And this is despite the fact that her works are stored in the vaults of all major Russian museums. 
Her work was recognized both at home and abroad, the works were acquired by the largest Russian collectors P.M. Tretyakov and I.E. Tsvetkov. Big admirers of her art were Alexander III and Nicholas II. Admirers of her talent were Ilya Repin, Shishkin, Aivazovsky, Vasnetsov and Vrubel, Turgenev and Maikov, Goncharov, Leskov and Korolenko, Wanderers and artists from the World of Art, populist writers and grand dukes admired her work, and her teacher was a great portrait painter Kramskoy. 
All my life I remember the old alphabet, which sometimes in the evenings my great-grandmother allowed me to look through under her supervision. Much later I learned whose illustrations so fascinated me as a child. 
Tatar blood flowed in her veins: Lisa's ancestors had the surname Indo-gur, which in translation meant "Indian rooster", but eventually became Russified, and by decree of Ivan III became the Endaurovs.
The childhood of the future artist took place in her father's family estate on the border of the Yaroslavl and Vologda provinces - among the Russian expanse, dense forests and flood meadows.
Lisa drew everything she saw: nature, animals, her village friends. Together with letters to Liza's friends, paper dolls and animals were sent to St. Petersburg every time. This "draws the attention of people somewhat understanding."
And from the age of 14, the girl began to study at the St. Petersburg Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, she graduated with a gold medal.
Elizabeth Merkuryevna was very lucky in her life. Maybe because she clearly felt her calling in her. I was lucky with my parents, who listened to the advice of "understanding people" and sent their daughter to study at the St. Petersburg Drawing School, where, in fact, the way for girls was closed, it was the middle of the 19th century in the yard.
I was lucky with the teachers, the favorite of whom was Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy, the great Russian portrait painter, creator of the famous "Unknown". 
“If I understand at least a little in the drawing, then I owe this exclusively to Kramskoy,” the artist did not get tired of repeating. 
It was lucky that Ludwig Böhm, a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, a Hungarian by nationality, an excellent violinist, who inherited a Stradivarius violin and Beethoven's handwritten letter from his uncle, a musician, became her husband. The man himself is creative, he treated his wife's activities with understanding and approval. 
The creative life of Elizaveta Merkuryevna did not stop after her marriage: with the birth of her first child, she plunged into painting even more happily, and the world of children became her favorite topic from now on.
In recent years, interest in the work of a talented artist has again begun to grow. The images created by Elizaveta Böhm, her extensive use of the traditions of Russian national culture, the inclusion of folklore elements and ornaments in the fabric of works interested both art professionals and all art lovers 
The artist found her own style - watercolors and silhouettes. Children remained favorite sitters of Elizabeth Merkuryevna until old age.
“Elizabeth Böhm as a token of my deepest respect for her talent. I love her “black ones” more than many, many white ones. January 1898" - such an inscription was made by the hand of Ilya Repin on the back of one of the portraits of Elizabeth Bem. "Black" Ilya Efimovich called her silhouettes.
She also had an excellent command of arts and crafts: fans and prayer books painted by her, drawings for embroidery and lace, kokoshniks embroidered with colored beads, clay roosters and wooden ladles, as well as glass works: blue, green, burgundy glasses, shtofs, bowls ... Truly, a talented person is talented in everything!
Over twenty years of active creative activity, Elisabeth Böhm created 14 silhouette series, more than 300 subjects for postcards, designed many books and magazines Since 1893, Böhm became interested in making glassware. This happened after a trip to the Oryol province, where her brother Alexander was the director of the Dyatkovo crystal factory.
The works of Elizaveta Merkuryevna participated in international exhibitions - in Paris, Munich, Milan - and received medals everywhere.
The trademark of Boehm's creations, whether they were watercolors or glassware, were signatures. The artist used unpretentious short poems, riddles, jokes, proverbs.
Hello, cups
What was it like?
I was expected.
Drink, drink - you will see the devils!, - says the inscription on one of the faces of the damask. 
The cups in the set are fakes. They are 2/3 filled with glass mass and do not hold much liquid. On each is a playful inscription-toast, warning against excessive enthusiasm for the "green serpent".
Such damask and cups were presented to Kramskoy and Tolstoy during the period of writing the famous portrait. 
The Boehm family, in general, was on friendly and good terms with Leo Tolstoy and gave him great moral support when the writer was excommunicated.
There is a legend that it was Elizaveta Merkuryevna at the glass factory, where her brother was the director, who made a glass plate with the inscription: “You shared the fate of great people walking ahead of their century, highly esteemed Lev Nikolaevich. And before they were burned at the stake, rotted in prisons and exile. Now this plate is stored in the museum in Yasnaya Polyana.
But the postcards brought Elisabeth Bem the greatest fame.
Thousands of postcards with cute faces of little characters of Elizaveta Bem wandered around Russia. Carrying kindness and a smile, they looked into every house to forever remain in the memory of Russian hearts.
The widest fame in Russia was brought to her by postcards, of which she created more than three hundred. Among them were greetings for the holidays, and with images of the national costumes of the peoples of Russia, and on the themes of Russian proverbs, and with the heroes of the works of L. Tolstoy, and with riddles about the seasons, and simply with touching scenes from the lives of children. Published in thousands of copies, they dispersed throughout Russia. They could be seen on the sooty wall in a peasant hut, and in a volume of poems under the pillow of a student, and in an elegant album of a socialite
Elizabeth was born in St. Petersburg on February 24, 1843, into an old noble family. Her ancestors were from the Golden Horde, whose surname Indigir (which means "Indian rooster") was renamed the Endaurovs by a letter granted by Johnan III. 
For the summer, the family usually went to the family estate in the village of Shchiptsy, Yaroslavl province. “I had a love for drawing from a very young age,” Elizabeth later recalled, “otherwise I don’t remember myself as drawing on all the pieces of paper that came into my hands. In letters to my St. Petersburg friends, I constantly included my drawings of pupae and animals; and this is what drew the attention of people somewhat understanding that I should have seriously taken up drawing ” 
It is worth noting that in the second half of the 19th century, the attitude towards girls in advanced noble families changed, and their desire to professionally engage in music or art was even encouraged. Lisa's parents did not interfere with her desire to study at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, which the girl entered when she was 14 years old. In 1864, she graduated from school with a medal and literally plunged into creativity, fortunately, the financial situation of the family made it possible to do this without regard to earnings. 
Soon, her personal life developed, in 1867 Elizabeth married a talented violinist, teacher of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Ludwig Böhm, with whom she was to live happily all her life and give birth to several children.
Ludwig Böhm
“You know,” said Ludwig Frantsevitz, “looking at those lovely works by Elizaveta Merkurievna, which she used to show me during my visits to her, I often thought that I would not be so satisfied if my wife mine was, for example, a musician, and when I returned from the conservatory, still full of the often false sounds of my students, I would again meet at home, even if they were good, but still musical sounds; and here I am right resting on her drawings ... "
An interesting fact is that Ludwig Frantsevich owned the Stradivarius violin, which he inherited from his uncle along with a letter from Beethoven. 
And Elizaveta Merkuryevna reasoned, “The opinion has been established that with marriage a woman always or for the most part ends her studies in art, it doesn’t matter whether it is music or painting or something else, not finding enough time for this. At the same time, I recall the words of our great writer Leo Tolstoy, who said that whoever has a real vocation will find time for this, just as you find it in order to drink and eat. And this is perfectly true; feel it from experience. Loving my occupation with all my heart, after getting married and after giving birth to a child, I still, if not more, do what I love.
All the creative heritage of Elizaveta Merkuryevna can be divided into two stages: silhouette and watercolor. 
Elizaveta Merkurievna did not paint large pictures, but her drawings were always popular. Most often she drew scenes with children. Since the mid-seventies, she began to work in the technique of a lithographed silhouette, which she actually created and thus revived the art of the situette in Russia. 
It would seem that it is more appropriate for a lady to make silhouettes in an easy and familiar way - by cutting out from black or tinted paper. But the artist chose her own path, since only the possibilities of lithography, drawing on stone, allowed her not only to immediately release her books in small editions, but to make the finest study of all the details that would be impossible when cutting with scissors. She carefully drew the feathers of birds and curls on the head of a village girl, the hair of a dog and lace on the dresses of dolls - the smallest details made the graphics of Elizabeth Böhm unusually thin, sincere, lively, they could understand the unspoken that remained hidden from the viewer inside her silhouettes. 
Interestingly, venerable artists took her work with undisguised delight. Her teacher Kramskoy wrote: “And what perfection those silhouettes were! They even guessed the expression on the faces of little blackies. Ilya Repin, having presented the artist with his painting, inscribed on the back of the canvas: “Elizaveta Merkuryevna Boehm as a token of my deepest reverence for her talent. I love her "black ones" more than many, many white ones."
By the way, she owns the authorship of one of the first Russian comics. In 1880, her book "Pie" was published, with successive scenes depicting children making a pie and dropping it to the delight of a dog. The book was very popular, not only children looked at it with pleasure.
Every summer she came to her family estate and every time, before going there, Elizaveta Merkuryevna bought armfuls of village scarves, toys and ribbons for peasant women and their children. The children loved her and called their mistress "Bomiha". 
Elizaveta Merkuryevna draws peasant children
In the 80s, Elizaveta Merkuryevna began to cooperate with publishing houses as an illustrator. Her drawings were published for many years in the children's magazines Toy and Baby. The range of her interests was wide, she illustrated a dozen books, including works by I. Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, A. Krylov, V. Garshin, N. Leskov, Russian folk tales, proverbs and sayings. 
Cover of "Types from the Hunter's Notes" by I.S. Turgenev
Illustration for the fairy tale "Turnip"
It would seem that some kind of non-serious art - silhouettes, illustrations, postcards. But Elizaveta Merkurievna repeatedly participated in prestigious Russian and international exhibitions (in Paris, Berlin, Munich, Milan, Chicago) and did not remain without prizes, including gold medals. She brought her first international "gold" from Paris back in 1870 from an exhibition of watercolor drawings and miniatures. And before that, there was a "silver" from Brussels from the international competition in watercolor and silhouette techniques. It is curious that she received prizes not only at art, but also at industrial exhibitions, because she made drawings for crystal and glass products, painted porcelain.
Since 1893, Böhm has been fascinated by the manufacture of glassware. This happened after a trip to the Orel province to the Maltsovsky factories, where her brother Alexander was the director of the crystal factory. She made forms for dishes, focusing on ancient items: brothers, feet, cups, ladles. Invented drawings for enamels.
Bratina with an ornament in the Russian style. Colorless glass with enamel painting. End of the 19th century. Maltsevsky factories.
In total, Böhm published 14 albums, which were repeatedly reissued, including abroad. Even in America, her silhouette books went through several editions.
Already at the beginning of the 20th century, imitators of her style appeared, many of her compositions began to be transferred to porcelain dishes, used in handicraft production, on wooden plates, caskets, Easter eggs. Boehm's style has spread everywhere.
The acquisition of his works by Tretyakov also served as an indicator of the artist's recognition. Elizaveta Boehm's watercolors were repeatedly bought by Pavel Mikhailovich, as well as by other Russian art collectors. They were acquired for their collections and members of the royal family.
With the outbreak of the First World War, in the 71st year of her life, already a widow and lonely, having long sold both Stradivari and many canvases, irrevocably seeing off her grandchildren to the front, Elizaveta Merkuryevna wrote: "... I still do not leave my studies, despite the weakness of vision and pain in worn-out hands... I work not out of necessity, but very much in love with my job... I thank God for the pleasure bestowed on me through calling... And how many wonderful people it brought me, how many dear, friendly relations ..." 
At the beginning of the XX century. many postcards with New Year and winter scenes were published based on the originals of the famous artist Elizabeth Merkuryevna Bem (1843 - 1914).
Elizaveta Boehm in 1857 - 1864 studied in St. Petersburg at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, which she graduated with a silver medal. In 1870, the Academy of Arts awarded Bem a large honorary medal for animal drawings. The artist was a recognized master of silhouette technique: for 1875 - 1889. she has released 14 silhouette albums. Her works were reprinted not only by domestic, but also by foreign publications; at an international competition in Brussels, Bem received a silver medal for her silhouettes. The artist also successfully worked in watercolor technique; she illustrated magazines and books, developed drawings for crystal products.
A special chapter in Bem's artistic heritage is open letters. There are more than 300 postcards based on her drawings, published by various publishing houses. For the largest of them, the Community of St. Eugenia, she worked for many years. In the preface to the catalog of the Community of 1915, the publishers warmly recalled their "closest collaborator" Elizaveta Bem, giving an accurate and expressive description of her work: she occupies a completely separate place in Russian art. Elizaveta Merkuryevna was one of the founders and permanent employees of the now huge business of art publications of the Community. Her two watercolors served as a happy start for the publishing house and, having found a warm welcome among the public, demanded several editions. The same success enjoyed and other pictures of the artist, published in open letters from the Community of St. Eugenia".
E.M. Bem. Snow on the fields, ice on the rivers, a blizzard is walking ... When does it happen?
E.M. Bem. Happy New Year!
E.M. Bem. Snow Maiden. The frost is not great, but it does not order to stand!
E.M. Bem. The frost is not great, but it does not order to stand!
E.M. Bem. Was visiting a friend, drank water there, sweeter than honey!
E.M. Bem. Let's buy ourselves a village, but let's live little by little!
E.M. Bem. And in Siberia people live and chew bread!
E.M. Bem. In the winter cold everyone is young
E.M. Bem. Your burden is not heavy!
E.M. Bem. By the new year!
Though it’s not neat, oh well, at least it’s not cunning, but by the way.
E.M. Bem. "The scamp has already frozen his finger; it hurts and it's funny ..."
E.M. Bem. For the new year, I bring health boxes,
to this, this piece, and you the whole bodywork!
E.M. Bem. To the Feast of the Nativity of Christ!
E.M. Bem. Not the horse is lucky, but the legs are!
E.M. Bem. Winter. Being a guest is good, but being at home is better!
E.M. Bem. Happy New Year! For your health!
E.M. Bem. Wish for the New Year:
live in goodness, walk in silver, one hand in molasses, the other in honey!
E.M. Bem. January 1st. I don’t drink, and I don’t pour past!
The cup is large, and the wine is good!
E.M. Bem. I went to Thomas, but came to my godfather!
E.M. Bem. I bring happiness for the new year!
To whom it is not enough, to whom to satiety, and to you most of all!
E.M. Bem. You always spoiled us, and gave, and caressed.
How can we reward you? What to give for the Christmas tree?
E.M. Bem. Happy New Year!
E.M. Bem. For the new year!
Happiness: a hundred pounds! Health: how much will enter! Love: without measure!
E.M. Bem. In the new year there will be one hundred and one suitors, and one lover!
Elizaveta Merkuryevna took out a cardboard box from the cabinet. She carefully climbed down the ladder and placed the box on the table. Tomorrow in the morning the grandchildren should come to decorate the Christmas tree together with their grandmother, prepare gifts, drawings for Christmas, compose riddles and congratulations. Elizaveta Merkurievna thought that pre-holiday chores are sometimes more pleasant than holidays. In the spacious room, where the Christmas tree was already installed, there was a dense coniferous spirit. From here it spread throughout the apartment, and for a moment it seemed to the hostess that she suddenly found herself in her beloved village, where she spent her childhood, in the Yaroslavl province, in a winter spruce forest. One of these days she will go there with Christmas gifts prepared for her little friends, the village children, whom she likes to draw directly from life. And those will happily meet her already at the station with shouts: "Aunt Bemikha has arrived!" - and run in a crowd after the sleigh to the very village, now and then jumping on the runners.
In those young years, when she was still unmarried Lizonka Endaurova, not only village children, but the whole world around her served as a beautiful, inexhaustible nature. There were always many animals in the house - cats, dogs, a herd of cows and a fleet-footed herd grazed in the meadows, and there were countless birds. Lizonka painted them with love. I almost became an animator...
Later, in her diaries, Elizaveta Merkuryevna wrote: “Tatar blood partially flows in me, because my ancestors were Tatars, by the name of Indo-gur, which means“ Indian chickens ”- a rooster. And by a letter granted by John III, the surname was renamed Endaurova .. I loved the "endaur" village. And I feel sorry for the city guys, deprived of rural joys ... And I don’t remember myself otherwise, as in the village and always surrounded by children and drawing their faces or animals on any piece of paper ... "" At the age of 14 my parents appreciated my abilities and, having moved to St. Petersburg, sent me to the school of the "Society for the Encouragement of Artists". It was then in the building of the Stock Exchange on Vasilevsky ... The happiest years were those that I studied at school! And what brilliant masters taught! Chistyakov, Primazzi , Kramskoy! .. With each new work, especially brought after the summer holidays, I fled to Nevsky to Kramskoy's workshop.
Elizaveta Merkuryevna straightened her lush, black-haired bun, decorated with Vologda lace, on her head, untied the cord on the box, and opened it. Christmas decorations glittered magically inside. She once brought golden balloons from Brussels. There, at the international competition in watercolor and silhouette technique, she received a Silver medal. These glass dutik are from Paris, where in 1870 she successfully participated in an exhibition of watercolor drawings and miniatures. Her works: "Cats", "Jagdtash with game", "Village children" - were awarded the Gold Medal. Everyone was especially struck by her captions to the pictures: “Don’t grieve over yesterday, wait for tomorrow”, “Fun is better than wealth”, “Stop, don’t stagger, lie, but don’t lie”, “Speak through the dark forest”, and many others, so also funny and charming.
Elizaveta Merkuryevna took out an old wrinkled but still beautiful wreath of silk leaves from the box. Diana's wreath, which once a year, as a memory, was also hung on a Christmas tree between prickly paws. How much he reminded her of! New Year's costume ball on December 29, 1861, where a lovely, stately, black-haired "mask" in the costume of Diana the Huntress was recognized as the most brilliant.
Years later, the watercolorist A. Charleman presented the already aging winner with his drawing with the inscription: "Please accept this semi-watercolor drawing not as a portrait of E.M. Boehm, but as an image of Diana, which captivated us all at that New Year's ball ..."
The luxurious Christmas tree brought by her husband was not installed in the living room, but, "as Lizonka wanted," in the workshop, among paintings, shelving, an easel, cans of paints and brushes. That's something grandchildren-gymnasium students will be delighted! On the Patronal Feast of the Nativity, the whole family, as usual, will gather in the ancestral home on Vasilyevsky Island.
Both sisters will also come: the eldest - Ekaterina Merkuryevna with her husband, and the youngest - Lyubochka, also an artist. By midnight it will be noisy, fun, they will be playing music, and in the hands of the owner - an excellent violinist, teacher of the conservatory, the magic Stradivari violin, which once belonged to Beethoven, will finally sound. This priceless relic was brought by Ludwig Böhm to St. Petersburg from Vienna, where he (a Hungarian by nationality) studied music in his youth. Ludwig inherited it, along with Beethoven's letter, from his uncle, a musician who was friends with the composer... Then the piano will sound (everyone in the family plays well), they will sing romances, play forfeits, and the grandchildren of Elizaveta Merkuryevna will begin to guess grandmother's riddles: "Snow on fields, ice on the rivers, a blizzard is walking ... When does this happen? or "The snow is melting, the meadow has come to life, the day is coming ... When does it happen?"
Now the workshop is quiet. Outside the window, a horse-tram rumbled past the house on the snow-covered pavement. Elizaveta Merkuryevna thought that her husband would be here soon. It's time to arrange for the samovar, so that it, pot-bellied, shiny, sings comfortably on a linen napkin on an oak table. But she was in no hurry. She glanced thoughtfully at the walls. In the light of the chandelier, among dozens of paintings and sketches (of his and his friends - Aivazovsky, Shishkin, Vasnetsov), behind which one could not even see the wallpaper - a beautiful "Christmas" "Portrait of Lisa" by Ilya Efimovich Repin. With a gentle inscription on the back, which she remembered by heart: "Elizaveta Merkuryevna Boehm, as a token of my deepest reverence for her talent. I love her" black ones "more than many, many white ones. January 1898."
"Black" Ilya Efimovich called her silhouettes - a special genre of drawing, which also became famous for Elizaveta Boehm. Her first silhouette was a portrait of Anton Rubinstein, accidentally drawn at a concert in the Noble Assembly on the back of the program, "with all the figure and the piano - absolute perfection, striking in expression." A. G. Rubinstein himself told the artist that this was the best of all his portraits! .. Kramskoy later wrote: “And what perfection these silhouettes were! Even the expression on the faces of little blackies could be guessed in them.”
On the tables and shelves of the workshop, among clay roosters and whistles, kokoshniks embroidered with colorful beads and carved wooden ladles, there were also her author's glass damask, goblets, charms. Green, blue, made according to her sketches at her brother's glass factory in Orel. For them, the artist also received many diplomas, especially in Berlin and Paris, where Russian art is so valued. And in St. Petersburg, at her recent anniversary, the poet A.N. Maikov, with a bouquet in his hands, passionately read:
Your pencil is my offense
Why is it not given to me by God?
I don't show
But in the heart of a hurricane!
Behind the door at the back of the house the door bell jingled, the dogs barked merrily, the servants went to open it. Elizaveta Merkuryevna understood: her husband had returned from Alexandrinka. But she had not yet had time to disassemble the toys. Dreams, surging memories receded. It's time to get down to business - the New Year is on the threshold ...
With the outbreak of the First World War, in the 71st year of her life, already a widow and lonely, having long sold both Stradivari and many canvases, irrevocably seeing off her grandchildren to the front, Elizaveta Merkuryevna wrote: "... I still do not leave my studies, despite the weakness of vision and pain in worn-out hands... I work not out of necessity, but very much in love with my job... I thank God for the pleasure bestowed on me through calling... And how many wonderful people it brought me, how many dear, friendly relations ..."
In 1914, the artist quietly and imperceptibly passed away. But for a long time, thousands and thousands of her postcards with cute faces of little characters continued their journey across Russia. Carrying kindness and a smile, they looked into every house to forever remain in the memory of Russian hearts.
In the glass collection of the Yegorievsk Historical and Art Museum, a complex of items unusual in decor and shape, created at the end of the 19th century at the Dyatkovo Crystal Factory, stands out.
The author of sketches and paintings of objects was Elizaveta Merkuryevna Boehm, a well-known Russian artist of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, whose interest in her bright and original work has increased again in recent years.
Elizaveta Merkuryevna is a woman of amazing destiny. She was born in 1843 in St. Petersburg. Tatar blood flowed in her veins: the artist's ancestors had the surname Indo-gur, but over time became Russified and became Endaur.
Already in childhood, Elizabeth showed a love and talent for drawing. But life in Russia in the second half of the 19th century did not particularly encourage a woman to do something else besides home, family and children. However, the parents of Elizaveta Merkuryevna turned out to be progressive people: from the age of 14, the girl studied at the St. Petersburg Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, studied with I. Kramskoy, and graduated with a gold medal.
After her marriage, Elizabeth Bem passed the fate of most of her contemporaries, passionate about art: to leave pampering in order to devote herself entirely to raising children and household chores. The artist's husband was a wonderful violinist, professor of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Ludwig Böhm. The man himself is creative, he treated his wife's activities with understanding and approval.
Elizaveta Merkurievna said on this occasion: “I remember the words of our great writer L.N. Tolstoy, who said that whoever has a real vocation, then there will be time for this, how to find it in order to drink or eat. And this is the perfect truth I feel it from experience. Loving my occupation with all my heart, after getting married, and after giving birth to a child, I still, if not more, do what I love. "
Soon the artist found her own style - watercolors and silhouettes. Children remained favorite sitters of Elizabeth Merkuryevna until old age. Over twenty years of active creative work, Elizaveta Böhm created 14 silhouette series, more than 300 subjects for postcards, designed many books and magazines. Her work has been recognized both at home and abroad. Boehm's works were acquired by the largest Russian collectors P.M. Tretyakov and I.E. Tsvetkov. Emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II were great admirers of her art.
Since 1893, Böhm has been fascinated by the manufacture of glassware. This happened after a trip to the Oryol province, where her brother Alexander was the director of the Dyatkovo crystal factory. At that time, the glass with which Böhm began to work was rarely used for artistic purposes. Elizaveta Merkuryevna can be considered the first to use glass in a new way; she was practically the only professional artist of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries who worked in the glass painting technique.
One of the brightest pages in the development of the Russian national style in glass is connected with the name of Elizaveta Boehm. She made forms for dishes, focusing on ancient items: brothers, feet, cups, ladles. Invented drawings for enamels. She herself painted the dishes and carefully observed if the paintings were done by someone else.
The works of Elizaveta Merkurievna participated in international exhibitions - in Paris (1900), Munich (1902), Milan (1906) - and received medals everywhere. In Milan, the artist received a gold medal, as well as at an exhibition in Chicago (1893), for "an excellent overall composition, a general typical character of ornamental details, a high artistry of the revival of the ancient Byzantine and national style."
The most popular author's work by E. Boehm, included in the price list of the Dyatkovo plant and produced in large quantities, was
set for wine, marked by folk humor. The artist deliberately chose the green color of the glass, the shape of the damask and the technique of enamel painting, typical of Russian glass of the 18th century.
The trademark of Boehm's creations, whether they were watercolors or glassware, were signatures. The artist used unpretentious short poems, riddles, jokes, proverbs, talking with the people in their language. So in this set, the playful depiction of drinking and fighting devils is explained by no less "strong" inscriptions on the topic of the consumption of strong drinks.
Hello, cups
What was it like?
I was expected.
Drink, drink - you will see the devils!, - says the inscription on one of the faces of the damask.
The cups in the set are fakes. They are 2/3 filled with glass mass and do not hold much liquid. Each has a playful inscription-toast, warning against excessive enthusiasm for the "green snake", and a serial number in the process of drinking the drink. And if the devils on the first cups call for a drink " for health", "for fun", "for enthusiasm", then on the following we read:" tea, coffee are not to my liking, there would be vodka in the morning”, “where I drank, I spent the night there”, “I drank for joy, I drank it down with grief”, “if you like - you don’t like it, but you need to drink!».
Along with the popular wine service, acquired for the collection by the founder of the museum, Mikhail Nikiforovich Bardygin, the collection also contains other items by E. Böhm, which exist in single copies.
The history of their acquisition is interesting. Several decades ago, meeting a group of tourists from Moscow, the former director of the museum, Esther Yakovlevna Ravina, spoke about the artist and her work. And suddenly it turned out that among the guests there was a relative of Elizaveta Boehm, a Muscovite Nina Evgenievna Schmidt. For many years, glass objects painted by E. Böhm were kept in her family. Touched by the reverent attitude towards the items stored in the collection, and the interest in the personality of their creator, Nina Evgenievna decided to donate the items to the Yegorievsk Museum.
Thus, a ladle and a bowl in the "Russian style" with enamel paintings in the form of birds and a jug of blue frosted glass, painted with orange enamel in the form of a frosty pattern, appeared in the museum's collection.
Came from an old family. Her ancestors, the Tatars, had the surname Indigir, which meant "Indian rooster". By a diploma granted to the family by Ivan III, the surname was changed to the Endaurovs.
Elizaveta Merkuryevna was born in St. Petersburg, she spent her childhood in the Endaurov family estate in the village of Shchiptsy, Poshekhonsky district, Yaroslavl province.
Lisa drew everything she saw: nature, animals, her village friends. Together with letters to Liza's friends, paper dolls and animals were sent to St. Petersburg every time. This "draws the attention of people somewhat understanding."
Where the heart flies, there the eye looks!
Elizabeth Merkuryevna was very lucky in her life. Maybe because she clearly felt her calling in her. I was lucky with my parents, who listened to the advice of "understanding people" and sent their daughter to study at the St. Petersburg Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, where the girls were generally closed: it was the middle of the 19th century outside.
We'll buy ourselves a village, but we'll live a little.
We were lucky with the teachers: excellent masters taught at Liza's school, the favorite of which was Ivan Nikolayevich Kramskoy, the creator of the famous Stranger. “If I understand at least a little in the drawing, then I owe it exclusively to Kramskoy,” the artist did not get tired of repeating.
Chicken Fedorka, yes rooster Egor, congratulations on the holiday, wish you happiness!
Elizabeth was also lucky with her husband: he became a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Ludwig Böhm, a Hungarian by nationality, an excellent violinist who inherited a Stradivarius violin and Beethoven's handwritten letter from his musician uncle. The man himself is creative, he reacted with understanding and approval to the activities of his wife. "I'm just resting on her drawings," he once said.
LN Tolstoy among Yasnaya Polyana children.
So Lisa passed the fate of most of her contemporaries, passionate about art: having married, leave pampering in order to devote herself entirely to raising children and household chores.
Loves! Does not love!
The creative life of Elizaveta Merkuryevna did not stop after her marriage: with the birth of her first child, she plunged into painting even more happily, and the world of children became her favorite topic from now on.
A small fish is better than a big cockroach.
She herself said about this: “I remember the words of our great writer L. N. Tolstoy, who said that whoever has a real vocation, then there will be time for this, how to find it in order to drink or eat. And this is the perfect truth I feel it from experience. Loving my occupation with all my heart, after getting married, and after giving birth to a child, I still, if not more, do what I love. "
You are welcome, to our hut!
She soon found her own style - watercolors and silhouettes. Elizabeth Merkuryevna's favorite models until old age were children: as soon as she came to the village to study sketches, children shouting "Aunt Bemikha has arrived!" rushed to meet her, knowing that a kind lady with an unpronounceable name generously pays for posing with toys and sweets.
Darlings scold only amuse
Elisabeth Böhm's watercolor works attracted attention not only with funny characters, but also with signatures that became the trademark of her creations. The artist used unpretentious short poems, riddles, jokes, proverbs, talking with the people in their language. "And where do you dig them up from?" - It happened that Vladimir Stasov himself, the famous critic and researcher of Russian antiquity, was amazed.
A lot to choose - not to be married
Elizaveta Merkuryevna revived the silhouette genre, which had been forgotten by that time. “And what perfection these silhouettes were!” wrote Kramskoy. “Even the expression on the faces of little blackies could be guessed in them.” And Ilya Repin admitted that he loves her “black ones” more than many, many “white ones”.
Wash yourself white, the guests are close!
The first "adult" silhouette of the artist was a portrait of Anton Rubinstein, accidentally drawn at a concert in the Nobility Assembly on the back of the program, "with the whole figure and the piano - absolute perfection, striking in expression."
Wash yourself white, the holiday is near!
The composer himself told Elizaveta Merkuryevna that this was the best of all his portraits. Subsequently, she made many silhouette compositions to order - including for the highest persons. Yes, it's just shadows. But the shadows of real people who once made up Russian life...
Elizaveta Merkurievna willingly designed children's magazines, illustrated folk tales, fables by I. A. Krylov, N. A. Nekrasov's poem "Frost Red Nose", stories of contemporary writers. Two silhouettes for I. S. Turgenev's story "Mumu" became classics of book graphics.
The frost is not great, but it does not order to stand!
She also had an excellent command of arts and crafts: fans and prayer books painted by her, designs for embroidery and lace, kokoshniks embroidered with colored beads, clay roosters and wooden ladles, as well as glass works: blue, green, burgundy glasses, shtofs, bowls. .. Truly, a talented person is talented in everything!
Moscow is getting married
Among the sincere admirers of Elizaveta Boehm's work were Repin, Shishkin and Aivazovsky, Vasnetsov and Vrubel, Turgenev and Maikov, Goncharov, Leskov and Korolenko, Wanderers and artists from the World of Art, populist writers and grand dukes admired her works.
Moscow is getting married
The Boehm family was on good terms with Leo Tolstoy and gave him great moral support when the writer was excommunicated.
The first glass is a stake, the second is a falcon!
There is a legend that it was Elizaveta Merkuryevna at the glass factory, where her brother was the director, who made a glass plate with the inscription: “You shared the fate of great people who are ahead of their time, revered Lev Nikolayevich. And before they were burned at the stake, rotted in prisons and links". Now this plate is stored in the museum in Yasnaya Polyana.
I don’t drink, and I don’t pour past! The cup is large, and the wine is good!
Time took its course. Elizabeth Merkuryevna has already had grandchildren. According to family tradition, on the patronal feast of Christmas, the whole family gathered in the large Boehm house on Vasilyevsky Island. The Christmas tree was usually set up in the artist's studio, among paintings, easels, cans of paints and brushes.
Aleshenka Popovich envious eyes
The holiday was always fun: forfeits were played, grandchildren-gymnasium students guessed grandmother's riddles, of which she knew a great many. And the piano certainly sounded, the violin sang, romances were performed.
Architect.
Our Miroshka builds a little for himself, lives in kindness and eats on silver!
At the beginning of the First World War, in the 71st year of her life, already widowed, seeing off her grandchildren to the front, Elizaveta Merkuryevna wrote: the force of necessity, but very loving my work... I thank God for the pleasure bestowed on me through vocation. And how many wonderful people it brought me, how many dear, friendly relations it gave me ... "
Grandma Arina ate and praised.
In the same 1914, the artist quietly and imperceptibly passed away. But for a long time, thousands of her postcards with cute faces of little characters continued to wander around Russia, bringing kindness and a smile to every home. They finally returned to us.
Watch out where the mermaids are!
God help!
Dobrynushka took a bowstring bow, he took heroic arrows!
If there was honey, there would be a lot of flies!
There was a post, there will be a holiday! There was a twist, there will be joy!
Was visiting a friend, drank water there, sweeter than honey!
On weekdays we will work - on a holiday we will take a walk!
In the winter cold everyone is young
In the new year there will be one hundred suitors, and one will fall in love!
A fairy tale for you, and a bunch of bagels for me!
Vasilisa and not Melentievna!
Fun is better than wealth
He looks - that he will scorch with fire, he says a word - he will give a ruble!
Fight you on the stove with a cockroach!
“Here, over the ears in a blue wreath, a black head quickly flashed ...
You see where the cheat ran in "... N. Nekrasov
Seasons. Spring is coming, bringing warmth.
Seasons. WINTER. Away well...
Seasons. SUMMER. TO THE OWNER OF BREAD VOROSHOK...
Seasons. AUTUMN. WHERE THE MUSHROOMS ARE, HERE WE ARE!
Every bride will be born for her groom!
You always spoiled us and gave us caresses ...
Choose your wife not in a round dance, but in a garden.
Exhibition "Children's World". Portraits of L. Tolstoy, A. Pushkin, A. Rubinstein, V. Vereshchagin
Where is Easter cake and dough, here is our place.
Where there is work, it is dense, but in a lazy house it is empty.
Literates
A girl with a tuesk. 1903
Grandpa Elizar licked all his fingers
Business time, fun hour!
For a sweet friend and an earring from an ear
For the first meeting, gambling speeches!
Good hostess and fatty cabbage soup - look no other good!
God bless the good deed!
Dobrynya Nikitich, 1893 Watercolor from an exhibition in Chicago
Dear custom on the Great Day!
Friends are more valuable than money!
Think, godfather, don't lose your mind!
Well done Duma members, do not rush with your tongue, hurry with your deeds!
I’m going, I’m going, I won’t whistle, but I’ll run over, I won’t let go!
I went to Thomas, but came to my godfather!
I went to Thomas, but I came to you!
I would like to please you, but I don’t know how to be!
Live do not grieve. The sun will come in your window!
Behind the mountains, behind the forests, we live far away. We remember you, congratulations and bows helmet!
For the health of the one who loves whom!
For health!
For bread, for salt, for cabbage soup with kvass, for noodles, for porridge, but thank you for your fairy tale!
And in Siberia people live and chew bread!
And Ilya grumbles angrily: Well, Vladimir, well ... I'll see, without Ilya then
how will you live!
And they looked at Churilushka, his beauties marveled so that his eyes were clouded!
And cold, and hungry, and far from home!
And I was at that feast, I drank honey, mash!
Ivan, but not formidable
From afar I keep the way, I carry three boxes of news!
From the books of Count S.D. Sheremetev
Great things come out of Malago!
Or a military man, or a merchant, or a good fellow
What is hello, so is the answer!
Who cares that I was sitting with a godfather!
Large pearls with a yacht, a good groom with a bride.
Who has not been to Moscow, has not seen beauty!
Who will beat whom.
Whoever bends whom, he will beat him!
Who about what, and we write about our own!
Who did not recognize the former Tanya, poor Tanya, in the princess now!
Who dared, he sat down!
