Benois painter of paintings with titles. Alexandre Benois: a short biography and creativity. The Benois couple had three children - two daughters: Anna and Elena, and son Nikolai, who became a worthy successor to his father's work, a theater artist who worked a lot in Rome and in

"Academician Alexander Benois is the finest esthete, a wonderful artist, a charming person." A.V. Lunacharsky

worldwide fame Alexander Nikolaevich Benois acquired as a decorator and director of Russian ballets in Paris, but this is only part of the activity of an ever-seeking, addicted nature, who had irresistible charm and the ability to light others with her necks. Art historian, art critic, editor of the two largest art magazines "World of Art" and "Apollo", head of the painting department of the Hermitage and, finally, just a painter.

Himself Benois Alexander Nikolaevich wrote to his son from Paris in 1953 that "... the only work worthy of outliving me ... will probably be" a multi-volume book " A. Benois remembers", because "this story about Shurenka is at the same time quite detailed about a whole culture."

In his memoirs, Benois calls himself "the product of an artistic family." Indeed, his father Nicholas Benois was a famous architect, maternal grandfather A.K. Kavos - no less significant architect, creator of St. Petersburg theaters. Elder brother A.N. Benois-Albert is a popular watercolourist. With no less success, one can say that he was a "product" of an international family. On the father's side - a Frenchman, on the mother's side - an Italian, more precisely a Venetian. His kinship with Venice - the city of beautiful corruption of once powerful muses - Alexander Nikolaevich Benois felt particularly acute. He also had Russian blood. The Catholic religion did not interfere with the amazing reverence of the family for the Orthodox Church. One of the strongest childhood impressions of A. Benois is St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral (St. Nicholas of the Sea), a work of the Baroque era, the view of which was opened from the windows of the Benois family house. With all the understandable cosmopolitanism, Benois was the only place in the world that he loved with all his heart and considered his homeland - Petersburg. In this creation of Peter, which crossed Russia and Europe, he felt "some great, strict force, great predestination."

That amazing charge of harmony and beauty, which A. Benois received in childhood, helped to make his life something like a work of art, striking in its integrity. This was especially evident in his novel of life. On the threshold of the ninth decade, Benoit admits that he feels very young, and explains this "curiosity" by the fact that his adored wife's attitude towards him has not changed over time. AND " Memories He dedicated his own to her, Dear Ate"- Anna Karlovna Benois (née Kind). Their lives are connected from the age of 16. Atya was the first to share his artistic enthusiasm, the first creative tests. She was his muse, sensitive, very cheerful, artistically gifted. Not being a beauty, she seemed irresistible to Benois with her charming appearance, grace, and lively mind. But the serene happiness of the children in love was to be tested. Tired of the disapproval of relatives, they parted, but the feeling of emptiness did not leave them during the years of separation. And, finally, with what joy they met again and married in 1893.

The couple Benoit had three children - two daughters: Anna and Elena, and son Nikolai, who became a worthy successor to his father's work, a theater artist who worked a lot in Rome and in the Milan theater ...

A. Benois is often called " artist of Versailles". Versailles symbolizes in his work the triumph of art over the chaos of the universe.
This theme determines the originality of Benoit's historical retrospectivism, the sophistication of his stylization. The first Versailles series appears in 1896 - 1898. She was named " The last walks of Louis XIV". It includes such famous works as " The king walked in any weather», « Fish feeding". Versailles Benoit begins in Peterhof and Oranienbaum, where he spent his childhood years.

From the cycle "Death". Paper, watercolor, gouache. 29x36

1907. Sheet from the series "Death". Watercolor, ink.

Paper, watercolor, gouache, Italian pencil.

Nevertheless, the first impression of Versailles, where he got for the first time during his honeymoon trip, was stunning. The artist was seized by the feeling that he "already once experienced it." Everywhere in the works of Versailles there is a slightly dejected, but still outstanding personality of Louis XIV, the King - the Sun. The feeling of the decline of a once majestic culture was extremely consonant with the era of the end of the century, when he lived Benoit.

In a more refined form, these ideas were embodied in the second Versailles series of 1906, in the most famous works of the artist: "", "", " Chinese pavilion», « jealous», « Fantasy on a Versailles theme". The grandiose in them coexists with the curious and exquisitely fragile.

Paper, watercolor, gold powder. 25.8x33.7

Cardboard, watercolor, pastel, bronze, graphite pencil.

1905 - 1918. Paper, ink, watercolor, whitewash, graphite pencil, brush.

Finally, let us turn to the most significant that was created by the artist in the theater. This is primarily a staging of the ballet "" to the music of N. Cherepnin in 1909 and the ballet " Parsley to the music of I. Stravinsky in 1911.

Benois in these productions showed himself not only as a brilliant theater artist, but also as a talented libretto author. These ballets, as it were, personify the two ideals that lived in his soul. "" - the embodiment of European culture, the Baroque style, its pomp and grandeur, combined with overripeness and withering. In the libretto, which is a free adaptation of the famous work by Torquato Tasso " Liberated Jerusalem”, tells about a certain young man, Viscount Rene de Beaugency, who, during a hunt, finds himself in the lost pavilion of an old park, where he is miraculously transferred to the world of a living tapestry - the beautiful gardens of Armida. But the spell is dispelled, and he, having seen the highest beauty, returns to reality. What remains is the eerie impression of life forever poisoned by mortal longing for extinct beauty, for fantastic reality. In this magnificent performance, the world of retrospective paintings seems to come to life. Benoit.

V " Petrushka But the Russian theme was embodied, the search for the ideal of the people's soul. This performance sounded all the more poignant and nostalgic because the booths and their hero Petrushka, so loved by Benois, were already becoming the past. In the performance, dolls animated by the evil will of the old man - a magician act: Petrushka - an inanimate character, endowed with all the living qualities that a suffering and spiritualized person has; his lady Colombina is a symbol of eternal femininity and "arap" is rude and undeservedly triumphant. But the end of this puppet drama Benoit sees not the same as in the usual farce theater.

In 1918, Benois became the head of the Hermitage art gallery and did a lot to make the museum the largest in the world. In the late 1920s, the artist left Russia and lived in Paris for almost half a century. He died in 1960 at the age of 90. A few years before death Benoit writes to his friend I.E. Grabar, to Russia: “And how I would like to be where my eyes were opened to the beauty of life and nature, where I first tasted love. Why am I not at home?! Everyone remembers some pieces of the most modest, but so sweet landscape.

May 3 (April 21, O.S.), 1870 Alexander Nikolaevich Benois was born - a Russian artist, art historian, art critic, museum worker, founder and main ideologist of the World of Art association.

If M.V. Lomonosov belongs to the glory of the first Russian scientist-encyclopedist, then A.N. Benois can certainly be called the first Russian "encyclopedist" of art. Painter and easel graphic artist, illustrator and book designer, master of theatrical scenery, director, author of ballet librettos, A.N. Benois was at the same time an outstanding historian of Russian and Western European art, a theorist and sharp publicist, an insightful critic, a major museum figure, an incomparable connoisseur of theater, music and choreography. All his biographers and contemporaries call the all-consuming love for art the main feature of Benois's character. The versatility of Alexander Nikolayevich's knowledge and activities served only as an expression of this love. Both in science and in art criticism, in every movement of his thought, Benois always remained an artist. Contemporaries saw in him a living embodiment of the spirit of artistry.

Family and early years

Alexander Nikolaevich Benois was the ninth (and last) child in the family of academician of architecture Nikolai Leontyevich Benois and musician Camilla Albertovna (née Kavos). Alexander's maternal ancestors were Italians, his father's family moved to Russia after the revolutionary upheavals in France. For generations, art was a hereditary profession in his family. Benois' maternal great-grandfather K. A. Cavos was a composer and conductor, his grandfather was an architect who built a lot in St. Petersburg and Moscow; the artist's father was also a major architect, the elder brother was famous as a watercolor painter. The consciousness of the young Benois developed in an atmosphere of artistic impressions and artistic interests.

Subsequently, recalling his childhood, the artist especially insistently emphasized two "spiritual jets", two categories of experiences that influenced the formation of his views and, in a certain sense, determined the direction of all his future activities.

The first and strongest of them is connected with theatrical impressions. From the earliest years and throughout his life, Benoit experienced a feeling that can hardly be called otherwise than the cult of the theater. From childhood, Benois associated the concept of "artistic" with the concept of "theatricality". His favorite toys were miniature scenery, paper figures of actors, which made up whole sets, with the help of which the boy could stage puppet shows on his own. Grandmother brought Alexandra from Venice real Italian puppets, depicting the heroes of the commedia dell'arte: Columbine, Harlequin, Pierrot ... It was in the art of the theater that the already adult A. Benois saw the only opportunity to create a creative synthesis of painting, architecture, music, plastic and poetry, to realize that organic fusion arts, which seemed to him the highest goal of artistic culture.

The second category of adolescent experiences, which left an indelible imprint on Benois's aesthetic views, arose from impressions from country residences and St. “From these ... Peterhof impressions, probably, my whole further cult of Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, Versailles came about,” the artist later recalled. The early impressions and experiences of Alexandre Benois go back to the origins of that bold reassessment of the art of the 18th century, which is one of the greatest merits of the "World of Art".

It should be noted that the artistic tastes and views of the young Benois were formed in opposition to his family, which adhered to conservative "academic" views. The decision to become an artist matured in Alexander very early. He began to draw in a private kindergarten, and in 1885-1890, while studying at the private gymnasium of K.I. V. Nouvel, D. Filosofov (cousin of S.P. Diaghilev), L. Bakst. They organized a circle of art lovers.

In 1887, while still a high school student, Benois began attending classes at the Academy of Arts, which brought him nothing but disappointment. He preferred to get a legal education at St. Petersburg University (1890-1894), and to go through professional art training on his own, according to his own program. His older brother Albert, who successfully painted in watercolor, became his teacher.

Daily hard work, constant training in drawing from life, the exercise of fantasy in working on compositions, combined with an in-depth study of art history, gave the artist a confident skill that is not inferior to the skill of his peers who studied at the Academy. With the same perseverance, Benois prepared for the work of an art historian, studying the Hermitage, studying special literature, traveling through historical cities and museums in Germany, Italy and France.

Self-study in painting (mainly watercolor) was not in vain, and in 1893 Benois first appeared as a landscape painter at the exhibition of the Russian "Society of Watercolors".

A year later, he made his debut as an art historian, publishing in German an essay on Russian art in Muther's book The History of Painting in the 19th Century, published in Munich. Russian translations of Benoit's essay were published in the same year in the magazines "Artist" and "Russian Art Archive". They immediately started talking about him as a talented art critic who turned over the established ideas about the development of domestic art.

Immediately declaring himself both a practitioner and a theoretician of art at the same time, Benois maintained this dual unity in subsequent years. His talent and energy was enough for everything.

In 1895-99, Alexander Benois was the keeper of the collection of modern European and Russian paintings and drawings of Princess M. K. Tenisheva. In 1896 he organized a small Russian department for the Secession exhibition in Munich; in the same year he made his first trip to Paris, painted views of Versailles, initiating his series on Versailles themes, which he loved so much throughout his life.

The series of watercolors "The Last Walks of Louis XIV" (1897-98, the Russian Museum and other collections), created on the basis of impressions from trips to France, was his first serious work in painting, in which he showed himself to be an original artist. This series for a long time approved for him the glory of "the singer of Versailles and Louis".

"World of Art"

The circle of friends and like-minded people of Alexander Benois was formed, as already mentioned, back in the gymnasium and university years. In the late 1890s, a circle of young like-minded people was transformed into the World of Art society and the editors of the magazine of the same name. It was in the "World of Art" that the world-famous artists Leon Bakst, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Evgeny Lansere, Igor Grabar began their varied activities. N. Roerich, M. Nesterov, K. Serov, M. Vrubel, M. Korovin, B. Kustodiev and other masters of Russian art of the early 20th century were closely associated with them.

Motivating the emergence of the "World of Art", Benoit wrote:

“We were guided not so much by considerations of an “ideological” order, as by considerations of practical necessity. A number of young artists had nowhere to go. They were either not accepted at all for large exhibitions - academic, traveling and watercolor, or they were accepted only with the rejection of everything in which the artists themselves saw the most clear expression of their quests ... And that's why Vrubel ended up next to Bakst, and Somov next with Malyavin. The "unrecognized" were joined by those of the "recognised" who felt uneasy in the approved groups. Mainly Levitan, Korovin and, to our greatest joy, Serov came up to us. Again, ideologically and in their entire culture, they belonged to a different circle, they were the last offspring of realism, not devoid of "wandering coloring." But they were connected with us by their hatred for everything stale, established, dead.”

The history of the "World of Art" began with an exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists organized by Sergei Diaghilev in January 1898 in the premises of the Baron Stieglitz's school in St. Petersburg. S.P. Diaghilev studied with Benois at the Faculty of Law, and later recalled:

The Russian-Finnish exhibition was a great success. The works of a number of strong representatives of the new trend in Russia were exhibited here for the first time. The exposition of the exhibition became a prototype for future exhibitions of the magazine "World of Art", it was here that their structure and composition of participants was outlined.

At the end of 1898, a group of like-minded artists Benois created the magazine "World of Art", which became the herald of neo-romanticism. In the future, annual exhibitions of the association are held.

The program of the "World of Art" assumed the invasion of its figures in all areas of culture, including not only fine arts, theater, book design, but also the creation of household items - furniture, applied art, interior design projects. In this regard, the World of Art, no doubt, focused on creating a great artistic style, which is confirmed by their participation, led by Alexander Benois, in the work on the sketches of the mural of the largest public building of that time - the Kazan Station. The work of the artists of the "World of Art" was marked by the seal of intimacy, refined aestheticism and gravitation towards graphics. However, intimacy and the desire for "art for the sake of art itself" are inherent in almost all artistic and literary communities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The slogan "art for the masses" had not yet been proclaimed, and the future proletarian poets and artists were still busy with other things...

Alexandre Benois, having become the ideologist and theorist of the World of Art association, actively participated in its artistic life, as well as in the publication of the World of Art magazine, which assumed the role of the basis and ideological mouthpiece of this association. Benois often appeared in the press and every week published his "Art Letters" (1908-16) in the newspaper "Rech". He worked even more fruitfully as an art historian: he published in two editions (1901, 1902) the book Russian Painting in the 19th Century, substantially reworking his earlier essay for it. Since 1910, he began to produce serial publications "Russian School of Painting" and "History of Painting of All Times and Peoples" (the publication was interrupted only with the beginning of the revolution in 1917). In the same years, under the editorship of Benois, the illustrated magazine Artistic Treasures of Russia was published. In 1911, he created a wonderful Guide to the Hermitage Art Gallery.

"Singer of Versailles": landscape painter

Benois began his career as a landscape painter and throughout his life he painted landscapes, mostly watercolors. They make up almost half of his heritage. The very appeal to the landscape in Benoit was dictated by an interest in history. Two topics invariably attracted his attention: "Petersburg in the 18th - early 19th centuries." and "The France of Louis XIV".

Later, in his memoirs, written in old age, Benoit admitted:

“In me, “passeism” began to manifest itself as something completely natural even in early childhood, and it remained throughout my life “the language in which it is easier, more convenient for me to express myself” ... Much in the past seems to me well and long familiar, perhaps even more familiar than the present. To draw, without resorting to documents, some contemporary of Louis XV is easier for me, easier for me than to draw, without resorting to nature, my own contemporary. I have a more tender, more loving attitude towards the past than towards the present. I better understand the thoughts of the time, the ideals of the time, dreams, passions, and even the most grimaces and whims, than I understand all this in the "plan of the present" ... "

(A. Benois. The life of an artist, vol. I.)

His first independent works (1892-1895) are a series of images of Pavlovsk, Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, corners of old St. Petersburg, as well as cities in Germany and Switzerland, their ancient quarters and architectural monuments. Later, already a mature master, Benois performed a series of landscapes of Versailles, to which he returned many times (1896, 1897, 1898, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1914), Peterhof (1900), Oranienbaum (1901), Pavlovsk (1902), Rome ( 1903), Venice (1912). All these series are dominated by images of historical sites, palace parks and works of art. Nature interested the artist mainly in its connection with history. Only later, among the works of 1911-1916, purely landscape cycles of watercolors began to appear, depicting the nature of Italy, Switzerland and the Crimea.

A significant part of these series are works from nature. For the most part, these are conscientious and accurate sketches, not brilliant in technique and not always possessing great artistic expressiveness. But for Benois, natural studies were only the initial stage of creativity. The material gleaned from direct observations was subjected to further cardinal processing. The artist rebuilt the composition, changed the proportions, enhanced the decorative sound of color, turning the real landscape into a kind of theatrical scenery with wings, a backdrop and a stage platform on which action can be played, and sometimes the action is played.

The main features of Benois's Versailles watercolors come from examples of architectural and landscape engravings: their clear, almost drawing-like layout, clear spatiality, the predominance of simple, always balanced horizontals and verticals, the grandeur and chilly severity of compositional rhythms, and finally, the emphasized opposition of the grandiose statues and sculptural groups of Versailles - small, almost stuffed figurines of the king and courtiers, playing simple genre and historical scenes. In Benois's watercolors there is no dramatic plot, no active action and psychological characteristics of the characters. The artist is not interested in people, but only in the atmosphere of antiquity and the spirit of theatrical court etiquette.

Following the first Versailles series, Benois created three series of landscapes and interiors depicting the domestic "Versailles" - Peterhof, Oranienbaum and Pavlovsk.

In these series there are no historical-genre scenes, no images of people, and therefore there is no shade of lyrical irony, which marked the Last Walks of Louis XIV. All three new series were written as a result of a thorough historical and artistic research, inspired by a passionate passion for poetry. Depicting the palaces and parks of suburban royal residences, Benois pathetically glorifies the beauty and grandeur of Russian art of the 18th century. In Benois's compositions, the features of the theatrical "stage" construction are often preserved, although historical characters do not perform on the stage. The “hero” of the artist’s new works is the very art of the past: not people, but magnificent architectural and park ensembles, sometimes striking in their grandiosity, sometimes charming with intimate grace and poetic charm.

At the beginning of 1905, Benoit and his family traveled to France again. Being, in his own words, organically alien to politics, the artist hoped that with the formation of the State Duma, all "ugliness" in Russia would end. He did not at all share the revolutionary sentiments of his comrades in the "World of Art" - E. Lansere, D. Filosofov and his friends - Merezhkovsky and Gippius. The artist himself admitted that it is difficult to call him a patriot. He always tried to get away from the terrible changes in his homeland, leaving the country or completely leaving for creativity.

In France, in 1905-1906, the famous second "Versailles" Benois series was created. It is much more extensive than The Last Walks of Louis XIV and is more diverse in content and technique. It includes sketches from nature painted in the Versailles park, retrospective historical and genre paintings, original "fantasies" on architectural and landscape themes, images of court theater performances in Versailles. The series includes works in oils, tempera, gouache and watercolor, drawings in sanguine and sepia.

However, these works can only conditionally be called a "series". They are connected with each other not by the development of the plot and not even by the commonality of the creative tasks set in them, but only by a certain unity of mood that prevailed at a time when Benoit, in his words, was "drunk with Versailles" and "completely moved into the past", striving forget about the tragic Russian reality of 1905.

The same series includes works that are among the most successful works of Benois, deservedly widely known: “Parade under Paul I” (1907, State Russian Museum; p. 401), “Exit of Empress Catherine II in Tsarskoye Selo Palace” (1909 , State Art Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan), "Petersburg Street under Peter I" (1910, private collection in Moscow) and "Peter I on a walk in the Summer Garden" (1910, State Russian Museum). In these works one can notice some change in the very principle of the artist's historical thinking. Finally, not monuments of ancient art, not things and costumes, but people, fall into the center of his interests. The multi-figure historical and everyday scenes painted by Benois recreate the appearance of a past life, seen as if through the eyes of a contemporary.

theater artist

Benois devoted a lot of his mental energy and time to work in easel painting and graphics, but by the very nature of his talent and by the nature of his creative thinking, he was not an easel painter, and even less a master of a painting that could embody all aspects of his idea in a single, as it were synthesizing image. Benois thought and approached his subjects precisely as an illustrator or as a theater artist and director, successively revealing various aspects of the image he had conceived in a cycle of studies and compositions, creating a series of successive architectural and landscape scenery and carefully designed mise-en-scenes. It is not for nothing that his best creations belong to the art of books and theater painting.

The theater was during the whole life of Benois his strongest passion; nothing he loved so ardently and knew so deeply. Having proved himself in many genres - in literature, painting, art history, criticism, directing - Alexandre Benois is remembered, first of all, as a theater artist and theorist of theatrical and decorative art.

From his mother, Benois inherited a genuine cult of the theater, and his childhood dream was to become a theater artist. A true child of St. Petersburg in the 1870s and 80s, Benois was deeply engrossed in his then passion for drama, opera and ballet, and even before his trip to Germany in 1890 he saw Sleeping Beauty, The Queen of Spades and many other performances. Benois made his debut as a theater artist in 1900, designing A.S. Taneyev's one-act opera The Revenge of Cupid at the Hermitage Theater in St. Petersburg.

In 1901, Prince S. M. Volkonsky, director of the Imperial Theatres, succumbing to the persuasion of S. P. Diaghilev, decided to prepare a special production under his direction of Delibes' one-act ballet Sylvia. Benois was invited as the chief artist and worked on the performance together with K.A. Korovin, L.S. Bakst, E.E. Lansere and V. A. Serov, however, due to a quarrel between Diaghilev and Volkonsky, the ballet was never staged.

Benois' real debut as a theater artist took place in 1902, when he was commissioned to stage the production of R. Wagner's opera The Death of the Gods on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. After that, he performed sketches for the scenery for N. V. Tcherepnin's ballet The Pavilion of Armida (1903). The artist himself composed the libretto and, together with the choreographer M. Fokin, participated in the production of this performance.

The success of Benois in the "Pavilion of Armida" only confirmed his artistic vocation. He was immediately involved in many theatrical projects. In 1907 A.N. Benois played an important role in the founding of the Old Theater in St. Petersburg (for which he created a curtain), the following year one of its scenery was used in the Paris production of Boris Godunov.

The passion for ballet turned out to be so strong that on the initiative of Benois and with his direct participation, a private ballet troupe was organized, which began triumphant performances in Paris in 1909 - "Russian Seasons". They are usually associated only with the name of S.P. Diaghilev, forgetting that it was A.N. Benois served as artistic director in the troupe. It was his production of The Pavilion of Armida that marked the beginning of the Diaghilev Seasons in Paris in 1909. The role of Benois in ballet productions, as well as in the design of performances, is much more significant than the role of his friend Diaghilev. Diaghilev, by and large, was only a talented administrator with a good, in modern terms, "administrative resource": connections, acquaintances, access to state funding.

For the "Russian Seasons" in Paris, Benois also designed the performances of "Selfida" (1909), "Giselle" (1910), "The Nightingale" (1914). One of the highest achievements of the theater artist Benois was the scenery for I. F. Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka" (1911). It should be noted that this famous ballet was created according to the idea of ​​Benois himself and according to the libretto written by him.

Soon, the artist's cooperation with the Moscow Art Theater was born, where he successfully designed two performances based on the plays of J.-B. Molière (1913). From 1913 to 1915 A.N. Benois actively participated in the management of the theater along with K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.

In the last pre-revolutionary years (1911-1917), Benois, who was mainly engaged in work in the theater, continued from time to time to turn to easel painting and graphics. In 1912, a series of landscapes of Venice was created, in 1915 - a Crimean series. In 1914-1917, the artist worked on sketches for decorative panels for the Kazansky railway station in Moscow, which, however, were never implemented.

book artist

Together with other masters of the World of Art, Benois was one of the most active figures in the art movement that revived the art of book graphics in Russia.

Almost every artist of the "World of Art" left his mark on the development of new book graphics and participated in one way or another in the creation and development of a common creative system of illustration and book design; but, of course, the share of participation was not equal for everyone. Somov was the initiator and founder of new artistic principles of decorative decoration of the book, but he did not have the talent of an illustrator.

Like Somov, Benois performed a number of purely design, decorative drawings for the magazines World of Art (1901, 1902, 1903), Artistic Treasures of Russia (1902) and Golden Fleece (1906). But the main area of ​​his activity in graphics, from the early period to the last pre-revolutionary years, was illustration.

Among Benois' early works for the book is an illustration for The Queen of Spades (1898), published in the three-volume collection of Pushkin's works (1899), illustrated by many Russian artists, including the masters of the World of Art. This first experience was followed by four watercolors - illustrations for The Golden Pot by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1899), which remained unpublished, and two page illustrations for the book by P. I. Kutepov "Royal and Imperial Hunting in Russia" (1902) created in collaboration with EE Lansere. Already in these early works, the specific features of Benoit's illustrative talent are clearly visible: the power of his imagination, plot ingenuity, the ability to convey the spirit and style of the depicted era. But the illustrations are still "easel" in nature: these are historical compositions built into the book, not organically merging with it.

A more mature phase in the development of Benois' book graphics reflects his ABC in Pictures (1904) - the first book in which the artist acted as the sole author, creator of the idea, illustrator and designer. For the first time he had to decide here the issues of artistic design of the book. Each of the drawings for the "ABC" is a detailed narrative scene, imbued with mild humor, sometimes genre, more often fairy-tale or theatrical, always inexhaustibly inventive in terms of plot motives. The history of the children's book "The World of Art" begins with the "ABC" of A. Benois.

Gradually, book graphics in the hands of Benois becomes an art not so much decorative as narrative. Purely design tasks, which so occupied Somov, Dobuzhinsky and the young Lansere, play a clearly secondary role in the work of Benois. His compositions are always spatial precisely because they are, first of all, narrative.

The main place among the graphic works of Benois is occupied by illustrations for the works of A.S. Pushkin. The artist worked on them throughout his life. As already mentioned, he began with drawings for The Queen of Spades (1898) and then returned to illustrating this story twice (in 1905 and 1910). Benois also made two series of illustrations for The Captain's Daughter and for a number of years prepared his main work - drawings for The Bronze Horseman.

In pre-revolutionary times, Benois' book works had little success with publishers. The drawings for The Captain's Daughter (1904) remained unpublished. The first version of the illustrations for The Bronze Horseman (1903) was not published as a separate book, but only in the journal World of Art (1904), in violation of the design layout conceived by the artist. Only the second version (1910) of illustrations for The Queen of Spades was properly published.

The best of the artist's book works, of course, is his masterpiece - drawings for Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman. The cycle of the first version consists of 32 ink and watercolor drawings imitating colored woodcuts. The publication of illustrations in the "World of Art" was immediately greeted by the artistic community as a great event in Russian graphics. I. Grabar noted in Benois's illustrations a subtle understanding of Pushkin and his era and, at the same time, a heightened sense of modernity, and L. Bakst called the series of illustrations for The Bronze Horseman "a real pearl in Russian art."

Completely all of Benois's illustrations for The Bronze Horseman were published only in the 1920s.

Benois - art historian

Benois' activities as an art critic and art historian are inextricably linked with everything that Benois did in painting, easel and book graphics, and in the theater. Critical essays and historical and artistic studies of Benois are a commentary on the ideological and creative searches and everyday practical work of the artist. His literary works, undoubtedly, have an independent significance, characterizing a complex, large and fruitful stage in the development of Russian criticism and the science of art.

Together with Grabar, Benois led a movement that updated the method, techniques and themes of Russian art history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the most important missions of this movement, which arose in line with the World of Art, was a systematic review of all material, critical assessments and main problems in the history of Russian painting, architecture, plastic arts and decorative and applied arts of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was a question of elucidating in a new way the processes of development of Russian artistic culture over the past two centuries, involving materials not only previously unstudied, but also almost untouched.

It is difficult to overestimate the scale of this work, which could only be collective. It was attended by almost all the figures of the "World of Art". Artists and critics, following the example of Benois, became historians, collectors, discoverers and interpreters of forgotten or incomprehensible artistic values. We have already mentioned the significance of such "discoveries" as Russian portraiture of the 18th century and the architecture of old Petersburg. Many such discoveries were made by the World of Arts in the most diverse areas of artistic culture. Benois was the initiator and inspirer of this work. The most difficult, responsible part of it also fell to his lot - the analysis and generalization of the history of Russian painting of the 18th-19th centuries.

In 1901-1902, the History of Painting in the 19th Century was published in two parts. Russian Painting”, attached as the fourth volume to the translation of the famous work of R. Muter. The title of Benois's book does not fully correspond to its content: the presentation covers not only the 19th century, but the entire history of new Russian painting, starting from the Petrine era and ending with the first exhibitions of the World of Art.

In Russian scientific literature, questions of the history of art have never been presented with such completeness and systematicity, with such perspicacity of analysis and, at the same time, with such emphasized and even programmatic subjectivity. Benoit's book is a serious and original study, striking in the abundance and variety of material involved, deep thoughtfulness and penetrating subtlety of individual characteristics, but ... At the same time, the book is a sharp journalistic treatise, polemically directed against academism and wanderers. In his book, Benois gave a devastating description of the work of Bryullov and Bruni, spoke with disdain about Aivazovsky and Vereshchagin, and showed unfair intolerance towards many Wanderers. At the same time, he often exaggerated the significance of the work of his closest associates and friends.

These features of the book are connected with the group tactics of the "World of Art" and with the personal, subjective predilections of the author. Representing a tribute to the times, they should not play a decisive role in the evaluation of Benoit's work. A much more tangible shortcoming of the book is the precariousness and vagueness of the general historical concept underlying the study. It lacks historicism. Art is interpreted by Benois as a completely autonomous sphere, independent of social reality and hardly connected with other cultural phenomena. Thus, the topic of research is not the process of the historical development of national painting with its hidden patterns that should be discovered, but only the history of the artists who took part in this process.

But if the history of Russian painting as a whole contains serious shortcomings, then its individual pages, in which the author was not shackled by predilections of personal taste or tactical considerations of the group, are among the most striking phenomena of Russian art history at the beginning of the 20th century. The chapters on portrait painters of the 18th century, on Kiprensky, Venetsianov, Sylvester, Shchedrin and the landscape painters of the 1810-1830s, on Alexander Ivanov, Surikov, Vrubel and Serov still retain their scientific significance.

Simultaneously with these major works, Benois published in the journal "World of Art" (1899-1904) and the monthly collection "Artistic Treasures of Russia" (1901-1903), and later in the journal "Old Years" (1907-1913) and some other publications, many articles and notes on certain issues of the history of Russian and Western European art. The most significant articles concern the architecture of old St. Petersburg and its suburbs. In 1910, an extensive study by Benois "Tsarskoe Selo in the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna" was published - a thoroughly documented work on the history of everyday life and artistic life in Russia in the first half of the 18th century.

Benois - art critic

The earliest of Benoit's art-critical series, The Artist's Conversations, published in the World of Art magazine in 1899, characterizes Benoit's first steps as a critic. It contains mainly reviews of Parisian art exhibitions and notes on some minor French painters like Forain and Latouche, who at that time still seemed to the critics more significant than the Impressionists and Cezanne.

The second series of his articles, published in the "Moscow Weekly" for 1907-1908 under the heading "The Diary of an Artist", is devoted mainly to issues of theater and music.

The heyday of Benois' artistic and critical activity falls on the period of the creation of the third series of his articles - under the general title "Art Letters", which were published weekly in the newspaper "Rech" from November 1908 to 1917. This series includes about 250 articles, unusually diverse in content and, on the whole, reflecting the artistic life of those years with great completeness. Not a single significant event in art remained without a response from Benois. He wrote about modern painting, sculpture and graphics, about architecture, theater, about ancient art, folk art, about new books and exhibitions, about creative groups and individual masters, analyzing and evaluating every major art phenomenon with passionate interest. According to Benois, only freedom and inspiration create and determine the value of a work of art. But the critic emphasizes that the freedom of art is not unlimited, and inspiration should not escape the control of consciousness. There is no place for arbitrariness in art, and the most important quality of an artist is a sense of professional responsibility.

After the disaster

In Russian historiography, there is an opinion that "Alexander Benois, like Blok, Bely and Bryusov, supported the October Revolution and, with his usual zeal, worked as a curator of fine art in his native St. Petersburg." It would be more accurate to say that A.N. Benoit with all his might tried to work with the usual diligence, despite the catastrophic changes that have taken place in the country. But politics itself constantly intruded into the life of a person who had neither definite political convictions nor the desire to stand up in open opposition to any kind of authority.

During the years of the revolution and the Civil War, A.N. Benois remained in Petrograd. The Bolsheviks, having barely seized power, declared “war on the palaces”, and the guardian of the national art actively took up the problems of reorganizing the palace complexes, as well as preserving these monuments of national culture from vandalism and looting. Judging by the diaries of Benois for the period 1917-1920, the reality of the first post-revolutionary years seriously frightened the artist, but he refused to emigrate and did not leave his homeland at such a decisive hour. However, hunger, cold, an abundance of garbage, military cripples and "intelligent" beggars on the streets of Petrograd did not fit into Benois's ideas about life in general, and about the life of his family in particular. The Benois family managed to survive during these years only thanks to American ARA rations (aid to affected countries in the First World War). From 1917 to 1926, Benois was in charge of the Art Gallery of the Hermitage, i.e. was a civil servant to whom these rations were issued as wages.

In 1921, two brothers A.N. were arrested. Benois - Leonty and Mikhail. And he himself lived with a constant fear of being arrested.

"Sleepless night due to incessant listening,- he wrote in his diary on August 7, 1921 - Akita(wife of A.N. Benois - E.Sh.) does not allow the inflow of fresh air to close the window, and therefore everything is audible, how the latch of the gate clicks in the gate, how they walk around the yard, and it all seems that the Arkharovites will appear: here they are heading to our floor ... "

Over time, fear became something ordinary and turned into a feeling of incessant vague anxiety. “Now I feel more tired, broken and dejected than in all these years. It feels like something is hanging over your head,- wrote A.N. Benois already in April 1923. He called such emotions "a feeling of the OGPU", as well as "a common disease in Russia." The fear of speaking out openly on issues of art and culture close to him, fearing that the people with whom you are talking will turn out to be provocateurs, constantly pursued Alexandre Benois. And he, being an uncompromising critic before the revolution, not afraid to speak out on any artistic issues, was now forced to choose his words even in conversations with good acquaintances.

The only consolation in the often simply unbearable reality for Alexander Benois during these years was the Hermitage. With extraordinary zeal, he put together new exhibitions, looking for masterpieces worthy of the Hermitage from the expropriated collections. But here, before A.N. Benois faces constant obstacles of a completely different kind: from the fact that the Hermitage is cut off electricity for non-payment and ending with difficulties in hanging paintings, as well as constant threats of sales of the Hermitage valuables from the People's Commissariat of Education. A.N. Benois approached his work in the Hermitage with great responsibility, which he loved from childhood and dreamed of turning into a world-class museum. “It will be good if, thanks to me, the Winter Palace will be saved and turned into a monument-treasury of world significance,” he sincerely hoped.

However, this task was largely hampered by the general crisis in the artistic life of Russia. "Unfortunately, - Alexander Benois noted, - ... interest in art is falling, and in the very near future, he, and now barely vegetating, will have absolutely nothing to do." Art in Russia, according to A.N. Benois, was simply strangled by "decrees, alliances, the frivolity of Lunacharsky and the stupidity of other doctrinaires ..."

But even with the Bolsheviks A.N. Benoit could get along quite well (which is what he tried to do since 1917), if they gave him the opportunity to calmly do what he loves. But everyday obstacles constantly stood in his way: he had to take care of the well-being of the family, constantly bypass the obstacles placed by the government on artists (for example, the ban on painting on the streets of Petrograd). The most difficult thing for Alexandre Benois was that he was invariably required to express his political position. For him, a man who always proclaimed that he had no political convictions, this was unbearable. For some time he tried to live the old way, carefully choosing his words in conversations with acquaintances, courageously enduring conversations about contemporary art with strangers, each of whom could turn out to be an informer or agent of the Cheka-OGPU. However, in the USSR it was impossible to live outside of politics. Feeling this, A.N. Benois began to think about emigration.

Emigrant defector

In the 1920s, Benois returned to his theatrical activities. He is working on the design of performances in the Petrograd theaters (the former Mariinsky and Alexandrinsky), trying to "fit" into the new, revolutionary art, but Soviet agitation is more likely to offend the feelings of the artist than to inspire him to creative achievements.

Remaining in Soviet Russia, Benois never severed his ties with Europe, in particular with the Parisian Grand Opera, in whose productions he participated as a theater artist back in the pre-revolutionary years. Since 1923, Alexander Nikolaevich often travels on business trips to France, where he still works on the design of opera and ballet performances. The temptation to stay abroad was great, but the fear of being forever torn away from his native soil, being a "refugee" without certain occupations, stopped the artist for several years. In addition, the wife of Alexander Nikolaevich, Anna Karlovna Kind, a faithful companion throughout his life, categorically objected to emigration, considering it inappropriate to leave his native nest in old age.

It is possible that A.N. Benois, in order to be able to leave the country, bound himself with some obligations to the INO OGPU. In his surviving diaries and correspondence for 1923-25, the fear of refugee and lack of demand in a foreign land is quickly replaced by the fear of looking in the eyes of the emigre public as an agent of the Bolsheviks. In some records, the reluctance to meet with their former acquaintances and compatriots is clearly traced. “Perhaps those Russians won’t be there!”- wrote A. Benois in his diary before the next trip abroad. However, there are no direct indications of the artist's collaboration with the Chekists in known documents, and this issue remains unclear.

It wasn't until 1926 that Benois finally made the forced choice between the hardships of an emigre existence and the increasingly frightening prospect of living in a Soviet country. He once again left for Paris to stage and stage a performance at the Grand Opera, but never returned to Russia from there. This decision was not easy for Benoit. In the correspondence of 1926-27, the artist often notices that, as he manages to win back those positions in Europe that he lost during the years of the revolution, he is drawn back to his homeland: “And just imagine now, when I become completely my own person here, it begins to pull me home with unbearable force ...”(from a letter to F.F. Notgaft, 1926)

But A.N. Benoit, like most emigrants, not just in his homeland, but in the way he knew it before. That is why the longing for Russia, reflected in the epistolary heritage of Alexander Benois of the foreign period, is combined with his understanding that it is impossible to return there, just as it is impossible for a person to return to his long-gone childhood and youth.

Nevertheless, in France, Alexander Nikolayevich successfully continued his activities as a theater artist: first at the Grand Opera in Paris, then in the 1930s-1950s he collaborated with La Scala in Milan, where his son was in charge of the production Nikolay. Working at the same professional level, Benois was no longer able to create anything fundamentally new and interesting, often content with varying the old one (at least eight versions of the ballet Petrushka, which became legendary, were performed).

The main work of the last years of his life was his memoirs, on the pages of which Benoit resurrects in detail and fascinatingly the years of his childhood and youth. In his memoirs My Memoirs, Benois penetratingly recreated the atmosphere of the spiritual and creative quests of the Silver Age in Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Alexander Nikolaevich Benois died on February 9, 1960 in Paris, only a few months before his ninetieth birthday.

Throughout his long journey as an artist, critic and art historian, Benois remained true to the high understanding of aesthetic criteria in art, defended the inherent value of artistic creativity and fine art based on strong traditions. It is also important that all of Benois' multifaceted activities were, in fact, devoted to one goal: the glorification of Russian art. Throughout his long life, he did not step back from her a single step.

Compilation by Elena Shirokova based on materials:

A.N. Benois and his addressees./Comp. I.I. Vydrin. - St. Petersburg: Garden of Arts, 2003.

"In me, undoubtedly, sits ... a uniform archivist." From the diary of A.N. Benois (1923) / Publ. I.I. Vydrina // Domestic archives, 2001. No. 5. - P. 56-95.

Alexander Nikolaevich Benois. Portrait by Leon Bakst

Alexander Nikolaevich Benois is a major art critic, painter, publisher and author of magnificent illustrations, writer and theater artist, one of the founders of Russian modernity.

Biography of the artist Alexandre Benois

The artist Alexander Nikolaevich Benois was born in 1870, in St. Petersburg, in the family of the famous architect Nikolai Leontievich Benois. In the family of the future artist, they simply revered art, but the parents insisted that their son enter St. Petersburg University and become a lawyer.

While studying at the university, Alexander Nikolayevich independently studied the history of art, was engaged in drawing, and mastered watercolor painting. History is silent about what kind of lawyer Benoit was. In 1894 (the year Alexander graduated from the university), the third volume of R. Muther's History of Painting in the 19th Century was published. This volume includes a chapter on Russian art, authored by Alexandre Benois.

And they immediately started talking about Alexander Nikolaevich as a talented art critic who simply turned over the established ideas about the development of Russian art.

In 1897, after trips to France, Alexandre Benois presented to the public the first series of his watercolors under the general theme "Last Walks of Louis XIV". The audience was completely delighted, and critics started talking about the emergence of a new talented original artist.

Walk of the King Marquise's Bath
Fantasy on the Versailles theme Introduction to the sultana
Louis XIV feeding the fish The king walks in any weather
Walk of the King
Walk of the King

In 1893, Benois painted a series of watercolor landscapes around St. Petersburg. It must be said that his landscapes are more a tribute to history than to nature. The artist is more interested in historical figures, architecture, costume. And nature serves only as a magnificent decoration for the events depicted by the painter.

Oranienbaum alley
Pictures of Petersburg
Parade under Paul I
Carnival on the Fontanka
Oranienbaum. Japanese garden
Chinese pavilion. jealous

From 1897 to 1898, Benois painted a series of watercolor paintings about the parks of Versailles. And again, critics are not talking about the magnificence of nature, but about the clearly recreated spirit of bygone times, the atmosphere of a beautiful magnificent past.

Water parterre in Versailles
Pond at Versailles
Fountains of Versailles
Versailles
Versailles in the rain
Versailles. Curtius
Chestnuts in spring. Versailles

The next big theme in the artist's work is Peterhof, Oranienbaum and Pavlovskoye. And again the grandeur of architecture, fountains, parks and history.

Gazebo in the park. Pavlovsk
Peterhof
Peterhof Grand Palace. Peterhof

At the end of the nineteenth century, Alexander Benois created the World of Art association, in which he became the main theorist and inspirer, wrote a lot, appeared in print and became the author of the weekly Art Letters in the Rech newspaper.

Benois does not forget about the history of art - in 1901 and 1902, the well-known book "Russian Painting in the 19th Century" was born. Publisher Benois begins to publish the series "Russian School of Painting" and "History of Painting of All Times and Peoples". The release of these series ceases, for obvious reasons, in 1917.

There was also the Artistic Treasures of Russia magazine and the excellent Guide to the Hermitage Art Gallery. And all this was done with the most active and direct participation (and under the guidance) of Alexander Nikolaevich Benois.

And there was also a passion for book graphics and the creation of illustrations for a number of works by A.S. Pushkin. And the works of the magnificent theatrical artist Benois. He created sketches of costumes and scenery for theatrical performances, ballets and operas. I will not bore you with a list of everything done in this field - for another artist, only theatrical creativity would be enough for a lifetime in abundance. What is one participation in the management of the Moscow Art Theater together with K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko!

Illustration for the poem by A.S. Pushkin "The Bronze Horseman"
Decoration for the tragedy by A.S. Pushkin "Feast during the plague"
Set design for Stravinsky's The Nightingale
Italian comedy
Italian comedy

The revolution of 1917 crossed out with an iron fist a huge number of projects and undertakings of Alexander Nikolaevich Benois, and he took up work in various organizations that tried to preserve monuments of antiquity and art.

Since 1918, Benois was in charge of the Hermitage art gallery, developed a new plan for the general exposition of the museum, which was noticed and noted by art lovers who still remained in Russia.

Since 1926 the artist has been living and working in Paris. He practically no longer paints pictures - he is simply eaten up by homesickness. Sketches of costumes and scenery for the Diaghilev Theater, participation in the creation of theatrical productions ...

And memoirs. Just the most valuable memories and thoughts about people, events, art.

The artist died in February 1960. Buried in Paris.

Alexander Nikolaevich Benois (April 21 (May 3), 1870, St. Petersburg - February 9, 1960, Paris) - Russian artist, art historian, art critic, founder and main ideologist of the World of Art association.

Biography of Alexandre Benois

Alexander Benois was born on April 21 (May 3), 1870 in St. Petersburg, in the family of Russian architect Nikolai Leontyevich Benois and Camilla Albertovna Benois (née Kavos).

He graduated from the prestigious 2nd St. Petersburg Gymnasium. For some time he studied at the Academy of Arts, also studied fine art on his own and under the guidance of his older brother Albert.

In 1894, he began his career as a theorist and art historian, writing a chapter on Russian artists for the German collection History of Painting of the 19th Century.

In 1896-1898 and 1905-1907 he worked in France.

Creativity Benoit

He became one of the organizers and ideologists of the artistic association "World of Art", founded the magazine of the same name.

In 1916-1918, the artist created illustrations for A. S. Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman". In 1918

Benois headed the Art Gallery of the Hermitage, published its new catalog. He continued to work as a book and theater artist, in particular, he worked on the design of BDT performances.

In 1925 he took part in the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris.

In 1926, Benois left the USSR without returning from a business trip abroad. He lived in Paris, worked mainly on sketches of theatrical scenery and costumes.

Alexandre Benois played a significant role in the productions of S. Diaghilev's ballet enterprise "Ballets Russes", as an artist and author - director of performances.

Benois began his career as a landscape painter and throughout his life he painted landscapes, mostly watercolors. They make up almost half of his heritage. The very appeal to the landscape in Benoit was dictated by an interest in history. Two topics invariably attracted his attention: "Petersburg in the 18th - early 19th centuries." and "The France of Louis XIV".

The earliest of Benoit's retrospective works are related to his work at Versailles. By 1897-1898, there is a series of small paintings made in watercolor and gouache and united by a common theme - "The last walks of Louis XIV". This is an example of the historical reconstruction of the past by the artist, characteristic of Benois's work, inspired by the living impressions of the parks of Versailles with their sculpture and architecture; but at the same time, the results of a scrupulous study of old French art, especially engravings of the 17th-18th centuries, are summed up here. The famous "Notes" of Duke Louis de Saint Simon gave the artist the plot outline of "The Last Walks of Louis XIV" and, together with other memoirs and literary sources, introduced Benois into the atmosphere of the era.

One of his highest achievements was the scenery for the ballet I. F. Stravinsky "Petrushka" (1911); this ballet was created according to the idea of ​​Benois himself and according to the libretto written by him. Soon after, the artist's cooperation with the Moscow Art Theater was born, where he successfully designed two performances based on the plays of J.-B. Moliere (1913) and for some time even participated in the management of the theater along with K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.

Artist's work

• Cemetery
• Carnival on the Fontanka
• Summer garden under Peter the Great
• Rei embankment in Basel in the rain
• Oranienbaum. Japanese garden
• Versailles. Trianon Garden
• Versailles. alley
• From the fantasy world
• Parade under Pavel 1

• Italian comedy. "Love Note"
• Berta (costume sketch by V. Komissarzhevskaya)
• Evening
• Petrushka (costume design for Stravinsky's Petrushka)
• Herman in front of the windows of the Countess (screen saver for Pushkin's The Queen of Spades)
• Illustration for Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman"
• From the series "The last walks of Louis 14"
• Masquerade under Louis 14
• Marquise's Bath
• wedding walk
• Peterhof. Flower beds under the Grand Palace
• Peterhof. The lower fountain at the Cascade
• Peterhof. Grand Cascade
• Peterhof. main fountain
• Pavilion

Benois Alexander Nikolaevich

Self-portrait. 1896 (paper, ink, pen)

Benois Alexander Nikolaevich

Marquise bath. 1906

Carnival-on-Fontanka.

Italian comedy. "Love note". 1907.

Summer garden under Peter the Great. 1902

Pavilion. 1906

Oranienbaum. Japanese Hall 1901

Quay Rey in Basel in the rain. 1902

Masquerade under Louis 14. 1898

Parade under Pavel 1. 1907

Wedding walk. 1906

Paris. Carruzel. 1927

Peterhof. Flower beds under the Grand Palace. 1918

Peterhof. The lower fountain at the Cascade. 1942

Peterhof. main fountain. 1942

Peterhof. Big cascade. 1901-17

Biography of Alexandre Benois.

Benois Alexander Nikolaevich(1870-1960) graphic artist, painter, theater artist, publisher, writer, one of the authors of the modern image of the book. Representative of Russian modernity.

A. N. Benois was born into the family of a famous architect and grew up in an atmosphere of reverence for art, but did not receive an art education. He studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University (1890-94), but at the same time independently studied the history of art and was engaged in drawing and painting (mainly watercolor). He did this so thoroughly that he managed to write a chapter on Russian art for the third volume of "The History of Painting in the 19th Century" by R. Muther, published in 1894.

They immediately started talking about him as a talented art critic who turned over the established ideas about the development of domestic art. In 1897, based on impressions from trips to France, he created the first serious work - a series of watercolors "The Last Walks of Louis XIV", showing himself in it as an original artist.

Repeated trips to Italy and France and copying artistic treasures there, studying the writings of Saint-Simon, Western literature of the 17th-19th centuries, and interest in ancient engravings were the foundation of his artistic education. In 1893, Benois acted as a landscape painter, creating watercolors of the environs of St. Petersburg. In 1897-1898 he paints in watercolor and gouache a series of landscape paintings of the Versailles parks, recreating in them the spirit and atmosphere of antiquity.

By the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, Benois again returns to the landscapes of Peterhof, Oranienbaum, Pavlovsk. It glorifies the beauty and grandeur of 18th century architecture. Nature interests the artist mainly in its connection with history. Possessing a pedagogical gift and erudition, he at the end of the 19th century. organized the "World of Art" association, becoming its theorist and inspirer. He worked a lot in book graphics. He often appeared in the press and every week published his "Artistic Letters" (1908-16) in the newspaper "Rech".

He worked no less fruitfully as an art historian: he published in two editions (1901, 1902) the widely known book Russian Painting in the 19th Century, substantially reworking his earlier essay for it; began to publish serial publications "Russian School of Painting" and "History of Painting of All Times and Peoples" (1910-17; the publication was interrupted with the beginning of the revolution) and the magazine "Art Treasures of Russia"; created a wonderful "Guide to the Hermitage Art Gallery" (1911).

After the revolution of 1917, Benois took an active part in the work of various organizations, mainly related to the protection of monuments of art and antiquity, and from 1918 he also took up museum work - he became in charge of the Hermitage Art Gallery. He developed and successfully implemented a completely new plan for the general exposition of the museum, which contributed to the most expressive demonstration of each work.

At the beginning of the XX century. Benois illustrates the works of Pushkin A.S. Acts as a critic and art historian. In the 1910s, people came to the center of the artist's interests. Such is his painting "Peter I on a walk in the Summer Garden", where in a multi-figure scene the appearance of a past life seen through the eyes of a contemporary is recreated.

In the work of Benois the artist, history decisively prevailed. Two topics invariably attracted his attention: "Petersburg in the 18th - early 19th centuries." and "The France of Louis XIV". He addressed them primarily in his historical compositions - in two "Versailles series" (1897, 1905-06), in the well-known paintings "Parade under Paul I" (1907), "Exit of Catherine II in Tsarskoye Selo Palace" (1907 ) and others, reproducing a long-gone life with deep knowledge and a subtle sense of style. The same themes, in essence, were devoted to his numerous natural landscapes, which he usually performed either in St. Petersburg and its suburbs, or in Versailles (Benoit regularly traveled to France and lived there for a long time). The artist entered the history of Russian book graphics with his book "ABC in the paintings of Alexander Benois" (1905) and illustrations for "The Queen of Spades" by A. S. Pushkin, performed in two versions (1899, 1910), as well as wonderful illustrations for "The Bronze Horseman" ", to the three variants of which he devoted almost twenty years of work (1903-22).

In the same years, he took part in the design of the "Russian Seasons", organized by Diaghilev S.P. in Paris, which included in their program not only opera and ballet performances, but also symphony concerts.

Benois designed R. Wagner's opera The Death of the Gods on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater and then performed sketches for the scenery for N. N. Tcherepnin's ballet The Pavilion of Armida (1903), the libretto of which he composed himself. The passion for ballet turned out to be so strong that on the initiative of Benois and with his direct participation, a private ballet troupe was organized, which began triumphant performances in Paris in 1909 - "Russian Seasons". Benois, who took the post of artistic director in the troupe, performed the design for several performances.

One of his highest achievements was the scenery for I. F. Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka" (1911). Soon, Benois began working with the Moscow Art Theater, where he successfully designed two performances based on the plays of J.-B. Moliere (1913) and for some time even participated in the management of the theater along with K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.

From 1926 he lived in Paris, where he died. The main works of the artist: "Walk of the King" (1906), "Fantasy on the Versailles theme" (1906), "Italian comedy" (1906), illustrations for the Bronze Horseman by Pushkin A.S. (1903) and others

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