Olga's Gallery
Alexey Tyranov
(1808 – 1859)
Alexey
Vasilyevich Tyranov, one of the best pupils of Alexey
Venetsianov, was born into the family of a petty bourgeois. When a
teenager, he painted icons. In 1824, Venetsianov saw his works and invited
the youth to his School. His works Self-Portrait
(1825), Weavers (1826), View on the
River Tosna (1827), are painted in Venetsianov’s style, they
are full of serenity and peace. Venetsianov managed to make Tyranov a free
student of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, organized for him admission
in the Hermitage with a right to work there. For his pictures View
of Hermitage Library (1826) and View
of the Big Church of the Winter Palace (1829), painted on the
basis of Venetsianov’s methods, Tyranov got a Minor and Major Gold Medals
of the Academy. He became popular. In 1832, the Academy of Arts awarded
him the title of a freelance painter. In the 1830s-40s, Tyranov was the
most popular portrait-painter in St. Petersburg, his popularity could be
compared only to that of Karl
Brulloff. In 1836, Tyranov became a disciple of Brulloff and started
to imitate his style.
In 1839-43, Tyranov, as a pensioner of the Academy, worked in Italy, where
he fell in love with one of his models. He brought her to St. Petersburg.
This passion ruined him. In a year, robbed and abandoned by his ‘goddess’,
he found himself in a hospital. He could never recover physically and morally
from that stress. His latest works Italian
Woman (1851), Fight for Soul are lifeless and
academic. Very sick he died in 1859.
Bibliography:
Painters of Venetzianov’s School by T. Alexeeva. Moscow. Iskusstvo.
1982.