A harbinger of cubism, a bright representative of symbolism, a man who perfectly combined the talent for graphics and painting equally.
Childhood
Mikhail Alexandrovich was born in Omsk in 1856, in the same city were born his younger brother and a sister who did not live to adolescence. Due to frequent childbirth and poor health, the boy's mother died in 1859. While the widowed father was trying to cope with all the chores that lay on his shoulders, the boy spent his everyday life looking at pictures in children's books.
In 1863, Mikhail's father married E. Kh. Wessel, who was from a noble family, which helped him in promotion. The new mother turned out to be a real treasure for the family, she spent the whole day raising all the children.
In 1867, the family moved to Saratov, where the boy's father had a new job assignment. Despite the loving atmosphere that reigned in the house, Mikhail and his sister Anna always spent time together and were not particularly interested in making friends with new relatives.
Youth
Already at a young age, Vrubel showed himself as a creative and independent person. A real passion for drawing woke up in a young man when Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" was brought to the exhibition in Saratov. This work so sunk into the soul of the young talent that he later performed its exact copy from memory, with all the smallest details and nuances. While studying at the gymnasium, Vrubel painted under the auspices of the OPH. After the transfer of his father to Odessa and the change of educational institution, Vrubel temporarily stopped active creative activity and pay more attention natural sciences. Training in general, the young man did not take much time, he was the best student as long as it was interesting to him. At one point in his life, Mikhail was very excited about the idea of an acting career, but left this idea with admission to the university.
Law University
Vrubel's parents decided to send him to Faculty of Law. Perhaps this was influenced by the boy's ability to quickly memorize complex texts or knowledge of several languages. In the end, thoughts about creative endeavors faded into the background. The training was slow and difficult, in the end the young man became more interested in philosophy and completely abandoned the legal profession. Although drawing was present in the life of the artist, it did not play a leading role at all. During his studies at the university, he drew several illustrations for the popular at that time literary works. Starting in 1875, Vrubel actively began to develop acting talents, but this required large investments and he had to earn extra money as a tutor. For young talent became a godsend of his knowledge of Latin and legal affairs.
The beginning of artistic development
This lifestyle brought Mikhail into the Papmel family, who needed his tutoring skills. Responsive family accepted young man as his son, and he settled on their estate for a long time. It was after moving to their estate that Vrubel began to actively paint. Papmeli's aesthetes supported him by appreciating any of his work. Not only the love of art was instilled in him by his new acquaintances, but the love of wine, which was always in abundance on the table of hospitable acquaintances, was firmly planted in Vrubel's life. Beginning in 1880, the artist began attending courses at the Academy of Arts, where he met Chistyakov and became a frequent visitor to his studio. The mentor became good friend For young genius, which Vrubel himself repeatedly mentioned in letters to his sister. Work on honing the plasticity of forms and conveying the liveliness of chiaroscuro until the end of his life was felt in the works of the painter.
Creative experiments
Despite the wayward manner of performance, far reaching from traditional academicism, Chistyakov encouraged his student's creative experiments. One of the few works that the artist tried to depict in all the severity of academicism is the sketch “Feasting Romans”. Being a purposeful person, Mikhail did not give up trying to combine his creativity with the development of his business. With the help of his old acquaintances Pampel, he found a customer who offered a fee of 200 rubles for any of his canvases of his choice. The theme for his painting was "Hamlet and Ophelia", but this idea was not successful, and the artist switched to another more realistic idea. The well-known and prepared Agafia was invited to work on the canvas “The Model”, who posed for many artists of that time. The artist's acquaintances helped to get decor items that were used as a backdrop in the production. After finishing the painting, he was invited to Kyiv to work on the restoration of the frescoes of St. Cyril's Church. Most bright moment in his work on the frescoes was the image "The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles."
Last trip to Italy
After completing work on this project, the artist went to Italy to replenish his creative knowledge. During his stay in Venice, the city inspired him so much that Vrubel closed himself in and painted icons and paintings of everyday subjects all day long. After leaving the creative influx, the artist began to feel a thirst for communication and a lack of love. Upon returning to Kyiv, the artist proposes to the wife of his patron Prakhov. However, the woman ridiculed his feelings and pointed to the obvious reason for the refusal, her marriage. After the refusal, Vrubel began a crisis, he practically does not draw, and if he starts a canvas, he throws it away. The only completed work is "Girl in front of a Persian carpet" commissioned by the owner of the loan office.
mental health issues
In 1890 the artist moved to Moscow. Here he began a period of depression, which was reflected in the cycle of works "Demon". Gloomy colors and tragic plots can be seen in all his subsequent works. Since 1890, the artist became interested in ceramics and made many bright orders for wealthy households in Russia. Until 1896, the artist traveled around Italy, where he worked in various pottery workshops. Upon his return to Moscow, the artist was invited to create scenery for the theater where he met his future wife Hope Zabel. Their meeting was as sudden and full of emotions as the whole life of the artist. The decision to marry was made the very next week after they met. With the advent of love, inspiration also came into the artist's life. He worked for days on end and it was then that those around him first noticed his mental illness. In 1900, inspired by theatrical productions, he wrote The Swan Princess. This canvas is notable for the fact that the artist created it in a day, on canvas, intended for a portrait of his beloved wife, which makes the work quite symbolic. Complications in state of mind the artist became noticeable during his return to the cycle of works "Demon". "Flying Demon" and "Defeated Demon" became an addition to the gloomy round dance of demonic creativity.
last years of life
Increasingly, the artist experienced breakdowns, which practically did not stop after the birth of his son in 1901. The stress and pressure experienced by the draftsman manifested itself in depression and violent behavior. The wife and child could not be in such an atmosphere and went to Ryazan to relatives. This behavior led to his forced incarceration in a clinic for the mentally ill. In 1903, after being discharged from the clinic and returning home, the artist lost his son. This event finally crippled both the physical and mental state of the painter. He was placed in a mental hospital where, despite frequent hallucinations, he continued to paint. "Pearl" and "Vision of the Prophet Ezekiel" were the last works of the artist. Vrubel began to have attacks of aggression, which alternated with apathy, and hallucinations were not uncommon. The artist claimed that he had become a prophet and knew exactly what was in store for him. On the last day of his life, enlightenment came over him, he was cheerful and cheerful, put himself in order and, to the surprise of the doctors, fell asleep in a tailcoat. On the same night, April 14, 1910, the artist died.
- Almost all major Russian artists of the 20th century experienced a strong and lasting impact of Vrubel. His manner of writing in "multi-colored cubes" was sometimes interpreted as the threshold of cubism. However, Vrubel, who proved with his work that a deep comprehension of nature naturally implies a transition to the other side of its external appearances, stands at the origins of not one particular direction, but almost all avant-garde searches for Russian art of the 20th century.
- In 1902, the famous psychiatrist Vladimir Bekhterev diagnosed Vrubel with an acute mental disorder. An incurable disease drove the artist to the clinic, he had eight years to live. Dr. Fyodor Usoltsev, who treated Vrubel, recalled that even in painful excitement, confusion of thoughts and feelings, Vrubel created - he sculpted strange figures from clay, he painted.
- Vrubel automated reality in painting, split the world and saw in it a second bottom, incomprehensible and demonic. Vrubel's paintings almost always disturb the soul, although the eyes of his Demon and the Swan Princess are beautiful and inspired. These characters in Vrubel's paintings, to which an entire hall is given in the Tretyakov Gallery, are perhaps the most famous. The symbolist artist loved fabulous, mythical images, their silence and mystery, ambiguity.
- Throughout his work, Vrubel repeatedly refers to the theme of prophecy, in moments of illness - the theme becomes almost obsessive. In 1904, he created the "Six-winged Seraphim" - the last large canvas of the artist, created in moments of enlightenment. The artist was sure that the talent and vocation of the creator are similar to the mission of the prophet. And just as in the Old Testament parable, Seraphim cleanses the prophet Isaiah from the sins, thereby preparing him for prophetic ministry, so Azrael Vrubel appears to finally establish the artist as a seer who knows his fate.
Awards:
- Gold medal of the Paris World Exhibition (1900)
- Second silver medal of the Academy of Arts (1883)
Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel (March 5, 1856, Omsk, Region of the Siberian Kirghiz, Russian empire- April 1, 1910, St. Petersburg) - Russian artist of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, who worked in almost all types and genres visual arts: painting, graphics, decorative sculpture and theatrical art.
Biography of Mikhail Vrubel
Vrubel Mikhail Alexandrovich was born into the family of an officer who often moved from city to city: Omsk, Astrakhan, St. Petersburg, Saratov, Odessa and again St. Petersburg, where Vrubel spent his childhood. At the age of three, Vrubel's mother died, but the stepmother turned out to be kind and loving, and the sickly boy's childhood was happy. Among adults and children, Vrubel was a universal favorite; from the age of 5 he studied at a drawing school, at the age of 7 he attended the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in St. Petersburg. In 1874, after graduating from high school, he entered legal department Petersburg University and attended evening classes at the Academy of Arts. In 1879, after graduating from the university, Vrubel entered the Academy of Arts, where he stayed for four years.
Vrubel's outstanding talent was noticed, and in 1884 he received an invitation to Kyiv to restore ancient frescoes and perform new compositions in St. Cyril's Church (XII century). About six months in 1884 - 1885 Vrubel stayed in Venice, where he studied the work of the Quattrocento masters (XV century), associated with the medieval tradition, and painted four icons for the iconostasis of St. Cyril's Church in Kiev. This work enriched his coloristic gift and helped him better understand the tasks of painting. In 1891, Vrubel became close to the circle of artists and musicians who had gathered around S.I. Mamontov. Vrubel lived in his house and worked as a sculptor, muralist, theater decorator, creating a huge number of works.
Creativity Vrubel
The work of Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel is one of the most significant and mysterious phenomena of Russian art. late XIX century. Great skill, tragedy, heroic spirit and a unique decorative gift make Vrubel an artist for all time. Forever living in his own world, inaccessible to the understanding of others, Vrubel was able to recreate his complex world in the images of their unusual art, and these images have become one of the milestones Russian culture at the turn of the century.
The artist developed the themes of good and evil, the contradictions of the human spirit and turned out to be congenial to the great poet.
Vrubel painted pictures on the themes of Russian fairy tales and operas by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov ("The Sea Princess", "Thirty-three Bogatyrs", etc.). Vivid fantasy and deep understanding of the essence human being gave birth to such paintings as "The Swan Princess", "By Night", "Pan".
Pan 
Art critic N.M. Tarabukin wrote about Vrubel's ability to "compare color spots to make the canvas play like a jewel," and color gave rise to form.
I. Grabar believed that Vrubel “occupies a peculiar place in Russian art. He had no predecessors in Russia, left no followers.”
Vrubel's last work was “Portrait of V.Ya. Bryusov. (1906), unusually expressive. The obsession with work led to a mental breakdown and placement in a hospital, where Vrubel died.
A. Blok said at Vrubel's funeral: “I can only tremble before what Vrubel and his ilk reveal to humanity once a century. The worlds that they saw, we do not see.
Vrubel automated reality in painting, split the world and saw in it a second bottom, incomprehensible and demonic.
Vrubel's paintings almost always disturb the soul, although the eyes of his Demon and the Swan Princess are beautiful and inspired.
These characters in Vrubel's paintings, to which an entire hall is given in the Tretyakov Gallery, are perhaps the most famous. The symbolist artist loved fabulous, mythical images, their silence and mystery, ambiguity.
A block on Vrubel’s grave will say: “He himself was a demon, a fallen beautiful angel, for whom the world was endless joy and endless torment ...”
Vrubel generally loved such faces - pensive, with the seal of doom, or ecstatic, drugged by a trance. At the same time, when creating his masterpieces - canvases, decorative panels, sculptures, frescoes, Vrubel was rarely satisfied with them. But the artist was not satisfied with the spiritual content of his paintings.
A perfectionist by nature, he pinned on art big hopes. Painting should have a high mission, Vrubel believed.
In 1902, the famous psychiatrist Vladimir Bekhterev diagnosed Vrubel with an acute mental disorder. An incurable disease drove the artist to the clinic, he had eight years to live.
Dr. Fyodor Usoltsev, who treated Vrubel, recalled that even in painful excitement, confusion of thoughts and feelings, Vrubel created - he sculpted strange figures from clay, he painted.
Art was Vrubel's breath and thinking. But it was worth listening to his seemingly incoherent speeches, and logic, meaning and feeling began to peep through them.
By the way, psychiatrists Usoltsev and Vvedensky collected collections of paintings by Vrubel, which were shown to the public in 1955.
Vrubel eagerly explored the world: he traveled - in order to later say: “How much beauty we have in Rus'!”, tried himself in different types art, restored the murals of the dome of Hagia Sophia in Kyiv, was an architect. He designed the façade of Savva Mamontov's house on Sadovo-Spasskaya Street in Moscow in 1891.
Life is a journey outside and deep into oneself, Vrubel could say. His disturbing and introspective creativity reminds of the depths of the spirit and its abysses.
"Before the fact that Vrubel Mikhail Alexandrovich and his like reveal to humanity once a century - I can only tremble. We do not see those worlds that they saw ...". A.A. Block. From a speech at the funeral of M.A. Vrubel on April 16, 1910.
The tragic fate of Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel for many decades after his death casts a special reflection on the works of the artist, recognized as one of the greatest masters Russian art. His paintings, watercolors, ceramics, decorative panels, sparkling with pure paint, like precious stones, attract the eye, make you think again and again about him. The connection between Vrubel's personality and the era in which he lived turned out to be more complex than that of many of his contemporaries. The artist had to capture in symbolic images his works of contradictions, struggles, tragedy and spiritual searches of his time. He passed them through his own soul - and the soul tore itself into an unbearable weight.
An outstanding painter of world renown was born in the city of Omsk in 1856. Vrubel was three years old when his mother passed away. To some extent, she was replaced by Anna Alexandrovna, his older sister, who became his close friend, played in the life of his brother significant role, took care of him and was main support in recent years. The most confidential letters of M.A. are addressed to her. Vrubel.
The Vrubel family lived either in St. Petersburg or in the provinces - frequent moves were associated with military career father. Mikhail Vrubel began to draw at the age of five and periodically took drawing lessons. Already in his early youth, faced with a provincial philistine environment, indifferent to everything except cards and gossip, Mikhail Alexandrovich seeks refuge from vulgarity in art. Still not feeling like an artist, he was already "on the side" of the light creative world, where the great masters of the Renaissance - Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci reigned.
After graduating from the gymnasium, at the request of his father, he entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, not feeling interested in this profession. Nevertheless, he graduated from the university and this became the basis of his deep education, which was noted by all who knew him and which was, in general, rare in the artistic environment of that era. Only at 24 Mikhail Vrubel finally determined his life and from the autumn of 1880 he studied at the Academy of Arts.
In search of my own creative way support for Vrubel was classical art. The young artist saw his task in developing his own manner and technique of writing. At the Academy, his interest in watercolor is born - a technique that is both subtle and powerful, capable of solving complex artistic problems. One of the best teachers of the Academy, Professor P.P. Chistyakov was the first to realize the unusual, powerful artistic gift of his student and guessed his desire for monumental forms of painting. In 1884, on his recommendation, Chistyakov, Vrubel went to Kyiv to take part in the restoration of the ancient St. Cyril's Church with frescoes of the 12th century and in the creation of murals in the Vladimir Cathedral. Several years of work in Kyiv became the time of artistic development Vrubel, determined his entire future fate.
This one of the most mysterious painters belongs to the type of creators of his time, whom S.P. Diaghilev called " beauty-hungry generation". Works written in 1886 in Kyiv - "", "", - speak of the artist's admiration for the beauty of the world.
In Vrubel's works, a huge decorative gift sounded with all its might - for him, any image of a person or object on canvas, paper was also a pattern, an ornament of forms. That is why Vrubel's passion for studies of precious fabrics was so great. The image of a bright carpet, on which works of the real world appear in luxurious patterns and colors, is the main essence and idea of many of his picturesque panels and paintings. Along with fabrics, embodiment decorative form Vrubel seeks in flowers: in Kyiv, he created magical watercolors depicting irises, orchids, azaleas, emphasized the living, as if continuing to bloom and bloom on a sheet of paper.
From created to Kyiv period The iconostasis of the St. Cyril's Church can be attributed to a special place, for the painting of icons of which Vrubel went to Venice. Here he was inspired by ancient monuments of art, frescoes and Byzantine mosaics, paintings by old masters - and the very vital life of the Italian city: people, streets, music, people, channels. To Italy from that moment gave birth in it to the greatest and most eternal love. Vrubel did not tire of remembering her even at the very end of his life, broken by a serious illness. The icons of the St. Cyril's Church, first of all "", carry a purely vrubel, a personal combination of images of Byzantine antiquity with dramatic thinking of the era at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries.
tragic eyes Our Lady(the prototype of which was portrait of a real woman - Z.L. Prahova) as a special sign of the soul will constantly appear in other Vrubel images. These eyes can be seen in the image Demon.
Appeal to the theme of the Demon happened here, in Kyiv, under the influence of Lermontov's poetry and A.G. Rubinstein, which produced on Vrubel great impression. The image of the Demon in the creative worldview of the artist has become a key one, containing the most diverse facets of his art. The artist argued that "The Demon is not understood - they are confused with the devil and the devil, ... and" Demon "means" soul "and personifies the eternal struggle of the restless human spirit, the ongoing reconciliation of the passions that overwhelmed him, the knowledge of life and not finding an answer to his doubts neither on earth nor in heaven." Here, the philosophical program of Vrubel's numerous works dedicated to the image of the Demon is contained in the words.
Having been refused participation in the painting of the Vladimir Cathedral, for Vrubel this was the first deep and serious blow. Sketches he created - "", " Angel with a censer and a candle"- the commissions seemed too uncanonical.
Their emotional intensity, drama and the very manner of Vrubel's painting were defiantly brightly individual. In 1889 the painter leaves Kyiv and comes to live in Moscow. In Moscow, he meets with an old friend V.A. Serov, presented by K.A. Korovin, settles in his workshop, needs, starves. In their memoirs, many, including K.A. Korovin, wrote about Vrubel's disinterestedness, the ability to be content with little and indifference to money. This manifested his desire to preserve his freedom, the freedom of an artist and a person, at all costs.
Korovin introduced Vrubel to S.I. Mamontov, who became his patron and friend.
In Moscow, in the house of Mamontov on Sadovo - Spasskaya Vrubel lived, worked on Demon (sitting)"(1890). After the Kyiv "reclusion" the artist finds himself in a rather stormy Moscow artistic life. He works on scenery for theaters, on costumes in the Private Opera S.I. Mamontov. He repeatedly travels to Italy together with Mamontov, lives and works in Abramtsevo. Here he is interested in ceramics, which has become one of his significant creative manifestations. One of the first Moscow works, which clearly showed the difference between Vrubel's art and the usual artistic norms, was the anniversary edition of M.Yu. Lermontov (1891). Decoratively refined and complex images of the poem " Daemon"were negatively rejected by the educated and aesthetically moral society. According to Korovin, everyone got angry".
In a new way, Vrubel realizes the modern type of decorative painting, moving from its monumental religious forms to decorative romantic panels - " Venice"(1893), "" (1894), triptychs for country houses by A.V. and S.T. Morozov.
But even on this path, he encounters misunderstanding. Especially difficult for Vrubel was the story of the creation of two large panels by order of Mamontov for the art department in Nizhny Novgorod of the All-Russian Exhibition of 1896. Sketches of Vrubel panels " Mikula Selyaninovich" And " Dream Princess"were not only rejected, but also ridiculed in the press. In response, Mamontov built a separate pavilion to show them. The panel, despite this dramatic episode, forced to talk about Vrubel.
Like many people of this era, Vrubel enjoyed vivid aesthetic impressions in music. But he was also distinguished by a mysterious susceptibility to singing and music. His sister recalled how, as a child, he could stand "chained" to the piano for hours, enjoying the game. Many themes of his works were born under the influence of music, Vrubel's marriage is also connected with it.
At one of the operettas, he was so impressed by the voice of Nadezhda Ivanovna, an artist from the Private Opera, that he fell in love with him, not seeing her at all on the darkened stage. Subsequently, in 1896, the opera actress became the artist's wife and his favorite model. " Other singers sing like birds, but Nadia sings like a person", Vrubel said about his wife's voice.
For him, she was also the embodiment of the musical images of his beloved composer and friend - N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, in whose operas she was often the first female performer. In the role of Princess Volkhova in the opera "" the artist's wife is depicted in a watercolor of 1898. Vrubel listened to his wife in this opera about 90 times.
Several times he was able to enjoy the playing of the orchestra, especially SEA and he didn't get bored, which surprised his wife. Each time the artist found new delights and saw fantastic tones.
Many great theatrical scenery, graphic sheets, sculptural works was created under the influence musical images. Among them is a series of majolica sculptures on the themes of the operas "" and " Snow Maiden". The fabulous appearance of Spring, Kupava, Lel, Sadko, playing the harp, Tsar Berendey, is embodied in the current forms of ceramics, covered with sparkling glazes.
Thanks to Rimsky-Korsakov, Vrubel begins to feel the national note in art especially subtly. The images of Russian folklore become an important poetic theme of his work - the panel "" (1898), "" (1900) appears.
Symbolism - the artistic direction of the early 20th century - is reflected in many of the artist's paintings. "", "", "" are not landscapes, although the artist captured images of natural scenes. The images of these creations are symbols of the mysterious, enigmatic nature hidden from human life.
Symbolic meaning in Vrubel's painting is endowed with female images. Whether it is a vaguely distinguishable image of a "fairy" of lilacs, fabulous princesses or portraits of his wife, the poetic brush of the artist makes them images of eternal, sublime, romantic beauty.
Symbolic pictures led to the ultimate Demon - " Demon defeated"(1902), the most incomprehensible for the viewer of those years.
Vrubel wrote it feverishly, rewriting it many times, continuing to work even at the exhibition and in the house of the new owner of the painting. He seemed to want to convey something important, final, anticipating his fate. The feeling of catastrophe, the collapse of life, immeasurable suffering and death permeated the audience in front of this picture. It was from the spring of 1902 that the long and gloomy years of mental illness began. The artist was strongly affected by the refusal of the Tretyakov Gallery to acquire " Downtrodden Demon"(The painting was acquired by V.V. von Meck, and only after Vrubel's death did it enter the gallery). Vrubel felt the "Demon" as a result, as deeply suffered knowledge and was offended by misunderstanding.
1903 was a tragic year for the artist. His little son Savva died, which led to a strong impetus to the development of the disease.
This tragic moment in time most The artist spends his life in clinics. At rare intervals, he returns to work - he paints a portrait, graphic still lifes, one of his most beautiful masterpieces - pastel " Pearl
In the process of creating work on it, the artist lost his sight. Last years passed in darkness. During the terrible and sad illness of N.I. Zabela - Vrubel sang him old arias and new ones, just prepared. According to her - " here he sometimes forgot for a moment about his misfortune". F.A. Usoltsev, the artist's psychiatrist, who carefully and carefully treated Vrubel, stated in his memoirs, which were written immediately after the death of the artist, that "his work is not only quite normal, but so powerful and durable that even a terrible illness couldn't destroy it."
One of the hardest lessons of life for Vrubel was a collision with moral and emotional deafness, with philistine views on art. He was not understood. Worse, they didn't want to understand him. " It is better to fight arbitrariness than herd stupidity", he once wrote bitterly. Korovin, deeply worried about a friend, wrote that "the whole life of an artist, a man with a brave and tender soul" was surrounded by "a sour swamp of petty, vile and vile laughter."
Paper, watercolor, whitewash, bronze, pencil.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel - a famous Russian artist of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, who worked in a variety of techniques; representative of symbolism. He is the author of such paintings as "The Swan Princess", "Seated Demon", "Flying Demon", "Defeated Demon".
Early life
Mikhail was born in 1856 in a military family. He did not belong to the nobility, but the Vrubel family could boast of internationality - there were Poles, Finns, Tatars and Russians. Little Misha inherited blond hair and regular features from his father and deep brown eyes from his mother, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 23.
The artist grew up inquisitive, cheerful child. He was interested in books, reproductions of paintings; also in early childhood showed his love for creativity. Despite the fact that Mikhail's family was not rich, his father regularly paid for drawing lessons for his son.
The beginning of the creative path
In 1880 Vrubel entered the Academy of Arts. There his talent was noticed; Vrubel, who had not yet finished his studies, went to work in Kyiv. For five years in a row he painted St. Cyril's Cathedral, and after a visit to Italy, the artist formed own style diverging from Orthodox canons. Mikhail was no longer invited to restore temple frescoes.
mature years
Vrubel left Kyiv for Moscow. A little-known artist was commissioned to illustrate Lermontov's poem "The Demon". After that glory came to Michael; he became a sought-after painter. In 1896 he married opera singer Nadezhda Zabela. She became his the only love and muse.
From that time began the period active work. Vrubel, not sparing himself, was engaged in creativity for 14 hours a day. Until 1902, Mikhail created all his famous canvases: "Pan", "The Swan Princess", "Demon Defeated", "Portrait of a Son", "Lilac", "Morning". The artist's psyche could not withstand such a huge load; Vrubel became mentally ill.
Illness and death
In 1902 the first crisis came. Mikhail Alexandrovich's condition was incredibly difficult. He was in a psychiatric clinic; Even his wife and son were not allowed to see him. Later he was transferred to a clinic at Moscow University, where the artist's condition improved markedly.
In 1903 Vrubel's two-year-old son died. This was the point of no return: restoration was out of the question. Three years later, Mikhail became completely blind, and in 1910 he died. Before his death, he almost did not regain consciousness.
Mikhail Vrubel - brilliant artist not understood by contemporaries. His paintings attract the attention of viewers with their depth and tragedy, which speaks of their creator as a person with a fine mental organization. He is rightfully considered one of the brightest Russian artists of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
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Interesting Facts and dates from life
Vrubel's talent was multifaceted. He painted temples, painted huge multi-meter canvases and small easel paintings; he acted as a theater decorator, master book illustration and even as a sculptor.
Mikhail Vrubel - Russian artist, first graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, then the Academy of Arts. On the recommendation of his teacher P. Chistyakov, he worked in ancient temple Kirillovsky monastery near Kyiv. However, his work was not properly appreciated.
For a long time, Vrubel was unknown to the public, only in the late 90s, after the demonstration of large panels "Princess of Dreams" and "Mikula Selyaninovich", he was noticed, they became interested in the artist's work. However, his work constantly caused fierce controversy in the press.
Vrubel's works cannot be confused with anyone else. He developed a special, only Vrubel style inherent in him. This style is based on the dominance of a three-dimensional sculptural pattern, the originality of which lies in the crushing of the surface of the form into sharp, sharp edges, likening objects to some kind of crystalline formations. Color is understood by Vrubel as a kind of illumination, colored light penetrating the facets of a crystalline form. The crushing, iridescent color in Vrubel's canvases and their crystalline texture are akin to mosaic effects.
Visible in the works of Vrubel features of symbolism and the style of "modern". The artist is interested in the theme of tragic loneliness and the death of the individual, which he seeks to reveal symbolically in the image of the Demon. In his work there are traditionally realistic works, there are also mythological ones, illustrations for the works of Lermontov, Pushkin, for folk tales, epics and legends.
Turning to poetic pictures of nature, Vrubel also gave them a mystical-fantastic coloring. The influence of modernism had a particularly strong effect on Vrubel's decorative works (panels, sculpture, sketches of stained-glass windows, etc.).
At the end of his life, Vrubel fell ill and was periodically treated in a psychiatric clinic. In periods between bouts of mental illness, he wrote and created. In 1910, at the age of fifty-four, Vrubel died of pneumonia.
The true element of Vrubel's paintings is silence, silence, which seems to be heard. His world is immersed in silence. He depicts moments indescribable, feelings that do not fit into words. Silent duel of hearts, views, deep meditation, silent spiritual communication.
Vrubel's world is permeated with currents of high spiritual tension - this is the secret of its monumentality and guarantee of longevity.
One of the first works of Vrubel. This is a huge fresco "The Descent of the Holy Spirit ...", written by the artist on the arched vault of St. Cyril's Church in Kyiv.
According to the gospel tradition, the Holy Spirit appeared to the apostles in the form of a dove, the tongues of flame emanating from it "rested on each of them." After that, the apostles acquired the gift of speaking in all languages and preaching the teachings of Christ to all nations. Like other gospel tales, the plot of the "Descent" had church art its iconographic scheme, fixed by a centuries-old tradition. Vrubel clearly followed the scheme, probably using old gospel miniatures, but he interpreted the figures in his own way, showing himself as a contemporary artist.
The twelve seated apostles are arranged in a semicircle so that the composition fits into the architectural form of the vault. In the middle rises the figure of the Mother of God standing very straight. The background is blue, golden rays come from a circle with a dove figurine, the robes of the apostles are light, with mother-of-pearl tints, creating a glowing effect from within. The very group of apostles, seized by a common high spiritual uplift, each expressing it in his own way, makes an indelible impression: hands, then tightly clenched, then impetuously pressed to the heart, then lowered in thought, then tremblingly touching the hand of the person sitting next to him.
Vrubel in many of his works refers to the work of Lermontov. The demon is one such image. But this is not just an illustration to the work of Lermontov, Vrubel puts his vision, his understanding of this image.
Demon is fallen Angel who raised a rebellion against God and was cast down by heaven to earth. In mythology, the Demon is an image of a titanic, but bound energy. He was rejected by heaven, but could not be accepted by earth either. Vrubel himself understood the Demon in this way: "he personifies the eternal struggle of the restless human spirit, seeking reconciliation of the passions that overwhelm him, knowledge of life and not finding an answer to his doubts either on earth or in heaven."
The essence of this image is twofold. On the one hand, there is the impressive greatness of the human spirit, which does not tolerate any prohibitions or fetters in its impulses towards freedom and fullness of knowledge. On the other hand, there is boundless pride, an immense overestimation of the forces of the individual, which turns into loneliness, cold, emptiness.
Only God's curse
Fulfilled - from the same day
Nature's hot embrace
Forever cold for me.
The demon is depicted sitting on a mountaintop. Hopeless longing is read in his gaze, in the tilt of the torso, in the wrinkled hands clasping his knees. Even such a compositional technique as a part of the image cut off by the upper frame makes us feel the constraint, the painful existence of the Demon.
The pictorial manner of the artist in this work is interesting: the picture seems to be laid out from many intersecting planes-facets.
The picture is dominated by cold, lilac-blue tones.
Vrubel has long conceived the pathetic canvas "Demon Downtrodden". He wanted to shock the viewer, create a grandiose work, but it seems that he did not clearly understand the idea of the picture: the Demon owned him more than he - the Demon. He thought for a long time how to portray this Demon - flying or some other. The idea of the "Defeated" Demon arose as if by itself.
The demon is cast down into a gorge among the rocks. The once mighty arms became whips, pathetically broken, the body was deformed, the wings were scattered. Around the fallen lilac gloom and splashed blue jets. They flood it, a little more - and close it completely, there will be a blue expanse, a pre-temporal water space in which the mountains will be reflected. Wild and pitiful is the face of the fallen one with a painfully contorted mouth, although a pink glow still burns in his crown.
Gold, gloomy blue, milky blue, smoky purple and pink - all Vrubel's favorite colors - form an enchanting spectacle here.
The canvas just painted did not look like it does now: the crown sparkled, the peaks of the mountains shone pink, the feathers of broken wings, like peacocks, sparkled and flickered. As always, Vrubel did not care about the safety of the paints - he added bronze powder to the paints to make them shine, but over time this powder began to act destructively, the picture darkened unrecognizably. But from the very beginning color scheme was openly decorative - it lacked the depth and saturation of color, the variety of transitions and shades, which is in the best things of Vrubel.
When the painting was transported to St. Petersburg for the World of Art exhibition, Vrubel, despite the fact that the canvas was already on display, repainted it every day from the very morning, and everyone saw this change. There were days when the Demon was scary, and then deep sadness appeared in his face ... Vrubel was already deeply ill then.
"Demon Defeated" captivates not so much with its painting, but with the visible embodiment of the artist's tragedy: we feel - "here a man burned down."
Depicting fairytale heroes, Vrubel did not illustrate well-known literary plots, he always created his fairy tales, his Demon. But this does not mean that he ignored the primary sources. Creating, for example, "Bogatyr", he sincerely got used to the world of epic tales.
His "Bogatyr" - Ilya Muromets - thick-set, huge, sitting on a horse-bityuge. Such a "muzhichische-village" can fight with a club "in ninety pounds", drink a glass of wine in one and a half buckets, as the epic tells; he is "heavy from the silushka, as from a heavy burden," but he rides "a little higher than a standing forest, a little lower than a walking cloud" - in the picture, the tops of the fir trees are visible at the horse's feet. The forest is primevally dense, two hawks lurk in its thick ligature. The broad-shouldered, squat, like a bear, hero looks vigilantly and sharply, listens sensitively, his clothes and armor are patterned, elegant - also in accordance with the epic, which speaks of the panache of the "old Cossack" Ilya:
Obul Ilya silk bast shoes,
He put the pouch in black velvet,
He put on a hat of Greek land on his head.
Vrubel felt the power of the heroic epic, but they were not close to him as fragile, lyrical, "melting and slipping away" images.
They say that the portrait-painting "The Swan Princess" was written on the plot of Pushkin's "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", and Vrubel's wife Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel served as a model for writing the portrait. However, there are no direct connections with the stage interpretation of "Tsar Saltan" in the picture, and the princess herself does not even look like N.I. Zabelu is a completely different person. Most likely, Vrubel invented the face of the Princess, which remotely reflected and merged the features of both his wife and the daughter of the woman he once loved, and maybe someone else's.
Of course, Vrubel painted not just a portrait. Not living woman the artist wrote from flesh and blood, and fantasy creature for whom the deep sea is a home. The beauty of the Vrubel Swan Princess was born from the sea element, it is as if woven from sunset rays, the play of waves, the brilliance of stones, the sound of the surf. On her inanimate face, the play of colors - from the blue-black sea to the pink-crimson dawn - is like an overflow of tones on porcelain. Only the eyes live on this face, and there is immense sadness in them. Wings rustle in the wind, expensive stones in her headdress sparkle, a parting glance beckons, beckons. In this look, longing for the earthly appearance, for earthly love and joy.
Of course, this is not Pushkin's "The Swan Princess", and not from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera. There she is daylight, bright. Tsarevich Gvidon saves her from an evil kite and marries her, and everything is arranged to the general happiness. In Vrubel's painting, a mysterious bird with the face of a maiden is unlikely to become a man's wife, and her languid farewell gaze, her hand gesture, warning, calling for silence does not promise well-being. The princess does not approach, she floats away into the darkness.
The mood of the picture is disturbingly sad. The fluttering mother-of-pearl plumage of the Swans, with reflections of the setting sun, is written in such a way that we hear this rustle, this trembling, we hear the cold even blows of the surf on the shore, reinforcing the feeling of hopelessness and sadness. Another moment - and the strip of dawn will go out, the beauty of the princess will disappear, only the big one will flap its wings White bird and disappear into the waves...
The painting "The Swan Princess" was especially loved by A. Blok. A reproduction from it always hung in his office in Shakhmatovo. She inspired a large poem with the subtitle "Vrubel". The poems do not illustrate the picture of Vrubel, they are inspired by various associations that arose from the picture...
Dali are blind, the days are without anger,
Closed mouth
In the dream of the princess,
The blue is empty...
There will be springs in eternal change
And oppression falls.
Whirlwind full of visions -
Pigeon years...
What instant powerlessness?
Time is a light smoke...
We'll spread our wings again
Let's fly again!
And again in a crazy shift
dissecting the firmament,
Meet a new whirlwind of visions
Let's meet life and death!
Pastel Pearl" - small miracle art, an amazing play of iridescence in a pearl shell.
Who ever held in his hand and looked at a natural sea shell, could not help but marvel at the changeable play of color in its layers. They shine with the tones of the sea, and the sunset sky, and the glow of the rainbow, and the shimmer of dull silver. A real treasure cave in miniature.
For Vrubel, all nature was a cave of treasures, and in the overflow of the shell he saw, as it were, concentrated magic spilled in nature. It was only necessary to "copy" it: the color nuances of mother-of-pearl are elusive, changing with each turn of the shell, each change in lighting. Vrubel realized that the overflows of the shell also depend on its texture - smooth, rough, layered.
Vrubel made a lot of drawings of the shell with charcoal and pencil, before painting it in color, with all the tints of lilac, blue, pink, greenish. These overflows are created with such authenticity that it seems: if you turn the picture under different angle, then the colors will change, flash and fade, as in a real shell.
The shell is written a little more than natural size, and this enhances the impression of magic, as if we are facing some kind of tower of the underwater kingdom. Then someone must live in it! Who, if not the daughters of the sea king?
The princesses arose with the same inevitability as all the fantastic images of Vrubel - from the contemplation of natural forms, as if they were originally hidden in them, and they only had to be considered. The artist did not like the figures themselves, they were too in the spirit of modernity - somewhat cutesy, exquisitely playful, which diminishes the artist's intention.
Despite the fact that the "Pearl" is one of latest works Vrubel - remains a genuine pearl of his work.
Vrubel liked to depict closely dense, winding thickets of flowers and herbs. The artist delved into the weaving of stems, prickly spruce branches, into the "architecture" of lilac clusters, outlandish forms horned shells, into the structure of ice crystals that form fern-like patterns on glass in winter. All these wonders of nature, under the artist's gaze, grew into a magical world, he peered again and again - and he could see the outlines of figures, staring eyes ...
Here is the picture "Lilac"... Purple thickets of lilacs fill the entire space of the picture, and it seems that they have no end beyond its borders. And in the bushes - a female figure, either girls or fairies. Her smoky-greenish face and hands, almost black dress and hair and dark eye holes - after all, this is nothing but a thickened and revived shadow in the depths between the branches in the predawn gloomy hour. The sun will rise and she will disappear.
The painting "Pan" is unanimously recognized as almost the pinnacle of all Vrubel's work. Surprisingly, the artist wrote it in two or three days! They say that the reading of A. France's story "Saint Satyr" served as an impetus. And the artist first called his picture "Satire". The Hellenic goat-legged god and the Russian Leshy united here in one person. But most of all, from Leshy - both the Russian landscape and the appearance of Pan. Where did this appearance come from, where did the artist get this remarkable bald head, round, eyebrowed, blue-eyed face, overgrown with wild curls? It is known that no one posed for Vrubel, and whether he spied such an old man somewhere in the Ukrainian village, or he just imagined him moonlit night at the sight of an old mossy stump - unknown.
And at the same time, he is absolutely fantastic, he is a forest undead, the personification of what is imagined and imagined by a lost person at night. A gray-haired stump begins to move, mutton horns curl under the shaggy moss, a clumsy hand separates, squeezing a multi-barreled pipe, and suddenly open round Blue eyes like phosphorescent fireflies. As if responding to the silent call of the forest owner, the moon slowly crawls out from behind the horizon, the surface of the river and a small blue flower flashes with a blue glow. Goblin is both the soul and the body of these copses and swampy plains; the curls of his hair are like a rising crescent, the curve of his arm echoes the curve of a birch, and he is all knotty, brown, made of earth, moss, tree bark and roots. The magical emptiness of his eyes speaks of some kind of animal or plant wisdom, alien to consciousness: this creature is completely spontaneous, devoid of any experiences, painful thoughts ...
