The lyrical mood of the search for true beauty, the artistic embodiment of the dream of an ideal was conveyed by Victor Borisov-Musatov in painting. His paintings are akin to poetry and music, they are filled with a peculiar color of refined sadness. All the artist’s work is permeated with something ghostly and very personal. Maybe because he wrote his canvases from his adored sister and beloved wife.
Having been born in 1870 in Saratov, he lived a short but creative life, leaving us with the mysteries of romantic images in the depicted world.
A look through the glass of time passing
Carried away by painting in his youth, Victor Borisov-Musatov begins painting very early. At the age of sixteen, trying to convey his artistic vision of the surrounding household life, he creates one of his first masterpieces - the painting “Window”. The artist conveys a large and mysterious life full of illusions and mysteries in the form of a huge blooming garden, the corner of which can be seen through the window of the house.
The paintings of Viktor Borisov-Musatov appear to us as a kind of illusory world, into which we look from afar, through the darkened glass of a past era.
The artist improves his skills by studying at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, in the private workshop of P. Chistyakov, later in Paris, in the workshop of the historical painter Fernand Cormon. In France, he visits the Louvre, admires the collection of masterpieces exhibited by him. Borisov-Musatov admire the work of Botticelli.
The canvases of the French artist Puvis de Chavannes, who were close in spirit and creative mood, had a great influence on him.
Trying various pastel, tempera and watercolor painting techniques, creating landscape and portrait sketches, gaining experience and skill in the most advanced art studios of that time, the artist Borisov-Musatov is formed under the influence of impressionism. His paintings have their own unique handwriting of the creator, transmit a unique author’s vision of the world.
The world gone - ghostly and gentle
Widespread at the turn of the century, the opposition of rational prose of reality to the romantic mood of sadness over the past century pushes creative people to ideas about returning to the past. Borisov-Musatov also inclines to this, whose paintings, like illustrations of the past days, are full of peace and harmony inherent in the memories.
Searching for the ideal
The rapid creative flourishing in the art of the turn of the century gave rise to many talented individuals, original artists, including Valentin Serov, Isaac Levitan and Mikhail Vrubel.
The creative association “World of Art” rallied the authors in their desire to express the artist’s personality through creativity, while recreating the style of time.
Boris-Musatov went his own unique way in art. Victor Elpidiforovich did not try to tie his paintings to a specific historical period. Drawing antiquity, he called it “just a beautiful era”, in which it was so comfortable for him to continue searching for his ideal.
Creative Blossom Illuminated by Love
By the age of thirty, the artist gains earthly happiness. Having made an offer to Elena Vladimirovna Alexandrova, whom he had long loved, he receives consent. Next to him is now not only a beloved woman, but also a talented artist, ally and assistant. Happy Borisov-Musatov creates paintings one after another, filling them with female faces, which he writes from nature (his wife and sister pose for him). In 1901, the most interesting canvas “Tapestry” appeared, followed by “Pond”, and a year later - the paintings “Ghosts” and “Emerald Necklace”.
Girls from under his brush come out like poetic dreams: vague elusive features and almost transparent, magical, colorful combinations. Ancient noble estates act as a backdrop for creative visions and are, in fact, the way of a huge illusory world into which the author looks through the window of his thoughtfully sad perception.
World reflected on water
The maturity of artistic talent, the peak of its creative heyday, is a painting by Borisov-Musatov "Pond", written in 1902.
Together with his wife and sister, the artist visits the estate of the princes Prozorovsky-Golitsyn in the Saratov province. Owners rarely visited the estate, and it was desolate.
It was there, in Zubrilovka, in the overgrown old park against the background of the old Borisov-Musatov estate that he made sketches and created sketches for the picture. His inspired perception of the space of a deaf estate gives rise to space for imagination. By the power of his imagination, the author gives a touch of poetry and mystery to the surrounding wilting.
Compositional findings of the Pond
The picture came out strictly compositional, clear lines and complex shapes give it monumentality. The great tranquility of nature we observe through its reflection on the surface of the water. The blue of heaven and the green of trees, painted in an impressionistic manner, alternate in the rhythm strictly conceived by the artist, creating a magnificent serene background for two female figures. The gentle-lilac shades of the girls' outfits fit perfectly into the color scheme of the canvas, thereby creating a sense of completeness and poise of form.
A slight contrast between the calmness of nature and the excitement on the faces of women is emphasized compositionally: the reservoir has a rounded shape, and human figures are slightly shifted to the side. Some details give the unreality to the picture, the oval of the pond goes beyond the canvas, as does the skirt of one of the girls that duplicates it in shape. This combination resembles the rhythm in music, making the canvas structural.
Another feature of the picture was the lack of a horizon line. Using this technique helped the artist bring the foreground images closer to the background. The heroines are located at the bottom of the picture, and the water surface is above them, as in a raised mirror.
The unusual color palette, the freshness of colors and the intimate lyrical presentation of the material amazed contemporaries who appreciated the artist’s skill.
Colors of the fading autumn
The artist spends 1905 in Tarusa, these are the last days of his life and work. It is there that the landscapes "On the balcony. Tarusa", "Hazel bush", "Autumn song" appear. A delicate palette conveys the light sadness of a withering nature, this passing elusive moment is so close to the author’s internal state.
The painting “Autumn Song” by Borisov-Musatov is full of quiet reverie. Refined colors and generalized images convey a romantic mood . Juicy and bright fragments alternate with an earthy gray color. The silhouettes see a musical rhythm.
As the black and white keys of the piano give birth to music, so the autumn foliage and greenish fields form the basis of the canvas. Slightly blurry contours, smooth overflows of colors from one color to another, the skies reflected in the water - all this has a calming effect, but at the same time causes a dreary mood.
The painting “Autumn Song” by Borisov-Musatov is a mysterious canvas, a search for the true beauty of the depicted season, an enormous love for native nature.
Canvas with moods
Borisov-Musatov does not outline any plot or narrative in his canvases. Pictures are the movements of his soul, expressed through a moment frozen on the canvas, conveying the mood of the artist.
Nature is not just a background, it becomes an equivalent part of paintings. In this unity with the elements is the secret of the artist's work.
Borisov-Musatov is fascinated by mystery, and her veils are in his every creation. The romantic perception of the world pushes the author to write ghostly and otherworldly worlds, looking through the depicted reality.
The artist believed in the all-conquering power of art, trying to convey the true beauty and desire for ideal and eternity in his canvases.
Sudden death cut short the short career of Viktor Borisov-Musatov in October 1905. Leaving behind a small but peculiar creative heritage, this artist had a huge impact on the further development of Russian art.