The State Pushkin Museum houses a lithograph based on an oil portrait by Karl Bryullov. It portrays the prominent statesman and public figure, Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev. Turgenev had personally approached Bryullov to commission a portrait. In 1833, the artwork was completed in Rome. Simultaneously, lithographic prints were produced in Paris at Turgenev’s request, which, similar to the original painting, were subsequently sent to Moscow for Prince Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky. The lithographs, with inscriptions identifying the individual depicted, were intended for Turgenev’s Moscow and Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk) relatives and close friends.

Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev was a historian, author, and tireless collector of rare documents related to Russian history. He was the brother of Nikolay Ivanovich Turgenev, who was involved in the Decembrist movement. Alexander Turgenev was a well-educated individual and was friends and associates with prominent figures such as Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin, Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky, and Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky, as well as many other writers, poets, and artists. He was also a member of the literary club “Arzamas”. Between 1810 and 1824, Turgenev served as the director of the Department of Foreign Religions at the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education. His position and title of chamberlain gave him access to closed archives in Paris, London, and the Vatican. He brought numerous documents from those places, using them for his own publications and giving them to Pushkin and Karamzin.

Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev was close to the family of Alexander Pushkin. He knew the poet since childhood and facilitated his admittance to the Lyceum. Turgenev was one of the first to appreciate Pushkin’s talent. In 1817–1820, in St. Petersburg, Pushkin frequently visited the Turgenevs’ house. There, he participated in heated political discussions that were reflected in his ode “Liberty”, which he wrote in their apartment, and poem “Village”. During his exile, Pushkin maintained correspondence with Turgenev and sent him his works. In the 1830s, Turgenev remained one of Pushkin’s closest companions. Their friendship grew stronger thanks to their shared interest in Russian history, European affairs, and literary novelties that Turgenev brought back from his travels.