Ekaterina 2 paintings by different artists. New Encyclopedia

The image of the Russian empress inspired artists from different eras and generations.

Almost three and a half decades of the reign of Catherine II, her portraits were painted by leading artists, both domestic and foreign masters who came to Russia. Ceremonial and not very ceremonial, they had to serve certain purposes. Painters glorified the reign of Ekaterina Alekseevna, represented her as a wise and enlightened monarchy, created the desired image. A whole series of compositions was emphasized allegorical in character, on others the Empress is shown almost in a homely, relaxed atmosphere - and together they made up an impressive gallery of images, vivid and extremely interesting.

I must say that far from all the works of painters liked the customer. So, the empress with bitter humor spoke about the portrait created by Alexander Roslin, noting that on it she is more like a Swedish cook. She did not like the portrait of Vladimir Borovikovsky’s brush, in which she is depicted in casual clothes for a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park (this portrait became especially famous thanks to Pushkin’s “Captain's Daughter”).

The image of the empress, who is called the Great, remained significant for Russian art even after her death - not to the same extent, of course, as the image of Peter I, but still. Two periods of such artistic interest are clearly traced - this is the second half of the 19th century, the time after the great reforms of Alexander II, and the beginning of the 20th century, the Silver Age. But first, about the Queen’s lifetime gallery.

SMILE PRINCESSES FIKE

The first portrait of Catherine, when she was not yet Catherine, but was a very modest princess of the Anhalt-Zerbst house, belongs to the brush of Anna Rosina de Gaek (nee Lisevskaya, 1713-1783) - a representative of a whole family of painters (of which her younger sister, the artist, is most famous Anna Dorothea Terbush-Lisevskaya is one of the outstanding "muses" of painting of the 18th century).

In the portrait we see Sophia Augusta Frederic of Anhalt-Zerbst at the age of 11, but this childhood image already clearly shows the character traits of the future Russian sovereign. Princess Fike (such was her home nickname) looks at the viewer carefully and at the same time, as if arrogant. Thin tight lips reinforce this impression. And at the same time, here for the first time a feature appears that later distinguishes almost all the portraits of Catherine - her signature smile. In general, artists of the XVIII century tried to paint portraits of smiling models when they worked on order. The smile ennobled, made the image more attractive. Another thing is that far from all she went.

Catherine’s smile is more than just a smile according to portrait tradition. This is an instrument of her politics, her communication, one of very many, but important. If we turn to the contemporaries' recollections of her, then in most cases we will find a description of this very benevolent, gracious, friendly smile. And Catherine knew how to captivate hearts masterfully. With a smile, she entered Russian classical literature. When creating the two most famous images of the empress on the pages of works of art - in "The Captain's Daughter" and "The Night Before Christmas" - Pushkin and Gogol even use the same words: the Russian tsarina has blue eyes and a slight smile, so able to conquer everything around.

CANNY

But time passed. The girl became the bride of the heir to the Russian throne and came to Russia. And soon she was already - Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna. Several portraits of that period have survived.

The author of one of the first was the Frenchman Louis Caravac (1684-1754), who became famous as a court portrait painter under Peter I. For many years, he redrawed practically all members of the imperial family, and young Ekaterina Alekseevna, whom the artist portrayed in his favorite manner, was no exception. - as if shrouded in a light haze. This portrait is characterized by restrained charm, and a small role was played by a barely noticeable smile that the master was able to catch, but he managed to show not too open and sincere nature of the future empress. She, as they say, on her mind is a quality that was later guessed by other painters.

Very nice portraits of the work of George Christoph Groot (1716-1749), representing Catherine in a different setting, in particular on the hunt. The Grand Duchess always smiles at them, and her face is somewhat pointed. On the canvases of Pietro dei Rotari (1707-1762), Catherine, on the contrary, is extremely uninteresting: she is a complete lady, looking peacefully and even a little detachedly at the viewer, although the roundness of her face makes her image quite pleasant. This portrait type was subsequently reproduced by Ivan Argunov (1729-1802), a student of Rotary, and Alexei Antropov (1716-1795), depicting Catherine sitting on a throne, with a scepter and power, in 1766. In the frozen image of the Empress there is very little life. Finally, the same Anna Rozina de Gaek painted a family portrait of Peter and Catherine with a boy-friend (their pair portrait of Groot was also performed in this manner): here, the static images of the heir to the Russian throne and his wife give the picture a emasculated character.

SEARCHING FOR THE CANONICAL IMAGE

In the first decade of the reign of Catherine, her court painter was the Danish Vigilius Eriksen (1722-1782). It was he, along with the Italian Stefano Torelli (1712-1780), who created the official, canonical image of the Empress. Numerous portraits of Ericksen are distinguished by their flat character and weak expressiveness. Catherine looks like a static doll on them, as a rule, with a distant expression on her face: her features are not too attractive, but her smile is rather strained. It is difficult to imagine a more unnatural image. Even a very original portrait of the empress in a sludge and kokoshnik leaves a bad impression: the elderly woman looking at us does not inspire much sympathy.

But despite such a restrained creative manner of the artist, Catherine II loved the portrait of Eriksen, where she is depicted at the time of the coup on her beloved Diamond horse, in a dress in the form of the Preobrazhensky regiment. Apparently, he responded to that necessary heroization, which was extremely important for the empress at the mention of the "revolution" of 1762. Torelli created mainly allegorical canvases with images of Catherine, canonizing the image of the empress in the form of Minerva, and in the ceremonial portraits of his brush, we note, the empress looks more lively than in the paintings of Ericksen. However, in the portrait painted by Torelli in a Russian dress, she seems completely serious (even without a smile) and most likely does not make a very favorable impression.

One can call the canonical portrait of the empress in profile, created by Fedor Rokotov (1735 (?) - 1808) shortly after her coronation, in 1763: it is this image of her that is one of the most famous. Catherine II is seated on a throne with a scepter in her outstretched hand, soft facial features make her profile spiritualized, and the pose she adopted is more likely light than heavy - thanks to all this, a feeling of a certain impulse, facing forward, not quite expected from a ceremonial portrait, is created. The Empress, as it were, is directed toward the future, towards plans and transformations. This portrait is undoubtedly one of the greatest successes in the gallery of official images of the empress. Subsequently, Rokotov created her portrait with the signs of the Order of St. George. On it, Catherine is both majestic and charming: her gracious smile is turned to loyal subjects.

The Swedish artist Alexander Roslin (1718-1793), who worked in Russia in the second half of the 1770s, is the one who painted the portrait so disliked by the customer. It seems that this portrait is really the most unfortunate of all according to the aesthetic impression made by him: Catherine seems to be a flabby old woman, and a smile not only gives her charm, but expresses some disgust. The portrait of Roslin was copied by Karl Ludwig Khristinek, who evidently softened the features of the image of the queen.

ALLEGORIES FOR THE TASK TOPIC

We can say that the classic smiling and very attractive image of Catherine in painting was born in the early 1780s, that is, approximately in the middle of her reign. He went down in history. The true traits in her representation were finally found.

Already in 1782, Richard Brompton (1734-1783), a brilliant English painter, became the court painter of the empress for several years, creating a completely charming, bright and spiritualized image of the empress. Perhaps this is the most lively portrait of Catherine of all ever painted.

But the majestic pleasantness of the empress received her completed embodiment, of course, in portraits of the work of Dmitry Levitsky (1735-1822), among which the image of Catherine the legislator in the temple of the goddess of Justice (1783) stands out. This second wave of allegorical images of the Empress "was largely initiated by Nikolai Lvov - an architect, poet, musician, draftsman and engraver, as well as a friend of Levitsky. In fact, Lviv proposed the" program "of this canvas. Catherine appears here not in the clothes of the ancient goddess - patroness of sciences and arts, and in the classic image of a triumph, lawgiver and guardian of the welfare of subjects.The bright tunic of the priestess symbolizes the purity of her thoughts and deeds; a laurel wreath and a seascape with ships are military dinners and successes in the field of diplomacy; poppies burned on the altar of Themis - vigilant care of justice, and an eagle with peruns gives the majestic image similarities with Jupiter. a soft, gracious, encouraging others and at the same time confident queen, and, by the way, the smile that this painter was so brilliantly able to convey plays a very important role here.

The late 1780s in the portrait gallery of Catherine is represented by her portrait in a traveling suit painted by a former serf, artist Mikhail Shibanov (biographical information about him is extremely scarce), painted during her famous trip to the Crimea (1787). This portrait is interesting for its chamber, "home" character, and the Empress looks at him somehow sadly and even somewhat surprised. This version of her representation hardly corresponded to the already existing official tradition of the queen’s pictorial depiction, and his presence in the gallery of images of the empress is indicative.

Finally, in the last years of her life, Catherine was captured by Johann the Baptist Lampi the Elder (1751-1830) and Vladimir Borovikovsky (1757-1825), although the latter has an earlier ceremonial portrait of the empress. Both of these works did not please the aging monarch. Lumpy tried to pick up the baton of Levitsky, depicting Catherine, pointing to the allegorical figures of the Fortress and Truth. But the queen here looks heavy and heavy, her face is puffy, and in general it makes a rather repulsive impression (this was only slightly corrected by the painter in another full-length portrait of Catherine). The portrait of Borovikovsky’s brush (known in two versions) shows the Empress in purely “home” conditions - on a regular walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park, but at the same time he is not without allegorism (the background on one of the options is the Chesme column, on the second - the Kagul obelisk). The empress marches, leaning on a cane, accompanied by her beloved Italian greyhound Zemira, smiles restrainedly, which causes sympathy, which arises in many respects due to her lovely informal atmosphere. It was this pleasant impression that served as the basis for Pushkin to create the famous episode of the story “The Captain's Daughter” (the poet was familiar with the engraved portrait of Nikolai Utkin, very popular in his time).

The classic image of Catherine in sculpture was created by Fedor Shubin. The busts of his work present us with the Empress as attractive, gracious and smiling, like Levitsky’s paintings.

CATHERINE FROM THE XIX CENTURY

The posthumous fine glory of Catherine only began in the 1860s. It was the era of the centenary of her reign. In Russian historical painting of that time, the image of the great empress of the XVIII century, apparently, first appears in a purely student painting by the Polish artist Ivan Miusdushevsky, who studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. The painting was painted in 1861 according to the academic program, and for its sketch the author was awarded a large silver medal. This is a “Scene from the Captain’s daughter A.S. Pushkin ”, depicting the moment the Empress presented the letter to Masha Mironova about the pardon of Peter Grinev. A household scene of a literary character unfolds in the chambers of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo in the presence of the unnaturally young Pavel Petrovich and Princess Ekaterina Dashkova. The appearance of the empress here is rather close to what we see in the portraits of Lumpy, but significantly ennobled.

Two more works, a drawing of 1880 by Alexei Kivshenko (1851-1895) and a picture of a little-known artist Ivan Fedorov, created in 1884, are dedicated to the same event - a visit by Catherine II to Mikhail Lomonosov in 1764. In both cases, the empress in a light dress, accompanied by her retinue, sits and listens carefully to the explanations of the great scientist.

The painting of the famous historical painter Valery Jacobi (1833-1902) shows the inauguration ceremony of the Academy of Arts in 1765. This canvas was created in 1889 to the 125th anniversary of the Academy. Here, the artist presented to the audience not only the Empress herself, but also a large number of courtiers, prominent figures of culture and art from the era of her reign (Panin, Razumovsky, Dashkov, Betsky, Sumarokov and many others). In the process, he turned to the famous portraits of these figures, and his Ekaterina seemed to have left the main profile canvas of Fedor Rokotov. It is curious that on the walls of the hall where the celebration takes place, Jacobi “hung out” paintings of Catherine’s time, including allegorical portraits of the Empress by Torelli (in the image of Minerva) and Levitsky (in the image of the priestess of the goddess of Justice), although neither one nor the other portrait in 1765 did not exist yet.

Without a doubt, the most famous work of Russian historical painting, where the image of Catherine is not just present, but plays one of the main roles, is the painting by Nicholas Ge (1831-1894) "Catherine II at the tomb of Empress Elizabeth" (1874). This work, which is extremely interesting from a compositional and coloristic point of view, shows Catherine in mourning: accompanied by Dashkova, she follows to the tomb of Elizaveta Petrovna, which, however, is not indicated. This movement in the foreground contrasts with Peter III, who goes into the background in the depth of the picture, also accompanied by courtiers, and the contrast is achieved not only by different vectors of moving groups and correlation of canvas plans, but also by color. The figure of Catherine is lit by the flame of candles, and her expression, cold and even arrogant, - as if she smirks her restrained smile - demonstrates her unconditional superiority over the situation, which does not really position the viewer to the heroine of the picture.

And a year earlier, in 1873, in St. Petersburg, a monument to Catherine II was opened in front of the Alexandrinsky Theater. Its author Mikhail Mikeshin (1835-1896) already once depicted the great empress at the monument to the Millennium of Russia in Novgorod: there she, laying a laurel wreath on the head of Grigory Potemkin, bowing before her, is represented among many prominent figures in Russian history. Now Mikeshin created a monument to Catherine herself, but used the compositional solution of the Novgorod monument, which turned out to be extremely successful. The empress proudly smiling rises like a rock surrounded by the belt of her comrades-in-arms. Mikeshin brilliantly conveyed the very essence of Catherine’s rule: she is in a skillfully matched monarchy galaxy of eagles, which made up her fame. This decision for a long time determined the compositional tradition of the Catherine’s monuments of the empire: such is the monument to it in Odessa (1900), as well as in Yekaterinodar, as modern Krasnodar was called (1907, a project of the same Mikeshin). Everywhere the empress rises above the audience, and everywhere she is not alone. The impression of the St. Petersburg monument, and more of the personality of the tsarina, was excellently expressed by the wonderful poet Alexei Apukhtin in the poem “Unfinished Monument”.

The beginning of the 20th century brought interest to the private life of the empress. On the bookplate made by Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva (1871-1955) for Sergei Kaznakov, Ekaterina (only her silhouette is guessed) is depicted with one of her favorites on a moonlit night in the Cameron Gallery of Tsarskoye Selo Park. And in the drawing of Valentin Serov (1865-1911), created for the famous publication of Nikolai Kutepov on the history of the royal and imperial hunting, we see the empress leaving in the evening on a falconry. Half-turn she turned to us, looking back at the favorite accompanying her. This "evening" Catherine of the Silver Age completes the gallery of her artistic images created in old Russia.

", we study how famous women from legends, myths and stories took revenge on their spouses and lovers for treason. Ways of revenge are the most diverse, except for murder.
(1st part), (2nd part)

EXTREME HARDNESS FROM CATHERINE GREAT

Empress Catherine II, as you will see from the case below, was clearly distinguished by sadistic inclinations. Well this must be a man's revenge! Not everyone can do it.

F. Rokotov (?). Portrait of Catherine the Great.

When she got herself a sweet young man named Sasha Dmitriev-Mamonov, she was only 57 years old.
He was already 28.

He looked like Shayya LaBeouf a limp chin and search for his place in life, wore a powdered wig, blushed cheeks and sometimes stuck flies.

M. Shibanov. Portrait of A. Dmitriev-Mamonov

In gratitude that Uncle Potemkin (rumored to be Catherine’s secret husband) secured him the status of the Empress’s room boy, Dmitriev-Mamonov presented him with a golden teapot with the inscription “Closer in heart than in blood”. Mi-mi-mi.

At first, Dmitriev-Mamonov did not play a prominent role, but in 1787 Catherine took him on a trip to the Crimea (well, in honor of his accession to Russia, there was such a shaking incident in her biography), and he had to participate in the conversations of the empress with various dignitaries and, finally, be present at her meetings with Emperor Joseph II and the Polish king Stanislav Augustus.
The poor thing had to think!

J. B. Piers. Fireworks in honor of Catherine during her journey. OK. 1787

The salary, however, was not bad at this favorite job, almost like a modern football player.

Thanks to the empress’s salaries, he became the owner of one of the largest estates in Russia (in 1788 he received the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky with diamonds worth 30 thousand rubles and diamond axelbants worth about 50 thousand rubles as gifts). Revenues from estates reached 63 thousand rubles a year, and various payments for ranks and positions exceeded 200 thousand per year.

Catherine, meanwhile, turned sixty.

I.B. Lumpy St Portrait of Catherine the Great. 1790s

At the imperial court at that time one girl was spinning, Daria Shcherbatova.
The orphan girl was taken by Catherine to the palace and raised on half the maids of honor, then, when she matured, she received the maid of honor. Soon her secret affair with the British resident minister, Fitz Herbert, was revealed (I suppose he spied through her!). Catherine was very upset.
Then it turned out that Shcherbatova, who had no fortune, somehow managed to make huge debts.
The empress was even more upset. Moreover, the girl showed character.

F. Rokotov. Portrait of Daria Shcherbatova. 1780s

Sasha, meanwhile, became finicky, as a containment woman, did not endure refusals, he demanded diamond orders himself. Once, not having received the name day order of Alexander Nevsky, he said he was sick, locked himself in a room and did not try to pay attention to the empress for several days. The old lover deigned to forgive only when she removed the order from Nikolai Saltykov, who turned up under her arm, and sent a reward to Dmitriev-Mamonov. (I hope Saltykov was compensated for the loss).

Diamond Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (the turn of the 19-20 centuries, an option for the non-Orthodox - with an eagle, and not with a saint).

With Dmitriev-Mamonov, this maid of honor, as the spyler told Potemkin, had a "slight wave" for a long time, but in a sluggish mode. And then passion flared up, and the affair began. They met secretly.

To leave the yard for meetings with his beloved, Dmitriev-Mamonov played performances: he depicted attacks of suffocation - "oh, the pendants in your palace carriage are too soft, I feel bad from them ... let me ride in my own." So he with great difficulty won back from the empress the right to use his own personal carriage and his coachman, and began to go on a date with her beloved.

Fragonard. A stolen kiss.
The picture of 1786 - it was then that the affair of Catherine with Dmitriev-Mamonov began; the canvas belonged to the empress.

The secret romance lasted about two years, that is, it began when Dmitriev-Mamonov trampled on bed service for about a year.
That would be all, it might have lasted, but here in 1789 SUDDENLY the maid of honor Daria Shcherbatova was pregnant.

Apparently, the abdomen Shcherbatova pressed on her lover so that he himself would confess to the empress. Favorite decided to talk to Catherine and put an end to. But this rag, instead of behaving with dignity and confessing to the novel, did not say a word about Shcherbatova. But the empress began to rebuke the inattention and coldness. And also "envious people surround me with vile intrigues." In addition, Sasha said: "I have to get married a long time ago, but I don’t know whom." In general, threw a tantrum from scratch. He slammed the door and went home.

Unknown artist. Portrait of Catherine the Great in old age

Catherine at this point apparently reported on the pregnancy of the maid of honor Shcherbatova. Therefore, she wrote a favorite letter: they say, anyway, I understand that our relationship is over. Once I decided to get married, I chose your bride - the daughter of Jacob Bruce, a good girl. Next week I will call her to the court.

(There’s also a small internal joke: exactly ten years earlier, another empress’s young favorite, Rimsky-Korsakov, was caught by her in the arms of the alleged bride’s mother — Praskovia Bruce, by the time, however, married. And here such a mini-revenge loomed) .

Dmitriev-Mamonov still had the courage to write in a reply that he didn’t need Bruce, but there was a certain Princess Shcherbatova, “whom he was very well recommended,” so you can have her. And he finished the letter to Catherine with the words "I kiss your arms and legs and I don’t see what I’m writing."

And what did Catherine the Great do?
Terrible, terrible revenge!
She left the former lover alone with his own demons: “... Before the evening exit, Her Majesty herself deigned to betroth Count A. M. Mamonov with Princess Shcherbatova; they were on their knees asking for forgiveness and forgiven. " Gifts were given to the groom and ordered to leave St. Petersburg the next day after the wedding on July 12.

Nikolay Argunov. Portrait of A. Dmitriev-Mamonov against the background of the bust of Catherine II

The newlyweds left for Moscow. In subsequent years, the unfortunate Dmitriev-Mamonov, looking at the brilliant rain poured on his successor, was wildly jealous and bored. His wife quickly became not interested in him - marital cohabitation is not secret dates, no romance. Moreover, she gave birth to 4 children (one survived), and this always badly affects the appearance and character of a woman - the main thing is that Shcherbatova was superior to the empress.

Some 18th-century life news gossip that the empress sent bailiffs dressed in a woman’s dress to the rival, who first carved her and then raped her, moreover, in the presence of her husband. But this is real nonsense (dirty gossip of sexually unsatisfied French revolutionaries). Catherine acted thinner.

Sasha repeatedly appealed to Catherine II with a request to allow him to return to St. Petersburg, but immediately received an automatic refusal from a tuned answering machine in Google's mailbox. A contemporary wrote of him: “He was neither this nor that, and nothing at all; he had only one amusement - to harass his wife, whom he endlessly accused of being the culprit of his complete insignificance. ” In the end, the couple parted.

Dmitriev-Mamonov hated himself for a miss until the end of his life.
And what about Catherine? Catherine got herself a 22-year-old handsome Platon Zubov.
Cool revenge, right?

Morality:never humble yourself in front of your former lover, especially if she is three times older and smarter than you.

I.B. Lumpy St Portrait of Plato Zubov

***
Read previous issues by tag "

1.Sofia Frederick Augustus Anhalt-Zerbst, future Empress Catherine the Great, was born on April 21 (May 2), 1729 in the German city of Stettin - the capital of Pomerania. Her father Christian Augustus Anhalt-Zerbst  came from the Zerbst-Dorneburg line of the Anhalt House and was in the service of the Prussian king, was a regimental commander, commandant, then governor of the city of Stettin.

2. In childhood, the future Catherine’s home was called Fike, which means “Little Frederica”. Fike was a very agile girl, spending a lot of time in street games with the boys, which extremely upset her relatives.

3. The path of the young German princess to the Russian throne began thanks to her uncle who died early, Karl August Holstein-Gottorp. Russian Empress   Catherine I  was going to marry his daughter Elizaveta Petrovna. However, in the midst of preparations for the wedding, the groom contracted smallpox and died. Elizaveta Petrovna, who ascended to the Russian throne, retained sympathy for her husband's failed husband. Therefore, when it came to the marriage of the heir to the throne Peter FedorovichEmpress Elizabeth chose Fick, the niece of Charles Augustus.

4. Sophia Frederic almost shared the fate of her unfortunate uncle. Arriving in Russia in 1744, the princess began to diligently learn the language of her new homeland. The future empress studied at night, sitting by the open window in the freezing air, which led to severe pneumonia. At some point, the life of the emperor’s bride hung in the balance, but the girl’s body still managed to overcome the ailment.

5. On June 28, 1744, Sofia Frederick Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy and received the name Ekaterina Alekseevna, and the next day was engaged to the emperor.

6. The wedding of the 17-year-old heir to the Russian throne Pyotr Fedorovich and his 16-year-old bride Ekaterina Alekseevna took place on August 21, 1745. The newly-married couple had each other a second cousin and sister.

Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna with her husband Peter III Fedorovich. Source: Public Domain

7. In the marriage of Peter and Catherine, two children were born. September 20, 1754 was born a boy who was named Paul and who subsequently became the Russian emperor. December 9, 1757 a girl was born, who was named Anna. The Grand Duchess died in infancy. Despite the fact that she was officially recognized by Peter Fedorovich, many call the real father of the girl lover Catherine Stanislav Ponyatovsky, future king of Poland.

8. The relationship between Peter Fedorovich and Catherine was never warm. Even before accession to the throne, the future emperor Peter III intended to send his wife to the monastery, and Ekaterina Alekseevna began to hatchet plans for a coup.

Alexey G. Bobrinsky is the illegitimate son of Catherine II. Photo: wikipedia.org

9. After accession to the throne, Emperor Peter III began to live openly not with Catherine, but with his favorite Elizaveta Vorontsova. Abandoned spouse during this period became pregnant from her favorite Grigory Orlov. Pregnancy and childbirth were kept secret from her husband, the son of Catherine and Grigory Orlov was transferred to the education of trusted people. The illegitimate son of the future empress Alexey G. Bobrinsky  became the ancestor of the count family Bobrinsky. In count dignity of Alexei Bobrinsky raised his brother - Emperor Paul I.

10. On June 28, 1762, Emperor Peter III was about to arrive at Peterhof, where a gala dinner was to be held in honor of the emperor’s namesake. Yekaterina Alekseevna was supposed to be the organizer of the celebrations, however, early in the morning in the carriage with her favorite brother Alexei Orlov, she fled to St. Petersburg. In the capital, the supporters of Catherine that day raised a rebellion of the guard, and a few hours later the army, the Senate, the Synod and the people swore allegiance to the new Russian Empress Catherine Alekseevna. At the head of the guard, the empress came to Peterhof, where her husband was. Without any serious resistance, Peter III surrendered to the mercy of the winner. The 33-year-old empress Ekaterina Alekseevna became the sovereign autocratic ruler of the Russian Empire.

By mother she belonged to the Holstein-Gottorp prince family, one of the many princely families of Northern Germany, and by her father to another local and even smaller sovereign family - the Anhalt-Zerbst. Catherine's father, Christian Augustus, from the Zerbst-Dornburg line of the Anhaltic house, like many of his neighbors, petty North German princes, served in the service of the Prussian king, was a regimental commander, commandant, and then governor of the city of Stettin, unsuccessfully ran for the dukes of Courland and ended his exterritory service by the Prussian field marshal, elevated to this rank under the patronage of the Russian Empress Elizabeth. In Stettin, his daughter, Sophia-Augusta, our Catherine II, was born to him (April 21, 1729).

Stettinsky Castle - the birthplace of Catherine II

Thus, the young Catherine II combined in her person two small princely houses of northwestern Germany. This North-West Germany represented in the XVIII century. a corner of Europe, curious in many respects. Here, medieval German feudalism was then carrying on itself, its last dynastic regalia and genealogical traditions. With endless family divisions and divisions, with the princes of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttel, Saxe-Gomburg, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Gothic and Saxe-Coburg-Gothic, Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Schlitz-Strelitz and the Gottorp-Eitin, Anhalt-Dessaus, Anhalt-Zerbst and Zerbst-Dornburg ones it was a belated feudal anthill, fussy and mostly poor, utterly out-of -born and quarreling, fussing about in close quarters ovke with shoestring budget and with imagination, readily flies beyond the close of the native socket. In this circle, everything lived with hopes for a happy occasion, hopes for family ties and foreign affairs, and for the desirable interweaving of unexpected circumstances. Therefore, small grooms who were looking for big brides, and poor brides who yearned for rich grooms, and finally heirs and heirs waiting for vacant thrones, were always saved in the required supply.

It is clear that such tastes brought up political cosmopolitans who thought not of their homeland, but of a career and for whom the homeland was everywhere where a career was possible. Here, living in strangers was a family craft, serving in someone else's court and inheriting someone else's was a dynastic testament. That is why the small-princely little world in which young Catherine II revolved was received in the 18th century. important international significance: little princes came out of here more than once, who sometimes played major roles in the fates of the great European powers, including Russia. Mecklenburg, Braunschweig, Holstein, Anhalt-Zerbst alternately sent to us such political strangers-strangers in the form of princes, princesses and simple servants for a salary.

Due to the fact that one of the daughters of Peter the Great (Anna) married the Duke of Holstein, this house gained significance in our history. Catherine II’s maternal relatives, straight and side, from the very beginning of the XVIII century. either served in a foreign land, or by marriage sought the thrones on the side. Her grandfather (on the sideline) Frederick Karl, married to his sister Charles XII Swedish, at the beginning of the Northern War he laid down his head in one battle, fighting in the troops of his brother-in-law. One of the cousins \u200b\u200bof Catherine, the son of this Frederick Karl, the Duke Karl Friedrich married the eldest daughter of Peter I Anna and had unsuccessful views of the Swedish throne. But his son. Karl Peter Ulrich, who was born in 1728 and buried his mother by birth, the Swedes in 1742, at the end of the unsuccessful war with Russia, was elected heir to the Swedish throne to appease his aunt, the Russian Empress, and soften the conditions of the world; but Elizabeth had already intercepted her nephew for her throne, and instead imposed on the Swedes, not without prejudice to the Russian interests, another Holstein prince - Adolf-Friedrich, the uncle of Catherine II, whom the Russian government had previously sent to the dukes of Courland. Another native uncle of Catherine from Holstein - Karl was declared the bridegroom of Elizabeth herself when she was still a princess, and only the quick death of the prince prevented him from becoming her husband. In view of such family occasions, one old canon in Braunschweig could, without straining his prophetic gift, say to the mother of young Catherine: “I see at least three crowns on your daughter’s forehead.” The world was already accustomed to seeing in small German princely heads, which were waiting for alien crowns, who remained without their heads.

Catherine was born in the humble atmosphere of a Prussian general from small German princes and grew up as a playful, playful, even poor girl, who loved to show off over elders, especially overseers, to flaunt courage in front of the boys and who knew how not to blink when she was cowardly. Parents did not burden young Catherine with their educational concerns. Her father was a zealous servant, and her mother, John Elizabeth, was an impolite and restless woman who was drawn to a quarrel and a slander, a walking intrigue, an embodied adventure; she felt good everywhere, but not at home. In her lifetime, she traveled almost all of Europe, visited any capital, served Frederick the Great on such diplomatic matters that real diplomats were embarrassed to undertake, which earned great respect from the great king, and shortly before her daughter's accession, she died in a very straitened situation in Paris because Frederick sparingly paid for the services of his agents.

Young Catherine could only thank fate for the fact that her mother was rarely at home: the Stettin commandant adhered to the simplest rules in raising children, and Catherine herself later admitted that she had been accustomed to wait for maternal slaps for every mistake. She was not even 15 years old when one of her Holstein uncles, who was in Saxon and then in Prussian service, fell in love with her, and even obtained consent from her niece to marry him. But a pure Holstein meeting of favorable circumstances destroyed this early idyll and diverted the Anhalt-Zerbst princess from the modest share of the Prussian colonel or general to justify the prophecy of the Braunschweig canon, delivering to her not three, but only one crown, but worth ten German. Firstly, the Empress Elizabeth, despite the later hobbies of her precarious heart, until the end of her life kept a tender memory of her so-so-so-dead Holstein bridegroom and paid attention to his niece and mother, sending them trinkets like her portrait adorned with diamonds of 18 thousand then rubles (not less than 100 thousand current). Such gifts served the family of the Stettin governor, and then the Prussian field marshal a considerable help in the inclement days of life. And then the future Catherine II was helped a lot by her family insignificance.

Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. Portrait of V. Eriksen

At that time, the St. Petersburg court was looking for brides for the heir to the Russian throne, and visionary St. Petersburg politicians advised Elizabeth to direct her searches to some modest dominant house, because the daughter-in-law of a large dynastic origin, perhaps, would not give due obedience and reverence to the empress and her husband.

Finally, among the matchmakers who tried to attach young Catherine to St. Petersburg, there was one rather significant person in what was then Europe - the King of Prussia Frederick II himself. After the robber capture of Silesia from Austria, he needed the friendship of Sweden and Russia and thought to strengthen it by marrying the heirs of both these powers. Elizabeth really wanted to marry her nephew to the Prussian princess, but Friedrich was sorry to spend his sister on Russian barbarians, and he outlined her for the Swedish heir to the aforementioned protege Elizabeth from Holstein's Adolf-Friedrich to reinforce his diplomatic agents in Stockholm, and he wanted for the Russian heir to confess the daughter of his faithful field marshal, the former governor of Stettin, hoping to create from her also a reliable agent in the capital of a terrible empire for him. He himself admits in his notes with great complacency that the marriage of Peter III and Catherine II is his business, his idea is that he considered it necessary for the state interests of Prussia and in young Catherine he saw the person most suitable for providing them from Petersburg.

Frederick II the Great, King of Prussia

All of this was decided by Elizabeth’s choice, despite this or rather, by the way, because Catherine was the second cousin of her fiancé by mother. Elizabeth considered Holstein's relatives to be her family and saw her family business in this marriage. It remained to reassure his father, a strict Lutheran of the old orthodox school, who did not allow the thought of his daughter moving to Greek heresy, but he was convinced that the Russians had almost Lutheran religion and even did not accept the veneration of saints.

The thoughts of 14-year-old Catherine went towards the delicate calculations of the great king. A family instinct woke up in her from early youth: according to her admission, from the age of 7, the thought of a crown, of course a stranger, began to wander in her head, and when Prince Peter Holstinsky became the heir to the Russian throne, Catherine "deep down destined herself to him" because she considered this party the most significant of all possible; later, she frankly admits in her notes that upon arrival in Russia she liked the Russian crown more than the person of her fiancé. When (in January 1744) an invitation came to her mother in Zerbst from Petersburg to immediately go to Russia with her daughter, Catherine persuaded her parents to decide on this trip. The mother was even offended by her brother in love, to whom Catherine had already given her word. “And my brother Georg, what will he say?” The mother asked reproachfully. “He can only wish for my happiness,” answered the daughter, blushing.

And now, shrouded in deep secret, under a false name, as if gathered for an evil deed, the mother and daughter hurriedly set off for Russia and in February introduced themselves to Elizabeth in Moscow. The whole political world of Europe was amazed to learn about such a choice of the Russian Empress.

Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich (future Peter III) and Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna (future Catherine II)

Most often, pictorial representations of royal persons (and especially in the 18th century) are based on ceremonial portraits from which copies were actively filmed and distributed. Such portraits can be “read”, because the model is always placed on them in such an environment that helps to create a sense of significance, unusualness, solemnity of the image, and each of the details contains a hint of the real or imaginary merits and qualities of the person we see in front of us.

Most of the ceremonial portraits are impossible not to admire. But the question of how the portrait corresponds to reality remains open.

So, for example, the image of Catherine I created by Jean-Marc Nattier  in 1717:

But a completely more intimate portrait of Catherine in a peignoir, written by Louis Caravacom  in the 1720s.

It seems that the researchers came to the conclusion that initially the empress was depicted from the neckline on the portrait, and then a blue ribbon appeared, which can be understood as a hint of the ribbon of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called and the high status of the person. The only hint.

Louis Caravac was appointed the official court painter - the hoffmaler only under Anna Ioannovna, but before that he managed to write a number of portraits of the family of Peter the Great. Among them are some unusual by modern standards.

Firstly, I personally immediately remember the portrait tsarevich Petr Petrovich in the image of Cupid

Here, of course, it should be said that Russia adopted the gallantry of Rococo from Europe along with its special atmosphere of masquerade, playing heroes and gods of ancient mythology, and manners of behavior, which could not but affect the painting tradition.

And yet there is something peculiar in the fact that little Peter, the "Big Cone", as his loving parents called him, who had high hopes for him, we see just that. But the birth of this boy, who did not live even four years, as well as his relatively good health at first, actually predetermined the fate of Tsarevich Alexei.

We can also imagine the elder sister of Peter Petrovich Elizabeth, recalling the portrait of the work of the same Karavak, written in 1750:

Or a portrait of the work of his student Ivan Vishnyakov, painted in 1743:

But a great success even during the life of the empress was enjoyed by another portrait of Elizabeth Petrovna painted in the middle of the 1710s by Karawak, in which she is depicted in the image of the goddess Flora:

The future empress is depicted naked and lying on a blue ermine-lined mantle - a sign of belonging to the imperial family. In her right hand she holds a miniature with a portrait of Peter I, to the frame of which is attached the St. Andrew's blue ribbon.

Yes, tradition, but there is also a certain kind of piquancy in such an image. An interesting remark about the portrait was made by N. N. Wrangel: “Here is a little girl, an eight-year-old undressed child with the body of an adult girl. She is reclining, coquettishly holding her father’s portrait and smiling so gently and tenderly as if she were already thinking about Saltykov, Shubin, Sivers , Razumovsky, Shuvalov and all the others whom this beautiful creature loved after. "

However, he also noted that Elizabeth had many images.

Here is Elizaveta Petrovna in a man’s suit that fit her like this:

A.L. Weinberg considered the portrait to be the work of Karawak and dated it to 1745. S.V. Rimskaya-Korsakova believed that this was a student copy of Levitsky from the work of Antropov, dating back to the iconographic type of Karavak.

And here is another portrait of Elizabeth in a man’s suit - the textbook “Portrait of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna on a Horse with an Arappochka,” painted by Georg Christoph Groot in 1743:

This portrait can be called ceremonial. Here is the order of St. Andrew the First-Called, a blue moire order ribbon with a sign, a marshal’s wand in the Empress’s hand, the Transfiguration uniform, as well as the fact that Elizaveta Petrovna sits on a horse like a man, and the navy, visible in the bay.

Karavak also has a “Portrait of a Boy in a Hunting Suit,” about which various versions were built. They called him the Portrait of Peter II, and the portrait of Peter III and ... the portrait of Elizabeth. For some reason, the latest version is very close to me.

There are a lot of ceremonial portraits of Catherine II. They were written both by foreigners invited to Russia, and by Russian artists. You can recall, for example, a portrait of Catherine painted by Vigilius Ericksen in front of a mirror, in which the artist uses a peculiar technique that allows the empress to be shown both in profile and in full view.

The profile image of the empress served for the ceremonial portrait painted by Rokotov:

Catherine herself apparently loved another portrait painted by Ericksen, depicting her on horseback:

Still would! After all, the portrait symbolizes the fateful day for the Empress on June 28, 1762, when she, at the head of the conspirators, was sent to Oranienbaum to carry out a palace coup. Catherine sits astride her famous horse Brilliant and is dressed in a military fashion - she is wearing the uniform of an officer of the guards infantry.

The portrait was a tremendous success at court, by order of the empress repeated his work three times, varying the size of the canvas.

Ericksen also wrote a portrait of Catherine II in a sludge and kokoshnik:

One can recall the portrait of Catherine II in a traveling suit, painted by Mikhail Shibanov, an artist about whom almost nothing is known. Is it only that he was close to Potemkin ?:

Remembering the portraits of Catherine the Great, it is impossible to pass by the image created by Borovikovsky.

The artist showed Catherine II "at home", in a salop and a cap. In old age, a lady slowly walks along the alleys of Tsarskaselsky Park, leaning on a staff. Next to her is her beloved dog, English Italian greyhound.

The idea of \u200b\u200bsuch an image probably arose in the literary and artistic circle of Nikolai Lvov and is closely connected with a new trend in art, called sentimentalism. It is significant that the portrait of Catherine II was not executed from nature. There is evidence that the artist posed in the dress of the Empress her beloved chamber-jungfer (room servant) Perekusikhina.

By the way, the fact that in the 18th century only 8 official court painters worked in Russia was quite interesting, among which only one was Russian, and even then ended his life almost tragically. Therefore, it is not surprising that Russian artists did not have the opportunity to write emperors and empresses alive.

For this work, Borovikovsky, about which Lumpy tried, was awarded the title of "appointed" to the academicians. However, despite the recognition of the Academy of Arts, the empress did not like the portrait and was not acquired by the palace department.

But it was in this image that Pushkin captured her in the “Tale of Honor” of “The Captain's Daughter”.