Fans of Russian painting are well aware of the name of such a wonderful domestic artist as Boris Kustodiev. Consider in this article a creative biography of this person.
Boris Kustodiev: brief biography, stages of creative maturity
The future artist was born in Astrakhan, in Tsarist Russia, in 1878. He came from an intelligent teacher's family. His parents loved Russian art and passed this love on to their children. The artist's father taught philosophy, logic and literature in a theological seminary. When Boris was 2 years old, his father died suddenly.
Nevertheless, the family was able to provide the boy with a decent education: he studied at the parish school, then at the gymnasium. Boris Kustodiev received his first painting lessons in the local Astrakhan gymnasium.
In 1896, the young man entered the prestigious department of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. From the second year, the famous artist I. E. Repin became his teacher.
In his last year at the Academy, Boris Kustodiev, working on his diploma in the Kostroma province, met his future wife, Yu. E. Poroshinskaya. He graduated from the academy brilliantly: with a gold medal and excellent prospects.
First successes
After the wedding and the end of the course, the artist Boris Kustodiev goes on a foreign tour to get to know all the colors of European life. He visited Paris, Germany, and Italy. He met with the famous European artists of that time, sat down to visit many creative exhibitions and galleries.
Returning to Russia, Kustodiev continued to work on genre paintings. He created a series of works āVillage Holidaysā and āFairsā. The talent of the young man attracted the attention of contemporaries. According to Repin, Kustodiev was elected to a professor at the Petersburg Academy of Arts, became a member of the Union of Russian Artists, and began to collaborate with many literary and art magazines.
Portraits of Kustodiev: a feature of the genre
Boris Kustodiev entered the history of Russian art primarily as a very talented portrait painter. It was he who created the whole series of portraits of his contemporaries, and his paintings are still considered masterwork.
Critics noted that in his art both the strength of Repinās colors and plots, and the subtle psychologism of Serovās paintings found expression. However, the artist was able to create his own authorial style: in his portraits of a person is characterized not only by his face and appearance, but also by the whole environment surrounding him.
Consider from this point of view the famous āMerchant at Tea,ā written in the alarming 1918.
Everything in this picture is permeated with a sense of contentment and peace. The merchantās full face, her bright clothes, household items surrounding her, even a cat that snuggles up to her mistress, a certain thought is felt in everything: this is soft humor, and an attempt to understand the essence of the soul of a Russian person.
The artistās works have a lot of things from Russian folk popular art, and from ancient parsuns, and from old Russian fairy tale images of people and animals.
The most famous works
In addition to the aforementioned āMerchants at teaā, the following portraits of Kustodiev were most popular: the portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin, painted in 1921, the portrait of Maximilian Voloshin (1924), the painting Bolshevik (1920), the work Russian Venus (1925), the painting ā Fair in Saratov. "
All these canvases are imbued with a sense of the beauty of the national spirit, a sense of deep patriotism, their characteristic features were a riot of colors and the monumentality of images.
The great Russian singer Fyodor Chaliapin and the writer Maximilian Voloshin are represented by Russian heroes in Kustodievās paintings . Chaliapin is standing wide open in a fur coat, he is dressed like a dandy, but at the same time there is something popular, powerful and inspired in his image. Equally huge and majestic Voloshin, whose head rests on the clouds.
In the painting "Bolshevik" the main character, depicted against a bright red banner, is ready to swipe at the temple. The growth of the Bolshevik is equal to the height of the architectural structure. Thus, the artist disassembles a person of a new era, who sees himself as the winner of the old system and the creator of a new life.
Boris Kustodiev painted a lot of paintings for his creative life, his paintings amaze the audience with their scope and grandeur.
Illustrations for literary works and theatrical works
Kustodiev became famous as a wonderful illustrator. Over the course of his life, he created many works for magazines that conveyed the image of the main characters of the works of Russian classical literature that he understood. He wonderful illustrated the works of Leskov, drew engravings and even caricatures.
Different types of Russian art were appreciated by Boris Kustodiev, his paintings were actively used in the theatrical environment. Especially vividly embodied the artistās talent when creating scenery for the Moscow Art Theater. These are works based on the works of Ostrovsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin and even Zamyatin (by the way, one of the most famous portraits of Zamyatin belongs to Kustodievās brush). His work was liked by contemporaries for its simplicity, the power of embodiment of the image and the magnificent selection of colors.
last years of life
Boris Kustodiev managed to do a lot in his creative life, his biography is a direct confirmation of this.
The last 15 years of his life, the artist was confined to a wheelchair. The fact is that he was tormented by a dangerous and severe tumor of the spine, which did not respond to surgical treatment. Kustodiev was forced to write first sitting, and then lying down.
However, he continued to engage in not only artistic but also social activities, and even in 1923 joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.
Boris Mikhailovich died in 1927, was buried in Leningrad - in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.