The Russian School of Painting
pictorial merits, far superior to the later portraits, which partly show the change undergone by the taste in art. The rich, mellow colouring of the admirable portrait of Kakorinov and of the two portraits of Mme. Lvov remind one of the productions of Greuse at their best; the portraits of the pupils of Smolnoye in the Peterhof Palace are executed under the influence of Roslin's costume portraits, but with a vivacity and picturesqueness which reveal Levitzky's acquaintance with the works of Van Dyck. Other canvases of this period show resemblance to the portraits of Mengs, the older Tischbein, Torelli and Van-Loo, that is, of artists still bound up in their technique and manner with the great traditions of Venice, Flanders and France. Entirely different are the portraits of the second period, such as those of Lady-in-attendance Protasov, the knights of the Vladimir Order, in Gatchina, and others. Here intimacy is replaced by a pursuit of grandiose style; the rich colouring has turned into a dull, tedious colour-gamut, and the technique has, to a considerable degree, lost its vitality.
Borovikovsky (1757–1826), always quoted together with Levitzky, really belongs to another period of Russian painting, and is a representative of the "new taste." Borovikovsky, too, was a native of Ukraina. Catherine made his acquaintance—he was a retired of-
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