Matveyev Fyodor Mikhailovich (1758-1826)

Master of classical landscape, one of the gifted and appreciated pupils Arts. Was sent to Italy to improve the ... home did not come back. Do not want to? Could not? Probably both.

Fyodor Matveyev was the son of a soldier of the Life Guards Izmailovo Regiment. At the age of six he identified in an educational school at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He finished training in landscape class Sem. Shchedrin . In 1778, he received a gold medal and a year later went to Rome pensioner.

There he acquired the principles included in force classicism and became a consistent classicist. What are the principles of landscape painting? Representing a specific type, select the most majestic and dignified. In this case, see portrayed in its ideal prototype. There is also a sample - the art of antiquity, which at the time caused unusual interest Matveeva, reaching the general enthusiasm. The requirement for "noble simplicity and calm grandeur" (JJ Winckelmann) proposed in painting harmony and clarity: a symmetrical, balanced composition with the obligatory division pas three plans and lateral "scenes" understanding of sculptural form, the local color (it has its own color of an object excluding its changes under the influence of light and air).

Best Matveev - "View near Naples" (1806), "View of Lago Maggiore" (1808), "View of Rome. Coliseum" (1816), "View Bolsenskogo lake in Italy" (1819), etc. These landscapes have rare advantage: with all their idealism, they do not turn to the circuit, there is a lively sense. According to contemporary accounts, Matveev adored nature that worked on location all day, often forgetting about food. At the same time, its reality - changeable, raised, even heroic. He wrote and composed landscapes.

In Italy, Matveev spent forty-seven years. At first it hurt to go back to Russia sense of creative freedom, which was not at home. Then hinder the ever-increasing debt. He gained fame and respect, it was patronized by educated Russian nobles. However, paying for a job is not enough. Matveev refers several times at the Academy to help pay debts and send money to go home, sending his pictures there. However, ACh was too thrifty. Only in 1819 he was given a pension 500 thalers a year.

Matveev died in Italy in old age. Young Sylvester Shchedrin attended the workshop Matveeva in Rome and found it one of the best contemporary landscape painters, celebrated professional skill and ease of execution, accuracy in the transfer of nature (up to form the leaves of different species of trees), warmth, color, lighting and inimitable ability to write plans.