Yulia Samoilova: Muse of Karl Bryullov

Russian countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova was famous for her beauty, luxurious receptions, and extravagant actions. People adored and condemned her; they were delighted and furious—but her own opinion about all this didn’t matter to her. She was not an example of virtue and didn’t create works of art, yet many knew she had a generous and loving soul, and she always tried to help others. This is how the life of Countess Samoilova was—an inspiration for the artist Karl Bryullov and the main heroine of his famous paintings.