On May 28, a souvenir sheet dedicated to the 225th Birth Anniversary of painter Karl Bryullov was put into postal circulation

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852) was a Russian painter and a drawing artist, a muralist and a watercolorist. He is the most famous representative of the artistic dynasty of the Bryullovs, one of the chief painters of late Russian classicism of the first half of the 19th century. Bryullov is the author of monumental historical paintings; he also worked successfully as a portraitist and a genre painter.

Karl Bryullov was born in St. Petersburg on December 12 (23) of 1799. In 1809-1821, he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. The creative work of Karl Bryullov brought vitality and romanticism to the paintings of Russian classicism. The painter’s artworks are composed of contrasts of light and shadow; they are endowed with historical credibility, romantic spirit and distinguished with the assertion of sensual and plastic beauty of a human (Virsavia, 1832), the dramatic tension of images (The Last Day of Pompeii, 1830-1833), realistic tendencies and subtle psychological logic (The Portrait of Michelangelo Lanci, 1851; Self-Portrait, 1848). The artist was also an excellent master of ceremonial portrait (The Horsewoman, 1832).

Karl Bryullov was the winner of honorable awards: Big Gold Medals for his paintings Three Angels Appearing to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre and The Last Day of Pompeii, and the Order of Saint Anna 3rd class; he was a member of the Milan and Parma Academies, the Academy of Saint Luke in Rome, as well as a professor of the St. Petersburg and Florence Academies of Arts. Paintings by Karl Bryullov are stored in many museums in Russia and abroad.

The postage stamp provides painting Portrait of O.P. Ferzen (1835|) by K. Bryullov; the margins of the souvenir sheet feature a portrait of the painter against the background of the studio.

In addition to the issue of the souvenir sheet, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as illustrated covers for the souvenir sheet with a label and a First Day Cover with a cancel for St. Petersburg and for the second emission type – an imperforated souvenir sheet made on canvas-type design paper.


Design Artist: O. Savina.
Face value: 170 rubles.
Souvenir sheet size: 100×83 mm, stamp size in the souvenir sheet: 30×42 mm.
Quantity: 17 thousand souvenir sheets (the first emission type); 3.8 thousand souvenir sheets (the second emission type*).
* To be on sale as part of an illustrated cover.

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