Just for a moment, remember the famous Soviet tales of Marshak or Chukovsky. How interesting it was to read them at one time, in particular due to the fact that the books were filled with interesting illustrations. Unfortunately, few people remember that they were created by the hand of the famous illustrator Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich, who has been engaged in this work since the 30s of the last century. His drawings have become a truly classic design of his favorite children's books, and therefore are often used in our time. This article will tell the biography of Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich, namely its most interesting moments, which led to the fact that the artist chose the way of illustrating works for children.
Childhood
Before proceeding directly to the paintings of Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich, one should consider how the history of this outstanding artist began. He was born on May 7, 1888 in the city of Novocherkassk. His father was an engineer, and his mother was an ordinary housewife. However, when he was nine years old, the whole family moved to Chernihiv, where he received his first education. As he himself noticed, in childhood he was not at all attracted to draw, especially children's drawings. His true dream at that time was the sea, namely the construction of ships. True, like all childhood dreams, she quickly changed, as the boy became interested in astronomy and became interested in music, studying the violin. Only as a teenager did he decide to draw, and since he was enthusiastic about it, he soon acquired a sufficient level to attend an art school.
Start of education
As mentioned earlier, Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich received his first education in Chernigov. Here in a real school, which, however, relied more on the study of the natural and mathematical sciences, he was able to find teachers, painters Mikhailov and Gypsy. They gave him a sufficient level of knowledge in order to move to Moscow in 1908 and enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture there.
Professional study
He studied at MUZHVZ until 1913, where he studied under the guidance of famous teachers - Korovin, Pasternak and Malyutin. Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich did not leave much knowledge about his activities during this period, but, as you know, it was during training that he began to develop his own special style in graphics, which, however, he did not intend to use later, although he became famous for this.
Carier start
After graduation, the artist Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich moved to Petrograd, with which he later connected his entire remaining life. At first he tried to move in different directions, and because of this, he even served for a long time in the Pavlovsk Palace, which at that time was a museum, until in 1918 he began to engage in graphics, namely, the illustration of children's books.
Funny drawings
These are now illustrations and Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich are inextricably linked, but once this was not at all so. In fact, he came to such creativity quite by accident. By 1918, his daughter was 3 years old, but she lived far from her father - in the Urals, together with her mother. To at least somehow please her, he decided to draw funny pictures for her that would represent each letter of the alphabet, and then send them in letters. These drawings were once seen by one of the artist's friends. He liked them so much that Konashevich’s first book, “The ABC in Pictures,” was soon published. After that, he decided to revive children's books with fun and funny drawings.
1920s
In the period of the 20s, the drawing style of Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich was still not established, and therefore he was engaged in two types of classes at once. He completely directed his art to graphics, but at the same time he began to teach at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Repin, as well as in several other schools. He finished his teaching activities only in 1930.
But in practice, his popularity in the art of graphics only grew. He painted a number of excellent paintings for the poems of Fet, as well as the stories of Turgenev, Chekhov, Zoshchenko and many others. In addition, he created a series of wood engravings and lithographic series that depicted Pavlovsk in the mid-1920s.
1930s
By 1930, Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich had completely decided on the scope of his activity, since he focused solely on illustrating children's books. Directly, he collaborated with one publishing house - "Rainbow", and to be more precise, with the department dealing with children's and youthful literature. Quite quickly, he became a recognized master of his craft, because in his manner of drawing at the same time a playful grotesque was manifested, as well as an intricate decorative component. He developed this style at the time when he was writing graphics for the "World of Art" in 1922-1924.
Fairy creatures
You can easily notice that all the heroes of the books he depicted tended to a fairy tale theme. As you know, his most favorite works were stories written by Korney Chukovsky. By the way, by this time they were already good friends and often worked in tandem. He illustrated the works of Chukovsky several times, each time reworking his style of writing. All this even led to the fact that he was attacked in the newspapers. The most humiliating for a talented artist was the article "On dirty artists", which was published in the newspaper "Pravda" in 1936.
However, this did not stop the artist at all, so he continued to write beautiful illustrations for the adult and children's books, although the main emphasis was still on the latter. Konashevich paid his attention not only to Soviet works, but also to foreign ones. He drew illustrations for the books of such famous writers as Hans-Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and many others. He undertook almost any work - Estonian, African, French tales. He often illustrated songs more than once.
War period
Unfortunately, by 1941 the war began in the country. Fearing the fascist troops, the artist was forced to flee to Leningrad, so he spent the entire period of the blockade in this city. In 1943, he completed magnificent illustrations for Andersen's tales, but no other outstanding works were observed during this period. Even after the war, his art was not able to achieve the same vivid effect as it was before, since his imagination was tightly restrained by the numerous dogmas of the country.
Rebirth
The period of his revival began only in the mid-1950s after the death of Stalin. He simply struck first with his excellent pictures for the collection "Floating, Floating Boat", and then to the English fairy tales. After that, several more magnificent books were published. His last work was to illustrate all the tales of the greatest Russian poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. This book was published after the death of the artist, who died in 1963. Shortly before that, he was also able to get a Silver Medal at the international book exhibition, which was held in the city of Leipzig. It was given to him precisely for the book "Sailing, Sailing Boat", which is recognized as the main artistic work of Konashevich.
Other paintings
He painted, albeit infrequently, Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich and still lifes, as well as landscapes, which he performed in an interesting manner. It is not known where he precisely learned such a method of drawing, which was very specific for the Soviet Union, but he managed to do it. For his works, he took exclusively Chinese paper and painted on it only with ink or watercolor, which allowed him to create truly beautiful examples of art.
Conclusion
Agree, it is simply impossible to imagine now what the books of Chukovsky and other writers would be if Vladimir Mikhailovich refused to revive them with the help of his drawings. His fantasy was truly unique, since no other artist in Russia gave the same number of illustrations. A little grotesque, but still cute characters delight kids all over the country for more than a decade.
He really managed to find his own style, which markedly distinguished him from all other illustrators. The artistic manner and the color of the drawings made them very popular among readers of both children and adults. Now his works are stored in many Russian museums, including the Tretyakov Gallery and the State Russian Museum, taking pride of place in them and attracting visitors.