Книга историка, старшего научного сотрудника Института русского языка имени В. В. Виноградова Российской академии наук Петра Дружинина посвящена портретному силуэту — уникальной иконографической технике, получившей невиданное распространение в Европе в последней трети XVIII века. Россия была не просто подражателем общеевропейской моды, но стала центром притяжения лучших художников жанра, странствующих мастеров со всего света. Именно Россия в XVIII веке пережила подлинный расцвет силуэтного портрета — выразительного, схожего, доступного, но вместе с тем крайне уязвимого для времени и ныне совершенно забытого. Собранный автором комплекс ранее неизвестных документов по истории русского силуэтного искусства уникален и многократно превышает всё когда-либо опубликованное по этой теме. Иллюстрации, которые дают возможность проследить эволюцию силуэта не только в России, но и в Европе, собраны с исключительной полнотой из более чем пятидесяти хранилищ России и мира, от Эрмитажа до Метрополитен-музея, причем многие публикуются впервые.

Издание адресовано всем интересующимся историей русской и мировой культуры.

This book is dedicated to the silhouette portrait — a unique representation technique, widespread in Europe and the United Kingdom in the last third of the 18th century. Russia not only followed and imitated European fashions, but also attracted the best representatives of the genre, who made this art form truly international by travelling around. It was thanks to eminent silhouette masters like Sideau and Anthing, whose art conquered Russia in the 1780s, that the genre flourished there. The silhouette portrait is very expressive, affordable and provides a good likeness, but also time-sensitive and now almost completely forgotten. Over several decades the author, historian Dr Peter Druzhinin, has collected a substantial body of previously unknown documents on the history of the silhouette portrait, a collection which is unique and entirely supersedes and previous publications. New information has been obtained mainly from European and Russian archives, as well as from a thorough combing of Russian and northern European press material. The book contains detailed biographies of Russian silhouette artists during Catherine the Great and Emperor Paul I of Russia times, as well as, in its last chapter, a dictionary of artists who either worked in Russia or came to Russia in search of an income. It is worth mentioning that many of these names are absent from other dictionaries of artists and are mentioned for the first time in the context of art history. The publication includes over 400 illustrations collected from over 50 museums and libraries fin Russia and all over the world, ranging from the Hermitage to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These illustrations will give the reader an opportunity to see the evolution of the silhouette portrait in Russia and in Europe. Many of them are published for the first time including portraits of prominent European writers, scientists and artists from Anthing travel journals, previously thought to be lost.