The art of the era of sentimentalism originated in Western Europe from the middle of the 18th century. It began to develop from the gradual distancing of the artistic thought of that time from the ideas of the Enlightenment. The cult of reason has been replaced by sensitivity. At the same time, the ideas of the enlighteners are not forgotten, but rethought. In art, changes resulted in a departure from clear, straightforward classicism into sensitive sentimentalism, because "feeling does not lie!"

The style manifested itself most clearly in literature, where J.-J. Rousseau ideologically substantiated a new direction: he proclaimed the value of nature, the education of feelings, the departure from socialization to seclusion, from civilization to life in nature, in the countryside. Other heroes came to literature - commoners.

(Louise Léopold Boilly "Gabriel Arnault")

Art gladly accepted the new idea into service. Canvases began to appear with landscapes distinguished by their simplicity of composition, portraits in which the artist captured vivid emotions. The poses of portrait heroes breathe naturalness, calmness and peace are reflected on their faces.
However, the works of some masters who worked in the style of sentimentalism sin with moralizing, artificially exaggerated sensitivity.

(Dmitry G. Levitsky "Portrait of Glafira Ivanovna Alymova")

Sentimentalism of the 18th century grew out of classicism and became the forerunner of romanticism. The style was first formed in the work of English artists in the middle of the century and lasted until the beginning of the next. It was then that he came to Russia and was embodied in the paintings of talented artists of his time.

Sentimentalism in painting

Sentimentalism in the art of painting is a special view of the image of reality, through strengthening, emphasizing the emotional component of the artistic image. The picture should, according to the artist, affect the feelings of the viewer, evoke an emotional response - compassion, empathy, tenderness. Sentimentalists put feeling, not reason, at the heart of their worldview. The cult of feeling was both a strong and a weak side of the artistic direction. Some canvases cause the viewer to be rejected by sugaryness and the desire to openly pity him, impose feelings unusual for him, squeeze out a tear.

(Jean-Baptiste Greuze "Portrait of a Young Woman")

Appeared on the "wreckage" of Rococo, sentimentalism, in fact, was the last stage of a degenerate style. Many paintings by European artists depict unhappy young commoners with an innocent and suffering expression of pretty faces, poor children in beautiful rags, old women.

Notable sentimentalist artists

(Jean-Baptiste Greuze "Portrait of a Young Man with a Hat")

One of the brightest representatives of the trend was the French artist J.-B. Dreams. His paintings with an edifying plot are distinguished by moralizing and sugary. Greuze created many paintings with girlish heads yearning for dead birds. The artist created moralizing comments to his canvases in order to further strengthen their moralistic ideological content. Among the works of creativity of painters of the XVIII century, the style is read in the canvases of J.F. Hackert, R. Wilson, T. Jones, J. Forrester, S. Delon.

(Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin "Prayer before dinner")

French artist J.-S. Chardin was one of the first to introduce social motives into his work. The painting "Prayer before dinner" bears many features of sentimentalism, in particular, the instructiveness of the plot. However, the picture combines two styles - rococo and sentimentalism. Here the theme of the importance of women's participation in raising sublime feelings in children is raised. The Rococo style left a mark in the construction of an elegant composition, many small details, and the richness of the color palette. The poses of the heroes, objects, and the whole atmosphere of the room are elegant, which is typical for the painting of that time. The desire of the artist to appeal directly to the feelings of the viewer is clearly read, which clearly indicates the use of a sentimental style when writing the canvas.

Sentimentalism in Russian art

The style came to Russia belatedly, in the first decade of the 19th century, along with the fashion for antique cameos, which was introduced by the French Empress Josephine. Russian artists transformed the two styles that existed at that time, neoclassicism and sentimentalism, creating a new one - Russian classicism in its most romantic form. V. L. Borovikovsky, A. G. Venetsianov, I. P. Argunov worked in this manner.

(Semyon Fedorovich Shchedrin "Landscape in the environs of St. Petersburg")

Sentimentalism allowed the artists in the paintings to assert the intrinsic value of the human personality, its inner world. Moreover, this became possible through showing the feelings of a person in an intimate setting, when he is left alone with himself. Russian artists inhabited the landscape with their heroes. Alone with nature, remaining one person is able to manifest his natural state of mind.

Russian sentimental artists

(Vladimir Borovikovsky "Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina")

Borovikovsky's painting "Portrait of M. I. Lopukhina" is well-known. A young woman in a loose dress leaned gracefully on the railing. The Russian landscape with birch trees and cornflowers is conducive to sincerity, as is the expression on the sweet face of the heroine. In her thoughtfulness, trust in the viewer is read. A smile plays on his face. The portrait is rightfully considered one of the best examples of a Russian classical work. In the artistic style of the canvas, a sentimental direction is clearly visible.

(Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov "Sleeping Shepherd")

Among the artists of this time, Russian pictorial classics clearly manifested themselves in the work of A. G. Venetsianov. His "pastoral" painting gained fame: the paintings "Reapers", "Sleeping Shepherd" and others. They breathe freshness and love for people. The canvases are written in the manner of Russian classicism with sentimental expression. The paintings evoke a reciprocal feeling of admiring the landscape and the faces of the heroes of the canvases. The style found its expression in the harmony of the peasants with the surrounding nature, in the calm expressions of their faces, the soft colors of Russian nature.

The art of sentimentalism in its purest form was especially developed in Austria and Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In Russia, artists painted in a peculiar manner, in which the style was used in symbiosis with other trends.

Details Category: A variety of styles and trends in art and their features Posted on 07/31/2015 19:33 Views: 8963

Sentimentalism as an artistic movement arose in Western art in the second half of the 18th century.

In Russia, its heyday fell on the period from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century.

Term meaning

Sentimentalism - from fr. sentiment (feeling). The ideology of the mind of the Enlightenment in sentimentalism is replaced by the priority of feeling, simplicity, solitary reflection, interest in the "little man". J. J. Rousseau is considered the ideologist of sentimentalism.

Jean Jacques Rousseau
The main character of sentimentalism becomes a natural person (living in peace with nature). Only such a person, according to sentimentalists, can be happy, having found inner harmony. In addition, the education of feelings is important, i.e. natural beginnings of man. Civilization (urban environment) is a hostile environment for people and distorts its nature. Therefore, in the works of sentimentalists, a cult of private life, rural existence arises. Sentimentalists considered the concepts of "history", "state", "society", "education" to be negative. They were not interested in the historical, heroic past (as the classicists were interested in); daily impressions were for them the essence of human life. The hero of the literature of sentimentalism is an ordinary person. Even if this is a person of low origin (servant or robber), then the wealth of his inner world is in no way inferior, and sometimes even surpasses the inner world of people of the highest class.
Representatives of sentimentalism did not approach a person with an unambiguous moral assessment - a person is complex and capable of both lofty and low deeds, but by nature a good beginning is laid in people, and evil is the fruit of civilization. However, each person always has a chance to return to his nature.

The development of sentimentalism in art

England was the birthplace of sentimentalism. But in the second half of the XVIII century. it has become a pan-European phenomenon. Sentimentalism manifested itself most clearly in English, French, German and Russian literature.

Sentimentalism in English Literature

James Thomson
At the end of the 20s of the XVIII century. James Thomson wrote the poems "Winter" (1726), "Summer" (1727), "Spring" and "Autumn", later published under the title "The Seasons" (1730). These works helped the English reading public to take a closer look at their native nature and see the beauty of idyllic country life, in contrast to the vain and spoiled city life. The so-called "graveyard poetry" (Edward Jung, Thomas Grey) appeared, which expressed the idea of ​​the equality of all before death.

Thomas Gray
But sentimentalism expressed itself more fully in the genre of the novel. And here, first of all, we should remember Samuel Richardson, an English writer and printer, the first English novelist. He usually created his novels in the epistolary genre (in the form of letters).

Samuel Richardson

The main characters exchanged long frank letters, and through them Richardson introduced the reader to the secret world of their thoughts and feelings. Remember how A.S. Pushkin in the novel "Eugene Onegin" writes about Tatyana Larina?

She liked novels early on;
They replaced everything for her;
She fell in love with deceptions
And Richardson and Rousseau.

Joshua Reynolds "Portrait of Laurence Sterne"

No less famous was Lawrence Stern, the author of Tristram Shandy and Sentimental Journey. "Sentimental Journey" Stern himself called "a peaceful wandering of the heart in search of nature and all spiritual inclinations that can inspire us with more love for our neighbors and for the whole world than we usually feel."

Sentimentalism in French Literature

At the origins of French sentimental prose is Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux with the novel "The Life of Marianne" and the Abbé Prevost with "Manon Lescaut".

Abbe Prevost

But the highest achievement in this direction was the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), a French philosopher, writer, thinker, musicologist, composer and botanist.
The main philosophical works of Rousseau, which outlined his social and political ideals, were "The New Eloise", "Emil" and "Social Contract".
Rousseau first tried to explain the causes of social inequality and its types. He believed that the state arises as a result of a social contract. According to the treaty, the supreme power in the state belongs to all the people.
Under the influence of Rousseau's ideas, such new democratic institutions as the referendum and others arose.
J.J. Rousseau made nature an independent object of the image. His "Confession" (1766-1770) is considered one of the most frank autobiographies in world literature, in which he vividly expresses the subjectivist attitude of sentimentalism: a work of art is a way of expressing the author's "I". He believed that "the mind can be wrong, the feeling - never."

Sentimentalism in Russian literature

V. Tropinin “Portrait of N.M. Karamzin" (1818)
The era of Russian sentimentalism began with N. M. Karamzin's Letters from a Russian Traveler (1791-1792).
Then the story "Poor Lisa" (1792) was written, which is considered a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose. She was a great success with readers and was a source of imitation. There were works with similar names: "Poor Masha", "Unfortunate Margarita", etc.
Karamzin's poetry also developed in line with European sentimentalism. The poet is not interested in the outer, physical world, but in the inner, spiritual world of man. His poems speak "the language of the heart", not the mind.

Sentimentalism in painting

The artist V. L. Borovikovsky experienced a particularly strong influence of sentimentalism. His work is dominated by a chamber portrait. In female images, VL Borovikovsky embodies the ideal of beauty of his era and the main task of sentimentalism: the transfer of the inner world of a person.

In the double portrait "Lizonka and Dashenka" (1794), the artist depicted the maids of the Lvov family. Obviously, the portrait was painted with great love for the models: he saw both soft curls of hair, and the whiteness of faces, and a slight blush. The smart look and lively spontaneity of these simple girls are in line with sentimentalism.

In many of his chamber sentimental portraits, V. Borovikovsky managed to convey the diversity of feelings and experiences of the people depicted. For example, “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina" is one of the most popular female portraits by the artist.

V. Borovikovsky “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina" (1797). Canvas, oil. 72 x 53.5 cm. Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow)
V. Borovikovsky created the image of a woman, not associated with any social status - she is just a beautiful young woman, but living in harmony with nature. Lopukhin is depicted against the background of the Russian landscape: birch trunks, ears of rye, cornflowers. The landscape echoes the appearance of Lopukhina: the curve of her figure echoes the bowed ears, the white birch trees are reflected in the dress, the blue cornflowers echo the silk belt, the pale purple shawl echoes the drooping rosebuds. The portrait is full of life authenticity, depth of feelings and poetry.
The Russian poet Y. Polonsky, almost 100 years later, dedicated verses to the portrait:

She has long passed, and there are no longer those eyes
And there is no smile that was silently expressed
Suffering is the shadow of love, and thoughts are the shadow of sorrow,
But Borovikovsky saved her beauty.
So part of her soul did not fly away from us,
And there will be this look and this beauty of the body
To attract indifferent offspring to her,
Teaching him to love, suffer, forgive, be silent.
(Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina died very young, at the age of 24, from consumption).

V. Borovikovsky “Portrait of E.N. Arsenyeva" (1796). Canvas, oil. 71.5 x 56.5 cm State Russian Museum (Petersburg)
But this portrait depicts Ekaterina Nikolaevna Arsenyeva, the eldest daughter of Major General N.D. Arsenyeva, pupil of the Society of Noble Maidens at the Smolny Monastery. Later, she will become the maid of honor of Empress Maria Feodorovna, and in the portrait she is depicted as a sly, coquettish shepherdess, on a straw hat - ears of wheat, in her hand - an apple, the symbol of Aphrodite. It is felt that the character of the girl is light and cheerful.

The content of the article

SENTIMENTALISM(fr. Sentiment) - a trend in European literature and art of the second half of the 18th century, formed within the framework of the late Enlightenment and reflecting the growth of democratic sentiments in society. Originated in the lyrics and the novel; later, penetrating into theatrical art, he gave impetus to the emergence of the genres of "tearful comedy" and petty-bourgeois drama.

sentimentalism in literature.

The philosophical origins of sentimentalism go back to sensationalism, which put forward the idea of ​​a “natural”, “sensitive” (cognizing the world with feelings) person. By the beginning of the 18th century ideas of sensationalism penetrate into literature and art.

The "natural" man becomes the protagonist of sentimentalism. Sentimentalist writers proceeded from the premise that man, being a creature of nature, from birth has the makings of "natural virtue" and "sensibility"; the degree of sensitivity determines the dignity of a person and the significance of all his actions. Achieving happiness as the main goal of human existence is possible under two conditions: the development of the natural beginnings of a person (“education of feelings”) and staying in the natural environment (nature); merging with it, he finds inner harmony. Civilization (city), on the contrary, is an environment hostile to it: it distorts its nature. The more a person is social, the more devastated and lonely. Hence the cult of private life, rural existence, and even primitiveness and savagery, characteristic of sentimentalism. Sentimentalists did not accept the idea of ​​progress, fundamental to the encyclopedists, looking with pessimism at the prospects for social development. The concepts of "history", "state", "society", "education" had a negative meaning for them.

Sentimentalists, unlike the classicists, were not interested in the historical, heroic past: they were inspired by everyday impressions. The place of exaggerated passions, vices and virtues was occupied by familiar human feelings. The hero of sentimental literature is an ordinary person. Mostly this comes from the third estate, sometimes a low position (servant) and even an outcast (robber), in terms of the richness of his inner world and purity of feelings he is not inferior, and often superior to the representatives of the upper class. The denial of class and other differences imposed by civilization constitutes the democratic (egalitarian) pathos of sentimentalism.

Appeal to the inner world of man allowed sentimentalists to show its inexhaustibility and inconsistency. They abandoned the absolutization of any one character trait and the unambiguity of the moral interpretation of the character, characteristic of classicism: a sentimentalist hero can do both bad and good deeds, experience both noble and low feelings; sometimes his actions and inclinations are not amenable to a monosyllabic assessment. Since a good beginning is inherent in a person and evil is the fruit of civilization, no one can become a complete villain - he always has a chance to return to his nature. Retaining hope for the self-improvement of man, they remained, for all their pessimistic attitude towards progress, in line with enlightenment thought. Hence the didacticism and sometimes pronounced tendentiousness of their works.

The cult of feeling led to a high degree of subjectivism. This direction is characterized by an appeal to genres that most fully allow to show the life of the human heart - an elegy, a novel in letters, a travel diary, memoirs, etc., where the story is told in the first person. Sentimentalists rejected the principle of "objective" discourse, which implies the removal of the author from the subject of the image: the author's reflection on what is being described becomes their most important element of the narrative. The structure of the composition is largely determined by the will of the writer: he does not follow the established literary canons so strictly that fetter the imagination, rather arbitrarily builds the composition, and is generous with lyrical digressions.

Born on British shores in the 1710s, sentimentalism became Tue. floor. 18th century a pan-European phenomenon. It manifested itself most clearly in English, French, German and Russian literature.

Sentimentalism in England.

First of all, sentimentalism declared itself in the lyrics. Poet trans. floor. 18th century James Thomson abandoned the urban motifs traditional for rationalist poetry and made English nature the object of depiction. Nevertheless, he does not completely depart from the classicist tradition: he uses the genre of elegy, legitimized by the classicist theorist Nicolas Boileau in his poetic art(1674), however, replaces rhymed couplets with blank verse, characteristic of the Shakespearean era.

The development of lyrics goes along the path of strengthening the pessimistic motives already heard by D. Thomson. The theme of the illusiveness and futility of earthly existence triumphs in Edward Jung, the founder of "cemetery poetry". The poetry of the followers of E. Jung - the Scottish pastor Robert Blair (1699–1746), the author of a gloomy didactic poem grave(1743), and Thomas Gray, creator An elegy written in a rural cemetery(1749), - permeated with the idea of ​​equality of all before death.

Sentimentalism expressed itself most fully in the genre of the novel. It was initiated by Samuel Richardson, who, breaking with the adventurous and picaresque and adventure tradition, turned to depicting the world of human feelings, which required the creation of a new form - a novel in letters. In the 1750s, sentimentalism became the mainstream of English Enlightenment literature. The work of Lawrence Sterne, considered by many scholars as the "father of sentimentalism", marks the final departure from classicism. (A satirical novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman(1760–1767) and novel Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick(1768), from which the name of the artistic movement came).

Critical English sentimentalism reaches its peak in the work of Oliver Goldsmith.

In the 1770s comes the decline of English sentimentalism. The genre of the sentimental novel ceases to exist. In poetry, the sentimentalist school gives way to the pre-romantic one (D. MacPherson, T. Chatterton).

Sentimentalism in France.

In French literature, sentimentalism expressed itself in a classical form. Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux stands at the origins of sentimental prose. ( Marianne's life, 1728–1741; And The peasant who went out into the people, 1735–1736).

Antoine-Francois Prevost d'Exil, or Abbé Prevost, opened up a new realm of feelings for the novel - an irresistible passion leading the hero to a life catastrophe.

The climax of the sentimental novel was the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).

The concept of nature and "natural" man determined the content of his works of art (for example, the epistolary novel Julie, or New Eloise, 1761).

J.-J. Rousseau made nature an independent (intrinsic) object of the image. His Confession(1766-1770) is considered one of the most outspoken autobiographies in world literature, where he brings to the absolute the subjectivist attitude of sentimentalism (a work of art as a way of expressing the author's "I").

Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814), like his teacher J.-J. Rousseau, considered the main task of the artist to affirm the truth - happiness consists in living in harmony with nature and virtuously. He expounds his concept of nature in a treatise Sketches about nature(1784–1787). This theme receives artistic expression in the novel. Paul and Virginie(1787). Depicting distant seas and tropical countries, B. de Saint-Pierre introduces a new category - "exotic", which will be in demand by romantics, primarily Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand.

Jacques-Sebastian Mercier (1740–1814), following the Rousseauist tradition, makes the central conflict of the novel Savage(1767) the collision of the ideal (primitive) form of existence (the "golden age") with the civilization that was decomposing it. In a utopian novel 2440, what little dream(1770), based on social contract J.-J. Rousseau, he constructs the image of an egalitarian rural community in which people live in harmony with nature. S. Mercier sets out his critical view of the “fruits of civilization” in a journalistic form - in an essay Painting of Paris(1781).

The work of Nicolas Retief de La Bretonne (1734–1806), a self-taught writer, author of two hundred volumes of essays, is marked by the influence of J.-J. Rousseau. In the novel The Depraved Peasant, or the Perils of the City(1775) tells the story of the transformation, under the influence of the urban environment, of a morally pure young man into a criminal. Utopian novel Southern opening(1781) treats the same theme as 2440 S. Mercier. IN New Emile, or Practical Education(1776) Retief de La Bretonne develops the pedagogical ideas of J.-J. Rousseau, applying them to women's education, and argues with him. Confession J.-J. Rousseau becomes the reason for the creation of his autobiographical work Mister Nikola, or The Unveiled Human Heart(1794–1797), where he turns the narrative into a kind of "physiological sketch".

In the 1790s, during the era of the French Revolution, sentimentalism was losing its position, giving way to revolutionary classicism.

Sentimentalism in Germany.

In Germany, sentimentalism was born as a national-cultural reaction to French classicism; the work of English and French sentimentalists played a certain role in its development. A significant merit in the formation of a new view of literature belongs to G.E. Lessing.

The origins of German sentimentalism lie in the controversy of the early 1740s between the Zurich professors I.Ya. Bodmer (1698–1783) and I.Ya. the "Swiss" defended the poet's right to poetic fantasy. The first major exponent of the new trend was Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, who found common ground between sentimentalism and the Germanic medieval tradition.

The heyday of sentimentalism in Germany falls on the 1770s-1780s and is associated with the Sturm und Drang movement, named after the drama of the same name. Sturm and Drang F.M. Klinger (1752–1831). Its participants set themselves the task of creating an original national German literature; from J.-J. Rousseau, they adopted a critical attitude towards civilization and the cult of the natural. The theorist of Sturm und Drang, the philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, criticized the “boastful and fruitless education” of the Enlightenment, attacked the mechanical use of classic rules, arguing that true poetry is the language of feelings, first strong impressions, fantasy and passion, such a language is universal. "Stormy geniuses" denounced tyranny, protested against hierarchy modern society and his morals tomb of the kings K.F. Schubart, To freedom F.L. Shtolberg and others); their main character was a freedom-loving strong personality - Prometheus or Faust - driven by passions and not knowing any barriers.

In his younger years, Johann Wolfgang Goethe belonged to the Sturm und Drang direction. His romance The suffering of young Werther(1774) became a landmark work of German sentimentalism, defining the end of the "provincial stage" of German literature and its entry into European literature.

The spirit of "Sturm und Drang" marks the dramas of Johann Friedrich Schiller.

Sentimentalism in Russia.

Sentimentalism penetrated into Russia in the 1780s-early 1790s thanks to the translations of novels. Werther I.V. Goethe , Pamela, Clarissa And Grandison S. Richardson, New Eloise J.-J. Rousseau Fields and Virginie J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The era of Russian sentimentalism was opened by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin Letters from a Russian traveler (1791–1792).

His novel Poor Liza (1792) - a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther he inherited the general atmosphere of sensitivity and melancholy and the theme of suicide.

The works of N.M. Karamzin brought to life a huge number of imitations; at the beginning of the 19th century appeared Poor Masha A.E. Izmailova (1801), Journey to Noon Russia (1802), Henrietta, or The Triumph of Deception over Weakness or Delusion I. Svechinsky (1802), numerous stories by G.P. Kamenev ( The story of poor Mary; Unhappy Margarita; Beautiful Tatiana) etc.

Evgenia Krivushina

Sentimentalism in the theater

(French sentiment - feeling) - a direction in European theatrical art of the second half of the 18th century.

The development of sentimentalism in the theater is associated with the crisis of the aesthetics of classicism, which proclaimed a strict rationalistic canon of dramaturgy and its stage embodiment. The speculative constructions of classicist dramaturgy are being replaced by the desire to bring the theater closer to reality. This affects almost all components of the theatrical action: in the themes of plays (reflection of private life, development of family psychological plots); in language (classic pathos poetic speech is replaced by prose, close to colloquial intonation); in the social affiliation of the characters (the heroes of theatrical works become representatives of the third estate); in determining the places of action (palace interiors are replaced by "natural" and rural views).

"Tearful Comedy" - an early genre of sentimentalism - appeared in England in the work of playwrights Colley Cibber ( Love's last trick 1696;Carefree spouse, 1704 etc.), Joseph Addison ( godless, 1714; Drummer, 1715), Richard Steele ( Funeral, or fashionable sadness, 1701; lover liar, 1703; conscientious lovers, 1722, etc.). These were moralistic works, where the comic principle was consistently replaced by sentimental and pathetic scenes, moral and didactic maxims. The moral charge of the "tearful comedy" is based not on the ridicule of vices, but on the chanting of virtue, which awakens to correct shortcomings - both individual heroes and society as a whole.

The same moral and aesthetic principles formed the basis of the French "tearful comedy". Its most prominent representatives were Philip Detouche ( Married Philosopher, 1727; Proud, 1732; Waster, 1736) and Pierre Nivelle de Lachosset ( Melanida, 1741; mothers school, 1744; Governess, 1747 and others). Some criticism of social vices was presented by the playwrights as temporary delusions of the characters, which they successfully overcome by the end of the play. Sentimentalism was also reflected in the work of one of the most famous French playwrights of that time, Pierre Carlet Marivaux ( Game of love and chance, 1730; Triumph of love, 1732; Inheritance, 1736; upright, 1739, etc.). Marivaux, while remaining a faithful follower of the salon comedy, at the same time constantly introduces into it features of sensitive sentimentality and moral didactics.

In the second half of the 18th century "tearful comedy", remaining within the framework of sentimentalism, is gradually being replaced by the genre of petty-bourgeois drama. Here the elements of comedy finally disappear; Tragic situations are the basis of the plots Everyday life third estate. However, the problem remains the same as in the "tearful comedy": the triumph of virtue, which overcomes all trials and tribulations. In this single direction, the petty-bourgeois drama is developing in all countries of Europe: England (J. Lillo, The London Merchant, or The Story of George Barnwell; E.Moore, Player); France (D. Diderot, Illegitimate Son, or the Trial of Virtue; M. Seden, Philosopher without knowing it); Germany (G.E. Lessing, Miss Sarah Sampson, Emilia Galotti). From the theoretical developments and dramaturgy of Lessing, which received the definition of "philistine tragedy", the aesthetic trend of "Storm and Onslaught" arose (F.M. Klinger, J. Lenz, L. Wagner, I.V. Goethe, etc.), which reached its peak development in the work of Friedrich Schiller ( Rogues, 1780; Deceit and love, 1784).

Theatrical sentimentalism was also widely spread in Russia. First appearing in the work of Mikhail Kheraskov ( Friend of the unfortunate, 1774; Persecuted, 1775), the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism were continued by Mikhail Verevkin ( So it should,Birthdays,Exactly the same), Vladimir Lukin ( Mot, corrected by love), Petr Plavilshchikov ( Bobyl,Sidelets and etc.).

Sentimentalism gave a new impetus to acting, the development of which, in a certain sense, was hampered by classicism. The aesthetics of the classic performance of roles required strict observance of the conditional canon of the entire set of means of acting expressiveness, the improvement of acting skills went more along a purely formal line. Sentimentalism gave the actors the opportunity to turn to the inner world of their characters, to the dynamics of the development of the image, the search for psychological persuasiveness and the versatility of characters.

By the middle of the 19th century. the popularity of sentimentalism came to naught, the genre of petty-bourgeois drama practically ceased to exist. However, the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism formed the basis for the formation of one of the youngest theatrical genres - melodrama.

Tatyana Shabalina

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V. L. Borovikovsky entered the artistic atmosphere of St. Petersburg when sentimentalism developed along with the ideas of classicism and in parallel with it. The artist was destined to become in the painting of the 1790s. creator sentimental portrait. He begins with miniature portraits in oil, most often on cardboard, but also on copper, zinc, bone, wood (portrait of G. R. Derzhavin, late 1794 - early 1795; Lizynka and Dashinka, 1795; both - State Tretyakov Gallery; portraits architect A. A. Menelas, poet V. V. Kapnist, both - early 1790s, Russian Museum). In these works, the cult of reason gives way to the cult of feeling. In them, the poet Kapnist dreams “in enchanted oblivion” at the sculptural bust of his wife Sashenka against the backdrop of a rural landscape, and the yard girls Liza and Dasha resemble lovely young ladies from sentimental novels, sighing about love on moonlit nights, playing the harp or dancing the Lanner waltz.

All of a sudden, as if at the same time, they yearned for estate life, morning dawns, and the smell of raspberries. Sentimentalism in art brought to the fore not the rationality and normativity of moral views, but the emotionality of a person, the uniqueness of his individual inner life. On the way to romanticism is sentimentalism, a call for compassion sounds: "Kruchina about everyone is a gift of sensitivity" (V. V. Kapnist). Painting "sentimental" miniatures of Borovikovsky - fused, enamel, as if porcelain, faded tones, as if taken under the mute. A member of the Derzhavin-Lvov circle, Borovikovsky shared the views of Lvov, his interest in folk life, folk art (during these years Lvov just published his poem Dobrynya, compiled a collection of folk songs). Hence, Borovikovsky has such idyllic-pastoral images as the portrait of the Torzhkov peasant woman Khristinya, the nurse in the Lvovs' house (1795, State Tretyakov Gallery). In such images, of course, there is no hint of sociality, no critical notes. It is full of affectionate, somewhat sad contemplation, naive charm and purity. The artist put into him a sincere feeling and warmth of the heart.

Borovikovsky's turn to miniature (and this was mainly the first half of the 1790s) was also a reaction to the official ceremonial portrait, an expression of the search for naturalness and simplicity in the portrait image instead of stiltedness and pathos. Let us recall that in the literature of this time, small forms are also developing: lyrical messages, romances, letters and diaries, revealing the life of the soul, conveying shades of emotions.

In the 1790s many principles of miniature painting are transferred by Borovikovsky to a portrait in oil on canvas of the usual sizes for the composition of the bust or waist cut. The "first sign" was the image of the wife of the artist's friend, architect M. F. Filippov, Olga Kuzminichna (1790, Russian Museum), unfinished, revealing still the uncertainty of the brush, but already a fully developed concept. The portrait depicts a woman in morning dress, with loose curls (supposedly uncombed, just as English parks are “uncultivated”), in the bosom of nature, with a flower in her hand. The faded range of tones, the fine modeling of volumes rightly allow us to see here Borovikovsky's acquaintance with the painting of J.-L. Voila and an English portrait (which is quite likely, because the collections of the St. Petersburg nobility also contained modern painting). But the main thing for us in Filippova's depiction is not even these "addresses" of formal techniques, but the idea of ​​a portrait, an appeal to the depiction of contemplative, inner life, far from secular fuss, i.e. new aesthetic ideal.

Gradually, something like a compositional canon of female (and these are always female) portraits is being developed: a half-length (rarely generational) section of a figure leaning on a tree or cabinet, a flower or fruit in the hand. The background is always natural. The figure is placed, as it were, at the junction of light (sky) and dark (clumps of trees). Sometimes not only the staging of the figure, but even the dress and jewelry are repeated from portrait to portrait, as in the images of E. N. Arsenyeva (1796) and Skobeeva (second half of the 1790s; both - the Russian Museum). A white dress, a pearl bracelet, an apple in her hand - everything is repeated, not to mention the general high pictorial qualities, such as a clear plasticity of form, exquisite picturesqueness, a beautifully developed airy atmosphere - and the images are completely different. The daughter of a military general, the coquettish, cheerful Ekaterina Arsenyeva in a straw hat and with an apple in her hand - a sort of rustic Russian Venus with a snub-nosed face. This theme was familiar at that time: Fomin wrote the opera The Golden Apple, Lvov wrote the text for the opera Judgment of Paris, and light irony reigns everywhere, as in the portrait of Borovikovsky. Skobeeva (name unknown) is completely different. The daughter of a sailor of the Baltic Fleet, she was the pupil of the "state man" D. P. Troshchinsky. On her beautiful, but somewhat masculine face, decisiveness and courage of character are expressed, which is fully confirmed by her actions: this girl managed to resist her ambiguous position and married a very poor Smolensk landowner Skobeev without the knowledge of her guardian.

Among the "sentimental" portraits of the 1790s. The portrait of Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina, the daughter of General I. A. Tolstoy and the sister of the famous Fyodor Tolstoy, an "American", a duellist and a breter (1797, State Tretyakov Gallery), stands out with its picturesque maestro and charming charm of the model, painted in cold faded bluish-greenish tones. In this portrait, the characteristic features of the painter's handwriting are especially clearly visible: Borovikovsky's colors are fused, enamel, transparent, with many glazes, there is nothing of Rokotov's "viscosity" in them. The painter loves the combination of white with pink or blue, pearl gray with pale crimson, ivory, dull gold, unclear tones, mother-of-pearl, smoky purple. Unlike the masters of the first half and the middle of the century, Borovikovsky always writes on white grounds.

The portrait of Lopukhina is built on a melodious linear rhythm, the finest chiaroscuro nuances, on the harmonious subordination of all parts. Comparing the portrait of Lopukhina with the portrait of Madame Serizia J.-L. David, the researcher subtly notes that for all its, undoubtedly, greater conventionality, connection with the tradition of the past eighteenth century. it does not have the dryness, sobriety, coldness of the French master, it is much softer, more direct, warmer than David's. The reason for this is the inexhaustible faith of Russian people in enlightenment ideals, in ardent illusions, in utopian but sincere dreams (see: Alekseeva T.V. Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky and Russian culture at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries. P. 246). The image of Lopukhina seems to the researcher to be more integral in characterization, more noble, and higher. It was Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina who dedicated the poet's heartfelt lines:

She has long passed, and there are no longer those eyes

And there is no smile that was silently expressed

Suffering is the shadow of love, and thoughts are the shadow of sorrow,

But Borovikovsky saved her beauty.

So part of her soul did not fly away from us,

And there will be this look and this beauty of the body

To attract indifferent offspring to her,

Teaching him to love, suffer, forgive, be silent.

Ya. P. Polonsky. "To the portrait", 1885

Sentimental moods touched the image of the monarch. The portrait of Catherine II on a walk in the Tsarskoye Selo park (1794, State Tretyakov Gallery - against the backdrop of the Chesme Column), as is now reliably known, was not commissioned by the Empress. It was made as an approbation of the artist's talent with the aim of presenting it to the palace, most likely, according to the idea, plan and program of N.A. Lvov. The Empress was not painted from life (as, indeed, by almost all Russian masters); it is also known that she did not approve of Borovikovsky's work. Unfortunate circumstances for the artist came together here. Catherine's acquaintance with the portrait coincided with her irritation with Derzhavin, who glorified Suvorov in the ode "Song of Her Imperial Majesty Catherine II on the victories of Count Suvorov-Rymniksky." Borovikovsky received for the portrait only the title of "appointed to academician", and not academician, which was what the members of the Derzhavin-Lvov circle dreamed of (he received the title of academician later). Later, Borovikovsky made the author's repetition of the portrait of Catherine II on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo park, but now depicting her against the background of the Cahul (Rumyantsev) obelisk (1800–1810, Russian Museum). This portrait was commissioned by the Rumyantsevs, hence, instead of the Chesme Column, there is the Cahul obelisk in honor of the victories of P. A. Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky. Written at the very beginning of the 19th century. the portrait is drier, with accentuated light and shade modeling and careful drawing out of details.

Borovikovsky created an unusual portrait for that time. Ekaterina is presented on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo park in a dressing gown and a cap, with her favorite Italian greyhound at her feet. Not Felice, not a god-like queen who descended from heaven, she appears before the viewer, but a simple "Kazan landowner", whom she liked to appear in the last years of her life. It was in this image that Pushkin captured her in his great "tale of honor" - "The Captain's Daughter" (just in the 1820s, N. I. Utkin executed an engraving from the portrait of Borovikovsky, thanks to which the master's creation seemed to have experienced a second life and was a great success). The image of Borovikovsky in no way reminds us of "Catherine the Legislator": this is how artistic tastes change over a decade - from a classicistic lofty ideal to an almost genre interpretation of the sentimental sense of the image of a "simple rural resident".