Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich is known in the creative circles of artists as a painter, graphic artist, stage designer. The ups and downs, brilliant success and complete non-recognition were in his long life. Currently, one can get acquainted with his works in many art museums and exhibition halls in Moscow, Saratov (the artist’s homeland) and other cities of Russia and abroad. What did the artist want to express with his works, why successes alternated with recessions in creativity? This will be discussed in the article.
short biography
Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich was born in the family of icon painter Kuznetsov Bartholomew Fedorovich in 1878 in the city of Saratov. Father owned a painting workshop and painted churches, painted royal portraits and church images commissioned by state institutions. Evdokia Illarionovna, his mother, beautifully embroidered, loved painting and music. Pavel was surrounded by the care of grandmother Marina and grandfather Hilarion, living in their house from birth. In the photo below you can see Paul in the arms of his grandfather.
At the age of seven, the future artist and his mother first went to the Radishchev Museum, which opened in Saratov. As a child, Paul could watch his father work for hours. Already in childhood, he became involved in the visual arts.
Having matured, Pavel entered the painting studio in Saratov, where from 1891 to 1896 he studied under the direction of artists G.P. Baracki and V.V. Konovalova.
Studying in Moscow
At the age of nineteen, Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov went to Moscow and entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MUZHViZ). His first teachers were A.E. Arkhipov, N.A. Kasatkin, L.O. Parsnip. Participation in the school, Kuznetsov stood out among classmates not only by talent, but also by an inexhaustible passion for work. Over the years of study, he practiced in the workshops of V. A. Serov and K. A. Korovin. The student was fascinated by the picturesque abilities of his teachers. During the summer holidays, Kuznetsov came to his homeland in Saratov. He loved to spend time in gardens that he had loved since childhood, among the airy colors of the surrounding nature, and the Volga open spaces.
Paintings with trees in bloom is one of the main subjects of his work throughout his life. At the end of the summer vacation, in a letter to his teacher V.A. Serov, Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov wrote that with the onset of autumn, his soul tends to go up and wants more, and from the beauty of its surrounding nature, from gold and silver colors you can go to delirium.
... A shady, cobblestone street. Large overgrown ravine. Sokolovaya Mountain, the highest in the vicinity of Saratov. It attracts artists with easels to capture the course of the great river. Slopes - “Berendeevo kingdom” - small houses of artisans molded to each other, orchards, the Volga and the steppe alluring left bank, the Cathedral, and the bell factory ... And in the morning the bells ring ...
Creative community
During the years of study at the Moscow School of Music and Art, Kuznetsov and a group of students created the Blue Rose creative community.
Pavel Kuznetsov received two small silver medals in 1900–1902 for drawings and picturesque studies. The main direction of the artist Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov in the early period of creativity is the movement from impressionism (the art of observing reality) to symbolism (the desire for innovation, the use of symbolism). He seeks in painting to express the state of mind, which brings him closer to music and poetry. Pavel collaborates with magazines and takes part in stage design in theaters. This period of creativity is associated with symbolism.
In 1902, the father of Pavel Kuznetsov lost in a row to the painting of the Kazan Church to his son and his two comrades in the Moscow school, not knowing what their high art, far from church canons, would turn out for young artists. In the biography of Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov there is the fact of a scandal and litigation with the diocesan authorities over the heretical painting of the temple. As a result, the murals were destroyed.
Creativity after graduation
After graduating from the Moscow School of Music and Arts in 1904, Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov decided on a symbolist orientation in his work. The visible world dissolves in the artist’s paintings, his works glow with shadows, reflecting the elusive vibrations of the soul. In his works, a special place is occupied by the water cycle, which takes place in the fountain that has been loved since childhood. He transfers his childhood memories to canvas, showing the theme of the eternal movement of life. Pictures will captivate with their colors, mood of sadness and something unspoken.
Original methods of working with tempera allow the artist to make diluted shades of flowers, enveloping the images of the picture in colored fog. A vivid demonstration of these techniques is in such paintings as “Morning” and “Blue Fountain” (pictured above), painted in 1905. These are dreams overflowing with colors. Figures without clear outlines are blurred in the space of the paintings so much that it seems that they can soar for a moment ...
Fame
Fame came to the Russian artist Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich early. He was not 30 years old when his works were presented in 1906 in Paris at the famous exposition of Russian art arranged by S.P. Diaghilev. It was after this exhibition that Kuznetsov was honored to be elected to the Autumn Salon. Few artists have been given this opportunity.
In the spring of 1907, the Blue Rose symbolist exhibition is taking place in Moscow, and Kuznetsov is its direct initiator. It demonstrated his work of the same name. Among the 16 exhibitors, Kuznetsov was a trendsetter of tastes.
The artist collaborates in the field of magazine graphics with the famous magazines "Art" and "Golden Fleece". Together with the artists Utkin, Matveev and Lansere Kuznetsov draws up the famous villa Y.E. Zhukovsky in the Crimea. In the photo Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich (left) and A.T. Matveev (1909).
Creative crisis
The years that have passed since the exhibition are not the best time in the artist’s work. His works of symbolist orientation are perceived by compatriots as painful, strange. The artist is experiencing a deep creative crisis, realizing that he has exhausted himself and cannot justify the hopes that were assigned to him. Kuznetsov decides to travel to get new experiences and get out of the crisis. He visits Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, the Kyrgyz steppes. The years of life of Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov in the East played a decisive role in his further work.
A new flowering of talent
The flowering of his talent marks the cycle of paintings of the “Kyrgyz Suite”. This is "Sleeping in a nightmare", "Shearing", "Evening in the steppe" and others. The color of colors, the power of contrasts, the pattern of compositions of paintings becomes expressive simplicity.
The paintings of the steppe cycle are endowed with a lyrical, soulful, poetic sound. The paintings "The Teahouse", "In the Temple of Buddhists" evoke theatrical associations in the viewer. Kuznetsov writes still lifes, among which stands out "Still Life with Japanese Engraving."
Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich takes part in the creation of sketches for the decorative panel "Asian Bazaar" and "Fruit Harvest" that adorn the Kazan Station in Moscow. Kuznetsov-decorator works in the style of monumental art.
The artist's activity after 1917
After the revolution, Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov worked in the art section of the Moscow City Council, participated in the design of the holidays. In 1918, he was elected to the College of the People's Commissariat of Education, he began teaching in art workshops. He works in the monumental workshop from 1920 to 1927 and receives the title of professor, and from 1927 to 1929 he gives a course of lectures as a professor in the fresco-monumental department of the painting department of VKhUTEIN.
Kuznetsov with his works participates in exhibitions. In 1923 he took part in the Barbazange gallery in France. In 1924, Kuznetsov wrote The Parisian Comedians. In the picture, the decorative laconicism of the style unexpectedly revealed in an expressive, picturesque, colorful manifestation.
In 1929, the artist was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. His personal exhibitions were held in the main museums of Moscow: the Tretyakov Gallery and the State Museum of Fine Arts. At the exhibition in Paris (1937), Kuznetsov’s panel “The Life of the Collective Farm” was awarded a silver medal.
The next and already last take-off of the artist’s work falls on the period from the end of the 20s to the beginning of the 30s of the twentieth century. He writes the following paintings: "Portrait of the sculptor A.T. Matveev", "Mother", "Sorting cotton", "Pushball".
last years of life
The master lived a long fruitful life, reaching advanced years. Many of his peers, with whom he studied and worked, passed away, and he continued to write until his death. His last works were still lifes and landscapes. According to experts, these paintings by the subject and style were inferior to his early works, but were striking in their creative longevity.
Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov died in 1968 on February 22 in Moscow. His works are in a permanent exhibition of art museums in Moscow and the Tretyakov Gallery. In Saratov, in the homeland of Kuznetsov, an exhibition of his works is also constantly working in the house-museum. The artist left his mark on art as the leader of Russian pictorial symbolism.