Portrait of A. S. Pushkin Vasily Tropinin (1776-1857)

Description of Vasily Tropinin’s Portrait of Alexander Pushkin

Portrait of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, created by the artist Vasily Tropinin, is probably the most popular image of the great poet at the present time. And according to Alexander Sergeyevich himself - this portrait is quite realistic.

The figure of the poet is in front of us; he is sitting with his head slightly turned, his gaze forming a diagonal with respect to us from the depth of the left part of the portrait to the outer side of the canvas to the right. The poet is clean-shaven, except for the soft sideburns that remind us of light clouds, the only difference being that they are black, like the curly hair on his head. The collar of his white shirt is starched and tied with a black scarf.

Above his lower garment, the poet is dressed in a garment that reminds us of something between a brown overcoat and a house robe with black lapels. In the lower left corner of the painting, a red-pink, probably made of granite, table on which rests the hand of the great classic of the golden word. The fingers of the hand are clenched in a relaxed fist. On the forefinger and thumb we see golden rings adorning the hand of the unsurpassed master of the pen.

If we look a little more closely, we can discover under the elbow of Pushkin’s hand, a manuscript hidden from us, whose white corners only slightly show themselves to the observant art connoisseur.

The portrait is executed quite elegantly. Alexander Sergeyevich is depicted here with a maximum degree of authenticity, as if we see a living person or a photograph of him. The poet’s gaze and face are calm and at the same time there is a touch of anxiety or concern about something to come. Perhaps the poet was contemplating his future, at least there is an underlying fear in this picture, but the overall impression of the painting is aesthetically positive.