1805–1806
oil on canvas
55,7 х 47,1

The work can be considered programmatic for Early Russian Romanticism. The painter used bigger-than-life scale in order to give his face maximum loftiness. A decisive look directed straight ahead, the play of shadows on the face, the artistically donned cloak, the palette with brushes, and the picturesque view through the window - all this is employed to bear evidence that we have before us a special, higher being, - an artist chosen by fate itself. Varnek depicted himself against the background of a window. The window was one of the favourite motifs of the age, a symbol standing for the boundary between the real world of this moment and the unattainable ideal which the panorama of blue hills reminds us of.

at 10, Lavrushinsky Lane, Hall 8