Julia I.Chezhina
(St.Petersburg State University, Russia)

The Twin-Portraits by Jean-Laurent Mosnier and Alexey Egorov: to the Problem of Adoption in Painting.

The “ Portrait of Sofia Stroganova” by Jean- Laurent Mosnier and the “ Portrait of Maria Buyalskaya” by Alexey Egorov from the collection of the State Russian Museum demonstrate a rare example of complete iconographic replica. The problem of adoption in made to order portraits is considered in three aspects: artistic, ethic and legal. The work by Egorov considerably yields to the original both in emotional respect, profundity of the image treatment and in pictorial characteristics. There were nothing unusual and blamable in replication in the 18th — early 19th centuries in Russia. All artists of that epoch used to copy works of famous painters and imitated worth originals. In Russia the problem of author’s rights in painting was first raised in 1825. Copyright got an official registration only in 1846.