Kustodiev Boris Mikhailovich
Born: February 23 (March 7), 1878.
Died: May 28, 1927 (aged 49).

Biography

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev February 23 (March 7), 1878, Astrakhan - May 26, 1927, Leningrad) - Russian artist.

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev comes from a family of a gymnasium teacher, he began to study painting in Astrakhan with P. A. Vlasov in 1893-1896.

Boris Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan. His father was a professor of philosophy, history of literature and taught logic at the local theological seminary.

The father died when the future artist was not even two years old. Boris studied at the parochial school, then at the gymnasium. From the age of 15 he took drawing lessons from a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts P. Vlasov.

In 1896 he entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He studied first in the workshop of V. E. Savinsky, from the second year - with I. E. Repin. He took part in the work on Repin's painting "The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901" (1901-1903, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg). Despite the fact that the young artist gained wide fame as a portrait painter, Kustodiev chose a genre theme (“At the Bazaar”) for his competitive work and in the fall of 1900 he left in search of nature in the Kostroma province. Here Kustodiev meets his future wife Yu. E. Poroshinskaya. On October 31, 1903, he graduated from the training course with a gold medal and the right to an annual pensioner's trip abroad and in Russia. Even before the end of the course, he took part in international exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Munich (big gold medal of the International Association).

In December 1903, together with his wife and son, he arrived in Paris. During his trip, Kustodiev visited Germany, Italy, Spain, studied and copied the works of old masters. Entered the studio of Rene Menard.

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 worked as a cartoonist in the satirical magazine "Zhupel" (the famous drawing "Introduction. Moscow"), after its closure - in the magazines "Hell Post" and "Iskra". Since 1907 - 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-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 - a member of the renewed "World of Art".

1913 - taught at the New Art Workshop (St. Petersburg). 1923 - Member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia. In 1909, Kustodiev developed the first signs of a spinal cord tumor. Several operations brought only temporary relief, the artist was confined to a wheelchair for the last 15 years of his life. Due to the illness of work, he was forced to write lying down. However, it was during this difficult period of his life that his most vivid, temperamental, cheerful works appeared.

Post-revolutionary years he lived in Petrograd-Leningrad. 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.

Wife - Kustodieva Yu. E.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

1914 - tenement house - Ekateringofsky prospect, 105;
1915 - 05/26/1927 - tenement house of E. P. Mikhailov - Vvedenskaya street, 7, apt. fifty.

Illustrations and book graphics

In 1905-1907 he worked in the satirical magazines "Zhupel" (the famous drawing "Introduction. Moscow"), "Infernal 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 began 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 scope of the portrait: it was not by chance 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 presented 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 household genre. On a deeply realistic basis, Kustodiev created a poetic dream, a fairy tale about provincial Russian life. Great importance in these works, lines, drawings, color spots are attached, 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”).

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; The Thunderstorm by Ostrovsky, which never saw the light of day, 1918). In their more later works for the theater, he moves away from the chamber interpretation to a more generalized one, looking for greater simplicity, building stage space, giving freedom to the director in the construction of mise-en-scenes. The success of Kustodiev was his design work in 1918–1920. opera performances (1920, The Tsar's Bride, Bolshoi Opera theatre people's house; 1918, "Snow Maiden", big theater(staging not carried out)). 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. Diky:

“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, and 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, 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 , Russian Museum).

Memory

In 1978, a series of stamps with a postage block and an artistic stamped envelope dedicated to the artist and his work were issued. Also, an artistic stamped envelope with the image of B. M. Kustodiev was issued in 2003 (artist B. Ilyukhin, circulation 1,000,000 copies).

In Astrakhan near Astrakhan art gallery named after P. M. Dogadin there is a monument to Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev.

House-Museum of Kustodiev B.M. in Astrakhan is located at st. Kalinina, 26 / st. Sverdlov, 68.

A street in the Vyborgsky district of St. Petersburg is named after B. M. Kustodiev.

Kustodiev B. M.

This artist was highly valued by his contemporaries - Repin and Nesterov, Chaliapin and Gorky. And after many decades, we admire his canvases with admiration - a wide panorama of the life of old Russia, masterfully captured, rises before us.

He was born and raised in Astrakhan, a city located between Europe and Asia. The motley world burst into his eyes with all its diversity and richness. Signboards of shops beckoned to them, the guest yard beckoned; attracted Volga fairs, noisy bazaars, city gardens and quiet streets; colorful churches, bright church utensils sparkling with colors; folk customs and holidays - all this forever left its mark on his emotional, receptive soul.

The artist loved Russia - both calm, and bright, and lazy, and restless, and devoted all his work, his whole life to her, to Russia.

Boris was born in the family of a teacher. Despite the fact that the Kustodievs more than once had "cool financially", the atmosphere at home was full of comfort, and even some grace. There was often music. Mother played the piano, and together with the nanny she loved to sing. Russians often sang folk songs. Love for everything folk was brought up by Kustodiev from childhood.

At first, Boris studied at a theological school, and then at a theological seminary. But the craving for drawing, manifested from childhood, did not leave hope of learning the profession of an artist. By that time, Boris's father had already died, and the Kustodievs did not have their own funds for study, he was assisted by his uncle, his father's brother. At first, Boris took lessons from the artist Vlasov, who came to Astrakhan for a permanent residence. Vlasov taught the future artist a lot, and Kustodiev was grateful to him all his life. Boris enters the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, studies brilliantly. He graduated from the Kustodiev Academy at the age of 25 with a gold medal and received the right to travel abroad and in Russia to improve his skills.

By this time, Kustodiev was already married to Yulia Evstafyevna Proshina, with whom he was very in love and with whom he lived all his life. She was his muse, friend, assistant and adviser (and later for many years both a nurse and a nurse). After graduating from the Academy, their son Cyril was already born. Together with his family Kustodiev went to Paris. Paris delighted him, but the exhibitions did not really please him. Then he went (already alone) to Spain, where he got acquainted with Spanish painting, with artists, in letters he shared his impressions with his wife (she was waiting for him in Paris).

In the summer of 1904, the Kustodievs returned to Russia, settled in the Kostroma province, where they bought a piece of land and built their own house, which they called "Terem".

As a person, Kustodiev was attractive, but complex, mysterious and contradictory. He reunited in art the general and the particular, the eternal and the momentary; he is a master psychological portrait and the author of monumental, symbolic paintings. He was attracted by the passing past, and at the same time he vividly responded to the events of today: World War, popular unrest, two revolutions ...

Kustodiev enthusiastically worked in a variety of genres and types of fine art: he painted portraits, domestic scenes, landscapes, still lifes. He was engaged in painting, drawings, performed scenery for performances, illustrations for books, even created engravings.

Kustodiev is a faithful successor to the traditions of Russian realists. He was very fond of Russian popular popular prints, under which he stylized many of his works. He liked to depict colorful scenes from the life of the merchants, bourgeoisie, from folk life. With great love he wrote merchants, folk holidays, festivities, Russian nature. For the "lubok" of his paintings, many at the exhibitions scolded the artist, and then for a long time they could not move away from his canvases, quietly admiring.

Kustodiev took an active part in the association "World of Art", exhibited his paintings in exhibitions of the association.

At the age of 33, a serious illness struck Kustodiev, she shackled him, deprived him of the opportunity to walk. Having undergone two operations, the artist was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. My hands hurt a lot. But Kustodiev was a man of high spirit and the disease did not force him to abandon his beloved work. Kustodiev continued to write. Moreover, it was the period of the highest flowering of his work.

In early May 1927, on a windy day, Kustodiev caught a cold and fell ill with pneumonia. And on May 26, he quietly faded away. His wife survived him by 15 years and died in Leningrad, during the blockade.

Bolshevik (1920)

Before us is a Russian city of revolutionary years. The streets are filled with dense crowds, and, towering over everything and easily stepping over the houses, a giant man with a formidable face and burning eyes is walking. In his hands is a huge red banner fluttering far behind him. The street is Kustodievsky sunny and snowy. Blue shadows in the struggle with the sun make it festive. The scarlet banner, spread out across the greenish sky, like fire, like a river of blood, like a whirlwind, like wind, gives the picture a movement as inexorable as the step of a Bolshevik.

Girl on the Volga (1915)

The same Kustodiev type of woman is repeated: a sweet, tender beauty girl, about whom in Russia they said "hand-written", "sugar". The face is full of the same sweet charm that the heroines of the Russian epic are endowed with, folk songs and fairy tales: a light blush, as they say, blood with milk, high arches of eyebrows, a chiseled nose, a cherry-shaped mouth, a tight braid thrown over her chest ... She is alive, real and insanely attractive, alluring.

She half-lay down on a hillock among daisies and dandelions, and behind her, under the mountain, such a wide expanse of the Volga unfolds, such an abundance of churches that it takes your breath away.

Kustodiev merges here this earthly, beautiful girl and this nature, this Volga expanse into a single inseparable whole. The girl is the highest, poetic symbol of this land, of all Russia.

In a strange way, the painting "Girl on the Volga" turned out to be far from Russia - in Japan.

Blue House (1920)

With this picture, the artist wanted, according to his son, to cover the entire cycle of human life. Although some connoisseurs of painting claimed that Kustodiev was talking about the miserable existence of a tradesman, limited by the walls of the house. But this was not typical for Kustodiev - he loved the simple peaceful life of ordinary people.

The picture is multi-figured and polysemantic. Here is a simple-hearted provincial love duet of a girl sitting in open window, with a young man leaning on the fence, and if you look a little to the right, in a woman with a child, you seem to see the continuation of this novel.

Look to the left - and in front of you is a most picturesque group: a policeman peacefully plays checkers with a bearded layman, someone naive and beautiful-hearted speaks near them - in a hat and poor, but neat clothes, and gloomily listens to his speech, looking up from the newspaper, sitting near his establishment coffin master.

And above, as a result of all life - a peaceful tea party with those who went hand in hand with you all life's joys and hardships.

And the mighty poplar, adjacent to the house and as if blessing it with its dense foliage, is not just a landscape detail, but almost a kind of double of human existence - the tree of life with its various branches.

And everything goes away, the viewer's gaze goes up, to the boy, illuminated by the sun, and to the pigeons soaring in the sky.

No, this picture definitely does not look like an arrogant or even slightly condescending, but still accusatory verdict to the inhabitants of the "blue house"!

Full of inescapable love for life, the artist, in the words of the poet, blesses "every blade of grass in the field, and every star in the sky" and affirms family closeness, the connection between "blades" and "stars", everyday prose and poetry.

Group portrait of artists of the World of Art (1920)

From left to right:

I. E. Grabar, N. K. Roerich, E. E. Lansere, B. M. Kustodiev, I. Ya. Bilibin, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, A. N. Benois, G. I. Narbut, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, N.D. Milioti, K.A. Somov, M.V. Dobuzhinsky.

This portrait was commissioned by Kustodiev for the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist did not dare to write it for a long time, feeling a high responsibility. But in the end he agreed and started working.

For a long time I thought about who and how to plant, to present. He wanted not just to put him in a row, as in a photograph, but to show each artist as a Personality, with his character, features, to emphasize his talent.

Twelve people had to be portrayed during the discussion. Oh, these sizzling disputes of "World of Art"! The disputes are verbal, but more picturesque - with a line, paints ...

Here is Bilibin, an old comrade from the Academy of Arts. A joker and a merry fellow, a connoisseur of ditties and old songs, able, despite his stuttering, to pronounce the longest and most amusing toasts. That is why he is standing here, like a toastmaster, with a glass raised by a graceful movement of his hand. Byzantine beard perked up, eyebrows raised in bewilderment.

What was the conversation at the table about? It seems that gingerbread was brought to the table, and Benoit found the letters "I.B." on them.

Benois turned to Bilibin with a smile: "Confess, Ivan Yakovlevich, that these are your initials. Have you made a drawing for the bakers? Do you earn capital?" Bilibin laughed and jokingly began to rant about the history of the creation of gingerbread in Russia.

But to the left of Bilibin sit Lansere and Roerich. Everyone is arguing, but Roerich thinks, does not think, but just thinks. An archaeologist, historian, philosopher, educator with the makings of a prophet, a cautious person with the manners of a diplomat, he does not like to talk about himself, about his art. But his painting says so much that there is already a whole group of interpreters of his work, which finds in his painting elements of mystery, magic, foresight. Roerich was elected chairman of the newly organized society "World of Art".

Green wall. On the left is a bookcase and a bust of a Roman emperor. Tiled yellow-white stove. Everything is the same as in Dobuzhinsky's house, where the first meeting of the founders of the "World of Art" took place.

In the center of the group is Benois, a critic and theorist, an indisputable authority. Kustodiev has a complicated relationship with Benois. Benoit is a wonderful artist. His favorite themes are life at the court of Louis XV and Catherine II, Versailles, fountains, palace interiors.

On the one hand, Benois liked Kustodiev's paintings, but he criticized that there was nothing European in them.

On the right - Konstantin Andreevich Somov, a calm and balanced figure. His portrait was written easily. Maybe because he reminded Kustodiev of a clerk? Russian types have always been successful for the artist. The starched collar turns white, the cuffs of a fashionable speckled shirt, the black suit is ironed, well-groomed plump hands are folded on the table. On the face is an expression of equanimity, contentment ...

The owner of the house is an old friend Dobuzhinsky. How much we experienced together with him in St. Petersburg!.. How many different memories!..

Dobuzhinsky's pose seems to successfully express disagreement with something.

But suddenly he pushed back his chair and Petrov-Vodkin turned around. He is diagonally from Bilibin. Petrov-Vodkin burst into the art world noisily and boldly, which did not please some artists, for example, Repin, they have a completely different view of art, a different vision.

On the left is a clear profile of Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar. Stocky, with a not very well-formed figure, a shaved square head, he is full of a lively interest in everything that happens ...

And here he is, Kustodiev himself. He portrayed himself from the back, in a semi-profile. Sitting next to him, Ostroumova-Lebedeva is a new member of society. An energetic woman with a masculine character is talking to Petrov-Vodkin

Beauty (1915)

Wallpaper in flowers, a decorated chest on which a magnificent bed is arranged, covered with a blanket, pillows from pillowcases somehow bodily see through. And out of all this excessive abundance, like Aphrodite from the sea foam, the heroine of the picture is born.

In front of us is a magnificent, sleepy beauty on a featherbed. Throwing back the thick pink blanket, she put her feet on the soft footstool. With inspiration, Kustodiev sings of the chaste, namely the Russian feminine beauty, popular among the people: bodily luxury, the purity of light blue gentle eyes, an open smile.

Lush roses on the chest, blue wallpaper behind her are consonant with the image of the beauty. Styling as a lubok, the artist made "a little more" - both the fullness of the body and the brightness of the colors. But this bodily abundance did not cross the line beyond which it would already be unpleasant.

This is indeed a beauty, caressing the eye, simple, natural, full of strength, like nature itself - as a symbol of health and fertility. She is waiting for love - just like the land of rain.

Bathing (1912)

A hot sunny day, the water sparkles from the sun, mixing reflections of a tensely blue sky, perhaps promising a thunderstorm, and trees from a steep bank, as if melted on top by the sun. On the shore, something is being loaded onto a boat. The rough-hewn bath is also heated by the sun; the shadow inside is light, almost does not hide women's bodies. The picture is full of greedily, sensually perceived life, its everyday flesh. The free play of light and shadows, the reflections of the sun in the water makes us recall the mature Kustodiev's interest in impressionism.

Tradeswoman (1915)

One day, walking along the banks of the Volga, Kustodiev saw a woman whose beauty, stature and grandeur simply shocked him, and the artist painted this picture.

There was a Russian landscape, which is loved by folk masters, storytellers, songwriters of Russia. Bright as on a popular print, cheerful as folk toy. Where else in Europe was so much gold placed on domes, golden stars were thrown on the blue? Where else are there such small cheerful churches, reflected in the low waters, as in the expanses of Russia?

The artist took a large canvas for the painting, put the woman in full growth, in all her Russian glory. Purple and crimson dominated the riot of colors. He was dressed up, festive and at the same time excited.

And the woman is beautiful and majestic, like the wide Volga behind her. This is the beautiful Russian Elena, who knows the power of her beauty, for which some merchant of the first guild chose her as his wife. This is a beauty sleeping in reality, standing high above the river, like a slender white-trunked birch, the personification of peace and contentment.

She is wearing a long, shimmering silk dress of an alarming purple, her hair parted in the middle, a dark braid, pear earrings glitter in her ears, a warm blush on her cheeks, a shawl decorated with patterns on her arm.

It fits into the Volga landscape with its brilliance and spaciousness just as naturally as the world around it: there is a church, and birds fly, and the river flows, steamboats float, and a young merchant couple goes - they also admired the beautiful merchant woman.

Everything moves, runs, and she stands as a symbol of the constant, the best that was, is and will be.

Merchant with a mirror

But the merchant's wife admires herself in a new shawl painted with flowers. One recalls Pushkin’s: “Am I the sweetest in the world, all the blush and whiter? ..” And at the door stands, admiring his wife, the husband, the merchant, who probably brought her this shawl from the fair. And he is happy that he managed to deliver this joy to his beloved little wife ...

Merchant at tea (1918)

Provincial town. Tea drinking. A young beautiful merchant's wife sits on a warm evening on the balcony. She is as serene as the evening sky above her. This is some kind of naive goddess of fertility and abundance. It is not for nothing that the table in front of her is bursting with food: next to the samovar, gilded dishes in plates, fruits and muffins.

A gentle blush sets off the whiteness of a sleek face, black eyebrows are slightly raised, blue eyes are attentively examining something in the distance. According to Russian custom, she drinks tea from a saucer, supporting it with plump fingers. A cozy cat gently rubs against the shoulder of the mistress, the wide neckline of the dress reveals the immensity of the round chest and shoulders. In the distance, the terrace of another house is visible, where a merchant and a merchant's wife are sitting at the same occupation.

Here, the everyday picture clearly develops into a fantastic allegory of a carefree life and earthly bounties sent down to man. And the artist slyly admires the most magnificent beauty, as if one of the sweetest earthly fruits. Only a little bit the artist "grounded" her image - her body became a little more plump, her fingers were puffy ...

Maslenitsa (1916)

The festive city with churches stretching upwards, bell towers, clumps of frost-covered trees and smoke from chimneys is seen from the mountain, on which the Maslenitsa fun unfolds.

The boyish fight is in full swing, snowballs are flying, the sledges are rising uphill and rushing further. Here sits a coachman in a blue caftan, those sitting in a sleigh rejoice at the holiday. And towards them, a gray horse rushed tensely, driven by a lone driver, who slightly turned to the trail, as if urging them to compete in speed.

And below - a carousel, crowds at the booth, living rooms! And in the sky - clouds of birds, excited by the festive ringing! And everyone rejoices, rejoicing in the holiday ...

Burning, immense joy overwhelms, looking at the canvas, takes you to this daring holiday, in which not only people rejoice in sleighs, at carousels and booths, not only accordions and bells ring - here the whole boundless earth dressed with snow and hoarfrost rejoices and rings, and every tree rejoices, every house, and the sky, and the church, and even the dogs rejoice along with the boys sledding.

This is a holiday of the whole earth, the Russian land. The sky, snow, motley crowds of people, teams - everything is colored with green-yellow, pink-blue iridescent colors.

Moscow tavern (1916)

Once Kustodiev and his friend actor Luzhsky were riding in a cab and got into a conversation with a cab driver. Kustodiev drew attention to the cabbie's large, pitch-black beard and asked him: "Where are you going from?" “We are Kerzhensky,” the coachman replied. "From the Old Believers, then?" "Exactly, your honor." - "Well, here, in Moscow, there are a lot of you, in coachmen?" - "That's enough. There is a tavern on Sukharevka." - "That's nice, we'll go there ..."

The cab stopped not far from the Sukharev Tower and they entered the low, stone building of the Rostovtsev tavern with thick walls. The smell of tobacco, sivukha, boiled crayfish, pickles, pies hit my nose.

Huge ficus. Reddish walls. Low vaulted ceiling. And in the center of the table were cab drivers in blue caftans with red sashes. They drank tea, concentrated and silent. The heads are trimmed under the pot. Beards - one longer than the other. They drank tea, holding the saucers on outstretched fingers... And immediately a picture was born in the artist's brain...

Against the backdrop of drunken red walls sit seven bearded, flushed cabbies in bright blue undershirts with saucers in their hands. They hold themselves sedately, sedately. They devoutly drink hot tea, burning themselves, blowing on a saucer of tea. Seriously, slowly, they are talking, and one is reading a newspaper.

The clerks hurry into the hall with teapots and trays, their jauntily curved bodies echoing amusingly with the line of teapots, ready to line up on the shelves behind the bearded innkeeper; a servant who was idle took a nap; the cat carefully licks the fur (a good sign for the owner - to the guests!)

And all this action in bright, sparkling, frantic colors - cheerfully painted walls, and even palm trees, paintings, white tablecloths, and teapots with painted trays. The picture is perceived as lively, cheerful.

Portrait of F. Chaliapin (1922)

In the winter of 1920, Fyodor Chaliapin, as a director, decided to stage the opera The Enemy Force, and Kustodiev was commissioned to complete the scenery. In this regard, Chaliapin drove to the artist's home. Went in from the cold right in a fur coat. He exhaled noisily - the white steam stopped in the cold air - there was no heating in the house, there was no firewood. Chaliapin was saying something about fingers that were probably freezing, but Kustodiev could not tear his eyes away from his ruddy face, from his rich, picturesque fur coat. It would seem that the eyebrows are inconspicuous, whitish, and the eyes are faded, gray, but handsome! Here's someone to draw! This singer is a Russian genius, and his appearance must be preserved for posterity. And the fur coat! What a fur coat he has on! ..

"Fyodor Ivanovich! Would you pose in this fur coat," Kustodiev asked. "Is it clever, Boris Mikhailovich? The fur coat is good, yes, perhaps it was stolen," Chaliapin muttered. "Are you kidding, Fyodor Ivanovich?" “No, a week ago I received it for a concert from some institution. They didn’t have money or flour to pay me. So they offered me a fur coat.” "Well, we'll fix it on the canvas ... It's painfully smooth and silky."

And so Kustodiev took a pencil and cheerfully began to draw. And Chaliapin began to sing "Oh, you're a little night ..." The artist created this masterpiece to the singing of Fyodor Ivanovich.

Against the backdrop of a Russian city, a giant man, fur coat unbuttoned. He is important and representative in this luxurious, picturesque fur coat, with a ring on his hand and with a cane. Chaliapin is so portly that you involuntarily recall how a certain spectator, seeing him in the role of Godunov, remarked admiringly: "A real tsar, not an impostor!"

And in the face we can feel a restrained (he already knew his worth) interest in everything around him.

Everything he owns is here! On the platform of the booth, the devil is grimacing. Trotters rush along the street or stand peacefully in anticipation of riders. A bunch of multi-colored balls sway over the market square. The tipsy one moves his feet to the harmonica. The shopkeepers are briskly trading, and in the frost there is tea drinking at the huge samovar.

And above all this the sky - no, not blue, it is greenish, this is because the smoke is yellow. And of course, favorite jackdaws in the sky. They make it possible to express the bottomlessness of the heavenly space, which has always attracted and tormented the artist...

All this has been living in Chaliapin since childhood. In some ways, he resembles a simple-minded native of these places, who, having succeeded in life, came to his native Palestine to appear in all his splendor and glory, and at the same time is eager to prove that he has not forgotten anything and has not lost any of his former skill and strength.

How passionate Yesenin's lines fit here:

"To hell, I'm taking off my English suit:

Well, give me a scythe - I'll show you -

Am I not your own, am I not close to you,

Do I not value the memory of the village?"

And it seems that something similar is about to break from Fyodor Ivanovich's lips and a luxurious fur coat will fly into the snow.

Portrait of his wife Yulia Kustodieva (1903)

The artist painted this portrait shortly after the wedding, he is full of tender feelings for his wife. At first he wanted to write it standing up, full-length on the steps of the porch, but then he seated his "kolobok" (as he affectionately called her in his letters) on the terrace.

Everything is very simple - the usual terrace of an old, slightly silvering tree, the greenery of the garden that has come close to it, a table covered with a white tablecloth, a rough bench. And a woman, still almost a girl, with a restrained and at the same time very trusting look fixed on us ... but in reality on him, who came to this quiet corner and will now take her somewhere with him.

The dog stands and looks at the mistress - calmly and at the same time, as if expecting that she will now get up and they will go somewhere.

A kind, poetic world stands behind the heroine of the picture, so dear to the artist himself, who joyfully recognizes him in other people close to him.

Russian Venus (1926)

It seems incredible that this huge picture was created by a seriously ill artist a year before his death and in the most unfavorable conditions (in the absence of a canvas, they pulled it on a stretcher with the reverse side old picture). Only love for life, joy and cheerfulness, love for one's own, Russian, dictated to him the painting "Russian Venus".

The young, healthy, strong body of a woman glows, teeth shine in a shy and at the same time ingenuously proud smile, light plays in silky flowing hair. It was as if the sun itself entered, together with the heroine of the picture, into a usually darkish bathhouse - and everything here lit up! The light shimmers in soap foam (which the artist whipped in a basin with one hand, wrote with the other); the wet ceiling, on which clouds of steam were reflected, suddenly became like a sky with lush clouds. The door to the dressing room is open, and from there through the window one can see the sun-drenched winter city in hoarfrost, a horse in a harness.

The natural, deeply national ideal of health and beauty was embodied in the "Russian Venus". This beautiful image became a powerful final chord of the richest "Russian symphony" created by the artist in his painting.

Morning (1904)

The picture was painted in Paris, where Kustodiev arrived with his wife and recently born son Kirill after graduating from the Academy. A woman, in whom one can easily recognize the artist's wife, bathes a child. "Bird", as the artist called it, does not "yell", does not splatter - he quieted down and intently examines - whether a toy, some duckling, or just a sunbeam: there are so many of them around - on his wet strong body, on the edges of the pelvis , on the walls, on a lush bouquet of flowers!

Fair (1906)

Fairs in the village of Semenovskoye were famous throughout the Kostroma province. On Sunday, the old village flaunts in all its fair decoration, standing at the crossroads of old roads.

On the counters, the zozyayeva laid out their goods: arcs, shovels, birch barks, painted rolls, children's whistles, sieves. But most of all, perhaps, bast shoes, and therefore the name of the village is Semenovskoye-Lapotnoye. And in the center of the village the church is squat, strong.

Noisy, ringing talkative fair. Human melodious dialect merges with bird hubbub; the jackdaws on the bell tower staged their fair.

Ringing invitations are heard all around: "And here are the pretzels-pies! Who cares with the heat with a couple, hazel eyes!"

- "Bast shoes, there are bast shoes! Fast-moving!"

_ "Oh, the box is full, full! Colored, utter luboks, about Foma, about Katenka, about Boris and Prokhor!,"

On the one hand, the artist depicted a girl looking at bright dolls, and on the other, a boy gaped at a bent whistle bird, lagging behind his grandfather, which is in the center of the picture. He calls him - "Where are you wilted there, silly?".

And above the rows of counters, the awnings almost merge with each other, their gray panels smoothly turning into the dark roofs of the distant huts. And then green distances, blue sky...

Fabulous! A purely Russian fair of colors, and it sounds like an accordion - iridescent and loud, loud! ..

booths

Nun (1909)

Village Holiday (1910)

Head of a Girl (1897)

Christening (Easter card) - 1912

Emperor Nicholas II (1915)

Bather (1921)

Tradeswoman (1923)

Tradeswoman with purchases (1920)

Summer Landscape (1922)

Reclining Model (1915)

Skiers (1919)

Sailor and Sweetheart (1920)

Frosty Day (1919)

On the Terrace (1906)

On the Volga (1922)

Lobster and Pheasant (1912)

Autumn over the city (1915)

Portrait of I.B. Kustodieva, the artist's daughter (1926)

Portrait of Irina Kustodieva (1906)

Portrait of M.V. Chaliapina (1919)

Portrait of René Notgaft (1914)

After the Storm (1921)

Russian girl at the window (1923)

Country Fair (1920)

Staraya Russa (1921)

Trinity Day (1920)

In old Suzdal (1914)

Winter (1919)

The wide panoramic canvas belongs to the brush of the Russian Soviet artist, known for his ability to create a bright, juicy world in his paintings - Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev. The work of art was created in 1910, when the painter's health was already […]

It was not by chance that Kustodiev chose one of the most significant rituals for the people as the theme for his work. The unique intention of the artist was to show the sides of the nationwide way of life that are attractive to him, […]

Kustodiev, who managed to combine classical traditions with the national ideal of folk art in his work, did not refuse the innovations created by Art Nouveau and Impressionism. The canvas is filled with bright light contrasts and the sophistication of the decorative […]

The painting "Trinity Day" recreated the broad spirit of folk festivals. Everyone knows the deep faith and respect for traditions on the part of the Russian people, and the Trinity is one of the main Christian celebrations. In his work, Kustodiev lovingly […]

Painting canvas"Bathers" by Boris Kustodiev, now stored in Minsk in the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, was written in 1917. By this time the artist was suffering from incurable disease- tumors of the spinal cord, - […]

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev was born in 1878 in the family of an Astrakhan gymnasium teacher. At the age of fifteen, the artist began to actively master the mystery of drawing from the Russian painter Pavel Vlasov. Then Boris entered […]

Maslenitsa is traditionally celebrated in the last week of February in Russia. Everyone from young to old takes part in the Maslenitsa festivities. Wide Maslenitsa is a national holiday, it is celebrated colorfully and wildly with songs, round dances, […]

The nature and culture of Russia were the ideological inspirers for many creators. Among them is the famous artist Boris Kustodiev. The master admired the harsh winter and the festive rites of the common people. One of the sunny days he […]

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev (February 23 (March 7), 1878, Astrakhan - May 26, 1927, Leningrad) - Russian soviet artist. Academician of painting (1909). Member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (since 1923). Portrait painter, theater artist, decorator.

Boris Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan. His father, Mikhail Lukich Kustodiev (1841-1879), was a professor of philosophy, history of literature and taught logic at the local theological seminary.

In 1896 he entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He studied first in the workshop of V. E. Savinsky, from the second year - with I. E. Repin. He took part in the work on Repin's painting "The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901" (1901-1903, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg). Despite the fact that the young artist gained wide fame as a portrait painter, Kustodiev chose a genre theme (“At the Bazaar”) for his competitive work and in the fall of 1900 he left in search of nature in the Kostroma province. Here Kustodiev met his future wife, 20-year-old Yulia Evstafyevna Proshinskaya. Subsequently, the artist made several picturesque portraits of his beloved wife.

On October 31, 1903, he completed the training course with a gold medal and the right to an annual pensioner's trip abroad and in Russia. Even before the end of the course, he took part in international exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Munich (big gold medal of the International Association).

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 "Introduction. Moscow"), after its closure - in the magazines "Infernal Post" and "Iskra". Since 1907 - 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 - 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.

Wife - Yulia Evstafyevna Kustodieva, nee 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, taking her husband's surname. In marriage, the Kustodievs had a son, Cyril, and a daughter, Irina. The third child, Igor, died in infancy. Yulia Kustodieva survived her husband and died in 1942.

In 1905-1907 he worked in the satirical magazines "Zhupel" (the famous drawing "Introduction. Moscow"), "Infernal Post" and "Sparks".

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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. Central image and the motif of the canvas is already stated in the very title of the picture.

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”, “maslenitsa”, “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 paralysis confined the artist to a wheelchair in 1916, 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 merchant 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 really beautiful woman.

Provinces. 1919

View from Sparrow Hills. 1919

In old Suzdal, 1914

The exuberant luxury of colors flourishes in luxuriant color 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.

On the shore goes usual life. 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.