At the beginning of 1902, perhaps , one of the most famous paintings Mikhail Vrubel - "The Demon by

"Defeated Demon" by Mikhail Vrubel

At the beginning of 1902, perhaps one of the most famous paintings by Mikhail Vrubel - "Demon Defeated" - was shown to the public in St. Petersburg at the exhibition "World of Art". Not long before this event, those around him began to notice the artist's symptoms of mental illness. Memories of friends and family allow us to reconstruct the chronology of the last mournful years of Mikhail Vrubel's life, about whom even his attending physician, psychiatrist Usoltsev, wrote: “He died gravely ill, but as an artist he was healthy and deeply healthy.”

1901 was marked by a major family event- Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel and his wife Nadezhda Ivanovna had a son. The couple prepared for this event very cheerfully, it seemed to them that the birth of a child would not interfere with their elegant and high life They fantasized that they would go abroad with the child to exhibit "The Demon".

The spouses were in for a terrible chagrin - the boy was born with a forked upper lip, this deeply struck Mikhail Vrubel. From that very moment, his relatives and friends began to notice that something was wrong with the artist.

Vrubel paints a portrait of his son, who was named Savva, and gives his appearance that expression of extreme anxiety that he himself is probably experiencing.

At the beginning of 1902, the painting "Demon Defeated" was shown to the public in St. Petersburg at the exhibition "The World of Art". Here is what the sister of Vrubel's wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna Ge, recalls about that exhibition: early morning I rewrote it, and I saw with horror every day the change. There were days when “The Demon” was very scary, and then again deep sadness and new beauty appeared in the Demon's expression ... In general, despite the illness, the ability to create did not leave Vrubel, it even seemed to grow, but living with him was already becoming unbearable ".

In March 1902, Mikhail Vrubel was first admitted to a private psychiatric hospital. In the picture of the artist's illness, ideas of his own greatness prevailed, a period of such intense excitement began that meetings with even the closest people - his wife and sister - were interrupted for six months.

In September of the same year, Vrubel was transported to the clinic of a Serbian psychiatrist, transported in one coat and hat, even without underwear, as they said that he had destroyed all his belongings.

In this hospital, things went much better, he wrote completely logical letters to his relatives, and on the advice of the doctor he began to paint again.

On February 18, 1903, Mikhail Vrubel left the clinic, but was very sad, and by April he was completely "unstuck": he often cried, yearned, said that he was no good, he could not work at all, although he was offered various orders.

On May 3, 1903, a misfortune happened - Savvochka, the only child of Vrubel, died. In the face of this grief, Mikhail Alexandrovich behaved very courageously, personally took up the organization of the funeral, tried to support his wife, who was in despair.

After the funeral of their son, Vrubel went to their estate near Kiev, where the artist became very nervous, demanded that he be taken to the hospital as soon as possible. Someone advised to identify Vrubel in one of the psychiatric clinics Riga.

This time, the illness was of a completely different nature: not a trace of megalomania remained, on the contrary, it was replaced by complete oppression. Vrubel was dull and sad, considered himself insignificant and wanted to lose his life.

In the fall, the artist's sister transported him from Riga to Moscow. In a Moscow clinic, he began to paint very successful portraits of patients, but his thoughts were confused, it seemed to Vrubel that both his wife and sister were also patients of a psychiatric hospital.

The drawings made in the clinic were presented at an exhibition of Moscow artists; not even a shadow of the disease was visible in them.

During this period, Vrubel painted the painting "Six-Winged Seraphim", depicting an angel with a burning lamp, a very beautiful thing, made with burning and bright colors.

By the spring of 1904, the artist was so bad that doctors and relatives thought that he would not live to see summer, they wanted to take him abroad, but then they abandoned these plans. For the summer, Moscow clinics were closed, so the Serbian psychiatrist advised that Vrubel be placed in the psychiatrist Usoltsev's hospital recently opened in the outskirts of Moscow.

The patients in this hospital lived with the doctor's family and enjoyed great freedom.

Moving to Usoltsev's clinic had amazing benefits: Vrubel began to eat (before that he denied himself food, considering himself unworthy of food), his thoughts cleared up, he painted, wrote letters to family and friends, and two months later he recovered so much that he returned home.

After the artist was discharged from the hospital, Vrubeli moved to St. Petersburg, where Mikhail led his life absolutely healthy person: he rented an apartment, put electricity in it and worked very hard.

During this period, Vrubel began to paint his amazing "Pearl", which is now in the collection of the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery.

By the beginning of 1905, Mikhail Vrubel's wife began to notice a strong excitement, he became intractable, irritable, and spent excessive money on completely unnecessary things. The artist's wife had to "dismiss" the psychiatrist Usoltsev from Moscow, who took Vrubel to his Moscow hospital.

Usoltsev had a calming effect on the patient. Once in the clinic, Vrubel began to sleep, and insomnia has always been one of the dangerous symptoms of his illness. The relatives hoped that this time the illness would not last long, alas, but they were mistaken - the excitement was once again replaced by oppression.

Despite his illness, Vrubel did not stop working: he painted a portrait of the entire Usoltsev family, many patients and the poet Bryusov, who visited the artist.

Bryusov left very interesting memories of his first meeting with Mikhail Vrubel, which took place at the Usoltsev clinic: “To tell the truth, I was horrified to see Vrubel. He was a frail, sick man, in a dirty, rumpled shirt. He had a reddish face; eyes - like a bird of prey; protruding hair instead of a beard. First impression: crazy! After the usual greetings, he asked me: "Should I write this to you?" And he began to examine me in a special way, in an artistic way, intently, almost penetratingly. Immediately, his expression changed. A genius peeped through the madness. "

When Vrubel wrote to Bryusov, those around him began to notice that something strange was happening with his eyes, the artist had to come very close to see the model. New suffering went on with terrifying speed, having finished the portrait of Bryusov, Vrubel hardly saw his work.

Mikhail Vrubel understood the horror of his situation, the artist, whose world was fabulously beautiful, was now almost blind ... He began to refuse food, saying that if he went hungry for 10 years, he would see his sight and his drawing would be unusually good.

The unfortunate artist was now ashamed of his acquaintances, he said: "Why should they come, I don't see them."

External world less and less in contact with Mikhail Vrubel. Despite all the efforts of his sister and wife, who regularly visited the artist, he plunged into the world of his own dreams: he told something like fairy tales that he would have eyes made of emerald, that he created all his works during Of the ancient world or the Renaissance.

Last year In his life, Vrubel refused meat more and more insistently, saying that he did not want to eat "slaughter", so they began to serve him a vegetarian table. Strength gradually left the artist, sometimes he said that he was "tired of living."

Sitting in the garden in his last summer, he once said: "Sparrows are chirping to me - a little alive, a little alive." The general appearance of the patient became, as it were, more refined, more spiritualized.

Vrubel went to the end with complete calmness... When he began to have pneumonia, which then turned into fleeting consumption, he took it calmly. On his last conscious day, before the agony, Vrubel put himself in order especially carefully (he combed his hair, washed himself with cologne), warmly kissed the hands of his wife and sister and no longer spoke.

Only at night, after recovering for a while, the artist said, addressing the person who was courting him: "Nikolai, it's enough for me to lie here - we'll go to the Academy." In these words there was some kind of dying prophetic premonition: a day later Vrubel was solemnly brought in a coffin to the Academy of Arts - his alma mater.

I would like to finish the story with the words of the psychiatrist Usoltsev, who appreciated Mikhail Vrubel like no one else, understanding the complexity of his genius personality: “I often heard that Vrubel's work is sick creativity. I studied Vrubel for a long time and carefully, and I believe that his work is not only quite normal, but so powerful and strong that even a terrible illness could not destroy him. Creativity was at the core, in the very essence of his mental personality, and, reaching the end, the disease destroyed him ... He died gravely ill, but as an artist he was healthy and deeply healthy. "

The material was prepared with the support of the Center for the Promotion and Development of Creativity of People Suffering mental disorders, Daria Evseeva evseeva-centre.ru

The surviving statements of the artist and his relatives suggest that he thought of the painting as a kind of manifesto - a response to the leading philosophical ideas era. It was supposed to find expression in protest against the abstract moralism of Leo Tolstoy, his ideas of non-resistance, humility, and obedience. This is a rebellion against the outgoing era of "nationality and prose" (Belinsky). Contemporaries also guessed in the picture the glorification of the demonism of the superman, close to Nietzsche.

Judgments about the picture can hardly be categorical. The surviving sketches indicate that Vrubel does not have an established concept of the image. Sometimes, for example, the artist assured that the Demon was no longer defeated, but was flying. The artist continued to alter the painting even at the exhibition, and, according to eyewitnesses, the Demon's face became now beautiful, now ugly. Alexander Benois claimed that Vrubel intensified in him the features of torment, despair, "torture twisting". The repulsion from everything petty, mediocre, vulgar, characteristic of Vrubel's art, takes on an extremely polemical, pointed and painful form here. The narrow, elongated format of the canvas emphasizes the tragic flatness of the light bluish body, which seems even more ephemeral in contrast to the huge wingspan that covers the distant slopes of the mountains, fading in the twilight light. Everything in this creature breathes with challenge, rebellion - and the dim sparkle of eyes full of suffering and hatred, and the gesture of broken hands, and the chaos of scattered motley wings.
http://vrubel-world.ru/issled7.php

Vrubel has never worked with such an obsession. Having abandoned the teaching he had begun at the Stroganov School, he was left alone with his hero, spending twenty hours a day without rest with his cherished creation. Vrubel's demon - the embodiment of "beautiful evil" and "evil beauty" - was inextricably linked with the world of absolute beauty, free for him from all ethical bonds. Tough uncompromising pursuit of the goal exhausted the artist. Devastated by the Demon himself - the embodiment of drama, conflict of life. The expression on his face changed relentlessly. Then he appeared beautiful and sorrowful, with tears in his eyes, then sorrow gave way to hatred and anger. Finally, Vrubel saw a “granite” face with a grimace on his lips, a precious stone sparkle of eyes, a pink diadem glowing on his head and an elongated bird's body with peacock feathers of broken wings enveloping it and scattering around it. The landscape matched it: a stone bed of sharp rocks and behind the shining peaks of the Caucasus Mountains.

Mikhail Lermontov wrote six versions of the poem "The Demon" and considered none of them final. The same thing happened with Vrubel - the more finished his "Demon" became, the more acute was the artist's need to remake it ...

The work of the Moscow exhibition was already coming to an end, where it was announced new painting Vrubel, but he still could not part with his "Demon". And even when in the last days before the closing of the exposition, he was forced to give the picture and it was already hanging on the wall; in front of the public, he continued to change something in the picture, especially in the face of the Demon. Vrubel could not leave his hero, and when the canvas was removed from the stretcher, rolled up and sent to St. Petersburg to the exhibition "World of Art" - he went after ...

In the painting "Demon Defeated" Vrubel learns and represents his hero, not at all in longing for human love(as Lermontov's poem tells), but in the war with God, with the established divine laws. And in the image created by the artist, the fury of the battle that took place and the unquenchable hatred of the enemy were captured. Mikhail Vrubel depicted the appearance of an angel-theomodist at the moment of defeat, thrown from heaven and collapsing on the rocks, at the moment of the transformation of the Angel into a Demon.

As it was in that holy, great hour,
When the light separated from the darkness,
And, a joyful angel, he is for the first time
Looked at the future. And how many years
And how many thousand years have passed since then!
And he's not the same. His brow
It has faded ... he is alone, alone ... alone ...
The enemy of happiness and vice is the sovereign.

At the beginning of 1902, perhaps one of the most famous paintings by Mikhail Vrubel - "Demon Defeated" - was shown to the public in St. Petersburg at the exhibition "World of Art". Not long before this event, those around him began to notice the artist's symptoms of mental illness. Memories of friends and family allow us to reconstruct the chronology of the last mournful years of Mikhail Vrubel's life, about whom even his attending physician, psychiatrist Usoltsev, wrote: “He died gravely ill, but as an artist he was healthy and deeply healthy.”

1901 was marked by a major family event - a son was born to Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel and his wife Nadezhda Ivanovna. The couple prepared for this event very cheerfully, it seemed to them that the birth of a child would not interfere with their elegant and social life, they fantasized about how they would go abroad with the child to exhibit "The Demon".

The spouses were in for a terrible chagrin - the boy was born with a forked upper lip, this deeply struck Mikhail Vrubel. From that very moment, his relatives and friends began to notice that something was wrong with the artist.

Vrubel paints a portrait of his son, who was named Savva, and gives his appearance that expression of extreme anxiety that he himself is probably experiencing.

At the beginning of 1902, the painting "Demon Defeated" was shown to the public in St. Petersburg at the exhibition "The World of Art". Here is what the sister of Vrubel's wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna Ge, recalls about that exhibition: “Mikhail Alexandrovich, despite the fact that the picture had already been exhibited, was rewriting it every day from early morning, and I saw with horror every day the change. There were days when “The Demon” was very scary, and then again deep sadness and new beauty appeared in the Demon's expression ... In general, despite the illness, the ability to create did not leave Vrubel, it even seemed to grow, but living with him was already becoming unbearable ".

In March 1902, Mikhail Vrubel was first admitted to a private psychiatric hospital. In the picture of the artist's illness, ideas of his own greatness prevailed, a period of such intense excitement began that meetings with even the closest people - his wife and sister - were interrupted for six months.

In September of the same year, Vrubel was transported to the clinic of a Serbian psychiatrist, transported in one coat and hat, even without underwear, as they said that he had destroyed all his belongings.

In this hospital, things went much better, he wrote completely logical letters to his relatives, and on the advice of the doctor he began to paint again.

On February 18, 1903, Mikhail Vrubel left the clinic, but was very sad, and by April he was completely "unstuck": he often cried, yearned, said that he was no good, he could not work at all, although he was offered various orders.

On May 3, 1903, a misfortune happened - Savvochka, the only child of Vrubel, died. In the face of this grief, Mikhail Alexandrovich behaved very courageously, personally took up the organization of the funeral, tried to support his wife, who was in despair.

After the funeral of their son, Vrubel went to their estate near Kiev, where the artist became very nervous, demanded that he be taken to the hospital as soon as possible. Someone advised to place Vrubel in one of the psychiatric clinics in Riga.

This time, the illness was of a completely different nature: not a trace of megalomania remained, on the contrary, it was replaced by complete oppression. Vrubel was dull and sad, considered himself insignificant and wanted to lose his life.

In the fall, the artist's sister transported him from Riga to Moscow. In a Moscow clinic, he began to paint very successful portraits of patients, but his thoughts were confused, it seemed to Vrubel that both his wife and sister were also patients of a psychiatric hospital.

The drawings made in the clinic were presented at an exhibition of Moscow artists; not even a shadow of the disease was visible in them.

During this period, Vrubel painted the painting "Six-Winged Seraphim", depicting an angel with a burning lamp, a very beautiful thing, made with burning and bright colors.

By the spring of 1904, the artist was so bad that doctors and relatives thought that he would not live to see summer, they wanted to take him abroad, but then they abandoned these plans. For the summer, Moscow clinics were closed, so the Serbian psychiatrist advised that Vrubel be placed in the psychiatrist Usoltsev's hospital recently opened in the outskirts of Moscow.

The patients in this hospital lived with the doctor's family and enjoyed great freedom.

Moving to Usoltsev's clinic had amazing benefits: Vrubel began to eat (before that he denied himself food, considering himself unworthy of food), his thoughts cleared up, he painted, wrote letters to family and friends, and two months later he recovered so much that he returned home.

After the artist was discharged from the hospital, the Vrubeli moved to St. Petersburg, where Mikhail led the life of an absolutely healthy person: he rented an apartment, put electricity in it and worked a lot.

During this period, Vrubel began to paint his amazing "Pearl", which is now in the collection of the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery.

By the beginning of 1905, Mikhail Vrubel's wife began to notice a strong excitement, he became intractable, irritable, and spent excessive money on completely unnecessary things. The artist's wife had to "dismiss" the psychiatrist Usoltsev from Moscow, who took Vrubel to his Moscow hospital.

Usoltsev had a calming effect on the patient. Once in the clinic, Vrubel began to sleep, and insomnia has always been one of the dangerous symptoms of his illness. The relatives hoped that this time the illness would not last long, alas, but they were mistaken - the excitement was once again replaced by oppression.

Despite his illness, Vrubel did not stop working: he painted a portrait of the entire Usoltsev family, many patients and the poet Bryusov, who visited the artist.

Bryusov left very interesting memories of his first meeting with Mikhail Vrubel, which took place at the Usoltsev clinic: “To tell the truth, I was horrified to see Vrubel. He was a frail, sick man, in a dirty, rumpled shirt. He had a reddish face; eyes - like a bird of prey; protruding hair instead of a beard. First impression: crazy! After the usual greetings, he asked me: "Should I write this to you?" And he began to examine me in a special way, in an artistic way, intently, almost penetratingly. Immediately, his expression changed. A genius peeped through the madness. "

When Vrubel wrote to Bryusov, those around him began to notice that something strange was happening with his eyes, the artist had to come very close to see the model. New suffering went on with terrifying speed, having finished the portrait of Bryusov, Vrubel hardly saw his work.

Mikhail Vrubel understood the horror of his situation, the artist, whose world was fabulously beautiful, was now almost blind ... He began to refuse food, saying that if he went hungry for 10 years, he would see his sight and his drawing would be unusually good.

The unfortunate artist was now ashamed of his acquaintances, he said: "Why should they come, I don't see them."

The outside world was less and less in contact with Mikhail Vrubel. Despite all the efforts of his sister and wife, who regularly visited the artist, he plunged into the world of his own dreams: he told something like fairy tales that he would have eyes made of emerald, that he created all his works during the Ancient World or the Renaissance.

During the last year of his life, Vrubel increasingly refused to eat meat, saying that he did not want to eat "slaughter", so they began to serve him a vegetarian table. Strength gradually left the artist, sometimes he said that he was "tired of living."

Sitting in the garden in his last summer, he once said: "The sparrows are chirping to me - a little alive, a little alive." The general appearance of the patient became, as it were, more refined, more spiritualized.

Vrubel walked towards the end with complete calmness. When he began to have pneumonia, which then turned into fleeting consumption, he took it calmly. On his last conscious day, before the agony, Vrubel put himself in order especially carefully (he combed his hair, washed himself with cologne), warmly kissed the hands of his wife and sister, and no longer spoke.

Only at night, after recovering for a while, the artist said, addressing the person who was courting him: "Nikolai, it's enough for me to lie here - we'll go to the Academy." In these words there was some kind of dying prophetic premonition: in a day Vrubel was solemnly brought in a coffin to the Academy of Arts - his alma mater.

I would like to end the story with the words of the psychiatrist Usoltsev, who appreciated Mikhail Vrubel like no one else, understanding the complexity of his genius personality: “I often heard that Vrubel's work is sick creativity. I studied Vrubel for a long time and carefully, and I believe that his work is not only quite normal, but so powerful and strong that even a terrible illness could not destroy him. Creativity was at the heart, in the very essence of his mental personality, and, reaching the end, the disease destroyed him ... He died gravely ill, but as an artist he was healthy and deeply healthy. "

The material was prepared with the support of the Center for the Promotion and Development of Creativity of People with Mental Disorders, Daria Evseeva evseeva-centre.ru

At the beginning of 1902, perhaps one of the most famous paintings by Mikhail Vrubel - "Demon Defeated" - was shown to the public in St. Petersburg at the exhibition "World of Art". Not long before this event, those around him began to notice the artist's symptoms of mental illness. Memories of friends and family allow us to reconstruct the chronology of the last mournful years of Mikhail Vrubel's life, about whom even his attending physician, psychiatrist Usoltsev, wrote: “He died gravely ill, but as an artist he was healthy and deeply healthy.”

1901 was marked by a major family event - a son was born to Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel and his wife Nadezhda Ivanovna. The couple prepared for this event very cheerfully, it seemed to them that the birth of a child would not interfere with their elegant and social life, they fantasized about how they would go abroad with the child to exhibit "The Demon".

The spouses were in for a terrible chagrin - the boy was born with a forked upper lip, this deeply struck Mikhail Vrubel. From that very moment, his relatives and friends began to notice that something was wrong with the artist.

Vrubel paints a portrait of his son, who was named Savva, and gives his appearance that expression of extreme anxiety that he himself is probably experiencing.

At the beginning of 1902, the painting "Demon Defeated" was shown to the public in St. Petersburg at the exhibition "The World of Art". Here is what the sister of Vrubel's wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna Ge, recalls about that exhibition: “Mikhail Alexandrovich, despite the fact that the picture had already been exhibited, was rewriting it every day from early morning, and I saw with horror every day the change. There were days when “The Demon” was very scary, and then again deep sadness and new beauty appeared in the Demon's expression ... In general, despite the illness, the ability to create did not leave Vrubel, it even seemed to grow, but living with him was already becoming unbearable ".

In March 1902, Mikhail Vrubel was first admitted to a private psychiatric hospital. In the picture of the artist's illness, ideas of his own greatness prevailed, a period of such intense excitement began that meetings with even the closest people - his wife and sister - were interrupted for six months.

In September of the same year, Vrubel was transported to the clinic of a Serbian psychiatrist, transported in one coat and hat, even without underwear, as they said that he had destroyed all his belongings.

In this hospital, things went much better, he wrote completely logical letters to his relatives, and on the advice of the doctor he began to paint again.

On February 18, 1903, Mikhail Vrubel left the clinic, but was very sad, and by April he was completely "unstuck": he often cried, yearned, said that he was no good, he could not work at all, although he was offered various orders.

On May 3, 1903, a misfortune happened - Savvochka, the only child of Vrubel, died. In the face of this grief, Mikhail Alexandrovich behaved very courageously, personally took up the organization of the funeral, tried to support his wife, who was in despair.

After the funeral of their son, Vrubel went to their estate near Kiev, where the artist became very nervous, demanded that he be taken to the hospital as soon as possible. Someone advised to place Vrubel in one of the psychiatric clinics in Riga.

This time, the illness was of a completely different nature: not a trace of megalomania remained, on the contrary, it was replaced by complete oppression. Vrubel was dull and sad, considered himself insignificant and wanted to lose his life.

In the fall, the artist's sister transported him from Riga to Moscow. In a Moscow clinic, he began to paint very successful portraits of patients, but his thoughts were confused, it seemed to Vrubel that both his wife and sister were also patients of a psychiatric hospital.

The drawings made in the clinic were presented at an exhibition of Moscow artists; not even a shadow of the disease was visible in them.

During this period, Vrubel painted the painting "Six-Winged Seraphim", depicting an angel with a burning lamp, a very beautiful thing, made with burning and bright colors.

By the spring of 1904, the artist was so bad that doctors and relatives thought that he would not live to see summer, they wanted to take him abroad, but then they abandoned these plans. For the summer, Moscow clinics were closed, so the Serbian psychiatrist advised that Vrubel be placed in the psychiatrist Usoltsev's hospital recently opened in the outskirts of Moscow.

The patients in this hospital lived with the doctor's family and enjoyed great freedom.

Moving to Usoltsev's clinic had amazing benefits: Vrubel began to eat (before that he denied himself food, considering himself unworthy of food), his thoughts cleared up, he painted, wrote letters to family and friends, and two months later he recovered so much that he returned home.

After the artist was discharged from the hospital, Vrubel moved to St. Petersburg, where Mikhail led the life of an absolutely healthy person: he rented an apartment, had electricity in it and worked a lot.

During this period, Vrubel began to paint his amazing "Pearl", which is now in the collection of the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery.

By the beginning of 1905, Mikhail Vrubel's wife began to notice a strong excitement, he became intractable, irritable, and spent excessive money on completely unnecessary things. The artist's wife had to "dismiss" the psychiatrist Usoltsev from Moscow, who took Vrubel to his Moscow hospital.

Usoltsev had a calming effect on the patient. Once in the clinic, Vrubel began to sleep, and insomnia has always been one of the dangerous symptoms of his illness. The relatives hoped that this time the illness would not last long, alas, but they were mistaken - the excitement was once again replaced by oppression.

Despite his illness, Vrubel did not stop working: he painted a portrait of the entire Usoltsev family, many patients and the poet Bryusov, who visited the artist.

Bryusov left very interesting memories of his first meeting with Mikhail Vrubel, which took place at the Usoltsev clinic: “To tell the truth, I was horrified to see Vrubel. He was a frail, sick man, in a dirty, rumpled shirt. He had a reddish face; eyes - like a bird of prey; protruding hair instead of a beard. First impression: crazy! After the usual greetings, he asked me: "Should I write this to you?" And he began to examine me in a special way, in an artistic way, intently, almost penetratingly. Immediately, his expression changed. A genius peeped through the madness. "

When Vrubel wrote to Bryusov, those around him began to notice that something strange was happening with his eyes, the artist had to come very close to see the model. New suffering went on with terrifying speed, having finished the portrait of Bryusov, Vrubel hardly saw his work.

Mikhail Vrubel understood the horror of his situation, the artist, whose world was fabulously beautiful, was now almost blind ... He began to refuse food, saying that if he went hungry for 10 years, he would see his sight and his drawing would be unusually good.

The unfortunate artist was now ashamed of his acquaintances, he said: "Why should they come, I don't see them."

The outside world was less and less in contact with Mikhail Vrubel. Despite all the efforts of his sister and wife, who regularly visited the artist, he plunged into the world of his own dreams: he told something like fairy tales that he would have eyes made of emerald, that he created all his works during the Ancient World or the Renaissance.

During the last year of his life, Vrubel increasingly refused to eat meat, saying that he did not want to eat "slaughter", so they began to serve him a vegetarian table. Strength gradually left the artist, sometimes he said that he was "tired of living."

Sitting in the garden in his last summer, he once said: "The sparrows are chirping to me - a little alive, a little alive." The general appearance of the patient became, as it were, more refined, more spiritualized.

Vrubel walked towards the end with complete calmness. When he began to have pneumonia, which then turned into fleeting consumption, he took it calmly. On his last conscious day, before the agony, Vrubel put himself in order especially carefully (he combed his hair, washed himself with cologne), warmly kissed the hands of his wife and sister, and no longer spoke.

Only at night, after recovering for a while, the artist said, addressing the person who was courting him: "Nikolai, it's enough for me to lie here - we'll go to the Academy." In these words there was some kind of dying prophetic premonition: in a day Vrubel was solemnly brought in a coffin to the Academy of Arts - his alma mater.

I would like to end the story with the words of the psychiatrist Usoltsev, who appreciated Mikhail Vrubel like no one else, understanding the complexity of his genius personality: “I often heard that Vrubel's work is sick creativity. I studied Vrubel for a long time and carefully, and I believe that his work is not only quite normal, but so powerful and strong that even a terrible illness could not destroy him. Creativity was at the heart, in the very essence of his mental personality, and, reaching the end, the disease destroyed him ... He died gravely ill, but as an artist he was healthy and deeply healthy. "

The material was prepared with the support of the Center for the Promotion and Development of Creativity of People with Mental Disorders, Daria Evseeva evseeva-centre.ru

At the beginning of 1902, perhaps one of the most famous paintings by Mikhail Vrubel - "Demon Defeated" - was shown to the public in St. Petersburg at the exhibition "World of Art". Not long before this event, those around him began to notice the artist's symptoms of mental illness. Memories of friends and family allow us to reconstruct the chronology of the last mournful years of Mikhail Vrubel's life, about whom even his attending physician, psychiatrist Usoltsev, wrote: “He died gravely ill, but as an artist he was healthy and deeply healthy.”

1. 1901 was marked by a major family event - a son was born to Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel and his wife Nadezhda Ivanovna. The couple prepared for this event very cheerfully, it seemed to them that the birth of a child would not interfere with their elegant and social life, they fantasized about how they would go abroad with the child to exhibit "The Demon".

2. The spouses were in for a terrible chagrin - the boy was born with a forked upper lip, this deeply struck Mikhail Vrubel. From that very moment, his relatives and friends began to notice that something was wrong with the artist.

3. Vrubel paints a portrait of his son, who was named Savva, and gives his appearance that expression of extreme anxiety, which, probably, he himself is experiencing.

4. At the beginning of 1902, the painting "Demon Defeated" was shown to the public in St. Petersburg at the exhibition "The World of Art". Here is what the sister of Vrubel's wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna Ge, recalls about that exhibition: “Mikhail Alexandrovich, despite the fact that the picture had already been exhibited, was rewriting it every day from early morning, and I saw with horror every day the change. There were days when "The Demon" was very scary, and then again deep sadness and new beauty appeared in the Demon's expression ... In general, despite the illness, the ability to create did not leave Vrubel, it even seemed to grow, but living with him was already becoming unbearable ".

5. In March 1902, Mikhail Vrubel was first admitted to a private psychiatric hospital. In the picture of the artist's illness, ideas of his own greatness prevailed, a period of such intense excitement began that meetings with even the closest people - his wife and sister - were interrupted for six months.

6. In September of the same year, Vrubel was transported to the clinic of a Serbian psychiatrist, transported in one coat and hat, even without underwear, as they said that he had destroyed all his belongings.

7. In this hospital, things went much better, he wrote completely logical letters to his relatives, and on the advice of the doctor he began to paint again.

8. On February 18, 1903, Mikhail Vrubel left the clinic, but he was very sad, and by April he was completely "unstuck": he often cried, yearned, said that he was no good, he could not work at all, although he was offered various orders.

9. On May 3, 1903, a misfortune happened - Savvochka, the only child of Vrubel, died. In the face of this grief, Mikhail Alexandrovich behaved very courageously, personally took up the organization of the funeral, tried to support his wife, who was in despair.

10. After the funeral of their son, Vrubel went to their estate near Kiev, where the artist became very nervous, demanded that he be taken to the hospital as soon as possible. Someone advised to place Vrubel in one of the psychiatric clinics in Riga.

11. This time the illness was of a completely different nature: not a trace of megalomania remained, on the contrary, it was replaced by complete oppression. Vrubel was dull and sad, considered himself insignificant and wanted to lose his life.

12. In the fall, the artist's sister transported him from Riga to Moscow. In a Moscow clinic, he began to paint very successful portraits of patients, but his thoughts were confused, it seemed to Vrubel that both his wife and sister were also patients of a psychiatric hospital.

13. The drawings, made in the clinic, were presented at the exhibition of Moscow artists; not even a shadow of the disease was visible in them.

14. During this period, Vrubel painted the painting "Six-Winged Seraphim", depicting an angel with a burning lamp, a very beautiful thing, made with burning and bright colors.

15. By the spring of 1904, the artist felt so bad that doctors and relatives thought that he would not live to see summer, they wanted to take him abroad, but then they abandoned these plans. For the summer, Moscow clinics were closed, so the Serbian psychiatrist advised that Vrubel be placed in the psychiatrist Usoltsev's hospital recently opened in the outskirts of Moscow.

16. Patients in this hospital lived with the doctor's family and enjoyed great freedom.

17. Moving to Usoltsev's clinic had amazing benefits: Vrubel began to eat (before that he denied himself food, considering himself unworthy of food), his thoughts cleared up, he drew, wrote letters to family and friends, and two months later he recovered so much that he returned home.

18. After the artist was discharged from the hospital, Vrubel moved to St. Petersburg, where Mikhail led the life of an absolutely healthy person: he rented an apartment, had electricity in it and worked a lot.

19. During this period, Vrubel began to paint his amazing "Pearl", which is now in the collection of the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery.

20. By the beginning of 1905, Mikhail Vrubel's wife began to notice a strong excitement, he became intractable, irritable, and spent excessive money on completely unnecessary things. The artist's wife had to "dismiss" the psychiatrist Usoltsev from Moscow, who took Vrubel to his Moscow hospital.

21. Usoltsev had a calming effect on the patient. Once in the clinic, Vrubel began to sleep, and insomnia has always been one of the dangerous symptoms of his illness. The relatives hoped that this time the illness would not last long, alas, but they were mistaken - the excitement was once again replaced by oppression.

22. Despite his illness, Vrubel did not stop working: he painted a portrait of the entire Usoltsev family, many patients and the poet Bryusov, who visited the artist.

23. Bryusov left very interesting memories of his first meeting with Mikhail Vrubel, which took place in the Usoltsev clinic: “To tell the truth, I was horrified to see Vrubel. He was a frail, sick man, in a dirty, rumpled shirt. He had a reddish face; eyes - like a bird of prey; protruding hair instead of a beard. First impression: crazy! After the usual greetings, he asked me: "Should I write this to you?" And he began to examine me in a special way, in an artistic way, intently, almost penetratingly. Immediately, his expression changed. A genius peeped through the madness. "

24. When Vrubel wrote to Bryusov, those around him began to notice that something strange was happening with his eyes, the artist had to come very close to see the model. New suffering went on with terrifying speed, having finished the portrait of Bryusov, Vrubel hardly saw his work.

25. Mikhail Vrubel understood the horror of his situation, the artist, whose world was fabulously beautiful, is now almost blind ... He began to refuse food, saying that if he went hungry for 10 years, he would see his sight and his drawing would be unusually good.

26. The unhappy artist was now ashamed of his acquaintances, he said: "Why should they come, I don't see them."

27. The outside world was less and less in contact with Mikhail Vrubel. Despite all the efforts of his sister and wife, who regularly visited the artist, he plunged into the world of his own dreams: he told something like fairy tales that he would have eyes made of emerald, that he created all his works during the Ancient World or the Renaissance.

28. During the last year of his life, Vrubel increasingly refused meat, saying that he did not want to eat "slaughter", so they began to serve him a vegetarian table. Strength gradually left the artist, sometimes he said that he was "tired of living."

29. Sitting in the garden in his last summer, he once said: "Sparrows are chirping to me - a little alive, a little alive." The general appearance of the patient became, as it were, more refined, more spiritualized.

30. Vrubel went to the end with complete calmness. When he began to have pneumonia, which then turned into fleeting consumption, he took it calmly. On his last conscious day, before the agony, Vrubel put himself in order especially carefully (he combed his hair, washed himself with cologne), warmly kissed the hands of his wife and sister, and no longer spoke.

31. Only at night, after recovering for a while, the artist said, addressing the person who was courting him: "Nikolai, it's enough for me to lie here - we'll go to the Academy." In these words there was some kind of dying prophetic premonition: a day later Vrubel was solemnly brought in a coffin to the Academy of Arts - his alma mater.

32. I would like to end the story with the words of the psychiatrist Usoltsev, who appreciated Mikhail Vrubel like no one else, realizing the complexity of his genius personality: “I often heard that Vrubel's work is sick creativity. I studied Vrubel for a long time and carefully, and I believe that his work is not only quite normal, but so powerful and strong that even a terrible illness could not destroy him. Creativity was at the heart, in the very essence of his mental personality, and, reaching the end, the disease destroyed him ... He died gravely ill, but as an artist he was healthy and deeply healthy. "

33. The material was prepared with the support of the Center for the Promotion and Development of Creativity of People with Mental Disorders, Daria Evseeva evseeva-centre.ru

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