Karl Bryullov

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (né Brüllo; Russian: Карл Па́влович Брюлло́в; 23 December [O.S. 12 December] 1799 – 23 June [O.S. 11 June] 1852) was a Russian painter and draughtsman during the Romantic period, remembered among the greatest visual artists in the history of Russian art.

Karl Bryullov was born on 12 (23) December 1799 in St. Petersburg, in the family of the academician, woodcarver, and engraver Pavel Ivanovich Briullo (Brulleau, 1760—1833) who was of Huguenot descent. He felt drawn to Italy from his early years. Despite his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1809–1821), Bryullov never fully embraced the classical style taught by his mentors and promoted by his brother, Alexander Bryullov. After distinguishing himself as a promising and imaginative student and finishing his education, he left Russia for Rome where he worked until 1835 as a portraitist and genre painter, though his fame as an artist came when he began doing historical painting.

His best-known work, The Last Day of Pompeii (1830–1833), is a vast composition compared by Pushkin and Gogol to the best works of Rubens and Van Dyck.