Karl Bryullov

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov was a Russian painter regarded as a key figure in transition from the Russian neoclassicism to romanticism and the first Russian painter to gain widespread recognition in the West. His contemporaries called him The Great Karl. His masterpiece The Last Day of Pompeii (1830-1833), an enormous composition painted in Italy in 1830-1833, was a great success both with the public and the critics and the painter was hailed as one of the best contemporary European painters. Italian critics compared Bryullov to the greatest artists of the past, such as Rubens, Rembrandt, and Van Dyke.