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Address:
Didþioji str. 4, LT-01128,
Vilnius, Lithuania. Tel./fax (+370
5) 212 08 41; (+370 5) 212 42 58. E-mail:
galerija[at]ldm.lt
EXHIBTION
OF JAN CHRUCKI "DIALOGUES OF CULTURES"
17 September –
17 October, 2010
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Portrait of a boy in a straw
hat. Late 1830s–early 1840s. National Arts Museum of the
Republic of Belarus |
Jan Chrucki (Belarusian: Іван
Хруцкі, Russian: Иван Хруцкий), like many other 19th century
artists hailing from the lands of the former Grand Duchy of
Lithuania, is considered by Belarusians, Poles and Russians
alike to be one of their own. The artist is also no stranger to
Lithuanian culture. He spent eight years living and working in
Vilnius.
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Portrait of Ija Glazunov. 1843.
National Arts Museum of the Republic of Belarus |
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Portrait of an unknown woman
with flowers and fruit. 1838. National Arts Museum of the
Republic of Belarus |
J. Chrucki was
born on January 27, 1810 in the town of Ula in the Vitebsk
province (present-day Belarus) into the family of a Uniate
priest. He received his primary education at the High
Piarists School in Polotsk, which he completed in 1827. That
same year the seventeen year old youth travelled to St.
Petersburg. He studied with English portrait artist G. Dawe
and from 1830, at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of
Arts. While still a student he already exhibited great
talent as a still life painter. From the first easy
compositions he rather quickly graduated to large format
still life compositions composed of various fruits,
vegetables and flowers. For his still life “Flowers and
fruit” (1836) the artist was awarded the Major Silver Medal,
and in 1838 for “Flowers and fruit” and the painting “Old
woman knitting a sock” he received the Minor Gold Medal. In
addition to still life paintings, in his study years J.
Chrucki also painted compositions depicting women and
children with fruit and flowers. The most well known of
these works is “Woman with flowers and fruit” (1838),
combining elements of still life and landscape painting.
During his time in St. Petersburg, J. Chrucki also painted
portraits (J. Buùhak, I. Semashko) and idyllic, lyrical
landscapes (images of Yelagin Island in St. Petersburg).
However, the artist received most recognition for his still
life works, whose decorative compositions and material,
illusionary painting earned him the admiration of the public
and critics alike. Still life works by J. Chrucki were in
great demand in the St. Petersburg art market. The success
of certain works was determined by the fact that sometimes
the artist repeated compositions at his clients’ request
several times over, often with minute changes.
In 1839 the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts bestowed
an academic title on J. Chrucki, naming him “known in the
Academy for his portrait, landscape, and especially fruit
and flower painting works”. That same year, J. Chrucki left
St. Petersburg and settled in his parent’s home in the
village of Usaya near Polotsk. In 1844 he purchased the
nearby Zakharnichi estate and settled there permanently,
apart from an interval in 1846–1854 which he spent in
Vilnius.
J. Chrucki arrived in Vilnius in response to an invitation
by the former Uniate bishop, then already an Orthodox
archbishop (metropolitan from 1852), Iosif Semashko. The
artist knew the archbishop from St. Petersburg. Keeping in
mind the entire Chrucki family’s devotion to the Uniate
church and the artist’s father’s disobedience at the time
the union was dissolved, ties between I. Semashko and J.
Chrucki in Vilnius must have been purely commercial – and
seen as an opportunity for the artist to provide for his
family and maintain the estate. Commissioned by I. Semashko,
J. Chrucki painted icons for the iconostases in Orthodox
churches and created 32 portraits of clerics for the
archbishop’s residence in Trinapolis (among them, a portrait
of Br. W. Lisowski). The years spent in Vilnius are
attributed to the finest, most mature period in J. Chrucki’s
painting. In addition to I. Semashko’s commissions, in this
period the artist also painted pictures for Catholic
churches (“St. Casimir”, once held in the Pashushvis
church), portraits of famous Vilnius inhabitants (M. and R.
Römer, historian and publicist M. Malinowski, historian M.
Baliñski, litterateur P. Jankowski, and others), as well as
landscapes of Vilnius and its surrounds. J. Chrucki
cooperated on the release of J. K. Wilczyñski’s “Album of
Vilnius”, painted images of the Vilnius Calvary Church and
the Shnipishkes suburb, and, as a commission from J. K.
Wilczyñski, he painted a portrait of the album’s patron, S.
Römer.
In around 1854 J. Chrucki returned to his Zakharnichi
estate. From then on, he mostly painted chamber portraits of
his family members and homely interiors (“In the rooms of
the painter’s estate. Children in front of the easel”,
1854–1855). The artist passed away on February 13, 1885 at
the Zakharnichi estate, where he is buried.
J. Chrucki’s works are found throughout museums and private
collections in Russia, Poland, Belarus and Lithuania. The
largest collection of the painter’s works (24 pieces),
reflecting all stages of his creativity, is held in the
National Art Musuem of the Republic of Belarus. Transported
from Minsk to Vilnius, this is the first exhibition of J.
Chrucki’s works in Lithuania. Several paintings from
Lithuania supplement the collection of the Belarusian art
museum.
Dalia Tarandaitë
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