The best paintings by Kustodiev. Boris Kustodiev. Illustrations for literary works and theatrical works

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Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev(February 23 (March 7), Astrakhan - May 26, Leningrad) - Russian Soviet artist. Academician of painting (1909). Member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (since 1923). Portrait painter, theater artist, decorator.

Biography [ | ]

Six months later, Kustodiev returned to Russia and worked in the Kostroma province on a series of paintings “Fairs” and “Village Holidays”. In 1904 he became a founding member of the New Society of Artists. In 1905-1907 he worked as a cartoonist in the satirical magazine “Bug” (famous drawing “Introduction. Moscow”), after its closure - in the magazines “Hell Mail” and “Sparks”. Since 1907 - member of the Union of Russian Artists. In 1909, on the recommendation of Repin and other professors, he was elected a member of the Academy of Arts. At the same time, Kustodiev was asked to replace Serov as a teacher of the portrait-genre class at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, but fearing that this activity would take a lot of time from personal work and not wanting to move to Moscow, Kustodiev refused the position. Since 1910 - a member of the renewed "World of Art".

In 1909, Kustodiev showed the first signs of a spinal cord tumor. Several operations brought only temporary relief; For the last 15 years of his life, the artist was confined to a wheelchair. Due to illness, he was forced to write his works while lying down. However, it was during this difficult period of his life that his most vibrant, temperamental, and cheerful works appeared. In 1913 he taught at the New Art Workshop (St. Petersburg).

In 1914, Kustodiev rented an apartment in a St. Petersburg apartment building at the address: Ekateringofsky Prospekt, 105. From 1915 until the end of his life he lived in the apartment building of E.P. Mikhailov (Vvedenskaya Street, 7, apt. 50). He was buried at the Nikolskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1948, the ashes and monument were moved to the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (photo of the grave).

Family [ | ]

Kustodiev Boris with his wife Yulia. 1903

Wife Yulia Evstafievna Proshinskaya was born in 1880. In 1900, she met her future husband in the Kostroma province, where Boris Kustodiev went to sketch in the summer. She reciprocated the young artist’s feelings and became his wife in the early 1900s, taking her husband’s surname. In their marriage, the Kustodievs had a son, Kirill (1903–1971, also became an artist) and a daughter, Irina (1905–1981). The third child, Igor, died in infancy. Yulia Kustodieva survived her husband and died in 1942.

Illustrations and book graphics[ | ]

In 1905-1907 he worked in the satirical magazines “Bug” (famous drawing “Introduction. Moscow”), “Hell Mail” and “Sparks”.

Kustodiev, who has a fine sense of line, performed cycles of illustrations for classical works and for the creations of his contemporaries (illustrations for Leskov’s works: “The Darner,” 1922; “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” 1923).

Possessing a firm touch, he worked in the techniques of lithography and linoleum engraving.

Painting [ | ]

Kustodiev began his career as a portrait artist. Already while working on sketches for Repin’s “Great Meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901,” student Kustodiev showed his talent as a portrait painter. In sketches and portrait sketches for this multi-figure composition, he coped with the task of achieving similarities with Repin’s creative style. But Kustodiev the portrait painter was closer to Serov. Painterly plasticity, free long strokes, bright characteristics of appearance, emphasis on the artistry of the model - these were mostly portraits of fellow students and teachers of the Academy - but without Serov's psychologism. Kustodiev was incredibly fast for a young artist, but deservedly won fame as a portrait painter among the press and customers. However, according to A. Benoit:

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

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

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

Subsequently, Kustodiev gradually shifted more and more towards an ironic stylization of folk and, especially, the life of the Russian merchants with a riot of colors and flesh (“Beauty”, “Russian Venus”, “Merchant’s Wife at Tea”).

For “Russian Venus” Kustodiev did not have a ready-made canvas. Then the artist took his own painting “On the Terrace” and began to write on its reverse side. Boris Mikhailovich was very ill. He could only sit in a special wheelchair for no more than two or three hours a day, overcoming terrible pain throughout his body. Sometimes I couldn’t pick up a brush. His life at this time was a feat. This painting became, as it were, the result of his life - a year later Kustodiev died.

One of the artist’s friends recalled:

“He rolled up to his canvases and drove away from them, as if challenging... impending death to a duel...”

“I knew a lot of interesting, talented and good people, but if I have ever seen a truly high spirit in a person, it was in Kustodiev...” Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin

Theater works[ | ]

Like many artists of the turn of the century, Kustodiev also worked in the theater, transferring his vision of the work to the theater stage. The scenery performed by Kustodiev was colorful, close to his genre picture, but this was not always perceived as an advantage: creating a bright and convincing world, carried away by its material beauty, the artist sometimes did not coincide with the author’s intention and the director’s interpretation of the play (“The Death of Pazukhin” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, 1914, Moscow Art Theater; never saw the light of day “ Thunderstorm" by Ostrovsky, 1918). In his later works for the theater, he moves away from a chamber interpretation to a more generalized one, seeks greater simplicity, builds the stage space, giving freedom to the director when constructing mise-en-scenes. Kustodiev's success was his design work in 1918-1920. opera performances(1920, "The Tsar's Bride", Bolshoi opera house People's House; 1918, “Snow Maiden”, Bolshoi Theater(staging not carried out)). Scenery sketches, costumes and props for A. Serov’s opera “The Power of the Enemy” (Academic (former Mariinsky) Theater, 1921)

The productions of Zamyatin’s “The Flea” (1925, Moscow Art Theater 2nd; 1926, Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater) were successful. According to the memoirs of the director of the play A.D. Dikiy:

“It was so vivid, so precise that my role as a director accepting sketches was reduced to zero - I had nothing to correct or reject. It was as if he, Kustodiev, had been in my heart, overheard my thoughts, read Leskov’s story with the same eyes as me, and equally saw it in stage form. ... I have never had such complete, such inspiring like-mindedness with an artist as when working on the play “The Flea.” I learned the full meaning of this community when Kustodiev’s farcical, bright decorations appeared on the stage, and props and props made according to his sketches appeared. The artist led the entire performance, taking, as it were, the first part in the orchestra, which obediently and sensitively sounded in unison.”

After 1917, the artist participated in the decoration of Petrograd for the first anniversary of the October Revolution, painted posters, popular prints and paintings on revolutionary themes (“Bolshevik”, 1919-1920, Tretyakov Gallery; “Celebration in honor of the 2nd Congress of the Comintern on Uritsky Square”, 1921, Russian Museum).

Significant works [ | ]

The list of examples in this section is not based directly on the subject of the article or its section.

In Astrakhan, next to the Astrakhan Art Gallery named after P. M. Dogadin (formerly named after B. M. Kustodiev), there is a monument to B. M. Kustodiev.

The house-museum of B. M. Kustodiev in Astrakhan is located at st. Kalinina, 26 / st. Sverdlova, 68.

Kustodiev B. M.

This artist was highly valued by his contemporaries - Repin and Nesterov, Chaliapin and Gorky. And many decades later, we look at his canvases with admiration - a wide panorama of the life of old Rus', masterfully captured, stands before us.

He was born and raised in Astrakhan, a city located between Europe and Asia. The motley world burst into his eyes with all its diversity and richness. The shop signs beckoned, the guest courtyard beckoned; attracted by Volga fairs, noisy bazaars, city gardens and quiet streets; colorful churches, bright, sparkling church utensils; folk customs and holidays - all this forever left its imprint on his emotional, receptive soul.

The artist loved Russia - calm, and bright, and lazy, and restless, and devoted all his work to it, to Russia.

Boris was born into the family of a teacher. Despite the fact that the Kustodievs had to face “financial hard times” more than once, the furnishings of the house were full of comfort, and even some grace. Music was played often. My mother played the piano and loved to sing with her nanny. Russians often sang folk songs. Kustodiev’s love for all things folk was instilled in him from childhood.

First, Boris studied at a theological school, and then at a theological seminary. But the craving for drawing, which manifested itself since childhood, did not give up hope of learning the profession of an artist. By that time, Boris’s father had already died, and the Kustodievs did not have their own funds for studying; his uncle, his father’s brother, helped him. At first, Boris took lessons from the artist Vlasov, who came to Astrakhan for permanent residence. Vlasov taught the future artist a lot, and Kustodiev was grateful to him all his life. Boris enters the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg and studies brilliantly. He graduated from the Kustodiev Academy at the age of 25 with a gold medal and received the right to travel abroad and throughout Russia to improve his skills.

By this time, Kustodiev was already married to Yulia Evstafievna Proshina, with whom he was very much in love and with whom he lived his whole life. She was his muse, friend, assistant and adviser (and later, for many years, a nurse and caregiver). After graduating from the Academy, their son Kirill was already born. Together with his family, Kustodiev went to Paris. Paris delighted him, but he didn’t really like the exhibitions. Then he traveled (already alone) to Spain, where he became acquainted with Spanish painting, with artists, and shared his impressions with his wife in letters (she was waiting for him in Paris).

In the summer of 1904, the Kustodievs returned to Russia, settled in the Kostroma province, where they bought a piece of land and built their house, which they called “Terem”.

As a person, Kustodiev was attractive, but complex, mysterious and contradictory. He reunited in art the general and the particular, the eternal and the momentary; he is a master psychological portrait and the author of monumental, symbolic paintings. He was attracted by the passing past, and at the same time he responded vividly to events today: world war, popular unrest, two revolutions...

Kustodiev worked with enthusiasm in a variety of genres and types fine arts: painted portraits, everyday scenes, landscapes, still lifes. He was engaged in painting, drawings, made decorations for performances, illustrations for books, and even created engravings.

Kustodiev is a faithful successor to the traditions of Russian realists. He was very fond of Russian folk popular print, which he used to stylize many of his works. He loved to depict colorful scenes from the life of the merchants, philistines, folk life. WITH great love wrote bills of sale, folk holidays, festivities, Russian nature. For the “popularity” of his paintings, many at exhibitions scolded the artist, and then for a long time they could not move away from his canvases, quietly admiring him.

Kustodiev took an active part in the World of Art association and exhibited his paintings in exhibitions of the association.

At the 33rd year of his life, a serious illness fell upon Kustodiev, it shackled him and deprived him of the ability to walk. Having undergone two operations, the artist was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. My hands hurt a lot. But Kustodiev was a man of high spirit and illness did not force him to give up his favorite work. Kustodiev continued to write. Moreover, this was the period of the highest flowering of his creativity.

At the beginning of May 1927, on a windy day, Kustodiev caught a cold and contracted pneumonia. And on May 26 it quietly faded away. His wife survived him by 15 years and died in Leningrad during the siege.

Bolshevik (1920)

Before us is a Russian city of revolutionary years. The streets are filled with dense crowds, and, towering above everyone and easily stepping over the houses, walks a giant man with a menacing face and burning eyes. In his hands is a huge red banner fluttering far behind his back. The street is sunny and snowy in Kustodiev style. Blue shadows in the fight with the sun make it festive. The scarlet banner, spread across the greenish sky, like fire, like a river of blood, like a whirlwind, like the wind, gives the picture a movement as inexorable as the step of a Bolshevik

Girl on the Volga (1915)

The same Kustodiev type of woman is repeated: a sweet, gentle girl-beauty, about whom in Rus' they said “written”, “sugar”. The face is full of the same sweet charm that the heroines of Russian epics, folk songs and fairy tales are endowed with: a light blush, as they say, blood with milk, high arched eyebrows, a chiseled nose, a cherry mouth, a tight braid thrown over the chest... She is alive , real and incredibly attractive, alluring.

She lay half-lying on a hillock among daisies and dandelions, and behind her, under the mountain, unfolds such a wide Volga expanse, such an abundance of churches that it takes your breath away.

Kustodiev merges this earthly here, beautiful girl and this nature, this Volga expanse into a single inextricable whole. The girl is the highest, poetic symbol of this land, of all of Russia.

In an unusual way, the painting “Girl on the Volga” ended up far from Russia - in Japan.

Blue House (1920)

With this painting, the artist wanted, according to his son, to cover the entire cycle human life. Although some connoisseurs of painting argued that Kustodiev was talking about the wretched existence of the tradesman, limited by the walls of the house. But this was not typical for Kustodiev - he loved the simple, peaceful life of ordinary people.

The picture is multi-figured and multi-valued. Here is a simple-minded provincial love duet of a girl sitting in an open window with a young man leaning against the fence, and if you move your gaze a little to the right, you seem to see a continuation of this romance in the woman with the child.

Look to the left - and in front of you is a most picturesque group: a policeman is peacefully playing checkers with a bearded man in the street, next to them a naive and beautiful-hearted man is speaking - in a hat and poor, but neat clothes, and gloomily listening to his speech, looking up from the newspaper, sitting near his establishment coffin master

And above, as the result of your whole life, is a peaceful tea party with someone who has gone through all life’s joys and hardships hand in hand.

And the mighty poplar, adjacent to the house and seemingly blessing it with its thick foliage, is not just a landscape detail, but almost a kind of double of human existence - the tree of life with its various branches.

And everything goes away, the viewer’s gaze goes up, to the boy illuminated by the sun, and to the doves soaring in the sky.

No, this picture definitely does not look like an arrogant or even slightly condescending, but still a guilty verdict to the inhabitants of the “blue house”!

Full of inescapable love for life, the artist, in the words of the poet, blesses “every blade of grass in the field, and every star in the sky” and affirms family closeness, the connection between “blades of grass” and “stars,” everyday prose and poetry.

Group portrait of the artists of the World of Art (1920)

From left to right:

I.E.Grabar, N.K.Roerich, E.E.Lancere, B.M.Kustodiev, I.Ya.Bilibin, A.P.Ostrumova-Lebedeva, A.N.Benois, G.I.Narbut, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, N.D. Milioti, K.A. Somov, M.V. Dobuzhinsky.

This portrait was commissioned from Kustodiev for the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist did not dare to paint it for a long time, feeling a high responsibility. But in the end he agreed and started working.

I thought for a long time about who and how to seat and introduce. He wanted not just to put them in a row, as in a photograph, but to show each artist as a Personality, with his character, characteristics, and to emphasize his talent.

Twelve people had to be depicted in the discussion process. Oh, these sizzling debates of the “World of Art”! The disputes are verbal, but more pictorial - with lines, paints...

Here is Bilibin, an old friend from the Academy of Arts. A joker and a merry fellow, a connoisseur of ditties and old songs, who, despite his stutter, can pronounce the longest and funniest toasts. That’s why he stands here, like a toastmaster, with a glass raised with a graceful movement of his hand. The Byzantine beard rose, eyebrows raised upward in bewilderment.

What was the conversation at the table about? It seems that gingerbread cookies were brought to the table, and Benoit found the letters “I.B.” on them.

Benoit turned to Bilibin with a smile: “Admit, Ivan Yakovlevich, these are your initials. Did you make a drawing for the bakers? Do you earn capital?” Bilibin laughed and jokingly began ranting about the history of the creation of gingerbread in Rus'.

But to the left of Bilibin sit Lanceray and Roerich. Everyone argues, but Roerich thinks, he doesn’t think, but he thinks. An archaeologist, historian, philosopher, educator with the makings of a prophet, a cautious man with the manners of a diplomat, he does not like to talk about himself, about his art. But his painting says so much that there is already a whole group of interpreters of his work, which finds in his painting elements of mystery, magic, and foresight. Roerich was elected chairman of the newly organized society "World of Art".

The wall is green. On the left is a bookcase and a bust of a Roman emperor. Tiled yellow and white stove. Everything is the same as in Dobuzhinsky’s house, where the first meeting of the founders of the World of Art took place.

At the center of the group is Benoit, a critic and theorist, an unquestioned authority. Kustodiev has a complex relationship with Benoit. Benoit is a wonderful artist. His favorite topics are life at the court of Louis XV and Catherine II, Versailles, fountains, palace interiors.

On the one hand, Benois liked Kustodiev’s paintings, but condemned that there was nothing European in them.

On the right is Konstantin Andreevich Somov, a calm and balanced figure. His portrait was easy to paint. Maybe because he reminded Kustodiev of a clerk? The artist has always been successful with Russian types. The starched collar is white, the cuffs of a fashionable speckled shirt, the black suit is ironed, sleek full hands stacked on the table. There is an expression of equanimity, contentment on the face...

The owner of the house is an old friend Dobuzhinsky. How many things we experienced with him in St. Petersburg!.. How many different memories!..

Dobuzhinsky's pose seems to successfully express disagreement with something.

But Petrov-Vodkin abruptly pushed back his chair and turned around. He is diagonally from Bilibin. Petrov-Vodkin burst into art world noisy and bold, which some artists, for example Repin, did not like; they have a completely different view of art, a different vision.

On the left is a clear profile of Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar. Stocky, with a not very well-built figure, a shaved square head, he is full of keen interest in everything that happens...

And here he is, Kustodiev himself. He depicted himself from the back, in half profile. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, sitting next to him, is a new member of society. Energetic woman with masculine character Conversing with Petrov-Vodkin

Beauty (1915)

Wallpaper in flowers, an ornate chest on which a lush bed is arranged, covered with a blanket, the pillowcases somehow show through the body. And from all this excessive abundance, like Aphrodite from the foam of the sea, the heroine of the picture is born.

Before us is a lush beauty, limp from sleeping on the feather bed. Throwing back the thick pink blanket, she lowered her feet onto the soft footrest. With inspiration, Kustodiev praises the chaste, specifically Russian feminine beauty, popular among the people: bodily luxury, the purity of light blue affectionate eyes, an open smile.

The lush roses on the chest and the blue wallpaper behind her are in tune with the image of the beauty. By stylizing it as a splint, the artist made it “a little more” - both the fullness of the body and the brightness of the colors. But this bodily abundance did not cross the line beyond which it would have become unpleasant.

This is truly a beauty, caressing the eye, simple, natural, full of strength, like nature itself - as a symbol of health and fertility. She is waiting for love - just like the land of rain.

Bathing (1912)

It’s a hot sunny day, the water sparkles from the sun, mixing the reflections of the intensely blue sky, perhaps promising a thunderstorm, and the trees from the steep bank, as if melted on top by the sun. On the shore they are loading something into a boat. The roughly built bathhouse is also hot from the sun; the shadow inside is light, almost does not hide the women's bodies. The picture is full of greedily, sensually perceived life, its everyday flesh. The free play of light and shadows, reflections of the sun in the water makes us remember the mature Kustodiev’s interest in impressionism.

Merchant's Wife (1915)

One day, while walking along the banks of the Volga, Kustodiev saw a woman whose beauty, stature and greatness simply shocked him, and the artist painted this picture.

Here was a Russian landscape, which is loved by folk artists, storytellers, and songwriters of Rus'. Bright, like a popular print, cheerful, like a folk toy. Where else in Europe was so much gold placed on domes, golden stars thrown on blue? Where else are there such small cheerful churches, reflected in the lowlands of the waters, as in the vastness of Russia?

The artist took a large canvas for the painting and made the woman stand tall, in all her Russian beauty. Over the riot of colors, lilac and crimson reigned supreme. He was dressed up, festive and at the same time excited.

And the woman is beautiful and majestic, like the wide Volga behind her. This is the beautiful Russian Elena, who knows the power of her beauty, for which some merchant of the first guild chose her as his wife. This is a beauty sleeping in reality, standing high above the river, like a slender white-trunked birch tree, the personification of peace and contentment.

She is wearing a long, shimmering silk dress of alarming purple, hair combed in the middle, a dark braid, pear earrings sparkling in her ears, a warm blush on her cheeks, a shawl decorated with patterns on her hand.

She fits as naturally into the Volga landscape with its beauty and spaciousness as the world around her: there is a church, and birds are flying, and the river is flowing, steamboats are sailing, and a young merchant couple is walking - they also admired the beautiful merchant's wife.

Everything moves, runs, but she stands as a symbol of the constant, the best that was, is and will be.

Merchant's wife with a mirror

But the merchant’s wife admires herself in a new shawl painted with flowers. This is how Pushkin’s poem comes to mind: “Am I the sweetest, the most ruddy and whitest in the world?..” And standing in the doorway, admiring his wife, is the husband, a merchant who probably brought her this shawl from the fair. And he is happy that he was able to bring this joy to his beloved wife...

Merchant's wife at tea (1918)

Provincial town. Tea party. A young beautiful merchant's wife sits on the balcony on a warm evening. She is serene, like the evening sky above her. This is some kind of naive goddess of fertility and abundance. It’s not for nothing that the table in front of her is bursting with food: next to the samovar, gilded utensils, there are fruits and baked goods in plates.

A gentle blush sets off the whiteness of a sleek face, black eyebrows are slightly raised, blue eyes are carefully examining something in the distance. According to Russian custom, she drinks tea from a saucer, supporting it with her plump fingers. A cozy cat gently rubs against the owner’s shoulder, the wide neckline of the dress reveals the immensity of her round chest and shoulders. In the distance you can see the terrace of another house, where a merchant and his merchant’s wife are sitting at the same occupation.

Here the everyday picture clearly develops into a fantastic allegory of a carefree life and earthly bounties bestowed upon man. And the artist slyly admires the most magnificent beauty, as if one of the sweetest fruits of the earth. Only the artist “grounded” her image a little - her body became a little plumper, her fingers plump...

Maslenitsa (1916)

The festive city with towering churches, bell towers, clumps of frost-covered trees and smoke from chimneys can be seen from the mountain on which Maslenitsa fun unfolds.

The boys' fight is in full swing, snowballs are flying, the sleigh is climbing up the mountain and rushing further. Here sits a coachman in a blue caftan, and those sitting in the sleigh rejoice at the holiday. And a gray horse rushed towards them, driven by a lone driver, who turned slightly towards those riding behind, as if daring them to compete in speed.

And below - the carousel, the crowds at the booth, the rows of living rooms! And in the sky there are clouds of birds, alarmed by the festive ringing! And everyone rejoices, rejoicing in the holiday...

A burning, immense joy overwhelms, looking at the canvas, carries away into this daring holiday, in which not only people in sleighs, at carousels and booths rejoice, not only accordions and bells ring - here the whole vast earth, dressed in snow and frost, rejoices and rings, and every tree rejoices, every house, and the sky, and the church, and even the dogs rejoice along with the boys sledding.

This is a holiday for the whole land, the Russian land. The sky, snow, motley crowds of people, sleds - everything is colored with green-yellow, pink-blue iridescent colors.

Moscow tavern (1916)

One day Kustodiev and his friend actor Luzhsky were riding in a carriage and got into conversation with the cab driver. Kustodiev drew attention to the cab driver’s large, pitch-black beard and asked him: “Where are you going to come from?” “We are from Kerzhensk,” answered the coachman. "Old Believers, then?" - “Exactly, your honor.” - “So, there are a lot of you, coachmen, here in Moscow?” - “Yes, that’s enough. There’s a tavern on Sukharevka.” - “That’s great, that’s where we’ll go...”

The carriage stopped not far from the Sukharev Tower and they entered the low, stone building of Rostovtsev's tavern with thick walls. The smell of tobacco, fusel, boiled crayfish, pickles, and pies filled my nose.

Huge ficus. Reddish walls. Low vaulted ceiling. And in the center at the table sat reckless cab drivers in blue caftans and red sashes. They drank tea, concentrated and silent. The heads are cropped like a pot. Beards - one longer than the other. They drank tea, holding the saucers on their outstretched fingers... And immediately a picture was born in the artist’s brain...

Against the background of drunken red walls sit seven bearded, flushed cab drivers in bright blue robes with saucers in their hands. They behave sedately and sedately. They devoutly drink hot tea, getting burned by blowing on the saucer of tea. They are talking quietly, slowly, and one is reading a newspaper.

The floormen rush into the hall with teapots and trays, their dashingly curved bodies amusingly echo the line of teapots, ready to line up on the shelves behind the bearded innkeeper; the idle servant took a nap; The cat carefully licks its fur (a good sign for the owner - for guests!)

And all this action is in bright, sparkling, frantic colors - cheerfully painted walls, and even palm trees, paintings, and white tablecloths, and teapots with painted trays. The picture is perceived as lively and cheerful.

Portrait of F. Chaliapin (1922)

In the winter of 1920, Fyodor Chaliapin, as a director, decided to stage the opera “Enemy Power”, and Kustodiev was entrusted with the decorations. In this regard, Chaliapin stopped by the artist’s home. Came in from the cold wearing a fur coat. He exhaled noisily - the white steam stopped in the cold air - there was no heating in the house, there was no firewood. Chaliapin said something about his probably freezing fingers, and Kustodiev could not take his eyes off his ruddy face, from his rich, picturesque fur coat. It would seem that the eyebrows are inconspicuous, whitish, and the eyes are faded, gray, but he is handsome! That's who to draw! This singer is a Russian genius, and his appearance should be preserved for posterity. And the fur coat! What a fur coat he's wearing!..

“Fyodor Ivanovich! Would you pose in this fur coat,” Kustodiev asked. “Is it clever, Boris Mikhailovich? The fur coat is good, but perhaps it was stolen,” Chaliapin muttered. “Are you kidding, Fyodor Ivanovich?” “No. A week ago I received it for a concert from some institution. They didn’t have the money or flour to pay me. So they offered me a fur coat.” “Well, we’ll fix it on the canvas... It’s too smooth and silky.”

And so Kustodiev took a pencil and began to draw cheerfully. And Chaliapin began to sing “Oh, you little night...” To the singing of Fyodor Ivanovich, the artist created this masterpiece.

Against the backdrop of a Russian city, a giant man, his fur coat wide open. He is important and representative in this luxurious, picturesquely open fur coat, with a ring on his hand and with a cane. Chaliapin is so dignified that you involuntarily remember how a certain spectator, seeing him in the role of Godunov, admiringly remarked: “A real king, not an impostor!”

And in his face we can feel a restrained (he already knew his worth) interest in everything around him.

Everything is dear to him here! The devil is grimacing on the stage of the booth. Trotters rush down the street or stand peacefully waiting for their riders. Bunch colorful balloons sways over the market square. A tipsy man moves his feet to the accordion. Shopkeepers are trading briskly, and there is a tea party in the cold near a huge samovar.

And above all this the sky is no, not blue, it is greenish, this is because the smoke is yellow. And of course, the favorite jackdaws in the sky. They provide an opportunity to express the bottomlessness of the heavenly space, which has always so attracted and tormented the artist...

All this has lived in Chaliapin himself since childhood. In some ways he resembles a simple-minded native of these places who, having succeeded in life, came to his native Palestine to show himself in all his splendor and glory, and at the same time is eager to prove that he has not forgotten anything and has not lost any of his former dexterity and strength.

How Yesenin’s passionate lines fit here:

"To hell, I'm taking off my English suit:

Well, give me the braid - I'll show you -

Am I not one of you, am I not close to you,

Don’t I value the memory of the village?”

And it looks like something similar is about to fall from Fyodor Ivanovich’s lips and his luxurious fur coat will fly into the snow.

Portrait of his wife Yulia Kustodieva (1903)

The artist painted this portrait shortly after the wedding; it is full of tender feelings for his wife. At first he wanted to write it standing, at full height, on the steps of the porch, but then he sat his “Kolobochka” (as he affectionately called her in his letters) on the terrace.

Everything is very simple - an ordinary terrace of an old, slightly silvery tree, the greenery of the garden approaching it closely, a table covered with a white tablecloth, a rough bench. And a woman, still almost a girl, with a restrained and at the same time very trusting gaze directed at us... and in fact at him, who came to this quiet corner and will now take her somewhere with him.

The dog stands and looks at the owner - calmly and at the same time, as if expecting that now she will get up and they will go somewhere.

A kind, poetic world lies behind the heroine of the picture, so dear to the artist himself, who joyfully recognizes it in other people close to him.

Russian Venus (1926)

It seems incredible that this huge painting was created by a seriously ill artist a year before his death and in the most unfavorable conditions (in the absence of canvas, they stretched it on a stretcher reverse side old picture). Only love for life, joy and cheerfulness, love for one’s own, Russian, dictated to him the painting “Russian Venus”.

The woman’s young, healthy, strong body glows, her teeth shine in her shy and at the same time innocently proud smile, the light plays in her silky flowing hair. It was as if the sun itself entered the usually dark bathhouse together with the heroine of the picture - and everything here lit up! The light shimmers in the soap foam (which the artist whipped in a basin with one hand and wrote with the other); the wet ceiling, on which clouds of steam were reflected, suddenly became like the sky with lush clouds. The door to the dressing room is open, and from there through the window you can see a sunlit winter city in frost, a horse in harness.

The natural, deeply national ideal of health and beauty was embodied in the “Russian Venus”. This beautiful image became a powerful final chord of the richest “Russian symphony” created by the artist in his painting.

Morning (1904)

The painting was painted in Paris, where Kustodiev came with his wife and recently born son Kirill after graduating from the Academy. A woman, who can easily be recognized as the artist’s wife, is bathing a child. “Birdie,” as the artist called him, doesn’t “scream” or splash, he’s quiet and intently looking at either a toy, some duckling, or just sunny bunny: There are so many of them around - on his wet strong body, on the edges of his pelvis, on the walls, on a lush bouquet of flowers!

Fair (1906)

Fairs in the village of Semenovskoye were famous throughout the Kostroma province. On Sunday, the ancient village flaunts all its fair decorations, standing at the crossroads of old roads.

The owners laid out their goods on the counters: arches, shovels, birch bark beetroot, painted rollers, children's whistles, sieves. But most of all, perhaps, bast shoes, and therefore the name of the village is Semenovskoye-Lapotnoye. And in the center of the village there is a church - squat, strong.

The talkative fair is noisy and ringing. Human melodious talk merges with bird hubbub; the jackdaws in the bell tower staged their own fair.

Loud invitations are heard all around: “Here are the pretzel pies! Who cares about the heat, has a brown eye!”

- “Baps, there are bast shoes! Fast!”

_ “Oh, the box is full! Colored prints, incredible ones, about Foma, about Katenka, about Boris and about Prokhor!”

On the one hand, the artist depicted a girl gazing at the bright dolls, and on the other, a boy gaped at a bent bird-whistle, lagging behind his grandfather in the center of the picture. He calls him - “Where are you withering, you lack of hearing?”

And above the rows of counters, the awnings almost merge with each other, their gray panels smoothly turning into the dark roofs of distant huts. And then there are green distances, blue skies...

Fabulous! A purely Russian fair of colors, and it sounds like an accordion - iridescent and ringing!..

Booths

The Nun (1909)

Village Holiday (1910)

Girl's Head (1897)

Christening ( Easter card) - 1912

Emperor Nicholas II (1915)

Bather (1921)

Merchant's Wife (1923)

Merchant's wife with purchases (1920)

Summer Landscape (1922)

Reclining Model (1915)

Skiers (1919)

The Sailor and the Sweetheart (1920)

Frosty Day (1919)

On the Terrace (1906)

On the Volga (1922)

Lobster and Pheasant (1912)

Autumn over the city (1915)

Portrait of I.B Kustodieva, the artist’s daughter (1926)

Portrait of Irina Kustodieva (1906)

Portrait of M.V. Chalyapina (1919)

Portrait of Rene Notgaft (1914)

After the Storm (1921)

Russian girl at the window (1923)

Country Fair (1920)

Staraya Russa (1921)

Trinity Day (1920)

In old Suzdal (1914)

Winter (1919)

Portrait of professor of engraving V.V.Mate. 1902

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

Nun. 1908

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

Portrait of P.L. Bark. 1909

Portrait of Ya.I. Lavrin. 1909

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

According to I. Grabar, “Kustodiev’s portraits stood out against the background of dull academic exhibitions; as the master’s works, they were in the spotlight, the author was invited to all exhibitions, he became famous.” The Italian Ministry of Arts ordered him a self-portrait, which was placed in the hall of self-portraits of artists different eras and countries in the famous Florentine Uffizi Gallery.

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

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

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

The Kustodiev paintings of this period are relatively small in size, on average one meter per meter. But not because it was difficult with the canvas and paints (although this also happened). It’s just that the border of the painting had to be where the brush of the artist chained to the chair could reach.

Here is his “Moscow tavern”. Kustodiev once spied this scene in Moscow and said: “They smelled of something Novgorod, an icon, a fresco.” Old Believers cabbies drink tea fervently, as if saying a prayer, holding saucers on straightened fingers. The dark blue caftans, the thick beards of the men, the white canvas clothes of the floor guards, the dark red, like shimmering background of the walls and the mass of details extracted from memory accurately convey the atmosphere of a Moscow tavern... The son and friends who did not leave the artist posed as cab drivers. The son recalled how, having completed the work, Kustodiev joyfully exclaimed: “But, in my opinion, the picture came out! Well done to your father!” And this is truly one of his best works.

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

The portrait turned out to be huge - more than two meters in height. The majestic, lordly singer of Russia strides widely across the snow crust in a luxurious fur coat. In the picture there was a place for Chaliapin’s family, and even for his beloved dog. Chaliapin liked the portrait so much that he also took sketches for it. So that Kustodiev could work on such big picture, the engineer brother secured a block with a load under the ceiling. The canvas with the stretcher was suspended and it was possible to bring it closer, further away, or move it left and right. He painted the portrait in sections, without seeing the whole. Kustodiev said: “Sometimes I myself have a hard time believing that I painted this portrait, I worked so much at random and by touch.” But the calculation turned out to be amazing. The film, according to the unanimous opinion of critics, became one of best achievements Russian portrait art.

One of Kustodiev’s latest works is “Russian Venus”. Well, how can you believe that this radiant, beautifully drawn naked young woman was created at a time when the artist said: “I am tormented at night by the same nightmare: black cats dig into my back with sharp claws and tear my vertebrae...” And right hand began to weaken and dry out. There was no canvas for Venus. And he wrote it on the back of some of his old, considered unsuccessful, paintings. The family participated in the creation of the painting. Brother Michael adapted blocks and counterweights for the canvas. The daughter posed, as for many other paintings. Lacking a broom, she had to hold a ruler in her hands. The son whipped foam in a wooden tub so that the image of even this minor detail was close to reality. This is how this one of the most life-loving paintings was born. Until the last days of his life, Kustodiev worked tirelessly. He was busy sketching scenery for the puppet theater for the fairy tale “The Cat, the Fox and the Rooster.” On May 4, I submitted 24 (!) engravings for an exhibition at the State Russian Museum...

Sun. Voinov, a friend of the artist, the author of the first monograph about him, wrote in his diary: “May 15. Kustodiev's name day. He was very sick, but sat in his chair. Gorbunov came to see him.” And in the margin there is a note: “ Last time I saw Boris Mikhailovich in my life.” Gorbunov was the manager of the affairs of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in those years. He came to inform Kustodiev: the government had allocated money for his treatment abroad. It's too late. Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev died on May 26, 1927.

BIOGRAPHY

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

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

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

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

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

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

Works on Wikimedia Commons

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

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev, originally from the family of a gymnasium teacher, began studying painting in Astrakhan with P. A. Vlasov in 1893-1896.

Biography

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

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

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

1914 - apartment building- Ekateringofsky Avenue, 105;
1915 - 05/26/1927 - apartment building of E.P. Mikhailov - Vvedenskaya street, 7, apt. 50.

Illustrations and book graphics

In 1905-1907 he worked in the satirical magazines “Bug” (the famous drawing “Introduction. Moscow”), “Hell Mail” and “Sparks”.

With a keen sense of line, Kustodiev performed cycles of illustrations for classical works and for the creations of his contemporaries (illustrations for Leskov’s works “The Darner”, 1922, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, 1923).

Possessing a strong touch, he worked in the technique of lithography and engraving on linoleum.

Painting

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

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

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

Theater works

Like many artists of the turn of the century, Kustodiev also worked in the theater, transferring his vision of the work to the theater stage. The scenery performed by Kustodiev was colorful, close to his genre painting, but this was not always perceived as an advantage: creating a bright and convincing world, carried away by its material beauty, the artist sometimes did not coincide with the author’s plan and the director’s interpretation of the play (“The Death of Pazukhin” by Saltykov- Shchedrin, 1914, Moscow Art Theater; “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky, which never saw the light of day, 1918). In his later works for the theater, he moves away from a chamber interpretation to a more generalized one, seeks greater simplicity, builds the stage space, giving freedom to the director when constructing mise-en-scenes. Kustodiev's success was his design work in 1918-20. opera performances (1920, The Tsar's Bride, Bolshoi Opera Theater of the People's House; 1918, The Snow Maiden, Bolshoi Theater (not staged)).

The productions of Zamyatin’s “The Flea” (1925, Moscow Art Theater 2nd; 1926, Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater) were successful. According to the memoirs of the director of the play A.D. Dikiy:

“It was so vivid, so precise that my role as a director accepting sketches was reduced to zero - I had nothing to correct or reject. It was as if he, Kustodiev, had been in my heart, overheard my thoughts, read Leskov’s story with the same eyes as me, and equally saw it in stage form. ... I have never had such complete, such inspiring like-mindedness with an artist as when working on the play “The Flea.” I learned the full meaning of this community when Kustodiev’s farcical, bright decorations appeared on the stage, and props and props made according to his sketches appeared. The artist led the entire performance, taking, as it were, the first part in the orchestra, which obediently and sensitively sounded in unison.”

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

Literary activity

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

Gallery

“Introduction. Moscow" drawing
“Morning”, (1904, Russian Russian Museum)
"Balagany"
"Fairs"
"Maslenitsa"
self-portrait ( , Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
“Merchantwomen in Kineshma” (tempera, Museum of Russian Art in Kyiv)
portrait of A. I. Anisimov ( , Russian Museum)
“Beauty” (1915, Tretyakov Gallery)
“Merchant's Wife at Tea” (1918, Russian Museum)
"Bolshevik" (1919-20, Tretyakov Gallery)
"F. I. Chaliapin at the fair" ( , Russian Museum)
"Moscow tavern" ()
“Portrait of A.N. Protasova” ()
"Nun" ()
"Portrait of Ivan Bilibin" ()
“Portrait of S.A. Nikolsky” ()
“Portrait of Vasily Vasilyevich Mate” ()
"Self-portrait" ()
"Portrait of a Woman in Blue" ()
“Portrait of the writer A.V. Shvarts” ()
"Fair" ()
"Zemstvo school in Moscow Rus'" ()
“Portrait of Irina Kustodieva with her dog Shumka” ()
"Nun" ()
“Portrait of N.I. Zelenskaya” ()
"Frosty day" ()
“Portrait of N.K. von Mecca" ()
"Portrait of Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich" ()
"Harvest" ()
“Illustration for N.S. Leskov’s story “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” ()
“Village holiday. Fragment" ()
“At the Icon of the Savior” ()
“The square is at the exit of the city. Scenery sketch for A.N. Ostrovsky’s play “Warm Heart” ()
"Red Tower of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra" ()

Notes

Bibliography

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

Links

Categories:

Personalities in alphabetical order
Born on March 7
Born in 1878
Born in Astrakhan
Died on May 26
Died in 1927
Died in St. Petersburg
Artists by alphabet
Artists of the World of Art association
Union of Russian Artists
Russian artists in the public domain
Artists of Russia
Graduates of the Repin Institute
Artists of St. Petersburg
Died from tuberculosis
Buried at the Tikhvin Cemetery
Pensioners of the Imperial Academy of Arts
Graduates of the Imperial Academy of Arts

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See what “Kustodiev, Boris Mikhailovich” is in other dictionaries:

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

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

- (1878 1927), sov. artist. In 1905 he completed a number of illustrations. to “The Song about... the Merchant Kalashnikov” (ed. About literacy, St. Petersburg, 1906): ink 4 page illustrations. “Alena Dmitrievna and Kiribeevich”, “Fist Fight”, “Execution of Kalashnikov”, “Ivan the Terrible in Moscow... ... Lermontov Encyclopedia

Even in his youth, Boris Kustodiev became famous as a talented portrait painter. However, painting portraits was boring and he came up with his own unique style.

Self-portrait

He was lucky enough to become a student of Ilya Repin himself, but he rejected the canons of his teacher. The public refused to recognize him as an artist and called him an eccentric; a serious illness put him in prison. wheelchair, and he continued to write.

Astrakhan childhood of Boris Kustodiev

Artist Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan in March 1878, in the family of a teacher at a theological seminary. And a year after Boris’s birth, his father passed away and the artist’s mother, who became a widow at the age of 25, raised and supported four children alone.

Boris studied at a parochial school, then entered a gymnasium. In 1887, when Boris was 9 years old at the time, an exhibition of Peredvizhniki artists came to Astrakhan. The paintings of the Wanderers impressed the boy so much that he firmly decided to learn to draw and draw truly skillfully. The mother met her son’s wishes and found money so that her son could attend lessons from a well-known artist in Astrakhan, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, P.A. Vlasova.

Pyotr Vlasov instructed:

Learning to draw a little is the same as learning nothing. Art requires a lifetime. If you don’t know human anatomy, don’t try to paint nudes, you won’t succeed. Repin says: “Educate your eye even more than your hand.”

In a letter to his sister, Boris wrote:

I have just returned from Vlasov and am sitting down to write you a letter. I've been going to him for a whole month now and today I started drawing the head. At first I painted ornaments, parts of the body, and now I started drawing heads. The other day I painted two quinces and two carrots from life in watercolors. When I drew them, I was surprised - did I draw them or someone else?

Artist Boris Kustodiev. The beginning of a creative journey

Church parade of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment

In 1896, after graduating from high school, Boris Kustodiev went to Moscow with the desire to enter college. art school. However, Boris Mikhailovich was not accepted into the school because of his age - the future artist was already 18 years old at that time, and only minors were accepted into the school. Kustodiev goes to St. Petersburg and submits documents to the Higher art school at the Academy of Arts.

Hurray, hurray, hurray! Virtue is punished, vice triumphs! I'm accepted! Yes! Today, after ten days of ordeal, they finally released me. At three o'clock the doors opened and everyone poured into the hall where our works stood. I found mine, it had “accepted” written on it in chalk.

Kustodiev studies with great diligence, works a lot and with soul, and is especially interested in portrait painting. Boris’s “most important” teacher Ilya Repin wrote:

I have high hopes for Kustodiev. He is a gifted artist, loving art, thoughtful, serious; carefully studying nature...

In 1900, student Kustodiev went to the Kostroma province, where he wrote sketches and met Yulenka Proshenskaya, who in 1903 would become his wife.

Portrait of the artist's wife

In 1901, Repin painted a huge canvas “The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council” and attracted his best student Kustodiev to paint the picture - Boris Mikhailovich painted 27 portraits for this canvas.

Ceremonial meeting of the State Council

In 1903, Kustodiev graduated from the Academy with a gold medal and, as a pensioner of the Academy, with his wife and three-month-old daughter, went to Paris, traveled around France and Spain, visited Germany, worked a lot in European museums and even entered the studio of Rene Menard.

Boris Kustodiev. Finding your way

The artist lives and works in Europe for six months, then returns to Russia, buys a plot of land near Kineshma and builds, with his own hands, a house, which he gives the name “Terem”.

On the terrace

The name of the house is not accidental, since while constructing the house, Kustodiev, at this very time, is painfully searching for his own style - he does not want to be an imitator of his teacher Repin. Boris Mikhailovich does not want to expose the ulcers of society; he does not like to write “realism”.

The artist is more attracted to “Russian beauty”, about which the artist has already formed his own idea. For example, he really likes folk festivals and fairs:

The fair was such that I stood there stunned. Oh, if only I had the superhuman ability to capture it all. He dragged a man from the market and wrote in front of the people. Damn hard! It's like it's the first time. You need to make a decent sketch in 2-3 hours... I’m writing a flexible woman - she’ll stand for at least a week! Only the cheeks and nose turn red.

Frosty day

Village holiday

In 1904, Kustodiev founded the “New Society of Artists”, became interested in graphics and wrote cartoons for the magazines “Zhupel”, “Hell Mail” and “Sparks”, illustrated Gogol’s “The Overcoat”, and created scenery at the Mariinsky Theater.

In 1909, Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev became an academician - his candidacy on the Council of the Academy of Arts was supported by Arkhip Kuindzhi, Vasily Mate and the “most important teacher” Ilya Repin. At this time, Kustodiev is enthusiastically working on paintings for the “Fairs” series.

Kustodiev is weird

Kustodiev is worried about attacks of pain in his arm. In 1911, these pains became unbearable, but medicine was powerless. The artist travels to Switzerland, where he is treated in a clinic, and then travels to Germany, where he undergoes surgery.

Returning to Russia, Boris Mikhailovich again plunges into work - he writes genre sketches and portraits: “Merchant's Wife”, “Merchant's Wife”, “Beauty” and others.

Gorgeous

These are not finished paintings, but experiments, searching for a theme and developing your own style. However, the public did not accept the “experiments”, and newspapers wrote:

The one who's acting weird is Kustodiev... It's as if he's deliberately throwing himself from side to side. Either he paints ordinary good portraits of ladies, like Mrs. Notgaft or Bazilevskaya... and then he suddenly exhibits some plump “beauty” sitting on a chest painted with bouquets... Deliberate and invented bad taste.

They treated Kustodiev the theater artist completely differently - there were orders huge amount. Now the artist creates not only scenery, but also costumes, paints portraits of great Russian directors and actors of the Moscow Art Theater.

Illness, revolution and “Russian Venus”

In 1916, the artist again began to be bothered by pain in his hand. However, it was impossible to get to the German clinic - the First World War was going on. I had to undergo surgery in St. Petersburg, where the doctors made a terrible verdict - you can maintain the mobility of either your arms or your legs.

This is already the 13th day that I have been lying motionless, and it seems to me that not 13 days, but 13 years have passed since I lay down. Now I’ve caught my breath a little, but I was in torment and suffered a lot. It even seemed that all my strength had dried up and there was no hope. I know that it’s not all over yet and not weeks, but long months will pass until I begin to feel at least a little human, and not like something half-dead.

Doctors forbade Kustodiev to work, but he ignored this ban - too many ideas and plans had accumulated during his forced idleness. Boris Mikhailovich writes Maslenitsa, which is very well received by the public.

Carnival

Merchant's wife having tea

During this period, Kustodiev wrote as much as he did not write in those days when he was healthy. There is a whole series of portraits, including the famous portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin, and the ideal of Russian beauty in “Gone Rus',” and posters for revolutionary propaganda, covers for the magazine “Communist International,” and the painting “Bolshevik.”

Bolshevik

Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin

The artist, as in the old days, illustrates books and creates scenery for theaters and costume designs. Subsequently, director Alexey Dikiy recalled:

I have never had such complete, such inspiring like-mindedness with an artist as when working on the play “The Flea.” I learned the full meaning of this community when Kustodiev’s farcical, bright decorations appeared on the stage, and props and props made according to his sketches appeared. The artist led the entire performance, taking, as it were, the first part in the orchestra, which obediently and sensitively sounded in unison.

About a year before his death, Boris Kustodiev finished working on his secret painting “Russian Venus” - the artist was very ill, could only work a few hours a day, and therefore painted the picture for a whole year.

Russian Venus

At the end of March 1927, permission was received from the People's Education Committee to travel to Germany for treatment. In addition, a government subsidy was received for this trip. However, while officials were preparing a foreign passport, the artist Boris Kustodiev died. This happened on May 26, 1927.

I have already talked about how in his youth Kustodiev became famous as a portrait artist.

But here is what he says about the work of the artist A. Benois:

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

Even at the beginning creative path Boris Mikhailovich developed his own genre of portraiture - a portrait-painting, a portrait-landscape that combines a generalized image of a person and a unique individuality that is revealed through the world around him.

Spectacular works reveal the character of an entire nation through accessible and understandable everyday genre- this is such a dream, a beautiful fairy tale about provincial life, a poem in painting, a riot of colors and a riot of flesh.