The Unknown (painting)
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| The unknown |
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| Ivan Nikolajewitsch Kramskoi , 1883 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 99 × 75.5 cm |
The unknown is a painting by the Russian painter Ivan Nikolajewitsch Kramskoi from 1883 . It is one of his most famous and most mysterious works.
The picture shows a young woman dressed entirely in black in an open carriage on the Anichkov Bridge in wintry Saint Petersburg . She is dressed according to the latest fashion of the 1880s: A black beret made of velvet with an ostrich feather , the jacket decorated with fur and ribbons, fine leather gloves and a decorated with blue satin ribbons muff of fur. Your look is majestic and a little sad.
The unknown remains a mystery to the painter to this day. Neither in the letters nor in the diaries did he leave the name of the stranger. There is a version that the prototype of the picture depicts the peasant girl Matryona Savvishna, who was married to the nobleman Bestuzhev. Kramskoi allegedly met her in Saint Petersburg.
The painting is in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow , but a second version of the painting can be found in the Kunsthalle zu Kiel , which is also dated around 1883.