Lot 290: Alexander Briullov (1798-1877)

Alexander Briullov (1798-1877)
Portrait of Alexandra and Olga Shishmarev
pencil and watercolour, heightened with white, on paper laid down on paper
7¼ x 10 in. (18.2 x 25.2 cm.)
Executed circa 1835

Moscow, Museum of Private Collections, Pushkin's Contemporaries: 100 Portraits in Watercolour from a Parisian Collection, May - July 1999. Moscow, Pushkin Museum, Alexander Pavlovich Briullov. Russian intimate Portraits, 2008, no. 89.

M. Baruch & I. Sakhalova, Russian Portraits in Watercolour, 1825-1855, Paris, 1994, pp. 30 and 31, illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, Alexander Pavlovich Briullov. Russian intimate Portraits, Moscow, Pushkin Museum, 2008, p. 91, no. 89.

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The subjects of this delicate and tender work, Alexandra and Olga, are the daughters of Afanasy Fedorovich Shishmarev. Their father's passion and patronage of opera and the arts ensured the early introduction of his daughters to a world of composers, musicians and artists. Alexandra Shishmarev (1820-1893) married twice, first to Lieutenant-General Chernyshev (1805-1869) and second to the chamberlain and subsequent councillor of state Diurassov (1831-1888). Olga Afanasievna (1821-1869) married Captain Olsufiev (1910-1873) of the Imperial Horseguards. Four years later the sisters provided the subject for another double portrait, this time by Karl Briullov, brother to Alexander Pavlovich. This later picture now hangs in St Petersburg's Russian Museum.