Painting Detail
Portrait of Count Nikolay GuryevArtist: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 107x86 cm
Date: 1821
Genre: Portrait
Source: Via the State Museum Fund from the collection of A. N. Naryshkina, Petrograd, 1922
In this portrait of a Russian diplomat, Ingres does not idealize his subject but uses him as a pretext for the expression of his own conception of the ideal. Despite being a cold combination of classical clichés, the work remains a model of perfection in line and composition. Such a dramatic colour range is rare for Ingres and is reminiscent of portraits by Florentine Mannerists, one of the greatest impression the artist gained from Italy.
Nikolay Guryev fought on the Russian side in the war against Napoleon in 1812 and from 1821 was in the diplomatic service, going on to represent his country as ambassador at The Hague, Rome and Naples. This portrait was painted during his stay in Florence, which Ingres was also visiting. Without idealising Guryev's somewhat unattractive appearance, the artist nonetheless emphasizes his innate elegance and sense of his own merit. The painting observes the conventions of the Western European official portrait, and Guryev stands static and imposing against a distant mountain landscape. Typical classical features - pyramidal composition, graphic precision of form, the smooth, enamel-like surface of the painting - combine easily in this portrait with hints of Romantic tendencies, in the emotional tension of the colour contrasts and the gloomy, thundery sky, which creates a distinctly unsettled feel.