Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus

Still Life

Ivan Khrutsky was born on February 8th, 1810 in Vitebsk Region, in the town of Ulla in Lepel District (now Beshenkovichi District). His father was a Greek Catholic priest, Tomasz Khrutsky.
Little is known about the artist’s childhood, and indeed about his life in general. However, it can be assumed that even his early years were not without tribulations: the Belarusian lands bore the brunt of Napoleon’s army and were mercilessly ravaged by the invaders. The inhabitants were unable to restore their former prosperity immediately, and Tomasz Khrutsky’s family was large — Ivan had five brothers and sisters. Initially, they received a home education in the traditional manner, and in their adolescence, the boys were expected to go to study at one of the establishments befitting young gentlemen and mature away from their mother’s apron strings. For Ivan Khrutsky, the Polotsk Higher Piarist School — an educational institution of the Piarist Catholic order — was chosen. There he found his first teacher of drawing and painting — a fairly well-known provincial painter, Yefim Spazhinsky, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, who was commissioned to paint portraits by all the local nobility. The influence of the teacher on the young artist was strong; even years later, the portraits painted by Khrutsky reveal the adherence to those canons that were laid down in his early youth. It was probably Spazhinsky who prompted the young man to consider entering the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1827, Khrutsky set off for St. Petersburg. 
Various famous painters are said to be Khrutsky’s teachers, including Alexander Varnek, Fyodor Bruni, Maksim Vorobyov, Karl Bryullov... The young artist absorbed everything that his studies could give him, excelling in several directions at once — portraiture, landscape, and still life.
It must be noted that by the 19th century, the genre of still life was in decline: compositions of this kind were given to students as exercises, and no one took them seriously. It is to Ivan Khrutsky that we owe the return of the still life. Admittedly, the Dutch term ‘stilleven’ meaning ‘quiet, silent life’ is more appropriate for his works than the French ‘nature morte’.

There is nothing lifeless in his works; the opulent flowers are freshly plucked and will start fading only after some time; the succulent fruits and berries, vegetables and mushrooms, neatly arranged in baskets and modest dishware — all are genuine, vibrant, and palpable, capable of bestowing joy, even through mere contemplation.

Alongside noble fruits like peaches, oranges, or a lemon with its peel artfully sliced (as spotted in the canvases of the ‘little Dutch masters’), Khrutsky incorporated in his composition ripe raspberries in a woven punnet, sprigs of blackcurrants, freshly gathered boletus mushrooms, or indeed, common garden vegetables such as cabbages, carrots, sturdy cucumbers, turnips, parsley root... Instead of the dead game carcass, so typical of the classic still life, one might find pork ribs on a simple wooden table, and live crayfish crawling from a sieve alongside a fish. Each grape gleams with sunlight, while peonies — common garden flowers, yet seldom seen in European still lifes — bloom in vases.
Along with that, Khrutsky was no mere imitator, even though he drew upon the classics. All was rendered in an academic style, yet was not detached, reflecting the simple, homely, and contemporary environment for the artist — features of a manor house life or the kitchen of a town house.
It was these still lifes that brought Ivan Khrutsky fame, securing him numerous orders. Often, the artist had to replicate a work that had become popular multiple times for different people, as was the case, for instance, with Still Life with a Candle.

In September 1839, he was awarded the title of academician of painting ‘for excellent works in portraiture, landscape, and especially in the painting of fruits and vegetables’.

Khrutsky’s patron and main client was Archbishop Joseph Semashko of Lithuania and Vilnius — a renowned fighter against Polonisation, who dedicated all his efforts to reuniting the Uniate Greek Catholic Church with Orthodoxy.
During these years, Khrutsky also became an icon painter, creating icons for the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Kaunas, the Church of St. Joseph the Betrothed in the village of Trinopol near Vilnius, and the cave church of the three martyrs in Vilnius. For the archbishop’s residence, he painted 32 portraits of members of the clergy. In these years, he painted numerous landscapes and also turned to interior painting, thus depicting his children in the house in Zakharnichi and his patron, Joseph Semashko, in his study.
In 1855, tired of constantly living apart from his loved ones, Khrutsky left Vilnius and his service with Semashko, who had by then become a metropolitan. From then on, his life was almost entirely centred around his family and the unhurried life in the manor house. Khrutsky’s paintings depicted his relatives and their simple country life.





















 

   Portrait of Unknown Woman with a Basket in Her Hands 

Portrait of a Boy in a Straw Hat

Khrutsky did not travel to the capital city, although his fame in St. Petersburg remained considerable. Pavel Tretyakov himself bought his work from an auction for his gallery, and even copies of paintings made by Khrutsky in the Hermitage in his youth were sold at auction! Whether he knew about this or remained unaware, we do not know.

COLLECTOR'S DREAM 

Ivan Khrutsky’s paintings have repeatedly appeared on postage stamps and currency 
In 1979, the USSR issued a stamp featuring the painting Flowers and Fruits, and in 1983, Portrait of Unknown Woman with Flowers and Fruits appeared on a stamp. In 2010, Belpochta (the Belarusian postal service) delighted philatelists with a postal block of two stamps, featuring the artist’s self-portrait and the still life Dead Game, Vegetables, and Mushrooms. Belarus’ National Bank issued a rectangular silver coin with a face value of Br20 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Khrutsky’s birth.

By Irina Ovsepyan

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