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Biography
There is very little information about the biography of the English artist Joseph Hearn. His date of birth is unknown. He came to Russia around 1787, lived and worked in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The works of Hearn performed in Russia have been preserved - views of St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Types of St. Petersburg
In the 1760-1770s, stagnation came in the pictorial Petersburg. Very few original works appeared. The drawings and watercolors of Quarenghi and de Traverse of the 1780s were almost unknown to contemporaries. The reason for this situation, in our opinion, was that the creation of engraved images of the Russian capital required the highest permission of the reigning person. Empress Catherine II, treating with antipathy her predecessor Elizabeth and the buildings of the out-of-fashion Elizabethan Baroque, had no desire to glorify what was created mainly before the palace coup of 1762. Apparently, this is why the outstanding Italian master of urban landscape Bernardo[1] changes his decision to move to St. Petersburg[2].
Hearn performed as a singer no longer Elizabethan, but Catherine Petersburg, which led to the approval of his works and their distribution in the Russian capital. A series of his engravings of 1789-1790, thus, laid the foundation for a new stage in the history of the pictorial Petersburg. The lull was replaced by a rapid increase in the number of works on the theme of the northern capital and the emergence of new and new artists who addressed this topic.
In Hearn's' Imperial Academy of Sciences', the entire foreground is occupied by the Neva with ships and boats on it. In the far plan - the embankment of Vasilyevsky Island with the buildings of the Twelve Colleges (the artist gave it in general, without detail), Kunstkamera and the newly built building of the Academy of Sciences located between them. To the right of Vasilievsky Island is visible the Peter and Paul Fortress with its bastions and the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The original position of the artist was the unproven left bank of the Neva, and the rays of view go perpendicular to the bank.
Hearn preferred the transfer of a separate section of the great river to a grandiose panorama of the Nevsky banks, and the frontal one to the diagonal location of the buildings. But the fact that most of the lower half of the species is occupied by the waters of the Neva, as well as the transmission of the high sky with ragged clouds, brings Hearn's species closer to the Mahaev ones. However, the water surface is interpreted differently by the English master: he is not attracted by the spectacular game of chiaroscuro - water is transmitted using long horizontal stripes of paint. There are no ripples on the Neva, and there is no excitement.
There are no dynamics in the image of ships: their sails are not inflated by the wind, there are few crew members on the decks. The ships did not seem to sail, but froze on the river. And even the rowers in the boat and on the barge don't seem to make much effort.
All of the above also applies to the second type of the Neva - the'Imperial Academy of Arts'. And here, being on the left bank of the Neva, the artist recorded buildings on the opposite bank - on Vasilyevsky Island. Among them stands out the magnificent building of the Academy of Arts, the main facade of which, facing the river, was completed a year before the creation of the engraving. On the left side of the view, in the perspective of the 6th line, the newly built St. Andrew's Cathedral is also visible.
Having performed two views of the Neva, Hearn also turned to the image of buildings that are no longer on the embankments, but on the streets. He performed 'Arsenal, Foundry and others on Foundry Street'. In the depths of the street, along its axis, is the Foundry Yard - a building with a turret, erected in 1733-1735 on the site of an earlier construction of Peter's time. To the right of the Foundry is the Old Arsenal (1770s), in front of which two cannons and two slides of cannonballs are installed. And the closest to the viewer is the bell tower of the Sergius Church (1746), even before the perestroika of the end of the 18th century. All these wonderful buildings have not been preserved (on the site of the Old Arsenal now - the so-called 'Big House'), and Hirn's watercolor engraving thus gets the meaning of an important document on the history of St. Petersburg architecture.
The street axis is not perpendicular to the plane of the sheet, but diagonally. As a result, the street is not shown along its entire length, but its relatively small area is represented: high sky, asymmetry in the arrangement of architectural masses, differently lit facades of buildings.
New, in comparison with the two species of the Neva, is the large role of staffage in this work by Hearn. Staffage are figures of humans and animals depicted in the scene, especially in the landscape, which are not the main subject of the work. They are usually small, and exist in order to add an indication of scale and add interest. The staffage in Hiirna's drawing is quite large and brought to the fore. A carriage, wagons, a rider, a military system, a lady walking with a gentleman, a street vendor and buyers in front of him give an idea of the Petersburg life of that time and revive the image.
Hearn's staffage is not very diverse, does not show much activity: people are either frozen in place or slowly moving. In the series of 1789-1790, the mood of peace and contemplation prevails, the opposite of the dynamic life that we see in the sheets of the Russian artist Makhaev. A different interpretation of staffage by Hearn reflects changes in the mindset of society at the end of the 18th century: at that time sentimentalism spread with its contemplation and attention to the 'private person'. The birthplace of sentimentalism was England, and then working in Russia, English artists, including Joseph Hearn, contributed to the spread of this trend in the Catherine state.
It is also decided by Hearn Staffage in all subsequent forms.
'Arsenal 'was followed by' Gostiny Dvor, or Public Shops on the Nevskaya Perspective '. A section of the Nevskaya promising road is presented, in the center of which is the building of the Gostiny Dvor. To his left, on the horizon is the Anichkov Palace, and to his right is another trading building - the Silver Rows. Interestingly, both the Gostiny Dvor and the Silver Rows were completed shortly before their capture by Hearn.
Composition, artistic manner, staffage in this form are very close to 'Arsenal'.
There is a parallel with the Makhaevsky 'Prospect of the Exchange and the Hotel Yard...' (in the port near the arrow of Vasilyevsky Island in the 18th century there was another Gostiny Yard). In the form of Hearn, another place of the city and not the port is shown, but the compositional similarity (two trading buildings diagonally, the end of the third house in the corner of the leaf, palaces at the point of descent) and the place of staffage allow us to talk about the continuity of the'Gostiny Dvor' (and to a lesser extent the'Arsenal') with a Mahaic look. But the work of the English artist is different in spirit - it looks everyday: the northern facades of the Gostiny Dvor and the Silver Rows are shaded (which is true, but reduces the importance of buildings), the figures of people are passive.
Different than in the'Gostiny Dvor' and 'Arsenal', the artist used the composition in the'Form of the Marble Palace, etc., on Bolshaya Millionnaya Street'.
The street's perspective is conveyed 'in Mahajewski', and we see both sides of it; on the right - the Marble Palace, and on the left - the Lombard building (subsequently rebuilt as the barracks of the Pavlovsky regiment). For the first time, Hearn chose a palace as one of the main objects of the image (Makhaev has palaces in almost all 'noble avenues'). However, the Marble Palace is shown in a strong perspective abbreviation, which reduces its significance in this form. Obviously, it was important for Hearn to transfer the Lombard building, which was affected by English business and practicality. The construction of both buildings was completed several years before the artist's work. Without a doubt, Hearn was attracted to the newly built structures of the capital. Perhaps his interest was determined by the business purpose of the objects, but it is possible that he does not want to repeat himself, the desire to say a new word in the pictorial annals of the city. And at the same time, the'View of the Marble Palace' of Hearn, both in its original position and in composition, and in the distribution of chiaroscuro, and even in staffage, is surprisingly similar to the drawing 'View of Millionnaya Street' of Makhaev. Is this a coincidence, or was the drawing of Makhaev not translated into engraving known to the author of the'View of the Marble Palace'?
The series of six prints' View of the Fontanka Canal 'concludes. A mistake was made in the original name, because Fontanka is a river, not a canal.
The view is unusual: all significant city structures are given far in the background. The Simeonovsky bridge with four turrets was thrown over the Fontanka - one of seven bridges of the same type, erected in the 1780s. The turrets on this bridge did not survive, as did four more bridges; only Chernyshev and Kalinkin bridges remained unchanged. To the left of the bridge, at the point of descent of the embankment, is shown the house in which the architect I.E. Starov lived at the end of the 18th century, and to the right of the architect's house is the Sheremetevsky Palace with a mezzanine in five windows. To the right of the turrets of the bridge is the Italian Palace, later rebuilt as the Catherine Institute. And even to the right, far on the horizon, a large church rises with a large central drum with a dome and small side ones - the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. In the foreground, on the left - a mansion with a small belvedere. The mansion was just (in 1787-1790) built for the chief prosecutor of the Senate P.V. Neklyudov, later (in 1812) it was rebuilt for the new owner of Prince A.N. Golitsyn (the modern address is Fontanka embankment, house 20).
As in the'Form of the Marble Palace', in the 'Form of the Fontanka', again the'Makhaev' composition. The engraving of 1790 evokes the memory of'Prospect on the Fontanka River' Makhaev with the difference that Hearn depicted another section of the river (downstream) and paid the main attention not to the river itself, but to its embankment. But in character, in mood, the appearance of Hearn is close to the most lyrical 'avenue' from the Makhaev series. Both artists paid the main attention not to the transfer of architecture, but to showing the cozy outskirts of the city and its leisurely life. It seems that in this case Hearn acted as a follower of Makhaev.
In turn, Hearn's follower was the prominent artist Benjamin Patersen, who became famous for his numerous paintings, watercolors and engravings with views of St. Petersburg, which he created since 1793. Between 1793 and 1797, Patersen painted the painting 'Fontanka Embankment at the Simeon Bridge'. Like Hearn, the Simeon Bridge is shown in the distance, but the artist's original position is different - it is not north of the bridge, but south of it; therefore, Patersen has a Starov house not to the left, but to the right of the bridge, and a mansion with a small belvedere is not in the foreground (like an English artist), but far on the horizon, at the vanishing point. But despite the fact that Patersen chose a different starting position (on the opposite, right bank of the Fontanka and about 400 meters south), the composition of his species repeats the composition of Hearn; if you bring these two images to the same scale and overlay each other, then the main lines are almost the same. Moreover, staffage echoes - a married couple with children on the right side of the view, a carriage in the middle of the embankment with a footman on commas, two commoners on the left. It follows from this comparison that the engraving on the original Hearn made a great impression on Patersen, who performed, in fact, a variation of this work.
Patersen settled in St. Petersburg around 1787 (that is, like Hearn), but did not engage in urban landscape until 1793. It seems very likely that a series of engravings on watercolors by Hearn not only influenced Patersen's work, but also prompted him to turn to the topic of St. Petersburg.
In addition to the six engravings examined, Joseph Hearn's original watercolor with another Petersburg view - 'Ice Mountains, erected annually the week before Lent. Height about 35 feet '(GTG). Riding on Shrovetide from the ice mountains was a favorite entertainment of Russian people and was perceived with great curiosity by foreigners. An admiring description of such skating was left by the English traveler U. Cox; at about the same time as Hearn (in the early 1790s), the same mountains on the ice of the Neva were depicted in the oil painting by Cox and Hearn's compatriot John Atkinson; a little later, the watercolor with this plot was performed by Quarenghi.
On Hearn's watercolors, we see huge (about ten meters high) wooden mountains towering on Nevsky ice. The entire first and second plan (near the mountains) is filled with people, and only with close inspection can you see the building of the Academy of Sciences to the left of the nearest mountain, and to the right - the Winter Palace. Beyond the far mountain is the Admiralty, and to the far right is the old Senate building.
Here Hearn went even further than in 'Fontanka View': 'Icy Mountains' is not so much an urban view as a work of the domestic genre. But here, too, numerous characters are characterized by contemplation and static, which would seem not very appropriate in this situation.
This watercolor is one of the few winter cityscapes of the 18th century; earlier, the winter landscape was captured in Makhaev's' View of Millionnaya Street '.
The composition of the drawing by Joseph Hearn includes four structures in the southwestern part of Catherine Park. In the depths behind the overgrown trees, the Tower-ruin of the architect Yu.M. Felten (1771) is visible. In the center, on the shore, is the Turkish kiosk of the architect I.V. Neyolov. This wooden pavilion was erected in 1779-1781 on the occasion of the diplomatic trip of Prince N.V. Repnin to Constantinople, and it has not survived to this day. Away, to his right, when leaving the road to Gatchina, are the Gatchina or Oryol Gates, installed in 1777-1782 (project by A. Rinaldi) by order of Catherine II to commemorate the successful measures to combat the plague epidemic in Moscow, which in 1771 were led by Count G.G. Orlov.
In the foreground to the right is Quarenghi's Concert Hall pavilion. He also designed an elegant bridge leading to an artificial island, made at the Sestroretsk arms factories in 1783-1784.
According to Hearn's watercolors, the English engraver Thomas Malton Sr. (1726-1801) in 1789-1790 performed six engravings in London with views of St. Petersburg. These engravings gained fame and were sold in both London and St. Petersburg, as reported in the newspaper 'St. Petersburg Vedomosti' of December 6, 1790.
Views of Moscow
In the early 1790s, Joseph Hearn visited Moscow and its environs, as evidenced by two watercolors: 'Kremlin in Moscow' and 'Ascension Monastery in New Jerusalem 46 miles from Moscow'.
Earlier, the Kremlin from the side of the Moskva River was depicted by Peter Pickart, an engraver of Peter's time (in 1708), then Mikhail Makhaev (in 1766). The original position of both artists is the southern bank of the Moscow River opposite the Kremlin, east of the Kamenny Bridge. From this place, the Kremlin reviews most well. Hearn, on the other hand, captured the Kremlin from a much more remote place, being west of the Stone Bridge. As a result, the main Kremlin structures - the cathedrals and the bell tower of Ivan the Great - occupy a modest place at the right edge of the leaf, most of the Kremlin panorama is occupied by the buildings of the palace and economic services (they are visible between the Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers). These not very expressive buildings were replaced in the 19th century: the representative Grand Kremlin Palace and the Armory were erected in their place. The Stone Bridge of the 17th century with its seven arches has not survived to this day. Perhaps the desire to transfer this bridge led to Hearn's choice of a distant point of view.
The foreground is occupied by an unpaved embankment in Zamoskvorechye. Despite its proximity to the Kremlin, this part of Moscow for a long time had the character of a quiet suburb with a patriarchal lifestyle. Showing the ugly houses, the grass-covered road, the few residents, Hearn managed to convey the everyday Moscow well. He illuminated other facets of the life of the throne capital than Picart and Makhaev in their ceremonial views of the Kremlin.
In the name of the watercolor 'Ascension Monastery in New Jerusalem' (GIM), Hearn made a mistake: the monastery in New Jerusalem near Moscow is actually called Voskresensky, in its main temple - Voskresensky Cathedral. Crowned with a grand marquee, this cathedral is depicted close to the centre of the leaf. To the left of the cathedral is the bell tower, and in front of it is the gate Entrance Jerusalem Church, to which the road leads. A fence with turrets departs from the gate.
Created in the XVII century by order of Patriarch Nikon, the Resurrection Monastery Hearn depicted, like the Kremlin, from afar. The artist did not seek to convey architectural structures in as much detail as possible, moreover, partially covered with trees. But the nature of the countryside in which the monastery is located is reflected successfully. This is no longer a'view', but an authentic landscape. A field seen in the distance of the forest is masterfully executed. We see peaceful rural life: peasants rest in the shadow of a tree, cows graze, monks and pilgrims go to the monastery.
In 1796, Joseph Hearn died.
So, in the St. Petersburg views of Joseph Hearn, in the presence of some commonality with the views of Mikhail Makhaev, a different approach of the English artist to creating the artistic image of the city is more manifested, noted researcher A. Krasnov. Hearn depicted for the most part newly built buildings, thus appearing as their first artist. It reflected not the ceremonial brilliance and energetic life of the capital, but its business, everyday life. Therefore, he used new compositional techniques, another technique (watercolor). Staffage, still little visible in the views of the Neva, in other works already comes to the fore and is interpreted in the spirit of sentimentalism. The genre trends of the 1789-1790 series were further developed in watercolors of the early 1790s. 'Ice mountains' in St. Petersburg and the views of the Kremlin and the monastery in New Jerusalem already clearly belong to the next stage in the development of art. According to A. Krasnov, Hearn's sheets are largely consonant with the drawings of his contemporary Quarenghi.
Among the artists who depicted the northern capital in the 18th century, Joseph Hearn is located next to Quarenghi, he immediately preceded Skorodumov, Patersen and Alekseev. Hearn's legacy is an important page in the history of the pictorial Petersburg.
Family
In Russia, in 1793, Hearn married Elin Riches (English Ellen Riches, married Hearn, d. In 1846), the daughter of a merchant of the Russian company, and the English engraver James Walker, who also worked in St. Petersburg, was a witness at his wedding. The following year, Hearn had a daughter, also Elin. According to information from the Symonds family archive, Elin Richiz was one of the educators of the future Emperor Nicholas I, her daughter, Ellen Hearn, was with her.
In May 1814, at the British Embassy in St. Petersburg, Joseph's daughter, Ellen Hearn, married William May Symonds (Symonds; William May Simonds (1788-1860). William May Symonds was engaged in the trade of lard and candles, exporting raw materials from Russia.
According to family traditions, the kokoshnik and necklace made of yellow diamonds, in which Ellen Hearn Symonds is depicted in the portrait, are wedding gifts from the imperial family. Shortly after their wedding, the Symonds returned to London. Ellen Hearn Symonds died in 1826 at the age of 32, giving birth to a seventh child.
Notes
- ↑ [https://magazines.gorky.media/neva/2003/1/vidy-peterburga-i-moskvy-dzhozefa-hirna.html Bellotto Views of St. Petersburg and Moscow Joseph Hearn
- ↑ . Early ]1790s
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