Plein air painting locations, demos and exhibits

One of the essential principles of academic art education is learning from the masters of fine art that came before us. Learning not only the skills and techniques, as this will merely make you a skilled craftsman, but learning how to see, think, and be an artist in the classical sense of this word. I have one extraordinary example of what it takes to become an artist and a master painter I like to use with my students: that of the nineteenth-century artist Vasiliy Tropinin. I feel close to this artist and his artwork because he was born and raised, lived, loved, and worked in the same regions of today's Russia and Ukraine as did my ancestors. He lived and taught in Moscow where I received my art education based on the curriculum which he helped develop. Like him, I experienced enslavement; only mine was to the state, not a person. And both of us are of the Orthodox faith, and with that comes a particular way of seeing and perceiving the world around us. What we share in common helps me to not only better understand Tropinin, the artist, and the man, but be grateful for his artistic and existential achievements upon which I can humbly build my own. And I have to admit; this article can't cover the span and the depth of the achievements of this extraordinary man. This is merely an introduction.

Vasiliy Tropinin (1776 - 1857)

Vasiliy Tropinin was born a serf—in other words, a slave. He and his masters were of the same race, ethnicity, and Orthodox Christian faith; none the less he was raised to do what his master ordered. Such was the long-accepted order of society in Russia at the time. Young Vasiliy was expected to take his father's position of managing the household of count Anton von Münnich who resided in his country estate outside of Nizhniy Novgorod. Thus Vasiliy received his primary education in a small-town school. Here Vasiliy learned to use such objects as books, paper, and charcoal.  

Young Vasiliy taught himself to draw by copying any bits of artwork he could find in his master's mansion. From serfs to masters, everyone soon knew that Vasiliy was obsessed with drawing because he used all his spare time to do it, and his pictures were surprisingly good. As you can imagine, his skill was all the more surprising given that enslaved people didn't have much spare time or art supplies.

Morkov Family Portrait by Vasiliy Tropinin, 1813

This family inherited the ownership of Tropinin, his parents and brother

When Vasiliy was a teenager, the ownership of his entire family passed from count von Münnich to Count Morkov as part of Natalia von Münnich's dowry, Morkov's young bride. The Tropinin family now managed a new household in one of the best parts of Moscow. While here, Vasiliy was surrounded by excellent architecture and occasionally was exposed to fine art at the estates of the aristocracy.

Vasiliy's father begged Count Morkov to send Vasiliy to study as an artist's apprentice so he could acquire a more formal art education, but Count Morkov was far from being a fine art aficionado; he was a pragmatic man. Instead, he sent Vasiliy to St. Petersburg to get a culinary education in the art of confection making at an estate of another aristocrat. While there, Vasiliy often visited with an artist in residence that the same aristocrat patronized. More often than not, Vasiliy snuck out to take advantage of free, not for credit, classes at the Imperial Academy of the Arts. A relatively new school founded in 1757, it offered drawing and painting classes to the poor and serfs to continue the charitable policies put in motion by Empress Catherine the Great.

Vasiliy's talent didn't go unnoticed. After a relative of Morkov's implored the count to give Vasiliy complete academic art education, Vasiliy was sent to study at the Imperial Art Academy full time. He was noticed for his talent and even received two awards, none of which he could keep himself, of course. Being a serf, his master would be the rightful recipient of such honors. 

When the Empress of Russia was pleased with Vasiliy's painting at one of the academy's exhibits, unaware of his social status, the president of the Academy, Alexander Stroganov, got the indirect support he needed to petition count Morkov to free Vasiliy from his servitude. However, the result was the opposite. Around that same time, another serf of count Morkov, Prokopiy Danilevskiy, studied in the Medical Academy. Prokopiy excelled at his studies and worked with several professors in the medical research field. He even published several books which count Morkov had at his estate. When the count decided that he needed his doctor-serf at his estate, he encountered resistance from Danilevskiy and the professors, who implored the count to free Prokopiy. Count Morkov was not moved; instead, he recalled his doctor and his artist to his new southern estate in Podol'e. Likewise, in September of 1804, Vasiliy was forced to leave the art academy short of completing his academic art education. The count envisioned Vasiliy baking cakes and preparing artfully decorated pastries for his family and important guests at their estate in Malorossiya (Little Russia), today's Ukrainian countryside in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.

As a sign of goodwill toward the locals on the part of Count Morkov, Tropinin was ordered to build a new Orthodox Church in the place of the one destroyed during earlier wars in the region. The fight for the control of the land went on between Tartars, Turks, Poles, Ukrainians, Rusyns and other Slavic people for hundreds of years. And close to fifty years earlier, the inhabitants breathed a sigh of relief by unifying with the Russian Empire thus gaining relative stability. 

As head manager of the construction, Tropinin enjoyed some independence. He no longer had to live at the master's mansion and wait on him; now, he lived with a peasant family near the construction site in the village of Kukavka. This new arrangement allowed him to get to know and love the people, learn about their traditions, and create their portraits. Tropinin also painted the church's interior, from wall designs and icons to the most sacred feature - iconostasis, a screen bearing icons, separating the sanctuary. This accomplishment earned Tropinin an excellent reputation among the locals who, long after Vasiliy left, told stories about this strong and righteous man, almost as if he was a mythological hero.

One of the stories included Prokopiy Danilevskiy, who had difficulty dealing with his servitude. Torn away from his medical research by Morkov, Prokopiy was put in shabby clothes and sent to work as a doctor to the other serfs and as a livestock veterinarian. In his drunken fits of anger, Prokopiy would dash toward the master's mansion desiring to unleash his wrath and get some justice. In this story, Tropinin was idealized for his ability to effortlessly restrain Prokopiy and carry him back home to sober up, keeping these incidents a secret from the master.

Ukrainian Woman by Vasiliy Tropinin

Here, in Kukavka, Tropinin found the love of his life, Anna Katina. They were married. Although Anna was a free woman, not a serf, count Morkov manipulated the system and abused his landowner status to register Anna as his new serf. It must have been heartbreaking for the newlyweds, but it didn't break Vasiliy's spirit.

Traveling between Moscow and Malorossia on the orders of Morkov, Tropinin spent about twelve years in this country. This land and it's inhabitants had a profound influence on the artist. Tropinin managed to turn his isolation from the rest of the art world and fellow artists into an advantage by developing his distinct style of portraiture less influenced by the trends of his time. 

Old Beggar by Vasiliy Tropinin, 1823

 Tropinin approached the subjects of his portraits and what he saw in them unlike any other artist of this period. He saw his peasant sitters as fellow servants see them, and he represented their best human side in his portraits both honestly and beautifully. He saw the noblemen as fellow Christians, the best of whom, like himself, were in the service of his country and humanity. Although Tropinin was not the only artist-serf, there were others; none reached the high enough skill level or the daring artistic vision to receive recognition. 

The societal gulf separating the freeborn artists from their peasant models was evident in the pastoral theme artwork of the time. You have to remember that at the end of 18th century and the beginning of the 19th-century Russian high society saw peasants as dirty, smelly, coarse people. Therefore, any portrayals of their life had to be done in an esthetically enjoyable manner resulting in a made-up peasant world that existed only on canvas for patrons' pleasure. In Russia, portraits of Italian peasants and staged scenes from their daily lives attracted considerably more attention than portrayals of their local peasantry. 

Prince Bagration by Vasiliy Tropinin, 1815

I would like to suggest that we should see this period in Tropinin's life as a blessing, all things considered. It was a time when Vasiliy was driven by inspiration and a desire to do something meaningful; at the same time, in his servitude, he didn't have to think about career, sales, paying bills, or painting what pleases the wealthy patrons and what sells. Tropinin and Morkov developed a relationship that suited both. Tropinin knew what not to do or say to keep his master happy. And count Morkov was satisfied with his humble, loyal servant who produced artwork admired by the intellectual elite, though Morkov had no understanding of its significance. Tropinin enjoyed a kind of artistic freedom and to an extent, had creative freedom even with the Morkov family portraits. While Tropinin used his every spare minute on painting what he found meaningful and was often sleep-deprived, he got to perfect his skill and develop his unique artistic voice. 

Few works survived from this period. Thanks to Napoleon Bonaparte, Count Morkov's Moscow estate burned to the ground during the war of 1812, and with it disappeared the majority of the early artwork created by Tropinin. But the roots of Tropinin's reputation as an artist were already deeply established, and like a tree after the fire, Tropinin grew and blossomed from the roots. He produced an impressive body of work after the war. Among his commissions were portraits of such famous personalities as writer Nikolai Karamzin, battle commander Peter Bagration, and another master of fine arts—artist Karl Bryullov.

The Lacemaker by Vasiliy Tropinin, 1823

While Tropinin the man maintained his status of a serf, humble and grateful for the blessings he received, Tropinin the artist blossomed into a famous master artist whose artistic influence on the Russian art world could not be ignored. In 1823, succumbing to societal pressures, count Morkov presented his forty-seven-year-old serf, Vasiliy, with the gift of freedom for Easter. Soon after, the artist received a certificate of recognition as a "Free Artist." Now that we know his background, this title has a whole new depth of meaning for us, doesn't it? Although Tropinin was a free man, his wife and son were not. It would take more time before Vasiliy could hope to buy them back. However, they received their freedom five years later following Count Morkov's death.

Portrait of Tropinin's Wife Anna by Tropinin, 1820

Vasiliy Tropinin settled in Moscow and became one of the founding fathers of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. His oeuvre played an essential role in developing the Moscow Style of Painting and the school's unique teaching method. To this day, his method is used in art schools, colleges, and universities all over Russia. It's uniqueness lies in teaching art students how to see and understand what they are portraying not only in a physical sense but beyond physical reality.

Portrait of Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin by Vasiliy Tropinin

During his life, Tropinin painted over 3,000 portraits. However, one portrait—of the poet and writer Alexander Pushkin as I show here—deserves special attention. Pushkin's mastery of the Russian language earned him a literary reputation akin to that of William Shakespeare in the English-speaking world. Pushkin was a third-generation descendant of an African slave, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, who, much like Tropinin, not only served and persevered under his master, Peter the Great, the Tzar of Russia but showed interest in education. Eventually, Gannibal was sent to France to study as an engineer, earned his freedom, and worked on the development of Russia's infrastructure. As in many of his other portraits, Tropinin portrayed the poet not as an idealized nobleman but as an unassuming man in his comfy house robe, absorbed in thought at his desk. 

Self-Portrait by Vasiliy Tropinin

Tropinin, the artist, teaches us his approach to drawing and painting, how to see and perceive subjects and subject matter, and how to persevere in your art studies despite life's difficulties. Tropinin the man, is an example of how to be free no matter your life's circumstances: how to rise above and become bigger than the tragedy and malevolence of life, and how to understand and love humanity in the face of its indignity. We can learn much from this humble, honest, and dedicated servant who persevered despite the unjust, unchristian social barriers he encountered and who became determined to develop the skills necessary to do what is meaningful, create what is beautiful, and thus serve humanity. 

And at that, I leave you to reevaluate how we artists create our artwork and what we could achieve today had we the same zeal for art as Vasiliy Tropinin.