Salvatore Tonci

Salvatore Tonci: self-portrait

Salvatore Tonci: Portrait of Tsar Paul I.

Salvatore Tonci ( Russian Сальваторе Тончи , born January 1756 in Rome , † December 1844 in Moscow ) was an Italian painter, musician, singer and poet who spent most of his career in Russia.

In his youth he was a member of the Royal Guard of the Kingdom of Naples . He studied singing and painting. In 1793 he spent some time at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna. Soon afterwards he left Italy and was employed as a singer at the court of the Polish king and art patron Stanislaus II August Poniatowski in Warsaw . After the third partition of Poland and the abdication of the king on November 25, 1795, he came to St. Petersburg in his entourage . After the king's death on February 12, 1798, Tonci was left to himself.

In 1800 he came to Moscow and became known as a portrait painter. His students included u. a. Ivan Konstantinowitsch Aivazovsky . In 1806 he married Princess Natalia Ivanovna Gagarina (1778-1832), which was accepted as a mesalliance by the princely family Gagarin . Two daughters were born: Sofia, who died at the age of nine, and Maria, who lived in a monastery until her death in 1898.

Soon he became a friend of Count Fyodor Rostopchin . After the fire in Moscow in 1812 , Tonci fled to Vladimir but was arrested as a spy. After a failed suicide attempt, he stayed in Vladimir for two years, where he created a large painting for the Cathedral of the Assumption there .

Back in Moscow in 1815 he found a job in the administration of the imperial palaces. For 25 years he supervised the drawing classes in the architecture school.

In 1842 he retired with the rank of collegiate councilor and died two years later.

literature

• AV Selivanov: Художник Сальватор Тончи , in: Труды Владимирской ученой архивной комиссии (Treatises of the Scientific Archival Commission of Vladimir), Vladimir, 1904, No. 6, pp. 133-155.

Web links

Commons : Salvatore Tonci  - collection of images, videos and audio files