The Lion and the Sun In 1912, the French artist Michel Le Dantu came to Georgia at the invitation of the Zdanevich brothers. On a summer evening, “when the sunset faded and the silhouettes of the blue and purple mountains in the yellow sky lost their color,” the three of them ended up on the station square and went into the Varyag tavern. Inside, they found many paintings of Pirosmani, which surprised them: Zdanevich recalled that Le Dantu compared Pirosmani to the Italian artist Giotto. At that time, there was a myth about Giotto, according to which he was a shepherd, herded sheep, and painted pictures with coal in a cave, which were later noticed and appreciated. This comparison is rooted in cultural studies. (The scene with the visit to the "Varangian" was included in the film "Pirosmani", where it is located almost at the very beginning) Le Dantu purchased several paintings by the artist and took them to France, where their trace was lost. Kirill Zdanevich (1892 - 1969) became a researcher of Pirosmani's work and the first collector. Subsequently, his collection was transferred to the Tbilisi Museum, moved to the Museum of Art, and it seems that it is now (temporarily) exhibited in the Blue Gallery on Rustaveli. Zdanevich ordered his portrait from Pirosmani, which was also preserved: Pirosmani died, and his paintings were still scattered around the dukhans of Tbilisi, and the Zdanevich brothers continued to collect them, despite their difficult financial situation. According to Paustovsky, back in 1922 he lived in a hotel, the walls of which were hung with Pirosmani's "oilcloths". Paustovsky wrote about his first encounter with these paintings: I must have woken up very early. The harsh, dry sun lay obliquely on the opposite wall. I looked at this wall and jumped up. My heart began to beat hard and fast. From the wall he looked straight into my eyes - anxious, questioning and obviously suffering, but unable to tell about this suffering - some strange beast - tense, like a string. It was a giraffe. A simple giraffe, which Pirosman apparently saw in the old Tiflis menagerie. I turned away. But I felt, I knew that the giraffe was staring at me and knew everything that was going on in my soul. The whole house was deathly quiet. Still sleeping. I took my eyes off the giraffe, and it immediately seemed to me that he had stepped out of a simple wooden frame, was standing nearby and was waiting for me to say something very simple and important, which should disenchant him, revive him and free him from many years of attachment to this dry , dusty oilcloth. How to perceive Pirosmani The works of Pirosmani cause admiration for some, and misunderstanding for others. He really did not know how to draw, did not know anatomy, did not study the technique of painting. His manner is called "primitivism", and here it is useful to know what it is. At the end of the 19th century, Europe was undergoing a scientific and technological revolution and at the same time a rejection of technological progress was developing. The ancient, ancient times, myth came to life that in the past people lived in natural simplicity and were happy. Europe got acquainted with the culture of Asia and Africa and suddenly decided that this primitive creativity is the ideal natural simplicity. In 1892, the French artist Gauguin leaves Paris and escapes civilization to Tahiti to live in nature, among simplicity and free love. In 1893, France drew attention to the artist Henri Rousseau, who also called for learning only from nature. Everything is clear here - Paris was the center of civilization and tired of it began in it. But in those same years - around 1894 - Pirosmani began to paint. It is difficult to assume that he was tired of civilization, or that he closely followed the cultural life of Paris. Pirosmani, in principle, was not an enemy of civilization (and his customers, dukhans, even more so). He could well go to the mountains and live by agriculture - like the poet Vazha Pshavela - but he basically did not want to be a peasant and with all his behavior made it clear that he was a city person. He did not learn to draw, but at the same time he wanted to draw - and he did. There was no ideological message in his painting, as in Gauguin and Rousseau. It turns out that he did not copy Gauguin, but simply painted - but it turned out, like Gauguin. His genre is not borrowed from someone, but created by itself, of course. Thus, he became not a follower of primitivism, but its founder, and the birth of a new genre in such a remote corner as Georgia is strange and almost unbelievable. In addition to his will, Pirosmani, as it were, proved the correctness of the logic of the primitivists - they believed that true art was born outside of civilization, and so it was born in Transcaucasia. Maybe that's why Pirosmani became so popular with artists of the twentieth century. The Asea sool band decided to create a clip accompanied by paintings by the great primitive artist Niko Pirosmani. ----
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Niko Pirosmani is an honest and impoverished artist who painted piercing masterpieces on cheap oilcloth for food.
Pirosmani was a primitivist. Of those artists about whom people who are far from art and its understanding say, "Yes, I would draw no worse myself." But only the blind can fail to see all the poignancy of the Georgian artist's painting.
Behind the seeming naivety of the animals painted on oilcloth and festive feasts, deep feelings are hidden, pain through joy and joy through pain. And all this becomes more than obvious if you know at least a little about the life of Niko Pirosmani.
website admires the talent and inner strength of a self-taught artist from a small Georgian village. And I hope to pass on some of my admiration to you.
Where and when Niko Pirosmanashvili was born was unknown for a long time. Already many years after the death of the artist, researchers turned over the archives and half of Georgia and found out the year and place of birth - 151 years ago in the small Kakhetian village of Mirzaani. In a family so poor that even as a child, the future heritage of Georgia was given into the service of a rich Tiflis family, where he was a servant until the age of 20.
He began to draw at the same time when he got a job as a conductor on the railway. His first work was a portrait of the chief with his wife. And it seems that he failed, because Niko immediately flew out of work.
Pirosmani was not a "textbook" poor Georgian of that time. He did not have very much of the famous innate cheerfulness, he was not cunning, he could not adapt to conditions and earn money. An honest, quiet, proud intellectual from a peasant family, dreaming only of drawing.
He lived on a beggarly income, selling milk, but he loved his shop very much - because he painted it with lush flowers. And he simply gave the paintings to his customers, gave some to resellers in the vain hope of getting some money. It was, to put it mildly, not exactly what the residents of Tiflis wanted to buy.
From hunger, Pirosmani fled from Tiflis back to his homeland. He also painted his house in Mirzaani, convened a feast, and then painted four pictures about this feast. Which, as a result, prompted him how to combine not the most hungry life in the world with painting.
Wedding in Georgia
Gorgeous
Signboard for beer "Zakatala"
Niko returned to the big city and began to paint signs for dukhans for food, wine and a little money. Or write themed pictures. Neither the artist nor the dukhans had money for canvases and boards, and therefore he took what was in direct reach - oilcloths from the tables. Oilcloths were mostly black, which largely determined how his painting began to look. And despite the black color of the "canvas", the colors of his paintings were always clean and strong.
Still lifes, cheerful feasts, scenes of peasant life, animals, forests - these are the themes that inspired Pirosmani. He could never be content with just one. When he got tired of writing grapes and meat for dukhans, he began to paint people. And even come up with strange names for their "clients" - for example, "One should not drink."
Still life
Friends of Begos
Black Lion
Signboard for dukhan
Niko Pirosmani did not have his own family. No wife, no children. But there was love for an actress named Margarita. Love is all-consuming, painful and, unfortunately, unrequited. She did not pay attention to his courtship, even her portrait, which the artist called "Actress Margarita", did not help to win her beloved.
Actress Margarita
A famous song was written about his last attempt to win the heart of an impregnable beauty in Soviet times. Everyone who was born in the USSR knows her - “A Million Scarlet Roses”.
They were not roses at all, of course, and no one knows exactly how many flowers there were, but Niko arrived at Margarita's house in the early morning of his birthday, accompanied by wagons loaded to the top with a variety of flowers. He strewn the entire street in front of the actress's house so that the pavement was not visible.
Skinny and pale, he waited for her to come out. Margarita left the house, amazed, kissed Niko on the lips and left. There was no happy ending.
Holiday
firewood seller
“Once upon a time there was one artist, / The house also had canvases, / But he loved an actress, / The one who loved flowers. / Then he sold his house, / Sold paintings and shelter / And bought with all the money / A whole sea of flowers ... "Few people know that Alla Pugacheva's famous hit is dedicated to the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani and his love for the French actress Marguerite de Sevres, who toured in Tiflis.
Niko Pirosmani. Photo:
A place for feelings
The life of Niko Pirosmani is surrounded by legends that were composed by his friends and admirers. One of them - about the passion of a poor artist for an actress who gave her a million roses - has become a symbol of selfless unrequited love. In fact, this story is very much in the spirit of Pirosmani, who was considered a man not of this world. It was difficult for him to find his place in everyday life. The only thing he liked was drawing. He never studied painting, did not know anatomy and had no idea of perspective - he was later called a "primitivist" and "representative of naive art." He, of course, did not know these words either. Pirosmani simply drew as best he could, as he saw, as he felt, as children draw - not with their hands, but with their hearts.
Niko was born in 1862 to a poor peasant family in eastern Georgia. Since childhood, he helped his father to cultivate the land, and as soon as he had a free minute, he rushed home, where a stub of a pencil and a piece of paper were waiting for him. The child diligently wrote out various utensils, animals, people - the artist woke up in him.
After the death of his parents, the orphan was taken care of by the wealthy Armenian Kalantarov family, whose father Niko worked as a gardener in the last years of his life. The guardians took the boy to Tiflis (now Tbilisi). And since then, the names of Pirosmani and the city are inextricably linked - the townspeople pass on legends about their beloved Niko from generation to generation.
The Kalantarovs became very attached to Niko and proudly showed the guests the creations of their adopted son. The boy also had tender feelings for benefactors, and especially ardent feelings for the eldest daughter of the Kalantarovs, Elizabeth. Niko lived in a foster family for almost 15 years. And when he was 27 years old, he decided to open his heart to Elizabeth and asked for her hand. And then it became clear that even a common childhood and long years of life under one roof did not destroy class barriers. The young man was given to understand that a peasant son without a penny in his pocket should not dream of a rich heiress ... The girl's refusal deeply wounded Niko. He could no longer remain in a strange house among people who did not want to recognize him as an equal, and went wherever his eyes looked. From that day on, he never saw the Kalantarovs again.
Alone in the crowd
Niko supported himself by odd jobs and dreamed of opening a painting studio in order to earn a living doing what he loves. But customers were in no hurry to him. Then Pirosmani opened a dairy shop with all the money - however, he asked an old friend to conduct business in it, and he completely devoted himself to painting. He tirelessly painted pictures and often sold them for such an insignificant amount that it did not even cover the cost of paint.
The inhabitants of Tiflis sincerely fell in love with the artist, he made many friends. Laconic and rather reserved, in the circle of friends Niko was transformed and was ready to have long conversations. But sometimes he suddenly fell silent, became thoughtful, his gaze rushed into the distance. Then he went up to the workshop, where the next creation was born.But the attacks of melancholy gave way to fun, and Niko went to the Ortachal garden - the place where the entertainment establishments of Tiflis were concentrated. Fortunately, there was money in his pockets, he even thought about buying a small house on the outskirts of the city. But those plans were forgotten on a beautiful spring day when Niko met the love of his life and lost his head.
Tiflis at the beginning of the 20th century was famous as a place where one could see the performances of many European celebrities. In March 1909, posters appeared on the streets of the city, inviting the public to tour the French theater of miniatures Belle Vu. The "highlight" of the performance was the performance of the beautiful dancer and singer Marguerite de Sevres. Pirosmani was feasting with friends that evening in the Ortachal garden, and then they all went to a variety show together. Niko entered the hall... and froze. An elegant girl with a charming gentle voice, sparkling eyes and a wasp waist sang and danced on the stage. The Frenchwoman struck Pirosmani on the spot. "Not a woman - a pearl from a precious chest!" he exclaimed. After the concert, as if deciding on something, Niko left his friends and disappeared. The artist's friends could not even imagine what he had in mind.
Fragrant gift
On the morning of the next day, Tiflis froze in surprise, not understanding what was happening. A procession, wrapped in a wondrous aroma, stretched along the street. Nine wagons were taken to the hotel where Margarita lived, armfuls of flowers. Arriving at the house, the drivers began to slowly unload their unusual load. In a few moments the pavement turned into a marvelous flowery carpet.
“No one dared to be the first to step on this flowering carpet, which reached people to their very knees ... There were no flowers here! It's pointless to list them! Late Iranian lilac ... Dense acacia with petals shimmering in silver. Wild hawthorn... Delicate blue veronica, begonia and many colorful anemones. Graceful beauty honeysuckle in pink smoke, red funnels of morning glory, lilies, poppy that always grows on the rocks exactly where even the smallest drop of bird blood has fallen, nasturtium, peonies and roses, roses, roses of all sizes, all smells, all colors - from black to white and from gold to pale pink, like the early dawn. And thousands of other flowers,” Konstantin Paustovsky described the unusual gift of the artist in his Tale of Life. This legend lived in the memory of the townspeople, and decades later they willingly shared their memories of their favorite Niko, supplementing them with new details.
The subsequent events are presented in different ways by the narrators. According to the version given by Paustovsky, on that spring morning, Margarita, awakened by laughter and admiring exclamations coming from the street, looked out the window and was stunned. She immediately ran downstairs and froze in front of the sea of flowers. Then a man with sad eyes approached her from the other end of the fragrant carpet, and Margarita understood everything. She hugged him and kissed him in gratitude. But the love of the poor artist did not find a response in her soul. Shortly after this single meeting, Margarita left Tiflis.The collapse of a dream
In order to buy all the flowers in the city for the woman he loves, the artist sold his shop and became a beggar. But his dream of love crumbled to dust again, and without it, Niko's life lost its meaning. He wandered the streets of Tiflis, spent the night with kind people, and sometimes even on the street. The artist began to avoid people and no longer had intimate conversations with anyone. Constant deprivation, cold and hunger did their job - Niko became seriously ill. Pirosmani was taken to the hospital, where he died on May 5, 1918. The artist was buried as an unknown poor man, his grave is lost.
This story was continued 50 years later. By that time, the name of Niko Pirosmani reappeared from oblivion. Although his work caused fierce controversy, they were talked about. The original talent of the artist was recognized, exhibitions of his works were held throughout the USSR and abroad. In 1959, Pirosmani's paintings went to Paris, to the Louvre.Crowds of art lovers flocked to the palace. Among them was an elderly woman who froze in front of the painting "Actress Margarita". She looked and looked, and then bent down and kissed the canvas. It was Marguerite de Sevres. Beloved woman Niko Pirosmani visited the exhibition every day - she stood at her portrait for a long time, and tears flowed down her cheeks ...
Olga GRAZHINA
Many today know that the song "Million Scarlet Roses" retells the love story of the famous Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani. Seeing the singer and dancer Marguerite de Sevres, who arrived in Tiflis in March 1909, the shopkeeper Nikolai Pirosmanishvili exclaimed: “Not a woman, a pearl from a precious chest!” his goddess lived.
What happened next? Some say that Margarita was shocked: “Did you sell your shop to give me flowers? I will never forget this, my fair knight!" But a few days later she accepted the courtship of another, richer admirer and left with him. And Nikolai, left without a shop, became an artist.
Others say that, having sent flowers to Margarita, Niko did not stand "breathing" under the beautiful lady's balcony, but went to feast in the dukhan with the last money. Touched, Margarita sent a note with an invitation to her admirer, but he could not tear himself away from the friendly feast, and when he came to his senses, it was already too late, the actress left the city.
Alas, this whole story is just a beautiful fairy tale. Researchers of Pirosmani's work are sure that in his life there was neither this unrequited love, nor the sale of the shop, and the famous portrait of "Actress Margarita" was painted not from nature, but from a poster. And the story was composed by Konstantin Paustovsky, who visited Tbilisi a few years after the death of Pirosmani.
Niko Pirosmani. "Actress Margarita"
In the real life of the artist, a completely different drama played a fatal role.
Like a bird
Nikolai was born into a peasant family in 1862, the youngest of four children. His father died when Niko was 8 years old, his mother and older brother soon died, and the boy was raised by the widow of the Baku manufacturer Kalantarov. In the family, Niko was loved as a native, but he was obviously burdened by the thought that he was a stranger here and lives in a rich house not by right. This painful suspiciousness and the excessive resentment associated with it remained with him for the rest of his life and became more and more noticeable, more and more alienating him from other people.
Despite the fact that the Kalantarov family was educated, Nikolai himself could not adapt either to science or to any craft. For several months he studied at the printing house. Little by little he studied painting with itinerant artists. He tried to work as a brake conductor for freight cars on the railway - so almost his entire salary was “eaten up” by fines either for being late or for not showing up for work. They said about Niko that he lives "like a bird", not caring about either the past or the future. And what was especially strange about him was that he claimed to see saints, and after these phenomena, the hand itself reaches out to draw.
Niko Pirosmani. "Street cleaner"
In the end, when Nikolai decided to retire from the conductors, the railway authorities, in joy, gave him such a large severance pay that he was able to start a dairy shop. But he did not stay long in trade either, he left the shop and decided that he would earn money as an artist. This happened a few years before Margarita de Sevres arrived in Tiflis - that is, Niko could no longer sell the shop for her sake.
Niko Pirosmani. "Still life"
He painted everything: pictures, signs, he could even paint the wall or write on it the name of the street and the number of the house. Never haggled about pay either. One paid 30 rubles for his painting, while the other could draw a sign for lunch and a glass of vodka. Sometimes, instead of money, he asked to buy him paint or oilcloth - after all, as you know, Pirosmani painted his paintings not on canvases, but on oilcloths. Some argue that these were ordinary oilcloths taken from the tables in dukhans, others - that the oilcloths were special, produced for some technical purposes. Be that as it may, they turned out to be an excellent material for paintings: the images on them did not become covered with cracks over time, as happens with canvases.
Outcast
But suddenly Niko's life had a chance to enter the circle of people among whom he always felt like a stranger. In 1912, brothers-artists Ilya and Kirill Zdanevichi learned about his paintings. Cyril's friend, writer Konstantin Paustovsky, recalled: “Cyril had acquaintances with peasants, dukhans, wandering musicians, rural teachers. He instructed all of them to look for Pirosman's paintings and signboards for him. At first, dukhans sold signboards for pennies. But soon a rumor spread around Georgia that some artist from Tiflis was buying them up, allegedly for abroad, and the tavern makers began to increase the price. Both the old Zdanevichs and Kirill were very poor at that time. I had a case when the purchase of a painting by Pirosman put the family on bread and water ... "
Niko Pirosmani. "Portrait of Ilya Zdanevich"
The Zdaneviches convinced Niko that his paintings would be a hit with an educated public. Kirill purchased a large number of paintings from Pirosmani, many of them were commissioned by the artist. In February 1913, Ilya published in the newspaper "Transcaucasian speech" an article about the work of Pirosmanashvili under the title "Artist-nugget". Already in March, several of his paintings appeared at an exhibition in Moscow. Other collectors became interested in Pirosmanishvili's work. The illustrated edition of "Sakhalkho Purtseli" published a photo of Pirosmani and a reproduction of his "Wedding in Kakheti".
“An artist whose work could glorify the nation and give it the right to participate in the current struggle for art,” the article said. “The understanding of color and the use of it put Pirosmanishvili among the great painters.”
Oddly enough, his fame had practically no effect on the artist's well-being. And when in 1914, after the start of the war in the Russian Empire, dry law was introduced, the position of Pirosmani, whose significant part of the income was the manufacture of signs for drinking establishments, worsened.
And his pride did not last long. The dukhans and other acquaintances for whom he painted, having learned that Niko "became a great artist," began to make contemptuous jokes about him. He did not wait for the full recognition of critics and art historians. In the same Sakhalkho Purtseli, a cartoon appeared: Niko is standing in one long shirt with bare legs, and next to him an art historian says: “You need to study, brother. In 20 years, a good artist may come out of you, then we will send you to an exhibition of young people. But Niko by that time was already over fifty.
Feeling like a stranger - this time not only among the rich, but also in the familiar world of dukhans, Pirosmanishvili stopped drawing, went down and turned into a perfect tramp. He did not greet his acquaintances, wandered aimlessly through the streets, muttering something under his breath. In the spring of 1918, he was found in the basement of the house, lying right on the broken brick. He no longer recognized anyone, in the hospital where he was taken, they wrote: “A man of about 60, poor, origin and religion unknown.” A couple of days later he died, and they buried him without a funeral, in a common grave for the poor.
The song "Million Roses", written to the verses of Andrei Voznesensky and first performed by Alla Pugacheva, became one of the most popular songs of the decade. But who served as the prototype of the artist in love, or was it a fictional romantic story?
It turns out that the poem, and then the song, is based on the legend of the famous act of the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani, who had an unrequited love for the actress Margarita (probably a Frenchwoman), who shone on the stage of Tiflis at the very beginning of the 20th century. That's how it was...
This summer morning was no different at first. Still inexorably, flaming everything around, the sun rose from Kakheti, the donkeys tied to telegraph poles sobbed in the same way. The morning was still slumbering in one of the alleys in Sololaki, a shadow lay on the low-rise wooden houses gray from time to time. In one of these houses, small windows on the second floor were open, and behind them Margarita slept, covering her eyes with reddish eyelashes. In general, the morning would really be the most ordinary, if you didn’t know that it was the morning of Niko Pirosmanishvili’s birthday, and if on that very morning carts with a rare and light load did not appear in a narrow alley in Sololaki. The carts were loaded to the top with cut flowers splashed with water. It made it look like the flowers were covered in hundreds of tiny rainbows. The carts stopped near Margaret's house. The arborists, talking in an undertone, began to remove armfuls of flowers and dump them on the pavement and pavement at the threshold. It seemed that carts brought flowers here not only from all over Tiflis, but also from all over Georgia. The laughter of the children and the exclamations of the hostesses woke Margarita. She sat up in bed and sighed. Entire lakes of smells - refreshing, gentle, bright and tender, joyful and sad - filled the air. Excited, Margarita, still not understanding anything, quickly dressed. She put on her best, richest dress and heavy bracelets, tidied up her bronzed hair and, dressing, smiled, she herself did not know what. She guessed that this holiday was arranged for her. But by whom? And on what occasion?
At this time, the only person, thin and pale, decided to cross the border of flowers and slowly walked through the flowers to Margarita's house. The crowd recognized him and fell silent. It was a beggar artist Niko Pirosmanishvili. Where did he get so much money to buy these snowdrifts of flowers? So much money! He walked towards Margarita's house, touching the walls with his hand. Everyone saw how Margarita ran out of the house to meet him - no one had ever seen her in such a brilliance of beauty - she hugged Pirosmani by the thin, sore shoulders and clung to his old chekmen and for the first time kissed Niko firmly on the lips. Kissed in the face of the sun, sky and ordinary people.
Some people turned away to hide their tears. People thought that great love will always find its way to the beloved, even if the heart is cold. Niko's love did not subdue Margarita. So, at least, everyone thought. But still it was impossible to understand whether this was really so? Niko himself couldn't say that. Soon Margarita found herself a rich lover and fled with him from Tiflis.
The portrait of the actress Margarita is a witness of beautiful love. A white face, a white dress, touchingly outstretched arms, a bouquet of white flowers - and white words laid at the feet of the actress ... “I forgive with white,” Pirosmani said.
