artistic talent Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev the world-famous representative of Russian painting of the last century, gave us a nostalgic world, sunny and joyful, emphasizing the feeling of a holiday with bright colors. As a student, Kustodiev not only inherited Repin's manner and style, but also introduced a play of colors inherent only to him, which involuntarily charges with positive and happiness. It is worth noting that the formation of Boris Mikhailovich as an artist began long before he met the teacher, this is evidenced by his work, riddled with echoes of childhood attachments and experiences.
Kustodiev was born in the family of a seminary teacher in 1878 in Astrakhan. Fate decreed that Boris's father died when the boy was a little over a year old, and all responsibility for upbringing fell on the fragile shoulders of his mother - a 25-year-old widow with four children in her arms. Despite a very modest income, the family lived together, and motherly love brightened up the difficulties of life, making it possible to form a creative personality. It was the mother, Ekaterina Prokhorovna, who instilled in her children a love for high art - theater, literature, painting. Such an upbringing clearly defined the future of Boris, and already at the age of 9 he knew that he would become an artist.
In 1892, having entered the Astrakhan Theological Seminary, Kustodiev simultaneously began to take lessons from the local painter A.P. Vlasov. With the blessing of Vlasov, in 1896 Kustodiev became a student at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and after two years was accepted into the studio of Ilya Repin. The great artist immediately drew attention to the student, placing great hopes on him, which subsequently resulted in joint work on a monumental canvas -. The result of such a successful start was the defense of the thesis with a gold medal and an internship abroad. On his trip to Europe, the artist went with a young family, a recently born son and a young wife - Yulia Evstafievna Proshinskaya.
Subsequently, in 1905, paying tribute to the fateful meeting with his love, Kustodiev built the house-workshop "Terem" near the city of Kineshma, on the Volga. "Terem" became the place of work and creativity of the artist, and here, almost every summer, Boris Mikhailovich was seized by a feeling that is commonly called happiness, inspiring him to create and realize the fullness of life. Beloved wife, who became a faithful assistant, son and daughter, in the indestructible concept of the family, were reflected in the artist's work and became a separate big theme in his painting (the painting "Morning").
A year earlier, in 1904, the artist spent several months abroad, in and out, visiting exhibitions and museums. Native expanses called Boris Mikhailovich to Russia and, returning to his homeland, Kustodiev plunged into the world of journalism, collaborating with the satirical magazines Zhupel and Infernal Mail. So, the first Russian revolution inspired him to try his hand at cartoons and caricatures of government officials.
The year 1907 became eventful: a trip to, a passion for sculpture, membership in the Union of Artists. And in 1908, the world of theater opens up for Kustodiev - he works as a decorator at the Mariinsky. The popularity of Boris Mikhailovich is growing, the fame of the portrait painter becomes the reason for the famous work of Nicholas II in 1915, but long before that, in 1909, trouble came to the artist's family - the first signs of a spinal cord tumor appear. Despite this, he continues to actively travel around Europe, receiving the title of academician of painting in the same year. Having visited Austria, Italy, France and Germany, Kustodiev goes to Switzerland, where he undergoes treatment. Subsequently, in Berlin in 1913, he undergoes a complex operation.
It would seem that the disease receded and 1914 was marked by exhibitions at the Bernheim Gallery in Paris, International Art Exhibitions in Venice and. In 1916, Kustodiev underwent a second operation, which resulted in paralysis of the lower body and amputation of the legs. Since then, the whole world of the artist is his room, memory and imagination. It was during this period that he wrote his most vivid and festive paintings, depicting provincial life (, "Rural Holiday") and the beauty of the body ().
But cheerfulness and optimism are not able to overcome the disease, which, as it progresses, gives the artist a single lifetime exhibition of his own works in 1920 at the Petrograd House of Arts. The last milestones of his life were marked by the design of the play "Flea" and participation in the International Exhibition in Paris.
In 1927, on May 26, at the age of 49, Boris Mikhailovich dies literally while working on a sketch of the triptych conceived by him “The Joy of Work and Rest”. Thus ended the difficult, but full of light and joyful notes, life of the famous artist, who left us a legacy demonstrating a thirst for life and knowledge.
Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev(February 23 (March 7), Astrakhan - May 26, Leningrad) - Russian Soviet artist. Academician of painting (1909). Member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (since 1923). Portrait painter, theater artist, decorator.
Biography [ | ]
Six months later, Kustodiev returned to Russia and worked in the Kostroma province on a series of paintings "Fairs" and "Village Holidays". In 1904 he became a founding member of the New Society of Artists. In 1905-1907 he worked as a cartoonist in the satirical magazine Zhupel (the famous drawing "Entry. Moscow"), after its closure - in the magazines Hell's Post and Iskra. Since 1907 he has been a member of the Union of Russian Artists. In 1909, on the proposal of Repin and other professors, he was elected a member of the Academy of Arts. At the same time, Kustodiev was asked to replace Serov as a teacher of the portrait and genre class at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, but fearing that this activity would take a lot of time from personal work and not wanting to move to Moscow, Kustodiev refused the position. Since 1910 he has been a member of the renewed World of Art.
In 1909, Kustodiev developed the first signs of a spinal cord tumor. Several operations brought only temporary relief; For the last 15 years of his life, the artist was confined to a wheelchair. Due to illness, he was forced to write while lying down. However, it was during this difficult period of his life that his most vivid, temperamental, cheerful works appeared. In 1913 he taught at the New Art Workshop (St. Petersburg).
In 1914, Kustodiev rented an apartment in a St. Petersburg apartment building at 105 Ekateringofsky Prospekt. From 1915 until the end of his life he lived in the apartment building of E. P. Mikhailov (Vvedenskaya street, 7, apt. 50). He was buried at the Nikolsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1948, the ashes and the monument were transferred to the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (photo of the grave).
Family [ | ]
Kustodiev Boris with his wife Yulia. 1903
His wife Yulia Evstafyevna Proshinskaya was born in 1880. In 1900, she met her future husband in the Kostroma province, where Boris Kustodiev went to sketch in the summer. She reciprocated the feelings of the young artist and became his wife in the early 1900s, taking her husband's surname. In marriage, the Kustodievs had a son, Cyril (1903–1971, also became an artist) and a daughter, Irina (1905–1981). The third child, Igor, died in infancy. Yulia Kustodieva survived her husband and died in 1942.
Illustrations and book graphics[ | ]
In 1905-1907 he worked in the satirical magazines "Zhupel" (the famous drawing "Introduction. Moscow"), "Hell's post" and "Sparks".
Subtly feeling the line, Kustodiev performed cycles of illustrations for classical works and for the creations of his contemporaries (illustrations for the works of Leskov: "Darner", 1922; "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District", 1923).
Possessing a solid stroke, he worked in the technique of lithography and engraving on linoleum.
Painting [ | ]
Kustodiev started his career as a portrait painter. Already while working on sketches for Repin's "Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901," student Kustodiev showed his talent as a portrait painter. In sketches and portrait sketches for this multi-figure composition, he coped with the task of achieving similarity with Repin's creative style. But Kustodiev the portrait painter was closer to Serov. Picturesque plasticity, a free long brushstroke, a bright characteristic of appearance, an emphasis on the artistry of the model - these were mostly portraits of fellow students and teachers of the Academy - but without Serov's psychologism. Kustodiev is incredibly fast for a young artist, but deservedly won the fame of a portrait painter from the press and customers. However, according to A. Benois:
“... the real Kustodiev is a Russian fair, motley, “big-eyed” calicos, a barbaric “fight of colors”, a Russian settlement and a Russian village, with their harmonicas, gingerbread, overdressed girls and dashing guys ... I argue that this is his real sphere, his a real joy ... When he writes fashionable ladies and respectable citizens, it is completely different - boring, sluggish, often even tasteless. And it seems to me that it’s not about the plot, but about the approach to it.”
Already from the beginning of the 1900s, Boris Mikhailovich developed a kind of portrait genre, or rather, a portrait-picture, a portrait-type, in which the model is connected together with the landscape or interior surrounding it. At the same time, this is a generalized image of a person and his unique individuality, its disclosure through the world surrounding the model. In their form, these portraits are associated with the genre images-types of Kustodiev (“Self-portrait” (1912), portraits of A. I. Anisimov (1915), F. I. Chaliapin (1922)).
But Kustodiev's interests went beyond the portrait: it was no coincidence that he chose a genre painting for his thesis (“At the Bazaar” (1903), has not been preserved). In the early 1900s, for several years in a row, he went to field work in the Kostroma province. In 1906, Kustodiev came up with works that were new in their concept - a series of canvases on the themes of brightly festive peasant and provincial philistine-merchant life (“Balagany”, “Shrovetide”), in which features of Art Nouveau are visible. Spectacular, decorative works reveal the Russian character through the everyday genre. On a deeply realistic basis, Kustodiev created a poetic dream, a fairy tale about provincial Russian life. Great importance in these works is attached to the line, drawing, color spot, the forms are generalized and simplified - the artist turns to gouache, tempera. The artist's works are characterized by stylization - he studies the Russian parsuna of the 16th-18th centuries, popular prints, signs of provincial shops and taverns, and folk crafts.
In the future, Kustodiev gradually shifts more and more towards the ironic stylization of the folk and, especially, the life of the Russian merchants with a riot of colors and flesh (“Beauty”, “Russian Venus”, “Merchant for tea”).
For "Russian Venus" Kustodiev did not have a finished canvas. Then the artist took his own painting "On the Terrace" and began to write on its reverse side. Boris Mikhailovich was very ill. He could only sit in a special wheelchair for no more than two or three hours a day, overcoming terrible pain throughout his body. Sometimes I could not pick up a brush. His life at that time was a feat. This canvas became, as it were, the result of his life - a year later, Kustodiev died.
One of the artist's friends recalled:
“He rolled up to his canvases and drove away from them, as if challenging him to a duel ... impending death ...”
“I knew a lot in the life of interesting, talented and good people, but if I ever saw a really high spirit in a person, it was in Kustodiev ...” Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin
Theatrical work[ | ]
Like many artists of the turn of the century, Kustodiev also worked in the theater, transferring his vision of the work to the stage. The scenery performed by Kustodiev was colorful, close to his genre painting, but this was not always perceived as a merit: creating a bright and convincing world, carried away by its material beauty, the artist sometimes did not coincide with the author's intention and the director's reading of the play ("The Death of Pazukhin" by Saltykov- Shchedrin, 1914, Moscow Art Theater; Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm, which never saw the light of day, 1918). In his later works for the theater, he moves away from the chamber interpretation to a more generalized one, looking for greater simplicity, building a stage space, giving freedom to the director when building mise-en-scenes. The success of Kustodiev was his design work in 1918-1920. opera performances (1920, The Tsar's Bride, Bolshoi Opera House of the People's House; 1918, The Snow Maiden, Bolshoi Theater (staged not staged)). Sketches of scenery, costumes and props for A. Serov's opera "The Enemy Force" (Academic (former Mariinsky) Theatre, 1921)
The performances of Zamyatin's Fleas (1925, Moscow Art Theater 2nd; 1926, Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater) were successful. According to the memoirs of the director of the play A. D. Wild:
“It was so vivid, so precise, that my role as a director accepting sketches was reduced to zero - I had nothing to correct or reject. It was as if he, Kustodiev, had been in my heart, overheard my thoughts, read Leskovsky's story with the same eyes as me, saw him in stage form in the same way. … Never have I had such a complete, such inspiring unanimity with the artist, as when working on the play “Flea”. I knew the whole meaning of this community, when Kustodiev's farcical, bright scenery appeared on the stage, props and props made according to his sketches appeared. The artist led the whole performance, took, as it were, the first part in the orchestra, which obediently and sensitively sounded in unison.
After 1917, the artist participated in the design of Petrograd for the first anniversary of the October Revolution, painted posters, popular prints and paintings on revolutionary themes (“Bolshevik”, 1919-1920, Tretyakov Gallery; “Celebration in honor of the 2nd Congress of the Comintern on Uritsky Square”, 1921 , The Russian Museum).
Significant works [ | ]
The list of examples in this section is not based directly on the subject of the article or its section. In Astrakhan, next to the Astrakhan Art Gallery named after P. M. Dogadin (formerly named after B. M. Kustodiev), there is a monument to B. M. Kustodiev. The house-museum of B. M. Kustodiev in Astrakhan is located at st. Kalinina, 26 / st. Sverdlov, 68. |
Kustodiev could not only see and appreciate the beauty of the natural world, but it was also in his power and in his power to recreate and embody this complex world of wildlife in as much detail as possible on his artistic canvases.
Like most of the author's works, Kustodiev's landscape canvases are distinguished by their special brightness, expressiveness and saturation of color plans. In Kustodiev's paintings, nature is always much more than just a landscape image. Kustodiev creates his own artistic description of nature, makes it extremely individual, authorial, unlike anything else.
In this regard, one of Kustodiev's works, written by the artist in 1918, "Horses during a Thunderstorm", is especially noticeable.
The painting "Horses during a Thunderstorm" is an example of a talented oil painting. At the moment, the canvas belongs to the collection of fine arts of the twentieth century of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. The central image and motif of the canvas is already stated in the very title of the painting.
Kustodiev Boris Mikhailovich (Kustodiev Boris) (1878-1927), Russian artist. Born in Astrakhan on February 23 (March 7), 1878 in the family of a seminary teacher.
Having visited the exhibition of the Wanderers in 1887 and for the first time seeing the paintings of real painters, the young Kustodiev was shocked. He firmly decided to become an artist. After graduating from the seminary in 1896, Kustodiev went to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts. Studying in the workshop of I. E. Repin, Kustodiev writes a lot from life, strives to master the skill of conveying the colorful diversity of the world.
Walking on the Volga, 1909 Repin attracted the young artist to co-author the painting "Meeting of the State Council" (1901-1903, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg). Already in these years, the virtuoso talent of Kustodiev, a portrait painter, manifested itself (I. Ya. Bilibin, 1901). Living in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Kustodiev often traveled to the picturesque corners of the Russian provinces, primarily to the cities and villages of the Upper Volga, where the famous images of Russian traditional life (a series of "fairs", "carnivals", "village holidays") and colorful folk types (“merchants”, “merchants”, beauties in the bath - “Russian Venuses”). These series and paintings close to them (portrait of F. I. Chaliapin, 1922, Russian Museum) are like colorful dreams about old Russia.
Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin, 1922, Russian Museum Although in 1916 paralysis confined the artist to a wheelchair, Kustodiev continued to work actively in various art forms, continuing his popular "Volga" series.
B.M. Kustodiev in his workshop. 1925 After the revolution, Kustodiev created his best things in the field of book illustration (“Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” by N. S. Leskov; “Rus” by E. I. Zamyatin; both works - 1923; and other drawings) and set design (“Flea” by Zamyatin in Second Moscow Art Theater, 1925; and other decorations). Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev died in Leningrad on May 26, 1927.
Merchant at tea, 1918 Russian Museum One of the favorite characters in the works of Kustodiev was a portly, full of health merchant's wife. The artist painted merchants many times - in the interior and against the backdrop of the landscape, naked and in elegant dresses.
The painting "The Merchant at Tea" is unique in its impressive strength and harmonic integrity. In the plump Russian beauty of immense thickness, sitting on the balcony at a table laden with dishes, the image of the merchant's wife acquires a truly symbolic sound. Details carry a great semantic load in the canvas: a fat lazy cat rubbing against the shoulder of the hostess, a merchant couple drinking tea on a neighboring balcony, the city depicted in the background with churches and shopping arcades and, in particular, a magnificent “gastronomic” still life. A ripe red watermelon with black pits, a fat cake, buns, fruit, porcelain, a large samovar - all this is written in an unusually material and tangible way and at the same time not illusory, but deliberately simplified, like on shop signs.
In the hungry year of 1918, in the cold and devastation, the sick artist dreamed of beauty, full-blooded bright life, abundance. However, the savoring of a well-fed, thoughtless existence is accompanied here, as in other works by Kustodiev, with light irony and a good-natured smile.
Merchant with a mirror, 1920, Russian Museum Youth always attracts with its brightness, beauty, freshness. The artist presents us with an ordinary scene from a merchant's life. A young girl tries on a new silk shawl. The picture is full of details that reveal the character of the heroine. Decorations are laid out on the table, a servant girl sorts out furs, a green chest by the stove clearly hides the “wealth” of the heroine. A smiling merchant in a rich fur coat stands at the door. He admires his daughter, who is fascinated by her new wardrobe.
Beauty, 1915, Tretyakov Gallery Kustodiev always drew his inspiration from Russian lubok painting. Here is his famous "Beauty" as if written off from a popular print or from a Dymkovo toy. However, it is known that the artist painted from nature, and it is also known that a well-known actress of the Art Theater became a model.
The artist approaches the magnificent forms of his model delicately, with good humor. The beauty herself is not at all embarrassed, she calmly, with some curiosity, watches the viewer, very pleased with the impression she makes. Her posture is chaste. White magnificent body, blue eyes, golden hair, blush, scarlet lips - we have a really beautiful woman in front of us.
Provinces. 1919 
View from Sparrow Hills. 1919 
In old Suzdal, 1914 The exuberant luxury of colors blooms luxuriantly in Kustodiev's paintings, as soon as he turns to his favorite topic: depicting the foundations of life in the hinterland, its foundations, its roots. The colorfully shown tea party in the yard cannot but please the eye with all the love of life that reigns in the picture.
Stately backs, proud posture, obvious slowness of every movement, a conscious sense of self-worth, which is felt in all female figures - this is the old Suzdal, the way the artist sees it, feels it, feels it. And he is all in front of us at a glance - alive and bright, real. Warm. Just invites to the table!
Morning, 1904, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg Depicted are Yulia Evstafyevna Kustodieva, the artist's wife, with her first-born son Kirill (1903-1971). The picture was painted in Paris.
Russian Venus, 1925, Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum, Nizhny Novgorod 
Bathing, 1912, Russian Museum According to Kustodievsky, a sunny day in the picture is overflowing with saturated colors. The blue sky, the green slope, the mirror-like shine of the water, the sunny-yellow swimming pool - all together make up a warm summer.
The bathers are depicted by the artist schematically, very delicately. Kustodiev, as if he himself takes the viewer’s gaze away from the bathhouse and draws attention to the surrounding nature, filling it with unnatural bright colors.
Life on the coast goes on. Boatmen offer the public a ride along the river; a laden cart can hardly climb uphill. On the hill is a red church.
Twice the artist depicted the Russian tricolor. A white-blue-red cloth adorns the bathhouse and the side of a large boat. Most likely, before us a holiday. Summer is a holiday for everyone who is able to appreciate it.
The bathers are having a leisurely conversation, enjoying the warmth, the sun, the river. Slow, measured, happy life.
Merchant and brownie, 1922 A very piquant scene was depicted by the artist. The brownie, bypassing his possessions, froze in amazement before the naked body of the sleeping mistress of the house. But the details still tell the viewer that the heroine of the picture has prepared everything for this scene. The hot stove is left open so that the fire gives light. The pose is carefully thought out. There is a feeling that the dream of the hostess is theatrical. The beauty seems to be luring the brownie herself to look at him. Fairy tale, Christmas story, miracle.
A graceful, white-bodied, dazzlingly beautiful merchant's wife - on the one hand, an eerie, furry, pot-bellied brownie - on the other. They are like the embodiment of merchant female and male beauty. Two different beginnings, opposites.
Trinity Day, 1920, Saratov State Art Museum. A. N. Radishcheva 
Portrait of the artist Ivan Bilibin, 1901, Russian Museum This portrait is an early work of the master. It was created in the academic workshop of I. Repin. In this work, Kustodiev's manner barely shows through. It just hasn't matured yet. Bilibin is depicted very realistically. Before us is an exquisitely dressed young man: a black frock coat, a snow-white shirt. The red flower in the buttonhole is a detail that characterizes the model. The hero is smart, a lover of women, entertainment. The look is ironic, even funny. Facial features are correct. Before us is a handsome young man.
Portrait of Yu.E. Kustodieva. 1920 
Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna.1911 
Merchant with purchases. 1920 
Moscow tavern, 1916, Tretyakov Gallery The Moscow tavern is a special, difficult place. The main thing in it is communication, relaxation. This is how the tavern appears in the picture. Graceful and graceful sex, serving visitors. Red ceilings and vaults give the work a joyful and festive atmosphere. Judging by the bunch of willow behind the icon, the action takes place on the eve of Easter.
Fans of Russian painting are well aware of the name of such a remarkable domestic artist as Boris Kustodiev. Consider in this article the creative biography of this person.
Boris Kustodiev: short biography, stages of creative maturity
The future artist was born in Astrakhan, in Tsarist Russia, in 1878. He came from an intelligent teacher's family. His parents loved Russian art and passed this love on to their children. The artist's father taught philosophy, logic and literature at the theological seminary. When Boris was 2 years old, his father died suddenly.
Nevertheless, the family was able to provide the boy with a decent education: he studied at the parochial school, then at the gymnasium. Boris Kustodiev received his first painting lessons at the local Astrakhan gymnasium.
In 1896, the young man entered the prestigious department. From the second year, I. E. Repin became his teacher.
In the last year of the academy, Boris Kustodiev, while working on his graduation picture in the Kostroma province, met his future wife Yu. E. Poroshinskaya. He graduated from the academy brilliantly: with a gold medal and excellent prospects.
First successes
After the wedding and the end of the course, the artist Boris Kustodiev goes on a tour abroad to get to know all the colors of European life. He visited Paris, Germany and Italy. He met famous European artists of that time, sat down to visit many art exhibitions and galleries.
Returning to Russia, Kustodiev continued to work on genre paintings. He created a series of works "Village Holidays" and "Fairs". The talent of the young man attracted the attention of his contemporaries. At the suggestion of Repin, Kustodiev was elected a professor at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, became a member of the Union of Russian Artists, and began to collaborate with many literary and art magazines.
Portraits of Kustodiev: a feature of the genre
Boris Kustodiev entered the history of Russian art primarily as a very talented portrait painter. It was he who created a whole cycle of portraits of his contemporaries, and his canvases are still considered masterworks.
Critics noted that in his art both the power of Repin's colors and plots and the subtle psychologism of Serov's paintings found their expression. However, the artist was able to create his own style: in his portraits, a person is characterized not only by his face and appearance, but also by the whole environment around him.
Consider from this point of view the famous "Merchant for Tea", written in the anxious 1918.
Everything in this picture is permeated with a sense of contentment and peace. The full face of the merchant, her bright clothes, household items surrounding her, even the cat that clings to her mistress - a certain thought is felt in everything: this is both mild humor and an attempt to understand the essence of the soul of a Russian person.
In the artist's works there are many things from Russian folk popular art, and from old parsuns, and from ancient Russian fairy-tale images of people and animals.
Most famous works
In addition to the aforementioned "Merchant's Woman for Tea", the following portraits of Kustodiev received the greatest popularity: a portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin, painted in 1921, a portrait of Maximilian Voloshin (1924), a painting "Bolshevik" (1920), a work "Russian Venus" (1925), a painting " Fair in Saratov.
All these canvases are imbued with a sense of the beauty of the national spirit, a sense of deep patriotism, their characteristic features are a riot of colors and monumentality of images.
The great Russian singer Fyodor Chaliapin appears as Russian heroes, and the writer Chaliapin stands in a fur coat wide open, he is dressed like a dandy, but at the same time there is something folk, powerful and inspired in his image. Equally huge and majestic is Voloshin, whose head rests on the clouds.
In the picture "Bolshevik" the main character, depicted against the background of a bright red banner, is ready to take a swing at the temple. The growth of a Bolshevik is equal to the height of an architectural structure. Thus, the artist dismantles the man of the new era, who perceives himself as the winner of the old system and the creator of a new life.
Boris Kustodiev painted many canvases during his creative life, his paintings amaze the audience with their scope and majesty.
Illustrations for literary works and theatrical works
Kustodiev became famous as an excellent illustrator. During his life, he created many works for magazines that conveyed the image of the main characters of the works of Russian classical literature that he understood. He wonderfully illustrated the works of Leskov, drew engravings and even caricatures.
Boris Kustodiev appreciated various types of Russian art, his paintings were actively used in the theatrical environment. The talent of the artist was especially vividly embodied when creating scenery for the performances of the Moscow Art Theater. These are works based on the works of Ostrovsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin and even Zamyatin (by the way, one of the most famous portraits of Zamyatin belongs to Kustodiev's brush). His works were liked by his contemporaries for their simplicity, the power of the embodiment of the image and the magnificent selection of colors.
last years of life
Boris Kustodiev managed to do a lot in his creative life, his biography is a direct confirmation of this.
For the last 15 years of his life, the artist was confined to a wheelchair. The fact is that he was tormented by a dangerous and severe tumor of the spine, which did not respond to surgical treatment. Kustodiev was forced to write, first sitting, and then lying down.
However, he continued to engage not only in art, but also in social activities, and even in 1923 he joined the association of artists of revolutionary Russia.
Boris Mikhailovich died in 1927, was buried in Leningrad - at the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev was born on March 7, 1878. It is difficult to find another painter so passionately in love with provincial Russia: original, bright, surprising
A number of researchers suggest that the surname Kustodiev comes from the Old Slavonic "custod" - the so-called watchman, church gatekeeper. It is not known whether the distant ancestors of Boris Mikhailovich were church ministers, but his closest relatives connected their lives with the church. Grandfather served as a deacon in one of the villages of the Samara province, and his sons, Stepan, Konstantin and Mikhail, followed in his footsteps. Boris Mikhailovich also studied at the theological seminary, but he entered it, rather, due to circumstances. After the death of his father, a desperate financial situation developed in the family, and in the theological seminary the boy could receive an education at public expense. True, the seminarian Kustodiev will not demonstrate outstanding abilities, making progress only in icon painting. Most of the time the boy will devote to his new hobby - sculpture, carving figures of funny animals from soft stone.
famous portrait
Boris Kustodiev is rightfully considered an unsurpassed master of portraiture - this genre has occupied a central place in his work since his studies at the Academy of Arts. After the appearance of the first works at exhibitions, the public appreciated the skill of the portrait painter - private orders rained down. Kustodiev himself admitted that these orders distract him from the relentless search for language and style. Book illustrator Ivan Bilibin, historian and restorer Alexander Anisimov, poet and artist Maximilian Voloshin - in each portrait Kustodiev managed to capture and convey to the viewer the difficult essence of a person. But perhaps the most famous work of Kustodiev in this genre was the ceremonial portrait of Chaliapin. True, a number of researchers (including Valerian Bogdanov-Berezovsky) believe that the artist created, rather, a plot composition, “in which the portrait itself, brought to the fore, plays the role of the main, but still integral component.” Interestingly, in the lower left corner, Kustodiev depicted Chaliapin's daughters, Maria and Marfa, walking, accompanied by the artist's secretary Isaiah Dvorishchin. At Fedor Ivanovich's feet is Roika's favorite French bulldog painted from life, who was forced to "freeze" in the right position, putting a cat on the closet. Chaliapin admired Kustodiev's "great spirit" and often visited him in his Petrograd apartment. They recalled their native Volga and sang soulful songs: seriously and with concentration, as if plunging into some kind of sacred ritual.
Watercolor Russia
Kustodiev's favorite topic for many years was provincial Russia with its festivities and colorful fairs and the main characters - residents of small cozy towns. Kustodiev's canvases are immediately recognizable: bright, colorful, with overflowing life and many recognizable details. When he first saw the Saturday fair, he wrote: “... it was a mind-blowing color - such a variety and play. No sketches, no fantasies will give anything like this - everything is so simple and beautiful. Alexander Benois was convinced that “the real Kustodiev is a Russian fair, “big-eyed” chintzes, a barbaric “fight of colors”, a Russian settlement and a Russian village, with their accordions, gingerbread, overdressed girls and dashing guys. In 1920, Kustodiev, commissioned by I. Brodsky, creates a series of "Rus": 26 watercolors, each of which tells about the life of ordinary Russian people to the smallest detail. A cab driver drinking tea in a tavern, a respectable merchant in a rich fur coat walking around the city, hurrying to fulfill a sexual order, a chest keeper reading a newspaper, a cheerful baker praising his goods - each becomes a unique part of the picture, which is assembled into one huge puzzle called "Rus".
Russian Venus
In a conversation about the artist, it is impossible not to recall the "Kustodian women" - the type of Russian beauties created by Boris Mikhailovich. He begins to write them in difficult times. Unbearable pains in the hands, which do not allow the master to work fully, force him to go to Switzerland, where he is diagnosed with bone tuberculosis. It was during a long and exhausting treatment, which actually did not bring results, that in 1912 Kustodiev began work on a gallery of unsurpassed female images. In 1915, the world saw "The Merchant" and "Beauty" - unique images of Russian beauty.
Facets of Talent
Painting, sculpture, scenography, book graphics, teaching - the original talent of the "hero of Russian painting" manifested itself in various fields. Scenography attracted Kustodiev as a student, but only in 1911, while undergoing treatment in Leysin, he created his first independent work for Ostrovsky's play "Hot Heart" staged by Fyodor Komissarzhevsky. The work was highly acclaimed. As one of the reviewers wrote, "the artist managed to clothe Kuroslepovshchina and Khlynovshchina in soft tones of stylish memories." In 1914, the artist creates scenery for the play "The Death of Pazukhin" based on the play by Saltykov-Shchedrin, and they turn out so expressive that twice more, in 1924 and 1938, the audience will see the production in Kustodiev's design.
The most famous works of Kustodiev as an illustrator are drawings for rare editions of Leskov's works The Darner (1922) and Lady Magbet of the Mtsensk District (1923), as well as the Nekrasov collection Six Poems (1922). For the first book, Kustodiev designed the cover, "title" and created 34 illustrations. The illustrations, made in the technique of zincography, are "inextricably and harmoniously" woven into the thread of the story: landscapes of the Moscow Zamoskvorechye alternate with event scenes marked by slight irony.
One day!
From 1905 to 1907, Kustodiev collaborated with a number of satirical publications: Zhupel, Infernal Post, Iskra. This is how the "Intro. 1905 Moscow" - a response to Bloody Sunday, a number of sharp cartoons, including a satire on Witte published in the second issue of "Zhupel". While working on it, Kustodiev snarled through his teeth: “Let's depict, depict ... The hypocritical and dodgy Count Witte ... you are famous for your ability to find a third way out when there are only two! .. Do you want to hold two flags at the same time - the royal tricolor and the scarlet revolutionary? Play for two? Please!..” The third issue of the magazine was not published. It was censored.
After the events of 1917, Kustodiev created several panels to decorate Petrograd for the celebration of the first anniversary of the October Revolution and embodies the severity of events on the covers of the Krasnaya Niva and Krasnaya Panorama magazines. In 1920, he painted the canvas “Bolshevik”, which was ambiguous in its interpretation - a huge giant with a distant look and a scarlet banner in his hands is moving towards the church. Kustodiev expresses the feeling of spontaneity, loss of control and his fears of the death of traditions dear to his heart in this work with his inherent skill. The authorities enthusiastically accept the "Bolshevik", "glorifying the new cause." Subsequent paintings, commissioned by the new government, will be distinguished by the absence of a sharp anguish and an abstract festive mood.
lust for life
The Berlin luminary of neurosurgery Oppenheim did not confirm the diagnosis made in Switzerland, believing that Kustodiev had a tumor of the spinal cord. Despite the successful operation, in 1915 the pain returned - the disease attacked with such cruelty that the master could not move independently. He will undergo another operation, but until his death he will remain chained to a wheelchair. Nevertheless, it was during this period that Kustodiev created his most striking works, filled with endless love of life and a whirlwind of emotions. On many of them there will be an unstoppable trinity, symbolizing movement - something that the artist was deprived of in life. Kustodiev was not broken by the incessant attacks of his colleagues: the futurists scolded him for indecision and unwillingness to “cut the umbilical cord” that connected him with Repin, the decadents defined his works as “hopelessly orthographic”, critics often recalled the “lubok” of the master’s canvases, and in the 1920s called "the last singer of the merchant-kulak environment." But until his last days he continued to sing of what was dear to his heart - the beauty and generosity of the Russian land.