Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. Petrov-Vodkin Kuzma Sergeevich. Russian and Soviet symbolist painter
This talented artist is mainly known to us from the famous painting “Bathing the Red Horse,” painted in 1912 and traditionally perceived as a harbinger of the revolution in Russia, although the master himself interpreted it as a subconscious feeling of the coming war (World War I). In fact, the artist was a very diversely gifted person and was engaged not only in painting, but also in ceramics, painting and creating scenery for various theatrical sets.
He was born into a simple family of hereditary shoemakers in the city of Khvalynsk in the then Saratov province, in 1878. His father became famous for being the only shoemaker in the whole city who did not touch alcohol. The reason for this was a terrible childhood tragedy, which gave his son the surname “Vodkin” and a strong aversion to alcohol. His father, in a drunken stupor, stabbed his wife to death and soon died himself in terrible agony. Since the father’s name was Peter, his children acquired the surname Petrovs, and along the way, the nickname Vodkins.
When Sergei Vodkin married Anna Petrova, a double surname somehow naturally arose, which began to be inherited.
Young Kuzma did not intend to become an artist; he studied at an elementary school and planned to become a railway worker. However, as sometimes happens, fate had its own way. Acquaintance with icon painting amazed the young man, and he began to try his hand at art. He began to study in Samara with Fyodor Burov, but his studies were interrupted by the latter’s death.
Fate once again intervened in the master’s life when his work caught the eye of the famous architect Robert-Friedrich Meltzer. He took young man in, where he helped him with his studies at the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron Stieglitz, which later became and is better known to us as the Mukhina School.
Petrov-Vodkin’s first work as a mature independent artist has been perfectly preserved to this day. This is an icon made using majolica technique on the wall of a church in Alexander Park. It impresses both with its iconic image and innovative execution.
In 1897, the artist moved to, where until 1905 he studied at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in the class. For the next three years he travels and studies in various European countries. At this time, his painting was strongly influenced by modernism and symbolism. However, later he has his own original manner writing, which can be considered a fusion of realism and several modern trends in painting.
In 1911, the artist became a member of the “World of Art” association, and 8 years later he became one of the co-founders of “Wolfil” - the “Free Philosophical Association”, which existed until 1924.
During the Soviet period, the work of the master was in demand. He painted paintings, worked on graphics and created scenery, taught, wrote articles on art, and devoted himself to literary activities with pleasure.
In 1932, he became the first chairman of the branch of the Union of Soviet Artists in Leningrad. The master died in 1939, leaving behind a huge material and spiritual legacy.
Russian Soviet artist K.S. Petrov-Vodkin was born on October 24 (November 5), 1878 in the Volga town of Khvalynsk, Saratov province, into a poor family. He was the first-born in the family of shoemaker Sergei Fedorovich Vodkin and his wife Anna Panteleevna, née Petrova. The grandfather of the future painter, shoemaker Peter, was legendary personality, a well-known drunkard throughout Khvalynsk, nicknamed Vodkin (Peter’s children were called either Petrovs or Vodkins, and this is how a double surname was formed and assigned to the family). One day, Pyotr Vodkin, drunk, took a cutting knife and stabbed his own wife, and soon died in terrible agony. His son and father of the painter Sergei Petrov-Vodkin was not stupid and remembered the lesson forever. He became the only shoemaker in the whole of Khvalynsk who did not take vodka into his mouth.
When the boy was in his third year, his father was recruited as a soldier and sent to serve in St. Petersburg. Soon Anna Panteleevna moved there along with her little son. After two and a half years, the family returned to Khvalynsk, where the mother entered service in the house of local rich people. Kuzma lived with her in the outbuilding. His childhood was happy in many respects. Although the family lived a difficult and poor life, little Kuzma was looked after by his grandmothers, aunts, uncles and others. kind people. He was attracted to painting since childhood. While still studying at a four-year parish school, Kuzma met icon painters, with whom he observed all stages of icon creation. Impressed by what he saw, the boy made his first independent samples - icons and landscapes oil paints.
One day, little Kuzma swam almost to the middle of the Volga, but was unable to return back - he ran out of strength. Fortunately, the drowning boy was noticed from the shore by the carrier Ilya Fedorovich Zakharov, the best swimmer in Khvalynsk. He saved Kuzma, and a week later he drowned while trying to pull another poor fellow out of the water. Kuzma took a tin and drew a boat rocking on the waves, the heads of drowning people and the sky crossed by zigzags of lightning. In the corner there is an inscription: “Who died for others! Eternal memory to you!” So Kuzma became a painter.
In 1893, Petrov-Vodkin graduated from college. After working in ship repair shops over the summer, the 15-year-old boy went to Samara in the fall to enroll in a railway school. However, he failed without writing an essay on the topic “History of Russia.” As a result, Petrov-Vodkin ended up in the painting and drawing classes of F.E. Burova. Here Kuzma received the basics of painting. “Until the end of our stay with Burov,” Petrov-Vodkin recalled, “we never tried to approach nature, thanks to which we did not receive the real value of knowledge.” A year later, Burov died.
After studying in painting and drawing classes by F.E. Burov in Samara (1895-1897) Kuzma returned to his homeland. He tried to work independently, wrote signs, but all these ventures were not successful. And then chance helped him. A successful St. Petersburg architect and co-owner of a furniture factory, R.F., who came to Khvalynsk, became interested in the young artist. Meltzer. He was invited by merchant Yu.M. Kazarin to build a summer house. Yulia Mikhailovna was a relative of those landowners for whom Kuzma once served as a gardener, and his mother still worked as a maid for her sister. Meltzer was shown the work of the young man, the amazed architect volunteered to help the gifted boy go to study in St. Petersburg. Kazarina, for her part, promised material support. And, indeed, for another 18 years, until her death in 1912, she sent Petrov-Vodkin twenty-five rubles a month.
In July 1895, Kuzma arrived in St. Petersburg, and at the end of August he passed the exam at the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron A.L. Stieglitz "among the first students." The main subjects here were drawing, measuring, washing, drawing ornaments, and accurately copying samples. Painting as such was not in honor. Not satisfied with the direction of this school, Petrov-Vodkin in the fall of 1897 moved to Moscow School painting, sculpture and architecture, where he studied until 1905. Of all the teachers, V.A. had the greatest influence on him. Serov, whom the artist remembered with love all his life. At the school, the artist began a creative friendship with future like-minded people in art - P. Kuznetsov, P. Utkin, M. Saryan.
While still at the school, Petrov-Vodkin made a trip abroad in the spring of 1901. Having received another 25 rubles from Kazarina, he persuaded the seller of newfangled cars - bicycles - to rent one out. Together with a friend, through Warsaw and Prague, he reaches Munich, where he takes lessons at the famous school of A. Ashbe. Everywhere he looked with all his eyes, listened to lectures, and not only on painting... He suddenly became interested in the problems of geophysics and cosmogony, and Kuzma went out of his way to understand all this - he, who had only a four-year course in natural history and arithmetic behind him parochial school. And it ended with the French Astronomical Society electing him as an honorary member! Upon returning to Moscow, Petrov-Vodkin moved from the general classes of the school to Serov’s workshop. However, the need to think about his daily bread forces him in the summer of 1902, together with his school comrades Kuznetsov and Utkin, to go to Saratov, where they were asked to paint the Kazan Church Mother of God. The young artists tried very hard, but they strayed too far from both the canon of the Orthodox Church and the traditional techniques of church painting. The work had not yet been completed when a campaign began against them in Saratov newspapers, and then - by order of the church court and despite the defense famous artist Borisov-Musatov - the paintings were destroyed. As Borisov-Musatov wrote at the same time, these were works “in comparison with which the painting of the entire Saratov church diocese, both old and new, is worth absolutely nothing...”
The protracted study at the school was explained partly by the need to earn money, but more by Petrov-Vodkin’s passion for literature, which took a lot of effort and time. And after graduating from college he was so captivated literary creativity, that he did not immediately make a choice in favor of painting. One day, turning pale with fear, he brought to the editorial office a poem full of symbolism and pathos. At the editorial office, Kuzma was met by a man who looked strikingly similar to himself: a stocky figure, high cheekbones, and also shaved. It was Gorky. He asked, grinning: “Are you climbing too?” And soon a note appeared in the newspaper about a arrogant provincial dropout who imagined himself to be a genius in the field of literature and painting. Apparently, Gorky saved the place of the nugget exclusively for himself... The meeting with V.E. was decisive. Borisov-Musatov, on whose advice Petrov-Vodkin went in the fall of 1905 for further studies abroad. He visited Istanbul, Greece, Italy and France, where he improved his drawing techniques at the Kolorossi Academy. His first painting was a small canvas “In a Cafe” (1907).
The trip to North Africa served as the basis for the works shown at the Paris Salon (1908), and then at home. It was a great trip! In any case, as Kuzma himself described him, although many later questioned his memoirs, considering them something like childhood fantasies. Indeed, Petrov-Vodkin’s adventures look implausible. In the Sahara he was attacked by nomads. He was forced to fire his revolver into the air and whistle desperately at the same time. The Bedouins retreated and allegedly ordered their fellow tribesmen not to touch the stranger, nicknamed “who whistles.” After this trip, he wrote “The Nomad’s Family” (1907) and “The Shore” (1908). Despite his obvious abilities, Petrov-Vodkin did not show either originality or genuine talent in his works for a long time. His artistic personality was difficult to form, and in this regard he clearly lagged behind his school comrades.
While traveling, he observes a lot, studies the masters of the past and contemporary art. Thousands of drawings, hundreds of sketches and several paintings appear. One of the goals of the trip was Vesuvius. It was his long-time dream to see a real volcano. And now this dream has been fully realized: Vesuvius, when the artist rose to its very mouth, was shaken by explosions and showered the slopes with ash. According to Petrov-Vodkin, the sensations he experienced on Vesuvius shook up his artistic consciousness and became the line that separated the time of his apprenticeship in art from his upcoming independent creative life: “You experience a strange numbness on the living body of the earth, grumbling, trembling at the crater without interruption. Through the darkness of the settling ash, a hollow stretched out in front of me. The ash-gray mass of vapor and smoke was pierced by a fiery mass. The suffocation of the ashes was hot. I was in ecstasy. And there was no fear. The cosmos moved and rushed me in its unprecedented rhythms.”
Less than a month has passed - a new adventure: in Rome, Petrov-Vodkin was kidnapped by bandits. “I woke up somewhere underground, with a gag in my mouth. Three people were sitting at the temple, if not devils, then, of course, robbers. There was no wallet in my pocket. “No move, death,” they hissed.” It turned out that the bandits needed Kuzma to forge paintings by great masters. For example, the missing "Leda" by Leonardo da Vinci. However, when Petrov-Vodkin refused, the bandits offered a compromise: he would draw a portrait of a certain lady for them, but would not tell anyone about her. The story came out mysterious! The girl who was brought to Kuzma was called Angelika. “She seemed to me somewhat arrogant, she laughed explosively, but when she laughed she had an unkind grin. But besides that, she was a sophisticated Italian type.” A romance broke out, but Kuzma still knew nothing about Angelica. “I mentally scoured Rome, looking for the corner where she lived. Either I pictured a gangster situation, then a working-class family with a husband, or I saw her almost as a nun. One day, a bandit customer came into the studio. And he wanted to take the painting right away. I didn’t see Angelica for several days. And suddenly I saw her, in a carriage, in the glitter of lace and velvet, a man in a top hat was sitting with her.” The next day she came and said that they would see each other for the last time, and that her life was over. And then Kuzma left Italy. But he could not forget Angelica, and a few months later he rushed to Rome again to find her. On the very first day, in a random pizzeria, I heard a conversation at the next table - about some woman who died to save her patron. Kuzma didn’t hear the details, but his heart immediately told him who he was talking about. And, indeed, in the hands of the speaker there was a photograph taken from that very portrait by Petrov-Vodkin... Whether everything was really like that, or not quite, but at this point Kuzma finally lost interest in wanderings and adventures and, having stopped by for a short time to France, began to prepare to move to Russia.
Petrov-Vodkin returned to his homeland in 1908, enriched with vivid impressions. He marries abroad and brings Maria Yovanovitch to Russia. The artist met her in 1906. Maria (or Mara as the artist called her) was the daughter of the owner of the boarding house in Fontenay-aux-Roses near Paris, where he lived. The lovers themselves recalled differently how this affair began: she claimed that Kuzma began to paint her portrait and at the third session he suddenly said: “Mademoiselle, do you agree to become my wife? I’ve been loving you for five months, from the very beginning.” our first meeting,” which supposedly came as a complete surprise to her. Petrov-Vodkin himself attributed the initiative to Mara: “She is very good man and what I value in her is the tenderness of a woman for me, the first in my life, and her desire to understand my mysteries." Since then, they were inseparable. Maria Feodorovna showed extraordinary devotion to her husband, and he wrote letters to her from behind the border: "My friend, wife my, you should know what a big burden you took upon yourself by loving your Kuzya. We will be active and energetic, and we will work for humanity." They settle in St. Petersburg, with the same R.F. Meltzer, on Kamenoostrovsky Prospekt. The artist's entire subsequent life takes place in St. Petersburg.
In 1909, the editorial office of Apollo magazine hosted Petrov-Vodkin’s first personal exhibition, which was noticed and made his name. In 1911, he became a member of the World of Art association, whose leaders were Benois and Makovsky. Petrov-Vodkin was associated with this association until its dissolution (1924). Already in the early period, Petrov-Vodkin’s work was marked by a symbolist orientation (Elegy, 1906; Shore, 1908; Dream, 1910). His first works are not independent; they were influenced by his older contemporaries (V. Borisov-Musatov, P. Puvis de Chavannes; in the field of literature - M. Maeterlinck). In 1910, Petrov-Vodkin painted the painting “Dream,” which depicted a sleeping naked young man, awaiting his awakening by two naked women. This whole scene, expressing some kind of complex allegory, could hardly have attracted much attention if it had not overwhelmed Ilya Repin’s patience. An old realist who hated modern painting, came out with a devastating article against the World of Arts, launching the main attacks specifically on the painting by Petrov-Vodkin. Benoit and Makovsky immediately came to the defense of their like-minded person. The painting “Dream” caused heated controversy and brought the young painter wide, albeit somewhat scandalous, fame. Some saw in Petrov-Vodkin “the latest decadent,” while others associated expectations of a neoclassical trend with his work. The artist himself could not judge himself so definitely: calling himself " difficult artist", he was not lying. His next works - "Boys at Play" (1911) and especially "Bathing the Red Horse" (1912) mark a fundamentally important milestone in the work of Petrov-Vodkin.
He persistently sought his own path in art. Contrary to all the trends of the time, all denials of form, he worked hard on his drawing technique. But realism as such never attracted him. “The form and color that embraces this form are painting” - this is how Petrov-Vodkin himself formulated his principle. In 1911, he wrote “Boys at Play,” which he dedicated to the memory of V. Serov and M. Vrubel. This picture became his programmatic work, which determined many of the features of his later manner. It was here that Petrov-Vodkin first used the three-color scheme in its entirety. From now on, he painted most of his paintings in only three colors: red, yellow, blue (or green). “Boys at Play,” in which they saw an allegory of Youth, despite their similarity to the famous Matisse panel, was a success, but “they still lacked something.” For Petrov-Vodkin himself, they became an important stage on the path to his main work of those years - “Bathing the Red Horse”.
In 1912, Petrov-Vodkin lived in the south of Russia, near Kamyshin. It was then that he made the first sketches for the painting, and also wrote the first version of the canvas, known from black and white photography. The painting was a work of everyday life rather than symbolic. At first, the horse was only called red, but in fact it was simply bay (red), and it was easily recognizable as peasant horses of the Volga breed, which Kuzma had known since childhood. Two boys dressed in tunics were combing the horse's mane. Some rocks were piled up in the distance, and it was unclear where everything was happening. Petrov-Vodkin based the horse on a real stallion named Boy, who lived on the estate. To create the image of a teenager sitting astride him, the artist used the features of his nephew Shura. This picture was Petrov-Vodkin’s last hope. He had to finally reveal to the public a real masterpiece, otherwise it’s time to quit painting! The painting was already close to completion when the artist became closely acquainted with the art of ancient Russian icons. In 1910-1912 occurs important event: the clearing of Novgorod icons begins. Essentially, it was during these years that the high national ancient Russian art. Petrov-Vodkin was greatly impressed by the sight of cleared masterpieces of icon painting from the 13th-15th centuries, which he first saw at the exhibition. It was a kind of breakthrough, an artistic shock. Petrov-Vodkin destroyed the overall allegorical painting, took a new canvas and painted a completely different painting on the same subject.
The center of the whole plan was now not the rider, but the flaming image of a horse, reminiscent of the horse of St. George the Victorious on ancient icons. The horse, as often happens on Novgorod icons, became pure red. Red and yellow, ocher, is an iconographic combination. The composition also changed; balance and static appeared in it. This innovation made the painting completely unique, ingenious; even in the work of this master there is no second such painting. And immediately the image acquired enormous power: a powerful, fire-like horse, full of pent-up strength, enters the water; on it - a fragile naked boy with thin arms, with a detached face, who holds on to the horse, but does not restrain him - there was something alarming, prophetic in this composition, which the artist himself was not aware of. The picture immediately took on a different meaning. It is no longer about youth, not about beautiful nature or the joy of life - or rather, not only about this. It is about the fate of Russia.
From the very beginning, the picture caused numerous disputes, in which it was invariably mentioned that such horses do not exist. “Bathing the Red Horse” was a huge and long-lasting success, among artists of many genres. Now, it is probably even difficult to understand why this seemingly simple picture caused so much noise. Apparently, many people felt the mood of anxiety that flowed through her, but no one was able to show it with such laconic clarity. The general idea was expressed by one of the critics, Vsevolod Dmitriev, who wrote: “When I saw this work for the first time, I, amazed, involuntarily said: yes, this is the picture that we need, that we expect.” The red horse acts as the Fate of Russia, which the fragile and young rider is unable to hold. According to another version, the Red Horse is Russia itself, identified with Blok’s “steppe mare.” In this case, one cannot fail to note the prophetic gift of the artist, who symbolically predicted the “red” fate of Russia in the 20th century. "Bathing the Red Horse" caused a lot of noise. And even Petrov-Vodkin’s longtime enemy, Repin, stood in front of the canvas for a good hour and said: “Yes, this artist is talented!” But two years earlier, the same Ilya Efimovich, for his unintelligible paintings in the spirit of the “World of Art,” scolded Kuzma as a shoemaker who had played too much with aestheticism. Apparently, the very name “Petrov-Vodkin” evoked an association among people with shoemaking. And Kuzma did not hide the fact that he was the son of a shoemaker...
The fate of the painting itself was extraordinary. The painting was first shown at the World of Art exhibition in 1912. At that time, the association was experiencing a crisis, and to revive it, the “old people” decided to attract young forces, talented artists, which would continue the classical tradition and resist the emerging avant-garde. The painting was exhibited above the entrance to the exhibition and, according to V. Dmitriev, to everyone who saw it, it seemed like a banner around which one could rally. In other words, the painting was shown and perceived as a pictorial manifesto. In the spring of 1914, she was at the international “Baltic Exhibition” in Malmo (Sweden). For participation in this exhibition, K. Petrov-Vodkin was awarded a medal and a certificate by the Swedish king. Erupted First world war, then the revolution and civil war led to the fact that the picture remained in Sweden for a long time. After the Second World War and after persistent grueling negotiations, in 1950 the works of Petrov-Vodkin, including this painting, were returned to their homeland. In 1953, the artist’s widow Maria Fedorovna Petrova-Vodkina donated the painting to the private collection of the famous Leningrad collector K.K. Basevich, and in 1961 she presented it as a gift to the State Tretyakov Gallery. The biography of the painting developed in such a way that almost the entire life of the author passed without his masterpiece.
Many people were looking for some secret meanings in this picture. Petrov-Vodkin was seen as a harbinger of things to come historical events; the artist, it seems, believed in this himself and later stated that in “The Red Horse” he expressed a premonition of the World War. And in Soviet years this canvas was perceived as a harbinger of revolution. In the 1910s, the scope of Petrov-Vodkin’s searches remained very wide. Next to the canvases of a monumental and decorative nature ("Girls on the Volga", 1915), psychologized images of an almost naturalistic form appear ("On the Line of Fire", 1916). The most organic works seem to be those related to the theme of motherhood, which runs through all of Petrov-Vodkin’s work (“Mother”, 1913; “Mother”, 1915; “Morning. Bathers”, 1917). In his innovative monumental and decorative works (paintings in the Church of St. Basil the Golden-Domed in Ovruch, 1910, St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kronstadt, 1913, paintings and stained glass in the Trinity Cathedral in Sumy, 1915), Petrov-Vodkin also acts as a remarkable master of “church modernism.”
Petrov-Vodkin invariably preferred to remain outside the castes, adjuring his loved ones not to get involved in politics, in which “the devil himself will break his leg.” However, he enthusiastically accepted the October Revolution of 1917. He immediately agreed to cooperate with the new government and in 1918 became a professor at the Higher art school, he begins teaching at the Petrograd Academy of Arts, repeatedly designs theatrical performances, creates many paintings and graphic sheets. The revolution seemed to him a grandiose and terribly interesting undertaking. The artist sincerely believes that after October “the Russian people, despite all the torments, will arrange a free, honest life. And this life will be open to everyone.” At the same time, he understands that “you can create destiny only through peace, and not through violence, not through bayonets, not through prisons, and not through talk, but through action.” He also sees that food shortages are beginning in Petrograd. “Here it dawned on us that there was no salt! We had to struggle to find all kinds of provisions.” And in 1917, real famine reigned. The crackers sent by my mother from Khvalynsk are a feast! “Where,” exclaimed the artist, “does God give strength to us, hungry people here?!” And he concluded: “This life is like a bad dream without awakening.”
For the new government, the son of a shoemaker, the author of the painting “about the dictatorship of the proletariat” (now everyone was sure that the Red Horse was about exactly this) became unconditionally his own. And, not counting the episode when Kuzma Sergeevich, together with M. Prishvin, was almost shot on suspicion of involvement in the Left Socialist-Revolutionary rebellion (the matter ended in two days of arrest), he did not have to complain about the revolution. Petrov-Vodkin took a responsible post in the Leningrad Arts Council, became a professor at the Academy of Arts and chairman of the board of the Leningrad Union of Artists. And for fifteen long years (from 1918 to 1933), with the tenacity and cruelty of the dictator, he imposed his three-color system as the only method. Colleagues hated this system and called it “three-lash”. Petrov-Vodkin did not leave direct successors to his style, although among his students was, for example, A. Samokhvalov. In the end, because of the frantic Kuzma, such luminaries as Bakst and Dobuzhinsky were forced to leave the Academy. Somov said about him: “a stupid, pretentious fool.” Well, Petrov-Vodkin knew how to stand up for himself.
Understanding of the revolution also occurred through various works. Such, for example, is the still life “Herring”, characteristic in its imagery, written in 1918. In the first post-revolutionary years, Petrov-Vodkin especially often turned to still life, finding rich experimental possibilities in this genre (“Pink still life. Apple tree branch,” 1918; “Morning still life,” 1918; “Still life with a mirror,” 1919; “Still life with blue ashtray", 1920, "Still life with a samovar", 1920). Cosmological symbolism is also reflected in portraits of the Soviet period ("Self-Portrait", 1918; "Head of an Uzbek Boy", 1921; "Portrait of Anna Akhmatova", 1922, "Portrait of V.I. Lenin", 1934, etc.). The artist considered painting a tool for improvement human nature and sought to discover in man the manifestation of the eternal laws of the world order, to make each specific image the personification of the connection of cosmic forces.
He still had a hard time with people, and his family remained his outlet. After fifteen childless years of marriage, Mara, who had turned into a very plump, middle-aged woman, gave birth to his long-awaited daughter in the fall of 1922. When Kuzma Sergeevich first saw a tiny creature with dark blue shining eyes, tiny fingers and slightly protruding ears, he wrote to his mother in Khvalynsk: “I was half a man without experiencing this.” It was her father who had to nurse Lenochka, feed her, and take walks with her - Mara’s first birth at the age of 37 was not easy, and she almost did not get out of bed, demanding that they bring her “anemic”, that is, liquid tea. Portraits of his daughter occupy a special place; for many years Petrov-Vodkin painted her portraits and scenes in the nursery.
In 1920, based on living impressions of the events of that time, Petrov-Vodkin painted a canvas in which the new reality seemed to be refracted in old images. This is "1918 in Petrograd." Its subject, like all of the artist’s paintings, is very simple: in the foreground, on the balcony, is a young mother with a baby. Behind her is a dark panorama of the revolutionary city, which introduces a powerful motive of anxiety. But the young worker with the sharpened features of her pale face, like a Madonna’s, does not look back - she is completely full of consciousness of her motherhood and faith in her destiny. A wave of hope and peace emanates from her. "1918" was very popular with the audience of that time. The painting was called the "Petrograd Madonna", and indeed it is one of the most charming creations of Petrov-Vodkin, which has become a classic Soviet art.
It can be assumed that later Petrov-Vodkin’s attitude to what was happening in the country was no longer so clear-cut. In 1926, he created a very relief painting, “Workers,” perhaps inspired by the discussions that were tearing the party apart at that time. In the foreground are two workers, one of whom is intensely and passionately trying to prove something to the other. In 1928, Petrov-Vodkin wrote his famous painting"Death of a Commissar", officially dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Red Army. Despite its title, this picture amazes with its anti-heroism and deep inner drama. We see a harsh landscape on the canvas: the ground is cut into ravines, sand, clay, stunted grass and stones. In the center is the mortally wounded squad commissioner. In the distance are huddled figures of soldiers running into battle, painted without any pathos. The commissar's thin face is filled with agony. He is supported by a simple-looking fighter who has neither anger nor pain. Petrov-Vodkin worked a lot on the figure and look of the commissar. The surviving sketches show how he gradually removed all theatricality and heroism (like an outstretched hand). Thanks to this, tragic everyday life and reticence entered the canvas. There is no pathos, everything is very simple and looks literally as it is drawn: people are running, shooting, one of them fell and is now dying; he had just been with them and inspired them; now he is gone, and they continue to run.
And soon the doctors forbade Kuzma Sergeevich to touch the paints. He had been suffering from tuberculosis since 1920, and by the spring of 1929 the disease had taken on an alarmingly severe form. Treatment in sanatoriums near Leningrad, in the Crimea and in the Caucasus did not bring any benefit. For several years, Petrov-Vodkin was unable to paint due to a painful reaction of his lungs to the smell of oil paint. The artist turned yellow, haggard, his eyes dimmed. He coughed constantly and was angry - even at his adored daughter. In 1927, they had to move from Leningrad to Detskoe Selo, for air. Writers also lived here: Tolstoy worked on “Peter I”, Fedin on “The Brothers”, Shishkov on “The Gloomy River”. For some reason, Kuzma managed to get really close to them... In the evenings they would gather over a bottle of vodka and read to each other. And the artist, exhausted from forced inaction, wanted to try his luck as a writer again. To fill his idleness, he writes beautiful romantic-emotional books about his childhood and youth - “Khlynovsk” (1930) and “The Space of Euclid” (1933). And Gorky again attacked Petrov-Vodkin: “He makes things up so badly that it’s impossible to believe him. His books are a repository of verbal rubbish.” Gorky was considered an indisputable authority, and all publishing houses immediately closed for Kuzma. By the way, these two enemies were surprisingly similar even in old age: they grew the same mustache and even dressed in the same style - in robes and straw hats. In total, 20 short stories, 3 long stories and 12 plays came from the pen of Petrov-Vodkin.
Shortly before his death, the artist, despite the doctors’ ban, again took up brushes and paints. “I began to jokingly write about my writers - Alyosha Tolstoy, Fedin, Shishkov,” he wrote. A little later: “Nothing comes of it with Tolstoy. I put Shishkov in the back chair, and Andrei Bely in the front chair, he holds matches in one hand and cigarettes in the other. I write and write and nothing comes of it. One fine day Instead of Tolstoy, I’m thinking, shouldn’t we imprison Pushkin, what will happen?” In the end, the group portrait became like this: Pushkin, Bely and Petrov-Vodkin. Well, having gone “through the entire breadth of life,” Kuzma Petrovich has earned the right to such company...
Repeatedly addressing the topic Civil War, Petrov-Vodkin sought to capture events in their historical significance. In 1934 he created one of his last strong paintings"1919. Alarm." The artist considered it necessary in his interviews and conversations to explain his idea in detail: the painting shows a worker’s apartment located in a city threatened by the White Guards. The worker's family is gripped by anxiety, and this is not just human anxiety, but class anxiety, calling for struggle. It must be assumed that it was not in vain that he tried with explanations, because without them everything that happened could have been interpreted completely differently. At least, the main thing here is not 1919 at all, the main thing is Anxiety, anxiety with a capital A, which is the main character and subject of the image. Concern for the fatherland, for human destinies, for the future of children in 1934 acquired a different meaning than in 1919. The picture of a St. Petersburg worker who is called into the militia in the middle of the night is perceived as a premonition Stalin's terror with his nightly arrests. In his later works, Petrov-Vodkin moves away from the laconicism of his previous paintings. He writes multi-figure compositions and complements the plot with many details. Sometimes this begins to interfere with the perception of the main idea (this is his last clearly unsuccessful painting, “Housing Party,” on the theme of “densification of the former bourgeoisie,” written in 1938).
Petrov-Vodkin was an active participant from the first years of the revolution artistic life Soviet country, since 1924 he was a member of one of the most significant artistic societies - the Four Arts. He devoted a lot of energy to teaching and developing the theory of painting. He was one of the reorganizers of the art education system and worked a lot as a graphic artist and theater artist. K.S. Petrov-Vodkin became an Honored Artist of the RSFSR, called himself a “sincere fellow traveler of the revolution,” but still he was not an artist who would have been completely satisfactory for the Soviet regime. A symbolist with the Parisian school, an icon painter in the past, who did not hide his interest in icons and religious art even in the era of militant materialism, did not fit the format of the Soviet calendar. And maybe Kuzma Sergeevich would have shared the fate of many talented people rotted in the Gulag.
The artist died in Leningrad in the early morning of February 15, 1939. Immediately after the death of Petrov-Vodkin, the Soviet government noticeably cooled towards his legacy. His name was quietly ostracized: his paintings disappeared from museum exhibitions, and his name was hardly mentioned until the second half of the 1960s. And yet it must be admitted that the creative destiny of Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin developed quite happily. The transformation of a semi-literate son of a shoemaker into a famous painter, his rapid movement from the remote Volga region to the centers of European culture (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Munich, Paris), his proximity to the largest figures of Russian art, high positions in the Soviet years - all this seems fantastic.
"Red Horse" is a striking example of symbolist painting. This is a very capacious image, representing the era, speaking on its behalf. The main thing in the picture is a premonition: something has happened and they are waiting for something. Something grandiose is coming, radically changing destinies. The numbness before the start of something new is so clearly expressed in the picture that it has become a symbol of the era - the beginning of the twentieth century.
Art critic Natalya Adaskina
“The work of Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin and his most famous painting “The Bathing of the Red Horse” (1912) is the brightest rise, the culmination of the spiritual revival of Russia, which illuminated the beginning of the 20th century.”
Against the background of artistic experiments of his time, Petrov-Vodkin was able to give new life to the classical tradition, enriching it with the spirituality of ancient Russian art. Monumental in form and prophetic in content, his work became a worthy continuation of the deep tradition of Russian culture, which connected the names of A. Rublev, A. Ivanov, M. Vrubel.
The artist was born on the Volga in the city of Khvalynsk, which he lovingly named in his autobiographical story "Khlynovsky", as if approaching the original folk dialect. Petrov - Vodkin came out like a nugget from the very heart of the people, from the peasant-bourgeois environment, which is why the double surname was fixed. His father was a shoemaker.
The boy grew up in a friendly, hardworking family, surrounded by love and attention. He had a special spiritual closeness with his mother Anna Panteleevna. Throughout his life, the artist shared his most cherished things with her in his letters. From this simple woman, the future artist absorbed a special, characteristic feeling of the living Universe.
He wrote about his mother: “For her, space was a single whole and a huge beating human heart inside it.”.
The path to art for Petrova - Vodkina was not easy. Thanks to the tutelage of the famous architect R. Meltzer, who drew attention to the talented young man, Petrov-Vodkin ends up in St. Petersburg and enters the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron A. Stieglitz. However, soon, trying to escape from tutelage, he goes to Moscow, where he becomes a student of V. Serov at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Initially, the artist was inclined to accompany the disclosure of other talented personalities, primarily dramatic and literary direction. In the 1900s, the writer even pushed aside the artist in him. Play "Sacrificial", inspired by the dramas of M. Maeterlinck, was staged on theater stage and was a huge success. And finally, the passionate traveler in him awakens. Europe, Africa, the East - these are just the dotted lines of his wanderings and short time for the desire to understand space. But this is a special desire. Pathos of travel Petrova - Vodkina- not the discovery of new lands, but the desire to experience planet Earth as a single living being. This need for him was so strong that it pushed the young artist to take an adventure. Limited in funds, with his characteristic peasant savvy, he finds a witty way out: he turns to a company that produces bicycles with a proposal to carry out a promotional trip. He traveled all over Europe on a bicycle. Meeting with European culture became an important school for him.
Since childhood, Petrov-Vodkin's attention has always been attracted by various natural phenomena: volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, eclipses and floods. In them, he seemed to strive to hear the pulse of the Universe, in tune with the state of the soul and humanity.
All this was reflected in his creative period, creating a special type of construction of a spatial gap - a spherical universal perspective. In masterpieces "Bathing the Red Horse", , "Noon '17", the horizon line rounds, reuniting the event with a planetary rhythm. In his autobiography "Khlynovsk" he conveys as a frank event that happened to him near the Volga on Zatonovsky Hill. Having fallen on the top of a hill and looking around the entire horizon, he felt himself in a spherical thicket of the universe, crowned with a supreme spiritual dome. I felt like I was in the center of the whole world, in the center of the whole planet. While ascending to the mouth of the awakened Vesuvius, risking his life, he experiences a kind of ecstasy, “heroic solemnity.” “The cosmos moved and fluttered and rushed me in its unprecedented rhythms, unfamiliar to me. And the earth that I knew until then turned out to be different...” - he ends with these words Petrov - Vodkin the second part of the memoirs "Euclid's Space".
Great achievements awaited him ahead...
The artist does not embark on this ascetic path in art alone. In 1906, he met M. Jovanovic in Paris, who became his wife.
In the spirit of his symbolic plays, he attributed a mystical meaning to his meeting with Mara: “All my friends saw in me only talent... I was like a prophet to others, always strong and joyful, for whom suffering did not exist. But I myself was freezing. And Here I have found my Eurydice! Throughout his life, the artist will repeatedly turn to her portraits, peering into his favorite features that fascinate him. In general, Petrov-Vodkin, with his planetary worldview, preferred to love humanity rather than the individual. But the family was an exception. The artist transferred his reverent attitude towards his mother to his wife and subsequently to his daughter Elena, whose birth he perceived as the most striking event of his life. The amazing harmony of hearts that reigns in the family increases his creative powers tenfold.
Repeatedly subsequently, the artist will turn to the themes of femininity and motherhood, in which he tries to comprehend the mystery of the origin of life (1912), (1915).
In these paintings, iconic features appear through the faces of the Volga peasant women; in gestures and movements that make them look like angels, there is heavenly harmony. The soul of each of them reflects the Mother of God, in whom “the warm heart of the world is embodied.”
The artist’s first significant paintings, inspired by images of symbolism and the paintings of Borisov-Musatov, are also devoted to this topic.
Although they were subjected to harsh criticism, they brought the artist closer to the circle of the “World of Arts” and brought him fame. During these years he lives in St. Petersburg. A. Benois saw in the creative process of Petrov - Vodkin the embodiment of his dream of the revival of monumentality and the classical ideal.
True Confession Petrov - Vodkin brought a picture "Bathing the Red Horse"(1912). It triumphantly and vividly embodied all the restless forebodings of the art of the previous decade.
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Bathing the red horse. 1912 Kozma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939) is one of the largest and most original Russian artists of the first decades of the 20th century. In his art, artistic tendencies that seemed far from each other were pulled together into a strong knot. Girl in a red scarf (Worker). 1925
Spring sketch in Shuvalovo. 1927. Oil on canvas
Samarkand. 1926
African boy. 1907
Shah-e-Zinda. Samarkand. 1921 Samarkand, 1920 His works provoked fierce controversy, passionate clashes of often directly opposite opinions and assessments - from enthusiastic praise to contemptuous ridicule (including from such a colossus as Repin). This was a complex and at the same time integral personality. An outstanding painter, an unsurpassed draftsman, an original theorist, a born teacher, a talented writer, and a prominent public figure. A multi-talented person. An artist, one of a kind and a typical son of his time, who painted Russian icons and the leader of the revolution Lenin with equal interest.
Cain's murder of Abel. 1910 Set design sketch for the dramatization "Satan's Diary" (based on L. Andreev). 1922
Anxiety. 1926
Trinity. 1915
Our Lady of Tenderness of Evil Hearts Uzbek boy. 1921
Portrait of A.P. Petrova - Vodkina, the artist’s mother. 1909 Petrov-Vodkin sought to discover in man the manifestation of the eternal laws of the world order, to make a specific image personify the connection of cosmic forces. Hence the monumentality of the style, and the spherical perspective, i.e., the perception of any fragment from a cosmic point of view, and the understanding of space as one of the main storytellers of the picture. In the nursery. 1925
Portrait of S. N. Andronikova. 1925 Portrait of Anna Akhmatova
Self-portrait. 1926-1927 But already in the last years of Petrov-Vodkin’s life, his art - due to not always organic and successful attempts to reconcile the long-established nature of painting with the strict demands placed on it - did not find sufficient public recognition. After the artist's death, his name was erased from Soviet art. Over the next quarter of a century, Petrov-Vodkin seemed to be forgotten; his paintings almost disappeared from museum exhibitions. Only once, in 1947 in St. Petersburg, was a small exhibition of his drawings organized. Stepan Razin. Sketch of the panel. 1918. Paper, watercolor
Sketch of the holy fool's makeup for the tragedy of A.S. Pushkin "Boris Godunov". 1923. Paper, watercolor
Illustration for “The Sea Princess” by Mikhail Lermontov. Paper, mixed media However, true art sooner or later receives recognition and takes its place in the Pantheon national culture. For Petrov-Vodkin, this time occurred in the second half of the 1960s. In 1965, in Moscow, enthusiasts staged a modest-sized exhibition of his works in the Central House of Writers. A year later, the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, which has the largest collection of paintings and drawings by the master, organized a retrospective exhibition, which was a huge success and showed the true scale of his art. Petrov-Vodkin immediately took a place in the first row of Russian artists of the 20th century. The monograph by V.I. that appeared at the same time. Kostina for the first time gave a reliable review and analysis of his art. The creativity of Petrov-Vodkin and his individual works have become the object of close study. Finally, in 1970, his autobiographical stories were published in a new edition. Mikula Selyaninovich. Paper, watercolor
Flowers. 1926. Paper, watercolor, pencil Now no one seems to have any doubt that in the person of Petrov-Vodkin, Russian art had a master of enormous scale, deeply original and original, an artist-philosopher who sought to understand and transform in his art a person, an object, a phenomenon, the Universe into all their complexity and depth. It is precisely such people, rare by the very nature of their talents, who advance the artistic knowledge of the world more than anyone else. I love the tired rustle Still life with letters. 1925 Still life. Fruits. 1934 Petrov-Vodkin occasionally painted still lifes in his youth, but only in 1918-1920 they became central theme his creativity. Thus, this genre came to his art much later than many of his peers mastered it. In the late 1900s and the first half of the 1910s, N.N. Sapunov, P.V. Kuznetsov, M.S. Saryan, N.S. Goncharova, M.F. Larionov, I.I. Mashkov, P.P. Konchalovsky and some other artists brought Russian still life to a flourishing unprecedented in Russian art. Their paintings presented a wide variety of solutions to the problem of “dead nature.” And yet, turning to the still lifes of Petrov-Vodkin, we see that a completely unique structure of artistic thinking and attitude gave this genre in his art features that are dissimilar from the works of the mentioned masters. Still life. Candle and decanter. 1918 Apples on red cloth. 1917 Still life with a mirror. 1919 In art history literature it has been said more than once that the term “still life” is unsuccessful and does not reflect the essence of the genre, to which “Stilleben”, “Still Life” - “quiet or calm life” (in German and English) are more appropriate. But even this definition does not give an idea of the intense nature of Petrov-Vodkin’s still lifes, in which the entire area of the canvas is sometimes permeated with power lines of “spherical perspective.” I would like to call Petrov-Vodkin’s still lifes not “ dead nature" (they are too alive for this) and not a “quiet life” (they are too restless), but rather, descriptively - “objective compositions.” However, the cumbersomeness of such a definition forces us to return to an imprecise, but familiar term.
Still life with a blue ashtray. 1920 Petrov-Vodkin’s still lifes are unpretentious in their selection of objects and bear the signs of the harsh era in which they were created. In this sense, the still life with the image of a skinny herring, a piece of bread and two potatoes - a meager ration of a hungry time - became classic ("Herring", 1918, Russian Russian Museum). Fruits on a blue tablecloth. 1921 The artist loves to introduce mirrors, glass or simply some shiny objects into them (a samovar, a nickel-plated teapot), allowing him to devote himself to analyzing the complex play of reflexes, refractions of light beams incident and reflected in the inner faces. In these studies, in the spirit of Vrubel, Petrov-Vodkin replaces the passion of his brilliant predecessor with a methodically persistent desire to understand the subject in all its aspects. The artist examines things laid out and arranged on the table from above, so that their location can be accurately recorded and they are visible “at a glance”; the polished edges of a teapot or the glass-covered surface of a table double the image, allowing you to look at it from a side invisible to the artist. Thus, Petrov-Vodkin overcomes the monocular point of view, which seems to him insufficient and does not reflect true knowledge about an object that can be walked around, ultimately obtaining a summary and more complete picture of it. Still life with a prism, 1920 In some still lifes, Petrov-Vodkin introduces images of his own drawings and watercolors, reinterpreting them in accordance with the spirit of the given canvas (as Matisse had already done before him), or palette - in a word, a kind of attributes of art, immersing the viewer in the atmosphere of the artist’s workshop. The violin, leaning against the window, behind which one can see the landscape of countless St. Petersburg roofs and cramped courtyards swaying on spatial axes, with its elegant and artistic silhouette aestheticizes this sad world and, in turn, receives from it a poignant minor coloring ("Violin", 1918, timing belt). The painting - for it is more of a painting than just a still life - is permeated with a single intense feeling, emanating equally from the image of the violin and the landscape behind the window frame. Violin. 1921 I love houses where things are not property, Novella Matveeva “Archaeological research” in the strata of the legacy left by K.S. Petrov-Vodkin can sometimes reward with the discovery of a pleasant heaviness of pure nuggets. For example, such undoubted corundum as the expressive “Still Life with a Samovar” (1932) finally found its place in the storerooms of the faceted chamber of Petrovodkin’s creativity.
Still life with a samovar. 1932 “Still Life with a Samovar” (provisional title – V.B.) recently appeared in one of the Moscow collections. Employees of the Art and Memorial Museum of K.S. Petrov-Vodkin (branch of the Radishchev Museum), those who work with the master’s creative heritage day after day almost without a doubt recognize the authenticity of this still life. Another previously unknown painting by K.S. Petrova-Vodkina appeared on the art market and aroused genuine interest in art circles. Currently, the painting is in a private collection in Crimea. Bouquet on the terrace. 1913. This bouquet of wildflowers in the painting from the collection of Academician Kashtayants (the famous biologist who led the launch of Belka and Strelka into space) was painted by K.S. Petrov-Vodkin in the Zvantsev estate in Tartaleyi, Nizhny Novgorod province, where the artist lived from mid-June to the end of July 1913. There he worked with the director of the Nezlobinsky Theater Nikolai Zvantsev on the scenery for the play based on Schiller’s tragedy “The Maid of Orleans”. In a letter from Tartaly dated June 15, 1913, he described the Zvantsevs’ house: “The house stands on a mountain, from where two very small lakes are visible, and trees and fields in the distance. There is a park and a small forest, now it’s strawberry season, and we eat them every day.” (1) A close look at the work will not hide the fact that the house on whose terrace the bouquet stands is located on a hill, below on the left you can see the greenery of trees growing under the mountain on which the house stands, in the distance there is a hilly open area, and next to the terrace, close trees also grow near the house. In a letter dated June 30 - July 1, 1913, he told his wife: “Now is the day of awakening. The morning wind makes the leaves of the trees under my windows flutter..." (2) In the same letter from June 30 - July 1, by the way, there are the following lines: “Before my eyes, the horizon disappears in the twilight of the night, dressing up in pink and blue colors...”. (3) And although the picture probably depicts morning, the “pink horizon” can also be seen. In a letter dated June 26, 1913, there is a mention of clover: “I am sending a four-leaf clover (as clover is called - V.B.), which I found today for you and for myself,” (4) - that is, the clover in the bouquet is not accidental, a bouquet of He could collect daisies and clover when he went with the Zvantsevs to buy strawberries. He generally preferred wildflowers to garden flowers. Bouquets of wildflowers are quite common in his still lifes: “Morning Still Life” (1918), “Still Life with a Samovar” (1920) and “Still Life. Flowers and female head"(1921). The most striking thing in all of Petrov-Vodkin’s still lifes is that the close, sometimes scrupulous analysis of objects and the strict, almost experimental compositional structure of the canvas in no way deprive them of the spontaneity of the artist’s perception of nature, not to mention the richness and subtlety of color. “Morning Still Life” truly breathes the freshness of a dew-washed morning with the transparency of its air, the purity of color and the clear graphic nature of the edges of the form. “Pink Still Life” (1918, Tretyakov Gallery) is completely permeated with light, pouring over the branch of an apple tree, scattered fruits and a glass on the table. The special clarity of the image, in which the objects seem to be named in turn and do not obscure each other, gives rise to an almost physical feeling of joy from contemplating these still lifes, both seemingly simple and so, in essence, complex, just as all of Petrov’s art is far from simple and unambiguous -Vodkina. Pink still life. 1918 Since then, still lifes have not left his practice, although in the future they do not occupy such a place in it as in 1918-1920. The most significant, as before, is created by him in a compositional easel painting, expressing his deepest and most intimate thoughts about the essence of current events and life in the broad sense of this concept. Can you explain to me where Name: Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin Age: 60 years old Activity: artist, writer and teacher, Honored Artist of the RSFSR Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin: biographyKuzma Petrov-Vodkin, an artist who worked at the junction of two eras, was called by his contemporaries “an ancient Russian icon painter who, by chance, found himself in the future.” The painter’s canvases not only reflected the present, but also prophesied the future. They also caused fierce controversy among fans and critics. The first spoke about genius, originality and deep symbolism, others - that it would be better for Petrov-Vodkin, as he intended, to work for railway or continue the family business and become a shoemaker. ChildhoodThe future painter was born in the north of the Saratov region, in the town of Khvalynsk, located on the right bank of the Volga. The Petrov-Vodkin family “became famous” for their ancestor, the “little white” lover Peter. Kuzma's grandfather, drunk, stabbed his wife to death with a cutting knife, and a few hours later he himself died. Since then, Peter's children were called either the Petrovs or the Vodkins.  The artist “inherited” a double surname, which was not very honorable and reminiscent of a family tragedy. The painter’s father, Sergei Petrovich, having received a “vaccination” against addiction, was an absolute teetotaler and the best shoemaker in the city. Relatives noted creativity in Kuzma in childhood. The boy told his tales so plausibly that his listeners could not help but believe him. The passion for drawing also manifested itself in early years. Grandma Arina turned out to be the first fan of her grandson’s work. The woman approved the landscape painted by Kuzma with oil paints on a piece of tin and decorated the grave of grandfather Fyodor with it.  The second “painting” by Petrov-Vodkin also decorated the cemetery tombstone. This time - in gratitude for the life saved. Kuzma swam in the Volga, but swam too far and, exhausted, began to drown. The boy was saved by the carrier Ilya Zakharov, who managed to swim up by boat. A week later, Zakharov, saving another victim of the waves, drowned himself. Painted on a tin plate, the Volga with a small carrier boat and the heads of drowning people, dedicated to the deceased rescuer, is the painter’s first “thematic” canvas.  Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin studied at a 4-grade school. There he met icon painters and tried to repeat what he saw. The priest did not approve of the first work: she turned out to be very down-to-earth, reminiscent of a village woman overwhelmed by earthly passions. In 1893, after graduating from college, Petrov-Vodkin went to Samara to continue his education and become a railway worker. Kuzma failed the exams, but was not at a loss and entered the school of the painter Fyodor Burov. After 2 years, Fyodor Emelyanovich died, the students were dismissed. The 15-year-old painter returned home.  The path to artistic Olympus was opened for my son by his mother, a maid in the Kazarin merchant house. She showed Kuzma’s works to the architect Robert-Friedrich Melzer, who arrived at the invitation of the owners. Struck by the boy’s talent, the architect took the young painter to St. Petersburg and helped him enter the Stieglitz School of Technical Drawing. The Kazarin merchants became patrons and sponsors of the gifted fellow countryman. They paid for Kuzma’s apartment and studies. PaintingIn St. Petersburg creative biography the artist is developing rapidly. The icon painting experience gained in Khvalynsk came in handy: Petrov-Vodkin created a sketch of the Virgin and Child for the church apse of the Orthopedic Institute. To translate the sketch of the icon into ceramics, the artist went to England, to a factory. The panel in majolica has survived to this day.  In 1987, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin moved to Moscow, where he became a student at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Studied under . In 1900, he worked at a ceramics factory in the village of Vsekhsvyatskoye near Moscow. He graduated from college in 1905. Since childhood, the young man, prone to adventure and adventure, dreamed of visiting Europe, but there was no money for the trip. Chance helped. In the capital's newspaper, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin saw an advertisement that a sponsor would pay for a further journey through European cities for those who dared to travel from Moscow to Paris on a bicycle.  The young artist persuaded a friend to join him and hit the road. We made it to Germany, but didn’t have enough strength for the further journey. In Munich, the Russian painter was lucky: friends raised money to pay for two months of study at Anton Ashbe’s school, where Igor Grabar and Igor Grabar once improved their skills. The dream of wandering the streets of Paris came true in 1905. For three years Petrov-Vodkin took lessons at private art academies. During these years, he visited Italy and North Africa, which inspired the paintings “Family of Nomads,” “African Boy,” and “Cafe.” A year after returning to Russia, in 1909, the painter’s first personal exhibition took place.  In 1910, Petrov-Vodkin presented the world with the painting “Dream,” which caused heated discussion and scandal in society. The canvas depicts naked women looking at a sleeping naked man. responded to the work with a devastating review in the newspaper, but Alexander Benois called “The Dream” a masterpiece. Eroticism is present in many of the artist’s paintings. In 1912, the symbolist presented the work “Bathing the Red Horse,” changing Repin’s opinion: the master responded with admiration: “Talent!”  The painting is called the main work of Kuzma Sergeevich, the most mysterious and “multi-layered”. The symbols and meanings hidden in it are still debated today. They say that the canvas is inspired by Novgorod icons painted by ancient Russian masters. There were also those who saw in the picture an image of the coming revolution. The masterpiece is kept in the Tretyakov Gallery. Three years later, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin pleased puzzle lovers and fans of symbolism with a new riddle - the painting “The Thirsty Warrior”. Art connoisseurs view the figures in the painting as oriental hieroglyphs: each has its own meaning, and everything together is “read” as a kind of “phrase”.  The masterpiece was written at the height of the First World War, a tragic time for the Russian army. Adherents of symbolism saw in the depicted warrior the horseman of the apocalypse and drew parallels to Revelations. In their opinion, through ominous symbolism, the painting depicts the ongoing catastrophe predicted in the Gospel. Fans of Petrov-Vodkin’s work believed in his gift of prediction. In 1918, he presented a still life called “Herring”. To those who laughed at him for the triviality of the plot, the artist gloomily replied that what was depicted on the canvas was rations from the time of the siege. There were 23 years left before the terrible events in Leningrad.  The artist dedicated the painting “Death of a Commissar”, full of tragedy, to the anniversary of the Red Army. The color scheme and the master’s implementation of the ideas of “spherical perspective” were appreciated by art critics and Petrov-Vodkin’s colleagues. 5 years before his death, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin completed the painting “1919. Anxiety". It depicts a worker's home in a city captured by the White Guards. The hero of the plot anxiously peers into the blue twilight outside the window, behind him is a silent family. The tragedy is enhanced by the image of a sleeping baby.  The canvas was painted in 1934 and, according to fans of the artist, it is only formally named “1919.” The brilliant visionary felt the spinning flywheel of Stalin's repressions and the growing anxiety in society. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin accepted the revolution, was not a dissident and, as it seemed to everyone, welcomed the changes in the country of the Soviets. But when the artist died, they lost interest in his legacy: the authorities suddenly suspected that the origins of the painter’s work were hidden in icon painting, and behind the symbolism Kuzma Sergeevich hid other meanings that were not so pleasant for the Soviet authorities. Personal lifeIn Paris, 27-year-old Petrov-Vodkin met a woman with whom he lived until the end of his days. Mara, the daughter of the owner of a Parisian boarding house, became his faithful wife Maria Fedorovna. At the city hall of the French capital, the newlyweds were married, and 2 years later, in 1908, they left for Russia.  Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin and his wife Maria Josephine Yovanovitch (in Russia - Maria Fedorovna) His wife gave birth to a daughter, Elena, to Kuzma Ivanovich at the age of 37. The artist responded enthusiastically to the event: “I was half human without experiencing this! Now I have something to live for!” DeathIn 1928, doctors forbade Petrov-Vodkin to work with paints: the fumes harmed the lungs affected by tuberculosis. Kuzma Ivanovich moved from the northern capital to Detskoye Selo, where he was surrounded by famous writers, Konstantin Fedin and Vyacheslav Shishkov.  The artist also took up his pen and wrote 20 stories, 12 plays and 3 novels. Petrov-Vodkin took two novels to the publishing house, but killed the initiative. After criticism of the works, the publishing houses closed their doors to Kuzma Ivanovich. The prominent representative of symbolism and post-impressionism passed away in mid-February 1939. Fate gave him 60 years, and the cause of death was tuberculosis. Paintings
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