Benua to the poem "Copper Horseman". Illustrations A.N.

The famous St. Petersburg painter and chart, book illustrator, master of theatrical scenery, historian and critic of art. The inspiration and leader of the Association of Artists "World of Art", he played a prominent role in the russian life of Russia for many years. "Miriskusniki", as artists of this artistic flow called, in contrast to traditional art groupings, the least asked to become the "painting society."

Father Benoita is the famous Petersburg architect, mother, nee Cavos, is a daughter, too, the architect, the builder of the Mariinsky Theater, beside the street in St. Petersburg at Nikolskaya Street in the "Beno'a House". Each minute of the life of "Shura" Benua was filled with art. The first drawings are scenes from seen performances. Theater is a bed in Opera, visit her every week. Theater is his God, his faith for life. The scenery to the ballet masses and the operations of the Russian Seasons in Paris, Sergei Dyagileev, will bring Benouua European glory. "Alexander Benoa Decorator" will be written in his Paris business card. Passion for theater will affect further work on booking books. In 1894, after graduating from the University, Benois goes abroad. He travels in Germany and Italy, studying the legacy of German and Italian masters, in Paris intensively studies French culture and creates a series of their watercolors.

A.N. Benua lived a long life and saw a lot. I saw the flourishing of Repin and Stasov. He was a teacher and companion Dyagilev. Friend with serovoy. Worked with Stanislavsky, Gorky, Lunacharsky.

Frenchman and Italian by birth, Benois - Russian for education and belief. He spoke, wrote and thought in Russian. With all his multifaceted activities, he contributed to the flourishing of domestic culture, acquaintance with Russia with the art of the West and the West with the art of Russia.

In 1926, having received another interesting order for the design of the performance and preparing the first personal exhibition, Benua went to Paris, where it was forced to stay until the end of his days.

One of the first published works of Benoit in the field of book illustration is its famous "alphabet in paintings", solved as an exquisite sample of St. Petersburg graphics, strict and sophisticated. In 1904, she was imprinted in the best of the time of the printing house - the expedition of the preparation of state securities. In 1990, it was reproduced fax. The artist with his "alphabet" carried out a dream - to give a "beautiful book to Russian children." In it, each letter of the alphabet is dedicated to a page with an entertaining pattern in paints, fancy combining real with fabulous. In the "Azbuka", the artist achieved a holistic artistic unity of the "book organism", the drawings of each page became masterpieces of graphic art. Thanks to the illustrations of Benoit, almost every page becomes playing

Benua Alexander Nikolaevich. Set of postcards with artist's illustrations to poem A.S. Pushkin "Copper Horseman" (Edition "Soviet artist". Moscow. 1966)

Illustration 1916
On the shore of the desert waves
He stood, the Duma of the Great full,
And Vdal looked. Before it is wide
River broke ...

Illustration 1903

It took a hundred years, and young hail,
Full countries of the Beauty and Divo,
From the darkness of forests, from the molding lot
Ascended magnificent, gradiously;
Where before Finnish fisherman,
Sad stepsoko nature
One at low shores
Throw in unknown water
Your old nemid, now there
By busy shores
Grounds slender crowd
Palaces and towers; ships
Crowd from all ends of the earth
To rich marins are striving;
In granite dressed novel;
Bridges hung over waters;
Tolesnopoelenic gardens
She was covered with islands ...

Illustration 1916

Love you, Peter Creation,
I love your strict, slim view,
Neva Purchase flow
Coastal granite
Your fence is a cast iron,
Your thoughtful nights
Transparent Surak, shineless,
When I'm in my room
I write, I read without a lamp,
And clear sleeping bulk
Deserted streets, and light
Admiralty needle,
And, not the night darkness,
On golden skies,
One dawn change another
Hurry up, giving night half an hour.

Illustration 1903.
Over dumbfounded Petrograd
Dyshalova on November autumn chlad.
Pretty noisy wave
In the edge of its fence is slim,
Neva rushed like a patient
In his bed restless.
It was too late and dark;
The rain fought angrily in the window,
And the wind blew, sad.
At that time, from guests home
Evgeny came young ...

Illustration 1903.

Awful day!
Neva all night
Rushed to the sea against the storm
Do not defeat their violent dori ...
And there was a neme to argue her ...
In the morning over her brags
People were crowded,
Admiring splashes, mountains
And furious waters

Illustration 1903.

And Petropol popped up like Titon,
The water belt is immersed.
Siege! Attack! Evil waves
Like thieves, climb into the windows. Chelny
From running glass beating feed.
Trays under wet veil,
Wreckage huts, logs, roofing,
Stock trading goods
Pale poverty belongings,
Thunderstorm demolished bridges,
Coffin with blurred cemetery
Swim through the streets!

Illustration 1916.

Then, on Petrova's area,
Where the house in the corner ascended a new one
Where above the elevated porch
With raised paw like alive,
There are two lions watchdown,
On the beast of marble riding
Without hats, hands squeezing cross
Little sat, scary pale
Evgeny….

Illustration 1916.

Water sold, and bridge
Opened, and Yevgeny my
Hurry, silence, soul,
In hope, fear and longing
By barely humbled river.
But, Victory celebration is full,
Still boiled viciously waves,
As if under them the fire,
Their foam covered
And he breathed heavily,
As with the battle, he fought the horse.
Eugene looks: sees a boat;
He runs to her as a find;
It is a carrier calling ...

Illustration 1903.

And long with stormy waves
Fought an experienced rower
And hide deep into their ranks
Thrill with bold swimmers
She was ready ...

Illustration 1903.

What is it? ...
He stopped.
Went back and grogied.
Looks ... goes ... still looks.
Here is the place where their house is worth;
Here Iva. There were gates here -
Demolished them, visible. Where is the house?
And, full of glooming care,
Everything goes, he walks around ...

Illustration 1903.

But poor, poor Eugene ...
Alas, his confused mind
Against terrible shocks
Did not resist. Rebellious noise
Neva and winds distributed
In his ears. Terrible doom
Silently full, he wandered.
... he will soon
Became alien. All day walked on foot,
And slept on the pier; Food
In the window submitted by a piece.
Outdoor clothes on it
Running and trel. Evil children
Throw stones after him.

Illustration 1903.
He found himself under the columns
Big house. On the porch
With pipped paw like alive,
Stood lions watchdogs,
And right in the dark embroidery
Over the fenceful cloth
Moid with a speed of hand
Sat on a bronze horse.
Evgeny shuddered. Claimed
It is scary thoughts. He found out
And place where the flood played
Where the waves are predatory crowded,
Bunuya viciously around him,
And lions, and the square, and
Who is motionlessly elevated
In the dark, copper head,
Of which whose will of the fatal
Under the sea, the city was founded ...

Illustration 1903.

Circle foot idol
Mantle poor bypassed
And the eyes of wild brought
On the face of the Half Half.
Shy his chest ..

Illustration 1903

And it is empty
Runs and hears about
As if thunder rumble -
Heavy-ring
By shocked bridge ...
And, illuminated the Luna pale,
Sketch of hand in the embroidery,
Her rider is copper
On a ring-racing horse ...

Illustration 1903.

And all night madness poor
Where the feet turned either
Behind him everywhere the rider copper
With heavy hidden, jumping.

Illustration 1903.

And since that time, when it happened
Go to him
In his face was portrayed
Confusion. To your heart
He pressed hastily hand
How would his humble flour
Cartuz worn symal,
Embarrassed eyes did not raise
And walked aside.

"ABC in pictures" Alexander Benua (1904)

Alexander Benoit, painter, schedule, theater artist, historian and theoretics of art, began with landscapes and worked mainly by watercolor. Since 1898, he masters the genre of book illustration, discovering a new area of \u200b\u200bfine art. The main body of its graphic works is associated with illustrations for the works of Pushkin. In 1904, the light saw the "Alphabet in Pictures", when creating which Benua performed at the same time as the author of the plan, and as an illustrator and a designer. In front of the artist stood the task not to simply illustrate, but to invent the artistic design of "ABC".
Benois depicts not a specific object alone, but the situation where this object plays a key role. The artist prefers not a portrait, but an unfolded narrative scene, with characters, with a lot of small details. Appears in the "alphabet" and a through the character, which, according to the author's plan, mastering the alphabet along with the child: his first portrait opens a series of illustrations, and the second - completes it.

Each era in Russia offered its type of alphabet. The Silver Age brought the readers to the alphabet in the style of the "Art World" style. Exquisite graphics of Benoit - still unsurpassed sample book illustration. Each page "Alphabet" is an amazing fascinating fabulous world.

Looking at the book causes a lot of associations, and when performing a traditional task for children "Story in the picture" Fantasy of small readers and their parents or mentors can be simply limitless. The "ABC" received a censorship permit on October 24, 1904, the production cycle on its edition took about six months. According to some information, 34 chromolithography with gold and silver were printed in collaboration with the printing house I. Kadushina. The book was installed a high retail price -3 ruble. The circulation was 2500 copies.

Each page "ABC" is an amazing, fascinating, fabulous world - a fun sketch, rich in action and characters. These scenes are permeated with the spirit of home theaters that were not uncommon in Russia of the previous cozy times, the poetry of the "Petersburg children's rooms", which the writer Mikhail Kuzmin celebrated with admiration, according to which Benouua himself, all, entirely in these rooms, these delights and phantasmagories. It is very homely, locally, personally ... "

Once, reflecting on children's books, Benua said that I would like to express in them "Direct hobby, fun, real, unadial feelings, sun, forest, flowers, dreams about a distant and dangerous, courageous, heroic spirit, desire for a feud, beautiful pride ". All this we can easily find on the sparkling fantasy and the fun of the "ABC in pictures" pages ...

Before the reform of the Russian spelling of 1918, the letter "I" existed in Russian. It was used before vowels and in front of the letter "th" in such words as iodine, Eastor, Ruskiy, Іerusalem.
Now, when we read pre-revolutionary texts, you need to be very attentive, because the letter I could seriously change the meaning of the word. For example, Vladimir Dal in his famous "The Sensual Dictionary of the Living Great Russian" distinguished the words "Mir" and "Peace".
"MIR" - "Universe<…>, our land, earthly ball, all people, all the world, community, society of peasants, "
"Peace" - "The absence of a quarrel, hostility, disagreement, war."
The letter "I" also got into the famous "ABC in pictures", created by Alexander Benoit in 1904.

15.

In the first decades of the twentieth century, Alexander Nikolayevich Benoit (1870 - 1960) were made to the "copper rider" - the best that was created in the history of illustrating Pushkin.
Benua began working on the "copper rider" in 1903. Over the next 20 years, they have created a cycle of drawings, screensavers and endings, as well as a huge number of options and sketches. The first edition of these illustrations, which were preparing for a pocket publication, was established in 1903 in Rome and St. Petersburg. Printed them in another Dyagilev format in the first issue of the magazine "World of Art" for 1904. The first cycle of illustrations consisted of 32 drawings performed in mascara and watercolor.
In 1905, A.N. Benua, being in Versaille, recycled six of its previous illustrations and completed the frontispis to the "copper rider". In the new drawings to the "copper rider" the topic of persecution by the rider of a small man becomes the main thing: a black rider over a fugitive is not so much a masterpiece of Falcone, how much impersonation of cruel power, power. And Petersburg is not the one who conquers the artistic perfection and a scope of construction thoughts, and the sullen city is a cluster of gloomy houses, trading rows, fences. Anxiety and anxiety that swept the artist during this period, turns here to a real cry on the fate of a person in Russia.
In 1916, 1921-1922, the cycle was reworked for the third time and supplemented with new drawings.

In the drawings of A.N. Benua, the images of the Petersburg story, A.S. Pushkin, as it were painted by reflections and experiences of the man of the beginning of the XX century.
Therefore, it was the "modernity" of the illustrations of Benua, it was striking by connoisseurs of art at the beginning of the twentieth century, it appeared to them no less significant than the artist's sense of style, an understanding of the Pushkin era and the ability to skillfully theatrical action by developing a series of "masterfully adjusted Misaneszen." Artist and art historian Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar at that time wrote Benouua about these His illustrations: "They are so good that I still can't come to myself from novelty, the epoch and Pushkin are damn, there is absolutely no smell of engraving material, No patina. They are terribly modern - and it is important ... "

Illustrations
Benua Alexander Nikolaevich. Set of postcards with artist's illustrations to poem A.S. Pushkin "Copper Horseman" (Edition "Soviet artist". Moscow. 1966)

Illustration 1916

On the shore of the desert waves
He stood, the Duma of the Great full,
And Vdal looked. Before it is wide
River broke ...

Illustration 1903

It took a hundred years, and young hail,
Full countries of the Beauty and Divo,
From the darkness of forests, from the molding lot
Ascended magnificent, gradiously;
Where before Finnish fisherman,
Sad stepsoko nature
One at low shores
Throw in unknown water
Your old nemid, now there
By busy shores
Grounds slender crowd
Palaces and towers; ships
Crowd from all ends of the earth
To rich marins are striving;
In granite dressed novel;
Bridges hung over waters;
Tolesnopoelenic gardens
She was covered with islands ...

Illustration 1916

Love you, Peter Creation,
I love your strict, slim view,
Neva Purchase flow
Coastal granite
Your fence is a cast iron,
Your thoughtful nights
Transparent Surak, shineless,
When I'm in my room
I write, I read without a lamp,
And clear sleeping bulk
Deserted streets, and light
Admiralty needle,
And, not the night darkness,
On golden skies,
One dawn change another
Hurry up, giving night half an hour.

Illustration 1903.

Over dumbfounded Petrograd
Dyshalova on November autumn chlad.
Pretty noisy wave
In the edge of its fence is slim,
Neva rushed like a patient
In his bed restless.
It was too late and dark;
The rain fought angrily in the window,
And the wind blew, sad.
At that time, from guests home
Evgeny came young ...

Illustration 1903.

Awful day!
Neva all night
Rushed to the sea against the storm
Do not defeat their violent dori ...
And there was a neme to argue her ...
In the morning over her brags
People were crowded,
Admiring splashes, mountains
And furious waters

Illustration 1903.

And Petropol popped up like Titon,
The water belt is immersed.
Siege! Attack! Evil waves
Like thieves, climb into the windows. Chelny
From running glass beating feed.
Trays under wet veil,
Wreckage huts, logs, roofing,
Stock trading goods
Pale poverty belongings,
Thunderstorm demolished bridges,
Coffin with blurred cemetery
Swim through the streets!

Illustration 1916.

Then, on Petrova's area,
Where the house in the corner ascended a new one
Where above the elevated porch
With raised paw like alive,
There are two lions watchdown,
On the beast of marble riding
Without hats, hands squeezing cross
Little sat, scary pale
Evgeny….

Illustration 1916.

Water sold, and bridge
Opened, and Yevgeny my
Hurry, silence, soul,
In hope, fear and longing
By barely humbled river.
But, Victory celebration is full,
Still boiled viciously waves,
As if under them the fire,
Their foam covered
And he breathed heavily,
As with the battle, he fought the horse.
Eugene looks: sees a boat;
He runs to her as a find;
It is a carrier calling ...

Illustration 1903.

And long with stormy waves
Fought an experienced rower
And hide deep into their ranks
Thrill with bold swimmers
She was ready ...

Illustration 1903.

What is it? ...
He stopped.
Went back and grogied.
Looks ... goes ... still looks.
Here is the place where their house is worth;
Here Iva. There were gates here -
Demolished them, visible. Where is the house?
And, full of glooming care,
Everything goes, he walks around ...

Illustration 1903.

But poor, poor Eugene ...
Alas, his confused mind
Against terrible shocks
Did not resist. Rebellious noise
Neva and winds distributed
In his ears. Terrible doom
Silently full, he wandered.
... he will soon
Became alien. All day walked on foot,
And slept on the pier; Food
In the window submitted by a piece.
Outdoor clothes on it
Running and trel. Evil children
Throw stones after him.

Illustration 1903.

He found himself under the columns
Big house. On the porch
With pipped paw like alive,
Stood lions watchdogs,
And right in the dark embroidery
Over the fenceful cloth
Moid with a speed of hand
Sat on a bronze horse.
Evgeny shuddered. Claimed
It is scary thoughts. He found out
And place where the flood played
Where the waves are predatory crowded,
Bunuya viciously around him,
And lions, and the square, and
Who is motionlessly elevated
In the dark, copper head,
Of which whose will of the fatal
Under the sea, the city was founded ...

Illustration 1903.

Circle foot idol
Mantle poor bypassed
And the eyes of wild brought
On the face of the Half Half.
Shy his chest ..

Illustration 1903

And it is empty
Runs and hears about
As if thunder rumble -
Heavy-ring
By shocked bridge ...
And, illuminated the Luna pale,
Sketch of hand in the embroidery,
Her rider is copper
On a ring-racing horse ...

Illustration 1903.

And all night madness poor
Where the feet turned either
Behind him everywhere the rider copper
With heavy hidden, jumping.

Illustration 1903.

And since that time, when it happened
Go to him
In his face was portrayed
Confusion. To your heart
He pressed hastily hand
How would his humble flour
Cartuz worn symal,
Embarrassed eyes did not raise
And walked aside.

In the first decades of the twentieth century, Alexander Nikolayevich Benoit (1870 - 1960) were made to the "copper rider" - the best that was created in the history of illustrating Pushkin. In the drawings of A.N. Benua, the images of the Petersburg story, A.S. Pushkin, as it were painted by reflections and experiences of the man of the beginning of the 20th century. Therefore, it was "modernity" of the illustrations of Benua, it was striking by connoisseurs of art at the beginning of the twentieth century, it appeared to them at least Essential than the artist's characteristic sense of style, an understanding of the Pushkin era and the ability to skillfully theatrize action by developing a series of "masterfully made by Misaneszen".

Copper rider (reads I.Smoktunovsky)