A million scarlet roses, or who was the woman who ruined the artist Niko Pirosmani. Niko Pirosmani - primitive artist

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

What's happening to us
when do we dream?
Artist Pirosmani
comes out of the wall

From the framework of the primitive,
out of all the fuss
and sells paintings
for a meal...
Bulat Okudzhava/Song about the artist Pirosmani

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

Little Niko was only 8 years old when he was orphaned. One by one, his parents, older brother and sister died. He and his sister Pepuza were left alone in the whole wide world. The girl was taken to the village by distant relatives, and Nikolai ended up in a rich and friendly family of landowners Kalantarovs. For many years he lived in the strange position of half-service, half-relative. The Kalantarovs fell in love with the "unrequited" Niko, they proudly showed the guests his drawings, taught the boy Georgian and Russian letters and honestly tried to attach him to some craft, but the "unrequited" Niko did not want to grow up ...

Continuation:

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

And Niko makes another attempt to become a good citizen. He opens a dairy shop. A cute cow flaunts on the sign, milk is always fresh, sour cream is undiluted - things are going very well. Pirosmanishvili is building a house for his sister in his native Mirzaani and even covers it with an iron roof. It is unlikely that he could have imagined that his museum would someday be in this house. Trade is a completely unsuitable occupation for an artist... Basically, Dimitra, a companion of Pirosmanishvili, was engaged in the affairs of the shop.

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

The romantic story is:
This summer morning was no different at first. Still inexorably, flaming everything around, the sun rose from Kakheti, the donkeys tied to telegraph poles sobbed in the same way. The morning was still slumbering in one of the alleys in Sololaki, a shadow lay on the low-rise wooden houses gray from time to time. In one of these houses, small windows on the second floor were open, and behind them Margarita slept, covering her eyes with reddish eyelashes. In general, the morning would really be the most ordinary, if you didn’t know that it was the morning of Niko Pirosmanishvili’s birthday, and if on that very morning carts with a rare and light load did not appear in a narrow alley in Sololaki. The carts were loaded to the top with cut flowers splashed with water. It made it look like the flowers were covered in hundreds of tiny rainbows. The carts stopped near Margaret's house. The arborists, talking in an undertone, began to remove armfuls of flowers and dump them on the pavement and pavement at the threshold. It seemed that carts brought flowers here not only from all over Tiflis, but also from all over Georgia. The laughter of the children and the exclamations of the hostesses woke Margarita. She sat up in bed and sighed. Entire lakes of smells - refreshing, gentle, bright and tender, joyful and sad - filled the air. Excited, Margarita, still not understanding anything, quickly dressed. She put on her best, richest dress and heavy bracelets, tidied up her bronzed hair and, dressing, smiled, she herself did not know what. She guessed that this holiday was arranged for her. But by whom? And on what occasion?
At this time, the only person, thin and pale, decided to cross the border of flowers and slowly walked through the flowers to Margarita's house. The crowd recognized him and fell silent. It was a beggar artist Niko Pirosmanishvili. Where did he get so much money to buy these snowdrifts of flowers? So much money! He walked towards Margarita's house, touching the walls with his hand. Everyone saw how Margarita ran out of the house to meet him - no one had ever seen her in such a brilliance of beauty - she hugged Pirosmani by the thin, sore shoulders and clung to his old chekmen and for the first time kissed Niko firmly on the lips. Kissed in the face of the sun, sky and ordinary people.
Some people turned away to hide their tears. People thought that great love will always find its way to the beloved, even if the heart is cold. Niko's love did not subdue Margarita. So, at least, everyone thought. But still it was impossible to understand whether this was really so? Niko himself couldn't say that. Soon Margarita found herself a rich lover and fled with him from Tiflis.
The portrait of the actress Margarita is a witness of beautiful love. A white face, a white dress, touchingly outstretched arms, a bouquet of white flowers - and white words laid at the feet of the actress ... “I forgive with white,” Pirosmani said.

Nicholas finally broke with the shop and became a wandering painter. His last name was increasingly pronounced shortly - Pirosmani. Dimitra appointed his companion a pension - a ruble a day, but Niko did not always come for money. More than once he was offered shelter, a permanent job, but Niko always refused. Finally, Pirosmani came up with what he thought was a good way out. He began to paint bright signs for dukhans for several dinners with wine and several dinners. He took part of his earnings in money to buy paints and pay for the night. He worked unusually quickly - it took Niko several hours for ordinary paintings and two or three days for large works. It is now that his paintings are worth millions, and during his lifetime the artist received ridiculously little for his work.
More often they paid him with wine and bread. “Life is short, like a donkey’s tail,” the artist liked to repeat and worked, worked, worked ... He painted about 2,000 paintings, of which no more than 300 survived. the pictures were just painted over.

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

Niko Pirosmani is an artist whose life is practically not documented anywhere, as if there was no such person at all. But he was. He was and created his uncomplicated and piercing paintings as simply as he lived.

Childhood and youth

So far, it has not been possible to establish exactly in what year the Georgian artist Pirosmani was born. Art historians suggest that this happened in 1862. Niko Piromanoshvili lived in a poor peasant family in the village of Mirzaani. He was the youngest child and helped his father with the housework. However, the work on the ground did not capture him. He devoted every free minute to drawing. He recreated on old wrapping paper with the help of a pencil stub everything that surrounded him: bunches of grapes, a cracked jug, a short dog ...

At the age of eight, the boy loses his father, and soon his mother and older brother. Since then, he has earned his living on his own. He walks around the surrounding villages and is interrupted by small part-time jobs. Naturally, in such a difficult life situation, there could be no talk of any education, and even more so artistic. However, Niko still learned to read Russian and Georgian.

Path to art

From his youth, the future artist Niko Pirosmani took painting lessons from itinerant masters. From them he adopted the ability to paint signs for shops and taverns. In the 1980s, Niko made an attempt to open a painting workshop with his friend, also an artist. However, this idea failed miserably: there were practically no orders and the workshop had to be closed.

Having accumulated a small capital, working as a conductor on the railway, Pirosmani invests in the dairy trade. However, Niko was a creative person, trade was alien to him. But he received a small income from a dairy shop, and his entrepreneurial attempts ended there.

The beginning of the 20th century became a whole era in the work of Pirosmani. The artist devotes himself entirely to art. He again returns to the manufacture of signs, and is also fond of creating decorative panels. It was during this period that Niko painted a lot on oilcloth with the help of self-made paints. He was especially successful with black. Pirosmani added furnace soot, an infusion of oak bark and a couple of drops of oil to the ashes. Oilcloths were white or black. And where it was necessary to display these shades, he simply left unpainted areas. So the artist developed one of his unique techniques. It looks especially impressive in portraits, giving the picture an extraordinary depth and poignancy.

First successes

In the tenth years of the XX century, Niko was noticed in professional circles. Futurist artist Kirill Zdanevich acquires a large number of paintings by Pirosmani, some of them were commissioned. Kirill's brother, Ilya, published an article about Niko called "Nugget Artist" in the local newspaper. And already in March 1913, self-taught paintings were exhibited at an exhibition in Moscow. Of course, this was not a personal exhibition, but nevertheless a personal grandiose success for a poor peasant from a Georgian village.

In 1916, they finally managed to arrange an exhibition where Pirosmani's works were presented exclusively. The nugget gained some notoriety. He was invited to the Society of Georgian Artists, his works began to be bought for private collections. However, despite this, the artist Pirosmani, whose name became associated with authentic creativity, died in poverty and poverty.

Footprint in art

Primitivism - the style of painting characteristic of the artist Pirosmani - is the artistic embodiment of children's drawings. Naive in their execution and honest in their emotional component, these paintings do not carry anything pompous, superfluous, superficial. Only the simplicity of perception of life, whatever it may be. Niko drew quickly. Could create a painting in just a few days. He did not like to correct or modify anything in the work - as it turned out, it turned out.

The main motives in the work of Niko Pirosmani are animalistic. The artist depicted animals with the look of human eyes, touching, on which, it seems, tears are about to well up. Niko's friends claimed that, depicting animals, Pirosmani actually draws himself more than a giraffe or a lamb. Due to the fact that they were performed in an original technique, the animals looked especially defenseless and lonely.

Also one of the favorite themes was the image of feasts and feasts. Rich tables are bursting with food, wine flows like water, people have fun, forgetting about the hardships of life. All this had a huge contrast with the realities of the artist's life - poor, hungry, lonely. Pirosmani also drew portraits, but often not from life, but simply redrawn the image from a photograph.

Not many works by the hand of a self-taught artist have survived. Basically, we can appreciate the work of Pirosmani by his signs for shops and taverns.

The most famous paintings

Niko Pirosmani is an artist whose paintings amaze with their poignancy. "The Actress Marguerite" is a work that was once exhibited in the Louvre. They say that even the Frenchwoman herself, depicted on the canvas, came to the exhibition and looked at the picture for a long time, without taking her eyes off. The artist emphasized the elegance of the actress's legs, the girl's thin waist. With great love, he portrayed Margarita, for whom he once took a desperate step.

The work “The Childless Millionaire and the Poor with Children” seems to show what true wealth is. The dry stumps of the trees in the background emphasize the meaninglessness of life, which cannot be immortalized in posterity.

In the painting "Grape Harvest" you can see the artistic development of Pirosmani. He applied the technique of depicting perspective - vineyards stretching into the distance, emphasizing the fertile, rich Georgian land. The artist also painted light breaking through the leaves - an attempt to play with light and shadow.

What was he like?

The artist Pirosmani, whose name is now known to the whole world, was a mystery to his contemporaries and remained an unsolved mystery for us. In the late 1910s, admirers of the artist's work began to walk around the village and collect information about him in order to compile, if not a biography, then at least an approximate portrait of Niko. From the reviews of the peasants, we know that Pirosmani had an explosive character and an unbalanced disposition. Straightforward, emotional, desperate. Neighbors said that the artist had seven Fridays a week, as if he were not of this world. Such gossip was reinforced by the stories of Niko himself that he sees the saints and his brush "paints by itself."

tangled trail

It is known that the artist corresponded with his sister, but these letters have not been preserved. They were burned by the girl herself, apparently frightened by the fact that in the nearby villages strangers began to ask more and more questions about her brother.

It is said that Niko had a notebook with which he never parted and constantly made notes in it. But even during the life of the artist, these notes were lost somewhere. And only shortly before his death, Pirosmani met educated people who understood the value of Niko's life and recorded the events of meeting with him and personal impressions.

• In 1969, the Louvre hosted a solo exhibition by Niko Pirosmani.
• The story of the unhappy love of a poor artist from the song "A Million Scarlet Roses" was taken from the life of Niko Pirosmani. The artist spent all his savings to give gifts to the French actress Marguerite de Sèvres who arrived in Tiflis.
• Mount Arsenal at Night sold for $1.2 million at Christie's. The work was presented in the "Russian Art" section, which caused discontent among the Georgian community.
• The artist Pirosmani, whose biography is filled with tragic moments, inspired the work of many creators. Three films have been made about him (one of them is a short). Niko was dedicated to poems by Bulat Okudzhava, Andrey Voznesensky,

There is almost no official information about the life of Niko Pirosmani (Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanashvili). Even the exact date of his birth is unknown. It is only known that he was born in 1862 in Kakheti in the village of Mirzaani into a peasant family. He was the youngest child in a family of four children - Niko, his two sisters and brother. When the boy was 8 years old, his father died, and soon after his mother and older brother died.

In 1870 Niko moved to Tiflis. There he will learn to read and write in Georgian and Russian, although he never received any systematic education. And the boy really liked to draw. Therefore, he studied painting with itinerant artists who painted signs for shops and dukhans.

In the mid-1880s, Niko, together with the artist Gigo Zaziashvili, a self-taught artist like himself, opened a decorative painting workshop in Tiflis. According to rumors, they completed the first sign for free, but did not receive other orders.

In 1890, Pirosmani went to work as a brake conductor on the railway, where he was repeatedly fined for various violations. Therefore, on January 17, 1894, he resigned of his own free will. He invested his severance pay in the dairy trade and, together with his partner Dimitre Alugishvili, opened a dairy shop, for which he painted two signs "White Cow" and "Black Cow".

Tiflis
Niko Pirosmani

Niko himself, however, did not show much interest in trade, he often left the shop, went to Mirzaani to visit relatives. As they would say now: he did not have an entrepreneurial streak.

In the late 1890s, Niko's companion, Dimitre Alugishvili, gave him a ruble a day to live on.
Around 1900, Pirosmani stopped trading and began to earn his living by painting.

Among people who personally knew Pirosmani, he received a reputation as a person with an unstable psyche, with whom it was impossible to deal with. This was facilitated by his assertions that he sees the saints, and his brush "writes by itself." Everyone around him considered him a man not of this world.

Since 1895, Niko Pirosmani has been writing a lot, creating signs and decorative panels for trade establishments.
In most cases, he painted with paints of his own making on a black or white oilcloth taken from the table.

Until 1912, Pirosmani had no contact with representatives of the artistic world of Tbilisi.

In the summer of 1912, the futurists brothers poet Ilya and artist Kirill Zdanevichi, as well as their friend, artist Mikhail Le-Dantyu, noticed and began to promote Pirosmani's work.
Kirill Zdanevich purchased a large number of paintings from Pirosmani, many of which the artist made to order. On February 10, 1913, Ilya Zdanevich published in the newspaper "Transcaucasian speech" an article about the work of Pirosmanashvili under the title "Artist-Nugget".

On March 24, 1913, an exhibition of paintings by futurist artists "Target" opened in Moscow on Bolshaya Dmitrovka, where, along with works by famous artists, several paintings by Pirosmani brought from Tbilisi by Ilya Zdanevich were exhibited.

Around the same time, young Georgian artists became interested in the work of Niko Pirosmani. Some of them even began to collect collections of his works.

In August 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War, dry law was introduced in Russia. The financial situation of Pirosmani, already unsplendid, deteriorated significantly, since a significant part of Niko's income was the manufacture of signs for drinking establishments.

Portrait of Ilya Zdanevich
Niko Pirosmani

On May 5, 1916, a one-day exhibition of Pirosmani's works was held in the workshop of Kirill Zdanevich in Tiflis. The exhibition had some success, and in the same year it was decided to invite Niko Pirosmanashvili to the newly created Society of Georgian Artists.
After that, Pirosmani became quite popular - the public became interested in his painting in Tiflis, collectors of his paintings appeared. Which, however, had almost no effect on the financial situation of the artist - until the end of his life, most of the time he lived in complete poverty, spent the night in basements.

Niko Pirosmani died in Tiflis on May 5, 1918 from hunger and illness. He spent three days in the basement of house 29 on Molokan street. When he was discovered, he was taken to the hospital, and a day and a half later, Niko Pirosmani died.
It is not even known where his grave is.

Already in Soviet times, when there was interest in the work of primitive artists, there was an attempt to find the artist's grave. Some old resident of Tbilisi undertook to show Pirosmani's burial place at the cemetery. What was his embarrassment when, after opening the grave, it turned out that the skeleton lying in it was female.

Photographs of Tiflis 1896-1900

It was in such Tbilisi that my maternal grandfather Ivan (Ivane) Petrovich Beridze was born in 1895 - a soldier of three wars: World War I, civilian on the side of the Red Army and the Great Patriotic War, who, like all my relatives of the older generation, rests in an abandoned Orthodox cemetery in the city of Grozny, where fate brought him after the civil war.
This whole story is dedicated not only to the artist Pirosmani, but also to the blessed memory of my wise grandfather Vanya.

Pirosmani
Nodar Gigauri to lyrics by Lado Asatiani
Sings - Ensemble "Orera"

Pirosmani
Lado Asatiani

Translation from Georgian
Ekaterina Sosevich-Karpenko

Every Georgian is young, whether old in years;
Every girl, woman is a mother
They know him, and they cannot help but know!
Pirosmani lived in lovely Tbilisi...

He died - and the world admires him!
He was not recognized during his lifetime, unfortunately ...
In the morning he nods to me from the canvases: "Hello!" -
Glorious Niko was my neighbor ...

He is like crazy, not sleeping, tired,
Like a sleepwalker in the dark of night
Glorified beauties with his palette -
Often hungry, and rarely drunk...

He painted clouds above
The vines and waters of Mtkvari in the fog...
Dear Tbilisi, where Pirosmani lived,
I have loved since childhood!

The paintings of Niko Pirosmani are distinguished by their special style - this is a discreet palette, where there is no variegated color, where bright colors are rarely found, but if they do occur, then these colors are deep and pure. Since Niko painted his paintings on white or black oilcloth, when he needed black or white paint, he simply did not sketch the oilcloth, so a very interesting visual effect was obtained from the specific black or white color of the oilcloth itself.

Another distinguishing feature of his painting is genre. Take a closer look at his portraits - after all, these are everyday sketches, no artificiality and pomposity - the artist's brush captured all these characters at a time when they were doing their usual things.

Everything that Niko Pirosmani painted is still a source of inspiration for other artists and sculptors today. Here is such a sculpture of a janitor (photo on the right) stands on Nikoloso Baratashvili Avenue in Tbilisi.
Do you recognize? After all, this is a copy of "Janitor with a stick" by Niko Pirosmani (illustration of the picture in the top running line).

"Pirosmani" - a feature film shot at the film studio "Georgia-Film" (1969)

It was love at first sight. One single meeting, one declaration of love. But what! To this day, there is no other lucky woman who, waking up in the morning, saw a sea of ​​flowers under her windows. This is how the Tbilisi artist Niko Pirosmani declared his love to Marguerite de Sèvres, a French dancer. It would seem that a good plot for a happy story. But alas ... They went through life each in their own way.

The life of the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani is surrounded by legends that were composed by his friends and admirers. One of them - about the artist's love for the dancer - has become a symbol of selfless unrequited love. Niko fell in love with the beautiful image, which melted into the misty distance without a trace. A fleeting meeting ruined his life - a short moment of happiness turned into years of longing and wandering. We remember Niko Pirosmani not only because of his original talent and rich creative heritage. Few people remain indifferent to the story of a poor artist who gave his beloved a million roses. She inspires lovers to cute folly and gives women hope.

Born an artist

In 1862, in the east of Georgia, in the Kakhetian village of Mirzaani, a fourth child was born into a poor peasant family - the son of Niko (Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanashvili). The boy had an older brother and sisters. From childhood, Niko helped his father to cultivate the land, and as soon as he had a free minute, he rushed to the house, where a stub of a pencil and a piece of paper were waiting for him. The child diligently wrote out various utensils, animals, people - the artist woke up in him. Relatives did not approve of Niko's hobby, but he stubbornly continued painting experiments.

Hard peasant labor soon drove his father into a coffin, he died when Niko was barely 8 years old. After the death of the breadwinner of the family, sister Mariam, who got married and moved to Tiflis (Tbilisi), took her younger brother to her. The boy liked the capital, but he did not have a chance to live here for long. His sister soon died, and Niko returned to his native village. But troubles continued to haunt the Pirosmanashvili family - mother and brother George died. There was no place for the orphaned boy in the house of the second married sister, and he was left completely alone. But the world is not without good people. The orphan was warmed by the wealthy Armenian Kalantarov family, whose father Niko worked as a gardener in the last years of his life. The Kalantarovs lived in Tbilisi, and together with the newfound brothers and sisters, Niko again ended up in the beloved city. And since then, the names of Pirosmani and the city are inextricably linked, the townspeople pass on legends about their beloved Niko from generation to generation. And we already, perhaps, will not be given to find out what is true in them, and what is fiction.

Life in the Kalantarov family was cheerful and carefree. Niko was taught Russian and Georgian literacy, they wanted to give him the skills of some kind of craft, but only drawing still occupied all his thoughts. Sometimes he took lessons from itinerant painters, who shared simple tricks of craftsmanship. Often Niko alone went for a walk around the city, on the streets of which he drew subjects for his canvases.

The Kalantarovs became very attached to Niko and proudly showed all the guests the creations of their named son and brother. The boy also had tender feelings for benefactors, especially for one of them. He fell in love with the eldest daughter of the Kalantarovs, Elizabeth, with all his heart. Niko lived in a foster family for almost 15 years. And when he was 27 years old, he decided to open his heart to Elizabeth and asked for her hand. And then it became clear that the common childhood and long years of life under one roof did not destroy the class barriers. They didn’t openly tell the young man, but they subtly made it clear that a peasant son without a penny in his pocket should not dream of a rich heiress ... (True, there is an opinion that Elizabeth refused Pirosmani because she considered him a brother.) The girl’s refusal deeply hurt Niko, who had to say goodbye to the dream of happy love. He could no longer remain in a strange house among people who refused to recognize him as an equal. The guy recovered wherever his eyes looked. From that day on, he never saw the Kalantarovs. Niko supported himself by odd jobs and dreamed of opening a painting studio in order to earn a living doing what he loves. But customers were in no hurry to him. And Niko went to work for the railroad. Constant traveling took the artist away from the brush with paints, besides, Niko turned out to be too absent-minded for such responsible work - he constantly hovered in the clouds. Unable to pull the plug any longer, Niko quit his job and bought a dairy shop with his savings and severance pay. Pirosmani asked an old friend to run business in the shop, while he himself devoted himself entirely to painting. He tirelessly painted pictures and sold them, often for so little money that it did not cover the cost of paint. Niko also drew for friends and acquaintances. Sometimes he refused cash payment and asked to buy good paints for him.

The small people of Tbilisi sincerely fell in love with the artist, he made many friends. A laconic and rather reserved person, in the circle of friends Niko was transformed and had long conversations with them. But sometimes he suddenly fell silent, became thoughtful, his gaze rushed into the distance. Then he went up to the workshop, where the next creation was born. Niko painted lonely people with inexplicable longing in his eyes. He himself remained endlessly alone in the many-voiced city, in the noisy crowd of friends and acquaintances.
But attacks of melancholy gave way to fun, and Niko went to the Ortachala Gardens - the place where the entertainment establishments of Tbilisi were concentrated. Fortunately, there was money in his pockets, he even thought about buying a small house on the outskirts of Tbilisi. But these plans were forgotten on a beautiful spring day when Niko met love. And lost his head.

Fragrant gift of love

Tbilisi at the beginning of the 20th century was famous as a place where one could see the performances of European celebrities. In March 1909, posters appeared on the streets of the city, inviting the public to the performance of the French theater of miniatures "Belle Vu". The organizers of the tour considered the beautiful dancer and chansonnier Marguerite de Sevres to be a special bait. Pirosmani was feasting with friends that evening in the Ortochal garden, and then they all went to a variety show together. Niko lazily entered the hall... and froze. An elegant girl with a charming gentle voice, sparkling eyes and a wasp waist sang and danced on the stage. The hall was bathed in the charm of Margarita, from whom, it seemed, a radiance emanated. The evening passed in a blur. After the concert, Pirosmani drank, sang and had fun. But it was clear that he was sharpened by a hidden thought. Suddenly, as if deciding on something, Niko left his friends and disappeared into the night. The artist's friends could not even imagine what he had in mind.

The next morning, Tbilisi froze in surprise, not understanding what was happening. A procession, wrapped in a wondrous aroma, stretched along the street. Nine wagons were carrying piles of various colors to the temporary shelter of Margarita. Arriving at the dancer's house, the drivers began to slowly unload their unusual load. In a few moments the gray pavement turned into a marvelous flowery carpet. The townspeople timidly stopped, afraid to trample on the tender message of love.

“It seemed that the carts brought flowers here not only from all over Tiflis, but also from all over Georgia… No one dared to be the first to step on this flowering carpet, which reached people to their very knees… There were no flowers here! It's pointless to list them! Late Iranian lilac. There, in each cup, a small drop of cold moisture was hidden, like a grain of sand ... A thick acacia with petals shimmering with silver. Wild hawthorn - its smell was the stronger, the stony was the soil on which it grew. Delicate blue veronica, begonia and many colorful anemones. Graceful beauty honeysuckle in pink smoke, red funnels of morning glory, lilies, poppy that always grows on the rocks exactly where even the smallest drop of bird blood has fallen, nasturtium, peonies and roses, roses, roses of all sizes, all smells, all colors - from black to white and from gold to pale pink, like the early dawn. And thousands of other flowers,” Konstantin Paustovsky described the unusual gift of the artist in his Tale of Life. This legend lived in the memory of Tbilisi residents, and decades later they willingly shared their memories of their favorite Niko, supplementing it with new details. The subsequent events are presented in different ways by the narrators. According to one version, that day Pirosmani again arranged a fun feast for friends, although he himself remained tense. When they brought him an invitation from Margarita, touched by the generous gift, to visit her, he refused. After some time, the artist nevertheless decided to visit Mademoiselle de Sevres, but the bird had already flown away in the company of a rich patron. According to the version told by Paustovsky, on that spring morning, Margarita, awakened by laughter and admiring exclamations coming from the street, looked out the window and was stunned. She immediately, dressed up as if for a holiday, ran downstairs and froze in front of a sea of ​​flowers. Then a man with sad eyes approached her from the other end of the fragrant carpet, and Margarita understood everything. She hugged him and kissed him in gratitude. But the love of the poor artist did not find a response in her soul. Shortly after this single meeting, Margarita left Tbilisi.

Niko Pirosmani became a beggar. The artist sold his shop to buy all the flowers in the city for the woman he loves. And again his dream crumbled to dust. Love did not find shelter in his house, and without it, Niko's life lost its meaning. He wandered the streets of Tbilisi and became addicted to drinking. The artist spent the night with kind people, and sometimes even on the street. The broken heart had one consolation - painting. Pirosmani did not stop writing - at the behest of the soul and fulfilling orders. True, the hobby did not bring income. He often gave away work as payment for an overnight stay, food, a glass of vodka. Niko avoided people and did not have intimate conversations with anyone else. Constant deprivation, cold and hunger did their dirty deed - Niko became seriously ill and stopped appearing in public. Just then, a vague time of change came, and the artist's friends lost sight of him. When they missed, they could not find Niko for a long time. Finally, someone found him in a damp, dark basement. Pirosmani was dying. The artist was taken to the hospital, where he died on May 5, 1918. They buried the great son of Georgia as an unknown poor man, his grave is lost.

Farewell with tears

This story was continued 50 years later. By that time, the name of Niko Pirosmani had been extracted from oblivion, although his works caused fierce controversy, they were talked about. The original talent of the artist was recognized, exhibitions of his works were held throughout the USSR and abroad. In 1959, Pirosmani's paintings went to Paris, to the Louvre.

Crowds of art lovers flocked to the palace. And among them was an elderly woman who froze in front of the painting "Actress Margarita". She looked and looked, and then bent down and kissed the canvas. It was Marguerite de Sevres - she greeted her knight and said goodbye to him. Beloved woman Niko Pirosmani visited the exhibition every day - she stood at her portrait for a long time, and tears flowed down her cheeks. Margarita missed true love - such that one in a million.

Perhaps there was no this belated meeting with fate. But the legend lives on...

The Georgian artist Pirosmani lived a short life, approximately 55-56 years old. Little attention was paid to him. The facts are not confirmed by documents, but by approximate stories of eyewitnesses. Therefore, the biography of Pirosmani has become overgrown with fiction, and we have no choice but to follow the legendary outline. The style of his work is called primitivism. There is no derogatory meaning in this word. It simply means "primary". After all, he is just a brilliant self-taught artist who did not study anywhere, but simply took paints and painted, as children do.

Signboard

Let's look at one of Pirosmani's masterpieces. The artist painted a sign for the Zakatala pub. It was painted in oil on oilcloth at an unknown time. The work is full of obscure charm. Either due to color, or due to the phaeton and the carriage with passengers drawn by horses in the foreground, or perhaps because of the largest inscription, made in red raised letters on a white background.

Two carriages are driving towards each other on the green grass. Behind them, the white background of the inscription spills like a lake. In the distance, against the background of the mountains, a peasant cart is riding, which is harnessed by oxen, and even further away you can see a horseman on a horse. And above all the dark, but joyful landscape in the background, the sky is blue with a full moon. She illuminates a distant city, bathed in her silvery light. However, against the background of the mountains, the red sun shines with rays departing from it. You might think that the pub is open around the clock. Admiration is the main thing that can be said about this sign.

What do we know about Niko's childhood and youth?

Turning over all the archives, art historians suggested that Niko Pirosmani was born in 1862. Nothing can be reliably said about him by dates, this is only an assumption. This event took place in a large peasant family in the village of Mirzaani. Niko was the youngest of four children. He was seven or eight years old when his father died, then his mother and older brother. Perhaps two sisters survived. The little boy was taken to the neighboring village of Shulaveri by the widow of a manufacturer from Baku, E. Kalantarova. He spent about 15 years in this family, learned to read and write in Georgian and Russian. It is believed that for a short time he returned to his sister in Mirzaani and was a shepherd. Together with his son Georgy Kalantarova, Niko left for Tiflis, where he learned to work in a printing house. Then he left there and lived in the house of his brother Kalantarova. From wandering artists, he learned how to handle paints and paint signs for dukhans and shops. He also visited the zoo. Let's see how Pirosmani worked. The artist often painted animals. He has the king of beasts, a noble deer in the background of a landscape, a simple cock family in the village, a clean pig with piglets. Behind the naivety of Pirosmani's works, the paintings hide sadness and sadness, joy and anxiety.

"Giraffe"

The artist dreamed of giving freedom to everyone, and he painted a giraffe without a cage. How can one not remember N. Gumilyov.

Somewhere far, far away on Lake Chad, an exquisite giraffe roams. He is slender and graceful. Its skin is decorated with a magical pattern. Only the moon dares to equal it when it breaks and sways in the waters of deep lakes. Sad, sad and full of silent question is the look of the large eyes of the giraffe Pirosmani. The artist wrote that he remembers the smell of unthinkable herbs, about his smooth and joyful run among them - this colored ship of the savannas. Only the azure sky reminds the captured and caged giraffe of his homeland.

Independent earnings

For four years, Niko worked on the railroad as a conductor and in repair shops. At this time, a magnificent vagabond storyteller came there. His name was Alyosha Peshkov. His stories captivated all who heard him. He was prompted to write down his stories. So Makar Chudra appeared in print, and a great Russian writer was born. Niko broke the rules: he was late and skipped. He was fined, and finally he quit himself. He was given a severance pay, and together with a friend, an aspiring artist, who had not yet fully found himself, opened a shop selling milk. At the same time, he saved up some money and built a house in Mirzaani. For the shop, Niko drew two signs with a black and a white cow. For six years Niko struggled with trading, almost quitting it. The companion gave him one ruble every day. Finally, he abandoned trade for good and began to do what his soul was drawn to - painting. This happened in 1900.

Freelancer

The long-awaited, albeit impoverished, freedom for Pirosmani has come. The pictures that he quickly drew for the dukhans, he sold very cheaply. For only thirty rubles, sometimes for lunch, dinner, or just a glass of chacha.

Most often he painted for Bego Yaksiyev. He lived with him for several years.

Later, Pirosmani will paint the painting "Bego Company" - a feast at the set table. According to one of the assumptions, the person who raised the fish high is a self-portrait.

For the son of the Eldorado steward, who stood in a large amusement park, Niko Pirosmani painted a magnificent lion on a black oilcloth.

Black royal lion

It strikes with grandeur and restraint of colors. There are not many of them: only four or five. Black oilcloth serves as a background, and all shades of the king of beasts shining in the sunset rays are made with whitewash. A painter from God understood color no worse than artists who graduated from academies.

A bronze body filled with unspent power, formidable fangs, a magnificent mane, and at the same time the saddest eyes. This picture is a masterpiece of Pirosmani, nowadays it is connected with thefts and scandals, lawsuits in the court of heirs. While she is still in Moscow. It is not known when she will return to her homeland, and according to auction estimates, she is worth more than one million dollars. That was the gift Pirosmani had. Paintings during his lifetime, few people appreciated, and even more so - understood. The exception is the collector Kirill Zdanevich, but we will talk about him a little later.

Fantastic love story

In 1905, or perhaps in 1909, the beautiful Frenchwoman Marguerite de Sevres came to Tiflis on tour. She entertained the metropolitan audience with her singing and dancing. This is a historical character. Her photographs and posters have been preserved. True, in modern France they know nothing about it. It is also assumed that a beautiful love story for her by Pirosmani was invented by the romantic K. Paustovsky. He arrived in Tiflis when the artist himself was no longer alive. But, one way or another, we will have to tell this story, which is like a beautiful dream, the awakening from which was tragic. Pirosmani attended the performance of Margarita. He was shocked. Where he took the money is unknown, but in the morning the entire pavement and sidewalk in front of the house where Margarita lived were littered with flowers of all kinds: lilacs, acacia, anemones, poppies, peonies, lilies, honeysuckle, begonias, hawthorns.

Amazed, Margarita sent a note and a ticket to the performance to the fan, and the careless artist skipped the whole evening with friends. When he remembered the invitation, Margarita was no longer in the city. Pauls' song "A Million Scarlet Roses" is also a beautiful variation on this theme, nothing more. The portrait of Margaret presented above, as art historians suggest, is copied from a poster. And next to it stands an elderly woman who came to the Louvre in 1969 for the Pirosmani exhibition to see her portrait. Was this fairy tale story or not, but it is very poetic and beautiful.

Fame and recognition

By 1912, all the shops and taverns were covered with the works of Pirosmani. The artist painted more than two thousand paintings. During the years of war and revolution, their number was reduced to three hundred. Artists Kirill Zdanevich and his brother Ilya were the first to become interested in him as researchers and collectors.

Before you is a portrait of Ilya, painted by Pirosmani. In the 16th year, the brothers arranged a small exhibition of his paintings. The artist immediately dreamed of building a large house where one could gather, drink tea and talk about art.

harsh reality

Dreams were not destined to come true. The year of 1918 was hungry and cold. The artist caught a severe cold, spent three days half-dead in the basement, where he was accidentally found, and died in the hospital. He was buried in a common grave for the poor, and his resting place is unknown.

Creativity of the artist

Pirosmani's painting is a hymn to a constant holiday, which he created day after day in spite of his half-starved existence. These are mostly abundant feasts and feasts on signs. A large place in his work is occupied by images of animals. Donkeys with peasants, fallow deer, deer, beautiful well-fed cows, pigs. All the images have the sad eyes of the artist himself. All paintings have a black background, since the artist did not use a canvas, but a black oilcloth, often taken from the table in the dukhan where he worked.

Pirosmani House-Museum

It is located in the village of Mirzaani in a house built by the artist himself. This one-storey building has a terrace and a cellar. It exhibits 13 early works of the master.

Nearby in Kakheti there is a local history museum in Sighnaghi, where 15 paintings by Pirosmani are exhibited.