The artist is unknown
The portrait is distinguished by undoubted skill, professionalism and obvious picturesque virtues. An attempt to attribute a portrait of a brush in. AND. Tropinin is understandable, because it was he who was the most outstanding master of household portrait. However, stylistic and technological features do not give reason to confirm the authorship of Tropinin. Many art historians and historians of architecture thought about the decoding of the name of the depicted (G. AT. Smirnov, K. AT. Mikhailova, m. D. Romy). Unfortunately, according to the construction plan, which is held in the hand, it was not possible to determine the structure fixed on it, which could give the key to identifying the character. Perhaps the portrait provides an unrealized project or is not depicted an architect, but a householder who ordered the construction of a house, whose plan he holds in his hands.
Published a. L. Punin as an alleged portrait of the architect p. P. Jaco (Punin with. 186), and the building is defined as the house g. AT. Lerhe (Bolshaya Mornskaya St., D. 25). However, the attribution is doubtful, since neither the number of storeys nor the layout of the house at the specified address coincides with the image in the picture.
N. X. Unknown artist. SPb, 2012. With. 141.
