Konstantin Vasiliev (Konstantin Velikoross). Biography

Konstantin Alekseevich Vasiliev (September 3, 1942, Maikop - October 29, 1976, Vasilyevo, Tatar ASSR, RSFSR) - Soviet artist, widely known for his works on epic mythological themes.

Biography of Konstantin Vasiliev

Born in Maykop (Adygei Autonomous Okrug) during the German occupation of the city. Since 1949 he lived in the village of Vasilyevo near Kazan. Studied at the Kazan Art College (1957-1961). He worked as a teacher of drawing and drawing in a secondary school, as a graphic designer.

Participant of the republican exhibition "Artists-satirists of Kazan" (Moscow, 1963), exhibitions in Zelenodolsk and Kazan (1968-76). In the 1980-90s. a number of personal exhibitions of Vasilyev took place in many cities of Russia, as well as in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Spain. The Memorial Museum was opened in the village. Vasilyevo (1996), Art Gallery in Kazan (1996) and the Museum of Konstantin Vasilyev in Moscow, in Lianozovsky Park (1998). Prize of the Komsomol of Tatarstan named after M. Jalil for a series of paintings about the Great Patriotic War (in 1988).

Konstantin Vasiliev died tragically - he was hit with a friend at a railway crossing by a passing train. It happened on October 29, 1976. He was buried in the village of Vasilyevo. They buried Konstantin in a birch grove, in the very forest where he loved to visit.

Creativity Vasiliev

Vasiliev's creative heritage is multifaceted and varied and includes more than 400 paintings and drawings: portraits, landscapes, surreal compositions, paintings on fairy tales, on themes of ancient and modern Russian history.

The deep symbolism of the painting, combined with the original color scheme of the canvases - the extensive use of silver-gray and red and their shades - make Vasiliev's paintings recognizable and original.

Works of the early 1960s marked by the influence of surrealism and abstract expressionism ("String", 1963; "Abstract compositions", 1963). In the late 1960s. abandoned formalistic searches, worked in a realistic manner.

Vasiliev turned to folk art: Russian songs, epics, fairy tales, Scandinavian and Irish sagas, to "Eddic poetry".

He created works on mythological subjects, heroic themes of Slavic and Scandinavian epics, about the Great Patriotic War (“Marshal Zhukov”, “Invasion”, “Forty-First Parade”, “Housesickness”, all - 1974). He also worked in the genre of landscape and portrait (Swans, 1967; Northern Eagle, 1969; At the Well, 1973; Waiting, 1976; Man with an Owl, 1976).

Expectation Parade in the 1941 The man with the owl

Author of a graphic series of portraits of composers and musicians: Shostakovich (1961), Beethoven (1962), Scriabin (1962), Rimsky-Korsakov (1962) and others; graphic cycle to R. Wagner's opera Der Ring des Nibelungen (1970s).

The phenomenon of the artist

Many professional artists criticized the paintings for being sugary, artificial, indulging the taste of the crowd. But the people liked it. And how! Vasiliev's exhibitions in the 1980s rivaled Glazunov's living classic in terms of attendance.

During perestroika, Vasiliev's paintings became a banner for the first lovers of paganism and the guardians of the Russian national idea. It is not difficult to guess how and in what direction such personalities burst the artist's work.

The paintings were dominated by ancient Russian themes, but not historical, but idealized, going into what is now called "Slavic fantasy".

On the technical side, the paintings are polished and meticulous, full of details that the audience likes. The orthodox "Russian patriots" do not really philosophize over the pictures. In their opinion, Vasiliev's works simply charge the viewer with patriotism, love for the motherland and spirituality, one has only to stand next to them for a few minutes.

Experts, who have settled heavily on Lurca, recommend paying attention to an interesting coincidence. Although Vasiliev was never familiar with the work of National Socialist artists, one can compare his techniques with those used by the creators of the Third Reich. Such a coincidence can be a serious tool in the hands of a skilled troll.

The museum of the artist, which nestled comfortably in a quiet but expensive corner of Moscow, repeatedly tried to squeeze out serious uncles for their base needs, who did not disdain even setting fire to the building. The hero's paintings were not affected. Known to everyone, Mikhail Zadornov, having acquired a noble gray hair and a beard, became an active fan of the artist’s work and advocated for the collections of paintings, preventing the artist’s sister from selling everything over the hill.

Not known to everyone. The works of the Soviet master did not receive recognition in the artistic environment of that time. Outward calmness, a certain coldness of colors, behind which a bottomless depth is hidden, layering and symbolism - such a description is equally suitable for both Vasiliev's paintings and his short life.

The beginning of time

Like all of us, Konstantin Vasiliev received a lot and managed to develop thanks to his parents. Father, Vasiliev, was from a family of workers, went through three wars, after the revolution he became a member of the Bolshevik Party, held senior positions in production. Konstantin's mother, Claudia Parmenovna Shishkina, is from an intelligent family. The erudition, honesty of his father, his ability to work, as well as the tenderness and education of his mother helped the future artist develop a special understanding of life, learn to see the great in the small and not be content with just a superficial understanding of things.

Childhood

Konstantin was born on September 3, 1942 in Maykop. Somewhat later, Alexei Alekseevich and his family were transferred to Krasnodar, and after the war - to Kazan. A few years later they moved to the village of Vasilyevo, located near Kazan, on the left bank of the Volga. The nature of these places nourished and inspired the future master for a long time.

Konstantin began to draw from an early age. The merit of his parents is that in such a difficult time they did not lose sight of the boy's talent, did not give up, but decided to give him the opportunity to develop. Konstantin studied at the Moscow Art School, graduated from the Kazan Art School.

Formation

A rare artist immediately finds his own, one and only, style. First, the future master goes through the options known and somewhat close to him. Such was the period of his formation reflect the search for a special voice and style. Konstantin was fond of abstract art and surrealism, some of his first works contain elements of obvious imitation. He quickly moved away from these directions, not finding the desired depth in them.

Thanks to the creative search, such paintings by Konstantin Vasilyev as “String”, “Ascension”, “Apostle” (they belong to the style of surrealism), as well as “Quartet”, “Sadness of the Queen”, “Icon of Memory” and others (style - expressionism).

Bottomless for the artist was nature. Soon after a certain saturation with expressionism, Vasiliev turned to landscape sketches. Gradually, the constant inner work bore fruit: the master understood what the artist Vasiliev Konstantin should be like. His paintings will bring people the beauty and strength of all living things.

Masterminds

The work of the artist's thought was nourished not only by classical education and the beauty of nature. From childhood, Konstantin read Russian epics, legends about the exploits of heroes with great pleasure. The works of great writers: F. M. Dostoevsky, A. S. Pushkin, F. I. Tyutchev also contributed to the formation of the artist’s worldview.

Music has been a huge source of inspiration. Some paintings by Konstantin Vasiliev illustrate the works of great masters. He created a graphic cycle of works for the opera Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner, portraits of great composers: Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsakov, Beethoven, Scriabin.

The rustle of leaves and the chime of drops

For some time, Konstantin himself created music. He recorded various sounds in the forest: the crackling of ice, the crunch of dry leaves, the singing of birds, and sometimes echoed them with his voice. At home, he transformed the recording by twisting, transforming and pasting sections of tape. The result was the so-called concrete music, as a style that appeared in the middle of the last century.

Sound experiments were reflected in the paintings of Konstantin. This period of his life saw the appearance of abstract sketches, the search for "his" white, which eventually culminated in the creation of a special silver hue, characteristic of the artist's works.

Style

Nothing is wasted. Passion for abstract art taught Konstantin Vasiliev to build clear designs, skillfully manage lines and color spots. Surrealism helped to find countless shades, scales and combinations for future masterpieces. Interest in Slavic music and a subtle understanding of music, from classical to modern styles, filled the graphic images with deep meaning, inner light.

Perhaps, the paintings "Autumn" and "Forest Gothic" can be considered the pinnacle of the artist's landscape skill. Everything in them, from the composition to the color scheme, is subject to one goal: to convey the spirituality, strength and beauty of nature. "Forest Gothic" Vasiliev bears the imprint of the northern renaissance. At first glance, an ordinary landscape with a play of color draws the viewer along and allows you to see a temple in familiar trees, the eternal struggle between good and evil and the inexorable desire of life for light.

There is a hidden message, a subtext in almost all the paintings of the artist. "Northern Eagle", "Waiting", "Marshal Zhukov", "Unexpected Meeting" and many other works, upon a cursory examination, seem to be a simple capture of events, but they always catch something, make you return, take a closer look and see the essence.

Unrecognized

Paintings by Konstantin Vasiliev were not recognized by either the highest ranks of the country or critics. The plots of his works were recognized as not corresponding to Soviet ideology and even calling for Russian fascism. Professional artists did not see Vasiliev's usual techniques, observance of certain canons, and therefore often attributed him to the number of amateurs. However, the few exhibitions that were organized during the life of the artist aroused considerable interest among the common people. The admiration of the audience inspired Vasiliev.

Artist Vasiliev Konstantin: the mystery of death

The most famous work of the author was written and the most recent. The result of many years of searching and reflection was the painting "A Man with an Owl", painted by the artist a few days before his death. The symbolic content of the canvas today is often interpreted precisely in connection with the death of the artist. Did he not foresee his death, and was it not for this reason that he placed his name on a burning scroll? Didn't he feel that glory would come to him after death? It is unlikely that these questions will be answered.

If we consider the picture in the vein of previous works, it is easy to notice its consonance with the previous creations of the author. Fire is a symbol of rebirth, creative power and inspiration, a young tree is an eternal desire for development, for light and life. The candle is the flame of the soul, and the owl is wisdom, impartial vision. "The Man with the Owl" is the affirmation of life as a constant development.

A few days after the completion of the painting, Konstantin Vasiliev died. It happened on October 29, 1976. The official version is that it was hit by a train. Relatives and many admirers of the artist disagree that Konstantin's death was accidental. Until now, the circumstances of the death of the master remain unclear.

Paintings by Konstantin Vasiliev with names and dates are easy to find on the web. You can see the artist's works in museums in Moscow and Kazan. Vasiliev's paintings are worth to overcome a considerable distance. They say that there is little that can compare with their impression.

Biography of Konstantin Vasiliev

Konstantin Alekseevich Vasiliev (1942-1976) is a Russian artist whose creative heritage includes more than 400 paintings and drawings: portraits, landscapes, surreal compositions, paintings of epic, mythological and battle genres.

Among the famous works are the cycles "Epic Rus'" and "Ring of the Nibelung", a series of paintings about the Great Patriotic War, graphic portraits, as well as the artist's latest work - "The Man with the Owl".

From 1949 to 1976 lived in the house where the museum is open.

In 1976, he tragically died, was buried in the village. Vasilyevo.

In 1984, the Vasiliev family moved to the city of Kolomna near Moscow, where they moved all the paintings of the artist that belonged to her.
The museum occupies part of a residential building, which includes a memorial apartment with an area of ​​53.3 m2.

The exposition is based on the memorial collection donated by the artist's sister V. Vasilyeva and his friends.

Artist by call of the heart

From the book of Anatoly Doronin "Rus''s Magic Palette"

To understand the inner world of a person, one must certainly touch its roots. Kostya's father was born in 1897 in the family of a St. Petersburg worker. By the will of fate, he became a participant in three wars and worked all his life in leadership work in industry. Kostya's mother was almost twenty years younger than her father and belonged to the family of the great Russian painter I.I. Shishkin.

Before the war, the young couple lived in Maikop. The firstborn was eagerly awaited. But a month before his birth, Alexey Alekseevich went to the partisan detachment: the Germans were approaching Maikop. Claudia Parmenovna was unable to evacuate. On August 8, 1942, the city was occupied, and on September 3, Konstantin Vasilyev entered the world. Needless to say, what hardships and hardships befell the young mother and baby. Klavdia Parmenovna and her son were taken to the Gestapo, then released, trying to uncover possible connections with the partisans. The life of the Vasilievs literally hung in the balance, and only the rapid advance of the Soviet troops saved them. Maykop was liberated on February 3, 1943.

After the war, the family moved to Kazan, and in 1949 - for permanent residence in the village of Vasilyevo. And it wasn't an accident. A passionate hunter and fisherman, Alexey Alekseevich, often leaving the city, somehow ended up in this village, fell in love with it and decided to move here forever. Later, Kostya will reflect the unearthly beauty of these places in his numerous landscapes.

If you take a map of Tataria, it is easy to find the village of Vasilyevo on the left bank of the Volga, about thirty kilometers from Kazan, opposite the mouth of the Sviyaga. Now here is the Kuibyshev reservoir, and when the family moved to Vasilyevo, there was the untouched Volga, or the Itil River, as it is called in the eastern chronicles, and even earlier, among ancient geographers, it was called the name Ra.

Young Kostya was struck by the beauty of these places. She was special here, created by the great river. In a blue haze rises the right bank, almost steep, overgrown with forest; one can see a distant white monastery on a slope, to the right - the fabulous Sviyazhsk, all located on Table Mountain with its temples and churches, shops and houses, rising above the wide meadows in the floodplain of the Sviyaga and the Volga. And quite far away, already behind the Sviyaga, on its high bank, you can barely see the bell tower and the church of the village of Quiet Ples. Closer to the village - a river, a stream of water, wide. And the water is deep, slow and cool, and the pools are bottomless, shady and cold.

In the spring, in April-May, the flood flooded all this space from ridge to ridge, and then, to the south of the village, water with bushy islands was visible for many kilometers, and distant Sviyazhsk itself turned into an island. By June, the water was leaving, exposing the entire expanse of water meadows, generously watered and fertilized with silt, leaving behind cheerful streams and blue overgrown lakes densely populated with burbots, tenches, loaches, squints and frogs. The ensuing summer heat with irrepressible force drove thick, juicy, sweet grasses out of the ground, and along the banks of ditches, streams and lakes drove up and in breadth the bushes of willow, currant, wild rose.

The meadows on the left bank near the ridge gave way to light linden and oak forests, which to this day, interspersed with fields, stretch to the north for many kilometers and gradually pass into the coniferous forest-taiga.

Kostya differed from his peers in that he was not interested in toys, ran a little with other children, but always fiddled with paints, pencil and paper. His father often took him fishing, hunting, and Kostya painted the river, boats, his father, the forest apiary, game, Orlik's dog, and in general everything that pleased the eye and struck his imagination. Some of these drawings have survived.

Parents helped the development of abilities as best they could: tactfully and unobtrusively, preserving taste, they selected books and reproductions, introduced Kostya to music, took him to the museums of Kazan, Moscow, Leningrad, when the opportunity and opportunity presented themselves.

Kostin's first favorite book is The Tale of the Three Bogatyrs. At the same time, the boy got acquainted with the painting by V.M. Vasnetsov “Heroes”, and a year later he copied it with colored pencils. On his father's birthday, he gave him a painting as a gift. The resemblance of the heroes was striking. Inspired by the praise of his parents, the boy copied The Knight at the Crossroads, also with colored pencils. Then he made a pencil drawing from Antokolsky's sculpture Ivan the Terrible. His first landscape sketches have survived: a stump strewn with yellow autumn leaves, a hut in the forest.

The parents saw that the boy was gifted, he could not live without drawing, and therefore, more than once, they thought about the advice of teachers - to send their son to an art school. Why, where, in what, after what class? There was no such school in the village or in Kazan. The case helped.

In 1954, the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" placed an announcement that the Moscow secondary art school at the Institute named after V. I. Surikov accepts children gifted in the field of drawing. Parents immediately decided that this was the school Kostya needed - he showed his ability to draw very early. The school accepted five or six children from other cities a year. Kostya was one of them, having passed all the exams with excellent marks.

The Moscow secondary art school was located in the quiet Lavrushinsky Lane of the old Zamoskvorechye, opposite the Tretyakov Gallery. There were only three such schools in the country: in addition to Moscow, also in Leningrad and Kyiv. But the Moscow Art School was revered beyond competition, if only because it existed at the Surikov Institute, and had the Tretyakov Gallery as an educational base.

Of course, Kostya did not wait for the day when the whole class headed by the teacher went to the Tretyakov Gallery. He went to the gallery alone as soon as he was enrolled in school. The personal interest laid down by life, on the one hand, and the living active force of the pictures, on the other, clashed in his excited mind. Which picture should I go for? No, not to this one, where the night sky and the dark shadow of the house, and not to the one where the sandy seashore and the scow in the bay, and not to the one where female figures are depicted ...

Kostya went further and heard a call in himself when he saw three bright familiar figures on Vasnetsov's large, half-wall canvas "Bogatyrs". The boy was delighted to meet the source of his recent inspiration: after all, he studied the reproduction of this picture in centimeters, looked at it countless times, and then diligently redrawn it. So here it is - the original!

The boy dug into the resolute faces of the bogatyrs, the brilliant, reliable weapons, the cast-metal chain mail, the shaggy horse manes. Where did the great Vasnetsov get all this from? From books, of course! And all this steppe distance, this air before the fight - also from books? And the wind? After all, the picture feels the wind! Kostya became agitated, having now opened a feeling of wind in front of the original. Indeed, horse manes, and even blades of grass move the wind.

Having recovered from the first overwhelming impressions of the giant city, the boy did not get lost in an unusual space for him. The Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin Museum, the Bolshoi Theater and the Conservatory - these are the main gates to the world of classical art for him. With childish seriousness, he also reads Leonardo da Vinci's "Treatise on Painting", and then studies the paintings of this great master and the "Napoleon" of the Soviet historian Yevgeny Tarle, with all the ardor of a young soul, he plunges into the music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Bach. And the powerful, almost materialized spirituality of these giants is fixed in his mind by crystals of precious rock.

Quiet, calm Kostya Vasiliev always behaved independently. The level of his work, declared from the first days of study, gave him the right to do so. Not only boys, but even teachers were amazed by Kostya's watercolors. As a rule, these were landscapes, with their clearly distinctive themes. The young artist did not take something large, catchy, bright, but always found some touch in nature, which you can pass by and not notice: a twig, a flower, a field blade of grass. Moreover, Kostya performed these sketches with minimal pictorial means, sparingly selecting colors and playing with subtle color ratios. This shows the character of the boy, his approach to life.

Miraculously, one of his amazing productions survived - a still life with a plaster head. Having almost completed the work, Kostya accidentally spilled glue on it; immediately he removed the cardboard from the easel and threw it into the dustbin. This watercolor would have disappeared forever, like many others, if it were not for Kolya Charugin, also a boarding boy who studied later in the class and always watched Vasilyev’s work with delight. He saved and for thirty years kept this still life among his most valuable works.

All the components of this still life were tastefully selected by someone in the subject fund of the school: as a background - a medieval plush caftan, on the table - a plaster head of a boy, an old book in a shabby leather cover and with some kind of rag bookmark, and next to it - not yet withered rose flower.

Kostya did not have to study for long - only two years. His father died and he had to return home. He continued his studies at the Kazan Art College, enrolling immediately in the second year. Kostya's drawings did not look like the work of a student. He made any sketch with a smooth and almost continuous movement of his hand. Vasiliev made many lively and expressive drawings. It is a pity that most of them are lost. Of the surviving ones, the most interesting is his self-portrait, written at the age of fifteen. The contour of the head is built with a smooth thin line. With one movement of the pencil, the shape of the nose, the bend of the eyebrows are outlined, the mouth is slightly marked, the chiseled bend of the auricle, the curls at the forehead. At the same time, the oval of the face, the slit of the eyes and something else barely perceptible resemble Sandro Botticelli's Madonna with a Pomegranate.

The preserved small still life of that period is characteristic - “Kulik”, painted in oil. It is a clear imitation of the Dutch masters - the same strict gloomy tone, filigree painted texture of objects. On the edge of the table, on a rough canvas tablecloth, lies the hunter's prey, and next to it is a glass of water, an apricot pit. And transparent well water, and a bone that has not yet dried up, and a bird left for a while - everything is so natural that the viewer can easily mentally push the frame of the picture and finish in his imagination some everyday situation accompanying the artist’s production.

By this period of his life, Vasiliev could write in any manner, under anyone. The craft was masterful. But he had to find his own way and, like any artist, he wanted to say his own word. He grew up and looked for himself.

In the spring of 1961, Konstantin graduated from the Kazan Art College. His graduation work was sketches of scenery for Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden. The defense passed brilliantly. The work was rated "excellent", but, unfortunately, has not been preserved.

In a painful search for himself, Vasiliev "had been ill" with abstractionism and surrealism. It was interesting to try out the styles and trends led by such fashionable names as Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Salvador Dali. Vasiliev quite quickly comprehended the creative creed of each of them and created new interesting developments in their vein. Plunging into the development of new directions with his usual seriousness, Vasiliev creates a whole series of interesting surrealistic works, such as "String", "Ascension", "Apostle". However, Vasiliev himself was quickly disappointed by the formal search, which was based on naturalism.

The only thing interesting about surrealism, he shared with friends, is its purely external showiness, the ability to openly express momentary aspirations and thoughts in an easy form, but by no means deep feelings.

Drawing an analogy with music, he compared this direction with a jazz arrangement of a symphonic piece. In any case, the delicate, subtle soul of Vasilyev did not want to put up with a certain frivolity of the forms of surrealism: the permissiveness of expressing feelings and thoughts, their imbalance and nakedness. The artist felt his inner failure, the destruction of something important that is in realistic art, the meaning, the purpose that it carries.

A little longer continued passion for expressionism, relating to non-objective painting and claiming great depth. Here, the pillars of abstractionism declared, for example, that the master, without the help of objects, depicts not longing on a person’s face, but longing itself. That is, for the artist, the illusion of a much deeper self-expression arises. This period includes such works as: "Quartet", "Sadness of the Queen", "Vision", "Icon of Memory", "Music of Eyelashes".

Having mastered the image of external forms to perfection, having learned to give them a special vitality, Konstantin was tormented by the thought that nothing, in essence, was hidden behind these forms, that, remaining on this path, he would lose the main thing - creative spiritual power and would not be able to express -really their relationship to the world.

Trying to comprehend the essence of the phenomena and suffer the general structure of thoughts for future works, Konstantin took up landscape sketches. What a variety of landscapes he created in his short creative life! Undoubtedly, Vasilyev created landscapes that were unique in their beauty, but some new strong thought was tormented, beat in his mind: “The inner strength of all living things, the strength of the spirit - this is what an artist should express!” Yes, beauty, greatness of spirit - that's what will be the main thing for Konstantin from now on.! And the “Northern Eagle”, “The Man with the Owl”, “Waiting”, “At a Foreign Window”, “Northern Legend” and many other works were born, which became the embodiment of a special “Vasilyevsky” style that cannot be confused with anything.

northern eagle

Konstantin belonged to the rarest category of people who are invariably accompanied by inspiration, but they do not feel it, because for them this is a familiar state. They seem to live from birth to death in one breath, in increased tone. Konstantin loves nature all the time, loves people all the time, loves life all the time. Why does he observe, why does he catch a glance, the movement of a cloud, a leaf. He is always attentive to everything. This attention, this love, this desire for everything good was Vasiliev's inspiration. And that was his whole life.

someone else's window

But it is unfair, of course, to assert that the life of Konstantin Vasilyev was devoid of inescapable human joys. Once (Konstantin was then seventeen years old), his sister Valentina, returning from school, said that a new girl had come to them in the eighth grade - a beautiful girl with green slanting eyes and shoulder-length hair. She came to live in a resort village because of her sick brother. Konstantin offered to bring her in for a pose.

When fourteen-year-old Lyudmila Chugunova entered the house, Kostya suddenly became confused, fussed, and began to rearrange the easel from place to place. The first session was long. In the evening Kostya went to see Luda home. A gang of guys who came across them brutally beat him: immediately and unconditionally, Luda was recognized as the most beautiful girl in the village. But how could beatings cool the ardent heart of an artist? He loved the girl. Every day he painted her portraits. Lyudmila retold her romantic dreams to him, and he made color illustrations for them. Both of them did not like the color yellow (maybe just a youthful dislike for a symbol of treason?), and one day, drawing blue sunflowers, Kostya asked: “Do you understand what I wrote? If not, it’s better to be silent, don’t say anything…”

Konstantin introduced Luda to music and literature. It seemed that they understood each other from a half-word, from a half-look. Once Lyudmila went to Konstantin with a friend. At that time, together with his friend Tolya Kuznetsov, he was sitting in the twilight, listening with enthusiasm to classical music and did not react at all to those who entered. For Luda's friend, such inattention seemed insulting, and she dragged Luda by the hand.

After that, the girl was afraid of meetings for a long time, feeling that she offended Kostya. Her whole being was drawn to him, and when she became completely unbearable, she approached his house and sat for hours on the porch. But friendships broke down.

Several years have passed. Once, on the train, Konstantin was returning from Kazan with Anatoly. Having met Lyudmila in the carriage, he approached her and invited: - An exhibition has opened in Zelenodolsk. Come. There is also your portrait.

A ringing, joyful hope awoke in her soul. Of course she will come! But at home, the mother categorically forbade: “You won’t go! Why dangle somewhere, you already have a lot of his drawings and portraits!

The exhibition closed, and suddenly Konstantin himself came to her house. Having collected all his drawings, he tore them up in front of Lyudmila's eyes and silently left. Forever…

Several works of semi-abstract style - the memory of the youthful search for pictorial forms and means, dedicated to Lyudmila Chugunova, are still preserved in the collections of Blinov and Pronin.

Warm relations at one time connected Konstantin with Lena Aseeva, a graduate of the Kazan Conservatory. The oil portrait of Lena is successfully shown at all posthumous exhibitions of the artist. Elena successfully graduated from an educational institution in the piano class and, of course, she was well versed in music. This circumstance especially attracted Konstantin to the girl. One day he made up his mind and proposed to her. The girl replied that she should think ...

Well, which of us, mere mortals, can imagine what passions boil and disappear without a trace in the soul of a great artist, what sometimes insignificant circumstances can radically change the intensity of his emotions? Of course, he did not know with what answer Lena came to him the next day, and, apparently, he was no longer interested in this, since he did not immediately receive the desired answer.

Many will say that this is not serious and that important issues are not resolved in this way. And they will, of course, be right. But let's remember that artists, as a rule, are easily vulnerable and proud people. Unfortunately, the failure that befell Konstantin in this matchmaking played another fatal role in his fate.

Already a mature man, at the age of about thirty, he fell in love with Lena Kovalenko, who also received a musical education. A smart, subtle, charming girl, Lena disturbed Konstantin's heart. Once again, as in his youth, a strong, real feeling woke up in him, but the fear of being refused, meeting misunderstanding did not allow him to arrange his happiness ... But the fact that painting remained his only chosen one until the last days of his life can be seen as a special purpose of the artist.

There are, of course, objective reasons for this. One of them is the selfless maternal love of Claudia Parmenovna, who was afraid to let her son out of her native nest. Sometimes too captiously, with a critical eye, she could look at the bride and then express her opinion to her son, to which Konstantin reacted very sensitively.

Man with an owl

An extraordinary talent, a rich spiritual world and the education he received allowed Konstantin Vasiliev to leave his own, incomparable, mark in Russian painting. His paintings are easily recognizable. You can not recognize him at all, some of his works are controversial, but once you see the work of Vasiliev, you can no longer remain indifferent to them. I would like to quote an excerpt from Vladimir Soloukhin's story "Continuation of Time": - ... "Konstantin Vasiliev?! the artists protested. - But it's unprofessional. Painting has its own laws, its own rules. And this is illiterate from the point of view of painting. He is a lover ... an amateur, and all his paintings are amateurish daub. In the same place, not a single picturesque spot corresponds to another picturesque spot! - But excuse me, if this painting is not even art at all, then how and why does it affect people? but there is no professional painting. - Yes, thoughts and symbols cannot affect people by themselves in their naked form. These would be only slogans, abstract signs. And poetry cannot exist in an unembodied form. And vice versa, if the picture is super-literate and professional, if every pictorial spot in it, as you say, correlates with another pictorial spot, but there is neither poetry, nor thought, nor a symbol, nor its own view of the world, if the picture does not touch no mind, no heart, boring, dull or simply dead, spiritually dead, then why do I need this competent relationship of parts. The main thing here, apparently, is precisely in the spirituality of Konstantin Vasiliev. It was spirituality that people felt ... "

Kostya died under very strange and mysterious circumstances. The official version - was shot down with a friend at a railway crossing by a passing train. It happened on October 29, 1976. Relatives and friends of Kostya do not agree with this - there are too many incomprehensible coincidences associated with his death. The misfortune shocked many. They buried Konstantin in a birch grove, in the very forest where he loved to visit.

Fate, so often evil in relation to great people from the outside, always carefully treats what is inside, deep in them. The thought that has to live does not die with its bearers, even when death overtakes them unexpectedly and accidentally. And the artist will live as long as his paintings are alive.

Homesickness

Farewell Slav

fires are burning

Valkyrie over a slain warrior

Wotan

fire spell

Fight with a snake

Fight Dobrynya with a snake

Fight with a snake

Fire sword

Duel of Peresvet with Chelubey

Birth of the Danube

Birth of the Danube

Eupraxia

Vasily Buslaev

Invasion (sketch)

Alyosha Popovich and the beautiful girl

Gift of Svyatogor

Gift of Svyatogor

Ilya Muromets and Gol tavern

Giant

Knight

Expectation

Divination

Prince Igor

Volga

Volga and Mikula

Avdotya Ryazanochka

Ilya Muromets

Nastasya Mikulishna

Svarog

Sviyazhsk

Svetovid

Ilya Muromets releases the prisoners

northern legend

Reaper

Mermaid

Elder

Sadko and the Lord of the Sea

Crying Yaroslavna

Collection of high resolution works: 1700 - 7000 px (smaller side size)
Archive size: 274mb
Number of works:153

Name: Konstantin Vasiliev

Age: 34 years

Activity: artist

Family status: not married

Konstantin Vasiliev: biography

Konstantin Vasiliev is a Soviet painter whose work received a calling after the death of the author. In his short life, the artist left a great legacy, the significance of which is highly appreciated by experts in Russia and abroad.

The biography of the author is 34 years of life. Konstantin Alekseevich Vasiliev was born on September 3, 1942 in Maykop. Father Alexei Alekseevich from a Leningrad working-class family. He took part in three wars: the First World War, the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. In peacetime, he held senior positions in the industrial sector. Mother Claudia Parmenovna was 20 years younger than her husband. She was related to an outstanding painter.

The young family lived in Maykop, where they faced the hardships of wartime. Alexey Alekseevich went to the partisan detachment, and his wife did not have time to evacuate from the city and ended up in the German occupation, where a month later she gave birth to a boy. There were three children in the family - a son and two daughters.

At the end of the war, the family moved to the village of Vasilyevo, 30 km from Kazan. The new place charmed young Kostya with the beauty of nature. Subsequently, he captured many of the local views in landscapes that were excellent. In addition, in the vicinity of Vasilyevo there were true pearls of Tataria: the Raifsky Bogoroditsky Monastery, the Volga-Kama Reserve, the island-city of Sviyazhsk, the Exaltation of the Cross Church. After the death of the painter, Vasiliev's house-museum was added to the sights.

The father “responsible” for the move, an avid hunter and fisherman, fell in love with these places and decided to settle with his family here. Before the construction of the Kuibyshev reservoir, the full-flowing Volga flowed here, framed by steep banks, hidden from view in the morning by gray fogs. One of the artist's paintings - "Over the Volga" - is inspired by the poetry of this region.

From childhood, Kostya avoided noisy games with his peers, preferring quiet fishing with his father, studying literature and the history of painting with his mother. Talent for drawing showed up early. Being a preschooler, he depicted the environment, later he cleverly copied the masterpieces of other authors. The boy admired creativity. “Heroes” is the first picture recreated by a child in the smallest detail with colored pencils, and “The Knight at the Crossroads” is the second.

By chance, Kostya had the opportunity to get out of Vasilyevo for serious training. In 1954, Komsomolskaya Pravda published an announcement about the admission of students to the capital's art boarding school at the Institute. The qualifying competition was huge, but the boy passed all the exams for five and, having received a place, moved to Moscow at the age of 12.

The school was one of three educational institutions of this type and level of training in the USSR. The same boarding schools worked in Kyiv and Leningrad. MSSHKh (Moscow art secondary school) was located in Lavrushinsky Lane opposite the Tretyakov Gallery, which served as an educational base for students.

Young Vasiliev spent hours at the Tretyakov Gallery. Here, for the first time, I saw the “Bogatyrs” live, who struck him in early childhood. He studied the works of art collected in the halls, looking for a form of creative self-expression. At the age of 15, he painted a self-portrait, the technique of which is by no means similar to the work of a student, but to the work of a mature author.

After 2 years, Kostya had to return home. According to one version, the cause was the death of his father, according to another, the young man's passion for abstract art and surrealism, which were not honored in the USSR. Education finished in 1961. He received a diploma with honors in the specialty of a theater decorator at the Kazan Art College at the age of 19. Graduation work - sketches for the design of the stage for the play-tale "The Snow Maiden" - has not been preserved.

Painting

Vasiliev's creative heritage consists of works of various genres. Graphics, sketches, illustrations, paintings and even temple paintings - the author's "arsenal" is great. The greatest popularity was brought by works in the "fabulous" style, dedicated to legends, epics and myths, but gaining their own "sound" was preceded by years of searching.

In the early 60s, the author turned to abstractionism and surrealism. Following the artistic word and, I comprehended and became disillusioned with the formal search. He compared superficial surrealism with a jazz adaptation of an opera. He wrote several works in the specified style: "String", "Ascension".

“The only thing that is interesting about surrealism,” said Konstantin Alekseevich, “is its purely external showiness, the ability to openly express momentary aspirations and thoughts in an easy form, but by no means deep feelings.”

Then he became interested in expressionism, where there was great content, but again came to the realization that there is no depth behind the form. This period includes "Quartet", "Sadness of the Queen", "Vision" and others. In parallel with creative experiments, he worked in portrait and landscape genres. He painted "Autumn" and "Forest Gothic" filled with color and sensuality of nature. In the 60s, he created a series of portraits of the geniuses of the musical world from to.

By the end of the decade, he returned to a realistic style of painting and at the same time became interested in the epic: the Scandinavian sagas, Slavic epics, admired the Elder and Younger Edda, learned German in order to read texts in the original. The reconstruction of Germanic mythology in the "Ring of the Nibelung" captivated Vasiliev.

Creating a series of paintings, he sang parts from the opera in order to tune in to the working mood. The culmination of his work was the canvas “Valkyrie over the slain warrior” (aka “Valkyrie over the slain Siegfried”), dedicated to the final cycle of the epic opera “The Death of the Gods”.

The epic series, based on Russian folklore, traditions and beliefs, was made up of the canvases “Ilya Muromets and the Needle of the Tavern”, “Avdotya Ryazanka”, “The Battle of Kulikovo”, illustrations for the fairy tale “Sadko” and other works.

Since 1969, he "professed" symbolic realism. The first work in the direction was the mythological "Northern Eagle". At the same time, Vasiliev first signed the work with the pseudonym "Konstantin the Great Russian". It is worth noting that the theme of snow, winter, the harsh peoples of the North was the leitmotif of creativity, an allegory of strong characters and real people: brave and courageous. In the same style, the works “Svyatovit”, “Veles” and “A Man with an Owl” were made, the names of which were given by the artist’s friends after the death of the author.

In 1972-1975 he painted a number of battle paintings dedicated to the events and heroes of the Great Patriotic War: “Parade of the 41st”, “Invasion”. Portrait of a marshal, made in a deliberately pompous manner, made the commander look like a Roman emperor, which did not correspond to the recognized canons of painting of that time. The work was supposed to be the first in a series of portraits, but it turned out to be the only one. The same block includes "Longing for the Motherland" and "Farewell of the Slav".

Personal life

Little is known about the artist's personal life. Anatoly Doronin, who founded the Museum of Slavic Culture of Konstantin Vasiliev in Moscow, wrote about the romantic feelings of the painter in the book "Rus''s Magic Palette". At the age of 17, the artist fell in love with Lyudmila Chugunova, painted her pictures, read poetry, but the first love was unhappy.

Attachment to the graduate of the Kazan Conservatory Elena Aseeva ended in an unsuccessful marriage proposal, but the portrait of the girl is now successfully exhibited at the author's posthumous exhibitions. In adulthood, he met Elena Kovalenko, but the painful experience of past relationships did not allow the artist to develop the novel into something serious.

According to contemporaries, the painter was a vulnerable and delicate nature. In the photo he came out thoughtful and a little sad, as if immersed in continuous creative searches. On walks, according to a friend of Gennady Pronin, he liked to remain silent, giving the interlocutor the role of "first violin".

Death

The life of the artist was tragically cut short in 1976. Together with his friend Arkady Popov, the painter was returning from a city in the vicinity of Kazan - Zelenodolsk, where an exhibition of local authors was held. Officially, the cause of death is an accident - young people were hit by a fast train. The bodies were found on the railroad tracks.

Nevertheless, relatives and friends believed that there were many inconsistencies in the version, for example, how adult men did not hear the approach of the train or why they ended up a few hours away from Zelenodolsk at the Lagernaya station, where the tragedy occurred. The artist was buried in his native village Vasilyevo.

Paintings

• 1961 - "Shostakovich"
• 1963 - "String"
• 1967 - "Swans"
• 1969 - Northern Eagle
• 1969 - "Svyatovit"
• 1971 - "Valkyrie over a slain warrior"
• 1973 - "At the well"
• 1973 - "Forest Gothic"
• 1974 - "Ilya Muromets and the Needle of the Tavern"
• 1976 - "Waiting"
• 1976 - "The Man with the Owl"