A million red roses are the artist's prototype. A Million Scarlet Roses is a true story that became the subject of the song. Born on time, but was a stranger

Millions, millions, millions of 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,
He will turn his life into flowers for you.

You've definitely heard this song by Alla Pugacheva more than once or twice. Did you know that the same artist who gave his beloved a million red roses actually existed? This beautiful legend unites two Georgian cities - Tbilisi and Sighnaghi, in which the action of these lines took place.

Artist Niko Pirosmani was born in the small Georgian village of Mirzaani, in the province of Kakheti. These places are known for their famous Alazani Valley wine. Just above this valley rises the town of Sighnaghi, next to which Pirosmani spent his childhood.

Niko Pirosmani's parents died early: the boy was only 8 years old. He was taken in by the Kalantarov family, where his father worked before his death. In adulthood, Pirosmani was very poor: he got a job as a conductor, but constantly skipped work - he was attracted only by painting and nothing more.

There are still many artists in Sighnaghi who sell their works right on the streets of the town. Maybe the air here is special?

One day, in one of the Tbilisi cafes, Pirosmani came across a performance by the French theater "Bel Vue", where he saw her...
Her name was Margarita de Sevres and Pirosmani instantly fell in love. A few days later, several carts, fully loaded with flowers, arrived at the hotel in the Sololaki area, where Margarita lived: there were roses, peonies, lilies, poppies...

Sololaki district, where Niko and Margarita met

In order to make such a gift, Pirosmani had to sell the only thing he had - his dairy shop. After that, he was never able to earn a normal living and spent the rest of his life begging, often spending the night in Tiflis cellars. Margarita de Sèvres soon went back to France and they did not meet until the end of their lives; all that Pirosmani got was the only kiss that Margarita awarded him near that very hotel...

In 1968, 50 years after Pirosmani's death, an exhibition of his works was held at the Louvre. On one of the days of the exhibition, an elderly woman came to the museum and stood for a long time near the painting “Actress Margarita.” As it turned out, the woman was the same Margarita de Sèvres, who at that time was already over 60 years old. The actress asked to photograph her against the background of the canvas, which the Louvre workers did. Margarita had letters with her that Niko Pirosmani often wrote to her after she went back to Paris. Representatives of the Georgian delegation were afraid to take them from Margarita, fearing problems when entering the USSR (it was always easy for us to pass as a spy), so they remained with Margarita. Alas, the end of this story is very sad: we do not know where and when Margarita died, as well as what happened to these letters.

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Million Scarlet roses. History of the song

To the anniversary of Raymond Pauls. On January 12, the composer turns 75!
The history of the song "A Million Scarlet Roses"

The song “A Million Scarlet Roses” was one of the most popular Soviet songs of the 1980s.
This is a timeless masterpiece.
This is how Alla Pugacheva sang it back in 1983 (premiere performance of the song in “New Year’s Attraction”)

Song under the circus big top!!

Music: Raymond Pauls, lyrics: Andrey Voznesensky.

Lyrics
MILLION SCARLET ROSES

Music: Pauls R.

Words: Voznesensky A.

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.

Million, million
Million Scarlet roses
From the window, from the window,
You see from the window.
Who's in love, who's in love
Who is in love, and seriously,
My life for you
Turns into flowers.

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.

Chorus.
………

Meanwhile, the song “A Million Scarlet Roses” was not originally written about a poor artist.

The song was called “Marinya Gave Life to a Girl.” It told about a girl Marina, who sang sad songs to children... The poems were by the poet Leon Briedis, the singer recalls Larisa Mondrus, who now lives in Germany. - In the 70s, Raymond gave this song to me, I performed it in Latvian.
*

Andrey Voznesensky I heard the soulful melody of Raymond Pauls, and wrote my own version of the text, remembering the beautiful legend about the artist Pirosmani.

The poet was inspired by an excerpt from the novel Konstantin Paustovsky “The Tale of Life”, part “Throw to the South", where they talked about the love of a Georgian artist Niko Pirosmanishvili(Pirosmani 1862 - 1918) to the French singer and dancer Margarita de Sèvres.
*
There were many legends about Pirosmani's life, caused by the unusual personality of Niko Pirosmani himself.
Konstantin Paustovsky was in Tiflis ten years after Pirosmani’s death and fell in love with the artist’s paintings written on tin signs. And he talked about it on the pages of his book.

Niko, in love, painted a portrait of “Actress Margarita.”

Legend has it that on his birthday, the artist drove carts loaded with flowers (there were not only roses) to the house of a French woman who came to Georgia on tour, and covered the pavement with them.
*

A few excerpts from the book:

“It seemed that the carts brought flowers here not only from all over Tiflis, but also from all over Georgia...
People...looked at an amazing sight: the arob workers, the most ordinary arob workers, and not the legendary drovers from the Arabian Nights, were loading the entire street with flowers, as if they wanted to fill the houses with them up to the second floor...
“No one dared to be the first to step on this flowering carpet, which reached people to their very knees...”
“What kind of flowers were there! It’s pointless to list them! Late Iranian lilac. In each cup there was hidden a small drop of cold moisture, like a grain of sand... Thick acacia with petals shimmering in silver. Wild hawthorn - its smell was stronger the more rocky the soil was , on which he grew up. Delicate blue speedwell, begonia and many multi-colored anemones. Graceful beauty honeysuckle in pink smoke, red funnels of morning glory, lilies, poppy, always growing on the rocks exactly where even the smallest drop of bird blood fell, nasturtium, peonies
And roses, roses, roses of all sizes, all scents, all colors - from black to white and from gold to pale pink, like the early dawn. And thousands of other flowers."
(K. Paustovsky)

In a short time, the street in front of the hotel was completely covered with flowers. Margarita was touched and even kissed Pirosmani on the lips in front of the townspeople - for the first and last time... Soon her tour in Tiflis ended. She did not accept the artist’s love - she preferred a rich admirer to him and left with him.
*
However, they say that in 1969, when Pirosmani’s painting was exhibited at the Louvre, an elderly woman, very similar to Margarita, came to see her every day...
*
At the end of this story, Paustovsky admits that “Pirosmani’s love story is told in different ways. I repeated one of these stories...”
It is unknown whether this story actually happened in Pirosmani’s life - according to many researchers, he was not familiar with the actress Margarita Sevres, but his famous painting
copied from one of the Tiflis posters...
…………..

You can read this story told by Paustovsky here: http://komi.com/japanese/muz/hyakupiro.html
…….

The first record with a song performed by Alla Pugacheva was released by Melodiya in 1982 with a circulation of 6 million copies. The television premiere of the song took place in the New Year's Attraction program on the night of January 1, 1983.

More interesting facts
The song “A Million Scarlet Roses” is no less popular in Japan than in Russia. Translated into Japanese and performed this song in 1987. Japanese singer and writer - Tokiko Kato. The content is almost the same as ours - once upon a time there was a poor artist, he fell in love with an actress...
It's funny, but many Japanese people are sure that this is a Japanese song! And at the railway station in the city of Fukuyama, the melody of “A Million Scarlet Roses” still sounds when trains approach the station. The city is famous for roses, and this song is a kind of anthem for them.
……………….

Original post and comments at

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

Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanishvili (Pirosmanashvili), or Niko Pirosmani, was born in Kakheti in the city of Mirzaani. When asked about his age, Niko answered with a timid smile: “How should I know?” Time passed in its own way for him and did not correspond at all with the boring numbers on the calendar

Nikolai's father was a gardener, the family lived poorly, Niko tended sheep, helped his parents, he had a brother and two sisters. Village life often appears in his paintings.

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 rich and friendly family of landowners, the Kalantarovs. For many years he lived in the strange position of half-service, half-relative. The Kalantarovs fell in love with the “unrequited” Niko, they proudly showed his drawings to the guests, taught the boy Georgian and Russian literacy and honestly tried to attach him to some craft, but the “unrequited” Niko did not want to grow up...

In the early 1890s, Niko realized that it was time for him to leave his hospitable home and become an adult. He managed to get a real position on the railroad. He became a brakeman. Only the service was not a joy for him. Standing on the step, arguing with stowaways, being distracted from contemplation and pressing the brake, not sleeping and listening carefully to signals is not the best thing for an artist. But no one knew that Niko was an artist. Taking advantage of every opportunity, Niko does not go to work. At this time, Pirosmani also discovers the dangerous charm of oblivion that wine gives... After three years of impeccable service, Piromanishvili quits the railway.

And Niko makes another attempt to become a good citizen. He opens a dairy shop. There is a cute cow on the sign, the milk is always fresh, the sour cream is undiluted - things are going quite well. Pirosmanishvili is building a house for his sister in his native Mirzaani and even covering it with an iron roof. He could hardly have imagined that his museum would one day be in this house. Trading is a completely unsuitable occupation for an artist... Dimitra, Pirosmanishvili’s partner, was mainly involved in the affairs of the shop.

In March 1909, a poster appeared on the stands in the Ortachal Garden: “News! Belle Vue Theater. Only 7 tours of the beautiful Margarita de Sevres in Tiflis. A unique gift to sing chansons and dance the kek-walk at the same time!” The Frenchwoman struck Nicholas on the spot. “Not a woman, a pearl from a precious casket!” - he exclaimed. In Tiflis they loved to tell the story of Niko’s unhappy love, and everyone told it in their own way.
“Niko was feasting with friends and did not go to the actress’s hotel, although she invited him,” said the drunkards. “Margarita spent the night with poor Nikolai, and then she was afraid of too strong a feeling and left!” - the poets asserted. “He loved one actress, but they lived separately,” the realists shrugged. “Pirosmani never saw Margarita, but drew the portrait from a poster,” skeptics smash the legend to dust. With the light hand of Alla Pugacheva, the entire Soviet Union sang a song about “a million scarlet roses” into which the artist turned his life for the sake of the woman he loved.

The romantic story is:
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.

Nikolai finally broke with the shop and became a wandering painter. His last name was increasingly pronounced short - Pirosmani. Dimitra assigned his companion a pension - a ruble a day, but Niko did not always come for money. More than once he was offered shelter and a permanent job, but Niko always refused. Finally, Pirosmani came up with what he thought was a successful solution. He began to paint bright signs for the dukhans over several wine lunches and several dinners. He took part of his earnings in cash to buy paints and pay for lodging. He worked unusually quickly - it took Niko several hours to complete ordinary paintings and two or three days for large works. Now his paintings are worth millions, but during his lifetime the artist received ridiculously little for his work.
More often they paid him with wine and bread. “Life is short, like a donkey’s tail,” the artist liked to repeat, and he worked, worked, worked... He painted about 2,000 paintings, of which no more than 300 survived. Some were thrown away by the ungrateful owners, some burned in the fire of the revolution, some then the paintings were simply painted over

Pirosmani took on any job. “If we don’t work on the lower, how will we be able to do the higher? - he spoke with dignity about his craft, and with equal inspiration he painted signs and portraits, posters and still lifes, patiently fulfilling the wishes of his customers. “They tell me – draw a hare. I wonder why there’s a hare here, but I draw it out of respect.”

Pirosmani never spared money on paints - he bought only the best, English ones, although he used no more than four colors in his paintings. Pirosmani painted on canvas, cardboard, and tin, but he preferred black oilcloth over everything. He painted on it not out of poverty, as is commonly believed, but because the artist really liked this material for its texture and the unexpected possibilities that black color opened up for him. He covered the “black background of black life” with his brush - and men, women, children and animals stood up as if alive. The giraffe looks at us piercingly.

A majestic lion, redrawn from a matchbox, with a fiery gaze.

Roe deer and deer look tenderly and defenselessly over the spectators.

In Tiflis there was a society of Georgian artists, there were art connoisseurs, but for them Pirosmani did not exist. He lived in a parallel world of dukhans, drinking establishments and pleasure gardens, and perhaps the world would not have known anything about him if not for a happy accident.
This happened in 1912. Pirosmani was already 50 years old. The French artist Michel de Lantu and the Zdanevich brothers - the poet Kirill and the artist Ilya - came to Tiflis in search of new impressions. They were young and waiting for a miracle. Tiflis captivated and stunned the young people. One day they saw a sign for the Varyag tavern: a proud cruiser was cutting through the sea waves. The friends went inside and froze, stunned. Shocked, the students began to look for the author of the masterpieces. For several days the Zdanevichs and de Lantu followed Pirosmani's trail. “He was there, but he was gone, but who knows where,” they were told. And finally - the long-awaited meeting. Pirosmani stood on the street carefully writing out the sign “Dairy”. He bowed to the strangers with restraint and continued his work. Only after finishing the order, Niko accepted the invitation of the capital's guests to dine at the nearest tavern.

The Zdanevichs took 13 paintings by Pirosmani to St. Petersburg, organized an exhibition, and they gradually began to talk about him in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and even Paris. Recognition also came “in his own country”: Niko was invited to a meeting of a society of artists, given some money and taken to take photographs. The artist was very proud of his fame, carried a newspaper sheet with him everywhere and showed it to friends and acquaintances with simple-minded joy.

But fame turned its dark side to Niko... An evil caricature of Pirosmani appeared in the same newspaper. He was depicted in a shirt, with bare legs, he was offered to study and in 20 years take part in an exhibition of aspiring artists. It is unlikely that the author of the caricature imagined what effect it would have on the poor artist. Niko was terribly offended, became even more withdrawn, shunned the company of people, saw mockery in every word and gesture - and drank more and more. “This world is not friendly with you, you are not needed in this world,” the artist composed bitter poems

Pirosmani slowly lost his strength, revolutionary turmoil began in Georgia, the dukhan workers went bankrupt and orders became fewer and fewer... The Society of Georgian Artists tried to help Pirosmani, money was collected for him, but the addressee could not be found... In April 1918, Niko became so ill that I couldn't get to my feet. He lay completely alone for three days, in a cold, dark basement, then he was taken to the hospital, where he died. There was nothing left of Pirosmani - not a suitcase with paints, not clothes, not even a grave. Only the paintings remained.

There is probably no person in our country who has not heard the song “A Million Scarlet Roses” performed by Alla Pugacheva. In the 80s it was a hit and anyone could sing it. However, at first, her melody, written by Raymond Pauls, did not contain words about the poor artist. The lyrics of the song were written by the poet Leon Briedis and it was sung in Latvian. Naturally, the title was different - “Marinya gave life to a girl.” Singer Larisa Mondrus recalls how the composer gave her this song in the mid-70s, and she performed it in Latvian.

Years passed and the poet Andrei Voznesensky, having heard the wonderful melody of the song, wrote his own text for it, already in Russian. He was inspired to do this by a story about the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani. The artist was in love with the French dancer and singer Margarita de Sèvres. When she came on tour in Georgia, he covered the pavement in front of her hotel with flowers that barely fit on the cart.

Here are the lyrics of the song “A Million Scarlet Roses”, written by Andrei Voznesensky:

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.

Chorus:
Million, million
Million Scarlet roses
From the window, from the window,
You see from the window.
Who's in love, who's in love
Who is in love, and seriously,
My life for you
Turns into 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 grow cold:
What kind of rich man is doing this weird thing?
And under the window, barely breathing,
The poor artist is standing.
Chorus.

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.
Chorus.

The song “A Million Scarlet Roses” is popular not only in Russia. It has been translated into many languages. In Japan, at the train station in the city of Fukuyama, famous for its roses, the melody of the song is played every time the train approaches the station. We invite you to listen to Million de roses in French. It sounds somehow unusual, new, doesn’t it?