Karl Bryullov portrait of Yulia Samoilova. Samoilova, Yulia Pavlovna

Karl Bryullov was the son of a sculptor and showed a talent for drawing at an early age. He was an adherent of romanticism - but unlike Western romanticism, where harmony, beauty and a positive attitude towards the world triumph, late Russian romanticism was manifested by tragic intonations and a general sense of the tragedy of life. Also, Russian romanticism is characterized by an interest in strong feelings and emotions that manifest themselves at peak moments and situations. In this case, drama is inevitable in the description of unusual topics. The artist successfully combined all these signs of the genre with the classically perfect faces and plasticity of his characters. In addition to large genre works, Bryullov created a large number of portraits, both of famous figures of Russian culture, and of his acquaintances and friends. In addition to oil painting, he successfully painted with watercolors.

Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova was a close friend of Bryullov; rumor attributed to them a love affair. Independent, educated and unpredictable, Yulia Pavlovna has experienced many fleeting romances; she did not need money and led a truly brilliant life. The lovers did not encroach on each other's privacy and met with others in parallel. Karl often painted his girlfriend, and not only in those portraits that bear her name. For example, on his epochal canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii" Julia is depicted three times - frightenedly clutching her two daughters (adopted girls of Paccini), thrown to the ground, with luxurious forms, and with an earthenware jug next to the artist himself, saving objects from red-hot lava cultural values.

"Portrait of Countess Samoilova" is one of the artist's iconic works, which at one time made a splash in Italy, where it was painted. In the picture we see a brilliant secular lady, victoriously beautiful, proud, dressed in a luxurious fancy dress. Running away from the holiday, the beauty stopped for a moment, throwing off her mask. Between Samoilova and the hall, from which she had just left, a scarlet curtain was lowered, as if separating the heroine from high society, opposing it.

The figures of the guests of the ball blur behind as if in cigarette smoke, seem faded and unimportant. The artist admires a brave, free woman who challenged the foundations of society and lived the way she herself wanted. Yulia's masquerade dress has bright highlights; in terms of intensity of colors, the coloring of the portrait is close to "The Last Day of Pompeii". The abundance of red, in all its shades - from dark crimson and blood-scarlet to delicate pink, is characteristic feature paintings. The second leading color is white; bluish on the smooth satin of the dress and warm, golden in the image of the softness of ermine fur. Samoilova's pupil, Amalia Pacchini, clung tenderly to her foster mother, she is thoughtful and a little sad. It seems that what is happening at the ball did not please and even slightly frightened the girl.

... In all appearance, in the regal figure of a magnificent woman leaving the masquerade ball, there was an arrogant challenge and a sharp protest. A swirling scarlet drapery created between her and ballroom like a wall of fire - Julia burned all the bridges between herself and secular Petersburg. She tore off the mask from her face - did she, accustomed to accept both praise and blasphemy with an open visor, needed this mask !?
... She will not return back. "Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti" after some time reported that Countess Yulia Samoilova left Russia...

"... Full of contempt for opinion,
Above the virtue of women
Isn't she laughing
How about the antics of the village?
Whom she beckons to her house,
Is it not note-taking,
Are not the newcomers pretty?
Is not the hearing of people weary
The rumor of her shameless victories
And seductive connections?
... But how omnipotently attracted
Her living beauty!
Whose immaculate lips
So smiling tenderly?!
What would Lyudmila be to her,
Humble, rays of the pious
Your azure eyes
And freshness licks bashful
Wouldn't give it away right now
For the bright gloss of black eyes,
Drenched in voluptuous moisture,
Is it hot for the flame?
What an autocratic fairy
Wouldn't you give in from the charit?"

E. Baratynsky. "Ball"

Already from birth, the image of Yulenka Palen is surrounded by some kind of mystery, but the mystery is not romantic, but rather sharply scandalous. Her grandmother, Ekaterina Skavronskaya-Litta, was the niece of the all-powerful Favorite of Catherine II Grigory Potemkin, and, like all his nieces, his mistress. The most beautiful of the Engelhardt sisters, Ekaterina Vasilyevna enjoyed great success with men and almost married illegitimate son Empress Alexei Bobrinsky, but Catherine the Great could not allow this and betrothed the beauty to a distant relative of the imperial family through the wife of Peter the Great, Martha Skavronskaya (Catherine the First). This is quite successful marriage the beauty gave birth to two daughters - Ekaterina and Maria, who later became the mother of our heroine ....

At the same time, there were rumors that Maria's father was not Skavronsky at all - during his stay in Italy, where Skavronsky was sent as an envoy, his beautiful wife began a stormy affair with a certain Count Giulio-Renato Litta-Visconti, the owner of a noble name, a huge condition, as well as spectacular and bright masculine beauty.
Ekaterina Vasilievna, lazy and sluggish from her youth, suddenly fell in love with her to the point of insanity; the count paid her the same. He followed her to Russia, and was accepted into the Russian service immediately to a very high position.

After Countess Skavronskaya was widowed, Litta married her. Derzhavin wrote on this occasion in the poem "On the marriage of Countess Litta" (1798)

"... Diana from the blue throne,
In the half-color of its rays,
Into the arms of Endymion
As descends modest paths,
Clothed in an airy tunic,
The forehead around in the stars burns, -
In silent silence the universe
She looks at the moonlight;
Or a young vine branch,
When there is no support,
Will fade, falling down,
But, revived by the breeze,
Around the new stem in the middle of summer
Wrapped in leaves, rises,
Blooms and, warmed by the sun,
A blush attracts the eyes of all:
So you, in wives, oh dear angel,
Magnet of eyes, dawn without clouds, -
How did your marriage again allow Paul
And threw his beam at you, -
Like a rose unfolding

Love bloomed with soul.
You are the Beauty that, smiling,
I gave my belt to Mars."

Unknown thin Portrait of Countess E.V. Skavronskaya with her daughter Maria.179?

Time passed - and now Katya and Masha Skavronsky become the richest brides in Russia, which, together with the beauty inherited from their mother, makes them desirable for many fans. But, despite the rich choice, the girls suddenly fall in love with handsome young man Count Paul von der Palen.

He clearly prefers the younger - Maria. Catherine will remain in history as the wife of Prince Pyotr Bagration, the hero Patriotic War 1812.
... Maria's relatives categorically opposed the marriage with Palen - the reputation of both the groom himself and his family was not at all impeccable - after all, the young count was the son of the organizer of the murder of Paul the First. But a loving couple. agreed, married secretly. And wanderings began along the distant garrisons along with the Izyumsky regiment, whose chief was Palen, who by that time was already a major general. The nomadic life deprived the spoiled beauty Maria of her usual splendor and comfort, and serious quarrels began between the spouses. In 1803, in some village in the Volyn province, in a poor peasant hut, Maria gave birth to a daughter, Julia, who was named, as it were, in honor of her grandmother Juliana von Palen. Immediately after the birth of the girl, relations between the spouses became so complicated that Maria was forced to return to her mother, and Palen demanded a divorce, which, contrary to all church and secular guidelines, was given to him. The reason was very serious - Palen accused his wife of treason with her stepfather - Julius Litta. And indeed - a dark-skinned girl with pronounced southern features, a burning brunette of the Mediterranean type, could not have been born from blond, white-skinned northern parents. Palen abandoned the girl, and never throughout his life tried to communicate with her. He soon married a second time, then, having become a widow, for a third time. Mother also married - Count Ozharovsky; little Julia was for her a reminder of a barely hushed up scandal and an unsuccessful marriage, and Maria Pavlovna also tried to see her daughter less often.

Juliana von Pahlen is Julia's grandmother, after whom her granddaughter was allegedly named.
Miniature of unknown artist, 2nd half of the 18th century.

Yulia's mother is Countess Maria Pavlovna Ozharovskaya, ur. Skavronskaya (1782-1857), in her first marriage Palen.

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky

Grandmother Ekaterina and "grandfather-father" Julius Pompeevich Litta took upon themselves all the worries about the upbringing of Yulia. Julia grew up in an atmosphere of fabulous luxury and from childhood she got used to getting everything her heart desires. At the age of fifteen, the girl was taken to the court of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and a stormy social life began. A beautiful, bright, lively girl fascinated secular society and, above all, the Emperor Alexander the First himself. The romance with the emperor was bright, butas violent as it is brief.

Nevertheless, the consequence of this novel and some surgical concomitant interventions was that Yulia Pavlovna could no longer have children. But at the time it didn't bother her at all. Finally, in 1824, the emperor finally said goodbye to Julia and told his mother that it was time to finally arrange the fate of "little Skavronskaya". And the Empress took up her favorite pastime - matchmaking. Soon, 22-year-old Yulia was betrothed to her distant relative, Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Samoilov. One of the most beautiful men of his time, Count Nikolai was not at all fascinated by his betrothed bride and did not want "leftovers from the highest table"; besides, he was passionately in love with Sashenka Rimskaya-Korsakov, to whom Pushkin dedicated lines in "Eugene Onegin" - "The night has many lovely stars ..." But Sashenka was not at all rich, and the financial affairs of the Samoilovs were completely upset - in that including constant revelry, and most importantly, the young count's great passion for the card game, therefore, to the nickname "Handsome Alcibiades", the adjutant wing Samoilov received one more - "Chalk". His debts accumulated and, finally, resulted in such a monstrous figure that the loving mother, Countess Ekaterina Samoilova, was forced to beg the Empress herself to marry her son to a rich bride. Nikolai's sister, the maid of honor and beloved friend of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Countess Sophia Alekseevna Bobrinskaya, also took an active part in the matchmaking.

... Julia was fascinated by her handsome fiance. And Litta's loving grandparents showered her with money and luxurious gifts. The dowry was enormous; the number of funds donated to Julia caused stunned admiration among the courtiers. And on January 25, 1825, two descendants of Prince Potemkin-Tauride went down the aisle. But they didn't make a happy couple. The headstrong, eccentric character of Yulia and her southern temperament were directly opposite to the coldly critical character. young husband- and he continued to play, losing monstrous sums, while the ardent countess changed lovers like gloves, and spent nothing on them less money than the husband card game. One business manager of the Samoilovs, Mishkovsky, cost the loving beauty 800 thousand rubles - a monstrous sum for those times - and even grandfather Litta could not stand it - he almost killed the impudent clerk who presented him with this bill for payment. The matter was somehow hushed up - but the beauty did not let up. Her next passions were Baron Ernest de Barante, known for a duel with Lermontov, the French ambassador Pierre La Feronne, and even Emperor Nicholas I himself, whom Julia begged to pardon her husband, who carelessly got involved. as a member of the Northern secret society, in the "case of the Decembrists". Nicholas forgave the rebel, and the couple gently reconciled - but not for long. Soon. after another betrayal, Nikolai Alekseevich finally parted with his wife and left for the Caucasus under the command of General Paskevich. And Yulia Pavlovna went to the estate of Count Slavyanka near Pavlovsk, which she inherited from the counts of Skavronsky.
Soon the most unbelievable rumors spread from there. Revels were described in the manner of the Cleopatras and Messalinins. The pools, they say, are filled with champagne, the fountains beat with champagne. And the Countess de Julia has completely lost her leash: she takes every guest as her lover. And those who strive to refuse, those serfs dragged by force into her bed!

Views and interiors of the Count Slavyanka in the images of the 19th century

But everything tends to end...
...One morning, a handsome young man, poet and artist, Count Emmanuel Saint-Prix, a favorite of society ladies, was found in a pool of blood at his home. Rumors immediately spread that he shot himself out of hopeless love for Countess Samoilova ...

"Fear the dangerous lady,
Don't Approach: Circled
She is a magical sketch;
Around her passionate contagion
Filled with air! The pitiful one
Who enters into his sweet child:
Rook swimmer whirlpool
So it leads to death!
Run her away: there is no heart in her!
Be afraid of insinuating speeches
Stupefying Lure;
Do not catch loving glances:
It has the heat of a drunken bacchante,
Fever fever is not the fever of love ... "

(E.A. Baratynsky. "Ball")

A serious scandal erupted - it was too loud even for the very scandalous reputation of Yulia Pavlovna - and she makes an urgent decision to leave for Italy, to the relatives of Yuli Pompeevich Litt. Having first visited her estate Grusset near Paris, Julia buys herself a beautiful villa on Lake Como and a palace in Milan.

Immediately, her villas and palaces are filled with magnificent works of art; she patronizes artists and composers, among whom Giovanni Paccini stands out. the author of the opera "The Last Day of Pompeii" - and takes his daughter and niece to be brought up. At the same time, a young Russian artist with the face of Apollo and a reputation as a heartthrob appears in her entourage - and Yulia literally loses her head. Karl Bryullov for many years becomes not only her favorite person, but also her best friend.

“Nothing was done according to the rules between me and Karl,” Julia later admits. It was exactly like that - from the first minute of the first meeting. They were equal in temperament - and this crazy fire, this expression of passion poured out in powerful streams of light in Karl's paintings, in his numerous portraits of Julia.

“The gas on it, flowing, shines;
Luxurious, sweet eyes
Draws the chest, then to the legs
With a bright garland falls.
Diamond flickering earrings
Burning behind black curls;
Pearls covered her forehead,
And, between abundant braids
Skilful hand missed
We see it, then it is invisible.
Feathers flutter above the head;
According to his languid whim,
That her face they cherish,
They doze in her curls."
(E.A. Baratynsky. "Ball")

Describing subsequently the main types of Bryullov's paintings, Gogol will find the following words for them: “His man is filled with beautifully proud movements; his woman shines, but she is not a Raphael woman, with subtle, inconspicuous, angelic features - she is a passionate, sparkling, southern, Italian woman in all the beauty of noon, powerful, strong, burning with all the luxury of passion, all the power of beauty - beautiful as a woman ".
In the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" the appearance of Julia is repeated several times.

- in the image of a beautiful dying woman who fell from the chariot;

In the image of a young townswoman next to the artist, in whose guise Bryullov portrayed himself;

And, finally, in the image of the Mother, trying to cover her two daughters from the universal catastrophe. On the neck of a woman - a cross, she is a Christian; she does not run anywhere, and her eyes, frightened and reddened from tears, are pleadingly raised to the sky ...
Julia was close to this particular plot. Helping one of her lovers, the author of the opera "The Fall of Pompeii" ("The Last Day of Pompeii") Giovanni Pacchini, she adopted his daughter and niece. Two pretty girls - the blonde Jovanina and the brunette Amacilia - replaced her own children. Bryullov repeatedly painted their portraits, the most famous of which was "Horsewoman" ("Zhovanin on a horse"), where in the entourage of Samoilova's Milan villa, lovely girls - a teenager and a baby - look like two bright flowers or shining gems:

Countess Samoilova patronized Pacchini with all the opportunities she had, and once - to please him - she almost disrupted the premiere of Pacchini's rival Vincenzo Bellini, hiring clackers and arranging a real obstruction for the performer of the main party - Giuditta Pasta. Bellini's opera was called "Norma"...

Relations with Bryullov resembled a volcano of passions - and they were also just friends, vividly worried about each other and helping each other, although "Charlemagne" was considered by all his acquaintances to be an inveterate egoist ( “Behind the appearance of the young Hellenic god, there was a cosmos, in which the hostile principles were mixed and either erupted with a volcano of passions, or poured with a sweet brilliance. He was all passion, he did nothing calmly, as they do ordinary people. When passions boiled in him, their explosion was terrible, and whoever stood closer, he got more..)
She forever became his Muse - one after another, he painted her portraits (of which there are - alas! - few); she was the model for his most famous paintings, in particular, for "Bathsheba", shining with all the colors of the Italian noon.

... In 1829, Yulia's grandmother, Countess Skavronskaya-Litta, died. Samoilova leaves Italy to inherit.
“Samoilova returned from abroad and appeared at the station in Pavlovsk with a whole retinue of handsome men - Italians and French ... her juicy lips, upturned nose and expression in her eyes seemed to say: “I don’t care about the opinion of the world!”- this is how the artist Pyotr Sokolov remembered her.

Yu.P. Samoilova. Hood. A.P. Bryullov, 1830s

She settles in the family estate - Count Slavyanka - and decides to rebuild it in a modern way. To do this, she invites her brother Karl from Paris - the architect Alexander Bryullov - and writes in a letter to him: "As a friend of your brother, I decide ... to ask you to be the architect of the dacha that I am going to build on my estate. It is dear to me to have the architect of someone who bears the name of Bryullov ..."
And the talented Alexander began work in the summer of 1831, making the countess's dacha a real masterpiece of comfort and coziness in a mixed style of modernity and classicism. Samoilova's favorite era of antiquity was perfectly combined with the quadracento style, and all this with the elegance and luxury of the richest aristocrats of the 19th century.
After the construction was completed, carriages with numerous guests were drawn to Slavyanka. Precious paintings, original furniture and lamps, luxurious carpets and draperies were a magnificent setting for music, poetry, and often very sharp conversations. Samoilova brought with her from Italy a whole "horde" of musicians and painters, sculptors and poets - and simply admirers, mostly adventurers. Noisy companies in Slavyanka and the free-and-frivolous behavior of her mistress began to greatly annoy Emperor Nicholas, and the countess had to move "under the supervision" of the authorities to Yelagin Island, where, however, the regulars of Slavyanka immediately reached out. Old Litta, having lost his adored wife, spoiled Yulia with truly royal gifts and huge sums of money. Bored with St. Petersburg, Julia, together with her "brilliant retinue" in 1835, again left for Italy, where Bryullov was no longer there - it was at that time that he returned to Russia. Their personal relationship lost its former sharpness - over the years, Karl became more boring, arrogant, colder; his suspiciousness, capriciousness and selfishness began to affect their relationship. Nevertheless, Julia's letters were still warm: "My friend Brishka ... I love you more than I can explain", "no one in the world admires you and loves you like your faithful friend Yulia Samoilova."
... And the "friends of Brishka" in Russia began to have hard times. He fell madly in love with a charming girl who looked like a tender forest lily of the valley - 18-year-old Emilia Timm; quickly proposed to her and quickly married. But - you get married quickly, you repent for a long time. Even before the wedding, the girl was in connection with one of her closest relatives, and nothing has changed after the wedding. The scandal and hype raised around his name severely injured the artist. His ill-wishers gloated, and he himself wrote: “I felt so much my misfortune, my shame, the destruction of my hopes for domestic happiness ... that I was afraid to lose my mind”. He couldn't work. The deep depression deepened.
At the same time, Julius Pompeevich Litta dies in St. Petersburg, and Julia returns to Russia to inherit. Her warmth and participation help "Precious Brishka" to return to life and creativity, and she has always been very deeply indifferent to the opinion of the world. “She has changed so much,” K.Ya. wrote in his diary. Bulgakov, - that I would not have recognized her if I had met her on the street, she lost weight, and her face became completely Italian. In conversation, she even has Italian liveliness and is pleasant ... "

"Meanwhile (to what destruction
Leading a heart storm!)
Her faded eyes
Surrounded by a wide shadow
And there is no blush on the cheeks!
Slightly visible in the form of a beautiful
The beauty of an experienced weak trace!
(E. Baratynsky. "Ball")

On this visit of Yulia to Russia, friends decided to reconcile her with her husband Nikolai Samoilov. The couple did not mind, there was no official divorce between them; both of them, after a stormy life, were already looking for a quiet backwater, and this could be the Grafskaya Slavyanka for them. But fate decreed otherwise - July 23, 1842. a few days before meeting his wife, Nikolai Alexandrovich suddenly dies. This was a huge blow to Julia. At the same time, the famous artist P.V. Basin painted a portrait from her. After losing several loved ones, Julia is sad and thoughtful. Her pale face and reddened eyes make a striking contrast with the fabulous luxury of the furnishings and attire. The energy that so enchants the viewer in her portraits by Bryullov. - No.
... But after some time, natural liveliness and temperament take their toll. For the 39-year-old woman, life is not over; she still feels young and energetic to start over. But in Russia it is stuffy. And, as a farewell to Russia, she orders Bryullov her portrait, which has become a masterpiece of Russian and world art of the 1st half of the 19th century.

"... She came to the ball.
What upset her soul?
Crowds of windy guests
In a brightly shining, lush hall,
Careless babble, peaceful laughter?
Gusts or cheerful music,
And, in a word, this whirlwind of pleasures,
Is it so heavy for a sick soul?
Or ambiguously look
Dare<в глаза ей>anyone?.."

(E. Baratynsky. "Ball")

And, tearing off the mask of forced secular pretense, proudly raising her head and not turning around, Yulia leaves the "ball" of Russian secular life. She leaves for France, then for Milan. She will not return to Russia again. Karl Bryullov will no longer be in her life. Several years of throwing between Russia and Italy, severe nervous exhaustion, which greatly affected her character, suspiciousness and egocentrism that increase over the years, constant complaints about health and - at times - almost hysterical capriciousness ...

Being only six years older than Yulia, he seemed like an old man next to her - and their relationship gradually faded away. Moreover, Julia was in love again - and HOW in love!

...Once in a certain small Italian town she had to linger - the carriage broke down on the way. In the evening she visited a local small theater - there was an opera by her friend Gaetano Donizetti "Lucia di Lammermoor". On this day, the young tenor Giovanni Peri made his debut - an extraordinary handsome man with a sad expression on his face. Julia was bewitched. And in 1846 she married him - despite the fact that, according to Russian laws, this marriage deprived her of Russian titles and land ownership. Even the adored Count Slavyanka had to be sold - but signora Julia Peri loved her husband so much (who was 20 years younger than her) that she stopped at nothing - even before accepting Catholicism. However, for her - a passionate pagan bacchante - this was not something fateful or tragic ...
... But her insane happiness did not last even a year - at the end of the same 1846, Giovanni Peri dies of transient consumption. He was buried in St. Mark's Cathedral, and Julia transported him to Paris, where she buried him in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. On her desk now stood two portraits - Giovanni and Count Nikolai Samoilov.
... And in June 1852, Bryullov died - in Italy, in the house of his friend. Shortly before that, he painted the painting "Night over Rome". Having finished it, with his eyes closed, he poked the canvas with a brush and ordered to bury it in this place. It turned out that he pointed to the cemetery of Monte Testaccio. There he was buried - exactly in the indicated place.

1. Yu.P. Samoilova in the circle of Austrian officers. Hood.W.Richter, 1850s 2. Gr.Yu.P. Samoilov. Hood Winterhalter. 1840s

Having lost all her beloved people and paid tribute to their memory, Julia decided to restore her count's title. To do this, she married again in 1863 - to the ruined French diplomat count Charles de Mornay. She was 60 years old, he was 66. And no romance - Julia needed a count title in order to keep the Grusset castle in Paris. But she kept the name of Samoilov. For this small adventure with the title, the count was assigned a solid life annuity, which later turned out to be very burdensome for Julia. Her wealth melted away. And besides, litigation with relatives also piled on her, including with the pupil - Amazilia Pacchini, who, after two unsuccessful marriages, went to the monastery, but at the same time began a lawsuit over some house that belonged to Amazilia along with Giovanina either by inheritance or by adoption agreement.

It was a very complicated, long and scandalous lawsuit. How it ended is unknown. It feels like no one got anything. Amazilia remained in the monastery. Her sister Jovanina had no complaints against Julia, she successfully married and lived quietly on the rent donated by Julia, not stopping communication with her foster mother until her death /

Yulia Samoilova died in Paris on March 19, 1865. According to her will, she was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery next to her beloved husband Giovanni Peri. There are beautiful portraits and the memory of her as the Muse of the great Russian artist.

But from her beloved Count Slavyanka remained after the hostilities of 1941-1944. only ruins.

http://v-murza.livejournal.com/50226.html?thread=533042

"In the morning of winter the shadows are long,
the trail pulls up and straight,
golden above the valley
the spire of the awakened temple.

Dissolve into fading blue
thoughtforms of the past
faces of Julia the Countess,
and Skavronsky, and Bryullov,

What left the progress of the century
stamped flow,
only one crippled palace
in the brick bruises

Breaks perspective
stubborn beggar
in an unsportsmanlike village
called Dynamo.

Post illustrations:
1.K. Bryullov. Portrait of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova with adopted daughter Amacilia Pacchini. Fragment. 1839-1842.
2.E.Vigee-Lebrun. Portrait of Countess E.V. Skavronskaya.17??.
3. Unknown art. Portrait of Countess E.V. Skavronskaya with her daughter Maria.179?.
4. Unknown art. Portrait of Count Yu.P. Litt.179?.
5.J.Dow. Portrait of Pavel von der Palen.18??
6. G. Kugelchen. Portrait of Empress Maria Feodorovna in mourning.1801.
7. F. Gerard. Portrait of an imp. Alexander Pavlovich.1816.
8.D.Bossi. Portrait of gr.Yu.P. Samoilova.183?
9.I.-B.Lumpy. Portrait of E.S. Samoilova. 1792.
10.P.F.Sokolov.Portrait of gr.S.A.Bobrinskaya.182?.
11.P.F.Sokolov.Portrait of N.A.Samoilov.1823(?)
12. O. Verne. Portrait of an imp. Nikolai Pavlovich. Colored engraving of the 19th century.
13. A. Bryullov. The project of Samoilova's house in Grafskaya Slavyanka. 1830.
14. K. Bryullov. Portrait of Countess Yu. P. Samoilova. 183?
14a.B. Mituar. Portrait of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova.1825
15. K. Bryullov. Self-portrait. 1830.
16. K. Bryullov. Portrait of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova with her adopted daughter Giovannina Pacchini and a black boy. 1832-34.
17. K. Bryullov. The last day of Pompeii. Fragment. 1830-33.
18. K. Bryullov. The last day of Pompeii. Fragment. 1830-33.
19. K. Bryullov. The last day of Pompeii. Fragment. 1830-33.
20. G. Paccini. Engraving of the 19th century.
21. K. Bryullov. Horsewoman. 1832.
22. K. Bryullov. Portrait of Giuditta Pasta as Anne Boleyn. 1834.
23. K. Bryullov. Bathsheba. 1832.
24. Unknown art. Countess Samoilova, Karl and Alexander Bryullov.198?
24a.V.Gau. Portrait of Yu.V. Samoilova. 1840.
25. Photo. Count Slavyanka estate. Surviving fragment.
26. K. Bryullov. Portrait of Emilia Timm. 1838.
27.P.Basin.Portrait of Countess Yu.P.Samoilova.184?
28. K. Bryullov. Portrait of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova with her adopted daughter Amazilia Pacchini.1839-1842.
29. K. Bryullov. Self-portrait. 1848.
30. K. Bryullov. Portrait of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova.183?.
31. K. Bryullov. Horsewoman. Fragment. 1832.
32. K. Bryullov. Portrait of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova with her adopted daughter Amazilia Paccini. Fragment. 1839-1842.
33. K. Bryullov. Horsewoman. Fragment. 1832.
34. K. Bryullov. Portrait of Countess Yu. P. Samoilova with her adopted daughter Giovanina Pacchini and an Arab child. Fragment. 1832-34.
35.K.Brullov.Portrait of Giovanina Paccini.183?
36. Photo. Count Slavyanka. Palace ruins.
37. Photo. Count Slavyanka. Palace ruins.

Karl Bryullov.
Portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova with Giovanina Pacini and a black boy.
(Private collection, California, USA)
In 1875, in an atmosphere of poverty, close to poverty, a childless and capricious old woman was dying in Paris, living only in memories of what had been and what would die with her. Neither the Milanese nor the St. Petersburg relatives seemed to care about a lonely woman who once flashed across the Russian sky "like a lawless comet in a circle of calculated luminaries." It was Countess Yu.P. Samoilova; she was buried in one of the Parisian cemeteries, consigned to oblivion.

C. D. Krueger, author of Remarkable Women of the 19th Century, wrote:
“In the 30s of the 19th century, in society, under the influence of the ideas of romanticism, arose new type high society woman, free, daring, brilliant. Such ladies were called "lionesses". They read the novels of George Sand, smoked, disregarded conventions and often had very turbulent personal lives.
Countess Yulia Pavlovna fully corresponded to this characteristic: independent, educated, rare for a woman of that time, well versed in art, music, literature, she listened only to the voice of her heart and did only what it, restless, prompted her!
Always unpredictable, Yulia Pavlovna was known as an original in Italy. An atmosphere of brilliance surrounded her everywhere. The countess gathered the color of Italian society - composers, artists, artists, diplomats. She patronized young talents, often paid for the production of operas at La Scala. In those days, among her guests were the young Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Pacini.
Money flowed like a river, but she had no account of them. Yulia Pavlovna was still passionately carried away. It seemed that short-lived novels would never end.
From the outside, it might seem that Yulia Pavlovna is capable of bringing only suffering and misfortune to men, but for Karl Bryullov, she became his savior ...

She forgot, over time, when and how she was "struck by lightning" of a passionate attractive feeling of Love for a small, fragile person with a face thin and expressive, like that of an ancient Greek god, hard of hearing in one ear, and somehow touching - gracefully inclining head to whoever he was talking to.
Did it happen at once, from the moment of their first meeting, in Rome, at Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya's, in a few minutes, when they both said to each other a dozen meaningless, secularly kind words, although Bryullov looked at her intently; or did it happen much later, later, when the “priceless friend Brishka” was already drawing in her presence sketches for the painting that took him six years of his life: “The Last Day of Pompeii” ?!
She could never give an exact answer, but she knew that from the very first meeting they had become as if “bewitched” to him forever.

Who is he and who is she? He, a worker from a family of workers, is it appropriate to look at her beauty?
Petersburg refused even to send pension money to Karl, and a woman appeared next to him, who did not know the measure of passions and expenses, who sometimes visited France, where she had the Grousset estate, overflowing with family treasures. Finally, how beautiful her palazzo in Milan, and even better the villa on Lake Como, where the composers Rossini and Donizetti visited her ...
Samoilova was smart and, it seems, she herself guessed that she was oppressing the poor painter.

So be it, I agree to be humiliated by you.
- You? Bryullov was surprised.
- Of course! If I consider myself equal to the emperor, then why don't you, my dear Brishka, make me your slave, forever subdued by your talent? After all, talent is also a title that elevates the artist not only over the aristocracy, but even over the power of crowned despots...

Bryullov painted portraits from her, considering them unfinished, because Yulia Pavlovna did not like to pose - there was no time! She never had time. On one of the canvases, she is shown returning from a walk, she impetuously runs into the room - under the admiring glances of the girl and the African servant. Of the portraits of Samoilova, two are known. Others disappeared without a trace, but remained in the memory of contemporaries. One of the surviving "Samoilova with pupil Giovanina Pacini and a black boy" is in the Museum of California. It was from this portrait that the Italian public was delighted, and its creator was enthusiastically compared with the brilliant Rubens and Van Dyck).

Finally, "The Last Day of Pompeii" struck, and he glorified the painter - immediately and for centuries!
Bryullov became the idol of Italy: they followed him around like a champion who lifted a weight of unprecedented weight, the masters invited him to visit, longed to know his opinion, highly appreciated every stroke of Bryullov's pencil, and finally, Karl Pavlovich was pestered with orders.
It is interesting that in "Pompeii" the artist depicted three times.
Here she is next to him (the artist himself saves the attributes of art) with a jug on her head

Here Samoilova is like a mother with two daughters, waiting for death in a close embrace. (The skeletons of three women in this position were found during excavations).

At first they appeared everywhere together. A stately beauty and short, with an impressive, but large head, expansive Karl. They traveled together in Italy. Judging by the letters, it was a passionate feeling.
“My friend Brishka ... - she wrote to him in letters of 1827 - I love you more than I can explain, I hug you and I will be sincerely committed to you until the grave.”
And later she tenderly confirmed: "I love you, I adore you, I am devoted to you, and I recommend myself to your friendship. She is for me the most precious thing in the world."
Karl reciprocated warmly. "My faithful friend," Bryullov spoke tenderly of her...
And in a letter to Alexander Bryullov, the brother of her lover, the Countess wrote frankly that she and “Karl-Brishko” would like to unite their destinies. What prevented both of them from doing this, because Countess Yulia Pavlovna was the only one true love artist throughout his life? Never again later, after breaking up with her, (in 1845-46, Countess Samoilova went to Italy, married the Italian singer Perry, and Bryullov could not find her traces there, although he made futile efforts!) It will never be given him to experience this unified feeling of delight and at the same time true, almost masculine friendliness, which the countess gave him!

If secular rumor accused Samoilova of frivolity, then Bryullov, who sang of her in his paintings, was also fickle.
The nature of the relationship between Samoilova and Bryullov was unprecedented at that time. None of them encroached on each other's personal freedom.
Because of the love pranks of a close friend, she asked at the time of separation: "Tell me where you live and whom you love? .."
She herself did not hide her love stories either. And at a distance, their relationship acquired, so to speak, a "romantic" character.

She knew that they were surprisingly similar in souls, hearts, perception of the world. They always understood each other perfectly, did not encroach on each other's freedom, there was no secret, no secret, no trite vulgar jealousy between them: everyone could, without false embarrassment, tell each other about the fleeting hobbies of the other or the other, and laugh merrily, to make fun of themselves right there, everyone forgave each other with generously loving hearts!

The proud, freedom-loving beauty Julia never encroached on the secrets inner world his "palladin" - "priceless Brishka", knowing that, sometimes, behind the apparent calmness and silence in his soul lurks - a deep abyss!

And only She, the incomparable Julia, was his true Guardian Angel, although there was never anything heavenly and airy in her, she was only a beautiful, earthly woman - sinful, quick-tempered, with a craving for truly earthly passions and earthly happiness. She was, in fact, real, blinding, burning, flooding everything around with brightness and heat, “Italian noon, the sun,” as Bryullov called her, and in the shadow of the increasingly frequent attacks of the Beloved’s nervous melancholy, which was facilitated by the most difficult circumstances of the artist’s life: the death of parents, brother Pavel, and most importantly, the great and hidden from prying eyes tragedy of the failed marriage of Bryullov himself with the outstanding pianist, student of Frederic Chopin, Emilia Timm - she became colder and colder. She knew the bitter story of her Artist's marriage, but she also spoke about it to few people. I was afraid to tear both my own and someone else's heart with an overly painful narration.

The break between the spouses was sudden and seemed inexplicable, because no one in St. Petersburg understood anything. And when people do not know anything, then their imagination knows no limits.
Historians for many years did not reveal the secret of this strange gap, explaining their silence as reasons for observing morality. But at the same time, leaving the reader in the dark, historians - involuntarily! - they did not remove the blame from Bryullov; thus the reader was entitled to think the worst of the painter. But from now on, the seal of silence has been broken, and we are allowed to tell the real truth.
Emilia Timm was corrupted by her own father, who, passing her off as Bryullov, wanted to remain as her daughter's lover.
Moreover, when the gap had already taken place, this bastard (by the way, along with his daughter) demanded a "lifelong pension" from the artist. Bryullov suffered.

By that time, Karl was forty, Julia thirty-six.
Countess Yulia Samoilova urgently rushed to St. Petersburg on matters of inheritance.
Immediately notified of the slander erected against her friend, Yulia Pavlovna is a continuous impulse, as in her portraits! - rushed to his workshop. She found him dejected by troubles. He was unhappy, but .., already with a brush in his hand.
- My wife is art! Bryullov admitted.
Julia turned everything upside down in his apartment. She kicked out the cook hired by Emilia Timm; she slapped the drunken lackey in the face; she ordered to drive away all the guests who were thirsty for a hangover, and, probably, she could have said to Bryullov the very words that she once sent him with a letter:
"I entrust myself to your friendship, which is more than precious to me, and I repeat to you that no one in the world admires you and loves you like I am your faithful friend."
So can only write and speak loving woman...

Karl Pavlovich began to paint a portrait of his beloved woman, but now in a completely different manner, depicting her again in a fit of unforeseen movement - almost sharp, almost defiant, almost protesting.
This is how the famous "Countess Yu. P. Samoilova, leaving the ball at the Persian envoy" arose. Between Samoilova and the society she is leaving, Bryullov lowered a heavy, brightly flaming curtain barrier, as if cutting off her return to society. She tore off her mask, appearing before us in all the revelation of her beauty, and behind the curtain curtain - as if in a fog - the vague outlines of masquerade figures sway.

Karl Bryullov.
Portrait of Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, leaving the ball with her adopted daughter Amazilia Pacchini
(State Russian Museum,
Saint-Petersburg, Russia.)

But in these times, in his works, loneliness, the bitterness of detachment from worldly fuss will be brighter, sharper, more definite, the bitterness of a heavy insight. (“Portrait of Strugovshchikov”, “Self-Portrait.”) The talented master, who glorified Russia with his canvases all over the world, professor of the Academy of Arts, who had hundreds of students and admirers, was sympathized by many, but he could only cry with the inconsolable tears of a child on the lap of Countess Yulia. She understood and consoled everything, but all the same, she froze endlessly in the depths of his huge, sad, detached eyes. Or did she think she was cold? ...

They, leaving everything in Russia: orders, the Academy, classes, neglecting the highest dissatisfaction, used to leave for a couple of months in Italy, Bryullov wrote his sketches for large paintings there, genre scenes from Neapolitan life, portraits ordered by Italian and Russian nobility. There was no end to rich clients, and Yulia would never have allowed her “dear friend” to be in need of anything, but he often dropped wearily: “I will never marry, my wife is art!” And he was again drawn to Russia. At first she pretended to carelessly not hear.

But one day, in 1845, she made a painful decision for herself. She told Bryullov that she was leaving, that she loved another, and - for a long time! He didn't object to anything. Nodding according to. But when, on Issakievsky Prospekt, in St. Petersburg, their sleigh was already finally driving to different sides, quietly said: “You are leaving my life .. So it’s time for me to leave!” She did not hear these words in the creak of the sleigh runners, or again pretended not to hear.. The winter sun treacherously blinded her eyes, tears flowed, she swallowed them, smiling. What has always been for the "priceless friend of Brishka"! After all, he was looking after her. She felt it without looking back! She wanted to be not a broken dove, but a proud, sparkling Sun from behind the clouds...

The portrait "Retiring from the Ball" ended up with Julia in Milan much later, after Bryullov's death in 1852. The Countess outlived her Charles by twenty-three years. Samoilova, of course, was: subdued by the creations of "dear and mourned Brishka," as she called him. She considered the one "whom she loved and admired so much ... one of the greatest geniuses that ever existed." That is her verdict.

She died in Paris on March 14, 1875. She was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. During the years of need and ruin, Yulia Pavlovna categorically refused to sell her paintings by K. Bryullov. For the time being, all the portraits remained in her house in Italy. But gradually they scattered around the world. Their fate was already decided by the descendants of the countess - distant relatives who still live in Italy, at the ancestral villa Palen - Litta, Campo, near Rome. Probably, some of them are in private Western collections, and the main and best - "Retiring from the ball ..." - is now in the Russian Museum.

Materials used:
The story of V. Pikul "Retiring from the ball"
Article by S. Makarenko "Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova"
Site http://www.tanais.info/

Self-portrait of Karl Bryullov

A muse woman, a love woman, a friend woman, and a woman who finally broke the artist's heart. Shattered so that he died. And it's all about her - about Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova.

Before I talk about how they met, how they fell in love and how they parted, I will talk about how this extraordinary woman lived before she met.

Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova

Countess Yu.P. Samoilova. Fragment of the painting

Contemporaries noted that Countess Samoilova was a brilliant and daring lady, well versed in literature and music, was educated and freedom-loving. She lived not with her mind, but with her passionate heart. And the heart was very restless.

Envious tongues hinted that all her independence and audacity - from the untold wealth that her ancestors left her both on the maternal side and on the side of her father. Indeed, the nee Countess von der Pahlen was fabulously wealthy. The heiress of Russian and Italian aristocrats: Skavronsky (Catherine the First - the wife of Great Peter), Palena, Litta and Visconti (these are the same ones who were relatives of Francesco Sforza, the patron of Leonardo la Vinci).
They also said that Count Litta, chief chamberlain and chief ceremonial master of the imperial court, left his vast fortune to Julia because she was not his granddaughter, but his daughter. When the girl was five years old, her mother went to Paris to study art, and left the girl in the care of the count.

The little countess grew up bold and headstrong, distinguished by phenomenal rebelliousness. But, if she loved someone, then she turned with this person into a little angel. The governesses and nannies simply adored the little and graceful girl, who looked like a beautiful kitten.
Yulenka loved to wander through the endless halls of the count's palace. With her fragile fingers, she touched priceless works of art. And very early I began to understand what real art is. And if she didn’t understand something, she went to a huge library. And great minds, from book pages, spoke to her about life and art.

This is how the future Countess Samoilova was formed, an independent, educated woman, with her own outlook on life and her own personal opinion.

Rider

She never followed fashion. What for? She herself was a fashion and role model. A beautiful woman with a proud posture, smart and laid-back. How did she win men's hearts?! And how she was fond of herself!

When she was 25 years old (this happened in 1825), she suddenly got married. Her chosen one is not an ordinary person at all. He is rich, famous, handsome and young, witty and cheerful, a friend of Pushkin and a frequenter of social events - the adjutant of the Emperor, Colonel Samoilov Nikolai Alexandrovich.

But, the happiness of the young was not long at all. Nikolai was known as an avid duelist and gambler, he loved wine and noisy companies. And he never loved his wife Julia. This marriage was arranged by Nikolai's mother, who simply dreamed of marrying her son to such a bride as the young Countess Palen. Colonel Samoilov loved a completely different woman. He loved passionately and tenderly.

The divorce was quick and quiet. In 1827, the “handsome Apkibiades” (that was the name of Samoilov in society) took the countess to her father and returned the dowry (more precisely, what was left of it) ex-wife. They ceased to be spouses, but remained friends. Society did not understand such relations: the world lived by rumors and generated rumors. They were reconciled and quarreled, married and divorced again. And they were just friends. In the end, Count Samoilov left for the active army. Colleagues, then, spoke of his cold courage and contempt for death.

And Countess Samoilova? She is free and her audacity simply has no limits. The light of St. Petersburg tends not to Tsarskoye Selo, but to Count Slavyanka - the summer estate of the young Countess Samoilova. Sovereign Emperor is furious. He cannot get guests to himself - they prefer to visit the countess. And the Emperor asks to sell him a popular estate. He asks so that even the wayward Samoilova does not dare to refuse.

But, in the end, she turns to the imperial dignitary:

• Tell the emperor that you did not go to Count Slavyanka, but to Countess Samoilova, and they will continue to go to her, wherever she is!

The daring Countess not only said, but also did... Very little time passed and the light of St. Petersburg began to gather not in Grafskaya Slavyanka, but in a beautiful palace on Elagin Island. Needless to say, the mistress of the palace was the magnificent Samoilova.

She was a star of secular society not only in Russia, but also in Italy. Aristocrats and diplomats, poets and composers, artists and writers gathered in her Italian palace. Rossini, Verdi, Bellini and Pacini. They are regulars at the original Countess Samoilova.

Wine and money flow like a river, passions rage and little love tragedies happen. The novels have no end and count. But, she only brings suffering to men and suffers herself. She lives brightly and passionately, but there is no happiness in her life.

Bryullov and Samoilova. First meeting

It was 1828. Naples looked with fear at the awakened Vesuvius ... The year was difficult for Karl Bryullov. Adelaide Desmoulins fell passionately in love with him. She loved, and he was cold. She was jealous and out of stupid jealousy threw herself into the Tiber. Light accused Bryullov of cruel indifference. He made excuses, but no one believed him.

Bryullov was invited to dinner with Prince Gagarin. And when dinner was coming to an end, the doors of the hall suddenly flung open and she appeared on the threshold ... A proud, stately beauty, a dream and the very embodiment of beauty. The hall gasped, and the prince warned Bryullov:

Fear her, Carl! This woman is not like the others. She changes not only attachments, but also the palaces in which she lives. Having no children of her own, she declares strangers to be her own. But I agree, and you will agree, that you can go crazy with her ...

They literally exchanged a few words. And then Prince Gagarin, trying to protect Bryullov from gossip and remorse, took the artist to his estate with beautiful name Grotta Ferrata. Karl painted pictures and read a lot. Life flowed quietly and serenely. But, one evening, this rural silence simply exploded - Yulia Pavlovna appeared on the threshold of the house.

Let's go! she announced decisively. - Maybe the roar of Vesuvius, ready to bury this unbearable world, will save you from melancholy and remorse ... Let's go to Naples!

Then, many years later, she recalled that "it" happened at the very first moment of their meeting. Nothing had happened yet, but she already knew that she was "bewitched" to him forever.

He is a poor artist, and she is socialite who does not know the number of her treasures, the owner of beautiful palaces in Italy and Russia, the patroness of the arts, an aristocrat of the highest standard.

She is smart and bossy, but she loves him.

• So be it, I agree to be humiliated by you.
• You? Bryullov was surprised.
• Of course! If I consider myself equal to the emperor, then why don't you, my dear Brishka (as she called him), make me your slave, forever subdued by your talent? After all, talent is also a title that elevates the artist not only over the aristocracy, but even over the power of crowned despots...

He painted portraits of her. And he always said that these portraits were not finished. Yulia Pavlovna did not like to pose - she was always in a hurry. Well, she couldn't sit still for long. Impetuous, passionate, cheerful, full of life. She loved him and loved his work. I didn't like to pose.

Portraits of Samoilova, painted by Bryullov, delighted the public. Karl began to be compared with the great artists: Van Dyck and Rubens. And then the inevitable happened - the "Last Day of Pompeii" struck. The picture struck an admiring audience and glorified the artist. Immediately and forever!

The last day of Pompeii

Orders fell on him, as if from a cornucopia, the aristocrats considered it an honor to get the “great Bryullov” to visit, any of his work became priceless. He was simply pestered with orders and love confessions.

Princess Dolgorukaya wrote that Karl Bryullov simply infuriates her ... She begs him for a date, tries to sneak into his studio, knocks on his door, tries to catch him at Prince Gagarin. And he ... slips away. Cruel and reckless.

The Marquise Visconti is offended by him - the lady is not only noble, but also very influential. She calls the guests, and she is waiting for Bryullov. He comes. But, remains in the hallway of her palace - he is struck by the beauty of the porter's daughter. Karl admired the beauty of the girl and ... left. The marquise is furious.

His desired woman is Samoilova. He is ready to draw her always and everywhere. In the famous painting The Last Day of Pompeii, his beloved is depicted three times (or even four times?).

The Last Day of Pompeii, fragment The Last Day of Pompeii, fragment

After the Countess took Charles to Naples, they for a long time did not part. They were seized by a great and passionate feeling.

She wrote to him:

• My friend, Brisha! I love you more than I know how to explain, I embrace you and will be sincerely committed to you to the grave. I love you, I adore you, I am devoted to you, and I recommend myself to your friendship. She is the most precious thing in the world to me.

She passionately wanted to connect her fate with the fate of Karl Bryullov. And he loved her. What prevented them? She was his only true love. Love for life. But strange love.

Light constantly gossiped about the novels of the windy Samoilova. But, and Karl was not faithful to her. They were together, but somehow everything worked out so that their love allowed love pranks on the side. They seemed to be testing their feelings for strength.

They confided their secrets to each other (including the secrets of love affairs), avoided "vulgar jealousy", and cherished personal freedom. Perhaps many years later, each of them realized that love is more than personal unlimited freedom. And love and frivolity do not coexist under one roof.

Portrait of Countess Yu. P. Samoilova with pupil Giovanina Pacini and a black boy

She is the "Italian sun" (as the artist called Yulia) - bright, blinding, flooding everything around with light and passion, energetic and restless. And he is calm and even melancholy. Her passions and feelings boil, and incinerate everything and everyone around. He has everything inside. And his soul is on fire. He is extremely tired.

Once, while in the house of the artist Sauerweid, he met, quite by chance, the daughter of the Riga burgomaster Emilia Tim. She is so young and tender, like the first spring Flower, humble and quiet. And how she does not look like the ever-changing, restless and passionate Julia. Perhaps it is she who can heal his soul from this fatal passion for Julia?

Emilia played the piano and sang for him. And he dreamed of a quiet and peaceful family life. The young creature blushed violently from indiscreet jokes and embodied innocence itself.

A fragment of the work, as stated by art historians, Karl Bryullov "Portrait of a Young Woman at the Piano" (Emilia Timm). A work from a private collection was exhibited in 2013 at the Russian Museum at an exhibition of the artist's works.

He painted her portrait, and he almost believed in happiness. The wedding took place in 1839. Subsequently, Taras Shevchenko (he was at that wedding) recalled that Bryullov was gloomy and unhappy, stood with his head bowed low and did not look at his bride. Karl seemed to repent and suffer greatly.

A month and a half later, ominous rumors spread around St. Petersburg. It was said that the enraged Karl tore out the earrings from the young wife's ears, along with the earlobes, and drove the barefoot wife out into the street. And also, he had a fight with the father of the bride and hit him on the head with a bottle.

Bryullov refused to comment on the obvious fact (Emilia really left). But, Bryullov himself left his home. He hid from terrible shame in the house of the sculptor Klodt.

The ex-wife and her father demanded money from the artist, rumors multiplied so that the Emperor demanded an explanation from Bryullov. Karl was invited to Count Beckendorf to explain the reasons for the divorce. And then it turned out that his innocent and gentle Emilia was the mistress ... of her father. Moreover, this relationship continued after her marriage. And she also demanded lifelong maintenance from the artist.

A great artist - he was disgraced and destroyed.

To the great happiness of Bryullov, Count Litta died in St. Petersburg at that time, and in northern capital Yulia Pavlovna appeared. Upon learning of the misfortune that had befallen Bryullov, she hurried to the house of her Karl. She did not come. She burst in like a mad comet: she drove the cook away, slapped the drunken lackey in the face, escorted all the guests out of the reception room who were expecting free drinks and new rumors.

She, once again, turned his house and his life upside down.

Bryullov writes again. And paints her portraits. It was at that time that this picture appeared.

Portrait of Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, leaving the ball with her adopted daughter Amazilia Pacchini (Masquerade)

There is more and more coldness and loneliness in his works. He is great, he is famous and he is unhappy. He loves only her. And she lacks passion and fire. Julia blames cold Russia for this and they leave for Italy. In Italy, Karl works a lot and ... yearns for St. Petersburg. It seems to him that Julia no longer loves him.

This happened in 1845. Julia suddenly decided to get married and end her relationship with Bryullov. While at the opera, she invited the tenor Perry to her carriage and announced to him that she had decided to become his wife. Stupid Perry was seduced by the Countess's untold riches and agreed. He dreamed of surviving Samoilova and taking possession of her fortune. But, young and full of energy, Perry could not stand her passion and the frantic pace of life. Very soon Samoilova became a widow.

Then she went to Italy. He tried to find her traces, but in vain. There is evidence that they met on the eve of his death. But they didn't have a conversation. What could he tell her if he was leaving this world, and she was destined to stay.

Soon Karl Bryullov died.

And she went to Paris. And she continued to squander her wealth and health. She married a French count. And she divorced him the day after the wedding.

Her wealth has dried up. There was no health. There is deep loneliness.

For a long time she kept portraits of "beloved Brishka". This is all she has left of that great and strange love.

She survived Karl Bryullov by 23 years.

In the biography of the relationship between Countess Yulia Samoilova and Karl Bryullov, even the very frivolous "Russian Italy" was surprised. "The rules could exist for everyone, but not for me and not for Karl," said the countess.

They could be called an ideal couple: he realized the dream of one of richest women Russia about a worthy object for admiration, she is the dream of a great artist about ideal beauty. But for some reason their meeting is stubbornly called fatal.

Karl Bryullov and Yulia Samoilova first saw each other in 1830 in Italy, in the famous salon of Princess Zeneida - Zinaida Volkonskaya. Both of them were already mature, accomplished people, and it was a meeting of two stars, although not equal. Nevertheless, Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova was an aristocrat of the highest standard. And Karl Pavlovich Bryullov is just an artist. True, those whose paintings were very popular in Europe, and the countess herself, being an enthusiastic collector of paintings, called them "Bryullov's miracles."

Yulia Pavlovna fell in love often and easily entered into closer relationships than was allowed in that era for a woman who wanted to be known as respectable and virtuous. However, Samoilova did not care what they said about her behind her back, and she even liked that her extravagance was considered outrageous.

The challenge to society was the fact that only people of creative professions became the objects of her passion: opera singers, actors. composers, artists, that is, the ignoble. and most often the poor. Countess Samoilova generously supported them, but the role of a patron did not fully satisfy her. Her soul longed for admiration and admiration for a real genius. Yulia Pavlovna considered it her destiny to throw her life and all her aristocratic pride at the feet of someone who was lower than her in origin, but much higher in talents.

In the face of Karl Bryullov, she found the ideal she dreamed of. After all, he really was not just talented: he was a genius. So immersed in creativity that he perceived everything that had nothing to do with painting as an annoying hindrance, an obstacle on the way to the main thing - to the canvas and the brush. He probably would not have noticed the beautiful countess if Yulia Pavlovna had not shown herself the ideal of beauty that Bryullov created in his imagination and embodied on canvases, not hoping to see in the flesh.

Karl Bryullov - Biography

Actually, this - the creation of unattainable beauty - was the goal of "art", to which many generations of the Bryullovs devoted themselves. The great-grandfather of Karl Bryullov - the Frenchman Georges Bryullo - was a sculptor. In 1773 he arrived with his two sons in St. Petersburg and entered the Imperial Porcelain Factory. His eldest son Ivan Georgievich also became a sculptor. And grandson Pavel Ivanovich - a woodcarver and a graphic artist. A creative biography in the Brullo family, renamed in the Russian manner as the Brullovs. did not interrupt. The sons of Pavel Ivanovich Bryullov and his wife, the German Maria Ivanovna Schroeder, followed in the footsteps of their ancestors: Alexander became an outstanding architect, Karl - the greatest artist of the era of romanticism, and there was also Fedor - also an artist, and quite in demand.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov was born in St. Petersburg on December 23, 1799. As a child, he was extremely painful and weak, until the age of seven he practically did not leave his bed, and as he himself believed, it was the forced immobility and loneliness that taught him to enjoy the contemplation of beauty: after all, he had no other entertainment than contemplation. As soon as Karl got stronger, his father began to draw with him and immediately noticed the boy's talent, which he began to develop, sometimes with very harsh methods. Sometimes, he would not even allow his son to dine with everyone if he did not complete the drawing given to him on time and properly. But Karl entered the art academy ten years old, at the same time as his older brother Alexander, and already drew better than all his classmates.

He studied well, his work invariably aroused admiration from teachers. At the same time, Karl Bryullov managed to put himself in such a way that he became not an object of envy for his classmates, but a recognized leader. He helped his friends by straightening their work, and as a “payment” he asked for only one thing: to be read aloud to him while he was drawing. So the young Bryullov managed to comprehend all other sciences, devoting most of his time to the main thing - creativity. In 1821, upon graduating from the academy, Karl Bryullov received a certificate of the 1st degree and a large gold medal for the painting "The Appearance of God to Abraham in the form of three angels."

The Bryullov brothers settled in wooden workshops at the St. Isaac's Cathedral, which was under construction. Karl received many private commissions and made good money. But he was not satisfied with his success. He dreamed of continuing his studies in Italy: it was there that artists and sculptors traditionally developed. His dream came true in 1822, when the newly created Society for the Encouragement of Artists made Karl and Alexander Bryullov the first "pensioners": they were paid for travel abroad, accommodation and ordered for a substantial fee to make lists of paintings by famous Italian masters. Copies of the classics were supposed to be sent to Russia in order to be studied by students who did not have the opportunity to get acquainted with the originals.

The brothers traveled to Italy through Germany and France, and the journey lasted for a year: in every city where Charles and Alexander stopped, they certainly stopped to visit museums and see architectural masterpieces. As a matter of fact, this journey itself became for them a continuation of their education. Only on May 2, 1823, the Bryullov brothers entered Rome. They were supposed to spend 4 years in Italy. Karl stayed here for 13 years.

Copying the works of the great masters Karl Bryullov did not tire, although it took a lot of time from his own paintings. Only Raphael's "School of Athens" took 4 years. copy of this French writer Stendhal called it an excellent commentary, with the help of which the audience "fully understood the text of the old master." “Meanwhile,” Alexander Pushkin wrote about the Italian period in the biography of Karl Bryullov, “the shaken Pompey was already staggering in his head, idols were falling, people were running along a cramped street, wonderfully lit by Volkan ...”

Alexander Bryullov could not stand the "museum boredom" and went to France to study architecture. then returned to Russia and married. “I will never marry. My wife is art. - Karl wrote in 1830 in a congratulatory letter to his brother, who had recently received an order for the construction of two luxurious houses for Countess Samoilova. One - in the estate of Count Slavyanka near St. Petersburg, the other - on Elagin Island. Actually, from a conversation about the Count Slavyanka in the salon of Zinaida Volkonskaya, the acquaintance of 30-year-old Karl Bryullov and, as is believed, 27-year-old Yulia Samoilova, began.

Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova - Biography

Surprisingly, the exact date of birth in the biography of Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, nee Palen, is unknown. No documents have been preserved. And in general, very little remains of the earthly existence of this once famous beauty: several portraits, letters, the ruins of her estate and a crypt in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. Having spent most of her life abroad, Yulia Pavlovna left almost no traces in the biographical memoirs of her compatriots. Today, more is known about her ancestors, among whom were the Vorontsovs. Potemkins, Engelhardts, Skavronskys, than about herself.

Thanks to the marriage of Peter the Great to Martha Skavronskaya, who became the mother of his children and in Russian history remained under the name of Catherine. Yulia Pavlovna was a relative, albeit a distant one, Russian emperors. She was called “the last of the Skavronskys”, because it was she who became the sole heir to the gigantic fortune of her grandfather Martyn Skavronsky.

Her mother, Maria Pavlovna Skavronskaya, was first married to Count Pavel Petrovich Palen, and he was officially considered Yulia's father. However, the pronounced southern beauty of the girl inspired doubts about who her father really was. Moreover, the stepfather of Maria Pavlovna was an Italian, Count Giulio Renato Litta-Viscon-ti-Arese, known in Russia as Julius Pompeevich Litta.

It was whispered in the world that the stepfather and stepdaughter had an excessively tender relationship, the result of which was the birth of a lovely baby with tar curls, velvet eyes and the face of an Italian Madonna. And they named it as if in his honor ... Suspicions were even more strengthened when it turned out that Litta divided all his considerable inheritance and unique art collections into three parts: between his two illegitimate children, whom he recognized, and Yulia.

However, this event from the biography of Julia added little to the scandalous halo of the Palen family. Especially after the mother left her daughter and the count and allegedly left to study singing in Paris, where she met General Adam Petrovich Ozharovsky, fell in love with him, demanded a divorce from Palen and married a second time.

It was known that Native sister Julia's mother, the famous beauty Ekaterina Pavlovna Skavronskaya, being married to Bagration, cheated on him so desperately that even in Europe she became famous as a "naked angel" - because of her defiantly open dresses. Yes, and on the father's side, relatives were a match - Yulia's grandfather, Pyotr Alekseevich Palen, was considered the organizer of the murder of Emperor Paul I.

Julia Palen, a beauty, and even with a fantastic dowry, for a long time could not find a suitable groom. She shone in the light, turned heads, but was in no hurry to get married. She was admired: "Beautiful, smart, charming, charmingly kind." Alexander Pushkin dedicated the poem "Beauty" to her:

She looks around herself:

She has no rivals, no girlfriends;

Beauties of our pale circle

In her shiyanyi disappears.

Wherever you hurry.

At least for a love date.

Whatever you feed in your heart

You are a hidden dream

But, meeting with her, embarrassed, you

Suddenly you stop involuntarily.

Reverent devoutly

In front of the shrine of beauty.

There was a rumor that the countess was in connection with a great connoisseur female beauty Emperor Alexander I. As if he had insisted that Julia marry Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Samoilov, the emperor's adjutant wing, who was wooing her. He was from a well-born family and handsome, besides, rich enough that he could not be suspected of selfish desire to marry a wealthy heiress.

Their marriage was unsuccessful, and after a few months they decided to leave, and Samoilov nobly returned his wife's dowry. Romantic contemporaries saw the reason for this in the fact that Samoilov allegedly loved another, and he was forced to marry the beautiful Palen. More mundane natures were remembered. that the young husband played and reveled, and Yulia Pavlovna was unfaithful to her husband.

They already lived separately, but then the news reached her. that in December 1825, Nikolai Alexandrovich was taken under arrest on suspicion of participating in a Decembrist conspiracy. By the highest order, he was released and all suspicions were removed from him, but in fact, Count Samoilov was in the Northern society, although he did not participate in the uprising. As soon as Yulia Pavlovna found out that her boring high-society husband turned out to be a rebel, she solemnly returned to him and even lived with him for several months, until she was completely disappointed in him.

However, this did not change her enthusiastic attitude towards the Decembrist rebels, whom she openly admired, as well as their wives, who went to Siberia for their husbands, which naturally aroused the displeasure of Nicholas I. The emperor was even more annoyed by the transcendent luxury rebuilt by Alexander Bryullov in 1931 her estate in Count Slavyanka and the festivities organized there. They attracted more secular audience than nearby Pavlovsk. The emperor offered Samoilova to sell the Count Slavyanka to the treasury. Yulia Pavlovna refused. Rumor attributed to her a daring answer to Nicholas I: “Your Majesty, my guests did not go to Slavyanka, but only in order to see me, and wherever I appear, they will not stop coming to me.”

On behalf of the emperor, she was advised not to forget about restraint in words and a sense of proportion - or else to leave the country. Samoilova replied with a famous phrase that went around the whole free-thinking Petersburg: “My audacity does not exceed the measure that befits in a private conversation between two relatives,” and left for Italy, which became her second home and where she again surrounded herself with flashy luxury and freethinkers.

Samoilova had a palace in Milan and a villa "Julia" on Lake Como, she was friends with the composers Rossini and Donizetti, she paid for staging opera performances at La Scala, she was a regular at the literary salon of Zinaida Volkonskaya and was interested in Catholicism, which was in vogue among enlightened Russians. nobles of that period, but her main hobby was to patronize talented but poor artists, musicians, actors.

Karl Bryullov was not so poor that Countess Samoilova had the opportunity to patronize him. Moreover, among the Russians living in Italy, he was known as an original no less than a countess. He refused to paint portraits, even when he was promised two prices for a painting, and at the same time, when he saw a beauty, as once happened to Baroness Meller-Zakomelskaya, who at that moment was painting by the famous artist Bruni, crouch aside and create a portrait, delighted with whom both Bruni and the baroness wept. And leave it unfinished.

The Baroness wrote that, “realizing the impossibility of seducing him with money, she nevertheless ordered that her banker immediately pay him four thousand, and after the portrait was completed, another four.” But Bryullov refused. And when the baroness asked him to "remember that you once loved this one and worked con amoge," Bryullov answered: no amore - no picture.

“Bryullov infuriates me,” Princess Dolgorukaya wrote about him. - I asked him to come to me, I knocked on his workshop, but he did not show up. .. Yesterday I thought to find him at Prince Gagarin's, but he did not come. In a word, I despaired of getting it. This is the original, for which there are no arguments of reason.

Countess Samoilova never asked him to come. She herself came to him in his Roman workshop when Bryulov was working on The Last Day of Pompeii. Rumors reached her that he had long been looking for a model for the central figure of the composition, and she was ready to give him as much time as it takes to work.

The appearance in the studio of Countess Samoilova turned into a tragedy. One of the artist's models, Frenchwoman Adelaide Desmoulins, committed suicide. Once Adelaide worked for the artist Sylvester Shchedrin, who lived in Italy, then she moved to Bryullov and passionately fell in love with him. She was so jealous of Samoilova that she literally bombarded Bryullov with letters asking for a meeting. He, carried away by Samoilova, did not read them and did not even print them. And then Adelaide drowned herself in the Tiber.

Bryullov did not go to her funeral, which is why almost the entire "Russian Rome" accused him of hardness of heart - someone passed around the lists of Adelaide's love letters to the artist. Only the closest friends - the artist Orest Kiprensky and Prince Gagarin - sympathized with Bryullov. Karl did not expect that Countess Samoilova would be among those who are not indifferent to him. Upon learning of the tragedy, she immediately came for Bryullov and took him to her place in Naples, promising Karl that there, closer to Pompeii, it would be better for him to work on his painting.

He wrote to Samoilov again and again - both in sketches for Pompeii and simply portraits from different angles. He did not have time to finish them - she felt sorry for the time for her own portraits, and they were piled up in the hall that the countess had given him for the studio. Yulia Pavlovna also appeared as Italian women in his genre paintings. By an amazing coincidence, almost all of his “beautiful Italians”, captured by him even before meeting with the countess, were so similar to her that later researchers of Bryullov’s work believed that Samoilova was depicted in the Italian Noon, and even in the Italian Morning. .

Nikolai Gogol, not knowing about Bryullov's passion, described the women in his paintings as follows: “She is not a Raphael woman, with subtle, inconspicuous, angelic features. - she is a passionate, sparkling, southern, Italian woman in all the beauty of noon, powerful, strong, burning with all the luxury of passion, all the power of beauty, - beautiful as a woman.

So it was. Otherwise, Yulia Samoilova would not have become his muse and the inspirer of his two main paintings - Horsewomen and The Last Day of Pompeii. She ordered the "Horsewoman" for him, and on the multi-figured "Last Day of Pompeii" the beautiful face of Samoilova was captured several times. Bryullov did not know how to verbally confess his love. Paintings became his recognition.

Few of her messages to “Precious Brishka,” as she called Bryullova, survived, but those that survived are full of tenderness: “My friend Brishka ... I love you more than I know how to explain, I embrace you and will be sincerely committed to you until the grave.”

“I entrust myself to your friendship, which is more than precious to me, and I repeat to you that no one in the world admires you and loves you like your faithful friend Yulia Samoilova.”

The relationship between Samoilova and Bryullov, even in "Russian Italy", known for its free morals, was surprising. They seemed to be together, and at the same time, none of them encroached on each other's personal freedom.

Being separated from Bryullov, Yulia Pavlovna met with other men, which did not cause jealousy in the artist, and she herself, without any jealousy, was interested in his hobbies. “Tell me where you live and who do you love? Nana or someone else? she asked in a letter. “I kiss you and I will faithfully write to you often, because for me there is a pleasure to talk with you even with a pen.”

When the countess was once asked about their relationship, she allegedly replied: “Nothing was done between me and the great Karl according to your rules ... Rules could exist for everyone, but not for me and not for Karl.” Nevertheless, Samoilova once confessed to Karl's brother, Alexander, that she and Brishka passionately wanted to unite their lives, but circumstances interfered.

This circumstance was an unexpected, like a flash of madness, Karl Bryullov's passion for the young beauty Emilia Timm.

In 1836, Bryullov, crowned with world fame after creating the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii", returned to Russia. At home, the artist was greeted as a hero. He was honored with a personal audience by Tsar Nicholas I. Bryullov regarded the glory that fell upon him only as an opportunity to paint canvases that he had always dreamed of - on the topic Russian history. He began work on the painting "The Siege of Pskov".

Samoilova also visited her homeland. She came so as not to be separated from her beloved, or on her own personal business - it is not known. If Samoilova went after Bryullov, she would be disappointed. Her "Brishka" was completely fascinated by the creation of sketches for the "Siege of Pskov", and then completely left for Pskov - to draw from nature. He even stopped responding to Samoilova's letters. What remained for Yulia Pavlovna? Only one thing - to shine in the light, demonstrating that nothing can hurt her - even the sudden coldness of a person with whom she never hid her connection.

Samoilova returned from abroad and appeared at the station in Pavlovsk with a whole retinue of handsome men - Italians and French. .. her luscious lips, upturned nose and expression in her eyes seemed to say: “I don’t care about the opinion of the world!” - the artist Pyotr Sokolov recalled the biography of those years. Incredible deeds were expected from her, but Samoilova managed to shock society only with her new habit of smoking a pipe.

But Bryullov's unexpected wedding and the ensuing scandal shocked St. Petersburg society. Emilia Timm was the daughter of the Riga burgomaster, a talented pianist and an outstanding beauty, only of a different type than Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova: white-skinned and blond, fragile, young, innocent. Karl Pavlovich painted her portrait, which is now kept in Tretyakov Gallery and enjoyed listening to her beautiful singing. He himself admitted later that he was not going to marry her, but the girl's parents were active, and he cowardly went on about them.

He was thirty-nine, Emily nineteen, when they were married on January 27, 1839. At the insistence of the father of the bride, the young people settled in his house. The first weeks of family life passed peacefully, but already on March 8, Karl demanded a divorce. Bryullov explained his act in one of his letters as follows: “I fell passionately in love. The bride's parents, especially the father, immediately made a plan to marry me to her ... The girl played the role of a lover so skillfully that I did not suspect deception. The girl's parents and their friends slandered me in public, attributing the reason for the divorce to a completely different circumstance, trying to pass me off as a person devoted to drunkenness ...

I felt so strongly my unhappiness, my shame, the destruction of my hopes for domestic happiness ... that I was afraid to lose my mind. An evil nonentity, trying to humiliate and blacken those people to whom the public ascribes talent, usually presents them in Italy as murderers, in Russia as drunkards. At the same time, he kept silent about the true reason for the divorce: Emilia's lover was and after the wedding her father, Feder Timm, remained.

Yulia Samoilova, who hastily arrived from Italy, found Bryullov in a state close to suicide, but managed to get him out. Only to inform him that she is getting married. The artist begged her to pose again and painted for her the painting “Countess Yu.P. Samoilova, leaving the ball "- a gift for her wedding.

The young opera singer Giovanni Peri became the Countess's chosen one. Samoilova moved to Italy, selling Grafskaya Slavyanka and all her real estate in Russia. She knew that Peri was ill with consumption, but she never thought that the illness would be so fleeting. Just a year after the wedding, Peri died. Yulia Pavlovna wore mourning until the end of her life, but she loved to roll the children of numerous art losers on the rubbed parquet of the ballroom on the long train of her mourning dress, who now lived with their families on her estate.

She no longer met Bryullov, although he also soon came to Italy to die. June 23, 1852 the artist died in the town of Marciano near Rome and was buried in the cemetery of Monte Testaccio.

Yulia Samoilova was in Paris at that moment and did not go to see her friend on his last journey. Sent a letter of condolence to Karl's brother, Alexander Bryullov, on the death of "dear and mourned Brishka, whom I loved so much and whom I admire as one of the greatest geniuses that ever existed." The fact that she continued to love him was judged by the fact that, even having lost all her fortune and sold all the collections, Yulia Pavlovna did not want to part only with the works of Bryullov.

Samoilova's friends claimed that Bryullov and the Countess corresponded up to last days artist's life. However, these letters have not survived.