Kustodievskie women are modern. The beauties of boris kustodiev

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

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

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

Boris was born in the family of a teacher. In spite of the fact that the Kustodievs often had to "cool financially", the atmosphere at home was full of comfort, and even some grace. Music often sounded. Mother played the piano, and loved to sing with the nanny. Russian folk songs were often sung. Love for everything national was brought up by Kustodiev from childhood.

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

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

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

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

Kustodiev enthusiastically worked in various genres and types of fine arts: he painted portraits, everyday scenes, landscapes, still lifes. He was engaged in painting, drawings, performed decorations for performances, illustrations for books, even created engravings.

Kustodiev is a faithful follower of the traditions of Russian realists. He was very fond of Russian folk lubok, under which he stylized many of his works. He loved to portray colorful scenes from the life of the merchants, philistinism, from the life of the people. With great love he painted merchants, folk holidays, festivities, Russian nature. Many people at exhibitions scolded the artist for the "lubokness" of his paintings, and then for a long time could not move away from his canvases, quietly admiring him.

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

At the age of 33, a serious illness fell on Kustodiev, she fettered him, deprived him of the opportunity to walk. Having undergone two operations, the artist was chained to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. My hands were very painful. But Kustodiev was a man of high spirit and illness did not force him to abandon his beloved business. Kustodiev continued to write. Moreover, this was the period of the highest flowering of his work.

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

The painting was painted in Paris, where Kustodiev arrived with his wife and newly born son Kirill after graduating from the Academy.

A woman, easily recognizable as the artist's wife, bathes the child. "Birdie", as the artist called him, does not "yell", does not splash - he has become quiet and concentratedly examines - either a toy, some duckling, or just a sunny bunny: there are so many of them around - on his wet, strong body, on the edges of the pelvis , on the walls, on a lush bouquet of flowers!

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

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

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

In an outlandish way, the painting "Girl on the Volga" was far from Russia - in Japan.

Once Kustodiev and his friend actor Luzhsky were driving in a cab and talked to a cabman. Kustodiev drew attention to the big, pitch-black beard of the cabman and asked him: "Where are you going to come from?" "We are Kerzhen's," replied the coachman. "From the Old Believers, therefore?" - "Exactly, your honor." - "Well, are there many of you here in Moscow in the coachmen?" - "Yes, enough. There is a tavern on Sukharevka." - "That's nice, we'll go there ..."

The cab stopped near the Sukharev Tower and they entered the low, stone building of Rostovtsev's tavern with thick walls. The smell of tobacco, fuselage, boiled crayfish, pickles, pies hit my nose.

Huge ficus. Reddish walls. Low vaulted ceiling. And in the center at the table sat reckless cabbies in blue caftans, with red sashes. They drank tea, concentrated and silent. The heads are trimmed for a pot. The beards are one longer than the other. They drank tea, holding saucers on outstretched fingers ... And immediately a picture was born in the artist's brain ...

Against the background of drunken red walls, seven bearded, flushed cabbies in bright blue jackets with saucers in their hands are sitting. They behave decorously, sedately. They passionately drink hot tea, burning themselves, blowing on a saucer of tea. Decently, without haste, they are talking, and one is reading the newspaper.

The chambers with teapots and trays are hurrying into the hall, their bravely curved bodies amusingly echoed with the line of teapots, ready to line up on the shelves behind the bearded innkeeper; the servant who was out of business took a nap; the cat carefully licks the fur (a good omen for the owner - to the guests!)

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

The festive city with towering churches, bell towers, clumps of frosty trees and smoke from chimneys can be seen from the mountain, on which Shrovetide fun unfolds.

A boyish fight is in full swing, snowballs are flying, they are climbing the mountain and the sled is rushing on. Here sits a coachman in a blue caftan, those who are sitting in a sleigh are rejoicing at the holiday. And towards them a gray horse rushed tensely, driven by a lone driver, who turned slightly to those who were following, as if encouraging them to compete in speed.

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

A burning, immense joy overwhelms, looking at the canvas, takes away to this daring holiday, in which not only people in sleighs, at merry-go-rounds and booths rejoice, not only accordions and bells are ringing - here the whole boundless earth, clad with snow and frost, rejoices and rings, and every tree is jubilant, every house, and the sky, and the church, and even the dogs are jubilant with the sledding boys.

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

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

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

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

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

The fairs in the village of Semenovskoye were famous throughout the Kostroma province. On Sundays, the old village flaunts in all its fairground decoration, standing at the crossroads of old roads.

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

The talkative fair is noisy, ringing. Human melodious dialect merges with the hubbub of a bird; the jackdaws on the bell tower arranged their fair.

Ringing invitations are heard all around: "And here are the pretzels, pies!

- "Bast shoes, there are bast shoes! High-speed!"

_ "Eh, the box is full, full of color! Luboks are colored, utterly, about Thomas, about Katenka, about Boris and about Prokhor!"

On the one hand, the artist depicted a girl looking at bright dolls, and on the other, a boy gaping at a bent whistle bird, lagging behind his grandfather in the center of the picture. He calls him - "Where have you wilted there, not hearing?".

And above the rows of stalls, the canopies almost merge with each other, their gray panels smoothly merge into the dark roofs of distant huts. And then the green distance, the blue sky ...

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

In the winter of 1920, Fyodor Chaliapin, as a director, decided to stage the opera The Power of the Enemy, and Kustodiev was commissioned to perform the scenery. In this regard, Chaliapin drove to the artist's home. I went in from the cold right in a fur coat. He exhaled noisily - the white steam stopped in the cold air - they didn't heat in the house, there was no firewood. Chaliapin said something about freezing fingers, probably, but Kustodiev could not take his eyes off his ruddy face, from his rich, picturesque fur coat. It would seem that the eyebrows are imperceptible, whitish, and the eyes are faded, gray, but handsome! That's who to draw! This singer is a Russian genius, and his appearance should be preserved for posterity. And the fur coat! What a fur coat he is wearing! ..

"Fyodor Ivanovich! Would you pose in this fur coat," Kustodiev asked. "Is it clever, Boris Mikhailovich? The fur coat is good, yes, it may be stolen," Chaliapin muttered. "Are you kidding, Fyodor Ivanovich?" "No, no. A week ago I received it for a concert from some institution. They did not have money or flour to pay me. So they offered me a fur coat." "Well, we will fix it on the canvas ... Painfully, it is smooth and silky."

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

Against the background of the Russian city, a giant man, a fur coat wide open. He is important and representative in this luxurious, picturesquely open fur coat, with a ring on his hand and with a cane. Chaliapin is so dignified that one involuntarily recalls how a certain spectator, seeing him in the role of Godunov, remarked with admiration: "A real tsar, not an impostor!"

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

Everything that is dear to him is here! The devil is grimacing on the booth platform. Trotters rush down the street or stand peacefully waiting for riders. A bunch of colorful balls swaying over the market square. The tipsy one touches his feet under the harmonica. Shopkeepers trade briskly, and in the cold there is a tea party at a huge samovar.

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

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

How passionate Yesenin's lines fit here:

"Fuck, I take off my suit English:

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

Am I not yours, am I not close to you,

Do I not cherish the memory of the village? "

And it looks like something like that is about to fall from the lips of Fyodor Ivanovich and a luxurious fur coat will fly into the snow.

But the merchant's wife admires herself in a new shawl painted with flowers. This is how Pushkin's words come to mind: "Am I the loveliest in the world, blush and whiter than all? .." And in the doorway, a husband, a merchant, who probably brought her this shawl from the fair, stands admiring his wife. And he is happy that he managed to bring this joy to his beloved wife ...

A hot sunny day, the water sparkles from the sun, mixes the reflections of the intensely blue, perhaps, a storm-promising sky and trees from the steep bank, as if melted from above by the sun. On the shore, something is being loaded into a boat. The crudely knit bathhouse is also hot by the sun; the shadow inside is light, almost does not hide the female bodies.

The picture is full of greedy, sensually perceived life, its everyday flesh. The free play of light and shadows, the reflections of the sun in the water makes one recall the mature Kustodiev's interest in impressionism.

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

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

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

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

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

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

With this painting, the artist wanted, according to his son, to cover the entire cycle of human life. Although some connoisseurs of painting argued that Kustodiev talks about the wretched vegetation of the bourgeois, limited by the walls of the house. But this was not typical for Kustodiev - he loved the simple, peaceful life of ordinary people.

The picture is multifaceted and ambiguous. Here is an innocent provincial love duet of a girl sitting in an open window with a young man leaning on a fence, and if you look a little to the right, in a woman with a child you seem to see the continuation of this novel.

Look to the left - and in front of you is a most picturesque group: a policeman is peacefully playing checkers with a bearded man in the street, someone naive and fine-minded is speaking near them - in a hat and poor but neat clothes, and is listening gloomily to his speech, looking up from the newspaper, sitting near his establishment coffin master.

And above, as a result of all life - a peaceful tea party with someone who has gone hand in hand with you all the joys and hardships of life.

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

And everything leaves, the viewer's gaze leaves upward, to the boy, illuminated by the sun, and to the pigeons soaring in the sky.

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

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

Wallpaper in flowers, an ornate chest, on which a lush bed covered with a blanket is arranged, the pillows from the pillowcases somehow fleshly show through. And from all this excessive abundance, like Aphrodite from the foam of the sea, the heroine of the picture is born.

Before us is a magnificent beauty, crumpled from sleep on a featherbed. Throwing back the thick pink blanket, she put her feet on the cushion. With inspiration, Kustodiev sings the chaste, precisely Russian female beauty, popular among the people: bodily luxury, the purity of light blue affectionate eyes, an open smile.

Lush roses on the chest, blue wallpaper behind her back are consonant with the image of the beauty. Stylizing like a popular print, the artist made "a little more" - both the fullness of the body and the brightness of the colors. But this bodily abundance has not crossed the line beyond which it would have been unpleasant.

And the woman is beautiful and dignified, like the wide Volga behind her. This is the beautiful Russian Elena, who knows the power of her beauty, for which she was chosen as his wife by some merchant of the first guild. This is a waking beauty, standing high above the river, like a slender white-stemmed birch, the personification of peace and contentment.

She is wearing a long, iridescent silk dress of an alarming purple color, her hair parted in a parted dark, a dark braid, pear earrings shine in her ears, a warm blush on her cheeks, and a shawl decorated with patterns on her hand.

She just as naturally fits into the Volga landscape with its colorfulness and spaciousness, like the world around her: there is a church, and birds are flying, and a river is flowing, steamers are sailing, and a young merchant couple is walking - they also admired the beautiful merchant's wife.

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

From left to right:

I.E. Grabar, N. K. Roerich, E. E. Lansere, B. M. Kustodiev, I. Ya. Bilibin, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, A. N. Benois, G. I. Narbut, KS Petrov-Vodkin, ND Milioti, KA Somov, MV Dobuzhinsky.

This portrait was commissioned by Kustodiev for the Tretyakov Gallery. For a long time the artist hesitated to paint it, feeling a high responsibility. But in the end he agreed and started working.

I pondered for a long time who and how to plant, introduce. He wanted not only to sit in a row, as in the photograph, but to show each artist as a Personality, with his character, features, to emphasize his talent.

Twelve people had to be portrayed during the discussion. Oh, these incinerating disputes of the "World of Art"! The arguments are verbal, and more picturesque - in line, paints ...

Here is Bilibin, an old friend from the Academy of Arts. A joker and a merry fellow, a connoisseur of ditties and old songs, who knows how, despite stuttering, to pronounce the longest and funniest toasts. That is why he is standing here like a toastmaster, with a glass raised by an elegant movement of his hand. The Byzantine beard raised, eyebrows raised in bewilderment.

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

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

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

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

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

On the one hand, Benoit liked the paintings of Kustodiev, but condemned that there was nothing European in them.

On the right - Konstantin Andreevich Somov, an imperturbable and balanced figure. His portrait was easy to paint. Maybe because he reminded Kustodiev of a clerk? The artist has always succeeded in Russian types. The starched collar is whitening, the cuffs of a fashionable speckled shirt, the black suit is ironed, the sleek plump hands are folded on the table. An expression of equanimity, contentment ...

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

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

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

Left - a clear profile of Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar. Stocky, with a not very folding figure, a shaved square head, he is full of lively interest in everything that happens ...

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

On March 7, 1878, Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev was born, who provided the white-bodied Russian merchantwomen with a place in the world pantheon of beauties, among the Rubensian goddesses wrapped in brocade by the Infant Velasquez and the charming young ladies of Renoir.

Kustodiev is often called the Russian Rubens, and the expression "Kustodiev beauties" has become a part of everyday life and in textbooks, along with reproductions of his "merchants". At the same time, few people got so much at all times from art criticism and fellow painters.

The merchant's wife and the brownie, 1922

Many argue, what is more in the paintings of Boris Mikhailovich - admiration or irony, they joke that, drawing puffy goddesses in hungry post-revolutionary Russia, he sang not them, but a well-fed life and merchant prosperity, among which he spent his childhood (the Kustodiev family rented an outbuilding in a merchant's house).

The artist himself said that thin and graceful young ladies who meet the standards of beauty do not inspire him. Tired of the many “why's”, he once said:

“It seems to me that a painting, no matter what plot it has, will be strong with love and the interest with which the artist wanted to convey his mood. And why is it necessary to have a plot - so that the picture teaches something and tells something. Can't a picture only be beautiful?

In 1909, Kustodiev showed the first signs of a spinal cord tumor. Several operations brought only temporary relief, for the last 12 years of his life the artist was confined to a wheelchair. He was forced to write reclining, but it was during this period that the most vivid, temperamental, cheerful works appeared.

Beauty, 1915

When in 1915 Kustodiev's "Beauty" appeared at exhibitions, other artists were maddened by the fact that it was in front of this canvas that the audience gathered in crowds and did not disperse for a long time.

Permeated with almost shameless sensuality, "Beauty" Kustodiev later repeated in different versions - it was one of his favorite works.

He presented one to Gorky (and he adored this picture), the other - he painted at the request of Chaliapin, with whom he was friends. It was Shalyapin's "Beauty" at the London Sotheby's auction that went for a fantastic amount - 845,600 pounds (about 1,388,475 dollars).

The model for this canvas was the Moscow Art Theater actress Faina Vasilyevna Shevchenko - the future People's Artist of the USSR, the order bearer and winner of two Stalin Prizes.

Faina Shevchenko - Marceline. "The Marriage of Figaro", Moscow Art Theater, 1927

The meeting between Kustodiev and the 20-year-old artist of the Moscow Art Theater took place in August 1914. At that time, Kustodiev was in charge of the Moscow Artists, who made the scenery for the performances.

The calm and confident beauty of Faina seemed to the artist the height of perfection. After the performance, Kustodiev went to her dressing room and asked to pose for his picture - naked. At first, the actress was outraged by such a proposal, but somehow the artist managed to convince her.

"Beauty", 1918

Already confined to a wheelchair, Kustodiev drew several more "Beauties" from that very sketch. "Beauty", dated 1918, is now in the collection of the Tula Museum in the Museum of Fine Arts.

Beauty, 1921

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

A few more words about the model. Despite the fact that Faina Shevchenko's appearance did not fit into the generally accepted idea of ​​the female ideal of beauty, the actress possessed incredible magnetism - men simply adored her.

She had a short romance with Nikolai Batalov and a short marriage with Grigory Khmara, then she married his brother - Alexander, a stately handsome man who played the guitar masterly. She lived with him until the end of her days. But was she faithful to him? Here we shamefully lower our eyes. There are rumors about her affair with Chaliapin during the Moscow Art Theater's tour to Paris. They say that my husband rushed to Paris and ran around the city with a pistol in search of Fyodor Ivanovich.

“The grandmother herself did not talk about the affair with Chaliapin,” says the actress’s granddaughter. - But some facts speak for themselves. Faina Vasilievna carefully kept the portrait of the famous singer until the end of her days. And he, in turn, ordered a portrait of the actress from Kustodiev. "

And Boris Mikhailovich once again wrote for him another "Beauty" - the one that was sold in 2003 for almost one and a half million dollars.

Chaliapin was very fond of his "Beauty" and took her with him to Paris, in exile. In recent years, the painting was kept in the mansion of Marfa Feodorovna Chaliapina in Liverpool. On May 21, 2003, rarities of Russian art from the collection of Fyodor Chaliapin were being sold at the London Sotheby's auction. Among the paintings of Nesterov, Arkhipov, Golovin and Korovin was "Beauty" Kustodiev.

Works of such a class as "Beauty" appear on the market extremely rarely, so it is not surprising that it was around this canvas, created in 1919, that real battles unfolded, which led to a record result in the entire history of "Russian trading".

It seems, thanks to Kustodiev, this woman, and almost a hundred years later, continues to drive men crazy.

Beauty, 1919

Here are a few more paintings by the artist, among which in the first place, of course, the textbook "The Merchant's Wife".

Interestingly, the models for Kustodiev's merchants were often girls of his day from an intellectual environment. For example, G. Aderkas, a student of the medical faculty who lived next door, posed for Kustodieva for "The Merchant at Tea".

The merchant's wife at tea, 1918

State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Merchant's wife with a mirror, 1920

State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Russian Venus, 1925

In a birch grove

Barbara, 1920

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Girl on the Volga, 1919

National Museum of Fine Arts. Gapara Aitieva, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Bather, 1921

Bather, 1922

Tyumen Regional Museum of Fine Arts

Young merchant's wife in a checkered kerchief, 1919

State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Autumn in the province. Tea Party, 1926

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

On March 7, 1878, Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev was born, who provided the white-bodied Russian merchantwomen with a place in the world pantheon of beauties, among the Rubensian goddesses wrapped in brocade by the Infant Velasquez and the charming young ladies of Renoir.

Kustodiev is often called the Russian Rubens, and the expression "Kustodiev beauties" has become a part of everyday life and in textbooks, along with reproductions of his "merchants". At the same time, few people got so much at all times from art criticism and fellow painters.

The merchant's wife and the brownie, 1922

Many argue, what is more in the paintings of Boris Mikhailovich - admiration or irony, they joke that, drawing puffy goddesses in hungry post-revolutionary Russia, he sang not them, but a well-fed life and merchant prosperity, among which he spent his childhood (the Kustodiev family rented an outbuilding in a merchant's house).

The artist himself said that thin and graceful young ladies who met the standards of beauty did not inspire him. Tired of the many “why's”, he once said:

“It seems to me that a painting, no matter what plot it has, will be strong with love and the interest with which the artist wanted to convey his mood. And why is it necessary to have a plot - so that the picture teaches something and tells something. Can't a picture only be beautiful?

In 1909, Kustodiev showed the first signs of a spinal cord tumor. Several operations brought only temporary relief, for the last 12 years of his life the artist was confined to a wheelchair. He was forced to write while lying down, but it was during this period of his life that the most vivid, temperamental, cheerful works appeared.

Beauty, 1915

When in 1915 Kustodiev's "Beauty" appeared at exhibitions, other artists were maddened by the fact that it was in front of this canvas that the audience gathered in crowds and did not disperse for a long time.

Permeated with an almost shameless sensuality, "Beauty" Kustodiev repeatedly repeated in different versions - it was one of his favorite works.

He presented one to Gorky (and he adored this picture), the other - he painted at the request of Chaliapin, with whom he was friends. It was Shalyapin's "Beauty" at the London Sotheby's auction that went for a fantastic amount - 845,600 pounds (about 1,388,475 dollars).

The model for this canvas was the actress of the Moscow Art Theater FV Shevchenko - the future People's Artist of the USSR, the order bearer and winner of two Stalin Prizes.

Faina Shevchenko - Marceline. "The Marriage of Figaro", Moscow Art Theater, 1927

The meeting between Kustodiev and the 20-year-old artist of the Moscow Art Theater happened in August 1914. At that time, Kustodiev was in charge of the Moscow Artists, who made the scenery for the performances.

The calm and confident beauty of Faina seemed to the artist the height of perfection. After the performance, Kustodiev went to her dressing room and asked to pose for his picture - naked. At first, the actress was outraged by such a proposal, but somehow the artist managed to convince her.

"Beauty", 1918

Already confined to a wheelchair, Kustodiev drew several more "Beauties" from that very sketch. "Beauty", dated 1918, is now in the collection of the Tula Museum in the Museum of Fine Arts.

Beauty, 1921

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

A few more words about the model. Despite the fact that Faina Shevchenko's appearance did not fit into the generally accepted idea of ​​the female ideal of beauty, the actress possessed incredible magnetism - men simply adored her.

She had a short romance with Nikolai Batalov and a short marriage with Grigory Khmara, then she married his brother - Alexander, a stately handsome man who played the guitar masterly. She lived with him until the end of her days. But was she faithful to him? Here we shamefully lower our eyes. There are rumors about her affair with Chaliapin during the Moscow Art Theater's tour to Paris. They say that my husband rushed to Paris and ran around the city with a pistol in search of Fyodor Ivanovich.

“The grandmother herself did not talk about the affair with Chaliapin,” says the actress’s granddaughter. - But some facts speak for themselves. Faina Vasilievna carefully kept the portrait of the famous singer until the end of her days. And he, in turn, ordered a portrait of the actress from Kustodiev. "

And Boris Mikhailovich once again wrote for him another "Beauty" - the one that was sold in 2003 for almost one and a half million dollars.

Chaliapin was very fond of his "Beauty" and took her with him to Paris, in exile. In recent years, the painting was kept in the mansion of Marfa Feodorovna Chaliapina in Liverpool. On May 21, 2003, rarities of Russian art from the collection of Fyodor Chaliapin were being sold at the London Sotheby's auction. Among the paintings of Nesterov, Arkhipov, Golovin and Korovin was "Beauty" Kustodiev.

Works of such a class as "Beauty" appear on the market extremely rarely, so it is not surprising that it was around this canvas, created in 1919, that real battles unfolded, which led to a record result in the entire history of "Russian trading".

It seems, thanks to Kustodiev, and Faina, and almost a hundred years later, continues to drive men crazy.

Here are a few more paintings by the artist, among which in the first place, of course, the textbook "The Merchant's Wife".

The merchant's wife at tea, 1918

Interestingly, the models for Kustodiev's merchants were often girls of his day from an intellectual environment. G. Aderkas, a student of the medical faculty who lived next door, posed for Kustodieva for "The Merchant at Tea".

Merchant's wife with a mirror, 1920

State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Russian Venus, 1925

In a birch grove

Barbara, 1920

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Probably no artist has caused such a number of controversies and contradictory assessments as Russian painter of the early twentieth century Boris Kustodiev... He was called the Russian Rubens, as he glorified specific female beauty in his works - the greatest popularity was brought to him by his healthy merchants and puffy naked Russian beauties.

Kustodiev tried to capture the people's ideal of beauty, while he himself was not a fan of women with magnificent forms.

Boris Kustodiev's appeal to the aesthetic canons of the past was a kind of escape from reality - a serious illness (paralysis of the lower body due to a tumor in the spine) chained the artist to a wheelchair. But, thanks to these his works, we can get an idea of ​​the pre-revolutionary life of the Volga peasants and bourgeoisie, whose life is so fully and colorfully reflected in the artist's paintings.

Kustodiev's wife did not have the same curvaceous forms as his models. But when asked why he writes stout women, he replied: "Thin women do not inspire creativity."

Nude curvy Russian beauties inspired not only the author. They say that Kustodiev's "Beauty" (1915) drove one metropolitan mad, who confessed: "Apparently, the devil drove the artist's daring hand when he wrote his" Beauty ", for he confused my peace forever. I saw her charm and tenderness, and forgot the fasts and vigils. I am going to the monastery, where I will atone for my sins. "

V. Volodarsky wrote about the Kustodiev beauty: "Delight before the fleshly beauty of this merchant's wife, her health, the primitive joy of being and evil irony - this is the set of feelings that I experience when I see a picture." Probably, the modern audience experiences the same contradictory emotions when looking at the artist's works.