In the Soviet Union, everyone knew who Igor Grabar was. The painting “March Snow” was familiar from textbooks. A remarkable Russian artist, a famous restorer, a talented art critic, who was awarded the Stalin Prize for a two-volume monograph on Ilya Repin, Igor Emmanuilovich was loved by many for his unique and very beautiful landscapes of Russian nature.
Russian artist born abroad
His father was a member of the Austrian parliament, so the future genius singer of Russian nature Grabar (the picture "February Blue" is the clearest confirmation of this) was born in Budapest. He was baptized in Orthodoxy, and his uncle was the uncle of the famous Russian artist Kustodiev, who would later paint a famous portrait of Igor Emanuelovich. In 1880, Olga Grabar brings her son to Russia. He attended gymnasium in Yegoryevsk, Ryazan province. Next was a gold medal for studying at the Moscow Lyceum of Tsarevich Nikolai (1889), the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, which he graduated in 1893, and choosing the main business of his life. I. E. Grabar, whose painting “Balustrade” (1901) declared him to be a talented and peculiar master, becomes an artist. During the time of Petersburg life, he visited the workshop of Ilya Repin, who became his idol for life, along with Andrei Rublev. Together with him at the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts studied Malyavin, Bilibin, Somov.
Becoming
In 1895, the artist left for Italy and further through Europe. Grabar returns to Russia in 1901, and the beauty of Russian nature opens before him in a new light. The artist tried to convey the power of his shock with several canvases - “White Winter”, “March Snow”.
"February blue"
The event was the canvas, which in 1904 was written by Igor Grabar, - “February Azure”. The picture is full of special poetry, the one that sounds in B. Pasternak’s poems “February. Get ink and cry! Writing about February sobbing. " And Grabar painted his picture, too, sobbing. This is one of his most recognizable paintings, she is one of those paintings that the author creates his own name. The artist himself was very fond of this work, which depicts a sunny, still winter day in the suburbs. In the joy that overflows the picture, there is already a slight breath of spring.
The artist in Dugino drew his masterpiece. To convey both the remoteness of the grove on the horizon, and the huge masses of air against the azure sky, Grabar chose the angle as if from a little below, for which he dug a deep trench in the snow and placed it with an easel. The artist felt that if he could convey at least part of the beauty that he sees, he will get a beautiful canvas.
The charm of the picture is unique. The trees seem to be dancing around the central birch, the artist’s favorite tree. The size of the painting is 104 cm in height and 80 cm in width. She was so good that she was immediately acquired by the Council of the Tretyakov Gallery. This work to this day is one of its main masterpieces. You can add that the canvas is one of the hundred best paintings in the world.
Winter, sun, birch, hoarfrost ...
Another masterpiece that Grabar created is “Hoarfrost”, a picture of 1905. If he wrote it alone, he would still have remained in the memory of his descendants, and in textbooks on painting. This is one of those rare paintings that does not leave anyone indifferent. It glorifies the beauty and uniqueness of the unique nature of Russia and in itself demonstrates what great Russian painting is.
Most of all, Grabar liked to paint winter, especially snow. He believed that with the departure of winter, the landscape loses a lot. At the sight of trees covered with hoarfrost, almost always and everyone has a comparison with the fairy tale: “All the trees in hoarfrost, like silver, are like a fairy tale in the yard now ...” And everyone knows S. Yesenin's verses about birch in silver. All the beauty of this natural phenomenon, praised by dozens of beautiful poets, is reflected in this unique work. Grabar, whose painting is dedicated to winter, painted hoarfrost, which “shines with a wonderful life”. He believed that in nature there are very few such polyphonic moments as hoarfrost on a sunny day, and they are unusually fleeting. Lighting changes all the time, giving rise to new unique color schemes.
He himself called the branches covered with hoarfrost, diamond lace sparkling with all the colors on the "turquoise enamel of the sky." On a canvas measuring 122.4 x 160.3, all of the above is transmitted with amazing force. I must say that the winter landscapes of I. Grabar are the best in Russian painting, especially “Hoarfrost”. Winter, sunny day, the beauties of birch, a symbol of Russia and Russian nature, tall, with a magnificent crown, silvered and as if ringing. Their branches cast blue, blue and purple shadows on the snow. Beauties are jubilant and proud of their beauty. Everything is unusually in this work, it surprises and astonishes the viewer. Painted in oil, small fractional strokes (divisionism), the picture made me speak of the author as the founder of Russian impressionism. The canvas is stored in the Yaroslavl Art Museum.
Grabar has several different paintings with this name, and they are all very good, but the work of 1905 is better than others. As soon as Grabar’s birch was called, it wasn’t compared. Most obviously, the definition of “supernatural tree” fits her.
"... Yesenin's plot, almost biblical ..."
Another picture of this artist was created taking into account all the canons of impressionism. This is the March March 1904 mentioned above. Here, as on the previous two canvases, the snow under the sun is conquered for ever conquering the soul of the artist. It reflects the shadows of the surrounding nature, which can be conveyed in all shades of blue, purple, lilac. The deceptive March of Russia was conveyed surprisingly precisely: spring is already, but the snow does not even think to melt. At the same time, the change of seasons is physically felt, despite the frost.
The canvas depicts a young woman carrying buckets of water on the beam. It would seem that the usual rural landscape - buildings, already snowless trees, on which buds will soon appear, a hurrying peasant woman, who is encouraged by a frost. But the main character of the canvas is snow. It is not sparkling, like in winter, it is no longer snow-white, but there are still a lot of it. He is in the foreground of the picture, on which many bright spots are scattered. The canvas is full of charm. The picture is smaller than those described above - only 80 x 62 cm. It is stored in the Tretyakov Gallery.
Each resident of our country knows the magnificent landscapes of Russian nature painted by such geniuses as Savrasov, Vasiliev, Shishkin, Levitan. Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar, People's Artist of Russia, who was the first Soviet painter to be awarded the honorary title “Honored Art Worker,” worthily continued this honorary series. Its pre-revolutionary landscapes are very good, but the canvases painted in the Soviet period are no worse. The singer of the frosty sunny winter and early spring, Grabar, and under the new state system, remained a great painter.