Portrait of Count Sergei Petrovich Buturlin 1824

Curator: Stepping into Gallery 12, we find ourselves face-to-face with Orest Kiprensky's 1824 pencil drawing, "Portrait of Count Sergei Petrovich Buturlin," now residing in the Tretyakov Gallery. What strikes you first about it? Editor: Immediately, this portrait feels like a whisper, doesn't it? A quiet intensity radiates from this young man. I’m drawn to the way Kiprensky captures a sense of pensive stillness—like a captured moment before speech. There’s a Romantic sensibility here, certainly. Curator: Absolutely. Kiprensky was a master of Romanticism, and here he uses delicate pencil work to portray not just Buturlin’s physical likeness, but also what some call his soulful interior. It is rendered so subtly! Notice the detail, for example, in the fur collar, or how the light falls across his face. Editor: The composition too... See how Buturlin is slightly off-center, looking just past us? It prevents the image from being merely decorative. What sort of statement do you think Kiprensky intended? I'd venture it has something to do with both authority and accessibility. It's almost as if he's sharing a secret with us. Curator: It’s fascinating you say that, given Buturlin’s prominence as a military historian and bibliophile! This drawing might speak to his scholarly inclinations – a glimpse into a thoughtful mind more than a display of noble status. I can definitely see it as something of a dialogue with authority. Editor: What I keep coming back to is the medium: a pencil drawing rather than a full oil painting. This wasn’t simply about rendering technical prowess or achieving a perfect likeness. Pencil gives it a raw, immediate quality that connects it so closely to an actual person and his essence. Curator: Precisely, and perhaps there is even more going on beneath the surface. Drawing allowed a certain intimacy between artist and sitter—revealing nuances that a more formal portrait might obscure. Looking closer still, I would also emphasize his elegant but relaxed pose. Editor: That makes perfect sense. He does look relaxed. After examining all the work’s individual components, and how the entire object creates so much mood through understatement, what's most thought-provoking is the human quality itself. It makes one really stop and wonder... Curator: A beautiful and telling encapsulation; I couldn't agree more. It invites us, then, to truly ponder not just the sitter and artist here but ourselves as thoughtful individuals encountering another introspective gaze over a span of nearly two centuries.