Vladimir Borovikovsky: Russia’s Premier Portrait Painter
Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (4 August 1757 – 18 April 1825) was a Russian artist of Ukrainian Cossack origin. He dominated portraiture in Russia at the turn of the 19th century and served at the court of Catherine the Great.
Early Life and Education
Borovikovsky was born in Mirgorod, Cossack Hetmanate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) on 24 July 1757 into a family of Ukrainian Cossack origin. His father, Luka Borovik, was an icon-painter. According to family tradition, all four of Borovik’s sons served as Cossacks in the Mirgorod regiment, but Vladimir retired early at the rank of poruchik to pursue art, focusing initially on icon painting for local churches.
He remained in Mirgorod until 1788, working in the Cossack Baroque tradition. His friend Vasily Kapnist, who was preparing accommodation for Empress Catherine II during her travel to newly conquered Crimea, asked Borovikovsky to paint two allegorical works for her rooms: depictions of Peter I and Catherine II as peasants sowing seeds, and Catherine II as Minerva. The paintings impressed the Empress so greatly that she requested the artist move to Saint Petersburg.
Career and Achievements
After September 1788, Borovikovsky settled in Saint Petersburg and changed his surname from the Cossack Borovik to the more aristocratic-sounding Borovikovsky. For his first decade in the capital, he lived in the house of Prince Nikolay Lvov, a poet, architect, musician, and art theorist whose ideas strongly influenced his artistic development. At age 30, Borovikovsky was too old to attend the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, so he took private lessons from Dmitry Levitzky and later from Austrian painter Johann Baptist Lampi.
In 1795 he was appointed an academician. He became a highly sought portrait painter, creating approximately 500 portraits during his lifetime, 400 of which survived to the 21st century. He maintained his own studio and often relied on assistants to paint the less important parts of portraits. His sitters included members of the imperial family, courtiers, generals, aristocrats, and figures from the Russian artistic and literary worlds. Most of his portraits are intimate in style.
Notable Events and Milestones
Among Borovikovsky’s most celebrated works are his Portrait of Catherine II, Empress of Russia (1794), which led to his appointment as academician; Portrait of E. N. Arsenyeva (1796); Portrait of M. I. Lopukhina (1797); Portrait of Paul I, Emperor of Russia (1800); Portrait of Prince A. B. Kurakin (1801–1802); Portrait of Princess A. G. Gagarina and Princess V. G. Gagarina (1802); and Portrait of Serbian Prince Karadjordje (1816).
Borovikovsky painted with his left hand and was known for conveying the inner world of his subjects with subtlety. His work fused classicist and sentimental styles, with chamber portraits dominating his output. In female images, he embodied the ideal of beauty of his era. During the 1810s, his focus shifted toward depicting strong, energetic personalities with emphasis on citizenship, nobility, and dignity, with landscape backgrounds replaced by interior settings.
After 1819, Borovikovsky became a Freemason and member of the lodge Dying Sphinx. During this period, he returned primarily to religious painting, including the iconostasis of the Smolensky Cemetery church and icons for Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. He also gave painting lessons to the aspiring artist Alexey Venetsianov, who lived in his home along with other pupils.
Additional Resources
For further information about Borovikovsky’s life, artistic techniques, and the full catalog of his surviving works, readers may consult Wikipedia’s biographical entry and other scholarly resources on 18th and 19th-century Russian portraiture. Museum collections in Saint Petersburg and Moscow house many of his most significant paintings.
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