“Portrait of Sergey Sergeyevich Botkin”, Kramskoy – description

Description of the picture:

Portrait of Sergey Sergeyevich Botkin – Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. 1882. Oil on canvas, 70.7 x 57.5

   The name of Sergey Sergeyevich Botkin is now clear, mainly, thanks to his father – Sergey Petrovich. Meanwhile, the young man himself committed himself to medicine, was also a famous collector, whose personal paintings can now be seen in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum.

   For Kramskoy, young Botkin was a very close person – the daughter of the painter, Sofia, was the wife of Sergei Sergeyevich. But while the young were expecting marriage, Botkin took well and fell in love with another charming woman, Alexander Tretyakov. The engagement was canceled, but, Alexandra and Sofia were able to keep friendly pleasant affairs for life.

   Portrait of Botkin confirms the style of the master – the greatest attention to the person, to the soul. Through the portraiture of an excellent creator, we seem to know not only how Sergey Sergeyevich looked, but what he was like. In the gaze of the hero you can find stubbornness, confidence, and at the same time, education, intelligence.

   Kramskoy always paid less attention to detail, the surroundings in the portrait, in this work he completely enjoyed the dark background. Through him, Kramskoy brings to the forefront his own hero, a young, principled, subtly sensitive art – Sergei Botkin, who never had a destiny to become his son-in-law."