The first love of Ivan Turgenev was the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya, the poetess Ekaterina. It was still in his youth: Turgenev was 15 years old, and his beloved was 19 years old. They lived in neighboring estates and often visited each other. Ivan was in awe of Catherine, languished in a hot youthful love and was afraid to confess his feelings. But the father of the future writer, Sergei Nikolayevich, also fell under the spell of the girl, and it was he who reciprocated the young princess. This broke Ivan's heart, and even many years later he described the events in the story "First Love", embodying the image of Katya Shakhovskaya in the heroine Zinaida Zasekina. The fact that all the heroes of the work have real prototypes, the author never hid, for which many condemned him. The story, full of drama, really ended sadly: Turgenev Sr., after breaking up with his young mistress, soon died - and there were rumors that it was a suicide committed against the backdrop of love misadventures. Catherine a year later married Lev Kharitonovich Vladimirov, bore him a son, and died six days later.
Dunya Turgenev became interested in seamstress in 1843, after returning from abroad. This was probably one of the writer's fleeting hobbies, but it had serious consequences - a year later Dunyasha gave birth to a girl. The daughter was named Pelageya (Polina), and although Turgenev did not officially recognize the child, he did not abandon the girl. She was brought up in the family of Pauline Viardot, beloved of Ivan Turgenev, the writer took the girl with him on trips abroad. Dunyasha herself was later married off.
The opera diva became the writer's passionate love for forty years. When they met, Turgenev was 25 years old, Viardot - 22 years old, but the world famous singer already had a husband. Ivan Sergeevich met him on the hunt, and Louis Viardot introduced his new friend to his wife. When the singer's tour ended, the family left for Paris ... and Turgenev left with them. Passionately in love, the writer left was not yet known in Europe, but left his native country without the permission of his mother and without money. Returning to Russia, he again goes abroad two years later, having learned about Viardot's tour in Germany, he goes after her to England and France. He could not enter into an official marriage, but Turgenev lived in the Viardot family, "on the edge of someone else's nest," as he himself said. Turgenev never started his family, even his illegitimate daughter was brought up by Polina Viardot. And it was Turgenev's beloved woman, and not his illegitimate daughter, who became the writer's heiress.
The theater actress became Turgenev's last love, which lasted four years. For the first time, the writer saw her on stage, in a play based on his own play "A Month in the Village." Maria, contrary to the opinion of the director, chose the secondary role of Verochka and played her so vividly that Turgenev himself was amazed. After the performance, he rushed backstage to Savina with a huge bouquet of roses and exclaimed: “Did I really write this Verochka ?!” The actress was born on Turgenev's neck and kissed him on the cheek - this was a manifestation of warm feelings, but Turgenev could not count on more than just respect. And he fell in love with Mary, which he openly admitted to her. Due to this mismatch of feelings, the meetings were quite difficult and rare, which was compensated by frequent correspondence that lasted four years. In letters, Turgenev did not skimp on tender phrases, but for Maria he was a good friend, to whom she informed about her impending marriage. Turgenev wished her happiness, but did not leave his touching dreams about her, and when Savina's marriage was temporarily upset, he again began to plan joint trips abroad. They were not destined to come true - the writer died in the circle of the Viardot family, and many years later Maria came to Turgenev's house-museum every day to leave a bouquet of flowers in front of his portrait. Being already a fifty-year-old lady, she entered into official relations with the vice-president of the Theater Society Anatoly Molchanov, with whom she had lived in a civil marriage for a long time.
Their relationship is considered one of the most dramatic and long love stories. But it would be more correct to say that this is the love story of only one person, Ivan Turgenev. For forty years the great Russian writer lived in the status of an eternal friend of the family, "on the edge of someone else's nest", side by side with the husband of the opera diva Polina Viardot. He traded life in his homeland and personal family happiness for the impassive friendship of his beloved, and even in old age he was ready to follow her to the ends of the world “at least as a janitor”.
Ivan Turgenev was first introduced to Pauline Viardot on November 1, 1843 as "a Great Russian landowner, a good shooter, a pleasant conversationalist and a bad poet." It cannot be said that such a recommendation contributed to his happiness: Polina herself later noted that she did not single out the future writer from the circle of new acquaintances and numerous admirers of her talent. But the young Turgenev, who was then barely 25, fell in love at first sight with the 22-year-old singer, who arrived in St. Petersburg with the Parisian Italian Opera. All of Europe at that time idolized her talent, and even Viardot's unattractive appearance did not interfere with her fame as a wonderful artist.
Ivan Turgenev
Contemporaries recalled how, with the beginning of the singing of the prima, a spark seemed to run through the hall, the audience fell into complete ecstasy and the appearance of the singer ceased to have at least some meaning. According to the composer Saint-Saens, Pauline Viardot had a bitter, like voice, created for tragedies and elegiac poems. On the stage, she charmed with a passionate performance of operas, and at musical evenings she captivated the audience with her beautiful piano playing - her apprenticeship with Liszt and Chopin was not in vain. "Sings well, damn gypsy!" - admitted not without jealousy, after hearing the speech of Polina, Turgenev's mother.
Turgenev girl
In an inconspicuous stooped woman with bulging eyes, there really was something gypsy: she adopted southern features from her father, the Spanish singer Manuel Garcia. “She is desperately ugly, but if I saw her a second time, I would certainly fall in love,” one Belgian artist said about the singer to her future husband, Louis Viardot. George Sand introduced Polina to an art historian, critic and director of the Parisian Italian Opera. The writer herself considered the forty-year-old Louis dull, “like a nightcap,” but recommended him to her young friend as a suitor out of the best of intentions. Being completely fascinated by the singer, George Sand documented her in the main female image of the novel "Consuelo", talked her out of marriage with the writer and poet Alfred de Musset, and later turned a blind eye to the affair of the already married Pauline with her son.
And the temperament of the talented singer was not to be occupied: in her youth, her first hobby was Franz Liszt, from whom Polina took piano lessons, later she was fond of the composer Charles Gounod, to whom Turgenev was very jealous of her. The rest of Madame Viardot's novels will remain unknown to history, but, judging by the paradoxical attractiveness of the prima donna, numerous. However, Polina Garcia married then for love, and for some time she was really carried away by her husband. However, everything passes - and soon Polina confessed to George Sand that she was tired of the ardent expressions of her husband's love.
But what about our Turgenev? He became for Madame Viardot one of the many admirers, not without, however, a certain value. A rare man could amuse the artist with an amusing story, told so skillfully that inviting him to the dressing room seemed no longer so in vain. In addition, Turgenev with great desire undertook to teach Pauline Viardot the Russian language, which she needed for the flawless performance of the romances of Glinka, Dargomyzhsky and Tchaikovsky. This language was the sixth in the singer's arsenal and later helped her become the first listener of Turgenev's works. “Not a single line of Turgenev got into print before he introduced me to it. You Russians don’t know how much you owe me that Turgenev continues to write and work,” Viardot once said.
Pauline Viardot
In order to be useful to his beloved, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev - then still an unknown and poor landowner - went to France for Polina and her husband when the artist's tour of Russia ended. With Louis Viardot, the writer found a common language against the backdrop of a passion for hunting and interest in translating Russian writers into French. He often visited the Courtavnel family estate near Paris, took part in home performances, gathering guests and artistic evenings. When Pauline Viardot went on tour, Turgenev followed her: “Ah, my feelings for you are too great and powerful,” Ivan writes in one of his many letters to his beloved. - I can not live away from you, I must feel your closeness, enjoy it. The day when your eyes did not shine for me is a lost day. Compatriots visiting Turgenev abroad were surprised at his condition: “I never thought that he was capable of loving so much,” Leo Tolstoy writes after a meeting with a friend in Paris.
Homeland and kinship
In his love, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev almost forgot his homeland, thereby completely infuriating his mother: her features can be traced in the image of a harsh landowner from the novel "Mu-mu". In 1850, the writer was forced to come to his native estate Spasskoe-Lutovinovo. The conversation with the landowner Turgeneva ended with the fact that Ivan was deprived of the landowner's money, took his illegitimate daughter, born from a seamstress, and sent her to his beloved Polina. The Viardot family received the eight-year-old savage kindly and with family feelings for Turgenev. After some time, the illiterate peasant girl, through the efforts of Madame Viardot, turned into Mademoiselle Polinette, who draws well and writes letters to her father exclusively in French.
The Viardot couple, meanwhile not deprived of their children, eventually replaced Ivan Turgenev with a family. “Fate did not send me my own family, and I attached myself, became part of an alien family, and it happened by chance that this was a French family. For a long time my life has been intertwined with the life of this family. There they look at me not as a writer, but as a person, and among her I feel calm and warm. The writer felt especially happy in 1856, when Polina's son Paul was born. An extraordinary excitement, incomparable with the joy from the birth of Madame Viardot's previous children, swept over Turgenev. However, Polina herself did not express such vivid feelings, and the presence of her lover Ari Schaeffer at that moment, who painted her portrait, introduces a certain amount of doubt into the paternity of the Russian writer. But the descendants of Viardot are sure of the opposite. Moreover, just in time for the birth of the boy, Turgenev ended a short relationship at home: an attempt to fall in love with a meek and young distant relative was unsuccessful. Turgenev lost interest in the girl, leaving the unfortunate woman in bewilderment, which, as was the custom of that time, turned into an illness.
Isaac Levitan "Golden Autumn"
Baroness Vrevskaya, as well as actress Maria Savina, remained without reciprocity. Although the writer had a closeness with them, the image of Pauline Viardot did not leave him. And even the desire to spend more time in Russia broke at the very first call of Polina. If it was necessary to go to her, Turgenev dropped everything and left. The biographer of Ivan Turgenev notes: “If he were offered the choice to be the first writer in the world, but never again to see the Viardot family or serve as their watchman, janitor and, in this capacity, follow them somewhere to the other side of the world, he would prefer the position janitor." Yes, and Turgenev himself, already an accomplished writer, in 1856 confesses to his friend Afanasy Fet: “I am subject to the will of this woman. No! She shielded me from everything else, as I need. I am only blissful when a woman steps on my neck with her heel and presses my face into the dirt with her nose. People who were friends with the writer noted that he needed just such love - bringing suffering, generating soul movements, unrequited.
After the death of Ivan Turgenev, Pauline Viardot took all her letters from the writer's archive. And one can only guess how many beautiful female images and tragic love stories in the works of the great writer gave life to this passion, which lasted for forty years.
Photo: ITAR-TASS, RIA Novosti
CONTEMPORARY unanimously admitted that she was not at all beautiful. Rather, the opposite is true. The poet Heinrich Heine said that she resembled a landscape, both monstrous and exotic, and one of the artists of that era described her as not just an ugly woman, but cruelly ugly. This is how the famous singer Pauline Viardot was described in those days. Indeed, Viardot's appearance was far from ideal. She was stooped, with bulging eyes, large, almost masculine features, and a huge mouth.
But when the "divine Viardot" began to sing, her strange, almost repulsive appearance was magically transformed. It seemed that before that, Viardot's face was just a reflection in a crooked mirror, and only during singing did the audience see the original. At the time of one of these transformations, Pauline Viardot was seen on the stage of the opera house by the beginning Russian writer Ivan Turgenev.
This mysterious, attractive, like a drug, woman managed to chain the writer to her for life. Their romance took a long 40 years and divided Turgenev's entire life into periods before and after meeting Polina.
Village passions
From the very beginning, Turgenev's PERSONAL life was somehow uneven. The first love of the young writer left a bitter aftertaste. Young Katenka, the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya who lived next door, captivated the 18-year-old Turgenev with her girlish freshness, naivety and spontaneity. But, as it turned out later, the girl was not at all as pure and immaculate as the imagination of the young man in love had drawn. One day, Turgenev had to find out that Catherine had long had a constant lover, and the “cordial friend” of young Katya turned out to be none other than Sergei Nikolayevich, a well-known Don Juan in the district and ... Turgenev’s father. Complete confusion reigned in the young man’s head, the young man could not understand why Katenka preferred his father to him, because Sergey Nikolayevich treated women without any trepidation, was often rude to his mistresses, never explained his actions, could offend the girl with an unexpected word and caustic remark, while his son loved Katya with a kind of special affectionate tenderness. All this seemed to young Turgenev a huge injustice, now, looking at Katya, he felt as if he had suddenly stumbled upon something vile, like a frog crushed by a cart.
Having recovered from the blow, Ivan becomes disillusioned with the "noble maidens" and sets off to seek love from simple and gullible serfs. They, not spoiled by the good attitude of their husbands, swamped with work and poverty, gladly accepted signs of attention from the gentle master, it was easy for them to bring joy, to light a warm light in their eyes, and with them Turgenev felt that his tenderness was finally appreciated. One of the serfs, the burning beauty Avdotya Ivanova, gave birth to the writer's daughter.
Perhaps the relationship with the master could play the role of a lucky lottery ticket in the life of the illiterate Avdotya - Turgenev settled his daughter on his estate, planned to give her a good upbringing and, what the hell is not joking, live a happy life with her mother. But fate decreed otherwise.
Love without an answer
TRAVELING through Europe, in 1843 Turgenev met Pauline Viardot, and since then his heart belongs to her alone. Ivan Sergeevich does not care that his love is married, he gladly agrees to meet Pauline's husband Louis Viardot. Knowing that Polina is happy in this marriage, Turgenev does not even insist on intimacy with his beloved and is content with the role of a devoted admirer.
Turgenev's mother was cruelly jealous of her son for the "singer", and therefore the journey through Europe (which soon came down to visiting the cities where Viardot toured) had to be continued under tight financial circumstances. But how can such trifles as the dissatisfaction of relatives and lack of money stop the feeling that has fallen on Turgenev!
The Viardot family becomes a particle of his life, he is attached to Pauline, he is connected with Louis Viardot by something like friendship, and their daughter has become native to the writer. In those years, Turgenev practically lived in the Viardot family, the writer either rented houses in the neighborhood, or stayed for a long time in the house of his beloved. Louis Viardot did not interfere with his wife's meetings with a new admirer. On the one hand, he considered Polina a reasonable woman and completely relied on her common sense, and on the other hand, friendship with Turgenev promised quite material benefits: contrary to the will of his mother, Ivan Sergeevich spent a lot of money on the Viardot family. At the same time, Turgenev was well aware of his ambiguous position in the Viardot house, he more than once had to catch the sidelong glances of his Parisian acquaintances, who shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment when Polina, introducing Ivan Sergeevich to them, said: “And this is our Russian friend, please meet me” . Turgenev felt that he, a hereditary Russian nobleman, was gradually turning into a lap dog, who began to wag his tail and squeal joyfully, as soon as the mistress threw a favorable look at her or scratched behind her ear, but he could not do anything with his unhealthy feeling. Without Polina, Ivan Sergeevich felt really sick and broken: “I cannot live away from you, I must feel your closeness, enjoy it. The day when your eyes didn’t shine for me is a lost day, ”he wrote to Polina and, without demanding anything in return, continued to help her financially, mess with her children and forcefully smile at Louis Viardot.
As for his own daughter, Polina, who was born from the writer's relationship with the serf seamstress A.I. Ivanova, her life in her grandmother's estate is not at all cloudless. The imperious landowner treats her granddaughter like a serf. As a result, Turgenev offers Polina to take the girl to be brought up in the Viardot family. At the same time, either wanting to please the woman he loves, or seized with a love fever, Turgenev changes the name of his own daughter, and from Pelageya the girl turns into Polinet (of course, in honor of the adored Polina). Of course, the consent of Pauline Viardot to raise Turgenev's daughter further strengthened the feeling of the writer. Now Viardot has become for him also an angel of mercy, who snatched his child from the hands of a cruel grandmother. True, Pelageya-Polinet did not at all share her father's affection for Pauline Viardot. Having lived in Viardot's house until she came of age, Polinet retained a grudge against her father and hostility towards her adoptive mother for the rest of her life, believing that she had taken away her father's love and attention.
Meanwhile, the popularity of Turgenev as a writer is growing. In Russia, no one perceives Ivan Sergeevich as a novice writer - now he is almost a living classic. At the same time, Turgenev firmly believes that he owes his fame to Viardot. Before the premieres of performances based on his works, he whispers her name, believing that it brings him good luck.
In 1852-1853, Turgenev lives on his estate practically under house arrest. The authorities did not like the obituary he wrote after Gogol's death - in it the secret office saw a threat to imperial power.
Upon learning that in March 1853 Pauline Viardot was coming to Russia with concerts, Turgenev lost his head. He manages to get a fake passport, with which the writer, disguised as a tradesman, goes to Moscow to meet his beloved woman. The risk was huge, but, unfortunately, unjustified. Several years of separation cooled Polina's feelings. But Turgenev is ready to be content with simple friendship, if only from time to time to see how Viardot turns his thin neck and looks at him with his mysterious black eyes.
In someone else's arms
SOME time later, Turgenev nevertheless made several attempts to improve his personal life. In the spring of 1854, the writer met with the daughter of one of Ivan Sergeevich's cousins, Olga. The 18-year-old girl captivated the writer so much that he even thought about getting married. But the longer their romance lasted, the more often the writer remembered Pauline Viardot. The freshness of Olga's young face and her trustingly affectionate glances from under lowered eyelashes still could not replace the opium dope that the writer felt at every meeting with Viardot. Finally, completely exhausted by this duality, Turgenev confessed to the girl in love with him that he could not justify her hopes for personal happiness. Olga was very upset by the unexpected breakup, and Turgenev blamed himself for everything, but could not do anything with the newly flared love for Polina.
In 1879, Turgenev makes his last attempt to start a family. The young actress Maria Savinova is ready to become his life partner. The girl is not even afraid of a huge age difference - at that moment Turgenev was already over 60.
In 1882 Savinova and Turgenev went to Paris. Unfortunately, this trip marked the end of their relationship. In Turgenev's house, every little thing reminded of Viardot, Maria constantly felt superfluous and was tormented by jealousy. In the same year, Turgenev fell seriously ill. Doctors made a terrible diagnosis - cancer. At the beginning of 1883, he was operated on in Paris, and in April, after the hospital, before returning to his place, he asks to be escorted to Viardot's house, where Polina was waiting for him.
Turgenev did not have long to live, but he was happy in his own way - next to him was his Polina, to whom he dictated the last stories and letters. September 3, 1883 Turgenev died. According to the will, he wanted to be buried in Russia, and Claudia Viardot, the daughter of Pauline Viardot, accompanies him on his last journey to his homeland. Turgenev was buried not in his beloved Moscow and not in his estate in Spassky, but in St. Petersburg - a city in which he was only passing through, in the necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Perhaps this happened due to the fact that, in fact, almost strangers to the writer were engaged in the funeral.
Their relationship is considered one of the most dramatic and long love stories. But it would be more correct to say that this is the love story of only one person, Ivan Turgenev. For forty years the great Russian writer lived in the status of an eternal friend of the family, "on the edge of someone else's nest", side by side with the husband of the opera diva Polina Viardot. He traded life in his homeland and personal family happiness for the impassive friendship of his beloved, and even in old age he was ready to follow her to the ends of the world “at least as a janitor”.
Ivan Turgenev was first introduced to Pauline Viardot on November 1, 1843 as "a Great Russian landowner, a good shooter, a pleasant conversationalist and a bad poet." It cannot be said that such a recommendation contributed to his happiness: Polina herself later noted that she did not single out the future writer from the circle of new acquaintances and numerous admirers of her talent. But the young Turgenev, who was then barely 25, fell in love at first sight with the 22-year-old singer, who arrived in St. Petersburg with the Parisian Italian Opera. All of Europe at that time idolized her talent, and even Viardot's unattractive appearance did not interfere with her fame as a wonderful artist.
Contemporaries recalled how, with the beginning of the singing of the prima, a spark seemed to run through the hall, the audience fell into complete ecstasy and the appearance of the singer ceased to have at least some meaning. According to the composer Saint-Saens, Pauline Viardot had a bitter, like an orange, voice created for tragedies and elegiac poems. On the stage, she charmed with a passionate performance of operas, and at musical evenings she captivated the audience with her beautiful piano playing - her apprenticeship with Liszt and Chopin was not in vain. "Sings well, damn gypsy!" - admitted not without jealousy, after hearing the speech of Polina, Turgenev's mother.
Turgenev girl
In an inconspicuous stooped woman with bulging eyes, there really was something gypsy: she adopted southern features from her father, the Spanish singer Manuel Garcia. “She is desperately ugly, but if I saw her a second time, I would certainly fall in love,” one Belgian artist said about the singer to her future husband, Louis Viardot. George Sand introduced Polina to an art historian, critic and director of the Parisian Italian Opera. The writer herself considered the forty-year-old Louis dull, “like a nightcap,” but recommended him to her young friend as a suitor out of the best of intentions. Being completely fascinated by the singer, George Sand documented her in the main female image of the novel "Consuelo", talked her out of marriage with the writer and poet Alfred de Musset, and later turned a blind eye to the affair of the already married Pauline with her son.
And the temperament of the talented singer was not to be occupied: in her youth, her first hobby was Franz Liszt, from whom Polina took piano lessons, later she was fond of the composer Charles Gounod, to whom Turgenev was very jealous of her. The rest of Madame Viardot's novels will remain unknown to history, but, judging by the paradoxical attractiveness of the prima donna, numerous. However, Polina Garcia married then for love, and for some time she was really carried away by her husband. However, everything passes - and soon Polina confessed to George Sand that she was tired of the ardent expressions of her husband's love.
But what about our Turgenev? He became for Madame Viardot one of the many admirers, not without, however, a certain value. A rare man could amuse the artist with an amusing story, told so skillfully that inviting him to the dressing room seemed no longer so in vain. In addition, Turgenev with great desire undertook to teach Pauline Viardot the Russian language, which she needed for the flawless performance of the romances of Glinka, Dargomyzhsky and Tchaikovsky. This language was the sixth in the singer's arsenal and later helped her become the first listener of Turgenev's works. “Not a single line of Turgenev got into print before he introduced me to it. You Russians don’t know how much you owe me that Turgenev continues to write and work,” Viardot once said.
In order to be useful to his beloved, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev - then still an unknown and poor landowner - went to France for Polina and her husband when the artist's tour of Russia ended. With Louis Viardot, the writer found a common language against the backdrop of a passion for hunting and interest in translating Russian writers into French. He often visited the Courtavnel family estate near Paris, took part in home performances, gathering guests and artistic evenings. When Pauline Viardot went on tour, Turgenev followed her: “Ah, my feelings for you are too great and powerful,” Ivan writes in one of his many letters to his beloved. - I can not live away from you, I must feel your closeness, enjoy it. The day when your eyes did not shine for me is a lost day. Compatriots visiting Turgenev abroad were surprised at his condition: “I never thought that he was capable of loving so much,” Leo Tolstoy writes after a meeting with a friend in Paris.
Homeland and kinship
In his love, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev almost forgot his homeland, thereby completely infuriating his mother: her features can be traced in the image of a harsh landowner from the novel "Mu-mu". In 1850, the writer was forced to come to his native estate Spasskoe-Lutovinovo. The conversation with the landowner Turgeneva ended with the fact that Ivan was deprived of the landowner's money, took his illegitimate daughter Pelageya, born of a seamstress, and sent her to her beloved Polina. The Viardot family received the eight-year-old savage kindly and with family feelings for Turgenev. After some time, the illiterate peasant girl, through the efforts of Madame Viardot, turned into Mademoiselle Polinette, who draws well and writes letters to her father exclusively in French.
The Viardot couple, meanwhile not deprived of their children, eventually replaced Ivan Turgenev with a family. “Fate did not send me my own family, and I attached myself, became part of an alien family, and it happened by chance that this was a French family. For a long time my life has been intertwined with the life of this family. There they look at me not as a writer, but as a person, and among her I feel calm and warm. The writer felt especially happy in 1856, when Polina's son Paul was born. An extraordinary excitement, incomparable with the joy from the birth of Madame Viardot's previous children, swept over Turgenev. However, Polina herself did not express such vivid feelings, and the presence of her lover Ari Schaeffer at that moment, who painted her portrait, introduces a certain amount of doubt into the paternity of the Russian writer. But the descendants of Viardot are sure of the opposite. Moreover, just in time for the birth of the boy, Turgenev ended a short relationship at home: an attempt to fall in love with a meek and young distant relative was unsuccessful. Turgenev lost interest in the girl, leaving the unfortunate woman in bewilderment, which, as was the custom of that time, turned into an illness.
Baroness Vrevskaya, as well as actress Maria Savina, remained without reciprocity. Although the writer had a closeness with them, the image of Pauline Viardot did not leave him. And even the desire to spend more time in Russia broke at the very first call of Polina. If it was necessary to go to her, Turgenev dropped everything and left. The biographer of Ivan Turgenev notes: “If he were offered the choice to be the first writer in the world, but never again to see the Viardot family or serve as their watchman, janitor and, in this capacity, follow them somewhere to the other side of the world, he would prefer the position janitor." Yes, and Turgenev himself, already an accomplished writer, in 1856 confesses to his friend Afanasy Fet: “I am subject to the will of this woman. No! She shielded me from everything else, as I need. I am only blissful when a woman steps on my neck with her heel and presses my face into the dirt with her nose. People who were friends with the writer noted that he needed just such love - bringing suffering, generating soul movements, unrequited.
After the death of Ivan Turgenev, Pauline Viardot took all her letters from the writer's archive. And one can only guess how many beautiful female images and tragic love stories in the works of the great writer gave life to this passion, which lasted for forty years.
The love of Ivan Turgenev and Pauline Viardot lasted 40 years. For the writer, this feeling became a test for life. In the autumn of 1843, he first saw the 22-year-old singer Pauline Viardot-Garcia at the St. Petersburg Opera.
"Ugly!" - swept through the hall. Stooping, with an awkward figure, with bulging eyes and a face that, according to Ilya Repin, it was impossible to look at the full face, Polina seemed to many an ugly girl. But as soon as she sang ... "Divine!" everyone sighed.
Pauline Viardot, 1842. (wikipedia.org)
Since that evening, the heart of Ivan Turgenev forever belonged to a talented Frenchwoman: "From the very minute I saw her for the first time, from that fateful moment, I belonged to her all, that's how a dog belongs to its owner ...".
Polina's husband, Louis Viardot, contributed to the rapprochement of the novice writer and the young actress. On November 1, 1843, he introduced the 25-year-old Ivan to his wife: "Meet a Russian landowner, a good hunter, a pleasant conversationalist and a bad poet."
Young Turgenev, 1838. (wikipedia.org)
Soon Turgenev became a member of Polina's makeup room along with certain generals, counts, and the son of the director of the Imperial Theatre. Each of the "boyfriends" was supposed to entertain Madame Viardot with stories during the intermission. Turgenev easily overshadowed his rivals. In addition, he volunteered to teach Polina the Russian language. Two weeks later, she performed a Russian song in the scene of Rosina's music lesson ("The Barber of Seville"). The Petersburg public fell at her feet. The meetings became daily.
Turgenev did not conceal his love, but, on the contrary, shouted about it to everyone and everyone. One day, he burst into someone's living room, exclaiming, "Gentlemen, I'm so happy today!" It turned out that he had a headache, and Viardot herself rubbed his temples with cologne.
As for Polina's feelings, she often said: “In order for a woman to be successful, she must, just in case, keep completely unnecessary admirers around her. There must be a herd." And Turgenev belonged to this "herd" ...
Louis Viardo. (wikipedia.org)
Paris, London, Baden-Baden, Paris again... The writer meekly followed his beloved from city to city, from country to country: “Ah, my feelings for you are too great and powerful. I cannot live away from you, I must feel your closeness, enjoy it. The day when your eyes did not shine for me is a lost day. Compatriots who visited Turgenev abroad were surprised at his condition: “I never thought that he was capable of loving so much,” Leo Tolstoy wrote after meeting with a comrade in Paris.
In his love, Turgenev almost forgot his homeland, thus finally enraging his mother. In 1850, after five years of wandering, the writer was forced to come to his native estate Spasskoe-Lutovinovo. The conversation with Varvara Petrovna ended with the fact that Turgenev was deprived of the landlord's money, took his illegitimate daughter Pelageya, born of a serf, and sent her beloved to Paris. The Viardot couple received the 8-year-old savage kindly and with family feelings for Turgenev. A few years later, the illiterate peasant girl, through the efforts of Polina, turned into Mademoiselle Polinette, who draws well and writes letters to her father exclusively in French.
Polina Turgeneva-Brewer, daughter of the writer. (wikipedia.org)
The Viardot family became a part of Turgenev's life: “Fate did not send me my own family, and I attached myself, became part of an alien family, and it happened by chance that this was a French family. For a long time my life has been intertwined with the life of this family. There they look at me not as a writer, but as a person, and among her I feel calm and warm.
The writer felt especially happy in 1856, when Polina's son Paul was born. An extraordinary excitement, incomparable with the joy from the birth of Madame Viardot's previous children, swept over Turgenev. However, Polina herself did not express such vivid feelings, and the presence of her lover Ari Schaeffer at that moment, who painted her portrait, introduces a certain amount of doubt into the paternity of the Russian writer. But the descendants of Viardot are sure of the opposite. Moreover, just in time for the birth of the boy, Turgenev ended a short relationship at home: an attempt to fall in love with Leo Tolstoy's younger sister Maria was unsuccessful. Baroness Yulia Vrevskaya, as well as actress Maria Savina, remained without reciprocity. The writer met the latter at the end of 1879. Forgetting about his 62 years, Turgenev was captured by youth, femininity and great talent. Some affinity was established between them, but the image of Pauline Viardot did not leave him. Even in those moments when Turgenev seemed to be especially happy in Russia, he could unexpectedly declare to his friends: "If Madame Viardot calls me now, I will have to go." And left...
Actress Maria Savina. (wikipedia.org)
As Andre Maurois writes in his monograph Turgenev, “if he were offered the choice of being the first writer in the world, but never again seeing the Viardot family or serving as their watchman, janitor, and in this capacity following them somewhere to the other end light, he would have preferred the position of a janitor. Yes, and Turgenev himself, already an accomplished writer, in 1856 admitted to his friend Afanasy Fet: “I am subject to the will of this woman. No! She shielded me from everything else, as I need. I am only blissful when a woman steps on my neck with her heel and presses my face into the dirt with her nose.
Since 1863, the writer returned to Russia less and less often. Until the end of his days, he remained in the Viardot family and died in his beloved's arms. Polina outlived her admirer by 27 years.
