Contemporary graphic art. Famous artists, sculptors, graphic artists. Love drama by Joseph Lorasso

Graphics is the most ancient form of fine art. The first graphic works are considered to be cave paintings of primitive man, reflecting his view of the world around him. The papyrus books of the ancient Egyptians contained graphic symbols (hieroglyphs) and illustrations. Since ancient times, beautiful examples of graphics have come down to us in the form of paintings on vases and ceramic vessels.

For a long time, only writing and calligraphy were classified as graphics. In the Middle Ages, book graphics became widespread: handwritten books were decorated with magnificent drawings and miniatures, and the creation of fonts became a distinct area of ​​art.

Outstanding graphic artists and their famous works

The greatest master of the Western European Renaissance, Albrecht Durer, is one of the founders of engraving. His most famous works on copper are “Knight, Death and the Devil” (1513), “St. Jerome in his cell" and "Melancholy" (1514).

The great Italian artist and scientist of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, was an inimitable draftsman. His enormous graphic heritage includes: preparatory drawings for paintings, images of animals and plants, illustrations for technical developments, drawings for treatises.

Techniques and types of graphics

The basis of all types of graphic art is drawing. Typically, a graphic image is made on a sheet of paper, which plays the role of space. To create his works, an artist can use a whole arsenal of tools: pencil, ballpoint pen, charcoal, ink, ink, sanguine (red-brown pencils made from kaolin and iron oxides), colored chalk, sauce (a type of pastel), watercolor, gouache.

The main tool of European drawing in the era of late Gothic and Renaissance was the pen. At the end of the 17th century, graphite pencils began to be used to create drawings, drawings, and sketches. Canvas is practically not used in graphics, since watercolors and gouache do not fit well on it. Color in graphic images is used much less than in paintings. The main visual means of graphics are line, spot, chiaroscuro, stroke and dot.

Graphics have the same wide variety of genres as painting. But here the genres of portraiture and landscape are more common, and to a lesser extent still life, historical, everyday life and others. Graphics are traditionally divided into monumental (posters, wall graphics), easel (drawings and prints), book graphics (illustrations, postcards), as well as computer graphics, which, however, stands apart because it does not use traditional materials.

The art of graphics is distinguished by a wide variety of techniques that the artist uses in its pure form or in various combinations. According to the graphics technique, there are two types: drawing and printed graphics (printmaking). The drawing is created only in a single copy. In ancient times, artists used papyrus and parchment, and from the 14th century they began to draw on paper.

Printed graphics, on the contrary, exist in many copies. For replication, an engraving is used - a drawing on a solid material, which is covered with paint and then printed on a sheet of paper. Depending on the material, there are different types and techniques of engraving: woodcut (wood engraving), linocut (drawing carved on linoleum), etching (engraving on metal), lithography (engraving on stone). With the advent of engraving, the printed book arose and book graphics began to develop. Today, the development of graphics does not stop, new genres and techniques are appearing, but, as in ancient times, graphics remain an important component of fine art in our lives.

) in her expressive, sweeping works was able to preserve the transparency of the fog, the lightness of the sail, and the smooth rocking of the ship on the waves.

Her paintings amaze with their depth, volume, richness, and the texture is such that it is impossible to take your eyes off them.

Warm simplicity of Valentin Gubarev

Primitivist artist from Minsk Valentin Gubarev doesn't chase fame and just does what he loves. His work is incredibly popular abroad, but almost unknown to his compatriots. In the mid-90s, the French fell in love with his everyday sketches and signed a contract with the artist for 16 years. The paintings, which, it would seem, should only be understandable to us, bearers of the “modest charm of undeveloped socialism,” appealed to the European public, and exhibitions began in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain and other countries.

Sensual realism of Sergei Marshennikov

Sergei Marshennikov is 41 years old. He lives in St. Petersburg and works in the best traditions of the classical Russian school of realistic portraiture. The heroines of his canvases are women who are tender and defenseless in their half-nakedness. Many of the most famous paintings depict the artist's muse and wife, Natalya.

The Myopic World of Philip Barlow

In the modern era of high-resolution images and the rise of hyperrealism, the work of Philip Barlow immediately attracts attention. However, a certain effort is required from the viewer in order to force himself to look at the blurry silhouettes and bright spots on the author’s canvases. This is probably how people suffering from myopia see the world without glasses and contact lenses.

Sunny bunnies by Laurent Parselier

The painting of Laurent Parcelier is an amazing world in which there is neither sadness nor despondency. You won’t find gloomy and rainy pictures from him. His canvases contain a lot of light, air and bright colors, which the artist applies with characteristic, recognizable strokes. This creates the feeling that the paintings are woven from a thousand sunbeams.

Urban dynamics in the works of Jeremy Mann

American artist Jeremy Mann paints dynamic portraits of a modern metropolis in oil on wood panels. “Abstract shapes, lines, the contrast of light and dark spots - all create a picture that evokes the feeling that a person experiences in the crowd and bustle of the city, but can also express the calm that is found when contemplating quiet beauty,” says the artist.

The Illusory World of Neil Simon

In the paintings of British artist Neil Simone, nothing is as it seems at first glance. “For me, the world around me is a series of fragile and ever-changing shapes, shadows and boundaries,” says Simon. And in his paintings everything is truly illusory and interconnected. Boundaries are blurred, and stories flow into each other.

Love drama by Joseph Lorasso

An Italian by birth, contemporary American artist Joseph Lorusso transfers onto canvas subjects he observed in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Hugs and kisses, passionate outbursts, moments of tenderness and desire fill his emotional pictures.

Country life of Dmitry Levin

Dmitry Levin is a recognized master of Russian landscape, who has established himself as a talented representative of the Russian realistic school. The most important source of his art is his attachment to nature, which he loves tenderly and passionately and of which he feels himself a part.

Bright East by Valery Blokhin

The collection of Russian graphics of the late 19th–20th centuries in the Sergiev Posad Museum-Reserve is small in volume, less systematic and holistic than its pictorial collection of this period. But it has its own artistic significance in the overall museum complex.
The specificity of the museum's graphic collection (as well as the painting collection) is the predominance of works by local artists and a certain thematic focus associated with the iconography of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the city. A special part of it consists of individual sheets (rarely cycles of works) by famous masters of Russian fine art - I.I. Shishkina, B.M. Kustodieva, K.S. Petrova-Vodkina, V.A. Favorsky, T.A. Mavrina and others (about 80 works).

The first steps towards the formation of a collection were taken at the very beginning of the museum’s activities - in 1920–1921: more than 30 graphic works of local artists were purchased from the “Exhibition of Architectural Motifs TSL”.
The most valuable part of the collection is the acquisition of gifts and purchases of graphic works from private individuals. This is how the works of I.I. arrived at the museum. Shishkina, B.M. Kustodieva, V.A. Favorsky, L.S. Baksta. “Names” (I. Repin, V. Makovsky, I. Shishkin, K. Korovin, etc.) are “named”, but are represented by single works. There is essentially one “personality” of Russian graphic art in the museum collection – T.A. Mavrin (the SPMZ collection allows, using the example of the best works, to show her work in development - from the 1940s to the 1970s). However, for a “provincial” collection of art from the late 19th and 20th centuries, individual works by classical artists are extremely valuable.

The earliest examples of printed graphics in the complex of works we are considering date back to the 80s of the 19th century. They are connected with one “personality” - iconic and significant in the history of Russian engraving of this period - I.I. Shishkin (1832 1898).
Let us recall that the 1870s were a transitional and “passing” period for Russian printed graphics, the time of the dominance of tone engraving. But even during this not very creative period there were genuine virtuosos of woodcut (V.V. Mate) and etching (I.I. Shishkin). Our collection contains four etchings by the artist, created by him in the 1880s (a period that was especially fruitful in Shishkin’s work). These are sheets of brilliant execution and subtlety in conveying the state of nature: “Gurzuf” (1885), “Black Forest” (1885), “April” (1885), “Swamp on the Warsaw Railway” (1886). The museum's collection also contains drawings by famous Russian painters, such as the Itinerant artist Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky (1846-1920) and Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov (1865-1911). Portraits of V.E. Makovsky's drawings are as impeccable in composition and completeness as his oil works. Being a master of portraiture, V.E. Makovsky had the talent to accurately convey not only the external similarity of the person being portrayed, but also the characteristics of his mental movements, highlighting those main character traits that determine a person’s actions, his thoughts and feelings. Valentin Serov, like any real artist, worked wonderfully not only in oil painting, but also masterfully mastered the technique of drawing. His numerous works in pencil and charcoal have the same liveliness and accuracy in conveying the character of the people depicted, and the same perfection of execution as his oil paintings.

The museum's collection includes several works by famous Russian artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is, first of all, a drawing by Mikhail Vrubel (1856–1910), the largest representative of symbolism and modernism in Russian fine art. Along with the sheets of L.S. Bakst and M.A. Vrubel, the heyday of Russian graphics at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries and the 1910s is represented by the work of K.A. Korovin (1861–1939) – sketch of the 1917 set for the opera by N.A. Rimsky Korsakov "Sadko". This sketch is the only “surviving” example of theatrical scenery graphics. Stylistically, our sheet is close to a number of theatrical works by K. Korovin from the late 1900s to 1910s. K. Korovin's sketches for "Sadko" of 1906, 1914 are distinguished by a more complex compositional structure; they include not only the image of the "Mansion", but also an open terrace, through the spans of which the landscape - "sea blue" is visible. Our sheet has a chamber feel: it represents the interior of a chamber with a high vault, small windows, a tiled stove and benches.
The museum's graphic collection also includes a small drawing by Ilya Efimovich Repin, “Portrait of the Writer Leontyev-Shcheglov.” I.L. Leontiev-Shcheglov (1856-1911) - talented Russian writer and playwright

Graphic sheets B.M. Kustodiev in the collection of the Sergiev Posad Museum-Reserve - these are three linocuts of 1926 (signed, dated by the author), received in 1928 from a private collection. Graphics occupied a large place in the artist’s work, although he was primarily a painter. In the 1920s, Kustodiev did a lot of book illustration, posters and easel engraving (woodcut, lithography, linocut). In 1926 B.M. Kustodiev created several compositions with “Bathers” using the techniques of linocut, woodcut and watercolor. In the diary entries for 1926 of the first biographer V.V. Kustodiev. Voinov (graphic artist, art historian, art critic) constantly hears the theme of Boris Mikhailovich’s work on the linocuts “Bather” and “Bathers”. A constant model in the last years of B.M.’s life. Kustodiev "for portraits, characters in paintings, covers, engravings, illustrations" was served by his daughter Irina. She also posed for her father for the engraving “Bather.”
Over the series "Bathers" B.M. Kustodiev worked, literally, until the last days of his life: the last engraving of this cycle was made by him on May 4, 1927 (and on May 26 the artist passed away).

The work of one of the outstanding figures of Russian art of the 20th century, the classic wood engraving V.A. Favorsky (1886–1964) is represented in the museum collection by sixteen graphic sheets from different periods: these are easel works, book illustrations, and examples of his “type graphics”.
The selection of sheets is largely random; not all of them are first-class or iconic works of the master. In 1919 1939 members of this family (including Vladimir Andreevich Favorsky) lived in Sergiev Zagorsk, were rooted in its spiritual and cultural life, created many of their works here, and father-in-law V.A. Favorsky was one of the organizers of our museum.
Among them is one of the most famous, significant works of this period of the master’s work - the easel engraving “October 1917” of 1928. This woodcut was created according to the first state order of the Council of People's Commissars for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. Then Favorsky conceived the series “Years of the Revolution”, where “the drawings arranged in chronological order were supposed to recreate the entire history of the Soviet state for the first 10 years year after year.” The woodcut "October 1917" is a detailed plot-narrative and, at the same time, symbolic, metaphorical composition with many characters and several episodes, quite organically fused together.

The late period of creativity of V.A. Favorsky's collection includes engravings from his best, most famous cycles of the 1950s, for which the artist was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1962 - illustrations from 1950 for "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and for "Boris Godunov" in 1955 ., donated to the museum in 1965.
They perfectly demonstrate the “late style” of Favorsky’s woodcuts, where more attention is paid to the appearance of the characters, the setting, the costume, where the visual means naturally change: the asceticism of graphic solutions with highlighting contours and open shading is replaced by a certain “picturesqueness”. The epic solemnity and epicness of “The Lay” sound fully in the multi-figure composition (“Before the Battle”), in which Favorsky includes images of Russian soldiers under the battle flag and Guslyar. From the variety of graphic cycles V.A. Favorsky of the 50s to the dramaturgy of A.S. Pushkin ("Boris Godunov", "Little Tragedies") in the museum's collection there is only one illustration for the tragedy "Boris Godunov" - "Pimen and Gregory" 1955.

The collection of works by the outstanding Russian graphic artist and painter Tatyana Alekseevna Mavrina in the Sergiev Posad Museum-Reserve in its volume, level of work, and their genre diversity can only be compared with the largest museum collections in the country that have collections of graphics of the 20th century. (Pushkin Museum, State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum). These are sixty-two sheets that came to us in 1977-1978 after the author’s personal exhibition was held at the museum. Forty-five works were given to T.A. Mavrina as a gift.
Chronologically, the collection of Mavrin’s works covers a large period of the artist’s creative work (extreme dates are 1944 and 1976; with approximately an equal number of sheets belonging to the periods of the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s). It represents a sufficient variety of graphic techniques in which Mavrina worked fruitfully: these are watercolors, gouaches, sheets made in mixed media (tempera, gouache or distemper, gouache, watercolor), pencil drawings, ink drawings.

"Zagorsky cycle" T.A. Mavrina, clearly expressing her worldview, priorities in art, her unique style, often and rightly called “Mavrinsky,” began to take shape in the 1940s. The “subject line” of Mavrin’s works of the 50s is the “fabulously seen” ensemble of the Lavra, the Pyatnitsky Monastery, the old city and the life of its inhabitants - everyday and festive, embodied in its special, metaphorical and poetic key associated with the imagery of folk art and folklore. The sheets of the 1960s–1970s are just as expressive and free, bold in design, composition, and color. In their thematic composition, genre landscapes still prevail, the very names of which emphasize the effective everyday aspect. The classic example of a “Mavrinsky portrait” in our collection is “Demidova”, 1973. “Demidova” is a wonderful example of an organic combination of two genres - “portrait in landscape”: a large, frontal, half-length image of a “Russian old woman” in a white scarf against the backdrop of a summer village landscape, where, according to the ancient tradition of folk paintings and popular prints, inscriptions are given on the images themselves.

We have been planning for a long time to make a rating of the most expensive works on paper by artists in the orbit of Russian art. The best motive for us was a new record for Russian graphics - 2.098 million pounds for a drawing by Kazimir Malevich on June 2

When publishing our ratings, we really like to add various kinds of disclaimers in order to prevent possible questions. So, the first principle: only original graphics. Second: we use the results of open auctions for works by artists included in the orbit of Russian art, according to the website database (perhaps gallery sales were at higher prices). Third: Of course, it would be tempting to put Arshile Gorky's $3.7 million first place on Housatonic. He himself, as is known, strove in every possible way to be considered a Russian artist, without shying away from mystification, he took a pseudonym in honor of Maxim Gorky, etc.; in 2009, Gorka’s works were shown by the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery at the exhibition “American Artists from the Russian Empire”, we included him in the AI ​​auction results database, but starting the rating of Russian graphics with him is unfair on formal grounds. Fourth: one sheet - one result. For this rating we selected only works consisting of one sheet of paper; a formal approach would have forced us to take into account three more items, each of which was sold as a single lot: 122 original ink drawings for “The Book of the Marquise” by Konstantin Somov, two folders with 58 drawings and gouaches for “The Brothers Karamazov” by F. M. Dostoevsky by Boris Grigoriev and part of the Yakov Peremen collection. Fifth: one author - one work. If we formally took the top 10 by price (excluding Gorka’s results and prefabricated lots), then there would be five sheets of Kandinsky, three of Chagall, and one each of Malevich and Serebryakova. Boring. Sixth: we analyze the period from 2001 to the present day. Seventh: the price rating was compiled in dollars, results in other currencies were converted into dollars at the exchange rate on the day of trading. Eighth: all results are given taking into account the seller's commission.

Kazimir Malevich’s drawing “Head of a Peasant,” which is a preparatory sketch for the lost painting “Peasant Funeral” of 1911, quite expectedly became the top lot of the Russian auction at Sotheby’s on June 2, 2014 in London. Malevich’s works appear on the art market extremely rarely; “Head of a Peasant” is the first work put up for auction since the sale of “Suprematist Composition” for $60 million at Sotheby’s in 2008, and one of the artist’s last significant works in private collections. This sketch was one of 70 works exhibited by the artist in Berlin in 1927, and then left in Germany in order to save them from the ban and artificial oblivion that would inevitably await them in Russia. The work came to Sotheby’s auction from a powerful German private collection of Russian avant-garde. Almost all the lots in this collection went over their estimate, but Malevich’s drawing was simply beyond competition. They gave it three times the estimate - 2.098 million pounds. This is by far the most expensive graphic work by a Russian artist.

The list of the most expensive graphic works by Wassily Kandinsky includes as many as 18 original drawings worth more than a million dollars. His watercolors are in no way inferior to his paintings in their abstract message. Let us remember that it is from Kandinsky’s graphic work - “The First Abstract Watercolor” of 1910 - that the history of modern abstract art is usually counted. As legend has it, one day Kandinsky, sitting in the semi-darkness of his studio in Munich and looking at his figurative work, could not discern anything on it except color spots and shapes. And then he realized that he had to abandon objectivity and try to capture the “movements of the soul” through color. The result was a work devoid of any connection with the outside world - “First Abstract Watercolor” (Paris, Center Georges Pompidou).

Kandinsky's canvases are rare on the market and are very expensive, but the graphics will fit perfectly into any collection and will look decent in it. You can afford circulation graphics for several thousand dollars. But for an original drawing, which, for example, is a sketch for a famous painting, you will have to pay many times more. The most expensive watercolor to date, “Untitled” from 1922, was sold during the 2008 art boom for $2.9 million.

Marc Chagall was an unusually productive artist for his time. Today Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons are helped by an army of assistants, and Mark Zakharovich single-handedly created thousands of original graphic works over the 97 years of his life, not to mention mass-produced works. Our database of Chagall auction results includes more than 2,000 original works on paper. This artist is steadily rising in price, and the investment prospects for purchasing his works are obvious - the main thing is that the authenticity of the work is confirmed by the Chagall Committee. Otherwise, the work could almost be burned (this is exactly what the Chagall Committee threatens the owner, who recently sent a painting to Paris for examination that turned out to be a fake). So the choice should be made only in favor of unconditionally authentic graphics. Its price can reach 2.16 million dollars - this is how much they paid in May 2013 for the drawing “Riders” (paper on cardboard, gouache, pastel, colored pencils).

The pastel “Reclining Nude” is not only the most expensive graphic work of Zinaida Serebryakova, but also her most expensive work in general. The theme of the naked female body was one of the main ones in the artist’s work. Serebryakova's nudes evolved from images of bathers and Russian beauties in a bathhouse in the Russian period of creativity to reclining nudes more in the spirit of European art in the Parisian period. Looking at Serebryakova’s beautiful, sensual, idealized nudes, it is difficult to imagine how tragic the artist’s fate was - her husband died of typhus, leaving her with four children in her arms; I had to live from hand to mouth and, in the end, emigrate to Paris (as it later turned out, forever), leaving the children in Russia (only two were later transported to France, the other two had to be separated for more than 30 years).

Zinaida Serebryakova cultivated perfect, eternal, classical beauty in her works. Pastel in some ways better conveys the lightness and airiness of her female images, in which there is almost always something of the artist herself and her children (daughter Katya was one of her favorite models).

A rather large pastel, Reclining Nude, was purchased during the art boom in June 2008 for £1.07 million ($2.11 million). No other work since then has managed to beat this record. Interestingly, in the top 10 auction sales of Zinaida Serebryakova there are only nudes, and three of the works are just pastels.

At the Sotheby’s London auction on November 27, 2012, dedicated to paintings and graphics by Russian artists, the top lot was not a painting, but a pencil drawing on paper - “Portrait of Vsevolod Meyerhold” by Yuri Annenkov. Eight participants argued for the job in the hall and on the phones. As a result, the drawing, estimated at 30–50 thousand pounds, cost the new owner several dozen times more than the estimate. The result of 1.05 million pounds ($1.68 million) overnight made “Portrait of Vsevolod Meyerhold” the author’s most expensive graphic and took third place in the list of the highest auction prices for Annenkov’s works in general.

Why was the interest in the portrait so strong? Annenkov is a brilliant portrait painter who left images of the best figures of the era - poets, writers, directors. In addition, he was very talented in graphics: his style combined the techniques of classical drawing with avant-garde elements of cubism, futurism, expressionism... He succeeded as a theater and film artist, as a book illustrator. The public's attention was certainly attracted by the personality of the model in the portrait - the famous director Vsevolod Meyerhold. Well, to top it all off, this drawing comes from the collection of composer Boris Tyomkin, a native of Kremenchug, who emigrated to the USA and became a famous American composer, a four-time Oscar winner for musical work in films.

One of the main artists of the World of Art association, Lev (Leon) Bakst, of course, should have been on our list of the most commercially successful graphic artists. His sophisticated theatrical works - costume designs for the best dancers of the era, sets for productions - give us today an idea of ​​what a luxurious spectacle Diaghilev's Russian Seasons were.

Bakst’s most expensive graphic work, “The Yellow Sultana,” was created in the year when Diaghilev’s ballet first went on tour in the United States. By that time, Bakst was already a well-known artist, the recognizable style of his theatrical works had become a brand, and his influence was felt in fashion, interior design and jewelry. The sensual nude "Yellow Sultana", which grew out of his theatrical sketches, caused a fierce battle between two phones at Christie's auction on May 28, 2012. As a result, they reached the figure of 937,250 pounds ( 1 467 810 dollars) taking into account the commission, despite the fact that the estimate was 350-450 thousand pounds.

The world of noble nests fading into oblivion, foggy manor parks and graceful young ladies walking along the alleys appears in the works of Viktor Elpidiforovich Borisov-Musatov. Some call his style “elegy in painting”; it is characterized by dreaminess, quiet melancholy, and sadness for a bygone era. For Borisov-Musatov, noble estates were the world of the present, but there is something otherworldly in his reflections of this world; these parks, verandas and ponds seem to have been dreamed of by the artist. It was as if he had a presentiment that soon this world would no longer exist and he himself would no longer exist (a serious illness took the artist away at the age of 35).

Viktor Borisov-Musatov preferred pastel and watercolor to oil painting; they gave him the necessary lightness of brushwork and haze. The appearance of his pastel “The Last Day” at the Russian auction at Sotheby’s in 2006 was an event, since the main works of Borisov-Musatov are in museums, and only about a dozen works have been offered at open auctions over the years. The pastel “The Last Day” comes from the collection of V. Napravnik, the son of the Russian conductor and composer Eduard Napravnik. This pastel was depicted in the “Portrait of Maria Georgievna Napravnik” by Zinaida Serebryakova, now stored in the Chuvash Art Museum. In the monograph “Borisov-Musatov” (1916), N. N. Wrangel mentions “The Last Day” in the list of the artist’s works. So, as expected, the undoubtedly genuine item reached a record price for the artist of 702,400 pounds, or $1,314,760.

Alexander Deineka was a brilliant graphic artist; at the initial stages of his creative career, graphics attracted him even more than painting, first of all, for its propaganda potential. The artist worked a lot as a book and magazine illustrator and created posters. Later, this “magazine-poster work” tired him, he began to work more and more in painting, in monumental art, but the acquired skills of a draftsman turned out to be very useful - for example, when creating preparatory sketches for paintings. “Girl tying a ribbon on her head” - a sketch for the painting “Bather” (1951, collection of the Tretyakov Gallery). This most expensive work by Deineka to date dates back to the late period of creativity, when the artist’s style from the avant-garde searches of the 1920s–30s had already strongly evolved towards socialist realism. But Deineka was also sincere in socialist realism. The power and beauty of a healthy human body is one of Deineka’s favorite themes in his work. “Girl Tying a Ribbon” refers us to his nudes, similar to Greek goddesses - Soviet Venuses who find happiness in work and sports. This is a drawing by the textbook Deineka, and therefore it is not surprising that it was sold for a record 27,500,000 rubles ($1,012,450) at the Sovcom auction.

Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev emigrated from Russia in 1919. He became one of the most famous Russian artists abroad, but at the same time he was forgotten in his homeland for many decades, and his first exhibitions in the USSR took place only in the late 1980s. But today he is one of the most sought-after and highly valued authors on the Russian art market; his works, both paintings and graphics, are sold for hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. The artist was extremely efficient; he believed that he could handle any topic, any order.

Probably the most famous are his cycles “Race” and “Faces of Russia” - very close in spirit and differing only in that the first was created before emigration, and the second already in Paris. In these cycles, we are presented with a gallery of types (“faces”) of the Russian peasantry - old men, women, and children look sullenly at the viewer, they attract the eye and at the same time repel it. Grigoriev was by no means inclined to idealize or embellish those whom he painted; on the contrary, sometimes he brings images to the grotesque. One of the “faces”, executed in gouache and watercolor on paper, became the most expensive graphic work by Boris Grigoriev: in November 2009, at Sotheby’s auction they paid $986,500 for it.

And finally, the tenth author on our list of the most expensive works of Russian graphics is Konstantin Somov. The son of the curator of the Hermitage collections and a musician, a love of art and everything beautiful was instilled in him from childhood. After studying at the Academy of Arts under Repin, Somov soon found himself in the World of Art society, which promoted the cult of beauty that was close to him. This craving for decorativeness and “beauty” was especially evident in his numerous drawings based on images of the gallant era, interest in which was observed in the work of other world artists (Lanceret, Benois). “Somov” marquises and gallant gentlemen on secret dates, scenes of social receptions and masquerades with harlequins and ladies in wigs refer us to the aesthetics of Baroque and Rococo.

Prices for Somov’s works on the art market began to grow at a phenomenal and not always understandable pace since 2006; some of his paintings exceeded the estimate by 5, or even 13 times. His paintings cost millions of pounds. As for graphics, Somov’s best result so far is $620,727 - this is just one of the drawings of the “gallant” series “Masquerade”.

On April 22, 2010, 86 works - paintings and graphics - by almost two dozen authors were sold as a single lot No. 349 at Sotheby's in New York. This sale, by the way, creates confusion in the auction statistics of those artists whose works were included in this lot. Yes, the collection is very valuable in itself, it has a long, complex and tragic history, and, on the one hand, it is good that the collection fell into the same hands. But, on the other hand, if someday the owner decides to sell individual works, then for most authors there is simply no price level. After the deafening “art preparation” that preceded the sale of the collection, it could have appeared, but no, and upon resale it would be a huge minus.

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Art- figurative understanding of reality; the process or result of expressing the internal or external (in relation to the creator) world in an artistic image; creativity directed in such a way that it reflects interests not only of the author himself, but also of other people.

Today we will briefly tell you about the largest artists and sculptors from all over the world, and we will start with Russian artists.

Aivazovsky Ivan Konstantinovich(1817-1900), marine painter. Member of the St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, Rome, Florence and Stuttgart academies. Created about 6 thousand paintings. The most famous: “The Ninth Wave”, “Chesme Battle”.

Ivan Aivazovsky “The Ninth Wave”

Antropov Alexey Petrovich(1716-1795), portrait painter. He became widely known for his decorative paintings of palaces in St. Petersburg and its suburbs.

Antropov Alexey Petrovich – self-portrait

Argunov Ivan Petrovich(1729-1802), portrait painter. He painted ceremonial portraits, which were distinguished by precise and clear drawings and restrained coloring. Author of “Portrait of an unknown peasant woman in Russian costume” and others.

Argunov Ivan – Portrait of an unknown peasant woman in Russian costume

Arkhipov Abram Efimovich(1862-1930), master of plein air painting, sketches and genre paintings. He worked a lot on portraits, mainly of peasant women, and created life-affirming images of his contemporaries.

Borisov-Musatov Viktor Elpidiforovich(1870-1905), innovative artist. Paintings: “Girl on the balcony”, “By the pond”.

Borisov-Musatov Viktor Elpidiforovich – painting “By the Reservoir”

Borovikovsky Vladimir Lukich(1757-1825), portrait painter. He was commissioned for portraits by the highest-ranking persons of that time, members of the imperial family. The most famous were the portraits of Arsenyeva, Lopukhina, and Kurakino.

Borovikovsky Vladimir Lukich – Portrait of A. and V. Gagarin 1802

Bruni Fedor (Fidelio) Antonovich(1799-1875). Paintings: “The Death of Camilla, Horace’s Sister”, “The Copper Serpent”, etc., paintings of St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Bryullov Karl Pavlovich(1799-1852). He wrote sketches and paintings on historical and mythological themes, but became more famous as a portrait painter. Paintings: “Horsewoman”, “Yu. P. Samoilova with a Little Arab”, “Bathsheba”, “Italian Afternoon”, etc. The portrait of Yu. P. Samoilova with her daughter is recognized as one of the best.

The most famous painting of Bryullov is Yu. P. Samoilov with his daughter

Vasnetsov Viktor Mikhailovich(1848-1926), Wanderer, author of paintings on historical and fairy-tale subjects. The most famous paintings are “After the massacre of Igor Svyatoslavovich with the Polovtsians”, “Alyonushka”. The most grandiose work is the painting “Bogatyrs”.

Vasnetsov Viktor Mikhailovich – painting “Bogatyrs”

Venetsianov Alexey Gavrilovich(1780-1847), one of the founders of the everyday genre in Russian painting. He painted many portraits of peasants and scenes of village life. Paintings: “The threshing floor”, “Sleeping shepherd”, “On the arable land. Spring”, “Head of an old peasant”.

Painting “The Sleeping Shepherd” – Alexey Venetsianov

Vereshchagin Vasily Vasilievich(1842-1904), master of the battle genre. He painted a series of paintings on religious subjects. Paintings: “Apotheosis of War”, “Everything is Calm on Shipka”.

“Apotheosis of War” – painting by Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin

Vrubel Mikhail Alexandrovich(1856-1910). He was engaged in easel painting and monumental painting of churches. Paintings: “Demon Seated”, “Fortune Teller”, “Pan”, “Lilac”, “Demon Defeated”, etc.

Vrubel Mikhail Alexandrovich – The defeated demon 1902

Ge Nikolay Nikolaevich(1831-1894), one of the founders of the Association of Itinerants, landscape painter, portrait painter. Painting “Saul at the Sorceress of Endor”, “Secret Meeting”, “Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof”.

Kramskoy Ivan Nikolaevich(1837-1887), one of the founders of the Association of Itinerants. Paintings: “Unknown”, “Mina Moiseev”, “Forester”, “Contemplator”.

Nesterov Mikhail Vasilievich(1862-1942), portrait painter, master of monumental painting and lyrical landscape. The most famous paintings: “Victim of Friends”, “Connoisseur”, “Petitioners to the Emperor”, “The Hermit”.

Nesterov Mikhail Vasilievich – painting “Victim of Friends”

Repin Ilya Efimovich(1844-1930). Portraits of contemporaries (Stasov, Pisemsky, Tolstoy, Delvig). The paintings that became very famous were: “They Didn’t Expect”, “Barge Haulers on the Volga”, “Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan”, “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan”.

Repin Ilya Efimovich – painting “Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan”

Surikov Vasily Ivanovich(1848-1916), master of historical painting. Paintings: “Boyaryna Morozova”, “Morning of the Streltsy Execution”, “Suvorov’s Crossing of the Alps”, “Stepan Razin”.

Surikov Vasily Ivanovich – painting “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution”

Chagall Marc(1887-1985), painter and graphic artist. He created surreal works, often on folklore and biblical themes (“Over the City”), stained glass windows and illustrations.

Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich(1832-1898), landscape painter. Paintings: “Noon. In the vicinity of Moscow”, “Rye”, “Forest distances”, “Among the flat valley”, “Morning in a pine forest”.

Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich – “Ship Grove”

Foreign artists

Bosch (Bos van Aken) Hieronymus(c. 1460-1516), Dutch painter. The most famous: “The Temptation of St. Antonio”, triptychs “Hay Wagon” and “Garden of Delights”.

Botticelli Sandro(1445-1510), Italian artist, master of the Florentine school. Compositions on religious and biblical themes: “Allegory of Power”, “Return of Judith”, “Madonna and Child and Angels”. Mythological compositions: “Spring”, “Birth of Venus”.

Sandro Botticelli “Madonna and Child with Angels”

Bruegel Peter(between 1525 and 1535-1569), Dutch painter. Paintings: “The Battle of Maslenitsa and Lent”, “Mad Greta”, “Peasant Dance”.

Van Gogh Vincent(1853-1890), Dutch artist, representative of post-impressionism. Paintings: “Peasant Woman”, “Potato Eaters”, “The Hills of Montmartre”, “Landscape in Auvers after the Rain”.

Vincent van Gogh – “Landscape at Auvers after the rain”

Van Dyck Anthonys(1599-1641), Flemish painter. Ceremonial aristocratic and intimate portraits (“Charles I on the hunt”), religious and mythological compositions in the Baroque spirit.

Velazquez (Rodriguez de Silva Velazquez) Diego(1599-1660), Spanish artist. Paintings: “Breakfast”, “Breakfast of two young men”, “Christ in the house of Martha and Mary”. Portraits of a particularly royal house: Infanta Maria Teresa, Infanta Margaret.

Veronese Paolo(1528-1588), Italian Renaissance painter, representative of the Venetian school. He painted frescoes at the Villa Barbara Volpi in Maser. The most famous painting is “Marriage at Cana”.

Gauguin Paul(1848-1903), French artist, representative of post-impressionism. Paintings: “Two Tahitian women”, “Oh, are you jealous?”, “The King’s Wife”, Where do we come from? Who are we? Where we are going?".

Paul Gauguin – Tahitians-1891.

Goya Francisco(1746-1828), Spanish artist. He painted paintings on everyday and historical, mythological and religious subjects, portraits, and performed wall paintings (frescoes). Paintings: “Umbrella”, “Dishes Seller”, Series of etchings “Caprichos”.

Holbein Hans the Younger(1497 or 1498-1543), German painter and graphic artist, representative of the Renaissance. Works: “Dead Christ” and “Morette”.

Dali Salvador(1904-1989), Spanish painter, representative of surrealism. The most famous phantasmagoric paintings are “The Flaming Giraffe” and “The Persistence of Memory.”

Dali Salvador – painting “Dream”

Daumier Honore(1808-1879), French graphic artist, painter, and sculptor, master of satirical drawing and lithography. Caricatures of the ruling elite and philistinism (“Transnonen Street”, series “Good Bourgeois”) became famous.

Durer Albrecht(1471-1528), German artist, representative of the German Renaissance. Paintings: “House by the Pond”, “View of Innsbruck”, “Portrait of Oswald Krel”.

Constable John(1776-1837), English landscape painter, representative of impressionism. Paintings; “Flatford Mill”, “Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden”, “Field of Corn”.

Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519), Italian artist. In terms of the versatility of his talents, he surpassed all his predecessors and teachers. Paintings: “The Last Supper”, “La Gioconda”, “Madonna Litta”, “Lady with an Ermine”, “Madonna in the Grotto” and many others.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) – “The Last Supper”

Masaccio(1401-1428), Italian painter, representative of the Florentine school, one of the founders of Renaissance art. He created the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence.

Manet Edouard(1832-1883), French painter and graphic artist, founder of impressionism. Paintings: “Breakfast on the Grass”, Olympia”, “Bar at the Folies Bergere”.

Modigliani Amadeo(1840-1920), French artist of Italian origin. Paintings: “Pablo Picasso”, “Madame Pompadour”, “Lady with a Black Tie”, “Nude”, etc.

Monet Claude Oscar(1840-1926), founder of French impressionism. Paintings: “Breakfast on the grass”, “Lilacs in the sun”, “Impression. Sunrise”, “Gare Saint-Lazare”.

Murillo Bartolome Esteban(1618-1682), Spanish artist, representative of Baroque painting. Paintings: “Holy Family with a Bird”, “Flight into Egypt”, Generation of Shepherds”, “Madonna and Child”, etc.

Picasso Pablo(1881-1973), one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Paintings: “Harlequin”, “Portrait of a Wife”, “Jacqueline with a Black Scarf”, “Old Guitarist”, “The Blind Man’s Dinner”, “Girl on a Ball”, Three Musicians”, etc.

Poussin Nicolas(1594-1665), French painter, representative of classicism. Paintings: “Tancred and Erminia”, “Arcadian Shepherds”.

Rafael Santi(1483-1665), Italian artist, one of the greatest masters of the Florentine-Roman High Renaissance. The theme of the Madonna occupies a central place in his work: “Madonna Conestabile”, “Madonna Solly”, “Madonna Terranova”, “Madonna in Greenery”, “Sistine Madonna”. and etc.

Raphael Santi - St. Jerome supporting two executed people

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn(1606-1669), Dutch artist. Paintings; “The Anatomy of Doctor Tulpa”, “Danae”, “Night Watch”, “The Holy Family”, “The Girl at the Window”.

Rembrandt - “Danae”.

Renoir Pierre Augustin(1841-1919), French artist, representative of impressionism. Paintings: “Portrait of Alfred Sisley with his wife”, “Swimming in the Seine”, “Path in the Tall Grass”, “The End of Breakfast”, First Evening at the Opera”, Portrait of the Actress Samari.”

Saryan Martiros Sergeevich(1880-1972), Armenian painter. Paintings: “Armenia”, “Valley of Ararat”, “Autumn Still Life”.

Cezanne Paul(1839-1906), French artist, representative of post-impressionism. Paintings: “Girl at the Piano”, Road to Pontoise”, “Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase”, “Pierrot and Harlequin”, “Lady in Blue”, etc.

Zurbaran Francisco(1598-1664), Spanish painter. representative of the Seville school. His series of paintings from the life of St. Bonaventure.

Turner Joseph Melord William(1775-1851), English artist, representative of impressionism, master of romantic landscape. His canvases reflect mythological and historical subjects (“Hannibal crossing the Alps in a snowstorm”, “Ulysses and Polyphemus”). Paintings: “Evening Star”, “Rain, Steam and Speed”, “Mole and Calais”.

Tintoretto Jacopo(1518-1594), Italian artist, representative of the Venetian school. Known for his large paired compositions “The Last Supper”, the painting “The Miracle of St. Mark” brought popularity. In the cycle of biblical scenes, the most significant paintings are: “The Creation of Animals”, “The Creation of Adam and Eve”, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba”, etc.

Titian Vecellio(c. 1476/77 or 1489/90 - 1576), Italian artist, master of the Venetian school of the Renaissance. Paintings: “Flora”, “Earthly and Heavenly Love”, “Madonna with Cherries”, “Mourning of Christ”, “The Rape of Europa”.

Toulouse-Lautrec Henri Marie Raymond de(1864-1901), French artist, representative of post-impressionism. Paintings: “Countess Toulouse-Lautrec at breakfast in Malrome”, “Laundress”, “In a cafe”, Dance at the Moulin Rouge”, etc.

Hals Franz(1581 or 85-1666), Dutch artist, the greatest reformer of Jewish portraiture. Paintings: “Singing boy-flutist”, “Children with a mug”, “Gypsy”, “Smiling gentleman”, “Cheerful drinking companion”.

El Greco Domenico(1541-1614), Spanish artist of Greek origin.

Ingres Jean Auguste Dominique(1780-1867), French artist, one of the best portrait painters of the 19th century, supporter of the traditions of classicism.

The largest painters, sculptors, graphic artists around the world updated: February 18, 2017 by: website