The most famous paintings by Konstantin Yuon
Self portrait, 1953
Konstantin Yuon was one of those artists whom fate favored from the very beginning. His talent was noticed even during the student exhibition, his paintings were eagerly sold out, even though no one knew the name of the artist then. He managed to paint canvases about a simple life, about the beauty of the Russian land.
He liked to depict bright landscapes, the transition of the seasons, Yuon liked to complement his paintings with bright folk costumes. In all his works, admiration for the Russian people and the beauty of the Russian land is felt.
He was born into a wealthy family on October 24, 1875, and already in 1902 he began to paint scenery for performances, was a regular exhibitor of the Union of Russian Artists. After the revolution, his fame did not go away, on the contrary, his talent was noted and encouraged. It was Konstantin Fedorovich who initiated the creation of schools of fine arts at the Moscow Department of Public Education.
He himself, immediately after graduating from college, led an active teaching activity and was engaged in it all his life. Among his students were such iconic figures for Soviet art as V.I. Mukhina and V. A. Vatagin.
An amazing person in his paintings showed the purity of nature and soul, the canvases are literally permeated with inner light. He painted portraits, made graphics, but landscapes were the most successful for him. Today we invite you to get acquainted with the most famous paintings Soviet artist.
Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In winter"
1920 - this painting is called one of the most famous and successful in the painter's arsenal. Permeated with subtle light, shrouded in snow, the domes of the cathedral express a certain solemn holiness.
The amazing energy of the picture was due to Yuon's early passion for icon painting. He repeatedly got to exhibitions and temples with ancient icons. Back then, in pre-revolutionary Russia, he was captivated by the colors and the light that comes from the icons. Therefore, temples and everything connected with faith, he turned out to be especially inspired.
"July. Bathing" 1925
- the painter managed to make an unusual summer landscape with simple and bright accents. picturesque nature, bright colors and amazing energy - like in all Yuon's paintings.
"Autumn view from the balcony"
- all seasons were subject to Yuon's brushes. He was able to masterfully portray the smallest details and focus on the little things. It would seem that a simple view from the window - what it can show. But the artist managed to convey the elusive energy of autumn leaf fall.
"Parade on Red Square on November 7, 1941",
the picture was painted in 1949. The legendary November 7 parade was sacred to the entire Soviet Union. To raise morale and convince people of victory, a parade was held, even despite the outbreak of war.
"Komsomolskaya Pravda", 1926
- the new government did not in the least prevent the artist from creating further. He saw new colors, the Komsomol and communism became another topic for creativity.
"Blue Bush"
- this picture in the style of impressionism is impossible not to recall when talking about Konstantin Yuon. The picture seems to be permeated with light energy and bright colors. A spot of a flowering bush on a sunny lawn gives a great mood and joy from viewing.
"Night. Tverskoy Boulevard»
- a versatile and talented artist was perfectly able to convey not only daytime colors and the refraction of sunlight, but also city lights and night festivities. From birth, he lived in Moscow, and, like no one else, he loved this city. He managed to convey in the picture the riot of the twilight of a summer evening, the play of light and shadow after sunset.
elive.com.ua
. October 12, 1875 (Moscow) - April 11, 1958 (Moscow).
Painter, graphic artist, set designer. Born in the family of an insurance agent, a native of Switzerland. In 1894 he entered the MUZhViZ, the architectural department. Soon he moved to the painting department, studied with K. A. Savitsky, A. E. Arkhipov, L. O. Pasternak, in 1899 he worked in the studio of V. A. Serov.
From 1896 until the end of the 1900s he repeatedly visited Paris, where he studied in private studios. From 1898 he gave private lessons. In 1900–1917 he headed the School of K. F. Yuon and I. O. Dudin in Moscow. Fascinated by culture Ancient Russia. In the late 1890s - 1900s, he repeatedly traveled to ancient Russian cities. He also visited Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany. Lived in Moscow, in Sergiev Posad (1903, 1911, 1918-1921), Tver province (1905-1906, 1916-1917), Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl.
He took part in exhibitions of the Moscow Association of Artists (1899, 1902), the Association of Travelers art exhibitions(1900), "The World of Art" (1901, 1906). From 1903 he was a permanent exhibitor of the Union of Russian Artists, from 1904 he was a member of the Committee of the Union. He worked mainly as a landscape painter, gaining "wide fame" among the Moscow and St. Petersburg public.
In the late 1900s and early 1910s, he designed opera productions of Russian Seasons by S. P. Diaghilev in Paris. Yuon’s undoubted success in the field of scenography was the design of M. P. Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov, staged on the stage of the Champs Elysees Theater in Paris in 1913. The scenery and costumes showed knowledge of Russian culture and history, which also distinguished many of the master’s paintings.
Since 1910, the artist collaborated in the theaters of K. N. Nezlobin, the Opera House of S. I. Zimin, the Maly Theater, and the Moscow Art Theater. In 1916, he took part in the design of the literary and artistic collection "Half a century for the book: On the 50th anniversary of the publishing activity of I. D. Sytin."
After the revolution, he was one of the initiators of the creation of schools of fine arts at the Moscow Department of Public Education. In 1920 he received the first prize for a curtain design for the Bolshoi Theatre. In 1921 he was elected a full member Russian Academy artistic sciences. Since 1925 - member of the AHRR. In 1938-1939 he directed a personal workshop at the All-Russian Academy of Arts in Leningrad.
In 1940 he completed sketches of the mosaic decoration of the Palace of Soviets. In 1943 he was awarded the Stalin Prize, in 1947 he was elected a full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. From 1943 to 1948 he worked as the chief artist of the Maly Theatre. In 1950 he was awarded the title of "People's Artist". In 1948-1950 he headed the Research Institute of History and Theory of Fine Arts of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. Doctor of Arts. In 1952-1955 he taught at the Moscow State art institute them. V. I. Surikova, professor. Since 1957 - First Secretary of the Board of the Union of Artists of the USSR.
AT early work Yuon often turned to the motives of the Russian village: the artist was interested in the state of nature, the change of seasons, the life of provincial towns and villages, the architecture of ancient churches and monasteries. His painting style was influenced by the lessons of Korovin and Serov. After the revolution, the individual handwriting of the artist has changed little, the range of subjects has become somewhat different. In the 1920s - 1950s, he created a number of portraits, paintings on the themes of the history of the revolution and contemporary life, in which he adhered to the realistic tradition. The landscapes of this time are close in the manner of execution to earlier works of the 1910s, in which elements of impressionism and "wandering realism" are closely intertwined. Filled with subtle lyricism, they are of the greatest value in the entire creative heritage of the master.
Yuon as a theater decorator is much inferior to Yuon the painter. Most of his theatrical works are not characterized by novelty and artistic imagination, which are characteristic of the scenography of many of his contemporaries.
Yuon's personal exhibitions were organized in 1926, 1945, 1955 at the State Tretyakov Gallery(they were timed to coincide with the 25th, 50th, 60th anniversary of creative activity), 1931 - in State Museum fine arts, 1950 - at the Academy of Arts of the USSR. Posthumous retrospectives of the master's works took place in 1962 and 1976 at the Tretyakov Gallery, and in 1976 at the Russian Museum.
The artist's works are in the collections of many national museums, including the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin in Moscow, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. There is a memorial plaque on the house where Yuon lived and worked (Zemlyanoy Val Street, 14-16).
(The article uses information from the site artinvestment.ru)
 Birches Petrovskoe. 1899. X.M. |
 Holiday. 1903. Cardboard, tempera. 95.5x70. State Russian Museum |
Photo:
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Exhibitions:
Literature:
K. F. Yuon, Moscow in my work, M., 1958;
K. F. Yuon, On Art, vol. 1 - 2, M., 1959.
A p at sh k and N Ya. V., K. F. Yuon, M., 1936;
Tretyakov N., K. F. Yuon, Moscow, 1957;
K. F. Yuon. Man, artist, public figure. Teacher. [Catalogue], M., 1968;
[Romashkova L.], K. Yuon. [Album], M., 1973;
K. F. Yuon, Centenary of the birth, 1875 - 1975, M., 1976.
Yuon Konstantin Fedorovich
1875, Moscow - 1958, ibid.
Fate favored KF Yuon in every possible way. He lived a long life. He had an extremely happy marriage. The people around him loved him. He never had to struggle with need. Success came to him very early and always accompanied him. After the revolution, honors, high awards, titles, leadership positions, as it were, were looking for him.
There were fewer adversities - this was a quarrel for several years with his father (a bank employee) due to Yuon's marriage to a peasant woman and the early death of one of his sons. In 1892, Yuon entered the MUZHVZ, where he studied with K. A. Savitsky, N. A. Kasatkin, A. E. Arkhipov, V. A. Serov.
The public noticed his paintings even at student exhibitions and bought them up so willingly that student Yuon was able to travel around Russia and Europe. Subsequently, his paintings were always welcome at the exhibitions of the Wanderers, and at the exhibitions of the World of Art and the Union of Artists (of which he was a member). Leading critics and art historians of his time wrote about him - AN. Benois, I. E. Grabar, P. P. Muratov, then A. M. Efros, D. E. Arkin ... He himself acted as an art critic with works on the work of Russian artists, on the technique of painting, on artistic education.
Soon after graduating from college, Yuon began teaching and was engaged in it all his life, earning great appreciation from his students, among whom were V.I. Mukhina, animal sculptor V.A. Vatagin and others.
Yuon left many works different levels. He was a painter, graphic artist and theater designer. Tried myself in thematic picture, painted portraits of his contemporaries, but landscape painting turned out to be his true vocation.
Like other masters of the SRH, Yuon learned some of the principles of the French impressionists, without breaking with the traditions of Russian realism of the second half of XIX c., that is, without "dissolving" the shape of objects in the environment. Like A.P. Ryabushkin and B.M. Kustodiev, he loved Russian antiquity, its decorativeness and colorfulness.
In his memory, the discovery of ancient Russian icon painting took place. The restorers began to clean up the icons and discovered bright, pure colors. All this influenced the formation of Yuon's manner. He loved joy and beauty in nature and life; he most willingly depicted the sun, snow, bright folk clothes, monuments of ancient Russian architecture ("Trinity Lavra in Winter", "Spring Sunny Day", both 1910; "March Sun", 1915). His painting "Domes and Swallows. Assumption Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra" (1921) is very famous. This is a panoramic landscape, painted from the bell tower of the cathedral on a clear summer evening, at sunset. Under the gentle sky, the earth thrives, and on foreground sun-lit domes with golden patterned crosses shine. The motif itself is not only very beautiful, but also bold for the era of the merciless struggle of the new government with the church.
To historical themes - revolutions and Patriotic War- Yuon also approaches through the landscape, and, summarizing, he strives to be extremely reliable ("Before entering the Kremlin. Nikolsky Gates on November 2 (15), 1917", 1926; "Parade on Red Square in Moscow on November 7, 1941", 1942) .
Among the late works of Yuon, those written in the village of Ligachevo near Moscow, where the artist had a house and where he worked from 1908 to 1958, stand out ("The End of Winter. Noon", 1929; "Russian Winter. Ligachevo", "Open Window . Ligachevo", both 1947), and those that are written according to the memoirs of youth and are associated with the poetic side of life and life of old Moscow, which brought up the artist ("Feeding pigeons on Red Square in 1890-1900", 1946).
(According to staratel.com)
Yuon, Konstantin Fyodorovich
(born 1875) - famous painter. Studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1893-98), Last year working in the class of D. Serov (see).
At the same time Yu exhibited at student exhibitions and made several trips abroad.
In 1900, together with the artist Dudin, he opened an art school in Moscow, from which a number of major artists emerged (including Yakulov, Vatagin, and the Vesnin brothers).
From 1900, Yu. took part in the exhibitions of the World of Art, 36, and then the Union of Russian Artists (until 1920). Member of the Paris Autumn Salon (since 1906); repeatedly exhibited abroad.
Y.'s work is characteristic of the art of the heyday of prom. capitalism in Russia. With the reaction against the academic "literary" and the complexity of the storytelling of the Itinerant everyday life, interest in the very subject of the image arose, which, together with the new formal provisions proclaimed by French impressionism, created the conditions for the flourishing of the landscape in Russian painting.
Growing Russian. capitalism, which was acquiring European significance, was looking for national forms for its expression in art. Many prominent masters of the "Russian landscape" were the spokesmen for these aspirations, including Yu. In his landscapes, Yu willingly introduces people and things that emphasize the national, Russian character of nature. The influence of K. Korovin and Serov, who had already come close to the problem of the plein air, had an effect.
In his work, on the other hand, he uses themes and techniques first touched upon by Ryabushkin. Not limited to showing the endless distance, which at first glance is covered by a passive viewer, the artist in different plans puts a number of three-dimensional objects that serve as milestones, sliding along which the eye most convincingly perceives the illusory depth of the depicted space ("March Sun", 1916). The same role is played by three-dimensional forms of architecture - an inevitable motif in Yu's paintings. Yu's plot is always without plot.
In the very emotional landscapes of Yu., the main feeling is not resolved in the action of the central person, but is addressed to all elements of the picture equally. Gradually, this effective beginning is localized in the figures that “revive” the landscape (an example of which is the “Dance of the Matchmakers”), which subsequently led to the unification of disparate figures into a single-minded crowd. This facilitated Y.'s transition to a purely superficially understood revolutionary theme and made it possible for him to join the AHPP in 1925.
sample work last period may serve as "Parade of the Red Army" (1923). Since 1912 Yu. has been working in the theater. He designed performances: "Boris Godunov" at the Diaghilev Theater (Paris), "The Inspector General" at the Art Theater, a number of performances at the Nezlobin and Zimin Theater, and after the revolution - "Arakcheevshchina" at the Moscow Maly Theater, etc. In the field of decorative art, Yu. worked a lot in Mosselprom.
His "cosmic" paintings stand apart (the cycle "Co-Creation of the World", published in the journal "Balance", 1910, etc.). Since 1926 Yu - Honored Art Worker.
A large number of Yuon's works are in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the Russian Museum in Leningrad.
E. Kronman.
Russian painter, master of landscape, theater artist, art theorist
Konstantin Yuon
short biography
Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon(1875-1958) - Russian painter, master of landscape, theater artist, art theorist.
Academician of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1947). People's Artist of the USSR (1950). Laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1943).
Origin and family
Born October 24, 1875 in Moscow, in a German-Swiss family. Father - an employee of an insurance company, later - its director; mother is an amateur musician.
Brother - composer P.F. Yuon, professor at the Berlin Conservatory, remained in Germany after the revolution, from where, after Adolf Hitler came to power, he emigrated to his historical homeland, Switzerland, where he died.
Before the revolution
From 1892 to 1898 Konstantin Yuon studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. His teachers were such masters as K. A. Savitsky, A. E. Arkhipov, N. A. Kasatkin.
After graduating from college, Yuon worked for two years in the workshop of V. A. Serov. Then he founded his own studio, where he taught from 1900 to 1917 together with I. O. Dudin. His students were, in particular, A. V. Kuprin, V. A. Favorsky, V. I. Mukhina, the Vesnin brothers, V. A. Vatagin, N. D. Kolli, A. V. Grishchenko, M. G. Reuter, N. Terpsikhorov, Yu. A. Bakhrushin.
In 1903, Yuon became one of the organizers of the Union of Russian Artists. He was also a member of the World of Art association.
Since 1907 he worked in the field theatrical scenery, in particular, he was engaged in the design of the production of the opera "Boris Godunov" in Paris, as part of the "Russian Seasons" by Sergei Diaghilev.
Before the revolution, the main theme of Yuon's work was landscapes of Russian cities (Moscow, Sergiev Posad, Nizhny Novgorod and others), made in a special manner, pierced with light, with a broad perspective, images of churches, women in folk costumes, will accept traditional Russian life.
For example, the painting “Domes and Swallows. Assumption Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra "(1921). This is a panoramic landscape, painted from the bell tower of the cathedral on a clear summer evening, at sunset. Under the gentle sky, the earth prospers, and in the foreground domes illuminated by the sun with golden patterned crosses shine. The motif itself is not only very effective, but also symbolizes the significant cultural and historical role of the church.
After the revolution
After the revolution, Konstantin Yuon remained in Russia. As a response to revolutionary events, Yuon created the canvas “ new planet”, whose interpretations by art historians vary up to the complete opposite. AT Soviet time it was believed that Yuon depicted on it "the cosmic-creating significance of the Great October Socialist Revolution." In modern Russia, it was reproduced, in particular, on the cover of Ivan Shmelev's book "The Sun of the Dead", describing the Red Terror in Crimea.
In another "cosmic" picture "People" (1923), we are also talking about the creation of a new world.
In 1925, Yuon became a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AHRR). In 1923 he completed the painting "Parade of the Red Army" (1923).
From 1948 to 1950 the artist worked as director of the Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. In addition to working in the pictorial genre, he continued to design theatrical productions, as well as graphics.
In 1951 he joined the CPSU(b).
From 1952 to 1955 he taught as a professor at the Moscow Art Institute. V. I. Surikov, as well as in a number of other educational institutions. Since 1957 he was the first secretary of the board of the Union of Artists of the USSR.
The grave of K. F. Yuon.
K. F. Yuon died on April 11, 1958. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (site No. 4).
Disciples and followers
- Ivanov, Gerasim Petrovich (1918-2012)
- Kruchenykh, Alexey Eliseevich (1886-1968)
- Melamud, Shaya Noevich (1911-1993)
- Popova, Lyubov Sergeevna (1889-1924)
- Rozanova, Olga Vladimirovna (1886-1918)
- Skulme, Otto (1889-1967)
- Stepanova, Varvara Fedorovna (1894-1958)
- Strakhov, Andrei Alexandrovich (1925-1990)
- Udaltsova, Nadezhda Andreevna (1886-1961)
- Falileev, Vadim Dmitrievich (1879-1950)
- Falk, Robert Rafailovich (1886-1958)
- other.
Major works
- "Russian Winter. Ligachevo, 1947 Tretyakov Gallery
- "To the Trinity. March, 1903, State Tretyakov Gallery
- "Blue Bush", 1907, State Tretyakov Gallery
- "Spring Sunny Day", 1910, Russian Museum
- "Spring evening. Rostov the Great", 1906, Serpukhov Museum of History and Art (SIHM)
- "Sergievsky Posad", 1911, painted from the window of the Old Lavra Hotel. In the CAC MPDA collection.
- Winter Sorceress, 1912
- "March Sun", 1915, State Tretyakov Gallery
- "Domes and swallows", 1921, State Tretyakov Gallery
- "New Planet", 1921, State Tretyakov Gallery
- "Moscow region youth", 1926; timing
- “Before entering the Kremlin in 1917. Trinity Gates”, 1927. GTsMSIR.
- “The first collective farmers. In the rays of the sun", 1928, State Tretyakov Gallery
- "Moscow salutes", 1945
- "Open Window", 1947, State Tretyakov Gallery
- "The Storming of the Kremlin in 1917" 1947, State Tretyakov Gallery
- "Parade on Red Square in Moscow on November 7, 1941", 1949, State Tretyakov Gallery
- "Morning of industrial Moscow", 1949, State Tretyakov Gallery
- “End of winter. Midday", 1929, State Tretyakov Gallery
- "March Sun", 1915, State Tretyakov Gallery
Decoration of theatrical performances
- opera "Boris Godunov" by M. P. Mussorgsky, 1912-13, Theater of the Champs Elysees, Paris, entreprise by S. P. Diaghilev;
- play "Egor Bulychev and others" by M. Gorky, 1934, Moscow Art Theater;
- Opera "Khovanshchina" by M. P. Mussorgsky, 1940, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.
Motion picture artist
- Ivan Nikulin - Russian sailor, 1944
cartoon artist
- Kashtanka, 1952
Artist's works
- Moscow in my work, M., 1958;
- About Art, vol. 1-2, M., 1959.
Awards and prizes
- Stalin Prize of the first degree (1943) - for many years outstanding achievements in art
- Order of Lenin (25.10.1945)
- 2 Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1943; 12/27/1955)
- Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1926)
- People's Artist of the RSFSR (1945)
- People's Artist of the USSR (1950)
Memory
A memorial plaque was installed on the Moscow house where he lived and worked (Zemlyanoy Val Street, 14-16).
Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon(October 12, 1875 - April 11, 1958) - Russian artist, graphic artist, stage designer.
Born on October 12 (24), 1875 in Moscow in a Swiss-German family. Father - an employee of an insurance company, later - its director; mother is an amateur musician.
Landscape painter, portrait painter, genre paintings. Konstantin Yuon is a representative of symbolism and modernity, who organically continued these traditions in the Soviet era.
The painting style of Konstantin Yuon was influenced by the lessons of Kostantin Korovin and Valentin Serov. Konstantin Yuon took part in exhibitions of the Moscow Association of Artists (1899, 1902), the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions (1900), the World of Art (1901, 1906). From 1903 he was a permanent exhibitor of the Union of Russian Artists, from 1904 he was a member of the Committee of the Union. Konstantin Yuon worked primarily as a landscape painter, gaining "wide fame" among the Moscow and St. Petersburg public. In the late 1900s and early 1910s, he designed opera productions of Russian Seasons by S. P. Diaghilev in Paris.
After the revolution, Konstantin Yuon was one of the initiators of the creation of schools of fine arts at the Moscow Department of Public Education. In 1920 he received the first prize for a curtain design for the Bolshoi Theatre. In 1921 he was elected a full member of the Russian Academy of Artistic Sciences. Since 1925 - a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia. In 1938-1939 he directed a personal workshop at the All-Russian Academy of Arts in Leningrad. In 1940 he completed sketches of the mosaic decoration of the Palace of Soviets. In 1943 he was awarded the Stalin Prize, in 1947 he was elected a full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. From 1943 to 1948 Konstantin Yuon worked as the chief artist of the Maly Theatre. In 1950 he was awarded the title of "People's Artist". In 1948-1950 he headed the Research Institute of History and Theory of Fine Arts of the Academy of Arts of the USSR. Doctor of Arts. In 1952-1955 he taught at the Moscow State Art Institute named after V.V. I. Surikova, professor. Since 1957 - First Secretary of the Board of the Union of Artists of the USSR.
After the revolution, the individual handwriting of the artist has changed little, the range of subjects has become somewhat different. In the 1920s and 1950s, Konstantin Yuon created a number of portraits and paintings on the themes of the history of the revolution and contemporary life, in which he adhered to the realistic tradition. The landscapes of this time are close in the manner of execution to earlier works of the 1910s, in which elements of impressionism and "wandering realism" are closely intertwined. Filled with subtle lyricism, they are of the greatest value in the entire creative heritage of the master.
1912 Self-portrait of Konstantin Yuon. H., M. 54x36. timing
1890s Landscape with a church. Cardboard, oil.
1899 Birches. Petrovskoe. X.m. 147x80. Vologda
1899 Portrait of Z.A. Pertsova. Fragment.
1900 Monastery in the snow.
1900 At the Novodevichy Convent in the spring. B., aqua., ink, white. GTG
1901 Old elms.
1903 April morning.
1903 Holiday. Cardboard, tempera. 95.5x70. timing
1903 In the monastery settlement. At the Trinity-Sergius.
1903 Red sled. Trinity-Sergiev Posad.
In the monastic settlement. At the Trinity-Sergius.
1903 Landscape.
1904 Life on the coast. Pskov. Saratov
1905 Window. Moscow, apartment of the artist's parents. Cardboard, pastel. 49x64. GTG
1906 On the banks of the Pskov River. B. on cardboard, watercolour, whitewash, charcoal.
1906 Gate of the Rostov Kremlin.
1906. Spring evening. Rostov the Great. Hm. 70x96. Serpukhov
1906 Cathedral in Rostov the Great. B., aq., white. emergency
1906 Blue day. Rostov the Great. H., M. 77x160. Ryazan
1906 Winter. Rostov the Great.
1907 Interior.
1907 Elder bush. Decorative landscape. Pskov. H., M. 70.5x123. Tashkent
1908 In the Nobility Assembly. X. on cardboard, m. 71x95.7. GTG (q)
Winter forest, paper, gouache, 18x25
Seascape. Mountain slope. emergency
Autumn view from the balcony. Canvas, oil. 71.8x58.
1908 Bridge across the river. Oka in Nizhny Novgorod.
1908 City of Voskresensk.
1908 Blue Bush. Canvas, oil.
1909 Troika at the old Yar. Winter. H., M. 71x89. Bishkek
1909 Walking on the Maiden's Field. Esq. to the cards. of the same name. 1909-47 from GTG. X., M., 30x44.5. CHS, M.
1909 Nizhny Novgorod in winter.
1909 Crossing the Oka. Nizhny Novgorod. B., aq., white.
1909 Night. Tverskoy boulevard. B., aq., white.
1910 Spring sunny day. Canvas, oil. 87x131. timing
Procession on the slope.
1910 Intimate world. B., temp. 62x95. Pskov
1910 View of Moscow from the Sparrow Hills. H., M. 71x198. Yerevan
1910 Winter day. X., M. 80x110.5. Kharkov
1910s First day of Easter. B., aq. MN
1910s Landscape with birches. Canvas on cardboard, oil.
1910 Trinity Lavra. March. B., aq., white.
1910 Moscow. Kremlin. B., aq. 32x35. Yerevan
1910 Winter. Plywood, oil. 23.2x30.2. emergency
1910 Trinity Lavra in winter. Canvas, oil. 125x198. timing
1910s Landscape of the Novgorod province.
1910s Winter. Landscape with a red church.
1910 Village holiday. Tver province. Canvas, oil.
1911 Moskvoretsky bridge. Old Moscow. B., aq., white. 62.5x167.5. GTG. Fragment.
1912 Village of the Novgorod province. H., M. 58x70.5. timing
1912 Dance of matchmakers. Ligachevo. H., M. 134x200.
1912 Portrait of Boris Yuon, the artist's son. 87.7x69.8. GT
1913 Body.
1913 Esq. to Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. II act. Terem of Tsar Boris. Map, gouache. 63.5x83.5. GTsTM
1913 Troika in Uglich. B., aq., white. 53x69. timing
1913 Carousel. Uglich. B., aq., white.
1913 Mill. October. Ligachevo. Canvas, oil. 60x81. GTG
1913 Coronation of Mikhail Fedorovich in 1613. Cathedral Square, Moscow Kremlin. Canvas, oil. 81х116
1913 Coronation of Mikhail Fedorovich in 1613. Cathedral Square, Moscow Kremlin. Canvas, oil. 81x116. Fragment
1914 Winter. Bridge. Canvas, oil. 68.6x104. Penza
1915 May morning. Nightingale place. Ligachevo. Hm.
1916 View of the Trinity Lavra. Paper, watercolor, whitewash. 22.5x30. GTG
1916 Winter sun. Ligachevo. H., M. 105x153. Riga
1916 Palm market on Red Square. 1916. B. on maps, aq., Bel.
1917 Privolye. Watering place (Ligachevo). Canvas, oil. 78x119. Irkutsk
1917 At the Pskov Cathedral. B. on the map, gouache. 30.3x22.9. M.-sq. Brodsky
1920 Bathing. OK. 1920
1920 Provincials. Paper pasted on cardboard, gouache. 62x75.5. Nikolaev
1920s Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In winter.
1920s Morning in the countryside. Mistress. Kazan
1921 Domes and swallows. Assumption Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. H., M. 71x89. GTG
1921 New planet. Cardboard, tempera. 71x101. GTG
1922 Refectory of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Canvas, oil.
1922 Symphony of Action. X., M. 78x92. Private collection. Moscow
1922 August evening. Ligachevo. X., M. 76x98. Simferopol
1922 Annunciation Day. Canvas, oil.
1923 People. X., M. 91 x 121. Kharkov
1924 Portrait of K.A. Yuon, the artist's wife. X., M. 50x55. Collection of OI Yuon. Moscow
1924 Body. B., aq. 30.5x24.5. Sobr. O.I.Yuona. Moscow
1924 Alexander Garden near the Kremlin. Canvas, oil
1926 Portrait of the poet Grigory Shirman. emergency
1926 Komsomol members. 1926. H., M. 52x67. FMC
1926 Youth near Moscow. Ligachevo. X., m.
1926 In those days. At the House of Unions during the funeral of V.I. Lenin. B., aq., white. 32x49. Central Museum of V.I. Lenin
1927 The first appearance of V.I. Lenin at the meeting. Petrosoviet in Smolny 25 Oct. 1917 H., M. 132x191. timing
1928 Seeing the working detachment to the front. H., M. 198x310. TsMVS USSR
1928 Holiday of cooperation in the countryside. Plywood, m. 71x89. Sevastopol
1928 The first collective farmers. In the rays of the sun. Podolino. Moscow region Hm.
1928 Window to nature. Ligachevo, May. Oil on canvas, 65x100
1928 Picking apples. H., M. 94x120. Kaluga
1929 End of winter. Noon. Ligachevo. Canvas, oil. 89x112. GTG
1929 Departing province. H. on plywood, m. 79x104. Voronezh
1929 Seni. Ligachevo. X., M. 85x99. Private collection. Moscow
1929 Portrait of a boy Oleg Yuon, the artist's grandson. X., M. 31x25. Sobr. O.I.Yuona.
1929 People of the future. H. on plywood, m. 66.5x100. Tver
1929 University students. H. on plywood, m. 72x90. GTG
1930 Ski excursion. Canvas, oil. 71x123. GTG
1930 Meeting of the association "Nikitinsky Subbotniks". Hm.
1930 Return from work. 1930. H., m.
1930 Cornflowers in the sun. Plywood, m. 49.5x40.6. Arkhangelsk
1930s Portrait of Shura. Early 1930s. Vologda
1930s Lefortovo Garden in Moscow. emergency
1930s Female portrait. Late 1930s. Private collection
1935 Winter in the forest.
1935 Light and air. H., m. MN
1935 Beginning of spring. H., M. 93x133. Kishinev
1940 Esq. to Mussorgsky's opera "Khovanshchina". Martha. 1940(q)
Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon is a representative of the older generation of Soviet painters. His creative activity began in the pre-revolutionary years. And then the name of Yuon the artist became famous.
He belongs to the circle of those masters whose work was the link between the Soviet artistic culture and Russian advanced pre-revolutionary art. Soaking up best traditions full-blooded Russian realism of the 19th century, Yuon entered Soviet art as an artist with a wide creative range, giving the people his talent as a painter, theater decorator and teacher, the inexhaustible energy of a public figure, his knowledge of a historian and art theorist.
Yuon's life and creative path is closely connected with Moscow. Here he was born on October 24, 1875. in big and friendly family Yuonov was fond of music, the brothers and sisters of Konstantin Fedorovich studied at the Moscow Conservatory. Music played a big role in the upbringing of the future artist, taught him to understand beauty, poetry, developed a sense of rhythm. There were many young people in the house, live pictures were often staged and children's performances were staged. The melodies and texts for them were composed by the elder brother, Yuon was instructed to write scenery under the guidance of a family friend, the artist of the Maly Theater K. V. Kandaurov.
Love for the theater was brought up in a young man by his mother, Emilia Alekseevna, who made theatrical costumes for masquerades in the Moscow hunting club, where artistic youth gathered in those years.
The Yuon family lived in one of the oldest corners of Moscow - Lefortovo. This area, associated with the era of Peter I, could not but interest an impressionable boy who read the novels of I. I. Lazhechnikov, M. N. Zagoskin, A. K. Tolstoy. Yuon early began to be fascinated by the monuments of old Russian architecture, primarily in Moscow and the Moscow region: the Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Kolomenskoye. Over time, his interest in the history of his native country, in its original way of life and life, traditions folk life became more and more serious.
After the first visit to the Tretyakov Gallery in the 1880s, a talented young man opened new world beautiful in the work of great Russian artists: I. E. Repin, V. D. Polenov, V. M. Vasnetsov, I. I. Levitan and others.
The art of V. I. Surikov made a particularly great impression on him. Yuon was clear and close to the plots of Surikov's paintings, their original powerful heroes. Surikov taught a lot young artist. On this occasion, Yuon wrote in Autobiography: “My own love for history and antiquities, for the decorative and eloquent brilliance of the forms of bygone centuries, combined with living life and in living light, attracted me to him (Surikov. - Ed.). More than any other Russian painter, he was able to connect history with modernity, to reflect common world ideas in the tragedies and struggle of a living person, to connect art with life.
While still a student at a real school, Yuon began to seriously study Russian architecture. Therefore, it was quite natural for him to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1894 at the architectural department. Soon, however, he realized that his main vocation was painting and moved to the painting faculty. Nevertheless, studies in ancient architecture played a significant role in the development of his artistic taste and determined the range of themes in his paintings.
The time when Yuon entered the path of the painter coincided with a period of complex ideological and artistic struggle in Russian art. late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century. This struggle was the result of a deep crisis of bourgeois culture that came both in the West and in Russia. Representatives of reactionary art launched an open campaign against realism, advocating for an art liberated from all ideology and tendencies, for an art understandable only to individual "exceptional individuals."
The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where Yuon studied in those years, was a stronghold of ideological realism. It was taught by N. A. Kasatkin, K. A. Savitsky, A. E. Arkhipov - artists who continued the traditions of the art of the Wanderers. With their own creativity, they proved to the students what great value has a picture with a serious and deep social content. Studying with these masters undoubtedly determined the progressiveness of the views on the art of future artists - pupils of the school, in particular, the views of Yuon.
Closest to Yuon was the bright, sunny art of A. E. Arkhipov, beauty folk motives in his paintings, virtuoso skill in the transfer of the light-air environment. But most importance for Yuon they had classes in the workshop of V. A. Serov, where he completed his art education at the school. With Serov, young people always found a solution to any creative issue. Serov was a remarkable artist and a sensitive teacher. He knew how to reveal the creative individuality of each student, to guide him along the path of a careful study of reality, appreciated simplicity in expression. artistic image loyalty to the traditions of national culture. Serov taught young artists to look for three truths: human truth, social truth and pictorial truth. Yuon called Serov his artistic conscience, "without which it is difficult to work and difficult to comprehend new things."
“The Tretyakov Gallery and my teacher Serov were the two main springs from which I drew that saving beginning, which allowed me to carry a healthy attitude towards art through my whole life and did not let me stray from the realistic path, from the path of respect for Russian classics.”
Start creative way Yuon was inconsistent. Impressive and little versed in matters of art, he was influenced by many of the then existing artistic movements. At first, he was fascinated by the aesthetics of the “World of Art” with their cult of refined art for “selected individuals”, with their search for a new style. Then Yuon was captured by the pictorial principles of impressionism, although the desire of the impressionists to elevate the concept of instantaneousness and transience of impression into the basic law of creativity, their loss of compositional architectonics and plasticity of form always alarmed and stopped him.
Having not yet found his creative "I", but full of desire to find himself in art, Yuon undertakes a trip abroad. He travels to Italy, Germany, Switzerland and France, gets acquainted with the classical and contemporary art these countries. In Paris, Yuon works in private workshops, is fond of Gauguin. Impressed by the art of Gauguin, he goes on a long journey through the South Caucasus. And here it finally became clear to Yuon that his "artistic happiness" should be sought only in his homeland. He understood and realized his attachment to central and northern Russia with its open spaces and freedom, with the whiteness of its snows and the radiance of morning and evening dawns.
“I was drawn back, as to a new promised land, but already consciously and with conviction. The alien south and alien influence in a negative way had their sobering effect, and it clearly seemed to me that the circle of my interests and activities was decisively found, ”he wrote in an autobiographical essay.
1900 was a significant year in the life of the artist. First of all, this year he completed his studies in Serov's workshop and embarked on the path of independent creativity. This year he married K. A. Nikitina, a peasant woman from the village of Ligachev, Moscow province. And, finally, in the same year, 1900, Yuon began his pedagogical activity, opening in Moscow, together with the artist I. O. Dudin, a private art school called "Yuon's Studio", which lasted until 1917. Such prominent masters of Soviet art as V. I. Mukhina, A. V. Kuprin, V. A. Vatagin, V. A. Favorsky and others studied there.
Pedagogical work obliged Yuon a lot: he had to give accurate and clear answers to all the questions of students. To do this, he himself first of all had to gain clarity in artistic views. Yuon recalled that pedagogical work had a “disciplining meaning” for him in those years: she saved him from youthful hobbies for fashionable clothes. artistic directions, helped to develop firmness of convictions.
If during the years of his stay at the school Yuon painted mainly lyrical landscapes of the intimate corners of the Moscow region, then after graduation he was irresistibly drawn to the wide expanses of the Volga. In the early 1900s, he made a long trip to the ancient cities of the Volga. Uglich, Rostov, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod captivated the young artist with the colorful richness of ancient architecture, the Kremlin walls, monasteries, churches, white-stone arcades of shopping areas and rows, multi-colored carved patterns of wooden houses, the variegation of signboards and the immense blue expanse of the Volga expanse.
Yuon opened a new world of amazing beauty.
“I wanted to paint pictures, how songs are written about life, about the history of the Russian people, about nature, about ancient Russian cities” ...
The vivid impressions that he received from his acquaintance with the Volga cities were intensified by the influence of the work of M. Gorky. Yuon read Gorky's books. The novel "Foma Gordeev" was especially close to him. The artist was attracted by the wonderful descriptions of the pictures of the Volga nature and how deeply the author understood the spiritual wealth of the people. These qualities in the work of the great writer were related to Yuon.
Yuon, like Gorky, worked for a long time in Nizhny Novgorod; he was struck by the extraordinary picturesqueness and beauty of the historic city, in which modern life, imbued with the spirit of the people, was in full swing. Here Yuon wrote many sketches from life and created big picture"Over the Volga" (1900), where the main actors philistines, artisans and tramps became similar to Gorky's heroes.
Of interest is the sketchy landscape “In Winter on Barges” (1902), depicting a corner of the Volga Bay near Nizhny Novgorod on a gray winter day. A barge thickly covered with snow froze into ice, as if plunged into a long winter sleep. The figures of watchmen in huge red sheepskin coats stand silently. The white flakes of snow contrast with the bright blue of the barge house; a thin web of ropes and slender masts whimsically intertwine against the background of a gray winter sky. Sustained in a harmonious silver scale, the study speaks of the keen observation and taste of the artist, the richness and sophistication of his palette.
Yuon devoted many paintings, sketches and drawings to the monument of ancient Russian architecture of the 17th century - the Trinity-Sergius Lavra near Moscow. The artist called this wonderful architectural ensemble a national pearl, inexhaustible in its picturesque and decorative riches.
One of the first works devoted to this topic was the painting "To the Trinity" (1903). In a small-sized canvas, the artist reproduces a bright and at the same time ordinary scene from the life of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Against the backdrop of pink, red, white towers and buildings of the Lavra and picturesquely scattered at the foot of them small houses and shops of the settlement, eminent Muscovites ride in a sleigh to "bow" to the Trinity. With a measured, calm step, horses are walking along the reddish-brown dirty spring road. Long figures of charioteers in black monastic robes rise majestically on the sled frames.
Written from nature, the picture is full of immediacy. Yuon masterfully conveys the airy haze of a gray winter day, through which multi-colored towers with golden and blue onion domes loomed. The wide pasty brushstroke with which the picture is painted contributes to the feeling of movement, enhances its colorfulness and decorativeness.
The painting "Red Goods" (1905), depicting a corner of the market square in Rostov Veliky, testified to the young artist's subtle powers of observation. Characteristics of Yuon of the tag: here is a merchant who is concentrated on counting money; a wealthy bourgeois busily pays for the purchase; a woman and a girl choose new clothes, rummaging through a pile of colorful goods. Yuon perfectly felt the color of the Russian winter market with colorful fabrics hung and laid out on the ground, benches and two-story outbuildings covered with dry snow. Only an artist in love with Russia could see so much beauty and poetry in an ordinary scene.
In the late 1900s, Yuon enthusiastically worked on a series of paintings in which he set himself the task of conveying the effect of night lighting. These are the paintings “Night. Tverskoy Boulevard" (1909), "Troika near the old Yar. Winter "(1909) and others. In the first of them, against the backdrop of a brightly lit night cafe, bizarre, slightly grotesque silhouettes of its visitors appear - men in high top hats and ladies in huge fashionable hats. This picture is to some extent a tribute to impressionism by the artist. However, in contrast to late impressionism, which legitimized the study, Yuon continues the classical traditions of Russian realism, which has always considered the highest result creative work finished picture. Yuon fundamentally remained true to realistic traditions. Recalling his passion for the Impressionists, the artist wrote: “I was not even able to weaken in my mind the greatness of the previously perceived art of the Wanderers and the masterpieces collected in the Tretyakov Gallery ... Gravitation to Russian national forms, to images of the native past and present, to ideas folk art... was a sober regulator in my mind. It dictated to me the need not to turn the system of impressionism into an end in itself.
In 1908, Yuon settled in Ligachev. Here he lived for a long time in all seasons. "... I had the opportunity to get even closer to the people and people's life, in particular, to the life of the village, which nourished and nourishes my art a lot."
In 1910, Yuon painted one of his best works dedicated to the Trinity Lavra, the painting “Spring Sunny Day”. This is a very joyful work depicting a corner of Sergiev Posad on a sunny day in early spring. The artist placed figures of people very freely, naturally and vividly: two girls are standing, basking in the sun, passing by, a hunched little old woman admires them, children are having fun near snowdrifts. Rooks make noise at their nests. For an artist, everything is important and significant, he notices both big and small.
The coloring of the picture is unusually festive. Yuon lovingly reproduced the blue and green shower jackets, the girls' white and red scarves, the children's colored sheepskin coats, yellow houses, pink-white trunks of birches and the lace of their branches against the blue sky, solemn white-stone houses, towers, bell towers of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. This is perhaps the most emotionally rich work from the entire cycle dedicated to the Trinity Lavra. In it, Yuon acted as a true poet, as a subtle master of realistic plein-air painting. In this work, the artist's pictorial language was already clearly defined, characterized by decorative color, bright sonority of color spots built on pure local colors. Moreover, Yuon combines this bright decorative effect with strict compositional construction, thoughtful placement of objects in space, and a clear graphic drawing of plans and forms.
Yuon has always been characterized by a love for epic landscapes, wide, solemn, depicting old Russian architecture and the new life boiling around it. Among these landscapes is the large canvas "Trinity Lavra in Winter" (1910).
“The blue distances, the all-consuming expanse of vast spaces, the rhythmically evenly working anthill of scurrying homogeneous people, homogeneous horses, flocks of homogeneous birds, thousands of homogeneous houses, chimneys, smoke, merged in the imagination into a solemn unison, into a single element,” - this is how he perceived the winter Lavra is an artist himself.
All his life, Yuon was a patriot, singer, writer of everyday life of old and new Moscow. Even in his student years, he wrote everyday scenes from the life of the Moscow outskirts. In the paintings with the effects of night lighting, the action also took place in Moscow. AT mature years squares and streets of old Moscow, wonderful monuments of its architecture inspired the artist to create beautiful pictures. “I have been writing Moscow all my life - and I still can’t get enough. Moscow has played a big role in my artistic life. My painting began in Moscow. Moscow nurtured my main interests and hobbies, ”said Yuon.
Among the Moscow works of the pre-revolutionary period, the large watercolor "Moskvoretsky Bridge" (1911) is significant. This is a typical Yuon composition: the action takes place against the backdrop of the architecture of the Kremlin and Kitay-gorod. The wide Moskvoretsky bridge blocked the flow of pedestrians. As always with Yuon, individual genre groups are easily distinguishable in the crowd: peasants with huge bags, confused from the hustle and bustle of the capital, business clerks, important merchants, dashing cabbies and slowly dragging carts. All this is depicted very vividly, directly, aptly.
The transparent clarity and softness of the tones of watercolor paints, a light airy haze soften the contours of the panoramic landscape and the variegation of color. In this work, as in a number of others of that time, Yuon showed himself to be a talented master watercolorist.
During all periods of artistic activity Yuon enthusiastically painted the modest and beautiful Central Russian nature. The artist's favorite subject was early spring. The joyful moment of the awakening of nature from winter sleep, when the air is very clean, the azure of the sky is bright, when everything is pierced by the sun's rays, and the blue-white snow crunches underfoot in a special way, the very moment that M. M. Prishvin aptly called "spring of light "was the theme of his landscape" The March sun. Ligachevo" (1915). This landscape is strict and lyrical at the same time. The strict architectonics of the composition is emphasized by the slender trunks of poplars and delicate spring birch trees turning pink against the blue sky. There is a special freshness and purity in this picture. Looking at her, one involuntarily recalls the constant desire of the artist “in Pushkin's way” to sing the landscapes of the Moscow region and central Russia.
By the time of the Great October Socialist Revolution, KF Yuon was already an established master. In the very first years of Soviet power, he began to engage in social activities. He worked in the Moscow Department of Public Education as an instructor-organizer for fine arts, supervised art schools, studios, houses of folk art.
In the face of Yuon, young, novice artists and talented self-taught artists have always seen an experienced mentor, a sensitive, attentive, sincere person, always ready to help and give the right, good advice.
The range of topics that the artist worked on in the first period after 1917 was not new. He wrote winter and summer landscapes, created pencil portraits of figures of Russian culture, views of Russian cities. At times he varied some of the old themes. In the same years, Yuon began to engage in autolithography and made two albums: Sergiev Posad and Russian Province. Separate sheets of the albums were graphic repetitions of previously completed paintings.
Of the works of the first years of the revolution, the most significant painting is Domes and Swallows (1921). In it, the artist again turned to the theme of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. He wrote it on a fresh, sunny, windy May day. The compositional solution of the picture is interesting and new. The Assumption Cathedral is depicted from the height of the domes, which have risen high in blue sky. Below unfolds a wide, boundless expanse of land. You can see the smoke of a steam locomotive from a train rushing among the trees, bright Zagorsk houses scattered on the ground like a mosaic. Flocks of swallows soar in the blue of the sky, and leaving clouds are visible on the horizon.
In this work, the same wide panorama of the landscape that Yuon had before. But at the same time there is something new in it. This is new - a peculiar, brighter and more sublime attitude of the artist, a bolder and broader view of the world. This is the closeness of Yuon's landscape to Rylov's wonderful landscape "In the blue expanse".
The first works of Yuon on revolutionary themes were symbolic and allegorical in nature. “I wrote and lived at that time, as if in two eras, capturing the past and the present,” the artist recalled ... “Under the influence of war and revolution, the thirst to find an artistic language, artistic formulas capable of expressing and expressing the agitated stream of ideas and images, has become strongly established in me and interests me very much - and here one cannot do without fantasies.
In the painting “The New Planet” (1921), Yuon presented the birth of the revolutionary era in an abstract fantasy image: a red-hot red planet rises above the globe into outer space. Crowds of people - the inhabitants of the earth rush to her, stretching out their hands, as if praying for happiness. Many, exhausted, fall and die. Those who are more enduring carry the weak. Their silhouettes against the background of enchanting rays are dramatic. The artist thought a lot and seriously about the revolutionary events that took place in his homeland, trying to understand the essence of the beauty that the revolution brought to the people. This was characteristic of many representatives of the old Russian artistic intelligentsia of that time - B. M. Kustodiev, S. T. Konenkov, A. A. Blok, V. Ya. Bryusov ...
Close affinity with the people, understanding of their interests and adherence to realistic traditions made it possible for Yuon to correctly determine the tasks facing Soviet artists.
“Thinking about the paths and goals of the revolution,” he wrote, “I need to follow the people, portray them as I have portrayed them before, but show their activity as the revolution already illuminated and saturated with ideas. The transition to the theme of the revolution was for me natural, organic; I continued to live with the people, as before, trying to express the new that the people's revolution brought into life, its new culture, new goals and new people.
The people of the Soviet country and new events become the themes of Yuon's paintings. The ancient architecture of Moscow is intertwined with the image of revolutionary deeds.
In 1923, at the exhibition of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AHRR), a small-sized work "Parade on Red Square" appeared. The author conveyed the main thing - the beating of a new life, the appearance Soviet man, past years civil war and celebrating the first five years great victory. The strict ranks of marching soldiers, the glitter of the orchestra's trumpets, the scarlet color of banners and posters, the motley festive crowd admiring the parade of troops, the majestic beauty of the architecture of the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral - all this gives the picture a festive, upbeat character.
The theme of several Yuon watercolors of the late 1920s was the events that took place in Moscow in November 1917, when workers and soldiers stormed the Kremlin, captured by the junkers.
The watercolor “Entering the Kremlin through the Nikolsky Gates” (1926) depicts a tense moment in the struggle for the Kremlin: the revolutionary people are attacking the Kremlin gates. And although the figures of people are given almost in silhouette, they are very expressive. The artist managed to convey in this work the revolutionary, fighting spirit of the time. Later, Yuon repeated the same theme in the film Storming the Kremlin in 1917 (1947).
In 1925, Yuon became a member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AHRR), a progressive association that fought for the revival of the traditions of Russian classical painting in Soviet art. The tasks and requirements set by the AHRR artists played a big role in shaping the artist's new views on art and its role in the life of the country.
Yuon's work has become more purposeful. Characteristic, typical images of Soviet people appear in his works. These are the pictures “Young. Laughter" (1930) and "Moscow Region Youth" (1926). The last one is one of the best works Yuon in the 1920s. This is a group portrait of girls living in Ligachev. They are very different, and at the same time they have something in common. This is common - their youth, sincerity, cheerfulness. The composition, original in its fragmentation, gives the portrait a special vitality, as if snatching this group of youth from the mass of people directly surrounding us.
A special place in Soviet painting of the 1920s-1930s is occupied by Yuon's everyday paintings. In them, the characteristic Yuon features were again very clearly manifested: a sharp look at life, noticing and fixing new forms of rural and urban life, decorative coloring and, of course, the ability to organically combine architecture, landscape and genre scenes.
The painting "Celebration of Cooperation" (1928) depicts a meeting of members of the Ligachev agricultural cooperative. Yuon draws the viewer's attention to the red banners, the glitter of the copper pipes of the orchestra, home-made posters, festive white shirts, sweaters, bright scarves - these skillfully noticed details and accents create a unique image of a modern village.
Recalling his work, Yuon said that after the revolution it developed in the direction of complicating the content. Consciousness of the need for a new approach to solving the big problems of our time dictated the desire to look for new forms of art - art big style capable of expressing the beauty, significance and essence of the new Soviet reality.
In 1940, Yuon turned to work on the works monumental art. He makes sketches of mosaics for the Constitution Hall of the Palace of Soviets. This work was not carried out, only pencil sketches have been preserved. They speak of the artist's deep and versatile coverage of contemporary themes. You can be convinced of this by at least listing their names: "Cities and Transport", "Industry", "Aviation", "Nedra of the Earth", "State Farms and Collective Farms", "Guarding the Sea Borders".
AT harsh years During the Great Patriotic War, Yuon worked hard and hard, living all the time in Moscow.
His beloved city appeared before him in a new formidable guise. The events of the first years of the war required serious creative reflection. Gradually the idea arose new painting dedicated to Moscow. The painting "Parade on Red Square in Moscow on November 7, 1941" became one of the most significant in the artist's work. She draws Red Square, the Kremlin, Soviet people on the historic day of the parade on November 7, 1941, when the war was declared "sacred, patriotic." On this gray, gloomy day, the first snow fell, the sky was covered with heavy, leaden clouds, the Kremlin, Red Square, St. Basil's Cathedral looked especially severe and majestic. Moscow, as it were, froze, froze in formidable silence before a decisive crushing blow to the enemy.
Troops are marching in orderly rows along Red Square with a measured, chased step. In their firm step - strength, confidence in victory over the enemy. This painting, which is very significant in content and pictorial solution, reflects the artist’s deep thoughts about the fate of the Motherland in a time of difficult trials. Small in size, the picture is truly monumental and significant.
During the war, Yuon created a number of works dedicated to military events and heroes of the war: “Sandmaid at the Front” (1942), “After the Battle near Moscow” (1942) and others. For the Novosibirsk and Kuibyshev opera and ballet theaters, Yuon during the war years wrote sketches of scenery for M. I. Glinka's opera "Ivan Susanin".
AT post-war years Yuon's paintings become more complex in composition and generalized in terms of themes. “Recently,” the artist wrote, “I began to work not only analytically, as before, but more synthetically.” An example is his landscapes of the 1940s. The artist, as before, lives in Ligachev for a long time and works hard. In "Russian Winter" (1947), Yuon acts as a true poet of Russian nature. With remarkable skill, he creates a clear, complete composition. Looking at this large canvas, you involuntarily admire the soft, fluffy snow, a thick cover that covered the earth, a fabulous dress of hoarfrost that adorned the branches of mighty trees, a frosty haze that enveloped all objects. Everything is observed in life. This is a real Russian "mother winter".
In the painting "Morning of Industrial Moscow" (1949), the artist gives the image of a huge industrial city. The city is waking up to a new working day. People go to work, a freight train rushes by, factory and factory chimneys smoke.
The seriousness of the theme, great skill in conveying the life of the city in the morning, the desire to show the poetry of the ordinary and the beauty of work - all this makes Yuon's work an interesting industrial landscape-picture.
The artistic activity of Yuon was closely connected with the work of Gorky. This has already been said in relation to his early works. In his mature years, Yuon is fond of Gorky's plays and writes scenery sketches for them.
In 1918 he created the design of the play "The Old Man" for the State Academic Maly Theater, in 1933 at the Moscow Art academic theater comes with scenery according to his sketches "Egor Bulychev and others", in 1952 at the Theater named after Vl. Mayakovsky, the artist designs the play "Zykovs". Great success has been latest work Yuon - sketches of scenery and costumes for the staging of Gorky's novel "Foma Gordeev" at the Theater named after Evg. Vakhtangov, on which he worked with people's artist USSR R. N. Simonov.
Yuon created many pictorial and graphic portraits of Gorky. He sought to show the great writer in different periods his life. In addition to portraits, he created several paintings dedicated to Gorky. In 1949, Yuon completed a painting depicting Gorky's visit to the Gigant state farm in 1929. The artist's last large painting was A. M. Gorky and F. I. Chaliapin in 1901 in Nizhny Novgorod” (1955).
Work in the theater has always fascinated Yuon. He designed about twenty-five plays and operas. The diversity of the repertoire of theatrical productions with the participation of Yuon is striking: plays by V. Shakespeare and Lope de Vega, A. N. Ostrovsky and A. M. Gorky, N. F. Pogodin, A. N. Tolstoy and S. Ya. Marshak, opera M I. Glinka, M. P. Mussorgsky, P. I. Tchaikovsky.
Yuon's earliest work in the theater was sketches for scenery for Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov, staged in Paris in 1913 during the Russian Season, organized by S. Ya. Diaghilev. Chaliapin sang the part of Boris. Simultaneous work with Chaliapin on the performance inspired and captivated the young artist. In the scenery for the opera, Yuon proved himself not only as a deeply national artist, but also as a serious researcher of the history of Russia, its life and architecture. The freshness and juiciness of Yuon's sketches delighted Chaliapin. He immediately purchased them from the author.
“Every day I admire and do not stop admiring them - excellent things ... - Chaliapin wrote to Gorky in 1913. - What a charm, by God, a talented guy ... "
Yuon wrote especially much for the theater after the Great October revolution. Along with work in the Bolshoi, Maly, Art theaters Moscow, he created scenery for the theaters of Kazan, Novosibirsk, Kuibyshev.
The work of the artist in this area is characterized by a deep penetration into the essence of the dramatic or piece of music. Creating scenery sketches for a particular performance, Yuon usually made a lot of preliminary options, achieving the most expressive solution. He painstakingly worked on the sketch of each costume, taking into account the individual characteristics of the actors-performers.
The scenery for Ostrovsky's plays "The Heart is Not a Stone" (1920-1921), "Mad Money" (1934), "Enough Simplicity for Every Wise Man" (1940), "Guilty Without Guilt" (1940), "Poverty is not a vice" were successful. (1945) staged by the State Academic Maly Theatre. Life and types in the plays of Ostrovsky Yuon - an old Muscovite - were very familiar. His scenery and costume designs were very convincing.
A major achievement of Yuon as a theater artist was the sketches of scenery for Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina, staged at the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of the USSR in 1940. They found a deep inner correspondence of the pictorial language of the scenery with the musical speech of the opera.
The characterization of Yuon's creative personality will not be complete if one does not recall his numerous literary and research work on matters of art. Yuon the theorist raised serious philosophical questions in his articles and oral presentations: about the synthesis of the arts, about the concept of art, about the problems of innovation in Soviet art, etc.
He was also concerned about the issues of artistic pedagogy. In his articles, Yuon set very serious and responsible tasks for the artists. He believed that Soviet art should not be limited to simply illustrating events. It must be an art of great style, asserting perfect art forms lofty ideas of morality.
Yuon was a doctor of art history, a full member of the Academy of Arts. In 1956, he was unanimously elected first secretary of the Union of Soviet Artists of the USSR.
Yuon was awarded the title folk artist USSR, State Prize and awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner of Labor.
Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon died in April 1958. The whole life of a talented Soviet artist is an example of selfless service to his native art, his country, the life and nature of which he sang.
According to the book: I.T. Rostovtsev "Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon"