More on the theme of kissing. A couple of the paintings are as modern as you can want – from the last few years, in fact.
Kiss, by Vsevolod Maximovich. (1913)
Kiss, by Konstantin Somov. (1914)
Kiss, by Nikolai Tarkhov.
Kiss in St. Petersburg, by Leonid Afremov.
Stolen Kiss, by Vasily Ryabchenko. (1990).
Kiss, by Akzhana Abdalliyeva. (2009).
Flying Kiss, by Anna Silivonchik. (2011).
Mighty Kuindzhi was not only a great artist but also a great teacher of life. His private life was unusual, solitary, and only his closest disciples knew the depth of his soul. Exactly at noon, he climbed to the roof of his house, and as soon as the fortress cannon thundered midday, thousands of birds would flock around him. He fed them out of his hands, these innumerable friends of his: pigeons, sparrows, crows, jackdaws, swallows. It seemed that all the birds of the capital gathered to him and covered his shoulders, arms and head. He would say to me, “Come closer, I’ll tell them not to be afraid of you.” This was an unforgettable spectacle of a greying, smiling man, covered with twittering little birds; it remains among the dearest of memories … One of the joys of Kuindzhi was to help the poor in a way that they did not know where the blessings came from. Unique was his whole life …
From the recollections of Nikolai Roerich, Arkhip Kuindzhi’s student.
Napoleon’s army is struggling on its retreat. Its horses are dying, ill-fed and weakened. As the goods train falls apart, the rear-guard destroys wagons and armament to prevent it falling into Russian hands. On October 24, 1812, the army reaches Chirikovo where it leaves the old Kaluga road. The terrain is muddy after incessant rain, it is impossible to march any significant distance, and the losses of the army worsen day by day.
One unit is in the midst of ridding itself of armament when a passing gendarme accidentally drops his pistol. The sparks from it detonates the powder and the explosion kills several men. Many more are badly burned and perish over the next few days in hideous suffering.
On the road between Moscow and Kaluga, by C. W. Faber du Faur.
By October 24, Kutuzov has caught up with Napoleon’s vanguard near the town of Maloyaroslavets. The battle here is furious and the little town changes hands several times, and is almost completely destroyed.
Fighting at Maloyaroslavets, by Oleg Avakimyan
Offensive at Tarutino, by Alexander Chagadayev
Fighting at Maloyaroslavets, by Alexander Averyanov.
Battle of Maloyaroslavets, by Mykola Samokish
The battle eventually turns in the Russians’ favour. The French general Delzons who leads the vanguard and attacks the Russian positions is dead.
General Delzons at the battle of Maloyaroslavets, by Alexander Averyanov.
Thousands of men perish, but Kutuzov now commands the heights south of Little Yaroslavets, and can block the Grand Army’s path to Kaluga, where Napoleon hoped to replenish his food and supplies.</p
[Translated excerpts from КНИЖКА С КАРТИНКАМИ.]
I picture Marshal Mortier gnashing his teeth, clutching at his moustaches and yelping, ‘Curses! Foiled again!’ His dastardly plan to blow up Moscow failed because of a heavy rain, observant partisans who extinguished lit fuses, and the same kind of ill fortune that had been dogging his boss since late summer.
Still, there was damage – the Kremlin suffered the destruction of the arsenal, the commandant’s house, some of the palace, the extensions to the belfry of Ivan the Great, and the Alexeyevsky Tower. Much of its treasure was looted. Here is a sketch by the architect A. N. Bakarev.
Kremlin in 1812, by A. N. Bakarev.
Mortier left Moscow with his rearguard, and the city was reoccupied by Cossacks under the Ilovaisky brothers (their original commanding officer, Wintzingerode, having been captured by Mortier earlier). The painting below by I. Ivanov somewhat exaggerates the Cossack incursion – when they arrived in Moscow, there was scarcely any trace of the French.
Ilovaisky’s light cavalry chases out the remaining Frenchmen from Moscow (22 October 1812), by I. Ivanov.
From the surviving churches, the bells rang out, and mass was celebrated at the Monastery of the Passion.
Passion square, by F. Y. Alexeyev.
Christ the Saviour Cathedral from the Sparrow Hills (12 October 1817)
Napoleon set out with his Grand Army, about 116,000 strong and heavily laden with goods and loot, on the old Kaluga road. Although the area was bristling with Cossack irregulars, he was – quite remarkably – unnoticed. In a diversionary tactic, he sent a letter (ostensibly drawn up in Moscow) to Kutuzov offering to continue battle according to the accepted principles of war. He also wanted to make sure that Kutuzov was still in Tarutino. Napoleon managed to get to the new Kaluga road by Fominskoye, still unbeknownst to the Russians.
Meanwhile, in the region of St Petersburg, a Russian army under Wittgenstein was attacking the French under St-Cyr at Polotsk, the second battle of the war in this region. Between 18-20 October 1812, they managed to overrun the enemy defenses, and pushed them into the town. The French began their withdrawal from Polotsk in the silence of the night.
Storming Polotsk, by Mykola Samokish.
Unfortunately for the French, one of their marshals decided to set fire to the barracks so that the equipment they were leaving behind was useless to the Russians. Wittgenstein, seeing the flames, realised what was going on and ordered his troops to storm the town. Vicious hand-to-hand fighting ensued. The French were defeated; the battle cost enormously in lives and injuries on both sides.
Portrait of Alexander Seslavin, by George Dawe.
On the 22nd, Napoleon’s army was discovered by a team of scouts led by a captain Seslavin, who conveyed the news to Kutuzov. The old Field Marshal was beside himself with excitement. He declared, ‘From this moment, Russia is saved.’ He ordered one of his generals to race to Maloyaroslavets (where Seslavin had spied the French), and set off himself to intercept Napoleon at Kaluga.
[Translated excerpts from КНИЖКА С КАРТИНКАМИ.]
The wounded streamed into Moscow, along with the horrific news that Kutuzov, Marshal of the Russian forces, had ordered a retreat from Borodino.
The War Wounded Arrive in Moscow, by A. P. Apsit.
Factories and shops closed as panic spread across the great city.
Residents fleeing Moscow, by N. S. Samokish.
The citizens initially waited for the city administration to provide some sort of guidance. But events were overtaking them. At Fili, the Russian general staff had convened a council and decided to abandon the city so as to save the rest of the Russian army.
The hut at Fili, by Alexei Savrasov.
War Council at Fili, by Alexei Kivshenko. (1882).
The Moscow administration ordered a general evacuation. Four thousand wagons and 17,000 people trooped out, including the firemen with all their equipment.
[Translated excerpts from КНИЖКА С КАРТИНКАМИ.]
Sufficient time has elapsed since our last exploration of the Serebriakov name (I mean of course the doyenne Zinaida Serebriakova) so without guilt I can put up the few paintings accomplished by her son Alexander (Александр Серебряков, or Alexandre Serebriakoff) (1907-1994). He was one of the finest cityscape painters of Paris of the twentieth century, and his oeuvre is a veritable treasure-trove of architectural history of large parts of his adopted city that are no longer extant. He was also an artist with a keen eye for interior detail as we shall see below.
Recall that Alexander followed his mother to Paris in 1925. There are works of his from the ancestral home of Neskuchnoye that still survive, and he painted several as well from photographic images of his childhood. [1]. He and his mother were collaborators on many a project (he helped her on her panel work for Baron de Brouwer’s mansion in Belgium). Where he struck off on his own was in the incredibly detailed paintings of the interiors and lives of the great fashionistas of the 20th century. [2].
Serebriakov was also a set designer and an illustrator of books in the 1940s. You can see examples of both types of his works in Lohengrin, or Carmen: The Story of Bizet’s Opera – The Authorized Edition of The Metropolitan Opera Guild; or the children’s illustrated ballet book he created.
The catalogue raisonné of his interiors is the lushly illustrated book by Patrick Mauries (available in French and Italian). [3]
‘La place des Vosges’, Paris. (1926).
Pont Neuf, Paris. (1934).
‘Quai Henri IV’, Paris. (1940).
Popoff & Cie. (1946).
View of Rue Casimir Delavigne. (1947).
Interior of Serge Ivanoff’s studio in Paris. (1944).
An interior of Alexandre Popoff’s apartment in Paris. (1945).
View of the dining-room in Alexandre Popoff’s apartment.
The Apartment of Sofia Dragomirova-Lukomskaya. (1945).
The Apartment of Sofia Dragomirova-Lukomskaya. (1945).
Boris Kochno and Christian Bérard’s living room. (1946).
The Flower Room of Madame Lopez-Willshaw, Hotel Rodoconachi. (1951).
The Library, Hôtel Lambert.
Le Bal Oriental. (1969).
Ditchley Park.
Pavillon Turc, Apremont-sur-Allier.
Three Cornered Hat, illustrated by Alexandre Serebriakoff.
References
1. Tatyana Burkyakovskaya, ‘Zinaida Serebriakova – on the trail‘, Vremya, 27 December 2011.
2. The Peak of Chic blog, ‘What’s in their library: Todd Romano‘, 01 July 2008.
3. Patrick Mauriès, Alexandre Serebriakoff – Portraitiste d’interieurs, Franco Maria Ricci, 1990.
If you were paying attention, you may have noted Konstantin Korovin’s painting of a woman holding a guitar in a post from about a week ago. It appears that lots of artists have been attracted to this theme, and many of them are Russian. There are also other great names – notably Renoir and Matisse and Botero and Braque. In fact, Vermeer also painted a guitar-playing woman, and she bears a strange resemblance to Alanis Morissette – at least to my eye.
I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I stick the images of the Russian (and I hope you recall that when I say ‘Russian’ I continue to mean ‘of the erstwhile Russian / Soviet empires / diaspora / modern Russia / post-Soviet republics’) artworks first, and then point you to a few links for the depictions of women with guitars from the rest of the planet. How about that?
So here goes. Konstantin Korovin was quite profligate with guitar-chicks.
Lady with guitar. Konstantin Korovin. (1911).
Girl with guitar. Konstantin Korovin. (1916).
Woman with guitar. Konstantin Korovin. (1919).
Night. Duet. Konstantin Korovin. (1921).
Aristarkh Lentulov did his bit as well.
Woman with guitar. Aristarkh Lentulov. (1913).
Nearly thirty years earlier, Vasily Surikov painted the duchess S. A. Kropotkina wielding the instrument. Not quite a slide-guitar, however.
Portrait of the duchess S. A. Kropotkina. Vasily Surikov. (1882).
Vladimir Lebedev painted a portrait in oils of a nude sitting with a guitar.
Woman with guitar. Vladimir Lebedev. (1930).
I’m not entirely sure when S. Lysenko did the one below, or even who this painter is. Any ideas?
Gypsy woman with guitar. S. Lysenko.
How about a modern and up-to-date rendition of the theme? Here’s Viktor Vinokurov.
Girls with guitars. Viktor Vinokurov. (2006).
Or we can go way back and admire another work involving women and guitars. Vladimir Borovikovsky painted the Gagarin sisters, who – as you can see – can very well pass for any of Jane Austen’s heroines. (Note, though, that the Gagarins were a princely lot.) Borovikovsky was born in a Cossack family of icon painters in the Ukraine, but headed to Russia as soon as he decently could. I’ll call him a Ukrainian, shall I?
Portrait of A. G. and V. G. Gagarina. Vladimir Borovikovsky. (1802).
The brilliant Parashutov continues to anticipate my every move – his post from 9 June 2009 has several guitar-related works. The next few are all from his blog.
Girl with guitar. Nikolai Kupreyanov. (1928).
Look at this rather weak portrait from 1982 by Yuri Kossagovsky.
Woman with guitar. Yuri Kossagovsky. (1982).
Here’s Vasily Svarog’s Guitarist (date unknown):
Guitarist. Vasily Svarog.
Now for an Armenian. Ashot Asatryan has a lovely piece from a few years ago.
Evening. Ashot Asatryan. (2004).
And, to round things off, we have the Dagestani painter Mukhtar Bagandov. I’ve not been able to date this painting, but it is from this century.
Girl with guitar. Mukhtar Bagandov.
Other Women with Guitars
1. Parashutov’s series extends nearly 20 posts on the guitar, but includes men and still lifes with guitars. Take your pick.
2. Likewise, Meloteca has a nice set of guitar-related paintings from around the world.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, there’s an exhibition of works by Vasyl Yermylov (Vasily Yermilov, Василий Ермилов, 1894-1968) at the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow. Yermylov was one of the preeminent Constructivist artists of the Ukraine, and the leader of the Kharkov avant-garde circle. Western critics have named him one of the finest designers of his generation. His works – art, graphics, sculpture, design and book illustrations – are to be found at the exhibition.
Yermylov’s art is a synthesis of different artistic streams, amongst which are expressionism, cubism, futurism and neo-primitivism.
His art is laconic and he can easily be called one of the forerunners of minimalism and conceptualism. In his arsenal are two or three localised colours, two or three geometric elements, two or three material textures (tin, wood, and tar). He sought skilful techniques of polishing, grinding, powdering, contrasting oval and angular planes, perfect proportional order; in his works are high compositional and rhythmic effects.
In Yermylov’s works is evident a deep love for aspects of Ukrainian folk art and handicraft, which he elevated to the rank of high art, with deep care and harmonic brightness in his treatment of surfaces.
The exhibition comprises several thematic divisions:
Sculpture
The major sculptural works (such as Agitprop platform for the installation for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, 1927) are preserved only in the form of sketches and old photographs. The sketch for the sculpture “Three Russian revolutions” itself resembles a complete work of art. A special place is occupied by the memorial project “Monument of Lenin’s era” (1960s), a working model of which is represented in the exhibition.
Painting
Among the exhibits are a few variations of “Guitar” (1919), “Mandolin,” many graphic male and female portraits, and examples of sculptural art: relief and bulk composition. From 1922 Vasily Yermylov created a series of bright contra-reliefs and “objets d’art” of various types of wood and sheet metal, such as the schematic, “A Portrait of the Artist A. Pochtenny.” Among the experiments in the field of photomontage is notable for the relief of “On the Beach (morning, evening)” (1935), combining painting, photography and relief.
Poster Art
No less interesting is the work of the artist in the field of advertising and poster art, which became a symbol of the Russian and Ukrainian avant-garde. Yermylov’s contributions are propaganda posters, sketches of packages of cigarettes, a bottle of cologne “Victoria” and the creation of a logo Kharkov perfumes and cosmetics factory (1944).
Architecture and Design
Design sketches for the Kharkov House of Pioneers (1934-1935) – self-contained abstract paintings, colorful and decorative, and in spite of a modest scale, monumental. In the interior design, he successfully used a combination of different colours and the plasticity of simple geometric volumes.
Book Illustrations
Appearance of numerous books and magazines based on the use of different printing elements, bands, circles, photomontage. He created a new “Yermylovsky” monumental font, which was a breakthrough in printing design. A striking example is the typesetting of books of poetry of Velimir Khlebnikov, a friend of his, where he created a unified style for Khlebnikov’s many books, including “Ladomir” (1920).
Vasily Yermylov’s oeuvre despite its striking originality, remains open to dialogue with the works of other masters. His open, creative aspirations, attitudes, philosophies existed in the context of national and pan-European artistic processes of the first third of the twentieth century, which created a singular space of the avant-garde art.
Lady with fan. (1919). (Photo: Multimedia Art Museum).
Portrait of the Artist A. Pochtenny. (1924). (Photo: Multimedia Art Museum).
Journal Cover for ‘Avant-Garde’. (1929).
Beautiful Ukraine. (1920).
Plans for the future.
Day of Art. (1920s).
Argentinian tango. (1920s).
Sketch for interior design of the Kharkov Palace of Pioneers. (1934).
Interior design for Kharkov Palace of Pioneers. (1934). (Photo: Multimedia Art Museum).
Advertising poster for cigarettes. (1925).
Decorative composition. (1960s).
Study for the panel ‘Music’. (1964).
Sketch for mosaic panel ‘Flowers’. (1960s).
Budenovtsy. (1962).
[Translated from Modnitsa's article 'Exhibition: Vasily Yermylov. 1894-1968', at Fashionista.ru.]
Unlike my trip to Mexico that resulted in the Angelina Beloff post, my recent holiday in Dartmouth didn’t elicit any fresh discoveries in Russian art. On the other hand, some idle browsing on the web revealed that the world of Russian art exhibitions and expositions shows no sign of slacking. Even as we speak, we find that there are displays galore, covering entirely different periods, themes and genres.
For example, in Riga, at the Russian House there is an exhibition of works (a) by “Russian Artists of Latvia“, illustration the Russian artistic tradition in that country between 1960 and 2012. According to Vladimir Kzhizhanovsky [1], the entire spectrum of illustrative and graphic art can be found: landscapes, still lifes, portraits, abstract expressions, philosophical compositions and book illustrations. In particular, he singles out three works by Nikolai Vasilyev, which are in the style of expressionist pointillism, suffused with a multilayered dynamic. He also welcomes the rarely seen Maris Abilevs whose works are distinguished by a restrained line and palette. Two works by Alla Koroleva (‘Rendezvous’ and ‘Portrait of the Artist’) symbolise an optimism that generated considerable discussion at the opening of the exhibition. Meanwhile, Nikolai Krivoshein’s mastery of freedom and freshness attract the eye, as do the long unseen works of Valery Shuvalov, whose romanticism was illustrated in three modes: still life, a genre painting, and a portrait, each reflecting a different period in the artist’s life and style. To round these off, we have three powerful, spiritually filled reflections on the eternal themes of life in the canvases of Grigory Mikheev; also finding their rightful place at the exhibition are the children’s book illustrations by the artist Vladimir Novikov.
Meanwhile, there are three (count ‘em – three!) exhibitions of the Russian avant-garde in Moscow [2]. The first (b) is the collaborative project by the Gallery ‘Kovcheg’ and the State Mayakovsky Museum (celebrating its 75th anniversary) in which appear works by Altman, Kandinksy, Malevich, Burliuk, Tyrsa, Rozanova, Larionov, and so on and on. It demonstrates the richness of the tradition of the leftist art which is hardly overshadowed by the gigantic figure of the ‘agitator Mayakovsky’. Next, we have the Gallery ‘Proun’, which presents an exhibition (c) on the inner, domestic world of the Russian avant-garde: there are works by the ‘Amazons’ Nadezhda Udaltsova and Olga Rozanova, who were not above sketching handbags; furniture designed by Alexander Rodchenko for a workers’ club; Lilya Brik and Lilya Yakhontova’s curtains for a bedroom which they sewed from pieces of pre-Revolutionary calico and velvet, as though by a peasant woman stitching a quilt… And finally, there is a biographical exhibition (d) at the Multimedia Art Museum on Vasily Yermilov, friend of Khlebnikov and illustrator of his books ‘Ladomir’, leader of the Kharkov avant-garde between the 1920s and the 1960s. Besides his illustrative works will appear his photomontages, contrereliefs, and models of sculptures.
Exhibition List
a. Russian Art of Latvia, Russian House, 97 Tallinas, Riga, Latvia. Until 24 June 2012, open daily except Mondays.
b. Public Review, Gallery ‘Kovcheg’, 12 Nemchinova street, Moscow. Until 1 July, 2012.
c. The House that PROUN built, Gallery ‘PROUN’, No 1/6, 4th Siromyatnichesky pereulok, Moscow. Until 29 July 2012.
d. Vasily Yermilov (1884-1968), Multimedia Art Museum, 16 Ostozhenka street, Moscow. Until 29 July 2012, open daily except Mondays.
References
[1] Russian Art at the Russian House, by Vladimir Kzhizhanovsky, Chas, 31 May 2012.
[2] Muscovites to see the national avant-garde, Novaya Politika, 1 June 2012.
Iosif Solomonovich Shkolnik (Иосиф Соломонович Школьник) (1883-1926) was a painter, graphic artist, theatre designer and a promoter of art. He was born in a middle-class family in Balta, in the Kherson province of what is now Ukraine. He studied at the Odessa Art School and then at the High School of Art at the St Petersburg Academy of Art. In 1908, he became a member of the artistic-psychological group ‘Triangle’, which had been set up by the amateur artist N. I. Kulbin, a promoter of new directions in art. At the end of 1909, some of the more active promoters of art including Shkolnik left ‘Triangle’ and, in February 1910, formed a society of avant-garde artists which they called ‘Union of Youth’. Shkolnik became a secretary of this organisation, editor of a series of publications, the author of two collections of articles published in St Petersburg under the auspices of the organisation.
One of Shkolnik’s most famous works was the design of costumes and sets for the tragedy ‘Vladimir Mayakovsky’, which he worked on along with P.N. Filonov and O.V. Rozanova. This was promoted as the first theatre of futurists in the world, and appeared in December 1913 in St Petersburg. Four years later, Shkolnik was a major player in the establishment of the Union of Artists in Petrograd. In 1918, he became a member of the College of Fine Arts ‘Narkompros’ (People’s Commissariat of Education), where he led the theatre and set design sections. In 1920, the section was reorganised into the Institute of Decorative Arts, of which he became Director.
Between 1913 and 1919, he was also principal set and costume designer at the Troitsky and Maly Theatres in St Petersburg.
From 1919 onwards, Shkolnik was a teacher and supervisor of the classes on decorative arts at the Petrograd State Free Art Workshops.
Shkolnik’s art encompasses nearly every genre of the avant-garde: landscapes of his native Balta, still life, portraiture, poster art, theatre and costume design.
Shkolnik’s works, some of the finest of the St Petersburg avant-garde, are available to be seen at the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg and at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
(Translated from the appendix to Alexandra Shatskikh’s ‘Jews in the Russian Avant-Garde‘, and interspersed with remarks from N. A. Grishina’s biographical writeup in the Saratov State Museum of Art’s website.)
Gallery
Still life with yellow cloth. (1910s).
Village street. (1910s).
Landscape with a road.
Landscape with flowerbed. (1910s).
Courtyard (Landscape). (1910s).
Turkish Central Courtyard. (c. 1917).
Still life with vases. (1910s).
House with open window.
