23.12.1799 – 23.06.1852

Karl Bryullov was born on December 12 (23), 1799 in St. Petersburg in the family of a teacher in the class of ornamental sculpture of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, woodcarver, master of miniature painting and engraver Pavel Ivanovich Bryullov. Father contributed to the training of the boy of painting and drawing, and already in 1809 Bryullov was enrolled in the Academy of Arts.

A multi-talented student, Karl Bryullov, after graduation, he received pensioners abroad and from 1823 to 1835. lived in Italy, where he was carried away not only by religious or mythological themes, but also wrote several genre scenes, to which the work of 1823 “Italian Morning” can be attributed. This picture received flattering reviews. The Society of the Encouragement of Artists presented this painting to Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Nicholas I. The Emperor wanted to get a pair picture, and Bryullov wrote “Italian Noon” – one of the most famous and widely cited works.

After visiting the site of excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum in 1830, Bryullov begins work on the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”. This work, the majestic and pathos “picture-catastrophe”, kindred in spirit to the masters of romanticism – Gericault, Turner, made a furor not only in Italy, but also at home.

Karl Bryullov returned to St. Petersburg in 1836 and headed the historical class of the Academy of Arts. In addition to teaching, Bryullov shows himself as an unsurpassed master of portrait. His brushes belong to both the ceremonial portraits of the Russian nobility and the chamber ones, which reveal the image of the model more deeply.

In 1837, a portrait of Alexandra Feodorovna was painted, which is now in the Voronezh Regional Art Museum named after. I. N. Kramskoy. This work is a sketchy character, completely written in a sketch just a head. This is not the only portrait of this kind, Bryullov did many sketches for the unrealized group portrait of the family of Nicholas I.

On the recommendation of doctors Karl Bryullov left Russia in 1849, returning to Italy he loved. The artist died and was buried in Rome in 1852.