Andrei Kirillowitsch Razumovsky

Andrei Rasumowski on a painting by Johann Baptist von Lampi

Prince (until 1815 Count) Andrei Kirillowitsch Rasumowski or Andreas Rasumofsky (also: Razumowsky and Razumovsky) Russian Андре́й Кири́ллович Разумо́вский , scientific transliteration Andrej Kirillovič Razumovskij ; (* November 2, 1752 in Gluchow , Russian Empire ; †  September 23, 1836 in Vienna , Austrian Empire ) was a Russian diplomat, music patron and art collector. He was the son of the last hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks , Kirill Rasumowski, and by Ekaterina Naryshkina, who was a cousin of Empress Elizabeth of Russia .

Life

Count Rasumowsky, watercolor by Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1812), Vienna, Albertina

He received an excellent upbringing at home by Ludwig Heinrich von Nicolay from Strasbourg . Destined by his father to serve in the Navy , he served on English ships and took part in the naval battle against the Turks at Chios . Allegedly because of a love affair with Wilhelmina Luisa von Hessen-Darmstadt , who later became the wife of Tsar Paul , he was sent into exile as an envoy to Naples. He then found use as an envoy in Copenhagen and Stockholm.

From 1792 to 1807 he was an envoy to the Viennese court, where he played an important diplomatic role in the partition of Poland and in the coalition wars. He now settled permanently in Vienna and was a Russian delegate to the Congress of Vienna in 1814 . On December 31, 1814, the splendid Rasumofsky Palace built by him in the suburb of Landstrasse, today the 3rd district of Vienna , burned down in part, and important art treasures were lost.

Alexander Roslin : Portrait of Count Rasumowsky , 1776, oil on canvas, 63.8 × 52.7 cm, ( National Gallery of Victoria , Melbourne)

Significance in music history

From 1808 to 1816 Rasumowski maintained the first professional string quartet with Ignaz Schuppanzigh as Primus, the Schuppanzigh Quartet , which was also active before and after . At first it only appeared in private events, later also in public. Rasumovsky himself played the violin and the arch lute torban . Several important composers with whom he was personally friends benefited from Razumovsky's patronage, including Joseph Haydn , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and, in particular, Ludwig van Beethoven . He dedicated the so-called Rasumowski Quartets op. 59 No. 1 , No. 2 and No. 3 , as well as the 5th Symphony in C minor, Op. 67 and the 6th Symphony in F major, Op. 68 to him . In 1862, Rasumofskygasse was named after him in Vienna Wien-Landstrasse (3rd district) ; in this alley is his palace and its stables.

Private life

In his first marriage, Rasumowski was married to Countess Elisabeth von Thun (one of the "Three Graces" painted by Füger ), sister-in-law of Prince Karl Lichnowsky . In his second marriage (since February 10, 1816) he was married to Countess Konstanze von Thürheim (1785–1867), the sister of Countess Lulu von Thürheim .

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller : Portrait of the Russian ambassador to the Viennese court, Prince Rasumowsky , 1835, oil on panel, 39 × 31 cm, (private property).

literature

• Johann Heinrich Schnitzler: Prince Kyrillowitsch Rasumowsky. A fragment from Russian diplomacy , In: Historisches Taschenbuch , ed. by Friedrich von Raumer , 4th episode, vol. 4, Leipzig 1863.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Rasumofsky, Andreas Kyrillowitsch Fürst . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 25th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1873, pp. 6–9 ( digitized version ).
• Lulu Countess Thürheim : My life. Memories from Austria's big world 1788–1852 (ad French, ed. By René van Rhyn), 4 volumes, Munich: G. Müller 1913 f.
• Elmar Worgull : Rasumowsky representations from Roslin to Waldmüller . An aporetic of the concept of portrait . In: Bilblos: Contributions to books, library and writing / Austrian National Library Vienna. ( Dedicated to Eva Badura-Skoda ). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna et al. 1998, pp. 207-253.
• Elisabeth Th. Hilscher-Fritz: Rasumowsky, Andreas. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 4, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3046-5 .
• Wenda Focke: Borrowed Life. Andrei Kirillowitsch Rasumofsky. Diplomat, lover, patron , biographical novel, Berlin: Oberbaum 2005.
• Klaus Martin Kopitz , The early Viennese performances of Beethoven's chamber music in contemporary documents (1797–1828) , In: Beethovens chamber music , ed. by Friedrich Geiger and Martina Sichardt (=  Das Beethoven-Handbuch , edited by Albrecht Riethmüller , Volume 3), Laaber 2014, pp. 165–211.

Web links

Commons : Andriy Rozumovsky  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Andrei Kirillowitsch Rasumowski in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ s. Elmar Worgull : Rasumowski depictions from Roslin to Waldmüller in the bibliography.
2. ^ Constantin von Wurzbach : Rasumofsky, Andreas Kyrillowitsch Fürst . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 25th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1873, pp. 6–9 ( digitized version ).
3. ↑ Grimschitz No. 403, Feuchtmüller No. 451 see. on this: Elmar Worgull : Rasumowsky representations from Roslin to Waldmüller (1998) in the bibliography.
4. ↑ s. the image material in the articles Alexander Roslin and Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller .