Karl Brullov. Portraits of the Portuguese Period

This subject of this article is the less studied, Portuguese, period of the creative career of the outstanding Russian artist Karl Brullov. In 1849—1850, while he was undergoing treatment on the oceanic island of Madeira, he created many works that were as good as those painted during his best period. However, not all of these became known to Russian art historians. Thus, his landscape “View of Fort Pico on Madeira” was only introduced in 2003. Antônio Alves da Silva, Karl Brullov's doctor, whose portrait the painter was executing at that time, was the first owner of this work. For many years, the whereabouts of the “View of Fort Pico on Madeira” remained unknown despite all the efforts to find it. The goal of this publication is to introduce to scientific circulation the portrait of Antônio Alves da Silva and to bring together the other portrait paintings by the “Great Karl” drawn during his Portuguese period.