Russian household painting of the 19th century. Genres in Russian painting of the 19th century

Russian painting of the first half of the 19th century.

Russian fine art was characterized by romanticism and realism. However, the officially recognized method was classicism. The Academy of Arts became a conservative and inert institution that hindered any attempts at creative freedom. She demanded strict adherence to the canons of classicism and encouraged painting on biblical and mythological subjects. Young talented Russian artists were not satisfied with the framework of academicism. Therefore, they more often turned to the portrait genre.

The painting embodied the romantic ideals of the era of national upsurge. Having rejected the strict, non-deviating principles of classicism, the artists discovered the diversity and uniqueness of the surrounding world. This was not only reflected in the already familiar genres - portrait and landscape - but also gave impetus to the birth of everyday painting, which became the focus of attention of masters of the second half of the century. For now, primacy remained with the historical genre. It was the last refuge of classicism, however, even here, behind the formally classic “façade,” romantic ideas and themes were hidden.

Romanticism - (French romantisme), ideological and artistic movement in European and American spiritual culture of the late 18th - 1st half. 19th centuries Reflecting disappointment in the results French Revolution the end of the 18th century, in the ideology of the Enlightenment and social progress. Romanticism contrasted utilitarianism and the leveling of the individual with aspirations for boundless freedom and the “infinite,” a thirst for perfection and renewal, and the pathos of personal and civil independence. The painful discord between the ideal and social reality is the basis of the romantic worldview and art. Affirmation of self-worth spiritually creative life personality, depiction of strong passions, depiction of strong passions, spiritualized and healing nature, for many romantics - heroics of protest or struggle are adjacent to the motives of “world sorrow”, “world evil”, the “night” side of the soul, clothed in the forms of irony, grotesque, poetics of two worlds . Interest in the national past (often its idealization), the traditions of folklore and culture of one’s own and other peoples, the desire to create a universal picture of the world (primarily history and literature), the idea of ​​a synthesis of arts found expression in the ideology and practice of Romanticism.

In the fine arts, Romanticism manifested itself most clearly in painting and graphics, less clearly in sculpture and architecture (for example, false Gothic). Most of the national schools of Romanticism in the fine arts emerged in the struggle against official academic classicism.

In the depths of the official state culture there is a noticeable layer of “elite” culture, serving the ruling class (the aristocracy and the royal court) and having a special receptivity to foreign innovations. Enough to remember romantic painting O. Kiprensky, V. Tropinin, K. Bryullov, A. Ivanov and other major artists of the XIX V.

Kiprensky Orest Adamovich, Russian artist. An outstanding master of Russian fine art of romanticism, known as a wonderful portrait painter. In the painting “Dmitry Donskoy on the Kulikovo Field” (1805, Russian Museum) he demonstrated a confident knowledge of the canons of academic historical painting. But early on, the area where his talent was revealed most naturally and effortlessly was portraiture. His first pictorial portrait (“A.K. Schwalbe”, 1804, ibid.), written in the “Rembrandt” manner, stands out for its expressive and dramatic chiaroscuro structure. Over the years, his skill—manifested in the ability to create, first of all, unique, individually characteristic images, selecting special plastic means to highlight this characteristic—has become stronger. Full of impressive vitality: a portrait of a boy A. A. Chelishchev (circa 1810-11), paired images of the spouses F. V. and E. P. Rostopchin (1809) and V. S. and D. N. Khvostov (1814, all - Tretyakov Gallery). The artist increasingly plays with the possibilities of color and light and shadow contrasts, landscape backgrounds, and symbolic details (“E. S. Avdulina,” circa 1822, ibid.). The artist knows how to make even large ceremonial portraits lyrically, almost intimately relaxed (“Portrait of Life Hussar Colonel Evgraf Davydov”, 1809, Russian Museum). His portrait of the young A. S. Pushkin, covered in poetic glory, is one of the best in creating a romantic image. In Kiprensky's work, Pushkin looks solemn and romantic, in an aura of poetic glory. “You flatter me, Orestes,” Pushkin sighed, looking at the finished canvas. Kiprensky was also a virtuoso draftsman who created (mainly using the Italian pencil and pastel technique) examples of graphic skill, often surpassing his painted portraits in their open, excitingly light emotionality. These are everyday types (“The Blind Musician”, 1809, Russian Museum; “Kalmychka Bayausta”, 1813, Tretyakov Gallery), and the famous series of pencil portraits of participants in the Patriotic War of 1812 (drawings depicting E.I. Chaplits, A.R. Tomilova, P. A. Olenina, the same drawing with the poet Batyushkov and others; 1813-15, Tretyakov Gallery and other collections); the heroic beginning here acquires a sincere connotation. A large number of sketches and textual evidence show that the artist throughout his mature period gravitated towards creating a large (in his own words from a letter to A.N. Olenin in 1834), “spectacular, or, in Russian, striking and magical painting ", where the results of European history, as well as the destiny of Russia, would be depicted in allegorical form. “Newspaper Readers in Naples” (1831, Tretyakov Gallery) - in appearance just a group portrait - in fact there is a secretly symbolic response to the revolutionary events in Europe.

However, the most ambitious of Kiprensky's pictorial allegories remained unrealized or disappeared (like the "Tomb of Anacreon", completed in 1821). These romantic searches, however, received a large-scale continuation in the works of K. P. Bryullov and A. A. Ivanov.

The realistic style was reflected in the works of V.A. Tropinina. Tropinin's early portraits, painted in restrained colors (family portraits of Counts Morkov, 1813 and 1815, both in the Tretyakov Gallery), still entirely belong to the tradition of the Age of Enlightenment: the model is the unconditional and stable center of the image in them. Later, the color of Tropinin’s painting becomes more intense, the volumes are usually sculpted more clearly and sculpturally, but most importantly, the purely romantic feeling of the moving element of life insinuatingly grows, of which the hero of the portrait seems to be only a part, a fragment (“Bulakhov”, 1823; “K.G. Ravich", 1823; self-portrait, circa 1824; all three - in the same place). Such is A. S. Pushkin in the famous portrait of 1827 (All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin, Pushkin): the poet, placing his hand on a stack of paper, as if “listening to the muse,” listens to the creative dream surrounding the image an invisible halo. He also painted a portrait of A.S. Pushkin. The viewer is presented with a man who is wise from life experience and not very happy. In the portrait of Tropinin, the poet is charming in a homely way. Some special old-Moscow warmth and comfort emanates from Tropinin’s works. Until the age of 47, he was in captivity. That’s probably why the faces of ordinary people on his canvases are so fresh, so inspired. And the youth and charm of his “Lacemaker” are endless. Most often, V. A. Tropinin turned to the image of people from the people ("The Lacemaker", "Portrait of a Son", etc.).

The artistic and ideological quest of Russian social thought and the expectation of change are reflected in the paintings of K.P. Bryullov “The Last Day of Pompeii” and A. A. Ivanov “The Appearance of Christ to the People.”

A great work of art is the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” by Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852). In 1830, the Russian artist Karl Pavlovich Bryullov visited the excavations of the ancient city of Pompeii. He walked along the ancient pavements, admired the frescoes, and in his imagination that tragic night of August 79 AD arose. e., when the city was covered with hot ash and pumice of the awakened Vesuvius. Three years later, the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” made a triumphant journey from Italy to Russia. The artist found amazing colors to depict the tragedy ancient city, dying under the lava and ash of the erupting Vesuvius. The picture is imbued with high humanistic ideals. It shows the courage of people, their dedication, shown during a terrible disaster. Bryullov was in Italy on a business trip to the Academy of Arts. This educational institution provided good training in painting and drawing techniques. However, the Academy clearly focused on the ancient heritage and heroic themes. Academic painting was characterized by decorative landscape, theatricality of the overall composition. Scenes from modern life and ordinary Russian landscapes were considered unworthy of the artist’s brush. Classicism in painting was called academicism. Bryullov was associated with the Academy with all his creativity.

He had a powerful imagination, a keen eye and a faithful hand - and he gave birth to living creations consistent with the canons of academicism. Truly, with Pushkin's grace, he knew how to capture on canvas both the beauty of a naked human body and the trembling of a sunbeam on a green leaf. His canvases “The Horsewoman,” “Bathsheba,” “Italian Morning,” “Italian Afternoon,” and numerous ceremonial and intimate portraits will forever remain unfading masterpieces of Russian painting. However, the artist has always gravitated towards large historical themes, towards depicting significant events in human history. Many of his plans in this regard were not realized. Bryullov never left the idea of ​​​​creating an epic canvas based on a plot from Russian history. He begins the painting “The Siege of Pskov by the Troops of King Stefan Batory.” It depicts the climax of the siege of 1581, when the Pskov warriors and. The townspeople rush to attack the Poles who broke into the city and throw them behind the walls. But the painting remained unfinished, and the task of creating truly national historical paintings was carried out not by Bryullov, but by the next generation of Russian artists. The same age as Pushkin, Bryullov outlived him by 15 years. He has been ill in recent years. From a self-portrait painted at that time, a reddish man with delicate facial features and a calm, thoughtful gaze looks at us.

In the first half of the 19th century. The artist Alexander Andreevich Ivanov (1806-1858) lived and worked. He devoted his entire creative life to the idea of ​​the spiritual awakening of the people, embodying it in the film “The Appearance of Christ to the People.” For more than 20 years he worked on the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People,” into which he invested all the power and brightness of his talent. On foreground of his grandiose canvas, the courageous figure of John the Baptist, pointing the people to the approaching Christ, catches the eye. His figure is shown in the distance. He has not arrived yet, he is coming, he will definitely come, says the artist. And the faces and souls of those who wait for the Savior brighten and become clear. In this picture he showed, as I. E. Repin later said, “an oppressed people yearning for the word of freedom.”

In the first half of the 19th century. Russian painting includes everyday subjects.

One of the first to turn to him was Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847). He dedicated his work to depicting the life of peasants. He shows this life in an idealized, embellished form, paying tribute to the then fashionable sentimentalism. However, Venetsianov’s paintings “The Threshing Barn”, “At the Harvest. Summer", "On the arable land. Spring”, “Peasant Woman with Cornflowers”, “Zakharka”, “Morning of the Landowner”, reflecting the beauty and nobility of ordinary Russian people, served to affirm the dignity of a person, regardless of his social status.

His traditions were continued by Pavel Andreevich Fedotov (1815-1852). His canvases are realistic, filled with satirical content, exposing the merchant morality, life and customs of the elite of society (“Major’s Matchmaking”, “Fresh Cavalier”, etc.). He began his path as a satirical artist as a guards officer. Then he made funny, mischievous sketches of army life. In 1848, his painting “Fresh Cavalier” was presented at an academic exhibition. It was a daring mockery not only of the stupid, complacent bureaucracy, but also of academic traditions. The dirty robe I wore main character the painting very much resembled an antique toga. Bryullov stood in front of the canvas for a long time, and then said to the author, half-jokingly, half-seriously: “Congratulations, you defeated me.” Other films by Fedotov (“Breakfast of an Aristocrat”, “Major’s Matchmaking”) are also comedic and satirical in nature. His last paintings are very sad (“Anchor, more anchor!”, “Widow”). Contemporaries rightly compared P. A. Fedotov in painting with N. V. Gogol in literature. Exposing the ills of feudal Russia is the main theme of the work of Pavel Andreevich Fedotov.

Russian painting of the second half of the 19th century.

Second half of the 19th century. was marked by the flourishing of Russian fine art. It became truly great art, was imbued with the pathos of the people’s liberation struggle, responded to the demands of life and actively invaded life. In the fine arts, realism was finally established - a truthful and comprehensive reflection of the life of the people, the desire to rebuild this life on the principles of equality and justice.

A conscious turn of new Russian painting towards democratic realism, nationality, and modernity emerged in the late 50s, together with the revolutionary situation in the country, with the social maturation of the intelligentsia of the various classes, with the revolutionary enlightenment of Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, with the people-loving poetry of Nekrasov . In “Essays on the Gogol Period” (in 1856), Chernyshevsky wrote: “If painting is now generally in a rather pitiful position, the main reason Moreover, one must consider the alienation of this art from modern aspirations.” The same idea was presented in many articles in the Sovremennik magazine.

The central theme of art has become the people, not only the oppressed and suffering, but also the people - the creator of history, the people-fighter, the creator of all the best that there is in life.

The establishment of realism in art took place in a stubborn struggle with the official direction, whose representative was the leadership of the Academy of Arts. The academy's leaders instilled in their students the idea that art was higher than life, and they put forward only biblical and mythological themes for the artists' creativity.

But painting was already beginning to join modern aspirations - first of all in Moscow. The Moscow School did not enjoy even a tenth of the privileges of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, but it was less dependent on its ingrained dogmas, and the atmosphere in it was more lively. Although the teachers at the School are mostly academicians, the academicians are secondary and wavering - they did not suppress with their authority as much as at the Academy F. Bruni, the pillar of the old school, who at one time competed with Bryullov’s painting “The Copper Serpent”.

In 1862, the Council of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts decided to equalize the rights of all genres, abolishing the primacy of historical painting. The gold medal was now awarded regardless of the theme of the picture, taking into account only its merits. However, the “liberties” within the walls of the academy did not last long.

In 1863, young artists participating in an academic competition submitted a petition “for permission to freely choose subjects for topics they wish, in addition to the given topic.” The Academy Council refused. What happened next is called the “revolt of the fourteen” in the history of Russian art. Fourteen students of the history class did not want to paint pictures on the proposed theme from Scandinavian mythology - “The Feast in Valgaal” and pointedly submitted a petition to leave the academy. Finding themselves without workshops and without money, the rebels united into a kind of commune - similar to the type of communes described by Chernyshevsky in the novel “What is to be done?” - the Artel of Artists, headed by the painter Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. Artel workers accepted orders for the execution of various artwork, lived in the same house, gathered in a common room for conversations, discussing paintings, reading books.

Seven years later, Artel disbanded. By this time, in the 70s, on the initiative of the artist Grigory Grigorievich Myasoedov, an association arose - the “Association of Artistic Mobile Inserts”, a professional and commercial association of artists who stood on similar ideological positions.

The Association of Itinerants, unlike many later associations, did without any declarations or manifestos. Its charter only stated that the members of the Partnership should manage their own material affairs, not depending on anyone in this regard, and also organize exhibitions themselves and take them to different cities (“move” around Russia) in order to acquaint the country with Russian art . Both of these points were of significant importance, asserting the independence of art from the authorities and the will of artists to widely communicate with people not only in the capital. The main role in the creation of the Partnership and the development of its charter belonged, in addition to Kramskoy, to Myasoedov, Ge - from St. Petersburg, and from Muscovites - Perov, Pryanishnikov, Savrasov.

The Peredvizhniki were united in their rejection of “academicism” with its mythology, decorative landscapes and pompous theatricality. They wanted to depict living life. Leading place Genre (everyday) scenes took over their work. The peasantry enjoyed particular sympathy with the “Itinerants”. They showed his need, suffering, oppressed position. At that time - in the 60-70s. XIX century - the ideological side of art was valued higher than the aesthetic. Only over time did artists remember the intrinsic value of painting.

Perhaps the greatest tribute to ideology was paid by Vasily Grigorievich Perov (1834-1882). Suffice it to recall such of his paintings as “The Arrival of the Chief for Investigation”, “Tea Party in Mytishchi”. Some of Perov’s works are imbued with genuine tragedy (“Troika”, “Old Parents at the Grave of their Son”). Perov painted a number of portraits of his famous contemporaries (Ostrovsky, Turgenev, Dostoevsky).

Some of the paintings of the “Itinerants,” painted from life or inspired by real scenes, have enriched our ideas about peasant life. S. A. Korovin’s film “On the World” shows a clash at a rural gathering between a rich man and a poor man. V. M. Maksimov captured the rage, tears, and grief of the family division. The solemn festivity of peasant labor is reflected in the painting “Mowers” ​​by G. G. Myasoedov.

Portraiture occupied the main place in Kramskoy’s work. He wrote Goncharov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nekrasov. He owns one of the best portraits of Leo Tolstoy. The writer's gaze does not leave the viewer, no matter from what point he looks at the canvas. One of Kramskoy’s most powerful works is the painting “Christ in the Desert.”

The first exhibition of the “Itinerants”, which opened in 1871, convincingly demonstrated the existence of a new direction that took shape throughout the 60s. There were only 46 exhibits (in contrast to the cumbersome exhibitions of the Academy), but carefully selected, and although the exhibition was not deliberately programmatic, the overall unwritten program emerged quite clearly. All genres were represented - historical, everyday life, landscape portraiture - and the audience could judge what new the “Wanderers” brought to them. Only sculpture was unlucky (there was one, and even then a little remarkable sculpture by F. Kamensky), but this type of art was “unlucky” for a long time, in fact, the entire second half of the century.

By the beginning of the 90s, among the young artists of the Moscow school, there were, however, those who worthily and seriously continued the civil itinerant tradition: S. Ivanov with his cycle of paintings about immigrants, S. Korovin - the author of the painting “On the World”, where it is interesting and the dramatic (really dramatic!) conflicts of the pre-reform village are thoughtfully revealed. But they did not set the tone: the entry to the forefront of the “World of Art”, equally far from the Wanderers and from the Academy, was approaching. What did the Academy look like at that time? Her artistic previous rigoristic attitudes had faded away, she no longer insisted on the strict requirements of neoclassicism, on the notorious hierarchy of genres, she was quite tolerant of the everyday genre, she only preferred that it be “beautiful” rather than “peasant” (an example of “beautiful” non-academic works - scenes from the ancient life of the then popular S. Bakalovich). For the most part, non-academic production, as was the case in other countries, was bourgeois salon, its “beauty” was vulgar prettiness. But it cannot be said that she did not put forward talents: G. Semiradsky, mentioned above, and V. Smirnov, who died early (who managed to create the impressive large painting “The Death of Nero”) were very talented; certain things cannot be denied artistic merit paintings by A. Svedomsky and V. Kotarbinsky. Repin spoke approvingly of these artists, considering them bearers of the “Hellenic spirit” in his later years, and Vrubel was impressed by them, just like Aivazovsky, also an “academic” artist. On the other hand, none other than Semiradsky, during the period of reorganization of the Academy, decisively spoke out in favor of everyday genre, pointing to positive example on Perov, Repin and V. Mayakovsky. So there were enough points of convergence between the “Itinerants” and the Academy, and this was understood by the then vice-president of the Academy I. I. Tolstoy, on whose initiative the leading “Itinerants” were called to teach.

But the main thing that does not allow us to completely discount the role of the Academy of Arts, primarily as an educational institution, in the second half of the century is the simple fact that many outstanding artists emerged from its walls. These are Repin, and Surikov, and Polenov, and Vasnetsov, and later - Serov and Vrubel. Moreover, they did not repeat the “revolt of the fourteen” and, apparently, benefited from their apprenticeship.

Respect for drawing, for the constructed constructive form, is rooted in Russian art. The general orientation of Russian culture towards realism became the reason for the popularity of the Chistyakov method - one way or another, Russian painters up to and including Serov, Nesterov and Vrubel honored the “immutable eternal laws of form” and were wary of “dematerialization” or subordination of the colorful amorphous element, no matter how much they loved color.

Among the Peredvizhniki invited to the Academy were two landscape painters - Shishkin and Kuindzhi. It was precisely at that time that the hegemony of landscape began in art both as an independent genre, where Levitan reigned, and as an equal element of everyday, historical, and partly portrait painting. Contrary to the forecasts of Stasov, who believes that the role of landscape will decrease, in the 90s it increased more than ever. The lyrical “mood landscape” prevailed, tracing its ancestry to Savrasov and Polenov.

The Peredvizhniki group made genuine discoveries in landscape painting. Alexey Kondratyevich Savrasov (1830-1897) managed to show the beauty and subtle lyricism of a simple Russian landscape. His painting “The Rooks Have Arrived” (1871) made many contemporaries take a fresh look at their native nature.

Fyodor Aleksandrovich Vasiliev (1850-1873) lived short life. His work, which was cut short at the very beginning, enriched Russian painting with a number of dynamic, exciting landscapes. The artist was especially good at transitional states in nature: from sun to rain, from calm to storm.

The singer of the Russian forest, the epic breadth of Russian nature, became Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898). Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi (1841-1910) was attracted by the picturesque play of light and air. The mysterious light of the moon in rare clouds, red reflections of dawn on the white walls of Ukrainian huts, slanting morning rays breaking through the fog and playing in puddles on a muddy road - these and many other picturesque discoveries are captured on his canvases.

Russian landscape painting of the 19th century reached its peak in the work of Savrasov’s student Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900). Levitan is a master of calm, quiet landscapes. A very timid, shy and vulnerable man, he knew how to relax only alone with nature, imbued with the mood of his favorite landscape.

One day he came to the Volga to paint the sun, air and river expanses. But there was no sun, endless clouds crawled across the sky, and the dull rains stopped. The artist was nervous until he got involved in this weather and discovered the special charm of the lilac colors of Russian bad weather. Since then, the Upper Volga and provincial town of Ples have become firmly entrenched in his work. In those parts he created his “rainy” works: “After the Rain”, “Gloomy Day”, “Above Eternal Peace”. Peaceful evening landscapes were also painted there: “Evening on the Volga”, “Evening. Golden Reach", "Evening Ringing", "Quiet Abode".

In the last years of his life, Levitan drew attention to the work of French impressionist artists (E. Manet, C. Monet, C. Pizarro). He realized that he had a lot in common with them, that their creative searches went in the same direction. Like them, he preferred to work not in the studio, but in the air (in the open air, as the artists say). Like them, he lightened the palette, banishing the dark, earthy colors. Like them, he sought to capture the fleeting nature of existence, to convey the movements of light and air. In this they went further than him, but almost dissolved volumetric forms (houses, trees) in light-air streams. He avoided it.

“Levitan’s paintings require slow viewing,” wrote K. G. Paustovsky, a great connoisseur of his work. “They do not stun the eye. They are modest and precise, like Chekhov’s stories, but the longer you look at them, the sweeter the silence of provincial towns, familiar rivers and country roads becomes.”

In the second half of the 19th century. marks the creative flowering of I. E. Repin, V. I. Surikov and V. A. Serov.

Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) was born in the city of Chuguev, into the family of a military settler. He managed to enter the Academy of Arts, where P. P. Chistyakov, who educated a whole galaxy of famous artists(V. I. Surikova, V. M. Vasnetsova, M. A. Vrubel, V. A. Serova). Repin also learned a lot from Kramskoy. In 1870, the young artist traveled along the Volga. He used numerous sketches brought from his travels for the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga” (1872). She produced strong impression to the public. The author immediately rose to the ranks of the most famous masters.

Repin was a very versatile artist. A number of monumental genre paintings belong to his brush. Perhaps no less impressive than “Barge Haulers” is the “Religious Procession in the Kursk Province”. The bright blue sky, clouds of road dust pierced by the sun, the golden glow of crosses and vestments, the police, ordinary people and cripples - everything fits on this canvas: the greatness, strength, weakness and pain of Russia.

Many of Repin’s films dealt with revolutionary themes (“Refusal of Confession,” “They Didn’t Expect,” “Arrest of the Propagandist”). The revolutionaries in his paintings behave simply and naturally, avoiding theatrical poses and gestures. In the painting “Refusal to Confess,” the man sentenced to death seemed to have deliberately hidden his hands in his sleeves. The artist clearly sympathized with the characters in his paintings.

A number of Repin’s paintings were written on historical themes (“Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan”, “Cossacks composing a letter to the Turkish Sultan”, etc.). Repin created a whole gallery of portraits. He painted portraits of scientists (Pirogov and Sechenov), writers Tolstoy, Turgenev and Garshin, composers Glinka and Mussorgsky, artists Kramskoy and Surikov. At the beginning of the 20th century. he received an order for the painting “The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council.” The artist managed not only to place such a large number of those present on the canvas compositionally, but also to give psychological characteristics to many of them. Among them were such famous figures as S. Yu. Witte, K. P. Pobedonostsev, P. P. Semenov Tian-Shansky. Nicholas II is hardly noticeable in the picture, but is depicted very subtly.

Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (1848-1916) was born in Krasnoyarsk, into a Cossack family. The heyday of his work was in the 80s, when he created his three most famous historical paintings: “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution”, “Menshikov in Berezovo” and “Boyaryna Morozova”.

Surikov knew well the life and customs of past eras, and was able to give vivid psychological characteristics. In addition, he was an excellent colorist (color master). Suffice it to recall the dazzlingly fresh, sparkling snow in the film “Boyaryna Morozova”. If you come closer to the canvas, the snow seems to “crumble” into blue, light blue, and pink strokes. This painting technique, when two or three different strokes merge at a distance and give the desired color, was widely used by the French impressionists.

Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov (1865-1911), son of the composer, painted landscapes, canvases on historical themes, worked as theater artist. But it was primarily his portraits that brought him fame.

In 1887, 22-year-old Serov was vacationing in Abramtsevo, the dacha of philanthropist S.I. Mamontov near Moscow. Among his many children, the young artist was his own man, a participant in their noisy games. One day after lunch, two people accidentally lingered in the dining room - Serov and 12-year-old Verusha Mamontova. They sat at the table on which there were peaches, and during the conversation Verusha did not notice how the artist began to sketch her portrait. The work lasted for a month, and Verusha was angry that Anton (as Serov was called at home) made her sit in the dining room for hours.

At the beginning of September, "Girl with Peaches" was completed. Despite its small size, the painting, painted in rose-golden tones, seemed very “spacious.” There was a lot of light and air in it. The girl, who sat down at the table for what seemed like a minute and fixed her gaze on the viewer, enchanted with her clarity and spirituality. And the whole canvas was covered in a purely childish perception of everyday life, when happiness is not conscious of itself, and a whole life lies ahead.

The inhabitants of the Abramtsevo house, of course, understood that a miracle had happened before their eyes. But only time gives final assessments. It placed “Girl with Peaches” among the best portrait works in Russian and world painting.

The next year, Serov managed to almost repeat his magic. He painted a portrait of his sister Maria Simonović (“Girl Illuminated by the Sun”). The name is a little inaccurate: the girl is sitting in the shade, and the rays of the morning sun illuminate the clearing in the background. But in the picture everything is so united, so united - morning, sun, summer, youth and beauty - that it’s hard to come up with a better name.

Serov became a fashionable portrait painter. Famous writers, actors, artists, entrepreneurs, aristocrats, even kings posed in front of him. Apparently, not everyone he wrote had his heart set on it. Some high-society portraits, despite their filigree execution technique, turned out cold.

For several years Serov taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He was a demanding teacher. An opponent of frozen forms of painting, Serov at the same time believed that creative searches should be based on a solid mastery of the techniques of drawing and pictorial writing. Many outstanding masters considered themselves students of Serov. This is M.S. Saryan, K.F. Yuon, P.V. Kuznetsov, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin.

Many paintings by Repin, Surikov, Levitan, Serov, and the “Wanderers” ended up in Tretyakov’s collection. Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov (1832-1898), a representative of an old Moscow merchant family, was an unusual person. Thin and tall, with a thick beard and a quiet voice, he looked more like a saint than a merchant. He began collecting paintings by Russian artists in 1856. His hobby grew into the main business of his life. In the early 90s. the collection reached the level of a museum, absorbing almost the entire fortune of the collector. Later it became the property of Moscow. The Tretyakov Gallery has become a worldwide famous museum Russian painting, graphics and sculpture.

In 1898, the Russian Museum was opened in St. Petersburg, in the Mikhailovsky Palace (the creation of K. Rossi). It received works by Russian artists from the Hermitage, the Academy of Arts and some imperial palaces. The opening of these two museums seemed to crown the achievements of Russian painting of the 19th century.

Painting in Russia in the 19th century is rich and interesting.

The 19th century is usually called the “golden age of Russian culture.” Russian painting experienced an extraordinary flourishing.

Every now and then a new, bright, original star flashed in the sky, forming constellations of talented artists. Each of them had his own individual handwriting, which was impossible not to recognize or confuse.

Artist from “bearish Russia”

Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (March 24, 1782 - October 17, 1836) Venerable Italian professors of painting at first did not believe that the portraits made in great technology, conveying character, mood, and state of mind of the person depicted do not belong to anyone famous artist Orest Kiprensky from wild Russia.

O. Kiprensky portrait of A. S. Pushkin photo

The mastery of the paintings of Kiprensky, who was the illegitimate son of a landowner and a serf peasant woman, was in no way inferior to such masters as Rubens or Van Dyck. This painter is rightfully considered the best portrait painter of the 19th century. It is a pity that in his own country he was not appreciated as he deserved. The portrait of A.S. Pushkin by Kiprensky was printed in such an edition that, perhaps, no other artist.

Painter of folk life

Aleksey Gavrilovich Venetsianov (February 18, 1780 - December 16, 1847), tired of twelve years of copying academic paintings in the Hermitage, left for the village of Safonkovo, Tver province. He begins to write the life of peasants in his own, unique, manner. Abundance of sunlight, air currents, extraordinary lightness on the canvases of the founder of Russian genre and landscape painting.

Venetsianov. painting On the arable land. Spring photo

Russian open spaces and peace famous paintings“On the arable land. Spring” and “At the Harvest. Summer". “Charlemagne” This was the name given to the students and many contemporaries of the great Russian artist, representative of monumental painting, Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (December 23, 1799 - June 23, 1852). His paintings were called a striking phenomenon in the painting of the 19th century. His most famous painting, “The Last Day of Pompeii,” became a triumph of Russian art. And the aristocratic “Horsewoman” or the entire village girl permeated with sunlight in the painting “Italian Afternoon” excite and awaken romantic feelings.

"Roman Recluse"

Alexander Andreevich Ivanov (July 28, 1806 - July 15, 1858) is a controversial phenomenon in Russian painting. He wrote in a strictly academic manner. The subjects of his paintings are biblical and ancient myths. The most famous of them is “The Appearance of Christ to the People.” This canvas, grandiose in size, still attracts the viewer and does not allow him to simply glance and move away.

A. Ivanov painting The Appearance of Christ to the people photo

This is the genius of this painter, who did not leave his Roman workshop for a quarter of a century, fearing the loss of personal freedom and independence of the artist due to returning to his homeland. He was far ahead of not only his contemporaries, but also subsequent generations with his ability to masterfully convey not only external but also internal content. From Ivanov, the threads of continuity stretch to Surikov, Ge, Vrubel, Korin.

How do people live in the world...

A singer of the everyday genre - this is how one can define the work of the artist Pavel Andreevich Fedotov (July 4, 1815 - November 26, 1852), who lived a very short but very fruitful life. The subjects of all his few paintings are literally one event, often quite short in time. But you can use it to write a whole story not only about the present, but also about the past and the future.

P. Fedotov painting Matchmaking of a Major photo

And this despite the fact that Fedotov’s paintings were never overloaded with details. The mystery of a true talented artist! And sad tragic fate when true recognition comes only after death.

Time for a change

The changes taking place in Russian society in the second half of the 19th century gave rise not only to new political movements, but also to trends in art. Realism is replacing academicism. Having absorbed all the best traditions of their predecessors, the new generation of painters prefers to work in the style of realism.

Rebels

On November 9, 1863, fourteen students of the final year of the Academy of Arts protested against the refusal to allow them to write competition works on free topic, left the Academy. The initiator of the academic revolt was (June 8, 1837 - April 5, 1887) an excellent portrait painter and the author of an unusually deep, philosophical and moral canvas, “Christ in the Desert.” The rebels organized their own “Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.”

Ivan Kramskoy painting Christ in the desert photo

The social composition of the “Peredvizhniki” was very diverse - commoners, sons of peasants and artisans, retired soldiers, rural sextons and minor officials. They sought to serve their people with the power of their talent. Vasily Grigorievich Perov (December 21, 1833 - May 29, 1882) ideologist and spiritual mentor of the Peredvizhniki.

His paintings are full of tragedy from the hard lot of the people, “Seeing the dead,” and at the same time he creates canvases filled with humor and love for nature. (“Hunters at a Rest”) Alexey Kondratievich Savrasov in 1871 painted a small-sized painting “The Rooks Have Arrived” and became the founder of Russian landscape painting. The famous painting hangs in one of the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery and is considered to be a pictorial symbol of Russia.

New era of Russian painting

The world of need, lawlessness and oppression appears before the viewer in the paintings of the great Russian artist (August 5, 1844 - September 29, 1930). His famous “Barge Haulers on the Volga” is not only an image of backbreaking hard work, but also a celebration of the strength and power of the people , his rebellious character. Isaac Ilyich Levitan (August 30, 1860 - August 4, 1900) remains an unsurpassed master of Russian landscape.

Ilya Repin painting Barge Haulers on the Volga photo

A student of Savrasov, he perceives and depicts nature in a completely different way. The abundance of sun, air, endless open spaces at any time of the year on the canvases creates a mood of peace, tranquility and quiet happiness. The soul takes a break from these lovely Russian river bends, water meadows, and autumn forests.

Chroniclers

Historical subjects attracted painters with their drama, intensity of passions, and desire to depict famous historical figures. Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge (February 27, 1831 - June 13, 1894), a unique painter, extremely sincere, an artist, thinker and philosopher, complex, contradictory and very emotional.

Nikolai Ge painting Peter 1 interrogating Tsarevich Alexei photo

He viewed painting as a high moral mission, opening the way to knowledge and history. He believed that the artist is not obliged to give the viewer only pleasure, but must be able to make them cry. What strength, what tragedy, what power of passion in his most famous canvas, depicting the scene of Peter I interrogating his son Alexei!

V. Surikov painting Suvorov's Crossing of the Alps photo

(January 24, 1848 - March 19, 1916) hereditary Cossack, Siberian. He studied at the Academy of Arts at the expense of a Krasnoyarsk merchant and philanthropist. His great talent The painter was fueled by deep patriotism and high citizenship. Therefore, his canvases on a historical theme delight not only with their skill and high technique, but also fill the viewer with pride for the courage and bravery of the Russian people.

V. Vasnetsov painting Knight at the Crossroads photo

(May 15, 1848 - July 23, 1926), a famous painter, sought in his works to combine fairy-tale, mythical subjects with the national features of the Russian people. He called himself a storyteller, an epic writer, and a picturesque guslar. Therefore, both “Alyonushka” and “Three Heroes” have long become symbols of the Russian people and Russia.

The legendary Budenovka and long-brimmed overcoat of the fighters of Budyonny’s First Cavalry Army were invented by the artist Viktor Vasnetsov. The headdress resembled the helmet of ancient Russian warriors, and the overcoat “with conversations” (sewn transverse stripes on the chest) was similar to the Streltsy caftan.

Painting at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries

Russian artistic culture The end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries is usually called the “Silver Age” by analogy with the golden age of Pushkin’s time, when the ideals of bright harmony triumphed in creativity. The Silver Age was also marked by a rise in all areas of culture - philosophy, poetry, theatrical activities, fine arts, but the mood of bright harmony disappeared. Artists, sensitively capturing the mood of fear before the advent of the machine age, the horrors of world war and revolution, are trying to find new forms of expressing the beauty of the world. At the turn of the century, there was a gradual transformation of reality with the help of various artistic systems, a gradual “dematerialization” of form.

The artist and critic A. Benoit wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century that even representatives of his generation “still have to fight because their elders did not want to teach them in their works what can only be taught - the mastery of forms, lines and colors. After all, the content that our fathers insisted on is from God. Our times are also looking for content... but now by content we understand something infinitely broader than their socio-pedagogical ideas.”

Artists of the new generation strove for a new pictorial culture in which the aesthetic principle predominated. Form was proclaimed the mistress of painting. According to the critic S. Makovsky, “the cult of nature was replaced by the cult of style, the meticulousness of near-personality was replaced by bold pictorial generalization or graphic acuity, a strict adherence to plot content was replaced by free eclecticism, with a tendency toward decoration, magic, and the smokiness of historical memories.”

Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov (1865–1911) was the artist who, at the turn of the century, combined the traditional realistic school with new creative quests. He was given only 45 years of life, but he managed to do an extraordinary amount. Serov was the first to look for what is “pleasant” in Russian art, freeing painting from the indispensable ideological content(“Girl with Peaches”), in his creative quests he went through the path from impressionism (“Girl Illuminated by the Sun”) to Art Nouveau (“The Rape of Europa”). Serov was the best portrait painter among his contemporaries; he possessed, in the words of the composer and art critic B. Asafiev, “the magical power of revealing someone else’s soul.”

A brilliant innovator who paved new paths for Russian art was Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (1856–1910). He believed that the task of art is to awaken human soul“from everyday trifles to majestic images.” In Vrubel one cannot find a single subject painting related to earthly, everyday themes. He preferred to “float” above the earth or transport the viewer to the “far away kingdom” (“Pan”, “The Swan Princess”). His decorative panels (“Faust”) marked the formation of a national version of the Art Nouveau style in Russia. Throughout his life, Vrubel was obsessed with the image of the Demon - a certain symbolic embodiment of the restless creative spirit, a kind of spiritual self-portrait of the artist himself. Between “The Seated Demon” and “The Defeated Demon” his entire creative life passed. A. Benois called Vrubel “wonderful fallen angel“,” “for whom the world was endless joy and endless torment, for whom human society was both fraternally close and hopelessly far.”

When the first work of Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov (1862–1942) “The Vision of the Youth Bartholomew” was shown at the exhibition, a deputation of senior Itinerants came to P. Tretyakov, who bought the painting, with a request to refuse to purchase this “unrealistic” canvas for the gallery. The Wanderers were confused by the halo around the monk’s head - an inappropriate, in their opinion, combination of two worlds in one picture: the earthly and the otherworldly. Nesterov knew how to convey the “bewitching horror of the supernatural” (A. Benois), turned his face to the legendary, Christian history of Rus', lyrically transformed nature in wondrous landscapes, full of delight before the “earthly paradise”.

Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin (1861–1939) is called “Russian Impressionist”. The Russian version of impressionism differs from Western European in its greater temperament and lack of methodological rationality. Korovin's talent mainly developed in theatrical and decorative painting. In the field of easel painting, he created relatively few paintings that are striking in their boldness of strokes and subtlety in the development of color (“Cafe in Yalta”, etc.)

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, many artistic associations arose in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Each of them proclaimed their own understanding of “beauty.” What all these groups had in common was a protest against the aesthetic doctrine of the Wanderers. At one pole of the quest was the refined aestheticism of the St. Petersburg association “World of Art,” which arose in 1898. The innovation of Muscovites—representatives of the Blue Rose, the Union of Russian Artists, and others—developed in a different direction.

The artists of the “World of Art” declared freedom from “moral teachings and regulations”, freed Russian art from “ascetic chains”, turned to exquisite, refined beauty artistic form. S. Makovsky aptly called these artists “retrospective dreamers.” The picturesquely beautiful in their art was most often identified with antiquity. The head of the association was Alexander Nikolaevich Benois (1870–1960), a brilliant artist and critic. His artistic taste and mentality gravitated toward the country of his ancestors, France (“The King’s Walk”). The greatest masters of the association were Evgeny Evgenievich Lanceray (1875–1946) with his love for the decorative splendor of past eras (“Elizaveta Petrovna in Tsarskoye Selo”), the poet of old St. Petersburg Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky (1875–1957), the mocking, ironic and sad Konstantin Andreevich Somov ( 1869–1939), “wise poisonous esthete” (according to K. Petrov-Vodkin) Lev Samoilovich Bakst (1866–1924).

If the innovators of the “World of Art” took a lot from European culture, then in Moscow the process of renewal proceeded with an orientation towards national, folk traditions. In 1903, the “Union of Russian Artists” was established, which included Abram Efimovich Arkhipov (1862–1930), Sergei Arsenievich Vinogradov (1869–1938), Stanislav Yulianovich Zhukovsky (1875–1944), Sergei Vasilyevich Ivanov (1864–1910), Philip Andreevich Malyavin (1869–1940), Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich (1874–1947), Arkady Aleksandrovich Rylov (1870–1939), Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon (1875–1958). The leading role in this association belonged to Muscovites. They defended the rights of national themes, continued the traditions of Levitan’s “mood landscape” and Korovin’s sophisticated colorism. Asafiev recalled that at the exhibitions of the Union there was an atmosphere of creative cheerfulness: “light, fresh, bright, clear”, “the picturesque breathed everywhere”, “not rational inventions, but the warmth, the intelligent vision of the artist” prevailed.

In 1907, an exhibition of the association with the intriguing title “ Blue Rose" The leader of this circle was Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov (1878–1968), who was close to the image of an unsteady, elusive world filled with otherworldly symbols (“Still Life”). Another prominent representative of this association, Viktor Borisov-Musatov (1870–1905), was called “Orpheus of elusive beauty” by critics for his desire to capture the vanishing romance of landscape parks with ancient architecture. His paintings are inhabited by strange, ghostly images of women in ancient robes - like elusive shadows of the past (“Pond”, etc.).

At the turn of the 10s of the twentieth century, a new stage in the development of Russian art began. In 1912, an exhibition of the “Jack of Diamonds” society took place. “Valve of Diamonds” Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky (1876–1956), Alexander Vasilyevich Kuprin (1880–1960), Aristarkh Vasilyevich Lentulov (1841–1910), Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov (1881–1944), Robert Rafailovich Falk (1886–1958) turned to experience the latest trends in French art (Cézanneism, Cubism, Fauvism). They attached special importance to the “tangible” texture of colors and their pathetic sonority. The art of the “Jack of Diamonds,” as D. Sarabyanov aptly put it, has a “heroic character”: these artists were in love not with the foggy reflections of the otherworldly, but with the juicy and viscous earthly flesh (P. Konchalovsky. “Dry Paints”).

The work of Marc Zakharovich Chagall (1887–1985) stands apart among all the movements of the beginning of the century. With an amazing scope of imagination, he adopted and mixed all possible “-isms”, developing his own, unique style. His images are immediately recognizable: they are phantasmogorical, outside the power of gravity (“The Green Violinist”, “Lovers”).

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first exhibitions of ancient Russian icons “revealed” by restorers took place, and their pristine beauty became a real discovery for artists. The motifs of ancient Russian painting and its stylistic techniques were used in his work by Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin (1878–1939). In his paintings, the refined aesthetics of the West and the ancient Russian artistic tradition miraculously coexist. Petrov-Vodkin introduced a new concept of “spherical perspective” - the elevation of everything that appears on earth into a planetary dimension (“Bathing the Red Horse”, “Morning Still Life”).

Artists of the early twentieth century, as Makovsky put it, were looking for “rebirth at the very springs” and turned to the tradition of primitive folk art. The largest representatives of this trend were Mikhail Fedorovich Larionov (1881–1964) and Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (1881–1962). Their works are filled with gentle humor and magnificent, finely-tuned color perfection.

In 1905, the famous figure Silver Age, the founder of the “World of Art” S. Diaghilev uttered prophetic words: “We are witnesses of the greatest historical moment of results and endings in the name of a new unknown culture that will arise by us, but will sweep us away...” Indeed, in 1913 Larionov’s “Luchism” was published - the first manifesto of the non-objective in art in our art, and a year later the book “On the Spiritual in Art” by Vasily Vasilyevich Kandinsky (1866–1944) was published. On historical scene the avant-garde emerges, freeing painting “from material shackles” (V. Kandinsky). The inventor of Suprematism Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1878–1935) explained this process this way: “I transformed myself into a zero form and caught myself from the pool of rubbish academic art<…>got out of the circle of things<…>in which the artist and the forms of nature are contained.”

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, Russian art followed the same path of development as Western European art, only in a more “compressed” form. According to the critic N. Radlov, the pictorial content “first pushed aside and then destroyed the other content of the picture.<…>In this form, the art of painting merged into a system that undoubtedly had deep analogies with music.” Artistic creativity began to be reduced to an abstract play with colors, the term “easel architecture” appeared. Thus, the avant-garde contributed to the birth of modern design.

Makovsky, who closely observed the artistic process of the Silver Age, once remarked: “Democratization was not in fashion on aesthetic towers. The promoters of refined Europeanism did not care about the uninitiated crowd. Indulging in their superiority... the “initiates” squeamishly avoided the streets and the fugitive factory back streets.” Most of the leaders of the Silver Age did not notice how the world war escalated into the October Revolution...

APOLLINARY VASNETSOV. Messengers. Early morning in the Kremlin.1913. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Apollinary Vasnetsov was an artist-archaeologist, an expert on old Moscow. this work is part of the “Time of Troubles” series, which tells what Moscow might have looked like during the famous historical events beginning of the 17th century. Vasnetsov creates a kind of archaeological reconstruction of the Kremlin, which at that time was closely built up with stone and wooden chambers of the court nobility, filling it with the poetic atmosphere of old Moscow. Riders rush along the narrow wooden pavement of the morning Kremlin, which has not yet woken up from sleep, and their haste is dissonant with the frozen, “enchanted” kingdom of picturesque towers with elegant porches, small chapels and painted gates. The messengers look back, as if someone is pursuing them, and this gives rise to a feeling of anxiety, a premonition of future misfortunes.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. The Virgin and Child.1884–1885. Image in the iconostasis of the St. Cyril Church, Kyiv

Vrubel worked on the painting of the St. Cyril Church under the guidance of the scientist and archaeologist A. Prakhov. Most of the planned compositions remained only in sketches. One of the few realized images, “The Virgin and Child,” was painted during the artist’s stay in Venice, where he became acquainted with the monumental grandeur of Byzantine temple paintings. Sensitively grasping the main stylistic foundations of the Byzantine tradition, Vrubel fills the image of the Mother of God with sorrowful suffering and at the same time intense will. In the eyes of the Baby Jesus there is an inhuman insight into his own destiny. The artist M. Nesterov wrote that Vrubel’s Mother of God “is unusually original, attractive, but the main thing is a wonderful, strict harmony of lines and colors.”

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Demon sitting.1890. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

According to Vrubel, “Demon means “soul” and personifies the eternal struggle of the restless human spirit, seeking reconciliation of the passions overwhelming it, knowledge of life and not finding an answer to its doubts either on earth or in heaven.” A mighty Demon sits on the top of a mountain in the middle of mysterious, endless outer space. Hands are closed in languid inaction. A mournful tear rolls down from his huge eyes. To the left, an alarming sunset blazes in the distance. Fantastic flowers made of multi-colored crystals seem to bloom around the powerfully sculpted figure of the Demon. Vrubel works like a monumentalist - not with a brush, but with a palette knife; he paints with broad strokes that resemble cubes of mosaic smalt. This painting became a kind of spiritual self-portrait of the artist, endowed with unique creative abilities, but unrecognized and restless.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Portrait of S. I. Mamontov.

Savva Ivanovich Mamontov (1841–1918), a famous industrialist and philanthropist, did a lot to establish and support Vrubel. Vrubel lived in his hospitable house after moving from Kyiv to Moscow, and subsequently became an active participant in the Abramtsevo circle, which was formed on Mamontov’s Abramtsevo estate. In the tragic intonations of the portrait there is a prophetic foresight of Mamontov’s future fate. In 1899, he was accused of embezzlement during the construction of the Severodonetsk railway. The court acquitted him, but the industrialist was ruined. In the portrait, he seems to have recoiled in fear, pressed himself into a chair, his piercingly anxious face tense. An ominous black shadow on the wall carries a premonition of tragedy. The most striking “visionary” detail of the portrait is the figurine of a mourner above the head of the patron.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Portrait of K. D. Artsybushev.1897. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Konstantin Dmitrievich Artsybushev was a process engineer, builder railways, relative and friend of S.I. Mamontov. In the spring of 1896, Vrubel lived in his house on Sadovaya Street; It was probably then that this portrait was painted, which wonderfully conveys the image of a man of intellectual labor. Artsybushev’s concentrated face bears the stamp of intense thoughts, the fingers of his right hand rest on the page of the book. The office environment is depicted strictly and realistically. In this portrait, Vrubel appears as a brilliant student of the famous teacher of the Academy of Arts P. Chistyakov - an expert in superbly drawn forms and architecturally verified composition. Only in the broad strokes of the brush, emphasizing the generalized monumentalism of the form, is the originality of Vrubel recognized - a virtuoso stylist and monumentalist.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles.Decorative panel for a Gothic office in the house of A.V. Morozov in Moscow. 1896. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

For the office in the house of A.V. Morozov, built according to the design of the architect F.O. Shekhtel in 1895 on Vvedenensky (now Podsosensky) Lane in Moscow, Vrubel made several panels, the subjects for which were the motives of the tragedy of I.-V. Goethe's "Faust" and the opera of the same name by C. Gounod. Initially, the artist executed three narrow vertical panels “Mephistopheles and the Disciple”, “Faust in the Study” and “Margarita in the Garden” and one large, almost square, “Faust and Margarita in the Garden”. Later, already in Switzerland, he created the panel “The Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles,” which was placed above the door of a Gothic office.

This work by Vrubel is one of the most perfect works of Russian modernism. The artist flattens the space, stylizes the lines, turning them into marvelous ornamental patterns, united by a single rhythm. The colorful range is reminiscent of a slightly faded antique tapestry shimmering with precious silver.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Pan.

The hero of ancient myths, the goat-footed god of forests and fields, Pan, fell in love with a beautiful nymph and rushed after her, but she, not wanting to get to him, turned into a reed. From this reed Pan made a pipe, which he never parted with, playing a gentle, sad melody on it. In Vrubel’s painting, Pan is not at all scary - he resembles the Russian crafty goblin. The embodiment of the spirit of nature, he himself seems to be created from natural material. His gray hair resembles whitish moss, his goat's legs covered with long hair are like an old stump, and the cold blue of his sly eyes seem to be saturated with the cool water of a forest stream.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Portrait of N. I. Zabela-Vrubel.1898. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The singer Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela-Vrubel (1868–1913) was not only the wife, but also the muse of the great master. Vrubel was in love with her voice - a beautiful soprano, designed almost all the performances of the Russian Private Opera of S.I. Mamontov with her participation, and designed costumes for stage characters.

In the portrait she is depicted in a dress designed by Vrubel in the “Empire” style. The complex multi-layered draperies of the dress shine through one another and billow with numerous folds. The head is crowned with a fluffy hat-cap. Moving, sharp long strokes transform the plane of the canvas into a lush fantasy tapestry, so that the singer’s personality escapes in this beautiful decorative flow.

Zabela took care of Vrubel until his death and constantly visited him in a psychiatric hospital.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Swan Princess.

This painting is a stage portrait of N. Zabela in the role of the Swan Princess in N. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan.” She swims past us on the gloomy sea and, turning around, casts an alarming farewell glance. A metamorphosis is about to take place before our eyes - the beauty’s thin, curved hand will turn into a long swan neck.

Vrubel himself came up with an amazingly beautiful costume for the role of the Swan Princess. The luxurious crowns sparkle in the silver lace gems, rings shine on the fingers. The pearlescent colors of the painting are reminiscent of the musical motifs of the sea from Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas. “I can hear the orchestra endlessly, especially the sea.

Every time I find new charm in it, I see some fantastic tones,” said Vrubel.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. By the night.1900. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The painting was painted based on impressions from walks in the steppe near the Ukrainian farm of Pliski, where Vrubel often visited his wife’s relatives. The mystery of the night turns an ordinary landscape into a fantastic vision. Like torches, the red heads of thistles flash in the darkness, its leaves intertwine, reminiscent of an exquisite decorative pattern. The reddish glow of the sunset turns the horses into mythical creatures, and the shepherd - into satire. “Dear young man, come to study with me. I will teach you to see the fantastic in reality, like photography, like Dostoevsky,” the artist said to one of his students.

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Lilac.1900. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Vrubel also found this motif at the Pliski farm. The image of a lush lilac bush was born from field observations, but in the picture it is transformed into a mysterious purple sea that trembles and shimmers in many shades. The sad girl hiding in the thickets looks like some kind of mythological creature, a lilac fairy who, appearing at dusk, will disappear in a moment in these lush scatterings of strange flowers. Probably, O. Mandelstam wrote about this painting by Vrubel: “The artist depicted a deep fainting lilac for us...”

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Bogatyr.1898–1899. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Initially, Vrubel called the painting “Ilya Muromets”. The main, invincible hero of the epic epic is depicted by the artist as the embodiment of the mighty elements of the Russian land. The powerful figure of the hero seems to be carved from a stone rock, shimmering with the edges of precious crystals. His heavy horse, like a mountain ledge, “grew” into the ground. Young pines circle around the hero in a round dance, about which Vrubel said that he wanted to express the words of the epic: “A little higher than a standing forest, A little lower than a walking cloud.” Far away, behind dark forest, the glow of sunset is blazing - night is falling on the earth with its deceptions, mysteries and anxious expectations...

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. Pearl.

“Everything is decorative and only decorative,” - this is how Vrubel formulated the principle of natural form-creation. He believed that the artist treats nature as a partner in form creation; he learns to create from it.

Two mysterious girls, naiad goddesses of streams and rivers, swim in a continuous round dance among the mother-of-pearl foam of a pearl and a scattering of precious crystals, in a silvery haze filled with a flickering radiance of reflections. It seems that this pearl reflects the entire Universe with the circular motion of the planets, the sparkle of many distant stars in the cosmic infinity of space...

With his arms crossed above his head, the Demon flies into a bottomless abyss, surrounded by royal peacock feathers, amid a majestic panorama of distant mountains... The deformation of the figure emphasizes the tragic fracture of a dying, broken soul. On the edge mental disorder, Vrubel rewrote the Demon’s face, distorted by fear of the abyss, many times when the painting was already exhibited at the exhibition. According to the recollections of contemporaries, its color had a daring, defiant beauty - it sparkled with gold, silver, cinnabar, which became very dark over time. This picture is a kind of finale to the creative life of Vrubel, whom his contemporaries called “the crashed demon.”

MIKHAIL VRUBEL. The demon is defeated.Fragment

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. Hermit.1888–1889. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Nesterov was a mystically gifted person. In the world of Russian nature, he reveals the eternal beginning of Divine beauty and harmony. A very old man, a resident of the monastery desert (a remote secluded monastery), wanders early in the morning along the shore of the northern lake. The quiet autumn nature surrounding it is imbued with sublime, prayerful beauty. The mirror-like surface of the lake shines, the slender silhouettes of fir trees darken among the withered grass, revealing the smooth outlines of the shores and the distant slope. It seems that in this amazing “crystal” landscape there lives some kind of secret, something incomprehensible to earthly vision and consciousness. “In the hermit itself such a warm and deep trait of a peaceful person was found.<…>In general, the picture exudes amazing warmth,” wrote V. Vasnetsov.

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. Vision to the youth Bartholomew.1889–1890. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The idea for the painting arose from the artist in Abramtsevo, in places covered with the memory of the life and spiritual feat of Sergius of Radonezh. The life of Sergius (before he was tonsured his name was Bartholomew) says that as a child he was a shepherd. One day, while searching for missing horses, he saw a mysterious monk. The boy timidly approached him and asked him to pray that the Lord would help him learn to read and write. The monk fulfilled Bartholomew's request and predicted for him the fate of the great ascetic, the founder of monasteries. It’s as if two worlds meet in the picture. The fragile boy froze in awe of the monk, whose face we do not see; A halo shines above his head - a symbol of belonging to another world. He hands the boy an ark that looks like a model of a temple, foretelling his future path. The most remarkable thing in the picture is the landscape, in which Nesterov collected all the most typical features of the Russian plain. Each blade of grass is painted by the artist in such a way that one can feel his delight at the beauty of God's creation. “It seems as if the air is clouded with a thick Sunday gospel, as if a wondrous Easter song is flowing over this valley” (A. Benois).

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. Great tonsure.1897–1898. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Tenderly spiritual young women in white headscarves, who have decided to devote themselves to God, move surrounded by nuns in a leisurely procession in the lap of beautiful nature. They hold large candles in their hands, and they themselves are likened to burning candles - their snow-white scarves “flare up” with a white flame against the background of the monastic robes. IN spring landscape everything breathes God's grace. The measured movement of women is repeated in the vertical rhythm of thin young birch trees, in the wavy outlines of distant hills. Nesterov wrote about this picture: “The theme is sad, but the regenerating nature, the Russian north, quiet and delicate (not the bravura south), makes the picture touching, at least for those who have a tender feeling...”

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. Silence.1903. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Boats with monks glide along the bright northern river among the forest banks. The enchanting silence of “primordial” nature reigns all around. It seems that time has stopped - these same boats sailed along the river many centuries ago, are sailing today and will sail tomorrow... This amazing landscape of “Holy Rus'” contains the entire philosophy of Nesterov, who guessed in it the religious depth of comprehension of the world, connecting, in the words criticism of S. Makovsky, “the spirituality of Slavic paganism with the dream of pagan deification of nature.”

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. "Amazon".1906. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The portrait was painted in Ufa, in the artist’s native place, among nature, which he reverently loved. The artist’s daughter Olga in an elegant black riding suit (amazon) poses in the clear evening silence of the sunset, against the backdrop of the light mirror of the river. Before us is a beautiful frozen moment. Nesterov paints his beloved daughter in the bright time of her life - young and spiritual, the way he would like to remember her.

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. The youth of St. Sergius.1892–1897. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

This painting became a continuation of the cycle of paintings by Nesterov about the life of St. Sergius of Radonezh. In the wilderness of the forest, young Sergius, pressing his palms to his chest, as if listening to the breath of spring nature. The life of Sergius of Radonezh tells that neither birds nor animals were afraid of him. At the saint’s feet, like an obedient dog, lies the bear with whom Sergius shared his last piece of bread. From the forest thicket one can hear the melodious murmur of a stream, the rustle of leaves, the singing of birds... “The wonderful aromas of moss, young birch trees and fir trees merge into a single chord, very close to the mystical smell of incense,” admired A. Benoit. It is no coincidence that the artist initially called this painting “Glory to the Almighty on earth and in heaven.”

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. In Rus' (Soul of the People).1914–1916. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The painting shows collective image Russian people on the path to God. Along the bank of the Volga, near the Tsarev Kurgan, people are marching, among whom we recognize many historical characters. Here is the Tsar in ceremonial vestments and Monomakh’s hat, and L. Tolstoy, and F. Dostoevsky, and the philosopher V. Solovyov... Each of the people, according to the artist, follows his own path of comprehending the Truth, “but everyone goes to the same thing, alone only in a hurry, others hesitating, some ahead, others behind, some joyfully, without doubt, others serious, thinking...” The semantic center of the picture becomes a fragile boy walking in front of the procession. His appearance brings to mind the words of the Gospel:

“Unless you become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). “As long as the picture satisfies me in many ways, there is life, action, the main idea seems clear (the Gospel text: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”),” the artist wrote.

MIKHAIL NESTEROV. Philosophers.1917. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Nesterov was connected by personal friendship with Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky (1882–1937) and Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov (1871–1944), the greatest thinkers, representatives of the heyday of Russian philosophy of the early twentieth century. He read their books, attended meetings of the Religious and Philosophical Society named after. V. Solovyov, where they performed, shared their spiritual guidelines. This portrait was painted in Abramtsevo on the eve of revolutionary changes in Russia. The theme of thinking about the future path of the Russian people sounded all the more insistently in him. Bulgakov recalled: “This was, according to the artist’s plan, not only a portrait of two friends... but also a spiritual vision of the era. For the artist, both faces represent the same comprehension, but in different ways, one of them as a vision of horror, the other as a world of joy, victorious overcoming.<…>It was an artistic clairvoyance of two images of the Russian apocalypse, on this side and on the other side of earthly existence, the first image in struggle and confusion (and in my soul it related specifically to the fate of my friend), the other to a defeated accomplishment...”

NICHOLAS ROERICH. Messenger. "Rise up generation after generation."1897. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Roerich was called the creator of a new genre - the historical landscape. The picture immerses the viewer in hoary antiquity not through the enticing plot, but through the special, almost mystical mood of historical time. IN moonlit night A boat floats along the dark surface of the river. There are two people in the boat: a rower and an old man, immersed in heavy thoughts. In the distance is an alarming, homeless shore with a palisade and a wooden fort on a hill. Everything is filled with the peace of the night, but in this peace there seems to be tension, anxious anticipation.

NICHOLAS ROERICH. Overseas guests.

The picture “breathes” the fabulous mythology of theatrical productions, in which Roerich the decorator participated a lot. Decorated boats float along the wide blue river, as if fairy-tale ships are flying across the sky, accompanied by the flight of white seagulls. From the ship's tents, overseas guests look out over foreign shores - a harsh northern land with settlements on top of the hills. The painting combines the enchanting charm of a fairy tale with historical details, the conventional decorativeness of color with a realistic spatial structure.

NICHOLAS ROERICH. Slavs on the Dnieper.1905. Cardboard, tempera. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Roerich, “bewitched” by the era of Slavic paganism, was unusually sensitive to comprehending its special, alarmingly mystical “aroma.” The landscape “Slavs on the Dnieper” is built according to the principles of a decorative panel: the artist flattens the space, sets the rhythm with repeating sails, boats, and huts. The color scheme is also conditional - it carries the emotional mood of the image, and not the real color of the object. Brown-red sails and light ocher huts stand out against the backdrop of lush greenery; People's shirts sparkle like the sun's glare.

NICHOLAS ROERICH. Panteleimon the healer.1916. Tempera on canvas. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The holy elder Panteleimon in Roerich’s painting is inseparable from the majestic deserted landscape. Green hills strewn with ancient stones draw the viewer into a dream of hoary antiquity, into memories of the origins people's fate. According to the critic S. Makovsky, in the style of Roerich’s drawing “one can feel the pressure of a stone chisel.” Sophistication color combinations, with the subtle design of individual details, the picture resembles a luxurious velvet carpet.

NICHOLAS ROERICH. Heavenly fight.1912. Cardboard, tempera. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Over the endless harsh northern landscape, where ancient dwellings nestle among lakes and hills, clouds crowd like grandiose ghosts. They run at each other, collide, retreat, making room for the bright blue sky. The celestial element as the embodiment of the divine spirit has always attracted the artist. Its land is ethereal and illusory, and true life occurs in the mysterious heights of heaven.

ANDREY RYABUSHKIN. Russian women XVII century in the church.1899. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Against the background of bright patterned frescoes and colored stained glass windows, women stand opposite the iconostasis invisible to the viewer. Their heavily whitewashed, rouged mask faces express a ritual reverent silence, and their elegant clothes echo the jubilant colors of church wall paintings. There is a lot of scarlet color in the picture: the carpeting of the floor, clothes, ribbons in the hair... Ryabushkin introduces us to the very essence of the ancient Russian understanding of life and beauty, forcing us to immerse ourselves in the style of the era - the ritual ritualism of behavior, the marvelous pattern of temples, the “Byzantine” abundant elegance of clothing. This picture is “an amazing document that reveals about Alexei Mikhailovich’s Russia a hundred times more than the most detailed work on history” (S. Makovsky).

ANDREY RYABUSHKIN. Wedding train in Moscow (XVII century).1901. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Evening twilight has fallen on the city, one-story wooden huts stand out as dark silhouettes against the silver-blue sky, the last rays of the setting sun gild the dome of the white stone church. A holiday bursts into the dull, monotonous everyday life of a Moscow street: a scarlet carriage with newlyweds is rushing along a muddy spring road. Like good fellows from a fairy tale, she is accompanied by smart walkers in red caftans and bright yellow boots and riders on thoroughbred trotters. Muscovites immediately rush about their business - respectable fathers of the family, modest beautiful girls. In the foreground, an elegant, rouged young beauty with an anxiously dissatisfied face hastily turned the corner, away from the wedding procession. Who is she? Rejected bride? Her psychologically acute image brings into this semi-fairy-tale dream a feeling real life with passions and problems that remain unchanged at all times.

ANDREY RYABUSHKIN. Moskovskaya street of the 17th century on a holiday.1895. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Ryabushkin’s painting is not a genre sketch on the theme of ancient life, but a painting-vision, a waking dream. The artist talks about the past as if it were familiar to him. There is no pompous theatricality and production effects in it, but there is an admiration of the virtuoso stylist for the “gray-haired antiquity”, based on deep knowledge folk costume, ancient utensils, ancient Russian architecture.

SERGEY IVANOV. Arrival of foreigners. 17th century1902. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The artist boldly involves the viewer in the flow of “living” life. The arrival of foreigners aroused keen curiosity in the snow-covered Moscow square. Probably a Sunday or holiday is depicted, because in the distance, near the church, a lot of people are crowding. The foreigner emerging from the elegant carriage looks with interest at the picture of bizarre Russian life that has opened up to him. A respectable boyar bows to him at the waist; on the left, a man in rags froze in mute amazement. In the foreground, a respectable “Muscovite” looks restlessly and angrily at the arriving stranger and resolutely hurries to take his young beautiful wife “out of harm’s way.”

SERGEY IVANOV. On the road. Death of a migrant.1889. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Painting “On the road. Death of a Migrant” is one of the best in the artist’s series of works dedicated to the tragedy of landless peasants who, after the land reform of 1861, rushed to Siberia in search of a better life. Along the way, they died in hundreds, experiencing terrible hardships. S. Glagol said that Ivanov walked dozens of miles with the settlers “in the dust of Russian roads, in the rain, bad weather and scorching sun in the steppes... many tragic scenes passed before his eyes...”. The work was executed in the best traditions of critical realism: like a poster, it was supposed to appeal to the conscience of those in power.

ABRAM ARKHIPOV. Laundresses.Late 1890s. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Arkhipov is a typical representative of the Moscow school with its pictorial freedom and novelty of subjects. He was fond of the broad brushstroke technique of the Scandinavian artist A. Zorn, which allowed him to convincingly convey in his painting the damp atmosphere of the laundry, the clouds of steam, and the very monotonous rhythm of the women’s grueling work. Following “The Fireman” N. Yaroshenko, in Arkhipov’s film, authoritatively declares himself new hero in art - a working proletarian. The fact that the painting depicts women - exhausted, forced to do hard physical work for pennies - gave the painting a special relevance.

ABRAM ARKHIPOV. Away (Spring Festival).1915. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The main character of this picture is the sun. Its rays burst into the room from the open window, “igniting” the joyful, spring flame of the bright red clothes of young peasant women, who, sitting in a circle, are cheerfully gossiping about something. “Academician Arkhipov painted a wonderful picture: a hut, a window, the sun hits the window, women are sitting, the Russian landscape is visible through the window. Until now, I have not seen anything like this either in Russian or foreign painting. You can't tell what's going on. The light and the village are wonderfully conveyed, as if you had come to visit some dear people, and when you look at the picture, you become young. The picture was painted with amazing energy, with an amazing rhythm,” K. Korovin admired.

PHILIP MALYAVIN. Vortex.1905. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The dance of peasant women in elegant sundresses is turned into a sonorous decorative panel. Their wide, multi-colored skirts swirl in a whirlwind motion, and their red sundresses burst into flames, creating an enchanting spectacle. The tanned faces of women are not accentuated by the artist - he boldly “cuts off” them with the picture frame, but in their excellent realistic drawing one can see diligent student I. Repin. “Whirlwind” amazed his contemporaries with its “rollingness”: the daring brightness of the colors, the boldness of the composition and the bravura of wide, impasto strokes.

SERGEY VINOGRADOV. In summer.1908. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Vinogradov, one of the founders of the Union of Russian Artists, a student of V. Polenov, was a poet of the old estate culture, in love with the silence and unhurried rhythm of life of the old “noble nests”, and the special style of the Russian garden.

In the painting “In Summer,” the afternoon bliss of a warm day is spread everywhere – in the flickering reflections on the wall of the house, translucent shadows on the path, the languid, elegant appearance of women reading. Vinogradov was fluent in the plein air technique; his brushstrokes are fluid, like those of the Impressionists, but retain the dense outlines of the form.

STANISLAV ZHUKOVSKY. Park in autumn.1916. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Like S. Vinogradov, Zhukovsky was a singer of an old noble estate. “I am a big lover of antiquity, especially Pushkin’s time,” the artist wrote. In Zhukovsky’s works, the nostalgic past does not look sad and lost, it seems to come to life, continuing to give joy to the new inhabitants of the old house.

STANISLAV ZHUKOVSKY. Joyful May.1912. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Vinogradov especially liked to paint interiors with mahogany furniture in the Empire style and antique portraits on the walls. Spring bursts into the room through large open windows, filling everything with a silvery glow and a special anticipation of summer warmth. Comparing “Joyful May” with other interiors of the artist, A. Benois noted that in this work “the sun shines brighter than before, it seems more joyful Fresh air, the special mood of a house thawing, coming to life after the winter cold, after a long shutdown, is more fully conveyed; in addition, the entire picture is painted with that valuable freedom of technique that is acquired only when the task set by the artist is clarified in all its parts.”

MARIA YAKUNCHIKOVA-WEBER. View from the bell tower of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery near Zvenigorod.1891. Paper on cardboard, pastel. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Yakunchikova-Weber, according to A. Benois, “is one of those very few women who managed to put all the charm of femininity into their art, an elusive gentle and poetic aroma, without falling into amateurism or cloying.”

A modest, intimate view of the Russian plain opens from the bell tower of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery. Heavy ancient bells, compositionally close to the viewer, appear as guardians of time, remembering all the historical trials of this land. The bells are painted tangibly, with picturesque plein air effects - shimmering blue and bright yellow tones on a sparkling copper surface. The landscape, immersed in a light haze, complements the main “heartfelt” idea of ​​the painting and “expands” the space of the canvas.

KONSTANTIN YUON. Spring sunny day. Sergiev Posad.

Yuon was a typical Muscovite not only by birth, but also by his worldview and artistic style. He was in love with Russian antiquity, with ancient Russian cities, the unique ancient architecture of which became the main character of his paintings. Having settled in Sergiev Posad, he wrote: “I was greatly excited by the colorful architectural monuments of this fabulously beautiful town, exceptional in its pronounced Russian folk decorativeness.”

KONSTANTIN YUON. Trinity Lavra in winter.1910. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The famous monastery appears like a fairy-tale vision. The combination of pinkish-brown walls with bright blue and gold domes evokes an echo of the exquisite coloring of ancient Russian frescoes. Looking at the panorama of the ancient city, we notice that this “fabulousness” has vivid signs of real life: sleighs rush along the snowy road, townspeople rush about their business, gossips gossip, children play... The charm of Yuon’s works lies in a wonderful fusion of modernity and dear to the heart picturesque antiquity.

KONSTANTIN YUON. March sun.1915. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

In its joyful, jubilant mood, this landscape is close to Levitan’s “March,” but Levitan’s lyrics are more subtle, with notes of aching sadness. The March sun at Yuon paints the world with major colors. Horses and riders walk briskly across the bright blue snow, pink-brown tree branches stretch towards the azure sky. Yuon knows how to make the landscape composition dynamic: the road goes diagonally towards the horizon, forcing us to “walk” to the huts peeking out from behind the slope.

KONSTANTIN YUON. Domes and swallows.1921. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

A. Efros wrote about Yuon that he “chooses unexpected points of view, from which nature seems not very familiar, and people not too ordinary.” It is precisely this unusual point of view that was chosen for the painting “Domes and Swallows.” The majestic golden domes of the temple, “overshadowing” the earth, are perceived as a symbol of Ancient Rus', which is so dear to the artist, whose spirit will live forever among the people.

The picture was painted in the hungry year of 1921, amid the devastation of the Civil War. But Yuon doesn’t seem to notice this; a powerful life-affirming principle resounds in his landscape.

KONSTANTIN YUON. Blue bush (Pskov).1908. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

It was not for nothing that Yuon called himself “a recognized cheerful person” - his landscape is always full of joyful feelings, his festive paintings emotionally convey the artist’s delight in the beauty of nature. This work is striking in its richness of color, which is based on deep Blue colour. Interspersed with green, yellow, red tones, a complex play of light and shadow create a major pictorial symphony on the canvas.

ILYA GRABAR. Chrysanthemums.1905. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Grabar believed that “Chrysanthemums” “succeeded better than all other complex still lifes.” The still life was painted in the fall, and the artist wanted to convey that moment “when the daylight begins to fade, but twilight has not yet come.” Working in the technique of divisionism (from the French “division” - “division”) - with small, separate strokes and pure, unmixed colors on the palette, the artist masterfully conveys the flickering of light in glass glasses, the lush, airy heads of yellow chrysanthemums, the silvery twilight behind window, a game of color reflexes on a white tablecloth.

ILYA GRABAR. March snow.1904. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The landscape fascinates with the dynamics of a fragment snatched from life. Blue shadows on the snow from an invisible tree create a feeling of expanded space. With the help of short relief strokes, the texture of loose snow glistening in the sun is conveyed. A woman with buckets on a yoke is walking hurriedly along a narrow path cutting through the space of the picture. Her sheepskin coat stands out with a dark silhouette, marking the compositional center of the picture. In the background, among the brightly lit snow fields, huts are golden from the sun. This picture is filled with an exceptionally strong and clear feeling of love for life, admiration for the jubilant beauty of nature.

ILYA GRABAR. February blue.1904. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow