Myasoedov Grigory Grigoryevich is an outstanding painter who went down in the history of Russian art as the organizer and permanent leader of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.
Judging by the reviews of contemporaries, Gregory enjoyed a reputation as an honest and direct person, characterized by well-read, original thinking, although he was often sarcastic and ironic.
Myasoedov Grigory Grigoryevich: biography of the artist. Childhood and youth
The future artist was born on April 7, 1834. His family, who lived in the village of Pankovo (Orel province), did not differ in wealth, but belonged to an old noble family. From childhood, Gregory began to be interested in art. After studying at the Oryol Gymnasium, in 1853 he began his studies at the Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg. Within its walls, Myasoedov painted the picture “Congratulation of the young in the landowner's house”. For her, a promising author was awarded a small gold medal.
The right to a retirement trip and a large gold medal to the talented painter went to the artwork “The flight of Grigory Otrepiev from the inn on the Lithuanian border” (1862). "The riot of fourteen", which occurred in 1863 at the Academy of Arts, Myasoedov did not find, because it was released earlier.
Traveling in Europe
At the end of the educational institution, Myasoedov Grigory Grigoryevich went abroad, worked in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland. In 1867 he settled in Florence, made acquaintance with the family of A. I. Herzen, disgraced in those days. This was the most prominent critic of the feudal Russian Empire. For many years, the Russian painter Nikolai Nikolayevich Ge became Grigory’s friend.
Ascetic mood
In addition to artistic talent, Gregory had a poetic gift and wrote poems. In adulthood, he published short stories in magazines and newspapers. Gregory Myasoedov, who was called "an artist-writer", the main vocation of his life, considered advocating the ideas of mobility - a direction based on a realistic manner of displaying everyday life and symbolizing social art.
The idea of forming the Association of Wanderers, the leadership of which the artist entrusted to himself, came in the 1860s, after traveling around Europe. There, Myasoedov could observe the activities of European artists who organized traveling commercial exhibitions. This he successfully embodied in Russia. December 6, 1870 - the date of the first meeting of the members of the Partnership on which the board was appointed. It included: Myasoedov G.G., Perov V.G., Klodt M.K., Ge N.N., Kramskoy I.N.
True, although he was an innovator in his youth, with age, Grigory Grigoryevich turned into an unpalatable, biliary old man, embittered by everyone and everything. He conservatively rigidly kept the old ideas about art, not wanting to recognize the work of the young generation, in particular I.I. Levitan, M.V. Nesterov, A.I. Kuindzhi.
Myasoedov Grigory Grigoryevich: paintings
A traveling art exhibition first opened in St. Petersburg on November 21, 1871. Myasoedov Grigory Grigoryevich presented his work on it with the painting “Grandfather of the Russian Navy (Botik of Peter I)”. The work that brought fame, “Zemstvo dines,” the artist presented at the second exhibition in 1872.
This canvas depicts a group of peasants gathered at the entrance of the zemstvo council of a provincial town on one of the sunny days. One, sitting on stone slabs, put his head on the lapel and dozed off, the rest slowly eating onions and bread and salt. And officials just had lunch in the house: a footman is visible through an open window, washing dishes thoroughly. The picture does not directly contrast the poor and possessing Zemstvos, but the contrast of poverty and wealth is striking. The desire for the everyday and the real - the key task of the ascetic realism - is fully reflected in this work.
In 1872, for the painting "Spell", Grigory Myasoedov was awarded the title of academician. In his work Reading the Situation of February 19, 1861, the painter clearly portrayed the complete bewilderment of the peasants regarding their fate and unfulfilled expectations. People from the people often posed for Myasoedov, who, before introducing the characters into the picture, talked with them for a long time, showing a sincere interest in the fate of everyone.
Peasant motif in the paintings of Myasoedov
In 1876, the artist Myasoedov Grigory Grigoryevich settled on a farm near Kharkov, where he took up gardening and horticulture. From this moment, the beginning of the decline of his work is marked. The attitude of the Russian artist to peasant life has changed; the painter expresses sincere interest in folk beliefs and traditions. So, in the painting “Pahivanie” an ancient pagan rite is displayed, aimed at protecting livestock from illness and death.
In the work “Prayer at the arable land for the granting of rain,” the Russian artist was able to reliably convey the emotional stress of peasants praying for the help of the Lord God in a dry summer. In the 1880s, Myasoedov, along with paintings of the domestic genre, worked on landscapes. Grigory Grigorievich Myasoedov’s painting “Kossa” vividly reflects peasant life, which for centuries has been uniting all generations into a single working collective.
This work is thoroughly imbued with respect for the hard peasant labor that forms the basis of the life of the Russian Empire.
The last years of the life of Grigory Myasoedov
In the late 1880s, Myasoedov lived in the city of Poltava, in a spacious house with a garden, a pond and a park. Autumn and winter visited the Crimea. In Poltava, the author made a sketch of the theater curtain, created the scenery for the city theater, opened a drawing school, published a brochure on gardening. Shortly before his death, he was going to perform 3 iconic paintings under the general name "Holy Russia". Among contemporaries, Myasoedov stood out with a passionate love for music: he knew how and loved to play the piano, violin, viola, and sometimes sang. The classics Haydn, Beethoven, Mozart, Glinka, Schumann were his favorite composers.
Myasoedov Grigory Grigoryevich died in 1911, December 18, in his own estate Pavlenki near Poltava, in the garden of which he was buried.