Card no 467 - Anastasia
The Horsewoman by K D Bryullov
Country Card Sent From: Belarus
Place that Card Sender Lives: Minsk
Date Received: 3rd April 2013
Distance Travelled: 1,154 miles
Time Taken: c12 days
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This is Jovanina Pacini, a foster daughter of the Countess Samoilova. The painting is oil on canvas by K D Bryullov (1799-1852). It was painted in 1832. Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (Russian: Карл Па́влович Брюлло́в), also transliterated Briullov or Briuloff and referred to by his friends as "The Great Karl", was a Russian painter. He is regarded as a key figure in transition from the Russian neoclassicism to romanticism.
Bryullov also painted the Countess herself a colourful character by all accounts. "Popular and charming, Julia von der Pahlen married three times. Her first marriage, to Count Nicholai Samoilov, captain of the Preobrazhenskii Guards, lasted only from 1822 to 1824. Their relationship quickly disintegrated because of Samoilova's highly active social life and her constant admirers. She left Samoilov and Russia to live in her family villa near Milan in 1824. Establishing herself as an hostess in 1828, she became known as the Russian Lady of Milan, entertaining writers and musicians such as Turgenev and Donizetti. She had an affair with the opera composer Giovanni Pacini from 1828 to 1831. Samoilova's second husband was an Italian opera singer known only as Peri, whom she married in 1842; finally she married the French diplomat the Comte de Mornay in 1863."
As Anastasia comments the dresses were lovely in those days – uncomfortable perhaps but so elegant. The little girl is another foster daughter of the Countess.
These were the stamps -
Some of us lead such boring lives.....
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