Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel- Russian post-impressionist painter. Born in Omsk on March 5, 1856 - died in St. Petersburg on April 1, 1910. His painting was characterized by symbolism and philosophy. In each image, an additional subtext is read, which indicates that there is a second bottom in the picture. It's one thing to just look at a beautifully painted painting, and quite another to see it as a whole work, with a very deep thought. Mikhail Vrubel was such an artist.
In addition to philosophy, in his works he used a completely unusual technique that amazes art connoisseurs to this day. Intense colors that make you feel mixed feelings, clear constructiveness of drawings, veiled tragedy. All this makes people stop for a long time at Vrubel's paintings in museums and catch themselves thinking that painting is beautiful and magical.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel was born in Omsk in the family of a military lawyer. Studied at the Academy of Arts. His teachers were P.P. Chistyakov and M. Fortuny. The Pre-Raphaelites, artists Italian Renaissance, as well as writers William Shakespeare, Goethe, Lermontov and others. It is also worth mentioning that the Abramtsevo circle (now a museum in Abramtsevo) made no less contribution to the artist's art. It was here that he painted some of his most famous works: Egyptian, Kupava, Mizgir, Volkhova, etc.
One of the most famous paintings Mikhail Vrubel became a work called " Daemon". In addition to the fact that it is filled with tragedy of extraordinary intensity, some transcendent romance that lies beyond the boundaries of life, here Mikhail Alexandrovich applied all his experience and skill in painting to realize an idea that was unusual even for that time - to paint a demon. Color contrast reaches its climax on this canvas. It is worth saying that the picture is dedicated to one of the works of M. Yu. Lermontov. Undoubtedly, the artist Mikhail Vrubel became the brightest and famous painter, who left a very bright and indelible mark on the art of the Russian avant-garde.
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Vrubel (photo)
self-portrait
Princess Volkhova
Demon Downcast
Girl on the background of the carpet
fantasy landscape
Pearl
Feasting Romans
Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles
Decorative panel "Philosophy" was created by Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel in 1899. The panel conveys an allegorical scene depicting a girl. Her naked body is covered with a bronze-colored cloth, showing her bare chest. Red hair girl […]
It was drawn by the artist around 1904-1905. To create it, a regular sheet of paper, watercolor, charcoal and a pencil were used. The viewer can openly observe the sad look of the prophet. Vrubel managed to convey in the image the entire […]
Mikhail Vrubel completed this work by order for the design and decoration of the interior. A remarkable structure of a picturesque and colorful panel, the task of which will be to solve the filling of the entire ceiling space. In this picture, the characteristic […]
Stunning work by Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel "The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles" adorns the barrel vault of St. Cyril's Church, located in Kyiv. The work belongs to the first works of the painter. According to the Gospel, the Holy Spirit came to the apostles […]
The portrait from life was painted in 1898. When writing a masterpiece used oil paints. The wife is wearing fluffy dress, decorated with a yellow wide belt, a muslin hat adorns the head. In her hands Nadezhda Ivanovna holds […]
The ceramic sculpture "Egyptian" was created by the artist M. A. Vrubel in 1891-1896, when he had just begun to get involved in the manufacture of products from this material. The Creator depicted the beautiful in his plasticity female face– beautiful […]
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel is an artist with difficult fate. His life is like a drama. Successful young man while studying at law faculty university, carried away by the bohemian lifestyle, fortunately found in himself the talent […]
Mikhail Vrubel is one of those Russian artists who became the father of Russian Art Nouveau. It was the elements of Art Nouveau that the master used to create a unique masterpiece"The Judgment of Paris". Vrubel used more precise lines, ornaments with hidden and […]
"Where do artists come from?" - thought A. Blok. Is it not from ancient tragedies? What seal do they carry? The biography of Mikhail Vrubel answers: the seal of fate and madness. The artist was phenomenally gifted. He was subject to monumental painting, graphic arts, theatrical scenery, sculpture. What did Mikhail Vrubel look like? A photo from 1897 shows this to us.
Origin
Vrubel's heredity is amazing. She is amazingly diverse. ethnic composition. It mixed Russians, Tatars, Finns, immigrants from Prussian Poland and Warsaw Poles. These complex mixtures will undoubtedly influence the artist's life. Biography of Mikhail Vrubel and thanks to this, it will be very difficult. Mental softness, detached thoughtfulness - this came to him from his mother, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 23. Hot temper, ardor, unexpected decisive actions and stamina when it was necessary to overcome life difficulties, is from the father. He also looked like him: thick blond hair, straight nose. And the eyes were maternal - brown.
Childhood
It was a beautiful, cheerful, inventive child. He invented games based on the adventures of Mine Reed and Fenimore Cooper and captivated and united everyone around him. But at the same time he could sit for hours, reading and looking at illustrations and reproductions of paintings. Misha was born in Omsk in 1856. But the father's service took place on the move. They lived in Astrakhan and Kharkov. There he remarried, and his wife devoted much time to the children from her first marriage. She didn't have hers yet.
In Saratov, another city where the Vrubels lived, they brought a copy of " doomsday» Michelangelo. And here, for the first time, Michael's amazing visual memory manifested itself. According to his recollections, he painted a fresco with all the details. By this time he was already taking drawing lessons. The family was large and poor. Michael's father did not make a career, probably because he came from poor nobles and was a Catholic. But for children, parents tried to do everything possible so that they could follow their abilities and hobbies.
This is how the biography of Mikhail Vrubel developed serenely in his childhood. Anxiety and difficulties, moving and unsettled life, poverty - all this will come later, starting from a young independent life.
In Academy
After graduating from the Odessa gymnasium, where he seriously studied both literature and history, and German, French and latin languages, and then St. Petersburg University, in 1880 Vrubel entered the Academy of Arts. Now the life that Mikhail Vrubel will lead, his biography will forever be connected with art. He's starting to get interested tragic themes, universal, philosophical.
His work "Hamlet and Ophelia" (1884, Russian Museum) is not accidental. He is attracted to strong and rebellious personalities. Valentin Serov and his cousin are posing for him. Dark color, but cobalt plays with all shades. The picture was left unfinished, because it just so happened. An artist who has not graduated from the Academy is invited to work in Kyiv. The painter Mikhail Vrubel, whose biography is suddenly changing, will show his yet unknown side of his talent as a master of monumental murals there.
Kyiv, Italy and again Kyiv
At the suggestion of the art critic A. Prakhov, he enthusiastically works, painting St. Cyril's Cathedral with frescoes. He created four original compositions to replace the lost ones and restored 150 fragments of frescoes that date back to the 12th century. Five years spent in searching and laboring were paid extremely poorly. But the art critic, in order to put an end to the young artist's passion for his wife, sends Vrubel to Ravenna.
Most of all, it was not the flowering of the Renaissance that attracted him, but more early art and Gothic mosaics and stained glass windows. He greedily absorbs plastic and color solutions Italians, that with his amazing visual memory, which manifested itself in childhood, it is not difficult for him.
Upon returning to Kyiv, the result will be masterpieces - watercolor sketches of the murals of the Vladimir Cathedral (1887). They were not accepted, as they diverged from the concept and tradition of images in Orthodox Church. In the "Tombstone", which is presented above, the whole depth of maternal grief can be traced. It expresses to the maximum the grief of Mary, and her suffering, and immeasurable love. She was petrified, looking at her son with eyes full of tears. The simplicity of color relationships and the laconicism of the composition express the depth and grandeur of sorrow. These works combined the harmony of antiquity and the expression of the feelings of modern man.
Moscow (1890-1902)
In Kyiv, he was entrusted with far from the most important work. Permanent earnings he didn’t have, and by chance Vrubel leaves for Moscow, for a short time just meet up with friends. He will stay here for a long time. And this will be the most fruitful and bright period in creativity, which Mikhail Vrubel has not yet known. His biography will write off his acquaintance with and Savva Mamontov.
Demon and Tamara
At this time, a collection of works in two volumes was published for the anniversary of Lermontov. The little-known but interesting Vrubel was entrusted with illustrating The Demon. For himself, the artist has already addressed this topic, but was not satisfied with the result. Immediately he completed 30 black and white drawings watercolor. They are amazingly expressive. Tamara he connects the heavenly and the earthly.
and other works
In 1894, Vrubel received orders to create decorative panels. "Venice" represents living a full-blooded life, and "Spain" is inspired by the opera "Carmen". In some proximity to it is the painting "The Fortune Teller" (1895).
The painting prominently depicts the ace of spades in the foreground. The way it is drawn means good deeds and mutual feelings. The author's expectations did not deceive him. Love and Hope came to him. In a few months he will marry Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela. So the biography of Mikhail Vrubel will be updated. This will happen in 1896. And along with the singer, music enters his life. The artist is full of energy. He creates.
Mikhail Vrubel: paintings with names
During these years (from 1896 to 1902) new world- the world of Vrubel. He will write a series great portraits- "WITH. I. Mamontov”, “K. D. Artsybusheva”, the panel “Princess Dream” and the canvases “Mikula Selyaninovich”, “Lilac”, “Morning”, “Pan”, “The Swan Princess”, “Bogatyr”, “Flying Demon”, “Defeated Demon”, “ Portrait of a son, a suite of portraits of his wife. He works earnestly, not sparing himself, 14 hours a day. And sickness comes.
Inevitability (1903-1910)
Mental illnesses due to the fact that others simply do not understand them, look with fear or mockery, are always difficult for both the patient and his relatives. But these are the most common diseases, like a disease of the stomach or heart, but there everyone understands everything, and they are full of sympathy. Not so with depression and clouding of consciousness. And how bitter it is to read about Vrubel's illness now, when there is a whole range of drugs that could bring him out of a progressive illness.
At least for a longer time to leave him in society healthy people. And then he left and lost contact with them. Nevertheless, he tried to write little by little. Here is a rose in a glass, here is a portrait of Bryusov, whom the poet himself wanted to be like.
The heaviest
This last period when the artist went blind. He will spend four years in complete darkness when ideas swarm in the head and they cannot be transferred to the canvas. There is only one thing left: listen to music, charming voice wife, listen to books being read to him. But he was in another world, a world of hallucinations, from which he occasionally emerged. Before his death, he returned to our world, washed himself, as he loved, with cologne. And by morning he was gone. It was 1910.
So quietly and meekly left a genius not understood by his contemporaries - Mikhail Vrubel. Biography and creativity were a protest against evil, filled with all the passion of his ardent nature. In their tragic images he embodied light and nobility. The struggle of two opposite principles - light and darkness - is the theme of his works. Blok said over his grave that he had left his own to everyone "as spellcasters against purple evil."
Paintings Mikhail Vrubel, the first Russian symbolist artist of the late 19th century, is hard not to recognize: his creative style is so original that his works cannot be confused with others. Central image, to which he turned throughout almost his entire life, is the image of Lermontov's Demon. Even during his lifetime, there were many rumors about the artist - about, for example, that he sold his soul to the devil, and he revealed his true face to him. What he saw led to blindness and insanity, and last years The artist spent his life in a clinic for the mentally ill. What is true here, and what is fiction?
The image of the Demon really haunted the artist. He first turned to this topic in 1890, when he happened to work on illustrations for the anniversary edition of M. Lermontov's works. Some of the drawings never made it into the book - contemporaries were unable to appreciate the talent of the artist. He was accused of illiteracy and inability to draw, of misunderstanding Lermontov, and creative manner contemptuously called "genius". Only decades after Vrubel's death did art historians agree that this the best illustrations to Lermontov's poem, subtly conveying the very essence of the character.
Vrubel dedicated several paintings to the Demon, and all the characters have huge eyes full of melancholy. Seeing them, it is impossible to imagine Lermontov's Demon to others. Vrubel wrote: “The demon is not so much an evil spirit as suffering and mournful, but for all that, powerful and majestic.” This is how we see him in the painting "Demon (sitting)". hidden power and there is as much power in it as sorrow and doom.
In Vrubel's understanding, the Demon is neither a devil nor a devil, since "devil" in Greek simply means "horned", "devil" - "slanderer", and "demon" means "soul". This makes him very similar to Lermontov's interpretation: "It looked like a clear evening: neither day nor night - neither darkness nor light!"
"Demon (sitting)" - the most notable work Vrubel. However, besides her, there are several more canvases on the same topic. And they were written at a time when the artist began to overcome the disease. First signs mental disorder appeared at the time when Vrubel was working on The Demon Downcast, in 1902. And in 1903 a tragedy happened - his son died, which finally undermined mental health artist.
From then until his death in 1910, Vrubel lives in clinics, and in brief moments of enlightenment creates outstanding works from which breathes something otherworldly. Perhaps this gave contemporaries reason to assert that the artist sold his soul to the devil and paid for it with his own health.
a friendship that ended with a severed ear
If you do not know anything about Mikhail Vrubel, except for his paintings, you can imagine him like a Demon. But according to the testimony of people who knew him well, neither in character nor in appearance famous artist there was nothing demonic.
Outwardly, he was of small stature and fragile build, blond, a little fussy, expansive, sometimes sociable and friendly, sometimes irritable. By nature he was eternal child, careless and careless.
His wife's sister, having first met Vrubel when he was forty years old, wrote in her diary: "He ... seemed to me weak, so small - I felt sorry for him ... I have little faith in his future, he has little strength." And Vrubel at that time was already the author of sketches for the murals of the Vladimir Cathedral, "The Seated Demon", illustrations for Lermontov, "Spain", "Fortune Tellers". True, only a very limited circle of people saw his works: until the end of the 1890s, they were not exhibited anywhere.
Lilac. 1900
Vrubel treated contemporary art with disdain. He did not like to visit exhibitions and galleries, and in Tretyakov Gallery hit for the first time on May 24, 1898, that is, when he was forty-two years old.
Pearl. 1904
Vrubel was born in Omsk, where his father (later a general) served in the military legal department. The family often moved, so the future artist did not have a native nest and memories associated with it. Omsk, three years later Astrakhan, then a year in St. Petersburg, then Saratov, again St. Petersburg, five years in Odessa, and finally, since 1874, Vrubel settled in St. Petersburg for a long time.
Despite the nomadic life, Michael's childhood was carefree. Having lost his mother early, he grew up in the care of his stepmother, who turned out to be kind, loving and replaced the mother to him and his older sister Anna; Then they had more brothers and sisters. Mikhail was in poor health (he began to walk only at the age of three), but his disposition was cheerful and lively. At the age of five, he began to draw and did not give up his pencil and brush throughout his gymnasium and university years.
The Swan Princess. 1900 final version
Hamlet and Ophelia. 1888
In 1880, at the age of twenty-four, he became a first-year student at the Academy of Arts.
Vrubel spent four years at the Academy of Arts, during which his work was awarded several medals. At the Academy, he worked in the class of P. P. Chistyakov. In those years, the young artist so refined and trained his eye that he distinguished "facets" not only in the structure human body or the head, where the design is sufficiently clear and constant, but also in such surfaces where it is almost imperceptible, for example, in crumpled fabric, a flower petal, a veil of snow. He learned to mint, to cut, like a jeweler, these unsteady surfaces, he felt the form down to its slightest bends. How he did this can be seen in the example of his painting "Models in a Renaissance setting."
Clever and insightful Chistyakov discerned the extraordinary giftedness of the student and distinguished him from others. Therefore, when Chistyakov was addressed by his old friend Professor A. V. Prakhov with a request to recommend one of the most capable students for work in ancient temple Kirillov Monastery near Kiev, Chistyakov without hesitation introduced Vrubel to him with the words:
"Better, more talented and more suitable for your order, I can not recommend anyone."
Vrubel lived in Kyiv from the spring of 1884 to the autumn of 1889, from there he traveled for several months, first to Venice, then to Odessa and Kharkov. When the artist had just arrived in Kiev and got acquainted with the temple, he offered to simply clear the frescoes and leave them intact, but they did not agree to this: the temple was active, and the half-erased figures of saints could confuse the parishioners. It was necessary to finish them, keeping, if possible, the style of the XII century.
Vrubel painted several figures of angels on the walls, the head of Christ, the head of Moses, and, finally, two independent compositions - a huge “Descent of the Holy Spirit” in the choirs and “Lamentation” in the porch. In working on them, the artist no longer copied old samples. He had an inner right not to follow the letter of the ancient style, since he had already penetrated into its spirit.
Now St. Cyril's Church has also gone down in history as a monument depicted by Vrubel's genius.
Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles. 1896
To paint commissioned iconostasis images - Christ, the Mother of God and Saints Cyril and Athanasius - Vrubel went to Venice, where he stayed for six months.
The impressions received in Venice played a huge role in creative development Vrubel. Nevertheless, the artist was looking forward to returning to his homeland. A letter from Vrubel from Venice to his friend at the Academy has been preserved, where he says:
“... in Italy you can study, and create - only on your own soil; that to create is to feel, and to feel is to “forget that you are an artist and rejoice in the fact that you are, first of all, a person.” And another exclamation, which Vrubel breaks out for the first time: “How much beauty we have in Rus'!”
Demon defeated. Illustration for Lermontov's poem 'Demon' 1902
Returning from Venice, Vrubel could not find a place for himself - either he made a decision to leave Kiev (and indeed he left for Odessa for several months), then he returned again; he was violently carried away by some visiting dancer, drank a lot, lived unsettled, feverishly, and besides, he was severely poor, since there was no money.
Their family by that time lived in Kharkov, and the parents wanted Mikhail to live at home, but he did not even answer their letters. In the autumn of 1886, the father himself came to Kyiv to visit his son, and his fears were confirmed. It was clear that Mikhail was going through not only a monetary crisis. He endured poverty carelessly, the lack of fame too: he knew that sooner or later she would come. Worse was the situation with personal problems. The artist suffered from unrequited love and it seemed to him much more serious.
Vrubel was just working on The Demon when his father unexpectedly arrived. My father didn't like the picture. No traces of the Kyiv "Demon" have come down to us - the artist destroyed it, and all the now known "Demons" were created much later. At the same time, Vrubel worked then on other things, commissioned by the Kyiv philanthropist I. N. Tereshchenko.
In the autumn of 1889, Vrubel went to Kazan to visit his ill father - at that time the family was already living there - and on the way back he stopped in Moscow - just for a few days, as he supposed. But Moscow dragged him in, swirled him and forever cut him off from Kyiv. During these years, Vrubel traveled abroad four times, spent the summer in the country estates of his friends.
In one of them, the artist V. Serov introduced him to Savva Mamontov, a patron of Russian art. Since then, the artist has not known such poverty as in Kyiv. Thanks to Mamontov, he was able to receive orders. In 1891, Vrubel was asked to make illustrations for the collected works of M. Yu. Lermontov. Thus, he could return to the image of the Demon he had long conceived. However, even earlier he painted the painting "The Demon Seated".
The image of the Demon has long attracted Vrubel: for him it was not an unambiguous allegory, but a whole world of complex experiences. On canvas, in clay, on scraps of paper, the artist caught the feverish flickering of images, the alternation of pride, hatred, rebelliousness, sadness, despair. Again and again an unforgettable face appears: a shaggy mane, a narrow oval, a broken eyebrow, a tragic mouth, but each time with a different shade of expression. Either he throws a frenzied challenge to the world, or “looks like a clear evening,” or he becomes pitiful.
Vrubel's fame is growing. He creates a significant panel "Mikula Selyaninovich", which caused a mixed reaction, but brought wide fame to the author.
Mikula Selyaninovich. 1896
East Dance. 1887
In 1896, Vrubel married the singer Nadezhda Zabela. Their wedding took place in Geneva, where Zabela was on tour. It was indeed a harmonious marriage for five years, until trouble broke out. At this time, the artist works a lot: he creates "Pan", "The Swan Princess", "Lilac", "By Night" and other paintings ...
In the first months of 1902, the artist's wife, and soon others, began to notice with fear the symptoms of a mental disorder in him. Despite his illness, the ability to create did not leave Vrubel, it even seemed to grow, but it became unbearable to live with him.
Rumor connects Vrubel's illness with his painting "Defeated Demon", he worked on this huge canvas with special tension.
Indeed, this picture became a mournful milestone in Vrubel's biography. The picture was still hanging at the exhibition when its author had to be placed in one of the Moscow psychiatric hospitals. Six months later, the artist's health improved, and he was allowed to go on vacation to the Crimea. But Vrubel was no longer interested in anything, he did not like the Crimea, he could hardly work. He was drawn to Ukraine.
The artist with his wife and young son went to Kyiv, where the boy fell ill and died unexpectedly. The death of his son brought Vrubel out of apathy, and he tried to support his wife, for whom this year was even more painful. She survived her father's death serious illness mother, the madness of her husband and, finally, sudden death only child.
Demon defeated. 1902. Sketch in watercolor
Night in Italy. 1891
Some time later, Vrubel fell ill again and was admitted to Serbsky's clinic in Moscow. Soon the crisis passed, and everyone was waiting for the artist to return to life. In the summer of 1904, the recovered Vrubel moved to St. Petersburg, as his wife received an engagement there at the Mariinsky Theater.
Glory and honor came to the artist at the most sad moment of his life. In 1905, at the exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists, he shows his pastel "Pearl Shell", which is small miracle art. Vrubel creates another "Prophet", "Self-portrait". Being almost blind, he paints a portrait of the poet V. Bryusov - last portrait artist.
And yet no effort could change fatal fate. A progressive illness humbled the master. He withdrew into himself, became quiet, submissive, uncomplaining. So slowly, without external events, but with a depressing rethinking of the past, the last four years of his life passed for the blinded artist. In the end, Vrubel began to be burdened by himself. “Tired of living,” he said. And, as his sister thought, he deliberately caught a cold, standing under the window.
Snow Maiden. 1890s
In February 1910, he developed pneumonia, which turned into transient consumption, and on April 1, the artist died. He was buried in St. Petersburg at the cemetery of the Novo-Devichy Convent. At his funeral, the priest said: "Artist Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel, I believe that God will forgive you all your sins, since you were a worker." Only one person spoke over the grave - the poet Alexander Blok:
Life and disease passed unnoticed among us brilliant artist. For the world, marvelous colors and bizarre drawings, stolen from Eternity, remained. For the few - strange stories about earthly visions of Vrubel. For a close circle of people - a small wax face in a coffin with a strained forehead and tightly compressed lips. What a short bridge to the future! A few more decades - and the memory will weaken: only creations will remain, and a legend that has developed during the life of the artist.
Vrubel lived simply, as we all live; for all his passion for events, he lacked events in the world; and events moved to inner world... We lost the thread of Vrubel's life not at all when he "went crazy", but much earlier: when he created the dream of his life - the Demon.
Vrubel came with a crazy but blissful face. He is a messenger; his message that the gold of the ancient evening is interspersed in the blue-lilac world night. His demon and Lermontov's demon are symbols of our times:
No day, no night, no darkness, no light.
We are like fallen angels clear evening, must conjure the night. The artist went mad, the night of art flooded him, then the night of death. He walked because "the sounds of heaven" are not forgotten. It was he who once painted a head of unheard-of beauty; maybe the one that failed in Leonardo's Last Supper ... "( First published: "Art and Printing" (Kyiv), 1910, No. 8 - 9. Reworking of the speech read at the funeral of M.A. Vrubel April 3, 1910)
Games of naiads and tritons, 1900
Pantomime. 1896
The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. 1885
Funeral cry. 1887
Valkyrie. 1899
Italy. Neapolitan night. 1891
Eastern fairy tale. 1886
Primavera. 1897
Portrait of the artist's son. 1902
Rosehip, 1884
Girl on the background of the Persian carpet. 1886
Fortune teller. 1895
The last portrait of the artist. Unfinished. Portrait of the poet Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov. 1906
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