Vasily Tropinin painted this portrait of Anna Mazurina, the wife of the Moscow merchant of the 1st guild Alexey Mazurin, in 1844. By that time, the merchant had died, and one of their eight children, their son Nikolay, had also died. The year when the portrait was painted, the grieving widow and mother gave 30 thousand rubles to open an almshouse for elderly women at the Vagankovo Cemetery.
Vasily Tropinin painted portraits of Anna Mazurina twice — in 1839 and 1844, the first canvas is housed in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Both paintings depict an elderly woman in a fur throw and a semi-transparent lace bonnet. Anna Mazurina’s outfits are strict and elegant. As a rule, at that time wives of merchants, even those who managed to rise to a high social status, dressed differently. They wore bright puffy dresses, shawls, headscarves and headbands that covered their heads, and a lot of jewelry: beads, rings, earrings.
Tropinin created the 1844 canvas as a pair to the portrait of Alexey Mazurin, which he had painted back in the 1810s: it is also displayed in the Tomsk Art Museum. Paired portraits — they are also called pendants — are the same size, while the pattern, color palette and position of the figures on the canvas are quite similar. As a rule, the characters in such paintings face each other.
The portrait of Anna Mazurina belongs to the late period of Vasily Tropinin’s work, when he was already a popular portraitist. At that time, the artist sought to convey individual features of the face, carefully painted all the peculiarities of his sitters. The artist built the composition of this portrait of Anna Mazurina by juxtaposing the shaded figure in a dark dress and a fur throw and the brightly lit face. It is additionally highlighted by the airy light bonnet and lace collar.
For the author, the portrait of a woman was ‘laborious’: before starting work, he made several sketches. These sketches are housed in the archives of various museums. Afterwards, Vasily Tropinin repeated the portrait several times, probably for other descendants of the Mazurins. One of them is presently displayed in the North Ossetian State Art Museum, the other — in the Latvian National Museum of Art.
Vasily Tropinin painted portraits of Anna Mazurina twice — in 1839 and 1844, the first canvas is housed in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Both paintings depict an elderly woman in a fur throw and a semi-transparent lace bonnet. Anna Mazurina’s outfits are strict and elegant. As a rule, at that time wives of merchants, even those who managed to rise to a high social status, dressed differently. They wore bright puffy dresses, shawls, headscarves and headbands that covered their heads, and a lot of jewelry: beads, rings, earrings.
Tropinin created the 1844 canvas as a pair to the portrait of Alexey Mazurin, which he had painted back in the 1810s: it is also displayed in the Tomsk Art Museum. Paired portraits — they are also called pendants — are the same size, while the pattern, color palette and position of the figures on the canvas are quite similar. As a rule, the characters in such paintings face each other.
The portrait of Anna Mazurina belongs to the late period of Vasily Tropinin’s work, when he was already a popular portraitist. At that time, the artist sought to convey individual features of the face, carefully painted all the peculiarities of his sitters. The artist built the composition of this portrait of Anna Mazurina by juxtaposing the shaded figure in a dark dress and a fur throw and the brightly lit face. It is additionally highlighted by the airy light bonnet and lace collar.
For the author, the portrait of a woman was ‘laborious’: before starting work, he made several sketches. These sketches are housed in the archives of various museums. Afterwards, Vasily Tropinin repeated the portrait several times, probably for other descendants of the Mazurins. One of them is presently displayed in the North Ossetian State Art Museum, the other — in the Latvian National Museum of Art.
