Lot 126: Attributed to Vasily Andreevich Tropinin, 1776-1857 , the guitar player oil on canvas

oil on canvas

87 by 71cm., 34¼ by 28in.

The guitarist is a well-loved theme in Tropinin's oeuvre, which he repeated frequently with variations throughout his career. By the early 1820s, the manufacture of the seven-stringed guitar had been perfected and singing to guitar accompaniment had became extremely popular at all levels of Russian society. Tropinin first worked on the subject of the guitarist in a sketch from 1822. At first it was believed his model was a young man from the aristocratic Morkov family, although in actual fact the sitter was V. I. Morkov, a famous Russian musician and historian of early music, whose youthful and virtuoso guitar debut met with triumph in Moscow. Tropinin's guitarist is symbolic of the democratisation of Russian music. At that time the Russian seven-stringed guitar echoed in society salons, servants' quarters and at coaching inns. In his Guitarist pictures, Tropinin expresses national character and the blossoming of the Russian romance. The youth appears completely at ease, not expecting an audience: singing is a means of baring his soul. His gaze disappears into the distance, not meeting the eyes of the viewer. It is curious that in each variant, Tropinin's guitarists are dressed very similarly. The instruments, however, are given their own identities, proof that the artist valued them as much as he did the musicians.