Artistic association art world in short. Painting

The World of Art Association, which embodied the artistic ideals of Symbolism and Art Nouveau, played, contrary to its own aspirations, a significant role in the formation of the avant-garde. Despite the opposition that existed between the world of art and the avant-garde (the most vivid example is the newspaper polemics of A.N. Benois and D.D. Burliuk), the relationship between the two phenomena at the historical and artistic level is obvious.

The acquaintance of Russia with contemporary Western art was carried out thanks to the activities of the world of art. The process began back in 1897-1898, when SP Diaghilev organized exhibitions of English, German, Scandinavian and Finnish artists.

The next step of the World of Art was more daring. In 1899, the first international exhibition of the editorial office of the magazine was held, at which works of famous European artists appeared. Although the organizers of the exhibition continued to take a half-hearted position in relation to contemporary world painting, the general composition of invited foreign artists turned out to be quite diverse. From the French impressionists, the choice fell on Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas; there were also other masters, in one way or another close to modernism, academism and realism. There were no works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin at the exhibition. The English group was represented by Frank Brangwin and American James Whistler. There were works by German (Franz von Lenbach and Max Liebermann), Swiss (Arnold Böcklin) and Italian (Giovanni Boldini) artists. Despite the well-known one-sidedness of the selection, dictated by a certain orientation of the "World of Art", whose members - by their own admission - "overlooked" the Impressionists, Cézanne, Gauguin and other most significant masters of the late 19th century, this exhibition marked a decisive breakthrough into the territory of new European art.

As for the masters of the "World of Art" themselves, they just at the same time began to win certain positions on European exhibition grounds. In the mid-1890s, Benoit received an offer from one of the leaders of the Munich Secession to organize a special Russian section at one of the exhibitions. Throughout the 1900s, the process of penetration of Russian artists to foreign exhibitions took place. In Germany, KASomov became one of the most popular Russian artists, who exhibited at the Vienna and Berlin Secessions in 1901-1902, his personal exhibition took place in Hamburg in 1903, and the first monograph about him was published in 1907 in Berlin. Another leader of the "World of Art", LS Bakst, since the end of the 1890s took part in the Munich Secession, in 1904 he exhibited in Paris, showing his work at the Grand Palais; success came to him in the 1910s, after participating in the Diaghilev enterprise and personal exhibitions in Paris and London.

At the same time, along with the world of art, works by artists of the latest trends began to appear at their exhibitions. In February – March 1906, even before the official creation of the World of Art society in 1910, Diaghilev organized an exhibition under the same name. It was attended by M.F. Larionov, brothers V.D. and N.D. Milioti, N.N. Sapunov, A.G. Yavlensky.

In the early 1910s, World of Art demonstrates a certain openness to new art. So, after the success of the Jack of Diamonds in 1910, some of its representatives turned out to be exhibitors of the World of Art exhibitions (P.P. Konchalovsky, A.V.Lentulov, I.I.Mashkov, A.A. Morgunov, V.V. Rozhdestvensky , R.R. Falk, Burliuk brothers). In 1910–1911, the participants in the World of Art exhibitions were N.S. Goncharova, Larionov, P.V. Kuznetsov, M.S. Saryan, G.B. Yakulov. The press was indignant about this. “Having declared themselves leftists and raising the Diaghilev banner of the“ World of Art ”, the participants of the reporting exhibition… invited…“ anarchists ”” (Early morning. 1911. No. 47. February 27, p.5). There is no “World of Art”, but instead of it there is “Jack of Diamonds” with a tiny pale branch “World of Art”. Guests<...>settled down as at home, with such a swagger that the owners almost did not have a place "(S. Glagol. World of art // Capital rumor. 1911. No. 217. December 5. P.3).

Only Goncharova, Larionov and Yakulov participated in the Moscow exhibition "The World of Art" (November – December 1912) (they were also exhibited at the St. Petersburg exhibition in January – February 1913). Diamonds Mashkov and Lentulov refused to participate by the decision of the general meeting of the "Jack of Diamonds". The Moscow exhibition "The World of Art" (December 1913 - January 1914) brought together a greater number of left-wing artists: NI Altman and AV Shevchenko were added to Goncharova, Larionov and Yakulov. VE Tatlin exhibited "Picturesque Relief" without agreement with the organizers.

The composition of the futurists (as the criticism of the left artists called it) at the exhibitions of the "World of Art" in 1915-1916 changed somewhat: in 1915 the left were represented by the names of L.A. Bruni, P.V. Miturich and N.A. Tyrsa, and in 1916 - K.L.Boguslavskaya, Konchalovsky, Mashkov, V.M. Khodasevich and Yakulova.

In March 1916 Konchalovsky and Mashkov left the Jack of Diamonds and became members of the World of Art society. In the same year, Goncharova joined the society. These facts testified to the assimilation of the once opposing artistic directions. The process continued throughout the next two exhibition seasons (1917-1918): apart from Konchalovsky and Mashkov, works by S.I. Dymshits-Tolstoy, L.M. Lisitsky, S.A. Nagubnikov, A. F. Sofronova.

In May 1917 "World of Art" entered the central federation of the Trade Union of Artists-Painters of Moscow. In 1918 the society enlarged its ranks with the former tambourists A.V. Kuprin, Lentulov, A.I. Milman, Rozhdestvensky, Falk and practically became the center of Moscow Sezannism. P. Kuznetsov was elected chairman of the World of Art in 1918, and Mashkov, Milman and Lentulov were included in the leadership of the society.

In the summer of 1921, the Diamonds reunited under the banners of the "World of Art" - the exhibition of the society was open until November and brought together artists of various trends. In addition to the traditional Diamonds nucleus, the Inkhukovites A.A. Vesnin, A.D. Drevin and N.A. Udaltsova, as well as V.V. Kandinsky and Shevchenko were exhibited.

On this occasion, Falk wrote to Kuprin: “Much has changed in our society [The World of Art”]. Thanks to the efforts of Ilya Ivanovich [Mashkov] and [PV] Kuznetsov, it lost its intended appearance. A lot of new members entered, held by them fuchs, like various students of Kuznetsov, Bebutov, etc. Mashkov wants to become a member of his wife, etc. In general, the atmosphere begins to deteriorate greatly "(RGALI. F.3018. Op.1. Unit. Xr. 147. L. 6).

The next Moscow exhibition (January 1922) testified to the crisis state of the World of Art. Falk informed the same addressee: “I have a melancholy feeling from the exhibition. It seems to me that pathos is necessary in art, but this is not. Everything<...>we are some kind of sweet and sour, not hot and not cold. The revolution reacted very hard on us, very much pressed us to the ground and made us everyday ”(RGALI. F.3018. Op. 1. Unit. 147. L. 10-11).

In the last exhibition of the society, which opened in Paris in June 1927, none of the avant-garde artists participated.

At the end of the 19th century, artistic life in Russia was very lively. The society showed an increased interest in numerous art exhibitions and auctions, in articles and reports of the periodical press devoted to the visual arts. Not only Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also many provincial newspapers and magazines had corresponding permanent headings. All sorts of artistic associations arose that set themselves various tasks, but mainly of an educational nature, in which the influence of the traditions of itinerant movement was reflected.

In these conditions, Diaghilev's idea of ​​rallying the young artistic forces of St. Petersburg and Moscow, the need for which had long been felt in Russian art, was greeted favorably.

In 1898, Diaghilev first achieved their joint performance at the Exhibition of Russian and Finnish Artists. It was attended by Bakst, Benois, A. Vasnetsov, K. Korovin, Nesterov, Lancere, Levitan, Malyutin, E. Polenova, Ryabushkin, Serov, Somov and others.

In the same 1898 Diaghilev managed to convince the famous figures and art lovers S. I. Mamontov and M. K. Tenisheva to finance a monthly art magazine. Soon a double issue of the magazine "World of Art" was published in St. Petersburg, the editor of which was Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev.

It was the first art magazine, whose character and direction were determined by the artists themselves. The editors informed the readers that the magazine will consider the works of Russian and foreign masters "of all epochs of art history, to what extent the aforementioned works are of interest and significance for modern artistic consciousness."

The next year, 1899, the First International Exhibition of the World of Art magazine took place. It featured over 350 works and was attended by forty-two European artists, including P. de Chavannes. D. Whistler, E. Degas, C. Monet, O. Renoir. Exhibition

allowed Russian artists and viewers to get acquainted with various areas of Western art.

Thanks to the appearance of the magazine "World of Art" and the exhibitions of 1898-1899, a circle of young artists who sympathized with the direction of the magazine emerged.

In 1900, Diaghilev managed to unite many of them in the creative community “World of Art”. This “brilliant team” (the expression of A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva) was made up of remarkable artists who came to art in the 1890s, namely: Bakst, Alexander Benois, Bilibin, Braz, Vrubel, Golovin, Grabar, Dobuzhinsky. K. Korovin, Lancere, Malyutin, Malyavin, Ostroumova, Purvit, Roerich, Ruschits, Serov, Somov, Trubetskoy, Tsionglinsky, Yakunchikova and Yaremich.

In addition, Repin, V. and E. Polenovs, A. Vasnetsov, Levitan, Nesterov, Ryabushkin took part in some of the exhibitions of the World of Art of that time.

From 1900 to 1903, three exhibitions of the "World of Art" were held. Organizing these exhibitions, Diaghilev focused on young Russian artists. These were Petersburgers - Bakst, Benoit. Somov, Lanceray and Muscovites - Vrubel, Serov, K. Korovin, Levitan, Malyutin, Ryabushkin and others. It was on the Muscovites that Diaghilev pinned the greatest hopes. He wrote: "... all our present art and everything from which we can expect the future is in Moscow." Therefore, he did his best to attract Moscow artists to the World of Art exhibitions, which he did not always succeed in.

The World of Art exhibitions thoroughly introduced the Russian society to the works of famous Russian masters and novice artists who have not yet achieved recognition, such as Bilibin, Ostroumova, Dobuzhinsky, Lancere, Kustodiev, Yuon, Sapunov, Larionov, P. Kuznetsov, Saryan.

There is no need to cover in detail here the activities of the "World of Art", since recently there have been publications dedicated to it. It should be said about some of its general features, they were emphasized by the world of art themselves and many contemporaries.

The World of Art association was not an accidental phenomenon in Russian art, but a historically conditioned one. Such, for example, was the opinion of I. E. Grabar: “If it were not for Diaghilev<...>, art of this order was bound to appear ”.

Touching upon the issue of the continuity of artistic culture, Diaghilev said in 1906: "The whole present and future of Russian plastic art ... will somehow feed on the same precepts that the World of Art received from a careful study of the great Russian masters since the time of Peter."

A.N. Benoit wrote that everything done by the World of Artists "did not mean at all" that they "broke with all the past." On the contrary, Benois argued, the very core of the World of Art "stood for the renewal of many, both technical and ideological traditions of Russian and international art." And further: “... we considered ourselves to a large extent representatives of the same quests and the same creative methods that we valued in the portrait painters of the 18th century, and in Kiprensky, and in Venetsianov, and in Fedotov, as well as in outstanding masters directly the generation that preceded us - in Kramskoy, Repin, Surikov ”.

V. E. Makovsky, a well-known itinerant, in an interview with a journalist said: “We have done our job<...>We are constantly given examples of the Union of Russian Artists and the World of Art, where all the best forces of Russian painting are supposedly concentrated now. But who are these best forces if not our children?<...>Why did they leave us? Yes, because they felt cramped and they decided to found their new society ”.

In the works of the World of Art, this continuity of the best traditions of itinerant movement manifested itself during the 1905 revolution. Most of the artists of the World of Art joined the struggle against tsarism, taking an active part in the publication of publications of political satire.

The World of Art has played a noticeable and sometimes even decisive role in the creative destiny of many artists. I. E. Grabar, for example, only after meeting with members of the committee of exhibitions "World of Art", Diaghilev, Benois and Serov, "believed in himself and began to work." Even Serov himself was said, not without reason, that “the active sympathy of the World of Art circle miraculously inspired and strengthened his work”

KS Petrov-Vodkin wrote in 1923 in his memoirs about The World of Art: “What is the charm of Diaghilev, Benoit, Somov, Bakst, Dobuzhinsky? Such constellations of human groups appear at the boundaries of historical turning points. They know a lot and carry these values ​​of the past with them. They know how to extract things from the dust of history and, reviving them, give them a modern sound ... "The World of Art" played its historical role brilliantly. " And in another place of the same memoirs: “When you remember how twenty years ago, among the miasms of decadence, among the historical bad taste, blackness and slush of painting, Sergei Diaghilev and his comrades equipped his ship, how we, young men, took wings then along with them, suffocating in the obscurantism that surrounds us - you will remember all this, you will say: yes, well done, guys, you brought us on your shoulders to the present ”.

NK Roerich declared that it was the “World of Art” that “raised the banner for new conquests of art”.

Remembering the distant 1900s at the end of her life, A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva wrote: “The Mir artists chose and invited young artists to their society when they noticed in them, in addition to talent, a sincere and serious attitude to art and to their work<...>Artists persistently put forward the principle of "craft in art", that is, they wanted artists to make paintings with full, detailed knowledge of the materials with which they worked, and to bring the technique to perfection<...>In addition, they all talked about the need to raise the culture and taste among artists and never denied the themes in the paintings and, therefore, did not deprive the fine arts of its inherent properties of agitation and propaganda. " The conclusion of Ostroumova-Lebedeva was very definite: “You simply cannot destroy the significance of the World of Art society and deny it, for example, as art critics do here because of the principle of“ art for art ”.

K.F. Yuon noted: “The World of Art” indicated the untouched virgin lands of diverse means of artistic expression. He encouraged everything soil and national ... ”. In 1922, A. M. Gorky defined this concentration of remarkable talents as "a whole trend that revived Russian art."

The "World of Art" ceased to exist in 1903, but continued to retain a tremendous attractive force for contemporaries. In 1910, the World of Art society re-emerged in St. Petersburg, but Diaghilev no longer took part in its work. Diaghilev's artistic activity took a different direction.

In 1905, in the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg, he arranged a grandiose Historical and Art Exhibition of Russian portraits. Not limited to works from the capital's palaces and museums, Diaghilev toured the province, revealing a total of about 4,000 portraits. There were many interesting and unexpected finds at the exhibition. Russian portrait art appeared to be unusually significant and rich. V. E. Borisov-Musatov wrote in those days to V. A. Serov: “For this work [v. that is, the arrangement of the exhibition] Diaghilev is a genius, and his historical name would have become immortal. Its meaning is somehow little understood and I am sincerely sorry for him that he was somehow left alone. " The photographs taken at the initiative of Diaghilev from most of the exhibits (the negatives are kept in the TG) now make it possible to get acquainted with many masterpieces of Russian art that perished or disappeared during the turbulent events of the 1905 revolution, civil and world wars (for example, the fate of eighteen works by D. G. Levitsky, who, among his other works, were exhibited at the Tauride exhibition).

In the spring of 1905, cultural figures in Moscow decided to honor Diaghilev in gratitude for the fact that he edited the magazine "World of Art" and arranged a Historical and Art Exhibition. Responding to greetings, Diaghilev said: “... it was after these greedy wanderings [Diaghilev is referring to the trips across Russia that he undertook, collecting works for the Historical and Art Exhibition] that I was especially convinced that the time had come for the results. I observed this not only in the brilliant images of ancestors, so clearly distant from us, but mainly in descendants who are living out their days. The end of life is here<...>We are witnesses of the greatest historical moment of outcomes and ends in the name of a new, unknown culture that will arise by us, but will sweep us as well. And therefore, without fear and disbelief, I raise a glass to the destroyed walls of beautiful palaces, as well as to the new testaments of a new aesthetics ”

An important role in Russian culture at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries was played by the artistic association "World of Art", which had a huge impact on the development of Russian Symbolism and Art Nouveau.

The emergence and stages of the existence of the association

The history of the "World of Art" began in 1887 with the formation of a group of students from Karl May's school "Nevsky Pickvikians", which included A. Benois, K. Somov, V. Nouvel, D. Filosofov.

The purpose of the circle is to study the history of fine arts and music. Later S. Diaghilev and L. Bakst joined this circle. The circle under the leadership of Diaghilev had grown by 1898 and turned into a creative association "World of Art".

A. Benois, self-portrait

This was facilitated by two events:

1. The first issue of the magazine "World of Art", published by Princess M.K. Tenishev and S.I. Mamontov;

2. An exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists, in which, in addition to members of the circle, S.V. Malyutin, I.I. Levitan, A.M. Vasnetsov, V.A. Serov and others.

In 1900, the association was formalized, a charter was drawn up and a management committee was elected.

In 1902, the article "Forms of Art" was published in the twentieth issue of the magazine "World of Art", from that moment many Symbolist poets published their works on its pages.

In 1904, disagreements arose between artists and poets, the magazine "World of Art" ceased to be published, the association disintegrated. In 1906 he arranged a farewell exhibition before emigrating to Paris under the same name. In Paris from 1909-1914, he also organized the "Russian Seasons". Since 1910, the association has been reviving under the leadership of Benois, but acts as an exhibition organization, since 1917, some members of the association have turned to restoration and museum-organizational activities. In the 1920s, the "World of Art" finally ceased to exist.

Miriskusniki - members of the art association

The main ideologists of this artistic association were A. Benois and S. Diaghilev.

From 1904 to 1910, many members of the association were members of the Union of Russian Artists. The main core of the "World of Art" included E. Lancere, K. Somov, L. Bakst, M. Dobuzhinsky. Subsequently, they were joined by members of the Abramavtsev circle V. Serov, M. Nesterov, the Vasnetsov brothers, M. Vrubel and others. In 1906, young artists joined the association: M. Saryan, M. Larionov and N. Feofilaktov.

Diaghilev paid great attention to the magazine "World of Art", published critical articles there, wrote about the problems of international cultural exchange. Diaghilev was also actively involved in organizational activities, organized exhibitions of contemporary Russian artists, Western European painters, etc.

Aesthetic views of the "World of Art"

The World of Art Association strove for lofty spiritual and artistic values ​​and opposed contemporary artistic views of itinerant movement and academicism. In the visual arts, the world of art even cultivated "Cultural amateurism", since he also personified a form of creative freedom, not bound by any canons.

The ideal of "pure" art was combined among the world of artists with the idea that artistic creation is designed to aesthetically change the surrounding reality. Most of the members of the association drew inspiration from the artistic achievements of the past. - received a kind of embodiment in their works. Different epochs attracted artists not for their historical features or turns of development, but only for their aesthetics, style, atmosphere. The artists of "Mir" in such canvases aspired to play, fantasy, theatricalization. Another important feature of the World of Artists was irony and self-irony.

The early World of Art, focusing on Western European groupings, united artists and writers based on the ideas of modernity, neo-romanticism, etc. The main goal of creativity in the understanding of the participants in the "World of Art" is beauty in the subjective understanding of the artist. A little later, the painters began to focus more on the motives of the national past of pre-Petrine Russia. As a result, the association was divided into two groups of artists: Petersburg (oriented to the west) and Moscow (oriented to the national past). But despite all the differences, this artistic association tied them all to oppose the official academic art and naturalism of the later.

In the second half of the 19th century, art was sometimes created by amateurs who did not have a professional art education; they strove to establish a new direction in the problems of fine arts and in matters of culture.

Activities and significance of the World of Art association

Exhibitions organized by the "World of Art" were held with great success. In 1899 Diaghilev organized an international exhibition, which exhibited works by Boecklin, Whistler, Monet, Degas, Moreau, Puvis de Chavantes, and others. In the period from 1899 to 1903, five such major exhibitions were held.

Miriskusniki published a magazine of the same name, in which many philosophers, religious thinkers and poets were published. The magazine was beautifully illustrated by artists of this direction.

One of the important aspects of the activities of the participants of the "World of Art" was to arouse interest in the artistic creations of the national past, in this regard, they published collections "Artistic Treasures of Russia", etc. Members of the community opened whole periods in the history of art - movements , painters and sculptors of the 18th-19th centuries. The publications in the magazine also dealt with contemporary artists, articles about the great figures of world culture were published.

The creativity of the participants of the "World" was multifaceted, they were engaged in painting, arts and crafts, the design of theatrical performances, but most of their heritage is made up of graphic works.

The highest flowering of theatrical and decorative activity was the design of the performances of "Russian Seasons" in Paris. Painting was dominated by the urban landscape, portrait and historical and everyday genre. A special achievement in graphics was the appearance of book illustrations. Some of the participants during the revolution of 1905-1907. acted as masters of political satire.

A characteristic feature of the works of many of the world of art was decorativeism, linearity and a combination of matte tones.

The "World of Art" association was closely associated with "Evenings of Contemporary Music", the purpose of which was to perform and promote Western European music of the 19th-20th centuries.

Members of the World of Art association often took part in various evenings-salons. The most famous of them in the Russian culture of the Silver Age were "Ivanovskie Wednesday", the collection "On the Tower" by Vyacheslav Ivanov, "Resurrection", the salons of Sologub and

The association left a deep mark on the history of Russian art, first of all, by the fact that the people of this circle paid attention in a new way to the problems of the artistic form and the pictorial language.

The contribution of the World of Art to history is invaluable. This is not only painting, graphics, poetry and prose, but scientific works on the history of art and culture of the Silver Age

"World of Art. To the 115th anniversary of the unification ”. Painting, Kazan, Sandetsky Estate

Lobasheva Irina Fayekovna - candidate of art history, associate professor of the branch of the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V.I.Surikov in Kazan

“Our circle had no direction,
... instead of direction, taste reigned in us "
A. N. Benois

WORLD OF ART (1898 - 1924) - an association of Russian artists, created in St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century, which declared itself by the eponymous literary and art magazine (1899-1904) and exhibitions (the last took place in Paris in 1927). The Society of Artists "World of Art" arose and existed in St. Petersburg from 1898 to 1904, and was revived again in 1910.

Its founders are the artist, theorist and art historian, museum specialist A.N. Benois and philanthropist, art connoisseur S.P.Dyagilev, editor of the magazine of the same name and organizer of the famous "Russian Seasons" in Paris. In addition to the main core, which included L. S. Bakst, M. V. Dobuzhinsky, E. E. Lancere, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, K. A. Somov, "The World of Art" included many St. Petersburg and Moscow painters and graphic artists (I. Ya.Bilibin, K.F.Bogaevsky, Apostle M. and V.M. Vasnetsov, A. Ya.Golovin, I.E. Grabar, K.A.Korovin, B.M. K. Roerich, V. A. Serov and others). M.A. Vrubel, I. I. Levitan, M. V. Nesterov, as well as some foreign artists took part in the exhibitions of the society.

B. Kustodiev. "World of Art"

A sketch of an unrealized painting. Depicted (from left to right): I.E. Grabar, N.K. Roerich, E.E. Lanceray, I. Ya. Bilibin, A.N. Benois, G.I. Narbut, N. D. Milioti, K.A. Somov, M.V. Dobuzhinsky, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, B.M. Kustodiev.
Year of creation -1916, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.

In the "World of Art" in different years included many artists of different beliefs and views, different creative methods and styles (by 1917 the composition of the society consisted of the maximum number of artists - more than 50 full members). All of them were united by a protest against the official academic art, which neutralized creative individuals, and a rejection of naturalism in art in the person of the later "Itinerants". In the history of Russian art, such a phenomenon as the "World of Art" became a turn towards the ideals of freedom of creativity, towards the assertion of the aesthetic criteria and priorities of the artistic individuality of the creator's personality. Bearers of high intellectual culture, the World of Art artists, in their work, turned to the past (idealizing it and mocking it) and a wide range of spheres of contemporary art (interior design, theater, printmaking, books, etc.).

One of the main achievements of the association was the famous St. Petersburg graphic school of that time, which arose as a result of the creation of a special aesthetic environment by the world of art, where the highest admiration for graphics as a form of art was cultivated. This priority of graphics largely influenced the development of painting of typical representatives of this association, it acquired graphic features, became emphatically linear.

"WORLD OF ART" ... Reflections on the famous largest association that arose in St. Petersburg at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, like a fancy stained-glass window, give birth to a voluminous, multidimensional and at the same time extremely aristocratic, ephemeral image of an amazing, deeply symbolic artistic world created by the masters of this associations.

Alexandre Benois - "The King's Walk" 1906

In it, intricately, ornamental in the spirit of the Art Nouveau style, various creative ideas of a large group of artists are intertwined. Their embodiment is surprising in its diversity: the magazines "World of Art", filled with refined aesthetics of Art Nouveau, which have become a valuable rarity among specialists and collectors, picturesque canvases where stylization and retrospective go hand in hand, theatrical scenery of the famous Russian seasons with innovative plastic and color solutions, original ballet and opera costumes.

The turning point of the epoch of the turn of the XIX - XX centuries, the time of major socio-political upheavals, was reflected in all spheres of life in Russia, including the Russian culture of that time, which was revealed in all its diversity and individuality. During these years, Russian artists especially actively travel abroad, get acquainted with the latest trends in Western art, carefully study everything new that is declared in such styles as German Art Nouveau, French Impressionism, Post-Impressionism. In the works of the most famous masters of that time: Serov, Vrubel, Bakst, it is impossible to single out any one "clean" line of a direction taken once and for all, complex and closely intertwined, they demonstrate an intense search for a new creative method that meets the aspirations of the time. As the famous art critic G. Yu. Sternin wrote, “the larger the artist was, the more difficult it was to determine his belonging to one style or another”.

One of the largest societies of this period was the group of artists "The World of Art" (1898-1924), who opposed themselves to academism and itinerant movement, promoting the aesthetic ideas of the synthesis of arts, underlying the Art Nouveau style, and a special kind of retrospectivism, based on a careful study of antiquity, in features of the heritage of the "golden" XVIII century. They drew inspiration from the history of Russia in Peter's time or France in the era of Louis XIV (A.N. Benois, E.E. Lansere, K.A. . Bakst, V. A. Serov, N. K. Roerich). At the same time, without touching on large historical topics, the masters focused their attention on private aspects of the life of the imperial persons, episodes of the court life of the 18th century or the life of pagan Russia, giving a kind of artistic interpretation of these events, their own stylization from the angle of their contemporary vision, endowing the created images with some symbolic a theatrical decision, a game of associations.

On the example of the painting collection of Russian art of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, first demonstrated within the framework of the 115th anniversary of the "World of Art" so integral and deployed from the angle of the evolution of this society, all the complexity and versatility of its development becomes obvious. The peculiarity of the museum collection is that most of the masters and their paintings included in this exhibition are better known in the history of Russian art in connection with other artistic trends and associations. Meanwhile, many of them, not being typical representatives of the "World of Art", to varying degrees participated in its activities, and therefore it is very interesting to trace the development of certain stylistic tendencies in the work of various masters, to discover their explicit and hidden interrelationships. In the picturesque exposition of the exhibition, revealing the diversity and relationships of the leading trends of that time in the history of this association, about 50 works are presented. Many of them are either shown for the first time, or have not participated in museum exhibitions for a long time, therefore, for museum visitors, acquaintance with them will become a kind of discovery of new creative facets of this or that painter.

The main group of artists of the "World of Art" formed around the magazine of the same name in 1898-1903, when, in parallel with the release of this publication, which covered various aspects of art, literature, philosophy of that time and was distinguished by exquisite graphic design, S.P.Dyagilev and A.N. Benois hosted large art exhibitions. The collection of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts includes the leaders of the association - the ideologist and theorist of the group A. N. Benois, its members K. A. Somov, A. Ya. Golovin, and other artists who are close to the principles of the senior world of art. Their works, regardless of genre, are marked by a tendency to theatricalization, filled with the aesthetics of the Art Nouveau style, which arose on the platform of European neo-romanticism and, as mentioned above, gave rise to various types of stylization in Russian painting.

A. Ya. Golovin "Woman in White" (second name "Marquis")

Executed in the pastel technique "Oranienbaum" (1901) by A. N. Benois, "Woman in White" (the second name of "The Marquis") by A. Ya. Golovin, with the linear clarity inherent in these artists, emphasized by the contour harmony the world of the past centuries, the world of the XVIII century. Undoubtedly, such an appeal to the past demonstrated a kind of denial, rejection of the real world around him and became the main motive of the unification works of that time. In many ways, the technique of performance contributed to the creation of such abstract, symbolic, refined images. Pastel, which the world of art was very fond of, its special borderline between painting and graphics gave the desired effect when a painting acquired both a clear graphic quality and fluid, characteristic of Art Nouveau, fusing softness of presentation. Close to this manner are the oil paintings "Bosquet" (1901) by K. A. Somov, used by the artist when working on his famous painting "Laughed Kiss" (1908), kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery, as well as P. I. Lvov's landscape "Gray Day" ...

P. I. Lvov “Landscape. Gray day "

The search for harmony, an ideal world was at the heart of the works of V.E. Borisov-Musatov. And although in most of the artist's works, for all the understatement, in the language of allegories and comparisons, the same period of the 18th - early 19th centuries is read, he himself did not tie his works to a specific time, saying that “this is just a beautiful era”. Almost always the wonderful world of the artist is a fading, “sunset”, disappearing world. We find a direct embodiment of this in V. E. Borisov-Musatov's painting "Harmony" (1897), a draft version of the painting of the same name from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist was not formally a member of the association - the world of art themselves at first "did not see" him, later recognizing the originality of the master's creative aesthetics. However, he was always close to their aspirations.

V. E. Borisov-Musatov "Harmony" (1897)

F. E. Ruschits "Stream"

Landscape "Oranienbaum" (1901) by A. N. Benois, very typical for the master's work, who, despite the easel solution, may well be regarded as a sketch of theatrical scenery, participated in the exhibition "World of Art" in 1902. At the same exhibition, the landscape "Stream" was presented by the Baltic and Polish artist F.E. This finds expression in the landscape under consideration, written, of course, in a realistic key, but served with the deepest nostalgic emotional sound, so characteristic of the world of art, giving rise to a sad melody of the irrevocably gone past. A similar combination of realistic traditions and Art Nouveau techniques can be found in the large pictorial vertical portrait of A.E. Wiesel - Strauss (early 1900s) by the artist E.O. Wiesel.

One of the main figures in the artistic life of Russia at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries was the personality of V. A. Serov, an unsurpassed master of Russian portrait painting, who actively participated in the activities of the "World of Art" at the stage of the formation of society. In the early period of his work, a work was written on a theme from ancient mythology "Iphigenia in Taurida", created in the early 1890s, long before the artist's famous trip to Greece with his friend L. S. Bakst. It, like the examples just considered, can fully serve as an illustration of the problem of the "style situation" raised above, since it also combines various stylistic phenomena.

V.A. Serov "Iphigenia in Taurida" 1893

It is known that many masters of the Union of Russian Artists (1903-1923), one of the largest, along with the World of Art, art associations at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, which arose with the lively participation of the latter, also belonged to the circle of the World of Art. Naturally, they did not escape the influence of the creative principles of their elder Petersburg brother, especially at the beginning of the Union's activities, when the artists of both groups exhibited at joint exhibitions of this newly formed association. The process of such mutual influence can be clearly traced when analyzing the paintings of such major representatives of the "Union" as K. A. Korovin, B. M. Kustodiev, S. Yu. Zhukovsky, I. I. Brodsky, S. V. Malyutin, I. E. Grabar, who were in the "World of Art" or participated in its exhibitions. In turn, the leaders of the world of art, despite all the disagreements with the artists of the "Union", absorbed the new artistic ideas they brought.

"K.A. Korovin" Roses "(1916)

KA Korovin, a remarkable colorist, a brilliant master of easel and theatrical decorative painting, is represented in the exposition by the still life "Roses" (1916), painted with temperament and lusciousness, with a wide pasty brushstroke. One of the main members of the "Union of Russian Artists", he was the central figure of Russian impressionism. It should be noted the emphasized theatricality in the staging of the museum still life, close to the style of still life paintings by A. Ya.Golovin or N.N.Sapunov, authoritative theater masters of that time, among whom Korovin occupied one of the most worthy places, and this especially made him intimate with the circle of old of the world of art.

Another significant artist of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, Osip Braz, also a member of the World of Art and the Union of Russian Artists, is represented by the magnificent painting The Lady in Yellow. The use of an unusual angle and the splendor of the color gradation of yellow is especially attractive in the portrait. The feeling of pouring warmth, soft sunlight around the figure and in the mirror reflection, enhanced by the contrast of color combinations, betrays the artist's clear addiction to warm colors and tones.

Another original female portrait at the exhibition is a kind of early painting by B. M. Kustodiev, who joined the World of Art association at the second stage of its existence. Portrait “Lady in Blue. P. M. Sudkovskaya "(1906) is unusual in the artist's creative practice: in this work, the master created, first of all, an excellent" portrait of a dress ", setting the main goal of plasticity and coloring of the pictorial solution of the dress. This large, full-length portrait, undoubtedly, was painted by Kustodiev under the impression of the famous work of K. A. Somov "Lady in Blue" - a portrait of a contemporary of the master artist E. Martynova, in which Somov managed to express especially subtly nostalgic admiration for the past, this image acquired a truly symbolic meaning.

B.M. Kustodiev "Lilac" (1906)

The collection of the Pushkin Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan contains several more paintings by Kustodiev, and they are all stylistically different. The theme of the theater was one of the leading in the work of the world of art. A small canvas "In the Theater" (1907 (?)) By Kustodiev's brush attracts with its unusual perspective - a look from the depths of the theater box behind the spectators standing in strict dress coats and top hats. The master uses the original course of backlighting, which, on the one hand, gives the silhouette of the construction, the line of the light contour, and on the other hand, fills the canvas with special emotions, familiar to many theater lovers with the excitement of a spectator who is late for a performance, who is in a hurry to join the everlasting bright theatrical holiday. The study for the painting of the same name "Lilac" (1906) - another quite often demanded plot (remember the famous "Lilac" by Vrubel) - also demonstrates stylistic interpenetration in the synthesis of semantic elegiac sound with a free pictorial presentation.

Zalevsky (?) "Portrait of an Unknown Woman"

A series of gorgeous female images at the exhibition amazes with their magnificence and diversity. The portrait of his daughter, painted in pastels by S.V. Malyutin, is shrouded in softness, warmth, and a special intimate feeling. The finest stylistic connections, the artist's aesthetic taste are well read in it. Another female portrait by the Polish artist Zalewski was also made in pastel technique. The image of a lady of high society was created by the master with a special tactful accent, allowing one to see in it a certain perfect symbol, the female ideal of the Silver Age. Ephemerality, refined intellectuality, noble aristocracy - these are the qualities that together gave a heartfelt image, full of deep spirituality.

S. V. Malyutin - "Portrait of a Daughter" 1912

A common ideological feature of the "Union of Russian Artists" was the assertion of Russian national identity in landscape, historical painting, graphic art. Working in the open air, from nature, the painters of this trend created emotionally rich works that were based on the techniques of impressionism. Landscape and interior were the predominant genres of the masters of this association, especially the Moscow painters, and acted as a creative laboratory, where the search for the most perfect pictorial approaches was carried out, new solutions were drawn.

One of the typical representatives of the "Union" was the artist of Polish origin S. Yu. Zhukovsky. The appeal to the era of the past centuries, which is present in the painting "The Interior of the Library of a Manor House" (1916 (?)), Brings the artist closer to the world of art, in his work, in general, one can note the predominance of retrospective themes - types of old estates, terraces, interiors, in which there is always a light nostalgic note. The same motive is also present in "Winter Landscape" (1901 (?)) By S. Yu. Zhukovsky, written in a sketchy manner. The transitional state of a dying winter evening is conveyed with brilliant plasticity, the mass of thought-out tonal gradations demonstrates how sensitively and carefully the artist strives to convey the subtle beauty of such a simple and unpretentious landscape.

S. Yu. Zhukovsky. "Interior of the library of a manor house" (1916)

Love for such a "gray" Russian landscape was characteristic of artists of different "beliefs" in art, and each of them embodied it in his own way. Two spring landscapes by the artist S. F. Kolesnikov, who also took part in the World of Art exhibitions, are imbued with the same special refined understanding of the state of nature. Such landscapes of mood can be called the harbingers of symbolism, in which the authors focused precisely on the inner state of nature. We find the same attentive attitude to the natural state in A. F. Gaush's "Winter Landscape", which attracts with the absolute gentleness of presentation, that special winter state when "everything is covered with snow", and is a vivid example of the master's enthusiasm for impressionistic solutions.

I. E. Grabar "Morning Tea" (1917)

I.E. Grabar is represented at the exhibition by two canvases of the museum collection "Morning Tea" (1917) and "Sunset" (1907), vividly demonstrating his passion in painting in the field of impressionism and pointillism, which were directly opposite to the stylistic essence of Art Nouveau. Meanwhile, being artistically alien to this style, Grabar's educational initiatives invariably intersected with those of the world of art. That is why he, along with Roerich, Kustodiev, Bilibin, Dobuzhinsky, was one of the most active participants in the "World of Art" in the second period, since 1910.

Pointillist artists (or, as they were also called, neo-impressionists), who brought the expressiveness of a painterly brushstroke to the point-like purity of paint, certainly came as close as possible to the symbolic expressiveness of their images. Such are the fabulous winter landscapes of N.V. Meshcherin in the museum collection, of which his "Frosty Night" (1908) is especially consonant with the aesthetics of Art Nouveau. This nightly winter fantasy, where every stroke is laid out thoughtfully, verified, like pieces of colored mosaic smalt, created in all shades of blue and light blue, as a result of which a fragile crystal ringing image of a frosty winter fairy tale is born.

SYMBOLISM was extremely close to the philosophy of modernity, therefore, considering the works of the world of art, we invariably analyze the manifestations of symbolic elements in them. In turn, the reminiscences of the art of antiquity, the East, the Renaissance, Gothic culture, the heritage of the art of Ancient Russia and the art of the 18th century, which had an original embodiment in the activities of the world of art, were peculiarly manifested in this new artistic direction of the beginning of the 20th century, which was formed somewhat later.

N.K. Roerich and K.F.Bogayevsky, students of A.I. deep character, contained in its philosophical basis ancient prototypes. These artists had points of contact with the "World of Art" and left a deep imprint on the activities of the association. For example, Roerich's role in the revival of society at the second stage of its existence is widely known, when he headed the newly formed World of Art, becoming its chairman, and played a significant organizational role in its further development. In general, at this stage of society's activity, it is difficult to single out any leading style direction, modern has lost the role of a unifying style system, there were few true heirs of this system. The composition of the "World of Art" in the early 1910s included masters of various directions, primarily of the symbolistic sense, due to which the exhibitions of the society acquired the variegation and heterogeneity characteristic of that time.

N.K. Roerich "Mekheski - lunar people" (1915)

The history and mythology of different peoples of the Earth was the main inspiring beginning of N.K. Roerich's work. The paintings "Varangian Sea" (1909) and "Mekheski - Lunar People" (1915), original in design and execution, are dedicated to the life of ancient civilizations. In compositions based on bold contrasting combinations of generalized large spots of color, where the images of people are outlined laconically but expressively, the artist brings his idea of ​​the relationship between the earthly and the cosmic to a powerful three-dimensional symbol. Museum canvases “Desert country. Feodosia "(1903) and" Mount St. George "(1911) by the artist KF Bogaevsky, who was a member of the famous Cimmerian school of painting, are also examples of symbolism. They are dedicated to themes that have become a favorite for the artist throughout his entire career. They show the native places of the master, painted as images of the old land, where the painter's fantastic ideas are intertwined with the ancient pre-cultural history of Crimea, giving rise to peculiar images of the fabulous country of Feodosia.

K.F. Bogaevsky "Desert country. Feodosia" 1903

Examples of works of the symbolist direction are works from the museum collection of members of the art group "Blue Rose" (1907), which included N. P. Krymov, P. V. Kuznetsov, P. S. Utkin, N. N. Sapunov, M. S. Saryan, S. Yu. Sudeikin, ND Milioti, presented in this exhibition. In the paintings of the artists of this group, conventionality, allegoricality, decorativeness, and flatness were harmoniously combined. The striving for stylization, symbolism, sometimes for primitivization of the image in the spirit of popular prints, children's creativity is a characteristic feature of the group's creativity. The general trend in the development of the artists of the group was the transition from impressionism to post-impressionism. They were joined by V.I.Denisov, the artist V.A.Gal'vich was very close to their creative aspirations, whose works are also shown at the exhibition.

It is significant that all of them - both the world of art and the symbolists - were fascinated by the theater: the theater is present in easel works, the theater becomes a place where professional ambitions are embodied. Many of the easel compositions of the Goluborozovites in the museum collection can be read as backdrops of scenery or sketches of theatrical scenes, images of the performance (works by N.P. Krymov, P.S. Utkin, N.N.Sapunov, S. Yu. Sudeikin, N.D. Milioti ). At a later stage in the existence of the World of Art association, in 1917 and later, almost all of these masters were included in it or took part in exhibitions along with the avant-garde artists.

Initially, V.E.Borisov-Musatov and M.A.Vrubel took part in the activities of the BlueRozovites, whose art both before and after stood apart from this group, but developed on the same aesthetic platform of symbolism. Their art became the starting point for the Russian Symbolists in creating their own vision of the artistic process, and therefore it can be considered as a kind of bridge between the traditional aesthetic attitudes of the modernist world of art and the symbolism that has developed among the BlueRozovites.

M.A. Vrubel "Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles" (1896)

The monumental painting by Mikhail Vrubel "The Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles" (1896) is the pride of the museum collection of Russian art. This large four-meter decorative panel is a draft version of the famous panel of the same name for the Gothic study of the mansion of merchants Vikula Alekseevich and Aleksei Vikulovich Morozov in Vvedensky Lane in Moscow, built in 1878–1879 by the project of the outstanding architects D. N. Chichagov and F. O. Shekhtel. The artist worked with large isolated spots of color, which have a kind of linear edging, akin to the stained glass technique. This found manner of writing, a special ornamental principle set the rhythm of the movement of spots and lines on the surface of the canvas, naturally connecting Vrubel's images with modernity and, at the same time, giving them a special conventional and symbolic sound. Thus, Vrubel and the world of art were united by an understanding of the essence of artistic aesthetics, it was no coincidence that the master found himself among the consecutive members of society, participating in the first exhibitions of the society.

V.G. Purvit "Old Tower" (until 1920)

In the mainstream of symbolism, the evolution of creativity of artists of the World of Art, very different in their creative expression, proceeded. This can be clearly seen in the works of the future cubist and supremacist NI Altman, commissioner and organizer of the exhibitions of the "World of Art" KV Kondaurov, artist of the school of KS Petrov-Vodkin MM Nakhman, presented at this exhibition. Along with these works, the exposition also displays graphic works by famous world artists B.I. "(Gray cardboard, tempera)).
Meanwhile, World of Art's long and complex history has been filled with a variety of events and turning points. In particular, through the prism of the last decade in the evolution of the World of Art, one can partly consider the artistic names of the museum collection, which are well known in the formation of other trends in Russian art, which often do not coincide at all, and sometimes are directly opposite to the creative dominant of the association. An interesting example of this is the participation in the exhibitions of the association of some avant-garde artists even before the formation of their innovative creative aspirations. For example, the well-known primitivist, author of the theory of rayonism, M. F. Larionov, at the exhibition "World of Art" in 1906, performed the landscape "Garden in Spring", which clearly demonstrates the artist's appeal to impressionism at an early stage of his work. Later, in the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary years, these masters, mostly representatives of the "Jack of Diamonds", performed at exhibitions of the world of art with their characteristic avant-garde examples of creativity.

I.I. Mashkov "Flowers in a Vase", late 1900s

Only in one of these works, in the early still life of I. I. Mashkov "Flowers in a Vase" of the late 1900s, we are surprised to note the rare combination of sophisticated arabesque stylizations of Art Nouveau with innovative formative searches.

Most of the works presented at the exhibition were transferred to the Kazan City Museum in the 1920s - 1930s from the State Museum Fund and the capital's art museums (State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum), when sections of national pre-revolutionary art and local art were intensively formed in the museum. the edges. One of the largest acquisitions for all the years of the museum's existence occurred in 1920, when the Kazan City Museum turned twenty-five years old, and in honor of this anniversary date, the State Museum Fund sent to Kazan one hundred and thirty-two paintings by artists of different trends and styles of the turn of the XIX - XX centuries ... The museum collection was joined by the works of the associations "World of Art", "Union of Russian Artists", "Blue Rose" and others. In subsequent years, the formation of the Russian collection of this period continued, and the museum formed a first-class collection of works of the turn of the XIX - XX centuries.

MODERN (FR. Moderne, from Latin modernus - new, modern) - style in European and American art of the late XIX - early XX centuries. (other names - Art Nouveau (Art Nouveau in France and England), Jugendstil (Art Nouveau in Germany), Liberty (Liberty in Italy)).

A. N. Benois - "Oranienbaum" 1901

The ideological and philosophical ground on which the "new art" of modernity grew was neo-romanticism, which at a new stage revived the romantic ideas of the conflict between the individual and society. The original aesthetics of Art Nouveau was based on the idea of ​​a synthesis of arts, which was based on architecture that unites all types of art - from painting and theater to clothing models. One of the key principles of Art Nouveau aesthetics was the principle of assimilating a man-made form to a natural one and vice versa. This was reflected in the architectural form, in the details of buildings, in ornamentation, which received extraordinary development in Art Nouveau in all types of art and had the most diverse artistic expression. The prototype of forms and ornaments in the system of Art Nouveau served both natural forms and features of the styles of the past, which underwent a radical rethinking thanks to stylization (based on special reference materials).

A. Benois - Screensaver of the magazine "World of Art"

Artists of the World of Art.

The World of Art is an organization that emerged in St. Petersburg in 1898 and brought together masters of the highest artistic culture, the artistic elite of Russia in those years. The "World of Art" began with evenings at A. Benois's house dedicated to art, literature and music. The people who gathered there were united by a love of beauty and the confidence that it can only be found in art, since reality is ugly. Having also arisen as a reaction to the petty themes of late Wanderers, its edification and illustrativeness, the "World of Art" soon turned into one of the major phenomena of Russian artistic culture. This association was attended by almost all famous artists - Benois, Somov, Bakst, E.E. Lancere, Golovin, Dobuzhinsky, Vrubel, Serov, K. Korovin, Levitan, Nesterov, Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Bilibin, Sapunov, Sudeikin, Ryabushkin, Roerich, Kustodiev, Petrov-Vodkin, Malyavin, as well as Larionov and Goncharova. Personality was of great importance for the formation of this association. Diaghilev, patron and organizer of exhibitions, and later - impresario of Russian ballet and opera tours abroad ("Russian Seasons", which introduced Europe to the work of Chaliapin, Pavlova, Karsavina, Fokin, Nijinsky, etc. and showed the world an example of the highest culture of the forms of various arts: music , dance, painting, scenography). At the initial stage of the formation of the World of Art, Diaghilev organized an exhibition of English and German watercolors in St. Petersburg in 1897, then an exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists in 1898. From 1899 to 1904, he edited a magazine under the same name, consisting of two departments: artistic and literary. The editorials of the first issues of the magazine clearly formulated the main provisions of the "world of art» about the autonomy of art, that the problems of modern culture are exclusively problems of the artistic form and that the main task of art is to educate the aesthetic tastes of Russian society, primarily through acquaintance with the works of world art. We must pay tribute to them: thanks to the "world of art", English and German art was really appreciated in a new way, and most importantly, the painting of the Russian 18th century and the architecture of St. Petersburg classicism became a discovery for many. "Miriskusniki" fought for "criticism as art", proclaiming the ideal of a critic-artist with a high professional culture and erudition. The type of such a critic was embodied by one of the founders of the "World of Art" A.N. Benoit.

"Miriskusniki" organized exhibitions. The first was the only international one, which united, in addition to Russians, artists from France, England, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Norway, Finland, etc. Both St. Petersburg and Moscow painters and graphic artists took part in it. But the crack between these two schools - St. Petersburg and Moscow - has been outlined almost from the first day. In March 1903, the last, fifth exhibition of the "World of Art" was closed, in December 1904 the last issue of the magazine "World of Art" was published. Most of the artists moved to the Union of Russian Artists, organized on the basis of the Moscow exhibition “36”. Diaghilev went entirely to ballet and theater. His last significant work in the visual arts was a grandiose historical exhibition of Russian painting from icon painting to modern times in the Paris Autumn Salon 1906, then exhibited in Berlin and Venice (1906-1907). In the section of contemporary painting, the main place was occupied by the "world of art." overall for Western criticism and a real triumph of Russian art

The leading artist of the "World of Art" was Konstantin Andreevich Somov(1869-1939). The son of the chief curator of the Hermitage, who graduated from the Academy of Arts and traveled to Europe, Somov received an excellent education. Creative maturity came to him early, but, as the researcher (V.N.

Somov, as we know him, appeared in the portrait of the artist Martynova ("Lady in Blue", 1897-1900, Tretyakov Gallery), in the painting-portrait "Echo of the Past Tense" (1903, on maps, aqu., Gouache, Tretyakov Gallery ), where he creates a poetic description of the fragile, anemic female beauty of a decadent model, refusing to convey the real everyday signs of modernity. He dresses the models in old costumes, gives their appearance the features of secret suffering, sadness and dreaminess, painful brokenness.

Earlier than anyone else in The World of Art, Somov turned to the themes of the past, to the interpretation of the 18th century. ("Letter", 1896; "Confidentiality", 1897), being the predecessor of the Versailles landscapes of Benoit. He was the first to create an unreal world, woven from the motives of the noble estate and court culture and his own purely subjective artistic sensations, permeated with irony. The historicism of the "World of Artists" was an escape from reality. Not the past, but its dramatization, longing for its irrevocability - this is their main motive. Not true fun, but playing fun with kisses in the alleys - this is Somov.

D Other works by Somov are pastoral and gallant festivities (Laughed Kiss, 1908, RM; Walk of the Marquise, 1909, RM), full of caustic irony, spiritual emptiness, even hopelessness. Love scenes from the 18th - early 19th centuries. given always with a touch of eroticism Somov worked a lot as a graphic artist, he designed a monograph by S. Diaghilev about D. Levitsky, a work by A. Benois about Tsarskoe Selo. The book as a single organism with its rhythmic and stylistic unity was raised by him to an extraordinary height. Somov is not an illustrator, he “illustrates not a text, but an era, using a literary device as a springboard,” wrote A.A. Sidorov, and this is very true.

Somov "The Lady in Blue" "At the Skating Rink" Benoit. A. "The King's Walk"

The ideological leader of the "World of Art" was Alexander Nikolaevich Benois(1870-1960) - an unusually versatile talent. A painter, graphic easel painter and illustrator, theater artist, director, author of ballet librettos, theoretician and art historian, musical figure, he was, in the words of A. Bely, the main politician and diplomat of the World of Art. Coming from the upper stratum of the St. Petersburg artistic intelligentsia (composers and conductors, architects and painters), he first studied at the law faculty of St. Petersburg University.

As an artist, he is related to Somov by stylistic tendencies and addiction to the past (“I am intoxicated with Versailles, this is some kind of illness, love, criminal passion ... I have completely moved into the past ...”). Benois's Versailles landscapes merged the historical reconstruction of the 17th century. and contemporary impressions of the artist, his perception of French classicism, French engraving. Hence the clear composition, clear spatiality, grandeur and cold severity of rhythms, contrasting the grandeur of art monuments and the smallness of human figurines, which are only staffage among them (the 1st Versailles series 1896–1898 entitled “The Last Walks of Louis XIV”). In the second Versailles series (1905-1906), the irony, which is also characteristic of the first sheets, is colored with almost tragic notes ("The King's Walk",). Benoit's thinking is the thinking of a theater artist par excellence, who knew and felt the theater perfectly.

Nature is perceived by Benois in an associative connection with history (views of Pavlovsk, Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, performed by him in watercolor technique).

In a series of paintings from the Russian past, commissioned by the Moscow publishing house Knebel (illustrations for "The Tsar's Hunt"), in scenes of the noble, landlord life of the 18th century. Benois created an intimate image of this era, albeit a somewhat theatrical "Parade under Paul I". Benois the illustrator (Pushkin, Hoffmann) is a whole page in the history of the book. Unlike Somov, Benoit creates a narrative illustration. The plane of the page is not an end in itself for him. The illustrations for "The Queen of Spades" were more likely complete independent works, not so much "book art", according to A.A. Sidorov, how much "art is in the book." A masterpiece of book illustration was the graphic design of The Bronze Horseman (1903,1905,1916,1921–1922, ink and watercolor imitating color woodcut). In a series of illustrations for the great poem, the main character is the architectural landscape of St. Petersburg, now solemnly pathetic, now peaceful, now ominous, against which the figure of Eugene seems even more insignificant. This is how Benoit expresses the tragic conflict between the fate of the Russian statehood and the personal fate of the little man (“And all night long the poor madman, / Wherever he turned his feet, / 3 the Copper Horseman was everywhere / He rode with a heavy stomp”).

"Bronze Horseman"

«
Parade under Paul I "

As a theater artist, Benoit designed the performances of the Russian Seasons, of which the most famous was the ballet Petrushka to the music of Stravinsky, worked extensively at the Moscow Art Theater, and subsequently on almost all major European stages.

The activity of Benois, an art critic and art historian who, together with Grabar, updated the methods, techniques and themes of Russian art history, is a whole stage in the history of art history (see R. Muther's History of Painting of the 19th Century - volume Russian Painting, 1901– 1902; "Russian School of Painting", published in 1904; "Tsarskoe Selo during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna", 1910; articles in the magazines "World of Art" and "Old Years", "Artistic Treasures of Russia", etc.).

T the third in the core of the "World of Art" was Lev Samuilovich Bakst(1866-1924), who became famous as a theater artist and was the first among the "world of art" to gain fame in Europe. He came to the "World of Art" from the Academy of Arts, then professed the Art Nouveau style, adjoined the left trends in European painting. At the first exhibitions of the World of Art, he exhibited a number of pictorial and graphic portraits (Benoit, Bely, Somov, Rozanov, Gippius, Diaghilev), where nature, coming in a stream of living conditions, was transformed into a kind of ideal idea of ​​a contemporary person. Bakst created the brand of the magazine "World of Art", which became the emblem of Diaghilev's "Russian Seasons" in Paris. There are no motives of the 18th century in Bakst's graphics. and manor themes. He gravitates towards antiquity, and towards the Greek archaic, interpreted symbolically. His painting "Ancient Horror" - "Terror antiquus" (tempera, 1908, RM) enjoyed particular success among the Symbolists. A terrible stormy sky, lightning that illuminates the abyss of the sea and the ancient city - and the archaic crust with a mysterious frozen smile dominates over this entire universal catastrophe. Soon Bakst completely went into theatrical and decorative work, and his scenery and costumes for the ballets of Diaghilev's entreprise, performed with extraordinary brilliance, masterly, artistically, brought him world fame. It was designed for performances with Anna Pavlova, Fokine's ballets. The artist made sets and costumes for Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Stravinsky's Firebird (both -1910), Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, and for the ballet Debussy's Afternoon of a Faun (both -1912).

"Ancient Horror" Afternoon of a Faun "Portrait of Gippius

Of the first generation of the "world of art", the younger in age was Evgeny Evgenievich Lanceray (1875-1946), in his work, having touched upon all the main problems of book graphics at the beginning of the XX century. (see his illustrations for the book "Legends of the Ancient Castles of Brittany", for Lermontov, the cover for "Nevsky Prospect" by Bozheryanov, etc.). Lanceray created a number of watercolors and lithographs in St. Petersburg (Kalinkin Bridge, Nikolsky Market, etc.). Architecture occupies a huge place in his historical compositions ("Empress Elizaveta Petrovna in Tsarskoe Selo", 1905, State Tretyakov Gallery). We can say that a new type of historical painting was created in the works of Serov, Benoit, Lanceray - it is devoid of a plot, but at the same time it perfectly recreates the appearance of the era, evokes many historical, literary and aesthetic associations. One of the best creations of Lanceray - 70 drawings and watercolors for the story by L.N. Tolstoy's "Hadji Murad" (1912-1915), which Benoit considered "an independent song that perfectly fits into the mighty music of Tolstoy."

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graphics of Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky(1875–1957) not so much Petersburg of the Pushkin era or the 18th century is presented, as a modern city, which he was able to convey with almost tragic expressiveness ("The Old House", 1905, watercolor, Tretyakov Gallery), as well as a human inhabitant of such cities (" Man with Glasses, 1905-1906, pastel, State Tretyakov Gallery: lonely, against the background of dull houses, a sad man, whose head resembles a skull). The urbanism of the future inspired Dobuzhinsky with panic. He also worked a lot in illustration, where the most remarkable can be considered his cycle of ink drawings for "White Nights" by Dostoevsky (1922). Dobuzhinsky also worked in the theater, designed for Nemirovich-Danchenko's Nikolai Stavrogin (staging of Dostoevsky's Demons), Turgenev's plays A Month in the Country and Freeloader.

A special place in the "World of Art" is Nicholas Roerich(1874-1947). An expert in the philosophy and ethnography of the East, an archaeologist and scientist, Roerich received an excellent education first at home, then at the Faculty of Law and History and Philology of St. Petersburg University, then at the Academy of Arts, in Kuindzhi's workshop, and in Paris at F. Cormon's studio. He early acquired the authority of a scientist. He was related to the “world of art” by the same love of retrospection, only not of the 17th – 18th centuries, but of pagan Slavic and Scandinavian antiquity, to Ancient Russia; stylistic tendencies, theatrical decorativeness (The Messenger, 1897, State Tretyakov Gallery; The Elders Are Converging, 1898, State Russian Museum; "Sinister", 1901, State Russian Museum). Roerich was most closely associated with the philosophy and aesthetics of Russian symbolism, but his art did not fit into the framework of the existing trends, because, in accordance with the artist's worldview, it appealed, as it were, to all mankind with an appeal for a friendly union of all peoples. Hence the special epic character of his canvases.

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Heavenly battle "

"Overseas guests"

After 1905, the mood of pantheistic mysticism grew in Roerich's work. Historical themes give way to religious legends ("Heavenly Battle", 1912, RM). The Russian icon had a huge influence on Roerich: his decorative panel Cutting at Kerzhenets (1911) was exhibited while performing a fragment of the same title from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia in the Parisian Russian Seasons.

V about the second generation of "World of Art" by one of the most gifted artists was Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev(1878-1927), a student of Repin, who helped him in the work on the "State Council". Kustodiev is also characterized by stylization, but this is the stylization of folk popular prints. Hence the bright festive "Fairs", "Maslenitsa", "Balagans", hence his paintings from the bourgeois and merchant life, conveyed with light irony, but not without admiration for these red-cheeked, half-asleep beauties at the samovar and with saucers in plump fingers ("Merchant", 1915, RM; "The merchant's wife at tea", 1918, RM).

A.Ya. Golovin - one of the largest theater artists of the first quarter of the 20th century, I. Ya. Bilibin, A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedev and others.

The World of Art was a major aesthetic movement at the turn of the century, which overestimated the entire modern artistic culture, approved new tastes and problems, and returned to art, at the highest professional level, the lost forms of book graphics and theatrical and decorative painting, which acquired through their efforts all-European recognition, which created new art criticism, promoting Russian art abroad, in fact, even opening some of its stages, like the Russian XVIII century. "Miriskusniki" created a new type of historical painting, portrait, landscape with their own stylistic features (distinct stylistic tendencies, the predominance of graphic techniques.