It so happened that the best portrait of Tchaikovsky was also the last lifetime, painted nine months before the death of a brilliant composer. Its author is Nikolai Dmitrievich Kuznetsov, a traveling artist from Odessa (1850-1930).
Academician Nikolai Kuznetsov
How is it that a portrait of a man who was considered a demigod even during his life belongs to the brush of a provincial painter from Little Russia and who is he? A native of the family of a large landowner ND Kuznetsov, carried away by the Wanderers and being a talented painter, enters the Russian Academy of Arts, studying in which he receives three silver medals. From the age of 30, he systematically participates in exhibitions of Wanderers. The importance of his paintings is evidenced by the fact that six of them are stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery, and the beautiful painting, like the portrait of Tchaikovsky in 1893, “The Sleeping Girl” was bought by Alexander III in his personal collection. Kuznetsov painted several magnificent portraits - V. M. Vasnetsov and Chaliapin, I. E. Repin and Count M. M. Tolstoy. All of them are very good, but the portrait of Tchaikovsky has glorified the name of the artist for centuries.
Most reliable
In general, the composer was painted a little, perhaps because photos were already in fashion, for which it was not necessary to pose for hours. Images for the great composers were commissioned for the
Great Hall of the Conservatory . The oval portrait of Tchaikovsky was painted by Nikolai Kornilievich Bodarevsky. But as a rule, when they mention a picturesque image of a composer, they always mean a portrait by Nikolai Kuznetsov, which Modest Ilyich, the artist’s brother, called “an amazingly life-like image”. He said that he did not know a better portrait and that the artist was able to guess and reliably convey the tragedy of the mood of the greatest composer in which he was at that time.
Enemies always blacken that which is especially expensive
P.I. Tchaikovsky, whose portrait, according to the testimony of a close and well-knowing person, is very good and reliable, at that time there were fears and doubts. Speculations on the topic of voluntary passing away from life, like other myths about the person who makes up the glory of Russia, have one goal - to denigrate what every Russian is proud of and loves. The official version of premature death suggests that Tchaikovsky died of cholera, which he picked up after drinking a glass of raw water. This handsome man, suffering a tormenting shyness all his life, would hardly have chosen a voluntary departure from life, accompanied by debilitating vomiting and diarrhea. But the fact that, worldwide (he conducted the symphony orchestra at the opening of Carnegie Hall and was a doctor at Cambridge University), something recognized the recognized genius in the last years of his life, there is much evidence of contemporaries.
History of creation
P.I. Tchaikovsky, whose portrait was painted in Odessa, was invited to this city to close the season of the opera house, which at that time was one of the best in Russia. The director of the Raysky Theater wanted to perpetuate this event with a portrait of the great maestro, who he would hang in the theater lobby, giving him, thus, even greater significance. P.I. Tchaikovsky agreed to pose for N.A. Kuznetsov, a 43-year-old graduate of the Academy. For several hours he was a conscientious model, and then asked to be let go of him, since standing in the heat in a suit was deathly pain. The artist completed the portrait of Pyotr Tchaikovsky without a model. When Kuznetsov brought the finished work to the composer, Tchaikovsky appreciated it, calling it "wonderful." Tretyakov was of the same opinion about the work and immediately acquired a portrait for his collection. The canvas measuring 623 x 800 mm captures an intelligent, thinking, suffering, beautiful person, "the glory and pride of the Russian land." Dark background, black suit and two bright spots - face and
hand on the open score. Maybe the background is not finished to the end, but it so well emphasizes the beautiful face of a genius. You can think of the background of some monsters supposedly tormenting the composer in the dark, or you can rejoice at how the face framed by gray hairs is successfully highlighted and how the titan’s look is emphasized, how the mind, genius and the rarest talent are conveyed.