KARL PAVLOVICH BRULLOFF
“THE LAST DAY OF POMPEII”
Student of 10 form “A”
Gymnasium №1
Korneychuk Igor
Karl Pavlovich Brulloff
 Karl Pavlovich Brulloff was a Russian painter of
the first half of 19th Century and the first Russian
painter to gain widespread recognition in the West.
In 1821, Brulloff graduated from the Academy with
distinguish. In 1822, Karl, along with his brother
Alexander, was sent to Europe to study art there. In
1836, Brulloff was appointed professor at the
Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.
Pompeii
Brulloff was especially impressed by the history of Pompeii. The
volcano collapsed higher roof-lines and buried Pompeii under 60 feet of
ash. Pompeii was lost nearly 1,700 years before its accidental rediscovery
in 1748. Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily
detailed insight into the life of a city. Today, this UNESCO World
Heritage Site is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Italy.
Brulloff was greatly impressed when he saw the town, perfectly
preserved under the ash. The cataclysm had been so sudden that life had
simply stopped, as if frozen in time. In 1827, Brulloff visited the
excavation site of Pompeii, a town destroyed and buried under a layer of
ash during an eruption of the volcano Vesuvius on August 24, 78 A.D.
Brulloff was greatly impressed when he saw the town. Brulloff began
studying the artifacts found in the excavations and historical
documents, such as the letters of Pliny the Younger, who was an eyewitness of the event. It’s believed that the young man persuading his
mother to come with him in the right part of the picture is Pliny himself.
“The last day of Pompeii”
One of his most famous pictures is “The last day of Pompeii”. It was painted in 1833.
Brulloff visited Pompeii in 1828 and made many sketches for his future canvas. The
picture characterizes romanticism in Russian painting mixed up with idealism.
Brulloff became immediately famous thanks to this canvas.
By this picture Brulloff contrasts the fatal natural forces and the greatness and the
beauty of man. In the picture we see the ruins of Pompeii and the terror of the
disaster. In spite of all horror of the people their figures are marvelous. Brulloff
expressed different psychological condition and shades of feelings of the people in
Pompeii.
The composition of the canvas is rather complicated. It consists of several separate
groups of people not connected with one another. The onlooker will understand the
whole idea of the canvas when he looks at all the groups simultaneously.
On the left we can see a group of young people on the grave. Brulloff shows them
quite real. We can fell the power of the young bodies. We can see the expression of
their faces. In the group we can see the self portrait of the artist himself who is trying
to take with him a box with brushes and paints.
On the right we see three groups of people: two young men dragging their father,
Pliney with his mother and the young wedding couple. The young couple is not shown
quite clearly. The group of two young man and their father shows strong will and
courage of the young people. They are determined to save their father.
In the middle of the picture we see the dead body of a young woman and her baby.
The baby doesn’t understand the fatality of the situation. The figures are painted with
great talent. Gogol called it most poetic.
In coloring the picture can be divided into some parts. The background is
painted in contrasting dark, red and brown. The central part of the picture is
light, painted in warm yellow and brown colors.
Taking the picture as a whole we can see courage and sacrifice of some people
together with despair and fright of the others. All strata of people are shown in
the picture but they are united by one idea. All people are equal in the face of
death, they depend on the nature and before death they should be decent noble
and loving. Gogal wrote an article about this picture in which he called it a world
creation in which all ideas that can appear in a genios head are harmoniously,
combined into one masterpiece. This masterpiece is exhibited in the State
Russian Museum.
The Last day of Pompeii was a huge success in Italy. His contemporaries called
him The Great Karl and the painter was called one of the best contemporary
European painters. Italian critics compared Brulloff to the greatest artists of the
past, such as Rubens, Rembrandt and Van Dyke. When Brulloff returned to
Russia in 1835, the Academy of Arts organized a reception in his honor and he
was even grante an audience with Tzar Nicholas 1.
My opinion about “The Last
Day of Pompeii”
The canvas impressed me greatly for many reasons.
First of all, it’s topic is familiar to me because I have
read a lot of books about the ancient world which
interests me. Secondly the size of the picture, its
coloring, the impressive figures on the canvas make me
think about life, about people’s behavior in dangerous
situations. And I can say that in all life situations people
must be decent, noble and daring.