A story about an artist and a million red roses. The story of the song "A Million Scarlet Roses". Not lost - thank you

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Niko Pirosmani is an honest and poor artist who painted piercing masterpieces on cheap oilcloth for food.

Pirosmani was a primitivist. One of those artists about whom people far from art and its understanding say, “I could have drawn just as well myself.” But only a blind person could fail to see all the poignancy of the Georgian artist’s painting.

Behind the seeming naivety of animals drawn on oilcloth and festive feasts, deep feelings are hidden, pain through joy and joy through pain. And all this becomes more than obvious if you know at least a little about the life of Niko Pirosmani.

website admires the talent and inner strength of a self-taught artist from a small Georgian village. And he hopes to convey some of his admiration to you.

Where and when Niko Pirosmanashvili was born was unknown for a long time. Many years after the artist’s death, researchers turned over the archives and half of Georgia and found out the year and place of birth - 151 years ago in the small Kakheti village of Mirzaani. In such a poor family that already as a child, the future property of Georgia was given into service to a rich Tiflis family, where he was a servant until he was 20 years old.

He began drawing at the same time he got a job as a conductor on the railway. His first work was a portrait of his boss and his wife. And it seems that it was not a success, because Niko immediately flew out of work.

Pirosmani was not the “textbook” poor Georgian of that time. He did not have much of the famous innate gaiety, he was not cunning, he could not adapt to conditions and make money. An honest, quiet, proud intellectual from a peasant family, who dreams only of drawing.

He eked out a meager income selling milk, but he loved his shop very much because he painted it with lush flowers. And he simply gave the paintings to his customers, and gave some to resellers in the vain hope of gaining some money. It was, to put it mildly, not exactly what the residents of Tiflis wanted to buy.

Due to hunger, Pirosmani fled from Tiflis back to his homeland. He also painted his house in Mirzaani, called a feast, and then wrote four paintings about this feast. Which, as a result, told him how to combine not the most hungry life in the world with painting.

Wedding in Georgia

Gorgeous

Sign for the beer hall "Zagatala"

Niko returned to the big city and began painting signs for dukhans in exchange for food, wine and a little money. Or paint thematic paintings. Neither the artist nor the perfumers had money for canvases and boards, and so he took what was in direct reach - oilcloths from the tables. The oilcloths were mostly black, which largely determined how his painting began to look. And despite the black color of the “canvas,” the colors of his paintings were always pure and strong.

Still lifes, cheerful feasts, scenes of peasant life, animals, forest - these are the themes that inspired Pirosmani. He could never be satisfied with just one thing. When he got tired of painting grapes and meat for the dukhans, he began to paint people. And even come up with strange names for their “clients” - for example, “You don’t need to drink alone.”

Still life

Friends of Begos

Black Lion

Signboard for dukhan

Niko Pirosmani did not have his own family. No wife, no children. But there was love for an actress named Margarita. Love is all-consuming, painful and, unfortunately, unrequited. She did not pay attention to his advances; even her portrait, which the artist called “Actress Margarita,” did not help to win her beloved.

Actress Margarita

A famous song was written about his last attempt to win the heart of an unapproachable beauty in Soviet times. Everyone who was born in the USSR knows it - “A Million Scarlet Roses”.

These were not roses at all, of course, and no one knows exactly how many flowers there actually were, but Niko arrived at Margarita’s house early in the morning on his birthday, accompanied by carts loaded to the brim with a variety of flowers. He covered the entire street in front of the actress’s house so that the pavement was not visible.

Skinny and pale, he waited for her to come out. Margarita left the house, amazed, kissed Niko on the lips and left. There was no happy ending.

Holiday

Firewood seller

Georgian primitivist artist Niko Pirosmani (Niko Pirosmanashvili) was self-taught and a real genius of the people. Despite his considerable popularity during his lifetime, he lived in poverty and often painted paintings for food, and world fame came to him only after his death. Even those people who have never seen his work have probably heard the legend about how he once sold all his property to buy all the flowers in Tbilisi for the woman he loved. So who was the one for whose sake the artist spent the rest of his days in poverty?

Quite little is actually known about the woman who inspired Pirosmani. There is documentary evidence that she actually came to Georgia: in 1905, newspapers published announcements of performances by the singer-chansonnier, dancer and actress of the Parisian theater of miniatures “Belle Vue” Marguerite de Sèvres.

Posters appeared in the city: “News! Belle Vue Theater. Only seven tours of the beautiful Margarita De Sèvres in Tiflis. A unique gift to sing chansons and dance the kek-walk at the same time!” Niko Pirosmani first saw her on a poster and fell in love. It was then that he painted the famous painting “Actress Margarita”. And after he heard her singing at a concert, he decided to take the action that Konstantin Paustovsky and Andrei Voznesensky would later write about.

On his birthday, Pirosmani sold his tavern and all his property, and with the proceeds he bought all the flowers in the city. He sent 9 carts with flowers to the house of Margarita de Sèvres. According to legend, she saw a sea of ​​flowers, came out to the artist and kissed him. However, historians claim that they never met. Niko sent her flowers, and he went on a party with friends.

“A million scarlet roses,” which is sung about in the famous song, is also part of the legend. Of course, no one counted the flowers, and the carts contained not only roses: lilacs, acacias, hawthorns, begonias, anemones, honeysuckle, lilies, poppies, and peonies were unloaded in armfuls directly onto the pavement.

The actress sent him an invitation, which he never used right away, and when the artist finally came to her, Margarita was no longer in the city. According to rumors, she left with a rich admirer and never visited Georgia again.

Paustovsky would later write: “Margarita lived as if in a dream. Her heart was closed to everyone. People needed her beauty. But, obviously, she did not need her at all, although she took care of her appearance and dressed well. Rusting silk and breathing oriental perfumes, she seemed to be the embodiment of mature femininity. But there was something menacing in this beauty of hers, and it seems that she herself understood it.”

In 1968, the Louvre hosted an exhibition of paintings by Niko Pirosmani, who had been dead for 50 years. They say that an elderly woman stood in front of the portrait of the actress Margarita for a long time. Eyewitnesses claim that this was the same Margarita de Sèvres. And Pirosmani’s act still inspires creative people:

Once upon a time there lived an artist alone,
The house also had canvases.
But he loved the actress
The one who loved flowers.
He then sold his house,
Sold paintings and shelter
And I bought it with all my money
A whole sea of ​​flowers.

In the morning you will stand by the window,
Maybe you've gone crazy?
Like a continuation of a dream,
The square is full of flowers...
The soul will get colder,
What kind of rich man is doing this weird thing?
And under the window I barely breathe
The poor artist is standing.

A million, a million, a million red roses
From the window, from the window, from the window you see.
Who is in love, who is in love, who is in love and seriously,
I turned my life into flowers for you.

The meeting was short
The train took her away at night,
But in her life there was
Mad rose song.
The artist lived alone
He suffered a lot of troubles
But in his life there was
A whole square of flowers...

A million, a million, a million red roses
From the window, from the window, from the window you see.
Who is in love, who is in love, who is in love and seriously,
I turned my life into flowers for you.

Few people know that the famous song has a real basis. Once upon a time, Georgian artist Niko Pirosmanishvili fell in love with an actress of a traveling theater. After the first performance, a cart full of freshly cut roses arrived at the theater. The next day the same thing happened again. The surprised actress decided that her fan was a millionaire. She wanted to meet him. However, she was severely disappointed when Niko, dressed in rags, appeared before her, who by that time had pledged all his property for a million scarlet roses.

Some sources mention the singer Margarita, who lived directly in Tiflis. Here and there the theater of miniatures "Belle Vue" is mentioned, in which the famous Frenchwoman Marguerite de Sèvres shone. She sang chansons and danced the cake at the same time. The theater gave only seven performances. But absolutely the prototype of the hero of the song was the Georgian artist Pirosmanishvili. Voznesensky's poem is about him.

Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanishvili (Pirosmanashvili), or Niko Pirosmani, was born in Kakheti in the city of Mirzaani. His father was a gardener. The family lived poorly. Niko tended sheep and helped his parents. He had a brother and two sisters. Little Niko was only 8 years old when he was orphaned. His parents, older brother and sister died one after another. He and sister Peputsa were left alone in the whole wide world. The girl was taken to the village by distant relatives, and Nikolai ended up in a wealthy family of landowners, the Kalantarovs. For many years he lived in the position of half-service, half-relative.

In the early 1890s, Niko managed to get a position on the railroad. He became a conductor. However, he did not like arguing with stowaway passengers at all, and after somehow serving for three years, Piromanishvili quit his hated job. Then he was already addicted to wine.

However, Niko still tries to improve his life and opens a dairy shop. Things are going well. But the partner is more involved in trading. After the story with the roses, the artist finally broke with the shop and became a homeless itinerant painter. Now Pirosmani's paintings are worth millions, but at that time he was paid ridiculously little. He literally worked for food. After the artist's death, the painting depicting Margarita was exhibited in the Louvre.

The song “A Million Roses,” written to the verses of Andrei Voznesensky and first performed by Alla Pugacheva, became one of the most popular songs of the decade. But who served as the prototype for the artist in love or was it a fictitious romantic story?

It turns out that the poem, and then the song, is based on the legend of the famous act of the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani, who had unrequited love for the actress Margarita (probably French), who shone on the theater stage of Tiflis at the very beginning of the 20th century. That's how it was...

This summer morning was no different at first. The sun rose from Kakheti just as inexorably, setting everything on fire, and the donkeys tied to telegraph poles cried in the same way. The morning was still dozing in one of the alleys in Sololaki, the shadow lay on the wooden low houses gray with time. In one of these houses, small windows were open on the second floor, and Margarita was sleeping behind them, covering her eyes with reddish eyelashes. In general, the morning would really be the most ordinary, if you did not know that it was the morning of Niko Pirosmanishvili’s birthday and if it were not for that very morning that carts with a rare and light load had not appeared in a narrow alley in Sololaki. The carts were loaded to the brim with cut flowers sprinkled with water. This made it seem as if the flowers were covered with hundreds of tiny rainbows. The carts stopped near Margarita's house. The growers, talking in low voices, began to remove armfuls of flowers and dump them on the sidewalk and pavement at the threshold. It seemed that the carts brought flowers here not only from all over Tiflis, but also from all over Georgia. The laughter of the children and the cries of the housewives woke Margarita. She sat up in bed and sighed. Whole lakes of smells - refreshing, affectionate, bright and tender, joyful and sad - filled the air. Excited Margarita, still not understanding anything, quickly got dressed. She put on her best, richest dress and heavy bracelets, tidied up her bronze hair and, while dressing, smiled, she didn’t know why. She guessed that this holiday was arranged for her. But by whom? And on what occasion?

At this time, the only person, thin and pale, decided to cross the border of the flowers and slowly walked through the flowers to Margarita’s house. The crowd recognized him and fell silent. It was a poor artist Niko Pirosmanishvili. Where did he get so much money to buy these snowdrifts of flowers? So much money! He walked towards Margarita's house, touching the walls with his hand. Everyone saw how Margarita ran out of the house to meet him - no one had ever seen her in such a blaze of beauty, hugged Pirosmani by her thin, sore shoulders and pressed herself against his old checkman and for the first time kissed Niko firmly on the lips. Kissed in the face of the sun, the sky and ordinary people.

Some people turned away to hide their tears. People thought that great love would always find its way to a loved one, even if it was a cold heart. Niko's love did not conquer Margarita. That's what everyone thought, at least. But it was still impossible to understand whether this was really so? Nico couldn't say it himself. Soon Margarita found herself a rich lover and ran away with him from Tiflis.

The portrait of actress Margarita is a witness to beautiful love. A white face, a white dress, touchingly outstretched arms, a bouquet of white flowers - and white words placed at the actress’s feet... “I forgive white people,” said Pirosmani.

Lion and Sun In 1912, the French artist Michel Le-Dantu came to Georgia at the invitation of the Zdanevich brothers. On a summer evening, “when the sunset was fading and the silhouettes of blue and purple mountains in the yellow sky were losing their color,” the three of them found themselves on the station square and went into the Varyag tavern. Inside they found many paintings by Pirosmani, which surprised them: Zdanevich recalled that Le Dantu compared Pirosmani with the Italian artist Giotto. At that time, there was a myth about Giotto, according to which he was a shepherd, tending sheep, and using coal in a cave he painted pictures, which were later noticed and appreciated. This comparison is rooted in cultural studies. (The scene with the visit to “Varyag” was included in the film “Pirosmani”, where it appears almost at the very beginning) Le Dantu acquired several paintings by the artist and took them to France, where their trace was lost. Kirill Zdanevich (1892 - 1969) became a researcher of Pirosmani’s work and the first collector. Subsequently, his collection was transferred to the Tbilisi Museum, moved to the Museum of Art, and it seems that it is now on display (temporarily) in the Blue Gallery on Rustaveli. Zdanevich ordered his portrait from Pirosmani, which also survived: Pirosmani died, and his paintings were still scattered throughout the dukhans of Tbilisi and the Zdanevich brothers continued to collect them, despite their difficult financial situation. If you believe Paustovsky, then back in 1922 he lived in a hotel, the walls of which were hung with Pirosmani’s oilcloths. Paustovsky wrote about his first meeting with these paintings: I must have woken up very early. The harsh and dry sun lay slantingly on the opposite wall. I looked at this wall and jumped up. My heart began to beat hard and fast. From the wall he looked straight into my eyes - anxiously, questioningly and clearly suffering, but unable to talk about this suffering - some strange beast - tense as a string. It was a giraffe. A simple giraffe, which Pirosman apparently saw in the old Tiflis menagerie. I turned away. But I felt, I knew that the giraffe was looking at me intently and knew everything that was going on in my soul. The whole house was deathly quiet. Everyone was still sleeping. I took my eyes off the giraffe, and it immediately seemed to me that he had come out of a simple wooden frame, was standing next to me and was waiting for me to say something very simple and important that should disenchant him, revive him and free him from many years of attachment to this dry , dusty oilcloth. How to perceive Pirosmani Pirosmani's works cause admiration for some, and misunderstanding for others. He really didn’t know how to draw, didn’t know anatomy, didn’t study painting techniques. His style is called “primitivism”, and here it is useful to know what it is. At the end of the 19th century, Europe was experiencing a scientific and technological revolution and, at the same time, a rejection of technological progress was developing. An ancient myth from ancient times has come to life that in the past people lived in natural simplicity and were happy. Europe became acquainted with the culture of Asia and Africa and suddenly decided that this primitive creativity was ideal natural simplicity. In 1892, the French artist Gauguin left Paris and escaped from civilization in Tahiti to live in nature, among simplicity and free love. In 1893, France drew attention to the artist Henri Rousseau, who also called for learning only from nature. Everything is clear here - Paris was the center of civilization and the weariness of it began there. But in those same years - around 1894 - Pirosmani began to paint. It is difficult to imagine that he was tired of civilization, or that he closely followed the cultural life of Paris. Pirosmani, in principle, was not an enemy of civilization (and his customers, the perfumers, even more so). He could well have gone to the mountains and lived by agriculture - like the poet Vazha Pshavela - but he fundamentally did not want to be a peasant and with all his behavior made it clear that he was a city man. He did not learn to draw, but at the same time he wanted to draw - and he painted. His painting did not have an ideological message, like Gauguin and Rousseau. It turns out that he did not copy Gauguin, but simply painted - and it turned out like Gauguin’s. His genre was not borrowed from someone, but was created by itself, naturally. Thus, he became not a follower of primitivism, but its founder, and the birth of a new genre in such a remote corner as Georgia is strange and almost incredible. Against his will, Pirosmani seemed to prove the correctness of the logic of the primitivists - they believed that true art is born outside of civilization, and so it was born in Transcaucasia. Maybe this is why Pirosmani became so popular among artists of the 20th century. The band Asea soul decided to create a video accompanied by paintings by the great primitivist artist Niko Pirosmani. ----