Orest Kiprensky Facts for Kids

In this article, the patronymic is Adamovich and the family name is Kiprensky.

Quick facts for kids Orest Kiprensky
Self Portrait, 1828
Born	Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (1782-03-24)24 March 1782 Nezhnovo, Yamburgsky Uyezd, Saint Petersburg Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	17 October 1836(1836-10-17) (aged 54) Rome, Papal States (now Italy)
Nationality	Russian
Education	Member Academy of Arts (1812)
Alma mater	Imperial Academy of Arts (1803)
Known for	Painting
Notable work	Prince Dmitry Donskoy after the Battle of Kulikovo (1805) Portrait of the Princess A. V. Scherbatova (1808) Portrait of Vasily Zhukovsky (1815) Portrait of Sergey Uvarov (1815)
Movement	Romanticism
Awards

Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (Russian: Орест Адамович Кипренский born March 24, 1782 – died October 17, 1836) was a very important Russian artist. He was known for painting amazing portraits during the time of Romanticism. His most famous painting is probably the portrait of the famous poet Alexander Pushkin from 1827. Pushkin himself liked the painting so much that he joked, "the mirror flatters me."

About Orest Kiprensky
Selected portraits
See also

About Orest Kiprensky

Orest was born in the village of Nezhnovo in the Saint Petersburg Governorate on March 24, 1782. His father was a landowner named Alexey Dyakonov. Orest was born to a serf mother, but he was freed from serfdom right after his birth. Serfdom was a system where people were tied to the land and worked for a landowner.

Orest was raised by a family named Shvalbe. His father helped him get into a special boarding school. This school was part of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. Orest started there in 1788 when he was only six years old.

His Art Education

Orest studied at the boarding school and the academy until 1803. He stayed at the academy for three more years after graduating. This was to meet the requirements to win a big award called the Major Gold Medal.

In 1805, he won this top prize for his painting, Prince Dmitri Donskoi after the Battle of Kulikovo. Winning this award meant the young artist could travel to Europe to study art even more.

Early Success as a Painter

A year before he graduated, in 1804, Orest painted a portrait of Adam Shvalbe, his foster father. This painting was a huge success! It impressed people so much that later, artists from the Naples Academy of Arts thought it was painted by an Old Master. They believed it was by famous painters like Peter Paul Rubens or Anthony van Dyck. Kiprensky had to ask the Imperial Academy of Arts to write letters to prove he was the one who painted it.

Life and Travels

After his studies, Kiprensky lived in different cities. He was in Moscow in 1809, Tver in 1811, and Saint Petersburg in 1812. From 1816 to 1822, he lived in Rome and Napoli in Italy.

While in Italy, he met a local girl named Anna Maria Falcucci, also known as Mariucci. He took her under his care. When he left Italy, he sent her to live in a Roman Catholic convent.

In 1828, Kiprensky returned to Italy. He had received a letter from his friend Samuil Galberg, who told him they had lost track of Mariucci. Kiprensky found Mariucci, who had moved to another convent. In 1836, he finally married her. To do this, he had to change his religion from Russian Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism. Sadly, he died from pneumonia in Rome later that same year. He is buried in the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte.