The art of portrait miniature on the bone reached its heyday in the XVIII – first half of the XIX century. Small images – prototypes of modern photography – were so popular that in the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg there was even a separate class where they taught this labor-intensive craft.
Pavel Alekseevich Ivanov first studied at the Academy himself, and after almost ten years headed the mentioned class. The portrait depicts Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky – a lawyer, statesman of the times of Alexander I, the author of the “Plan for Public Education.” He is shown in a three-quarter turn on a neutral bluish background dressed in a black frock coat.
On the ribbon hangs the Order of Vladimir 3rd degree, in the hands of Speransky keeps the book and all his slightly arrogant view shows that he broke away from the fascinating reading only for the sake of this artist’s work. With apparent simplicity, the art of portrait miniatures required great accuracy and patience, because the image was formed from hundreds of thin, not visible from a distance brush strokes. Works written on an ivory plate are extremely fragile. Perhaps, therefore, Ivanov’s works have remained a little.
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