Borisov-Musatov, the artist. Biography. Creation

Borisov-Musatov - the surname of a remarkable, original Russian artist whose works are instantly recognizable. He is often called the "singer of noble nests". You could add a "lilac singer" - she is so beautiful on his canvases, and there are many of her - you can see her on such canvases as "Self-portrait with sister", "Spring", "May flowers".

Silver representative of the Silver Age

The creativity of this master, the best and most famous representative of the Volga Art School, refers to symbolism, or rather, to its second stage. The artist Borisov-Musatov is included in a galaxy of brilliant creators of the Silver Age. The lines of A. Akhmatova "... and the silver month bright over the silver age ...", which gave the name to this period, are very suitable for the artist's canvases. Beauty, clarity, peace and quiet ...

The emergence of the famous name

Who is he, V. E. Borisov-Musatov? The initials of the artist's name and patronymic are deciphered as Victor Elpidiforovich. The rare name of his father occupies his niche in the military history of Russia - during the First World War several gunboats were named.

April 2, 1870, a railway employee Elpidifor Borisovich Musatov became a father, he had a boy. The future artist loved the family very much, especially his grandfather, a bright and exceptional personality, he was proud of him so much that his name - Boris - took prefix to the family name Musatov. As a result, the world knows the artist, whose name is Borisov-Musatov.

Roll call times

Of course, you can live a century and do not know anything about this wonderful master. But if you happen to see his pictures, and it is desirable to have a retrospective (there are not so many of them, only 77 - the life of the artist was very short), they are remembered forever, leaving in the soul the same trace as some works of Turgenev, who sang the world of provincial nobility. Victor Borisov-Musatov was not a contemporary of a brilliant writer. Some critics accuse his paintings of staging and mannerisms. But to such works as "The Noble Nest", "Asya", the canvases of this artist - "Pond", "Waiting for Guests", "Loneliness" - are the best illustrations. Specialists call his work paintings, elegies.

Tragic case

The artist himself from childhood was surrounded by love, which helped him not to get angry and grow up a very pleasant and benevolent person. He was always surrounded by sympathetic people. The tragic incident that occurred with him at the age of three years - he fell off the bench, and as a result of the spinal injury of the small Viti, the hump began to grow - it greatly undermined the health of the boy. Later, Borisov-Musatov, whose biography is so short, could not finish the St. Petersburg Art Academy because of the difficult climate.

The first desires for creativity

Draw boy tries at age 6, at 14 finally decides to become an artist and in 1886 becomes a pupil of a private studio of the artist-wanderer V.V. Konovalov. He is engaged in it for 4 years, passing in passing Sunday school N. Ananiev. After graduating from college in 1898, he continues to gain knowledge in the studio of the Saratov Society of Art Lovers.

In Saratov, a large merchant center (it is known that the merchants were patrons of art), there was a very good collection of works of world painting. Our young creator visited it systematically and took lessons from the visiting Italian artist G. Barakki. So, Borisov-Musatov successfully mastered the technique of academic drawing. By 1898, one of his first works, preserved to our days, is the beautiful, carefully painted and romantically wrapped picture "Window".

The beginning of serious training

Since 1890 Borisov-Musatov - a student of the Moscow Art College. But trying to master as much as possible skill, he leaves for Petersburg, in the class of PP Chistyakov. Because of poor health, Borisov-Musatov returns to Moscow, where, since 1893, he studied with VD Polenov. Seeking to further perfection, the artist in 1895 went to Paris and entered a private school called "Atelier Cormona". The owner of it was the famous French painter Fernand Cormon, awarded in 1880 for his work of the Order of the Legion of Honor, and in 1898 he headed the French National School of Fine Arts. And his private school from Russian painters visited Roerich and Isaak Batyukov.

Paris Period

In Paris, Borisov-Musatov was shocked by the canvases of Puuv de Chavanne, the French symbolist, who failed to get into the studio as a student. Of course, during his stay in this recognized center of world art, the Russian painter could not but become acquainted with the work of impressionists and post-impressionists. Very close to him was the work of Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin and Bertha Morisot. How good is the picture written at this time, "Cabbage and the Willow"! How it echoes the work of the Impressionists! But especially close and consonant with him are pictures-panels of the symbolist group "Nabi" (which means in translation from the Hebrew language "prophet, chosen" - so modestly called themselves nabidy). It included Paul Sérusieux (leader), Pierre Bonnard, Eduard Vuillard and Maurice Denis.

Renaissance - the foundation of painting

Absorbing in himself all modern trends, based on the artistic traditions of the old masters, Viktor Borisov-Musatov, whose paintings are a reflection of this interpenetration, developed his own, recognizable manner of writing. And, of course, like all the artists of the world, he studied the works of famous artists in the Louvre. His idol was Leonardo da Vinci, who, among other things, as anyone else, succeeded sfumato (transparent shadows). According to contemporaries, the Russian painter never parted with the reproduction of the "Gioconda".

But most of all the paintings of Borisov-Musatov were influenced by such geniuses of the Italian Renaissance as Fra Angelico and Sandro Botticelli. On the work of a talented man, whose life completely belongs to art, the works of representatives of the great Venetian school - Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese - could not but be reflected. Some of the later paintings by Borisov-Musatov were written under the impression, in the manner of the Italians (on a coarse-grained canvas the drawing was applied by tempera).

Homecoming

One of the first paintings returned to the homeland of the artist was the painting "Self-Portrait with a Sister", in which he for the first time tries to present his creative credo - the image of the real world in the form of an echo of a departed beautiful past. His paintings, according to some authors, are full of fascinated contemplation of life. For the creation of "Tapestry", a model for which served as the same sister Elena, at an exhibition of the Moscow Association of Artists Borisov-Musatov in 1902 received a prize.

To fully present the general picture of countries, times and masters that influenced the formation of the artistic credo of the artist, one can not fail to mention the great F.S. Rokotov, as well as Japanese engraving, which in the era of Russian Art Nouveau was extremely popular.

Formation of skill

After the "Self-portrait with his sister", a couple of paintings, namely "Autumn motif" and "Harmony", experts refer to the author's failures - they look like sumptuous costumes. At the beginning of the XX century Borisov-Musatov, whose biography, unfortunately, was already approaching the end, was especially happy. In Saratov, he had a school of like-minded artists who exhibited their works in 1904 at the exposition "The Scarlet Rose". This included P. Kuznetsov, A. Matveev, M. Matyushin, Utkin and K. Petrov-Vodkin. At this time he became very friendly with Andrei Bely and Valery Bryusov. They dedicated cycles of poems to Borisov-Musatov's paintings. The relationship of the famous poets of the Silver Age can be judged from the posthumous article of Andrei Bely, dedicated to Borisov-Musatov, "Lilac garlands."

The happiest years

In 1903, the artist marries his companion Elena Aleksandrova, a beloved and loving woman who became his friend, a muse, the mother of the daughter of Marianna, who was born in 1904. The paintings of these years become masterpieces. They are little bought, but the artist is recognized throughout the world. Everything develops, he energetically and selflessly works, drawing on 6-7 pictures a year. The family moves to Podolsk, but summer is always spent at the dacha in Tarusa. The artist himself, describing his life and work of that time, said that he lives in a world of dreams and fantasies "among birch groves, dozed off in a deep sleep of autumn fog."

The most beautiful canvases

Of particular note is the canvas, which in 1901 Borisov-Musatov wrote. "Spring", as it is believed, marked the beginning of a new period in the artist's work. It already completely lacks a narrative line. About it, one of the prerevolutionary biographers says that there is completely "no historical element there". Creativity Borisov-Musatov is the quintessence of everything ... It is "the last sound of an infinitely distant melody that has broken off in our day."

Specialists, thanks to this continuity of the melody, compare it with Wagner. Pictures "Tapestry", "Pond", "Requiem" (the latter is dedicated to the untimely death of Nadezhda Stanyukevich, the wife of the closest friend of the writer) are infinitely beautiful.

Death puts everything in its place

But, as is always the case, genuine recognition comes after death. The artist dies suddenly in the summer of 1905 at the dacha in Tarusa. He was not old at all, but numerous painful operations could not but affect his health. Borisov-Musatov was buried here, in his beloved Tarusa, on the high bank of the Oka River. In 1907 the exhibition "Blue Rose" was opened, the name of which was given by Andrey Bely, and the backbone of which was made up of representatives of Borisov-Musatov's closest associates, he was recognized as their ideological leader. The paintings were made public, exhibitions were held in many European countries, one of the paintings was bought by André Gide, the star of French modernism. And, of course, his work affected the works of subsequent masters, especially avant-gardists.