The painting (65 x 77cm) depicts a fortress at the foot of mountains. Tretyakov Gallery staff members said that the artist considered the work unfinished, but the piece is valuable because Bryullov rarely worked in the landscape genre. Also, this painting by Bryullov, the painter of the famous, "The Last Day of Pompeii," was unknown to the researchers and has never been exhibited. A Tretyakov Gallery staff member accidentally found the painting on the island while researching the Portuguese period of the artist's life.
The art critic who found the painting, Yelena Bekhtiyeva told RIA Novosti that Bryullov's unknown landscape never left Madeira. The artist presented the canvas to a local doctor before leaving the island. He lived on the island 1849-50.
The painting was purchased and brought to Moscow through the mediation of the Russian Foreign Ministry. According to the Tretyakov Gallery's staff members, part of money used to purchase the painting was allocated to the museum from the Russian presidential reserve fund.
The Gallery has more than 50 paintings by Bryullov, an outstanding representative of classicism in Russian painting. The new painting was being restored for several months. For 150 years, it was kept in a private house and was blackened by soot. Its canvas became decrepit and uneven. Bryullov's painting will now be exhibited in the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery, the world's biggest collection of Russian paintings.
