The swan princess is the name of the painting. "The Swan Princess" - one of the most mysterious paintings by Vrubel

Inspired by the stage image of his wife, who played the beautiful Swan Princess in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Vrubel decided to devote himself not only to the scenery for this stage production of Pushkin's fairy tale of the same name, but also to the portrait of the sorceress at the moment of her reincarnation.

The character depicted on the canvas does not have the slightest resemblance to the opera diva, who managed to convey the mysterious and incredibly feminine image of the princess with the help of rare vocal data. Rather, it is a mystical and fabulous image that arose in the mind of Vrubel, and skillfully embodied thanks to the incredible ability to work with color.

The magical princess from the canvas of a talented Russian painter is mysterious and mysterious and coldly beautiful. Her thin regal face with large dark eyes is translucent with incomprehensible sadness. A thin graceful nose, narrow lips, a thin graceful hand and pale aristocratic skin emphasize the girl's fragility and femininity.

A huge golden kokoshnik with huge sparkling stones crowns the fragile head of a fairy-tale princess, and a weightless white fabric with a wide silver border covers her long dark hair, braided into a tight braid.

The folds of the sorceress's dress have the same color and structure as her huge snow-white swan wings, and it is impossible to guess where this transition from the feathers of a beautiful bird to the hem of a royal robe is located.

The Swan Princess is depicted on the seashore against the backdrop of the sunset sky and a distant city on a steep rock during the gloomy evening twilight descending on the sea. The coldish tones of the picture and its subtle bluish pearlescent shades give rise to a feeling of illusory and elusive vision of the transformation of a proud graceful swan into a beautiful girl.

The pose of the sorceress is natural and unconstrained - she goes into the distance towards the city and only briefly glanced at the viewer.

The symbol of the swan for many artists personified creative inspiration, which elevates the soul and imagination, and also lead to the knowledge of the other world - dark demonic forces. Involuntarily, the Swan Princess is a creature of a dual nature, personifying two elements at the same time.

The first is cold-dark, watery and demonic power, and the second is airy, heavenly and inspiring. The charm of this character is given not only by feminine beauty and subtle demonic features.

Vrubel decided to depict her at the moment of a wonderful metamorphosis of forms, melting in the cold light of a sea sunset. This picture is about the secret of the manifestation of the highest beauty that is born in our everyday world.

Vrubel was a very, very versatile artist, he painted and did a variety of works: he acted as a ceramist, as the author of wall paintings, magnificent portraits and picturesque panels. In the panel, which we will consider, we see the features of symbolism, and, of course, the Art Nouveau style, contemporary to Vrubel.

M.A. Vrubel. Self-portrait. 1900s

The fate of Vrubel was not very simple. In general, probably, in Russian painting there are practically no minions and lucky ones. Starting in 1906, he began to go blind, and in 1910 he passed away. One of his last great works - charming, beautiful, magnificent - is, of course, "The Swan Princess". Unfortunately, this amazing picture was replicated on candy boxes, on wrappers, candy wrappers, it was endlessly repeated, so that it lost its original mystery. But I hope that over time, anyone who comes to the art gallery and sees this iridescent painting will understand that Vrubel's canvas is really beautiful.

M.A. Vrubel. The Swan Princess. 1900. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

"The Swan Princess" by Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel is a kind of symbol of the beautiful heroine of a Russian fairy tale, dressed in a magnificent outfit. The plot about the Swan Princess is based on both Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin's "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", which was released in 1832, and Rimsky-Korsakov's opera of the same name, staged in 1900, in which the artist's wife, Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela-Vrubel, performed the main role . Vrubel creates her portrait in this role, however, he paints not a specific, but a certain generalizing image of the heroine of Russian fairy tales. Before us is a lovely girl in a girl's headdress, from under which her hair is visible. Of course, this is a fabulous, even fantastic heroine, everything sparkles here - mother-of-pearl-shining reflections of white on her wings, white on white, with dark shadows, her huge eyes, braids descending along her back, silver lace on a scarf, high choker with pearl lower. There is everything that is typical for a luxurious national costume.

Vrubel the artist generally gravitates towards this kind of mystery. Suffice it to recall his other paintings, where he also shimmers in color, whether it is the famous "Lilac", when you literally feel the aroma of wet lilacs with swollen clusters, or "Pan", looking at which we hear both aromas and rustles of the painted field. And here is a different feeling of moisture associated with the image of the Swan, who has just turned into a beautiful girl.

The time when this picture was written is the turn of the century. The time when the whole style of life changed noticeably. Many people wanted to try themselves as the creators of their world: they equipped their houses, invented outfits for themselves. Artists came to their aid. Vrubel was one of these artists. He worked for the theatre, in part because his wife was a famous singer. But besides that, he just came up with everyday clothes for her. And so many artists of that time composed new dresses that had to match the style of the new house. To us, Art Nouveau seems very free. We think that this was such a period in art when uninhibited bodies appeared, when people could move freely as they wanted. But this is not true. Art Nouveau, unlike subsequent trends in art, just shackled a woman, and literally - in a corset. She could not even sit properly on a chair, because the corset with its front plate rested on her legs. And the impression of lightness, creep was created due to the viscous lines that flowed the dress on the actress on stage or on a woman in everyday life. Vrubel, however, succeeded in what others could not: to saturate the forms with marvelous iridescent colors, which gave the paintings some kind of, perhaps, slightly mystical mood. Even the borders of these iridescent dresses are not always clearly visible in his portraits, including those of Zabela-Vrubel. It was she who inspired the artist to create such an expressive and vivid image as the Swan Princess, which determined our ideas about what is Russian national for the whole next century...

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Vrubel Mikhail Alexandrovich is one of the famous Russian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.
On his canvases he brings Russian folk tales, epics and legends to life.
Having once visited the private opera of S. Mamontov, Mikhail Vrubel was inspired to write the painting “The Swan Princess”.
It is dedicated to the character of the opera N.A.
Rimsky-Korsakov based on the well-known fairy tale by A.S.
Pushkin "The Tale of Tsar Sultan".

The fabric is just amazing.
In the picture, the author depicted the moment when the princess turns into a swan.
A very beautiful girl, turned to face us and mysteriously looks from behind.
On her head is an expensive jeweled crown.
A long veil falls from it to the floor, sparkling with jewels along the edge.
Under the veil you can see a dark thick braid.
On the face you can read sadness and loneliness.
The eyes are very expressive and you can see goodbye in them.
She must again become a lonely bird and swim sadly on the waves.
We can't see her clothes, as her whole body is already covered with feathers, only her face and hands remain.
Large wings spread out on both sides of the girl, as if they want to hide her from our eyes as soon as possible.

In the distance of the picture one can see the castle of Tsar Sultan.
This is the only brown spot in the picture.
All other colors are white and blue.
The sky in the background is dark, dark and you can see how the sea is raging, how the waves beat against the shore and foam with anger.
No one wants to part with such a beauty.
And only the fact that the Swan Princess is very bright against the whole dark background tells us that she will return to us in the form of a beauty.

Mikhail Vrubel, with his reproduction of the Swan Princess, wants to show us how beautiful our women are and despite the fact that they are fragile and defenseless, without their support and support, not a single king would have such power.