Fortune-teller Svetlana
Karl Bryullov, 1836
Fortune-teller Svetlana is an oil painting by Karl Bryullov, dated 1836, now held in the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum. It shows a young woman seen from behind, with a fair braid, kokoshnik and Russian sarafan, seated before a table where a candle burns in a tall candlestick beside an ornate mirror. She gazes into the glass with fear and tension, hoping to glimpse her betrothed in the reflection during a Christmas Eve divination. The scene draws on Vasily Zhukovsky's ballad 'Svetlana', which has a romantic and mystical tone. Bryullov was staying in Moscow after the success of The Last Day of Pompeii, and he was able to witness a similar fortune-telling rite at the Perovsky house, which reportedly helped bring the picture to life. The mirror can be read as a link to another world, and its reflection as the dual meaning typical of Romanticism. It is one of the few works by the painter on Russian national life, and it was warmly received in Moscow.
- Painter
- Karl Bryullov
- Date
- 1836
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 94 × 81 cm
- Museum
- Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum, Nizhny Novgorod
- Depicts
- woman
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