Petr Drozhdin painted the Portrait of a Boy in the 1780s. The portrait is believed to be one of the best pieces he created, as the artist depicted a child rather than a miniature adult in it.
Portrait of a Boy
Creation period
1780s
Dimensions
53,5x44,5 cm
Technique
Oil on canvas
Collection
Exhibition
2
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Petr Drozhdin
Portrait of a Boy
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van Vishnyakov, Portrait of Wilhelm Georg Fermor, 2nd half of the 1750s. Source: wikipedia.org
At the beginning of the 18th century, children were normally shown as little adults: boys were dressed in military uniform, and girls wore ball gowns. They would be powdered and have their hair curled. That is the style Ivan Vishnyakov used to paint the Fermors’ children. The boy is depicted in the uniform of a segreant of the Preobrazhensky Lifeguard Regiment, the girl holds a fan and wears a moire gown with embroidered flowers. These works resembled the adult ceremonial portrait. Childhood was then perceived as a period of transition to adult life, it had no value in itself.
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Ivan Vishnyakov, Portrait of Sarra-Eleonora Fermor, 2nd half of the 1750s. Source: wikipedia.org
However, as the ideas of the Enlightenment started spreading in Russia, the attitude to childhood changed. In the second half of the 18th century, a popular idea was that the mind of a child is clean - it is a tabula rasa, where one can write anything.
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The portrait by Drozhdin shows a child, a tabula rasa, rather than a miniature adult. He used a simple composition encased in an oval and smooth tone gradations. Even the colors of the clothes were not accidental: the reddish caftan and the blue belt resembled the colors in which the robe of the Holy Mother of God would traditionally be painted. These details reflected the 18th century understanding of the pure soul of a child.
Petr Drozhdin spent the first years of his training at the icon painting shop of the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra, where he got some incentives for his works. For example, it was ordered that his fellow trainees Ribin and Grigoriev should only be given clothes, whereas Drozhdin was to be given food, clothes and one rouble of money per year. Later, he studied at the studio of Aleksey Antropov, and then entered the Imperial Academy of Arts as an apprentice to the famous portrait painter Dmitry Levitsky.
Petr Drozhdin received orders for ceremonial and intimate portraits, however, he continued painting religious subjects and icons. He made several works for the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevski Monastery. In the 1780s, by the moment when he created the Portrait of a Boy, he had already won recognition as an artist.
Petr Drozhdin spent the first years of his training at the icon painting shop of the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra, where he got some incentives for his works. For example, it was ordered that his fellow trainees Ribin and Grigoriev should only be given clothes, whereas Drozhdin was to be given food, clothes and one rouble of money per year. Later, he studied at the studio of Aleksey Antropov, and then entered the Imperial Academy of Arts as an apprentice to the famous portrait painter Dmitry Levitsky.
Petr Drozhdin received orders for ceremonial and intimate portraits, however, he continued painting religious subjects and icons. He made several works for the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevski Monastery. In the 1780s, by the moment when he created the Portrait of a Boy, he had already won recognition as an artist.
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Yaroslavl Museum of Fine Arts
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Portrait of a Boy
Creation period
1780s
Dimensions
53,5x44,5 cm
Technique
Oil on canvas
Collection
Exhibition
2
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