Biography
Dmitry Isidorovich Mitrokhin(1883-1973) - Russian graphic artist, illustrator, book artist, art critic.
Born in the family of a small employee and the daughter of a Cossack merchant. As a child, spending a lot of time in his grandfather's printing house, he got acquainted with printing art and became interested in reading. After graduating from the Yeysk real school, he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and in 1903 took part in the school's exhibition for the first time. A year later, he moved to the Stroganov School, studied at the drawing classes of the Grande Chaumière Academy. (Académie de la Grande Chaumiere), devoting a lot of time to studying both modern graphics and drawings by old masters, classical European and Japanese engravings.
Since 1908, Dmitry Mitrokhin has been collaborating with several publishing houses, taking part in the World of Art exhibition. Throughout his life he was a member of many creative art associations and societies. Since 1908, he has been systematically engaged in book graphics, drawing for many leading book publishers - I. N. Knebel”, “Golike and Vilborg”, “Enlightenment”, “Pechatnik”, “M. and S. Sabashnikovs” and others. He worked a lot on illustrations for children's books; in his work, he adhered to a single principle for all elements of the book - everything, from the cover with endpapers to fonts with decor, was subject to stylistic commonality.
In Soviet times, he continued his work, combining it with engraving, etching, lithography; since 1918 he was in charge of the Department of Engravings and Drawings of the Russian Museum, was a professor at the Institute of Photography and Phototechnics, the printing department of the Academy of Arts. In total, he designed and illustrated a huge number of books, developed several dozen publishing marks, trade emblems and labels, and made almost fifty bookplates.
Mostly I draw with a pencil (lead). Then I like to color my drawing with watercolors. This method of work, apparently, arose as a result of long engraving. The pencil often lays down like a chisel or engraving needle. Sometimes I use colored pencils. But I am not a painter, color plays a secondary role in my works. The basis, the design is the drawing. The size of the drawings (probably as a result of many years of work on the book) does not exceed the size of book pages. Everything I want to say fits on a small piece of paper. I speak softly and succinctly.
I can't say anything new about the drawing. Nothing but the simple rules laid out in any textbook. This is the method that I have been guided by all my life: draw, draw, draw. Draw every day as long as you are alive, as long as you exist, because to draw is what it means to live, to join all living things. Drawing is the basis of all fine art, of all its types.
Drawing from nature is the study of the reality around us, all the vast life: people, landscape, dwellings, clouds, light, shadow, things living near us.
I don't like the word "still life". Better another term: "Still-Leben". A quiet, hidden life that an artist can and should see.
All my long life I have been mainly engaged in illustrating books. A lot of compositions, engravings, lithographs were also made. So, the basis of all my work has always been drawings and sketches from life.
Before drawing, you need to see: the more drawings are made from nature, the easier it will be to depict what is invented, read or heard.
Draw every day, think about what you will draw next, observe, search, always look for new ways of depicting. Search, always remaining yourself, never resting on what has been done. Reality is forever changing. Every day a new landscape in the window, things are grouped in a new way, light and space change, new, mysterious relationships arise. Flowers appear and fall. Someone brings unexpected fruits from distant lands. People pass by the window, they hang clothes in the yard, they clean carpets, they play volleyball. The rider follows from the stable to the hippodrome, birds flock for food, cars rush, something winged descends on the page. Passers-by stopped, talking (that's how they dress now!). Observe, draw, always learn new things.
In recent years, I have done little engraving, only drawing. Drawing is, after all, its own, independent field of fine arts. I would like to create finished drawings, like crystals, and most importantly - alive. But very rarely what is done pleases. Mostly I draw with a pencil (lead). Then I like to color my drawing with watercolors. This method of work, apparently, arose as a result of long engraving. The pencil often lays down like a chisel or engraving needle. Sometimes I use colored pencils. But I am not a painter, color plays a secondary role in my works. The basis, the design is the drawing. The size of the drawings (probably as a result of many years of work on the book) does not exceed the size of book pages. Everything I want to say fits on a small piece of paper. I speak softly and succinctly.
My drawings are grouped in series. The series combines either a plot - flowers, fish landscapes, interiors - or the material that I use at a given period of time: colored pencils or watercolor, torchon or whatman paper. I find it necessary to change materials from time to time, as well as the tools that I use. This is as necessary as a new plot, a new nature. I try by all means to achieve, to look for a new, lively and clear pictorial language.
My poor health from a young age, my age makes it impossible to draw people - portraits, close-ups of groups of people. In my drawings, people are most often small figures scurrying about in the distance. I see them as if through inverted binoculars. Therefore, insignificant objects, called inanimate, often appear in my drawings as a plot, a theme (for example, pharmacy glass, chairs).
People tend to perceive, limited by certain limits. The frame can be wider or narrower, but there is also depth. Working, observing, I try to extract and reveal not only the shape, weight, spatial relationships (by the way, a sheet, the surface of paper, establishes new spatial relationships), but also learn how to manage, vary them. I am trying to find and convey to the viewer's perception the poetic and philosophical essence of the depicted. I almost always find some kindness, friendliness in things. And I want to talk about it.
I recall the amazing drawings of Vrubel, idolized by one of my teacher-friends - V. D. Zamirailo - S. V. Noakovsky, S. P. Yaremich, K. S. Petrov-Vodkin. Zamirailo’s calligraphy and his admiration for Vrubel’s drawings, excellent chalk drawings on Noakovsky’s blackboard, Yaremich’s St. Petersburg drawings and his richest collection of drawings and engravings by old masters, P. D. Ettinger’s extraordinary knowledge of the works of Russian and foreign masters, conversations about art with Petrov-Vodkin (he was interested in my engravings with a metal cutter) - all this undoubtedly affected my formation as an artist.
When I look at my drawings, the most successful ones seem like strangers to me, but I feel the flaws as my own. It will be easy when you work a hundred times. I constantly remember the immortal Hokusai, the unsurpassed Mangwa. When people ask me which of my works I appreciate the most, I usually answer: those that will be done tomorrow. Because the work of a lifetime is preparing for what you will do tomorrow.”
(c) "Draw every day"
Magazine "Creativity", 1971, No. 4“Having reached the age of ninety, an age at which only a few are able to work truly creatively, Mitrokhin continued to work tirelessly until the last day, for the meaning of his existence was concentrated for him in drawing. But perhaps the most remarkable thing is that Mitrokhin did not just work, but constantly developed as an artist. From year to year, from day to day, he was looking for "a new, lively and clear, - in his own words, - pictorial language." And he found new ways, means, forms of expression of observations, achieving in the drawing an ever more complete and deep disclosure of the ever-changing, never-repeating reality.
(c) Yu.A. Rusakov.
“In the creative life of Dmitry Isidorovich, it is not difficult to distinguish certain periods, but none of them is a closed cycle, they are all milestones of a single, long path, continuous movement towards a lofty goal. At the last stage of this path, the artist achieved extraordinary perfection, possible in rare cases. He gained complete unity of intent and means of expression. On the way to this perfection, the artist overcame such life hardships that few can handle. The disease forced him to limit himself to a small apartment for more than ten years, to refuse wide communication with people. The artist discovered an eventful life on his own desktop, in every corner of the room. He managed to feel the modern world through the objects surrounding him and tell about his life-affirming, optimistic attitude towards it.
"Draw every day, think about what you will draw next time, observe, search, always look for new ways of depicting. Reality never repeats itself. Always search, remaining yourself, never settling down on what has been done."
Dmitry Mitrokhin"He was the only one who developed the art of engraving right up to the present day. This idea of Mitrokhin was supported by the stories about him of the older generation of artists, my teachers (V.N. Levitsky, L.F. Ovsyannikov, G.S. Vereisky and others)"
V.M. Zvontsov
Dmitry Isidorovich Mitrokhin (1883 - 1973) - Russian artist, master of book and easel graphics.Born in the family of a small employee and the daughter of a Cossack merchant. As a child, spending a lot of time in his grandfather's printing house, he got acquainted with printing art and became interested in reading. After graduating from the Yeysk real school, he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and in 1903 took part in the school's exhibition for the first time. A year later, he moved to the Stroganov School, studied at the drawing classes of the Grande Chaumière Academy (Académie de la Grande Chaumiére), devoting a lot of time to studying both modern graphics and drawings by old masters, classical European and Japanese engravings.
Since 1908, Dmitry Mitrokhin has been collaborating with several publishing houses, taking part in the World of Art exhibition. Throughout his life he was a member of many creative art associations and societies. Since 1908, he has been systematically engaged in book graphics, drawing for many leading book publishers - I. N. Knebel”, “Golike and Vilborg”, “Enlightenment”, “Pechatnik”, “M. and S. Sabashnikovs” and others. He worked a lot on illustrations for children's books; in his work, he adhered to a single principle for all elements of the book - everything, from the cover with endpapers to fonts with decor, was subject to stylistic commonality.
In Soviet times, he continued his work, combining it with engraving, etching, lithography; since 1918 he was in charge of the Department of Engravings and Drawings of the Russian Museum, was a professor at the Institute of Photography and Phototechnics, the printing department of the Academy of Arts. In total, he designed and illustrated a huge number of books, developed several dozen publishing marks, trade emblems and labels, and made almost fifty bookplates.
Pupil of A. M. Vasnetsov (brother), A. S. Stepanov, S. I. Yaguzhinsky. He visited the workshop of E. S. Kruglikova in Paris in 1901 - 1903. Member of the association "World of Art" since 1916. Acquaintance with the outstanding figure V. D. Zamirailo inclines him to choose the path of the schedule.
He painted in different techniques, recognized as a master of woodcuts. In the art of the book, he paid special attention not to striped illustrations, but to the entire ornamental-rhythmic complex of the cover, endpapers, title page, headpieces and endings, etc., carefully outlining each element, masterfully maintaining the general style of the book.
"Ghost ship"
Illustrator Dmitry Mitrokhin
Written by Wilhelm Hauff
Country Russia
Year of publication 1913
Publishing house I.N.Knebel
drawings and etchings
"When people ask me which of my works I value the most, I usually answer: those that will be done tomorrow. Because the work of a lifetime is preparing for what you will do tomorrow"
D.I. Mitrokhin
Biography
Outstanding Russian and Soviet graphic artist, illustrator, master of easel engraving, etching and lithography; author of many book illustrations. Art critic. He headed the graphic section of the Leningrad branch of the Union of Artists of the USSR (LOSH, 1932-1939). Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1969).
Dmitry Isidorovich Mitrokhin was born in Yeysk, Krasnodar Territory. After graduating from the Yeysk real school (1902), he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MUZHVZ). At MUZhVZ, D. I. Mitrokhin’s teachers were A. M. Vasnetsov and A. S. Stepanov. In 1904 he moved to the Stroganov School. His ceramics participate in the XII exhibition of the Moscow Association of Artists (1905); in November he travels to Paris via St. Petersburg and Cologne. In 1906, he studied at the drawing classes of the Academy of Grande Chaumière (Académie de la Grande Chaumiére), under E. Grasse and T. Steinlen.
The artist works in several publishing houses in St. Petersburg (1908). At the invitation of A. Benois and K. Somov, Mitrokhin takes part in the exhibition "World of Art". Participates in the "Salon" S. Makovsky and in the VI exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists.
Dmitry Mitrokhin is a member of many art associations: "Murava" (Artel of potters, 1904-1908), the Moscow Association of Artists (1905-1924), the Leonardo da Vinci Society (1906-1911), the Tver Social and Pedagogical Circle (1909-1913 ), Union of Russian Artists (SRH, 1910–1923), Ring (1911–1914), Moscow Salon (1911–1921), Apartment No. 5 (1915–1917), World of Art (1916– 1924), "House of Arts" (1919-1922), Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (1922-1932), "Sixteen" (1923-1928), "Fire-Color" (1923-1929), Section of Engravers (OPKh, 1928- 1929), Society of Painters (1928-1930). Founding member of the Society of Graphic Artists (1928–1932).
Works as head of the Department of Engravings and Drawings of the Russian Museum (1918). Professor of the Higher Institute of Photography and Phototechnics (1919–1926). Professor of the printing department of the Higher Artistic and Technical Institute (1924-1930) in Leningrad.
He has developed several dozen publishing brands, trade emblems and labels. In the field of "small forms", which was mastered by D. I. Mitrokhin back in the 1910s, a book sign occupies a special place. A perfect master of composition, well versed in both decorative and graphic components of the book, subtly feeling its nature, he made almost fifty bookplates (most of them belong to 1919-1923).
In Soviet times, the artist successfully engaged in easel graphics, designs and illustrates books; he is the author of a huge cycle of miniatures in the genre of chamber still life. This work of an illustrator, performed by him with love, he enthusiastically and very successfully combined it with engraving, etching, and lithography. He designed and illustrated a significant number of books and magazines in various publishing houses - "Lights", "Petropolis", "Petrograd", "Thought". "Surf" and many others, in the best of them - Academia (with which he collaborated for about six years): "Seven Love Portraits" by A. de Regnier (1920, 1921; Petrograd), Marina Tsvetaeva's fairy tale poem "The Tsar Maiden" (1922); - made in a manner that has already become traditional for the artist, provocative pen drawings for the design of "The Golden Bug" by Edgar Allan Poe (1922), "Epsin" by Ben Jonson (1920, 1921; "Petropolis"), - illustrations by Victor Hugo (1923), Henri Barbusse, Octave Mirbeau, "Books of Comedies" by Aristophanes (1930), "Ethiopians" by Heliodor (1932).
In the 1920s, D. I. Mitrokhin again came into contact with children's literature, he illustrated and designed several books, among which we should highlight the already mentioned "Gold Bug" by Edgar Allan Poe (1921-1922) and "Journey to the Land of Cinema" by V. Shklovsky (1926), "The October alphabet" (1927). The work on the latest edition once again confirms the artist's brilliant mastery of the art of type. The appearance of the two-volume set of K. Immermann's satirical novel "Munchausen" (1930–1932) suggests that the artist very ingeniously approached the solution of the whole system of this publication: the characters of the work are sharply caricatured, turning into peculiar, entertaining comments on the book, the layout of the title sheets is witty; binding, flyleaf, dust jacket - everything is in harmony. Since the autumn of 1939, D. I. Mitrokhin worked on the design of the book of fairy tales by H. K. Andersen, having received an order from a German publishing house. As can be understood from the artist's letters, he continued to create interesting illustrations, judging by the few surviving copies, already in mid-June 1941 - this edition was not destined to see the light of day.
From the mid-1930s, for D. I. Mitrokhin, book graphics no longer had paramount importance in his work, it began to give way to woodcuts, engraving on metal, drawing and watercolor. Work from nature has never been excluded from the number of regular classes, from the sphere of interests of the artist, and he was constantly looking for and improving in this area. Dmitry Mitrokhin made a little more than 70 engravings, but even this relatively small number of works in this area allows us to rank him among the best domestic masters of woodcuts. Starting with techniques close to the "black manner", when the artist preferred a white, slightly rough stroke, he later comes to "a silvery range rich in halftones and various textured elements."
Mitrokhin began to engage in woodcuts “almost out of curiosity”, under the influence of V. V. Voinov, one of the initiators and propagandists of the revival of woodcuts as an independent (non-reproductive) easel technique, with whom Dmitry Isidorovich was well acquainted from the World of Art, - and museum work; in 1941 they joined the militia together, survived the blockade, and were together in Alma-Ata. Mitrokhin worked at the publishing house of the General Staff, from 1941 to 1942 at the Institute of Blood Transfusion. Created about 100 pencil and watercolor drawings, including those dedicated to the life of the besieged city.
Metal engraving by D. I. Mitrokhin is a unique phenomenon in pre-war Soviet art. The true artistry with which the master managed to embody the subtle emotional structure and lyricism of his artistic nature did not find a response to support this fresh undertaking, and the real area of \u200b\u200bhis work truly alone occupies a place among the “biggest phenomena of European engraving on metal of the 20th century” - notes artist, art historian Yu. A. Rusakov.
Until the second half of the 1920s, he only twice turned to work on stone. Of those created by D. I. Mitrokhin in lithography, half refers to 1928 - the first year of his full-fledged occupation with this printmaking technique. In order to maintain the lively contact of the soft lithographic pencil with the working surface, he neglects the root pyre, which allows him to transfer the previously made drawing - the artist works directly on the stone. And here he uses all the richness of techniques: he draws with a wide light stroke, uses a pen, brightens the tone, scratching long parallel strokes. Most of all, he made easel lithographs for monochrome prints - on one stone, but several lithographs were printed from 2 and even from 3 stones (1929-1931).
The same theme prevails in his lithographs as in the end engraving - the Leningrad street, the fishing Yeysk. The best series - "Six lithographs, colored by the author" (1928). And here the artist's attention is focused on colorful street types, these works convey to us the look of the city, the aroma of a bygone era.
A short passion for this technique resulted for D. I. Mitrokhin in the experience of using it in book graphics - “Selected Works” by N. S. Leskov (1931) were designed. The artist made the last lithograph in 1934 - this is a landscape of the Central Park of Culture and Culture, he never turned to it again.
With all the successes of D. I. Mitrokhin in book graphics and achievements in engraving, the most significant and significant part of his work is easel drawing. This concept combines the actual pencil work, and watercolor, and works made in mixed media - the main occupation of the last thirty years of his life. Hundreds of small easel sheets (most of them the size of a postcard, notepad page) contain the most vivid and impressive expression of the artist's worldview; they very organically merged graphic and pictorial principles; these suites, created over the years, are pages of a diary filled with life. The work of D. I. Mitrokhin has undergone changes over the course of almost half a century of his active work in this area, as if anticipating the artist’s appeal to the only possible for him, but also the most striking, unique form of application of his talent - drawing, which from a certain moment will be destined to become universal expressive means of his worldview. One gets the impression that the same “preparatory” function was performed by other types of easel graphics, as if helping the artist to find this lapidary, intelligible, but far from monosyllabic language of the main works in terms of content, capacity, individual, completely independent graphic handwriting.
Dmitry Isidorovich Mitrokhin, who lived a long creative life, had the good fortune to study, collaborate, make friends, be in associations and societies with many artists, among whom were those whose mark on the art of the 20th century is comparable to the influence on the course of history of the most important discoveries of the era. In the first lines of the artist's autobiographical notes, there are the names of M. F. Larionov, N. S. Goncharova and A. V. Fonvizin, who studied side by side and were friends with him - S. T. Konenkov and S. V. Malyutin.
In different periods of comprehension of the paths of expressiveness and skill, the artist's interest was focused on their different manifestations, and with a different measure of their impact on the artist's worldview, sometimes ephemeral and almost opportunistic, and therefore easily and painlessly overcome, such as, for example, salon, Beardsley, modern tendencies - those that required a longer "neutralization", purely decorative, stylized ornamental, popular print and printed motifs; or, on the contrary, in the form of a deep, essential understanding, realized in the artist's system of views - Western European and Japanese engravings. “But, having gone through these hobbies,” writes M. V. Alpatov, “he returned to such values of art that outgrow the boundaries of time and space and exist everywhere.”
The work of the artist D. I. Mitrokhin is represented in the Russian Museum (RM), the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), the Russian National Library (St. Petersburg), the Museum of Fine Arts of Karelia, the National Gallery of the Komi Republic, the Udmurt Museum of Fine Arts , Chuvash Art Museum, Lugansk Museum, many private collections and galleries.
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Dmitry Isidorovich Mitrokhin- a wise man and an amazing artist. His creative path covers three quarters of our century. He decided to become a graphic artist as a child, and this choice was caused by Mitrokhin's deep inner inclination for this type of art, which requires great erudition, artistic taste and self-discipline.
The principles of Mitrokhin's work were formed against a background rich in various experiences. In the pre-revolutionary years, the artist often collaborated in the magazines "Apollo", "Lukomorye" and others. Then he acted as an illustrator of the book.
During the creation of illustrations for R. Gustafson's fairy tale "The Barge" (1913), Mitrokhin was close to the artists of the "World of Art" association, and in 1916 he became a member.
The artist chose in the "Barge" a laconic, convenient technique for printing reproduction, reminiscent of the technique of woodcuts. Black color appears in combination with a stroke with a fill of planes. In some illustrations, large areas are covered with color, but it plays a secondary role.
Mitrokhin illustrates in detail the history of the wanderings of the brig "Sea Eagle", but, wishing to strengthen the poetic melody of the tale, nowhere depicts specific episodes from the adventures of the ship. In almost all the sheets where the brig is present, we see it from a distance. In the "Arctic Ocean" sheet, a white boat against the background of gloomy water seems like a fragile vision. The decision of the sheet "Rainforest" is interesting. The graphic arabesques that fill the sheet include the inhabitants and plants of the rainforest, drawn with scientific accuracy.
In the future, Mitrokhin's illustrations become more concise, more freely located on the surface of the sheet. A notable phenomenon in the artist's work was the illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe's book The Gold Bug, published in 1922. In them, he achieves the richest plastic effects only by combining strokes and silhouette. After the "Golden Beetle", the transition to the openwork graphics of "Efionika" by Heliodor was natural. In the light drawing of "Efionika" and laconic engravings with a chisel, where each stroke accurately and elastically lies on the surface of the sheet, one can foresee the appearance of Mitrokhin's wonderful drawings of the sixties.Artist's work
Mitrokhin Dmitry Isidorovich (1883-1973)
D. I. Mitrokhin was lucky enough to live not one, but three whole independent creative lives, and each of them was full and beautiful in its own way.
The first began in childhood, when he, born in a remote province, in the family of a small employee, was inflamed with a desire to become a book artist. To this end, he entered the MUZHVZ (1902), two years later he changed it to the SHPU, but he was convinced that he still had to develop the graphic skills he needed on his own.
Here he was helped by the impressions of a trip to Paris, but the main reference point was the graphics of the masters of the World of Art. That is why in 1908 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he found himself in a much desired artistic environment. Here he quickly attracted attention by illustrating several children's books, including "Little Flour" by V. Gauf (1912), "Roland the Squire" by V. A. Zhukovsky and "The Barge" by R. Gustafson (both 1913). Each of them was exemplary in terms of the impeccability of the graphic style and the unity of drawings, inscriptions and ornaments.
Recognition came to Mitrokhin, and with recognition - numerous orders that he fulfilled conscientiously and enthusiastically, more than once turning ordinary covers into works of sophisticated graphics. Together with G. I. Narbut and S. V. Chekhonin, he determined the high level of Russian book art on the eve of the revolution.
Book graphics remained at the center of his interests even after the revolution, despite the fact that the circle of his activities expanded noticeably: from 1918 he became the curator and head of the department of engravings and drawings of the Russian Museum and was engaged in teaching. While continuing to make cover after cover, he developed his own style, gradually freeing it from excessive patterning and subordination to the developed canon; in this he was helped by intensive studies in drawing from life. He returned to the children's book, worked a lot in magazines.
But over time, the direction of his creative interests began to change. Back in the mid 1920s. Mitrokhin was interested in the possibilities of printed graphic techniques, and book graphics gradually receded into the background. In each of the techniques mastered by him, he showed himself as a talented and confident master.
At first it was a woodcut, then a lithograph and, finally, an engraving on metal (with a chisel and drypoint) - refined and becoming quite rare in the 20th century. technique. In it, he achieved the most impressive results and grew into one of the largest and most original masters of easel engraving.In his small chamber landscapes, depicting the usually quiet corners of Leningrad and the old park on Elagin Island, he acted in a new capacity - as an attentive and lyrical observer, able to poeticize unpretentious life motives and raise them to the level of high art. New changes in the work of Mitrokhin, who lived in Moscow since 1943, arose of their own accord. In the late 1940s he, losing his strength, had to part with engraving, and ten years later - with book graphics.
Increasingly shackled by old age and illness, confined to the confines of his apartment, but still overwhelmed by an indomitable thirst for creativity, he found a way out in what was still available - in a simple pencil drawing, often slightly tinted with watercolor. Hundreds of these small (usually no more than a postcard) drawings became evidence of the artist's phenomenal creative youth and became classics of Russian art of the 20th century.
