Kustodiev message. New time of Russia

Fans of Russian painting are well aware of the name of such a remarkable domestic artist as Boris Kustodiev. Consider in this article the creative biography of this person.

Boris Kustodiev: short biography, stages of creative maturity

The future artist was born in Astrakhan, in Tsarist Russia, in 1878. He came from an intelligent teacher's family. His parents loved Russian art and passed this love on to their children. The artist's father taught philosophy, logic and literature at the theological seminary. When Boris was 2 years old, his father died suddenly.

Nevertheless, the family was able to provide the boy with a decent education: he studied at the parochial school, then at the gymnasium. Boris Kustodiev received his first painting lessons at the local Astrakhan gymnasium.

In 1896, the young man entered the prestigious department. From the second year, I. E. Repin became his teacher.

In the last year of the academy, Boris Kustodiev, while working on his graduation picture in the Kostroma province, met his future wife Yu. E. Poroshinskaya. He graduated from the academy brilliantly: with a gold medal and excellent prospects.

First successes

After the wedding and the end of the course, the artist Boris Kustodiev goes on a tour abroad to get to know all the colors of European life. He visited Paris, Germany and Italy. He met famous European artists of that time, sat down to visit many art exhibitions and galleries.

Returning to Russia, Kustodiev continued to work on genre paintings. He created a series of works "Village Holidays" and "Fairs". The talent of the young man attracted the attention of his contemporaries. At the suggestion of Repin, Kustodiev was elected a professor at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, became a member of the Union of Russian Artists, and began to collaborate with many literary and art magazines.

Portraits of Kustodiev: a feature of the genre

Boris Kustodiev entered the history of Russian art primarily as a very talented portrait painter. It was he who created a whole cycle of portraits of his contemporaries, and his canvases are still considered masterworks.

Critics noted that in his art both the power of Repin's colors and plots and the subtle psychologism of Serov's paintings found their expression. However, the artist was able to create his own style: in his portraits, a person is characterized not only by his face and appearance, but also by the whole environment around him.

Consider from this point of view the famous "Merchant for Tea", written in the anxious 1918.

Everything in this picture is permeated with a sense of contentment and peace. The full face of the merchant, her bright clothes, household items surrounding her, even a cat that cuddles up to her mistress - a certain thought is felt in everything: this is both mild humor and an attempt to understand the essence of the soul of a Russian person.

In the artist's works there are many things from Russian folk popular art, and from old parsuns, and from ancient Russian fairy-tale images of people and animals.

Most famous works

In addition to the aforementioned "Merchant's Woman for Tea", the following portraits of Kustodiev received the greatest popularity: the portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin, written in 1921, the portrait of Maximilian Voloshin (1924), the painting "Bolshevik" (1920), the work "Russian Venus" (1925), the painting " Fair in Saratov.

All these canvases are imbued with a sense of the beauty of the national spirit, a feeling of deep patriotism, their characteristic features are a riot of colors and monumental images.

The great Russian singer Fyodor Chaliapin and the writer Chaliapin stand in a fur coat wide open, he is dressed like a dandy, but at the same time there is something folk, powerful and inspired in his image. Equally huge and majestic is Voloshin, whose head rests on the clouds.

In the picture "Bolshevik" the main character, depicted against the background of a bright red banner, is ready to take a swing at the temple. The growth of a Bolshevik is equal to the height of an architectural structure. Thus, the artist dismantles the man of the new era, who perceives himself as the winner of the old system and the creator of a new life.

Boris Kustodiev painted many canvases during his creative life, his paintings amaze the audience with their scope and majesty.

Illustrations for literary works and theatrical works

Kustodiev became famous as an excellent illustrator. During his life, he created many works for magazines that conveyed the image of the main characters of the works of Russian classical literature that he understood. He wonderfully illustrated the works of Leskov, drew engravings and even caricatures.

Boris Kustodiev appreciated various types of Russian art, his paintings were actively used in the theatrical environment. The talent of the artist was especially vividly embodied when creating scenery for the performances of the Moscow Art Theater. These are works based on the works of Ostrovsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin and even Zamyatin (by the way, one of the most famous portraits of Zamyatin belongs to Kustodiev's brush). His works were liked by his contemporaries for their simplicity, the power of the embodiment of the image and the magnificent selection of colors.

last years of life

Boris Kustodiev managed to do a lot in his creative life, his biography is a direct confirmation of this.

For the last 15 years of his life, the artist was confined to a wheelchair. The fact is that he was tormented by a dangerous and severe tumor of the spine, which did not respond to surgical treatment. Kustodiev was forced to write, first sitting, and then lying down.

However, he continued to engage not only in art, but also in social activities, and even in 1923 he joined the association of artists of revolutionary Russia.

Boris Mikhailovich died in 1927, was buried in Leningrad - at the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Revolutionary changes B.M. Kustodiev accepted with enthusiasm, perhaps because they saw the possibility of realizing the dream of a joyful and free life of the people. In the paintings of the post-revolutionary years, the artist seeks to generalize, capable of conveying the grandeur and grandeur of the changes in the country. He created a new image of a national hero (“Bolshevik”, 1919-1920), in 1920-1921, commissioned by the Petrograd Soviet, he painted large colorful canvases dedicated to national celebrations (“Feast in honor of the Second Congress of the Comintern on Uritsky Square” and “Night Feast on Neva").

In the same years, Kustodiev actively worked in other areas, such as book illustration, posters, sculpture for porcelain, engraving, decorative panels, and theatrical scenography. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not leave his homeland, although it was especially hard for the sick, chained artist in those difficult years. He painted his cheerful canvases in a dark Petrograd apartment, in a cold, almost unheated iron stove workshop. Death caught Boris Kustodiev on May 26, 1927, working on a sketch of the triptych "Joy of Work and Rest"...

Collection of works by B.M. Kustodiev, stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery, allows you to get a fairly complete picture of the stages of his work. Analyzing these works, very different in content and execution, we kind of look into the artist's creative laboratory, revealing for ourselves his worldview, attitude to the problems of artistic form and painting technique.

Kustodiev managed to combine in his work the national-romantic ideal of folk art with the classical tradition, he did not neglect the new that impressionism and modernity carried in themselves. His paintings are filled with luminosity, brightness of color contrasts and exquisite decorative stylization of forms; they immerse the viewer in the creative element of folk life. The artist, as it were, admires the fair, merchant Russia, inexorably fading into the past. Like other artists of the World of Art, this admiration is sometimes inseparable in Kustodiev from the subtle irony caused by the impossibility of returning the past, however, due to the originality of the national-romantic theme of his works, he is still closer to the masters of the Union of Russian Artists.

Provincial city types

Special themes in Kustodiev's work were “fairs”, “holidays”, “merchants”, “Russian Venuses”, depicted with humor and good nature, as well as theatrical and romantic paintings representing an idealized, “invented” Russian life. “They call me a naturalist,” the artist once said, “what nonsense! After all, all my paintings are a complete illusion! .. I never paint my paintings from life, it's all the fruit of my imagination, fantasy.

They are called "naturalistic" only because they give the impression of real life, which, however, I myself have never seen and which never existed. Kustodiev boldly “interfered with all styles and genres”: portrait and Volga landscapes, fabulous fantasies, grotesque, true monumentality and caricature, breadth of decorative feeling and pedantic “ethnography”, he is often said to be a generous, happy talent, sincere, temperamental, loving.

Back in the 1900s, the artist became interested in the theme of the province. The main line of genre painting of these years is connected with the types and life of a provincial town. Most clearly, the features of his talent are revealed in a series of paintings-images of "beauties", which are a generalized, collective image of female beauty. These are "Merchant's Wives" (1912), "Merchant's Woman", "Beauty", "Girl on the Volga" (all - 1915). He was also attracted by fairs and festivities, where the creative possibilities of the people were expressed especially brightly, concentrated, as if demonstrating "what they are capable of." The hero of Kustodiev's works is the mass, the festive crowd, living and acting on the streets and squares.

In the monumental depictions of “holidays”, the traditions of the popular print and high museum classics, mainly loved by the artist of the Venetians of the Renaissance, are whimsically and witty combined. Marked by a developed narrative beginning, fascinating to the eye, emotional, they represented a kind of dream about provincial Russia of the passing time - well-fed and well-groomed, bright and generous, self-satisfied and somewhat limited, about its beauties, about never boring holidays with booths, carousels, ringing bells of triples, with the sedate conversation of the old people and the cheerful dialect of the youth.

The decisive, "style-forming" influence on the artist's work was exerted by the world of the Russian village - a special, primordial, simple and healthy way of life, unaffected by the diseases of modern "urban" civilization. Folk ideas about what is “good” - a peaceful life, free work, wealth in the arrangement of everyday life, abundance born from the earth, fun and joy, physical health - are reflected in rich decorative ornamentation, colorful applied art, in folklore plots and images. .

It is these exclusively positive images that Kustodiev borrows for his canvases. It reflects the poetic beginning in folk life, bypassing everything gloomy and tragic, to which the Wanderers, as well as Nekrasov, Pisemsky and other "people's sorrowers" devoted themselves. Kustodiev did not allow “rain and mud, slush, drunken peasants, terrifying pavements ...” into his art - he saw this in life, but he preferred to create an image of joy.

As a visual material B.M. Kustodiev used many household items: painted sledges, arcs, chests, children's toys, carpets, shawls. Not a single thing is repeated, and each is created and decorated by the hands of craftsmen - Kustodiev admired all this and widely introduced it into his canvases.

Even the shop signs in Kustodiev's paintings are pictorial signs, symbols of Russian abundance. Their colorful symphonies evoke a sense of well-being, expressing folk ideas of contentment. From folk arts and crafts, ornamental ornamentation and a decorative understanding of space and form, rich saturation of color, bold combinations of local colors, breadth and freedom of a painterly stroke came to his work.

However, drawing inspiration and images from a folk source, Kustodiev reserved the right to creative fiction, to free paraphrase. He managed to recreate in his painting not the letter, but the spirit of folk art. It is no coincidence that Repin called Kustodiev "a hero of Russian painting."

A holiday embodied in colors

Kustodiev painting is both musical and literary. Like a song, a story about a beautiful and fabulously abundant life flows. His characters with naive frankness demonstrate to the audience themselves, their home, their habits and tastes; they simply tell about their uncomplicated life: what they eat and buy at the fair, how they drink tea, sleep, go to the bathhouse, trade in shops, ride troikas, have fun in booths, court, marry, die, what, finally, are their relationships with god.

Shrovetide (1916) is a painting that embodies all the beauty and multicolor of Russian life. Created by imagination and memory, it impresses with its amazing stereoscopicity, panoramic coverage of space and almost jewelery detail, which gives rise to an enchanting duality of perception - as a vision rushing in the distance and, at the same time, a precious lid of a lacquer box. To embody the brilliance of the holiday, the master finds a form close to folk art.

In this country, bewitched by frost and the setting sun, everything is permeated with movement: troikas rush, spots of bright colors flash, snow shimmers in many shades. The energy of movement and the joy of life seem to strive to disenchant the cold realm of winter. Sunset rays, dissolving in a frosty haze, acquire an enamel glow. The tents of churches and the tents of carousels are equally dear to the artist. For him, this is the personification of a single element of folk life, most clearly expressed in the celebration of Shrovetide. Kustodiev said: "The church in my picture is my signature, because it is so characteristic of Russia."

A special "Kustodian" view of the village was clearly reflected in the "Fair" (1906), which whimsically combines the techniques of folk art and passion for modernist style. Tempera "Fair", created by order of the Expedition for the Procurement of State Papers as a lubok painting for the planned series of "People's Publications". In this work, which looks like a skillful application, the author has achieved such sharpness of the characteristics and vitality of the whole, which he once only dreamed of while working on his thesis “Bazaar in the Village”.

The image of Kustodiev's "Beauty" invariably attracts the sympathy of the viewer. There is a unique charm and a kind of grace in the image of a plump blond woman with a sly and serene face sitting on a chest. In an awkward and ridiculous pose - naivety and chaste purity, in the face - kindness and gentleness. Kustodiev managed to combine the best traditions of world painting in depicting a nude model with a very “his own”, very Russian ideal of beauty.

The golden-pinkish tones in which the body is painted argue in freshness and radiance of colors with the rich satin blanket of the beauty. Surrounded by roses depicted on the chest and on the wallpaper, the young woman in all the beauty of freshness and health herself resembles a luxuriantly blossomed flower. Every detail of the furnishings, including porcelain figurines in front of the mirror, tells the attentive viewer about the uncomplicated tastes of the hostess, about the typical, "petty-bourgeois" life. A.M. really liked the canvas. Gorky, and the artist gave him one of the versions of the painting. Kustodiev is an artist of everyday genre, but he introduces a monumental, epic beginning into everyday life.

In his paintings, the scenes of harvesting, haymaking and horse grazing at night are perceived as a kind of ritual, full of high "existential" meaning. Life is interpreted as a continuous cycle, where everything is interconnected - new and old, work and rest, worries and fun. The most beautiful words of Russian folklore are applicable to the heroes of Kustodiev, any of his merchants, as in a fairy tale, and “swan”, and “princess”, and “written beauty”. They are cleansed of everything negative, kind, poetic, do not teach anyone, full of respect for the viewer and the depicted life - calm, self-sufficient, arranged according to "from the century" honored laws and traditions, although somewhat limited, which causes a slight smile from the author.

Kustodiev was born on February 23, 1879 in the glorious city of Astrakhan. His father was a teacher at one of the local gymnasiums in the city.

Shortly after the birth of his son, his father died. Boris studied at a church school, later he was educated at a gymnasium. He began to study painting professionally at the age of 15, with Pavel Alekseevich Vlasov. He studied with him for three years, before moving to St. Petersburg.

In 1896, Boris Mikhailovich moved to St. Petersburg, and entered the famous Academy of Arts. In his first year, his teacher was Savinsky, and then the famous Ilya Efimovich Repin. Kustodiev immediately showed himself to be a talented portrait painter, but for the main competitive work of the Academy of Arts, he chooses a genre theme.

In 1900, Kustodiev met his future wife, Poroshenko. Soon the young people got married. In 1903 he graduated from the Academy of Arts, and with honors, he was awarded a gold medal. The medal gave the artist the right to go on a tour of Russia and Europe. Boris Mikhailovich naturally took advantage of this right.

At the end of the same year, he and his family went on a trip. For about half a year, the artist visited France, Germany, Spain. On a trip to Europe, Kustodiev studied the artworks of various masters of art, copied them, improving his skills.

It is worth noting that Kustodiev participated in the issues of some revolutionary magazines. He is the author of many cartoons denouncing the monarchy.

From the beginning of 1906, Boris Kustodiev produced a number of paintings that highlighted the theme of the festive life of peasants, philistines and provincial merchants. Kustodiev's paintings of this period of creativity are characterized by brightness, multicolor, realism and a certain unfolding. These were the most ordinary everyday scenes, which had an unusual performance.

The artist's work has changed. The author moves away from vitality and transforms everyday pictures into theatrical ones. His characters are a collective image of a particular stratum of society.

Kustodiev is a great master of portraiture. He developed his own artistic genre of portraits. The portrait of Boris Mikhailovich was inextricably linked with the landscape or the interior. It was an obligatory and integral part of Kustodiev's portrait paintings.

Boris Mikhailovich made many works for theatrical productions. He solved decorative tasks that did not always coincide with the thoughts of the director and the author of the performances. Participated in many successful theatrical productions - "Thunderstorm", "Fleas", "Death of Pazukhin".

Kustodiev was a subtle artist, possessed a clear specific touch. Boris Mikhailovich successfully designed illustrations for the works of the classics of Russian literature, as well as for the works of his contemporaries.

In the post-revolutionary years, Kustodiev created posters and paintings on revolutionary themes. Boris Mikhailovich also participated in the design of St. Petersburg on the anniversary of the October events.

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev died in 1927 on May 26. He spent the last years of his life in a wheelchair. The artist suffered from one of the forms of tuberculosis, which led to his death.

Portrait of professor of engraving VV Mate. 1902

We all know Kustodiev from his famous merchants and Russian beauties in the body. But in addition to the "fair" period, Kustodiev had a wonderful early period (1901-1907). He wrote with a "wet" stroke, beautifully and selflessly, no worse than Sargent and Zorn. Then many artists wrote in a similar manner, Braz, Kulikov, Arkhipov. Kustodiev was better. What made him change his style of writing - unwillingness to be one of ... or maybe a tragedy and poor health, or a change in worldview that came with a change in society, a revolution ... I don’t know. But I especially love this period in Kustodiev's work.

Nun. 1908

Portrait of the Governor-General of Finland N.I. Bobrikov. 1902-1903

Portrait of P.L. Barca. 1909

Portrait of Ya.I. Lavrin. 1909

In the autumn of 1896, Kustodiev entered the school at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. In those years, the glory of both Vasnetsov and Repin was already thundering. He drew attention to a talented young man and took Repin to his workshop. He did not like to talk about his work, but he talked about his students with enthusiasm. He especially singled out Kustodiev and called the young man "a hero of painting."

According to I. Grabar, “Kustodia's portraits stood out against the backdrop of dull academic exhibitions; like the works of a master, they were in the center of attention, the author was invited to all exhibitions, he became famous.” The Italian Ministry of Arts ordered him a self-portrait, which was placed in the hall of self-portraits of artists from different eras and countries in the famous Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Along with portraits, genre paintings by Kustodiev appeared at the exhibitions. One of the main themes is noisy, crowded fairs in his native Volga cities. Kustodiev's paintings could be read as stories sparkling with humor. After all, even his graduation work at the academy was not a composition on a historical or religious theme, as was customary, but “Bazaar in the Village”, for which he received a gold medal and the right to a pensioner's trip abroad. Signs of an impending disaster that abruptly and ruthlessly changed life of Kustodiev appeared in 1909. Suddenly my hand hurt, and my fingers could not hold even a light watercolor brush. Terrible headaches began. For several days I had to lie in a darkened room, wrapping my head in a scarf. Any sound intensified the suffering. Petersburg doctors found bone tuberculosis in him and sent him to the mountains of Switzerland. Chained from neck to waist in a rigid celluloid corset, torn from an easel and paints, month after month he lay, breathing the healing mountain air of the Alps. The artist later recalled these long months "with a warm feeling, with a sense of delight in front of a creative impulse and a burning spirit." Even more surprising is that Kustodiev subsequently “translated” most of the themes and plots he had conceived onto the canvas, into real paintings.

And the disease came. It turned out to be worse than expected: a tumor of the spinal cord. He underwent a series of difficult operations that lasted several hours. In front of one of them, the professor said to his wife:
- The tumor is somewhere closer to the chest. Need to decide what to keep, arms or legs?
- Hands, leave your hands! An artist without hands? He can't live!
And the surgeon retained the mobility of his hands. Only hands. Until the end of life. From now on, his "living space" narrowed down to four walls of a cramped workshop, and the whole world that he could observe was limited to a window frame.

But the more difficult Kustodiev's physical condition was, the more selflessly he worked. During the years of immobility, he created his best things.

The Kustodiev canvases of this period are comparatively small in size, averaging one meter per meter. But not because it was tight with the canvas, paints (although this happened). It’s just that the border of the picture should have been where the brush of the artist chained to the chair reached.

Here is his Moscow Inn. Kustodiev once spied this scene in Moscow, he said: “They blew something Novgorodian, an icon, a fresco from them.” Earnestly, as if doing a prayer, Old Believer cabbies drink tea, holding saucers on straightened fingers. Dark blue caftans, rich beards of peasants, white linen clothes of sexual officers, dark red, as if shimmering background of the walls and a mass of details extracted from memory accurately convey the atmosphere of a Moscow tavern ... The son, friends, who did not leave the artist, posed as cab drivers. The son recalled how, having completed the work, Kustodiev joyfully exclaimed: “But, in my opinion, the picture came out! Oh, well done your father!” And it really is one of his best works.

Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin conceived the idea of ​​staging A. Serov's opera The Force of the Enemy at the Mariinsky Theatre. He really wanted Kustodiev to make sketches of scenery and costumes, and he himself went to the negotiations. I saw the artist in a cramped studio, which also served as a bedroom, in a wheelchair, reclining under an easel hanging over him (this is how he had to work now), and “compassionate sadness” pierced the heart of the great singer. But only in the first few minutes. Chaliapin recalled: “He struck me with his spiritual vigor. His merry eyes shone brilliantly - they had the joy of life. With pleasure, he agreed to make scenery and costumes.
- In the meantime, pose for me in this fur coat. Your fur coat is so rich. It's nice to write...

The portrait turned out to be huge - more than two meters in height. The majestic, lordly singer of Russia strides wide across the snow crust in a luxurious fur coat. There was a place in the picture for the Chaliapin family, and even for his beloved dog. Chaliapin liked the portrait so much that he also took sketches for it. In order for Kustodiev to work on such a large picture, the engineer-brother strengthened a block with a load under the ceiling. The canvas with a stretcher was suspended and it could be brought closer, further away, moved left and right. He painted the portrait in sections, not seeing the whole. Kustodiev said: “Sometimes I myself hardly believe that I painted this portrait, I worked so randomly and by touch.” And the calculation turned out to be amazing. The picture, according to the unanimous opinion of critics, has become one of the best achievements of Russian portrait art.

One of Kustodiev's latest works is Russian Venus. Well, how to believe that this full of health, superbly drawn naked young woman was created at a time when the artist said: “I am tormented at night by the same nightmare: black cats dig into my back with sharp claws and tear apart the vertebrae ...” And the right hand began to weaken and dry out. Canvas for "Venus" was not found. And he wrote it on the back of some of his old, considered unsuccessful, paintings. The family participated in the creation of the canvas. Brother Michael adapted blocks and counterweights for the canvas. Posed, as for many other canvases, daughter. For lack of a broom, she had to hold a ruler in her hands. The son whipped foam in a wooden tub so that the image of even this minor detail was close to reality. This is how this one of the most life-loving paintings was born. Until the last days of his life, Kustodiev worked tirelessly. He was busy sketching the scenery for the puppet theater for the fairy tale "The Cat, the Fox and the Rooster." On May 4, he handed over 24 (!) engravings for an exhibition at the State Russian Museum ...

Sun. Voinov, a friend of the artist, the author of the first monograph about him, wrote in his diary: “May 15. Name day at Kustodiev. He is very sick, but he was sitting in his chair. Gorbunov came to see him." And in the margins there is a postscript: “The last time I saw Boris Mikhailovich in my life.” Gorbunov was in those years the manager of the affairs of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. He came to inform Kustodiev: the government allocated money for his treatment abroad. Too late. Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev died on May 26, 1927.

BIOGRAPHY

Born into a poor family, Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev (1878-1927) was preparing to become a priest. He studied at the theological school, then at the seminary, but became interested in art, in 1896, leaving the seminary, he went to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts (AH). There he studied in the studio of Ilya Repin and succeeded so much that the head invited him to his assistant to work on the painting "Meeting of the State Council." In Kustodiev, the gift of a portrait painter was discovered, and, while still a student, he completed a number of first-class portraits - Daniil Lukich Mordovtsev, Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (all 1901), Vasily Mate (1902). In 1903, Kustodiev graduated from the Academy of Arts, having received a gold medal for his diploma painting "Bazaar in the Village" and the right to travel abroad - Kustodiev chose Paris. In Paris, the artist managed to take a closer look at French painting and really use the impressions in the beautiful painting "" (1904), but less than six months later he returned to Russia, missing his homeland.

After returning, Kustodiev very successfully tried his hand at book graphics, in particular, illustrating Nikolai Gogol's Overcoat (1905), as well as in caricature, collaborating in satirical magazines during the period of the first Russian revolution. But the main thing for him still continued to be painting. He performed a number of portraits, among which stood out "" (1909), as well as "" (1907) and "" (1908), which turned into generalized socio-psychological types. At the same time, he enthusiastically worked on paintings depicting old Russian life, mostly provincial. He drew material for them from childhood memories and impressions from his frequent stay in the Trans-Volga region, in the Kineshma district, where in 1905 he built a house-workshop. He unfolded fascinating stories full of entertaining details in the multi-figure compositions "" (1906, 1908), "Village Holiday" (1910) and recreated the characteristic Russian female types in the paintings "The Merchant", "Girl on the Volga", "" (all 1915 ), colored with admiration and soft authorial irony. His painting became more and more colorful, approaching folk art. The result was "" (1916) - an idyllic panorama of a holiday in a Russian provincial town. Kustodiev worked on this cheerful picture in extremely difficult conditions: as a result of a serious illness, he was chained to a wheelchair since 1916, he was tormented by frequent pains.

Despite this, the last decade of his life proved to be extraordinarily productive. He painted two large paintings depicting a holiday in honor of the opening of the Second Congress of the Communist International, made many graphic and pictorial portraits, made sketches of the festive decoration of Petrograd, drawings and covers for books and magazines of various contents, made wall pictures and calendar "walls", designed 11 theatrical performances. Often these were commissioned works, not very interesting for him, but he did everything at a serious professional level, and sometimes achieved outstanding results. Lithographic illustrations in the collection "Six Poems by Nekrasov" (1922), drawings for Nikolai Leskov's stories "The Darner" (1922) and "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District" (1923) became the pride of Russian book graphics, and among the performances designed by him, Evgeny's "Flea" shone Zamyatin, staged by the Moscow Art Theater 2nd in 1925 and immediately repeated by the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater.

Kustodiev managed to devote time to the innermost, continuing with nostalgic love to recreate the life of old Russia in many paintings, watercolors, and drawings. He varied the theme of Shrovetide in different ways in the paintings "" (1917), "" (1919), "Winter. Shrovetide festivities ”(1921) and even in his wonderful portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin he made the same festivities as a background. He painted the quiet life of the province in The Blue House, Autumn, Trinity Day (all 1920). In the paintings "" (1918), "" (1920), "" (1925-26) he continued the gallery of female types, begun in the old "Merchant". He completed a series of 20 watercolors "Russian Types" (1920) and resurrected his own childhood with maximum authenticity in a number of paintings, as well as in a series of "Autobiographical Drawings" (1923) - similar to sketches.

Kustodiev's energy and love of life were amazing. He, in his wheelchair, attended premieres in theaters and even made long trips around the country. The disease progressed, and in recent years the artist was forced to work on a canvas suspended above him almost horizontally and so close that he could not see what was done in its entirety. But his physical strength was running out: an insignificant cold led to pneumonia, with which his heart could no longer cope. Kustodiev was not even fifty years old when he died.

A detailed chronology of the life and work of Kustodiev can be found in the section.

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev(February 23 (March 7), Astrakhan - May 26, Leningrad) - Russian artist.

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev comes from a family of a gymnasium teacher, he began to study painting in Astrakhan with P. A. Vlasov in 1893-1896.

Biography

The father died when the future artist was not even two years old. Boris studied at the parochial school, then at the gymnasium. From the age of 15 he took drawing lessons from a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts P. Vlasov.

• - taught at the New Art Workshop (St. Petersburg).
• - Member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

• 1914 - tenement house - Ekateringofsky prospect, 105;
• 1915 - 05/26/1927 - tenement house of E. P. Mikhailov - Vvedenskaya street, 7, apt. fifty.

Illustrations and book graphics

In 1905-1907 he worked in the satirical magazines "Zhupel" (the famous drawing "Introduction. Moscow"), "Infernal Post" and "Sparks".

Subtly feeling the line, Kustodiev performed a series of illustrations for classical works and for the creations of his contemporaries (illustrations for the works of Leskov "Darner", 1922, "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", 1923).

Possessing a solid stroke, he worked in the technique of lithography and engraving on linoleum.

Painting

Kustodiev started his career as a portrait painter. Already while working on sketches for Repin's "Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901," student Kustodiev showed his talent as a portrait painter. In sketches and portrait sketches for this multi-figure composition, he coped with the task of achieving similarity with Repin's creative style. But Kustodiev the portrait painter was closer to Serov. Picturesque plasticity, a free long brushstroke, a bright characteristic of appearance, an emphasis on the artistry of the model - these were mostly portraits of fellow students and teachers of the Academy - but without Serov's psychologism. Kustodiev is incredibly fast for a young artist, but deservedly won the fame of a portrait painter from the press and customers. However, according to A. Benois:

“... the real Kustodiev is a Russian fair, motley, “big-eyed” calicos, a barbaric “fight of colors”, a Russian settlement and a Russian village, with their harmonicas, gingerbread, overdressed girls and dashing guys ... I affirm that this is his real sphere, his a real joy ... When he writes fashionable ladies and respectable citizens, it is completely different - boring, sluggish, often even tasteless. And it seems to me that it’s not about the plot, but about the approach to it.”

Already from the beginning of the 1900s, Boris Mikhailovich developed a kind of portrait genre, or rather, a portrait-picture, a portrait-type, in which the model is connected together with the landscape or interior surrounding it. At the same time, this is a generalized image of a person and his unique individuality, its disclosure through the world surrounding the model. In their form, these portraits are associated with the genre images-types of Kustodiev (“Self-portrait” (1912), portraits of A. I. Anisimov (1915), F. I. Chaliapin (1922)).

But Kustodiev's interests went beyond the portrait: it was no coincidence that he chose a genre painting for his thesis (“At the Bazaar” (1903), has not been preserved). In the early 1900s, for several years in a row, he went to field work in the Kostroma province. In 1906, Kustodiev came up with works that were new in their concept - a series of canvases on the themes of brightly festive peasant and provincial philistine-merchant life (“Balagany”, “Pancake Week”), in which features of Art Nouveau are visible. Spectacular, decorative works reveal the Russian character through the everyday genre. On a deeply realistic basis, Kustodiev created a poetic dream, a fairy tale about provincial Russian life. Great importance in these works is attached to the line, drawing, color spot, the forms are generalized and simplified - the artist turns to gouache, tempera. The artist's works are characterized by stylization - he studies the Russian parsuna of the 16th-18th centuries, popular prints, signs of provincial shops and taverns, and folk crafts.

In the future, Kustodiev gradually shifts more and more towards the ironic stylization of the folk and, especially, the life of the Russian merchants with a riot of colors and flesh (“Beauty”, “Merchant for Tea”).

Theatrical work

Like many artists of the turn of the century, Kustodiev also worked in the theater, transferring his vision of the work to the stage. The scenery performed by Kustodiev was colorful, close to his genre painting, but this was not always perceived as a merit: creating a bright and convincing world, carried away by its material beauty, the artist sometimes did not coincide with the author's intention and the director's reading of the play ("The Death of Pazukhin" by Saltykov- Shchedrin, 1914, Moscow Art Theater; Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm, which never saw the light of day, 1918). In his later works for the theater, he moves away from the chamber interpretation to a more generalized one, looking for greater simplicity, building a stage space, giving freedom to the director when building mise-en-scenes. The success of Kustodiev was his design work in 1918-20. opera performances (1920, The Tsar's Bride, Bolshoi Opera House of the People's House; 1918, The Snow Maiden, Bolshoi Theater (no production)).

The performances of Zamyatin's Fleas (1925, Moscow Art Theater 2nd; 1926, Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater) were successful. According to the memoirs of the director of the play A. D. Wild:

“It was so vivid, so precise, that my role as a director accepting sketches was reduced to zero - I had nothing to correct or reject. It was as if he, Kustodiev, had been in my heart, overheard my thoughts, read Leskovsky's story with the same eyes as me, and saw him in stage form in the same way. ... Never have I had such complete, such inspiring unanimity with the artist, as when working on the play "Flea". I knew the whole meaning of this community, when Kustodiev's farcical, bright scenery appeared on the stage, props and props made according to his sketches appeared. The artist led the whole performance, took, as it were, the first part in the orchestra, which obediently and sensitively sounded in unison.

After 1917, the artist participated in the design of Petrograd for the 1st anniversary of the October Revolution, painted posters, popular prints and paintings on revolutionary themes (“Bolshevik”, 1919-20, Tretyakov Gallery; “Celebration in honor of the 2nd Congress of the Comintern on Uritsky Square” , 1921, Russian Museum).

Literary activity

B. M. Kustodiev. Letters. Articles, notes, interviews…, [L., 1967].

Gallery

• "Introduction. Moscow» drawing
• "Morning", (1904, Russian Museum)
• "Balagany"
• "Trade fairs"
• "Shrovetide"
• self-portrait ( , Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
• "Merchant's women in Kineshma" (tempera, Museum of Russian Art in Kyiv)
• portrait of A. I. Anisimov (, Russian Museum)
• "Beauty" (1915, Tretyakov Gallery)
• "Merchant for tea" (1918, Russian Museum)
• "Bolshevik" (1919-20, Tretyakov Gallery)
• "F. I. Chaliapin at the fair "(, RM)
• "Moscow tavern" ()
• "Portrait of A.N. Protasova" ()
• "Nun" ()
• "Portrait of Ivan Bilibin" ()
• "Portrait of S.A. Nikolsky" ()
• "Portrait of Vasily Vasilyevich Mate" ()
• "Self-portrait" ()
• "Portrait of a woman in blue" ()
• "Portrait of the writer A.V. Schwartz" ()
• "Fair" ()
• "Zemskaya school in Moscow Russia" ()
• "Portrait of Irina Kustodieva with the dog Shumka" ()
• "Nun" ()
• "Portrait of N.I. Zelenskaya" ()
• "Freezing day" ()
• “Portrait of N.K. von Mecca "()
• "Portrait of Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich" ()
• "Harvest" ()
• “Illustration for the story by N.S. Leskov “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” ()
• "Village holiday. Fragment" ()
• "At the icon of the Savior" ()
• “Square on the outskirts of the city. Sketch of the scenery for the play by A.N. Ostrovsky "Hot Heart" "()
• "Red Tower of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra" ()

see also

• Astrakhan Art Gallery named after P. M. Dogadin (formerly named after B. M. Kustodiev)

Notes

Bibliography

• Warriors V. B. M. Kustodiev. - L., 1925.
• Knyazeva V.P. Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev: (1878-1927), exhibition catalog / State Russian Museum; [ed. foreword]. - L .: State. Russian Museum, 1959. - 117, p., l. ill., port.
• Etkind M. B. M. Kustodiev. - L. - M., 1960.
• Lebedeva V. E. Kustodiev: Painting. Picture. Theatre. Book. Print. - M .: Nauka, 1966. - 244 p. - 10,000 copies.(in lane, superregional)
• Savitskaya T. A. B. M. Kustodiev. - M .: Art, 1966. - 148, p. - 25,000 copies.(region, superregion)
• Etkind M. G. Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev. - L.: Artist of the RSFSR, 1968. - 64 p. - (People's Art Library). - 20,000 copies.(reg.)
• Alekseeva A. I. The sun on a frosty day: (Kustodiev) / Drawings in the text and on the tab by B. Kustodiev; Cover and titles by the artist B. Ardov .. - M .: Young Guard, 1978. - 176, p. - (Pioneer means first. Issue 60). - 100,000 copies.(in trans.)
• Lebedeva V. E. Kustodiev: Time. Life. Creation. - L .: Children's literature, 1984. - 160 p. - 75,000 copies.(in trans.)
• Turkov A. M. Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev. - M .: Art, 1986. - 160, p. - (Life in art). - 100,000 copies.
• Bogdanov-Berezovsky V. M. Kustodiev // Meetings. - M .: Art, 1967. - S. 159-190. - 280 s. - 25,000 copies.

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Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev Self-portrait (1912) Date of birth: February 23 (March 7), 1878 Place of birth ... Wikipedia

Kustodiev, Boris Mikhailovich- Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev. KUSTODIEV Boris Mikhailovich (1878-1927), Russian painter. Colorful scenes of peasant and provincial bourgeois and merchant life (Fair series), portraits (Chaliapin, 1922), illustrations, theatrical ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

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