Artist Kramskoy and the painting "Unknown"

"Unknown" is a portrait of a beautiful, but somewhat agitated woman against the backdrop of Nevsky Prospekt.

I.E. Repin told in his memoirs that when this picture appeared at the XI-th exhibition of the Itinerant artists, everyone was literally intrigued - who is this woman?

Neither the first biographers nor his daughter Kramskaya-Juncker confirm any of the assumptions - who is this woman? And there were many versions. The artist's daughter claimed that the portrait was painted from different models, and this image is collective. Some said that the artist saw this beauty on the street, in a passing carriage, others said that it was the image of Anna Karenina (several years before the appearance of Kramskoy's painting, Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina was published).

Although the literary images of women, which would serve as the prototype of the picture, could be named and named. In many works of Russian writers and poets, the image of a woman opposing society was very popular. And in the picture, the beauty is perceived just like that.

Perhaps Kramskoy also touched on this topic. The artist, as it were, looks at his model from the side, forcing the audience to think about who she is, what her fate is, what feelings are hidden behind this beauty and the haughty gaze of the half-lowered gaze of beautiful eyes. But among the sketches of Kramskoy, one was found, which depicts a young woman sitting in a carriage. She looks defiantly at the passers-by.

Her appearance - disheveled hair and not quite fresh toilet, causes ridicule. Was that how the artist originally wanted to portray a beauty? Kramskoy deliberately calls the portrait "Unknown", as if he knew that he would stop the audience and make them think about her fate. The picture caused a lot of commentary for its mystery. Who is she?

Many agreed that Kramskoy portrayed a rich kept woman. V. Stasov came up with a definition - "Kokotka in a wheelchair", and P. Tretyakov did not want to buy this work. And in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, it appeared as a result of the nationalization of private collections only in Soviet times in 1925, when the scandalous image of "Unknown" was gradually forgotten, and the picture of the unknown became the embodiment of aristocracy.

Kramskoy once said to Repin: “The point is not to write this or that scene ... of life. It will be a simple photograph from nature, a sketch, if it is not illuminated by the philosophical worldview of the author and does not bear the deep meaning of life ... ”. This is what the artist was probably thinking about when drawing a portrait of a beauty, about her life ...

Kramskoy was a gifted portrait painter. His ability to convey the inner world of the person depicted in the portrait seemed supernatural to many. Kramskoy paints the pictures "Moonlit Night", "Inconsolable Grief", "Unknown". Three women, three destinies.

Unknown differs in that the woman's face is close to the viewer. You can see the dullness of velvety skin, and shadows from long eyelashes, and tears in the eyes, which are masked by a cold and proud expression on the face, the pink frosty haze is written so masterly that in reality it brings a feeling of cold.

Some call the image of the unknown magical. Look at the picture, every detail on it makes us wonder - who is this, we consider the soft blue of her velvet suit, decorated with fur and ribbons, a hat with an ostrich feather, there is some nagging feeling about the fate of this woman - has her beauty not played a fatal role in this fate? This remains a mystery to this day.

Artist Kramskoy

Kramskoy's picture is often called not "Unknown", but "Stranger", apparently under the influence of Blok's "Stranger".

Sensual beauty, unattainable and unapproachable, a slightly arrogant look and deep sadness does not leave indifferent any spectator - "Unknown" remains unknown to this day.