The portrait from the museum collection depicts Heinrich Heine, a German poet and publicist. The work was done in the 19th century in the lithography technique — a type of printing process in which the ink is transferred under pressure from a plane surface to paper.

Heine met Fyodor Tyutchev in Munich, where the latter served in the Russian diplomatic mission. Heine was invited to the city by a famous publisher, Baron Johann Friedrich von Kott, who offered him to become an employee of the new journal called ‘Political Chronicles’. In a letter dated April 1, 1828, Heine mentioned the Russian poet as ‘a young Russian diplomat and my best friend Tyutchev.’

The poets were connected not only by friendship. Until the very end of his life Tyutchev followed Heine’s new works — he translated Heine’s poems into Russian, wrote free variations of the German verses, and often resorted to quotes from Heine’s poems in his own poems. In particular, Tyutchev was the first to translate the famous poem " A pine tree standeth lonely " into Russian. In English the poem is as follows:

Later, the same poem was translated by Mikhail Lermontov, Apollon Maykov, Afanasy Fet and many other poets. Only in Tyutchev’s translation, an attempt was made to convey every nuance of the original. The main theme of the poem — the impossibility of being close to a distant lover — was important for both poets.

Many years later, when he became the head of the Foreign Censorship Committee, Tyutchev mentioned Heine as a poet who had shaken the “foundations of the foreign society”. Throughout his life, he advocated for the ideals of citizenship. “I really don”t know if I deserve to be decorated with a laurel wreath someday. Poetry, no matter how I love it, has always been only my sacred toy or a holy means for heavenly purposes. I have never placed much importance on the fame of the poet, and I am not worried whether my songs are admired or condemned. However, you must put a sword on my coffin, for I was a brave soldier in the war for the liberation of mankind! ” Heine wrote in his book “Travel Pictures”.

Heine’s attitude to Tyutchev was somewhat different. For him, the Russian poet was primarily a diplomat. He appreciated him as a witty and educated politician and thinker.