cemetery of her native village. During his stay in Fatezh and in the village. Milenino K. made several portrait sketches of Fatezhans and villagers landscape sketches, on which the following were subsequently written famous paintings, like “The Woodsman” (1874, Tretyakov Gallery) and “Rural Smithy”, “A Man with a Bridle” (1883, Museum of Russian Art, Kyiv), etc. K. also painted a portrait M. S. Bestuzhevoy, which later became widely known under the name “Unknown” (1883, Tretyakov Gallery). This portrait (see illustration to the article) was painted by him under the impression of a story Matryona Savvishna O chance meeting with his mother-in-law, a former Fatezh lady on one of the St. Petersburg streets.”
Etude
Ivan Kramskoy, “Unknown. Study", 1883, Collection of Dr. Dusan Friedrich (Prague)
There is also a study of “The Unknown”, it is in a private collection in Prague. In this version, in the woman’s eyes one can read arrogance, insolence, and satiety, which are not present in the final version.
Where is the painting “Unknown” located?
The painting “Unknown” by Ivan Kramskoy is part of the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery and is exhibited in the department at the address: Moscow, Lavrushinsky lane, 10, hall 20.
Kramskoy. Unknown. July 21, 1883 in St. Petersburg at the vernissage of the great portrait painter Ivan Kramskoy secular society was delighted, shocked, shocked and even offended. The portrait depicted a lady during an hour of walking along Nevsky Prospekt. She emerged from the winter fog in an open carriage. Leaning back in the stroller, the stranger looked at those around her with the pride of a woman aware of her charm. Her gaze could even be called arrogant, if not for the hidden sadness in her large, dark eyes.
The artist, whose attention and time were sought by the richest people of high society, exhibited “The Unknown,” which no one really knew, as the central canvas. How could this be, because she is so beautiful, so magnificently and exquisitely dressed.
– Truly respected Mr. Kramskoy decided to shock our audience at this exhibition!
– As for his portraits, they were all boring, dry and inexpressive. Here the master finally showed his elegance of taste.
– I think this face is essentially a fiction, inspired by the images of our respected writers!
This is how the public reacted to “Unknown”.
Kramskoy. Unknown. Anna Karenina?
Many were inclined to think that Kramskoy depicted Anna Karenina in the portrait. After all, everyone remembered that the first portrait of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was painted by Kramskoy at the time when the writer was working on this work.
“By one glance of this lady, Vronsky determined that she belonged to high society. When he looked back, she also turned her head. Shiny, seemingly dark from thick eyelashes grey eyes settled on his face in a friendly manner, as if she recognized him. And immediately they were transported to the passing crowd, as if looking for someone.”
Kramskoy. Unknown. Nastasya Filippovna?
Although it is unlikely. At the first glance at the picture, viewers understood that it was not a noble lady depicted. Most likely - a rich kept woman. Nastasya Filippovna? In January 1881, Russia said goodbye to F.M. Dostoevsky. IN last years no one painted portraits of the writer. And Kramskoy himself, famous portrait painter, did not address this topic... How to fix this?
“The prince came closer to the light and began to look at the portrait of Nastasya Filippovna. The portrait truly depicted a woman of extraordinary beauty. The eyes are dark, deep, the forehead is thoughtful, as if there was immense pride and contempt, almost hatred, in this face. And at the same time, something trusting, something surprisingly simple-minded. These two contrasts seemed to arouse even some kind of compassion when looking at these features.” 
Kramskoy. Unknown. Feedback from the public
“A cocotte in a stroller is not a painting, but an effort,” Stasov wrote to Tretyakov, “how far she is from the portraits of Grigorovich and Leo Tolstoy. How I wish the old Kramskoy was. I think he’s on a slippery slope now!”
Kramskoy was attacked by men, but he never named his model. Critics noted not only the beauty of the woman, but also her rare aristocratic type, the endless arrogance of a lady who knew no equal, masterfully conveyed by the artist.
Kramskoy. Unknown. The Mystery of the Portrait
The critics could be wrong. It was not arrogance, but grief and pain. They said that this was a tragedy for the artist himself. Bestuzheva’s nephew stopped by his aunt’s estate for just one day. He saw a young maid brought from the village, and, smitten, fell at the feet of his aunt, asking permission to marry. The aunt could not resist the requests of her beloved nephew and the young people got married.
It turned out to be very easy to teach the young Bestuzhev manners, as well as languages and singing. The ability to dress was given to her from above. And every man who entered the couple’s house became her slave. The young husband was tired of challenging his opponents to a duel. Kramskoy himself became a prisoner of the model’s beauty, and obtained permission to paint her portrait. The husband's jealousy reached the point of madness. When her relatives obtained permission for divorce, the young woman went to the village to live with her sister. Kramskoy rushed after her, but found only her grave. “Unknown” remained only on his canvas.
Too far-fetched? And the young Bestuzhev, if there was one, should have been known in the world... There was also talk about the Cinezelli circus, that the wife of the circus owner was depicted, especially since the portrait showed an ethnically southern type of person... Later, after the artist’s death, in his papers found a pencil sketch female face, taken at the station, the features of which were very reminiscent of “Unknown”...
During his lifetime, the artist never revealed his secret... She still looks at us with her long, sad look...
You can find other stories about paintings and artists in the or section.
