Religious themes are quite popular among Raphael's contemporaries. However, the main difference between this picture and similar ones is its fullness of lively emotions, combined with a rather simple plot.

Composition

In the center of attention is the female figure of the Madonna, who is holding her little son in her arms. The maiden's face is full of some sadness, as if she knows in advance what awaits her son in the future, but the baby, on the contrary, shows bright, positive emotions.

The virgin with the newborn Savior in her arms does not walk on the floor, but on the clouds, which symbolizes her ascension. After all, it was she who brought the Blessing to the land of sinners! The face of a mother with a child in her arms is bright and thought out to the smallest detail, and if you look closely at the face of the baby, you can notice an adult expression, despite his very young age.

Depicting the Divine child and his mother as human and simple as possible, but at the same time walking on the clouds, the author emphasized the fact that regardless of whether it is a divine son or a human one, we are all born the same way. In this way, the artist conveyed the idea that only with righteous thoughts and goals is it possible to find a suitable place for oneself in Heaven.

Technique, performance, techniques

A world-class masterpiece, this picture contains completely incompatible things, like the human mortal body and the sacredness of the spirit. The contrast is complemented by bright colors and clear lines of detail. There are no superfluous elements, the background is pale and contains images of other light spirits or singing angels behind the Madonna.

Next to the woman and the baby are depicted saints who bow before the Savior and his mother - the high priest and Saint Barbara. But they seem to emphasize the equality of all the characters in the picture, despite the kneeling posture.

Below are two funny angels, which have become a real symbol not only of this picture, but of the entire work of the author. They are small, and with thoughtful faces from the very bottom of the picture they are watching what is happening in the life of the Madonna, her extraordinary son and people.

The picture still causes a lot of controversy among experts. For example, the fact that there is no consensus on how many fingers are on the pontiff's hand is considered very interesting. Some see in the picture not five, but six fingers. It is also interesting that, according to legend, the artist painted the Madonna from his mistress Margherita Luti. But with whom the baby was drawn is unknown, but there is a possibility that the author painted the face of the child from an adult.

A huge number of books, musical works have been written on the theme of the Great Patriotic War, many films have been shot.
This topic is truly inexhaustible, because it has turned the lives of several tens of millions of people, divided it into "before" and "after".

Unfortunately, not all mothers, wives and daughters waited for their sons, husbands, fathers from the front, from the battlefields.
I believe that only a small part of the pain and suffering that people had to endure in those years can be conveyed in paintings or with the help of other artistic means.

One of these fates formed the basis of the painting by V. Igoshev "She is still waiting for her son."
It shows an elderly woman standing at the open gate of her old house.
Her eyes are full of longing, sadness, expectation, suffering.
I think she's been in that position for a long time.
Every day a woman goes to this place in the hope that her beloved son will return, alive and unharmed.
She invariably looks into the distance, but, unfortunately, the miracle does not happen.
Perhaps she herself understands that there is no point in suffering and waiting, but she cannot help herself.
The whole meaning of her post-war life comes down to this.

Behind the grandmother is a house with a clean, open window.
There are flowers on the windowsill, and the architraves are painted blue.
A woman tries her best to keep it in good condition, but every year it becomes more and more difficult for her to do this.
Next to the window, the author painted thin white birch trees, as if reminding us that we need to live on, no matter what.

Despite the tragedy of the picture, the woman is shown in a white blouse and scarf, and a black skirt.
From under the scarf we see the gray hair of the heroine.
Her face is wrinkled and her eyes are narrowed.
We can only guess what thoughts visit her gray-haired head at this moment.
Maybe she remembers how her son went to the front, how he grew up ... In any case, her thoughts are only about one thing - about her own, only child, whom she will never see again.

Vladimir Yegorovich Makovsky (1846-1920) was born into a family with rich cultural traditions. His father, E. I. Makovsky, was one of the founders of the famous School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow, from which many outstanding masters of art came out.

People who were already famous for their contribution to art often gathered in the parental home - composer M. I. Glinka, writer N. V. Gogol, actor M. S. Shchepkin, artists K. P. Bryullov, V. A. Tropinin and others . The mother of Vladimir Yegorovich played music and sang. So it is not surprising that children who have grown

in the atmosphere of art - in addition to Vladimir, the family had two more sons and two daughters - they also became creative people over time. All three brothers became artists, and their younger sister Maria became a singer. Vladimir Yegorovich himself also had a beautiful voice inherited from his mother, played the guitar and violin. The boy became interested in drawing at an early age, and this interest later grew into the business of a lifetime.

The first drawing lessons were given to Vladimir Makovsky by the famous artist V. A. Tropinin. Makovsky studied with him later, becoming a student at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The young man graduated from this educational institution with a silver medal.

In his work, Makovsky assigned a significant place to ordinary people. The artist most often took plots for paintings from life, choosing such moments when the characters and relationships of people were most clearly revealed. When in 1873 Makovsky received the title of academician for the painting “Lovers of Solovyov”, and the painting was exhibited at the World Exhibition in Vienna, the writer F. M. Dostoevsky described it as follows: “... in these small pictures, in my opinion, there is even love to humanity, not only to Russian in particular, but even in general.

Makovsky was an active participant and was even elected a member of the board of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, which were organized to make art accessible to the general public. He taught at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow, then at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, and later became its rector. Created several sketches for painting the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Among the students of V. E. Makovsky are the artists A. E. Arkhipov, V. N. Baksheev, E. M. Cheptsov.

Like most of Makovsky’s works, the painting “Foster and Dear Mother” is based on real events. The painting was acquired by the Samara merchant Shikhobalov, a philanthropist and friend of Makovsky. For some time, the canvas was in the collection of Shikhobalov, and after the revolution of 1917, this collection entered the fund of the Samara City Museum. Now it is the Samara Art Museum, the painting is still there.

The author of the picture himself told Shikhobalov that the event depicted in the picture took place in the family of his acquaintance artist. This family once adopted a boy, the son of a simple peasant woman, and raised him as their own son. But one day the child's own mother appeared and claimed her rights to her son.

The picture emotionally captures the moment when this woman appears. The family was just sitting at the table. Serving, the interior of the room, the clothes of family members unequivocally testify to material wealth. The table is covered with a white tablecloth, expensive dishes are placed on it. The windows have light white curtains and heavy draperies from ceiling to floor. One of the walls, behind the back of the peasant woman who came, is hung with paintings. The boy's adoptive parents are smartly dressed: the father is in a dark suit, the mother is in a white dress with a large collar trimmed with a lush frill. In addition to the foster parents, the boy and his own mother, in the back of the room there is an elderly woman in a white cap and a light dress, over which a large black shawl is thrown over - probably this is the child's nanny.

The artist vividly depicted the shock experienced by the foster mother and the nanny, and the child himself. The nanny clasped her hands, the foster mother convulsively clutches the child to her. And the boy himself, judging by the way he clung to his foster mother and looks at his own mother incredulously, timidly, is clearly not eager to leave the house, which he used to consider his own. And here it is not only about prosperity, although it is obvious, of course, that the boy is well fed and clothed. There is a wicker chair with a napkin by the table - apparently, this is usually the place of the boy at the table. He probably has his own room, and toys that peasant children have not even seen. But the main thing is that the boy is loved here, he has become native to these people who take care of him. And he got used to them and fell in love with them, considered them his parents. It is unknown if he remembers his birth mother; judging by the way he clung to his foster mother, it is unlikely that this woman, who suddenly appeared in the house, is just someone else's aunt for him, it is not clear why she wants to pick him up and take him away no one knows where.

The peasant woman, the mother of the child, does not seem to be particularly embarrassed because she broke into someone else's house, once left her son, and now, in fact, invades his happy life, rudely breaks it. It is not known what prompted her to come for the child. Her face does not express any feelings for her son - only pressure and confidence that she has the right to take him away.

Counterbalancing the dismay of the foster mother and the child himself is the firmness of the father. He smokes a cigar, calmly looking at the woman who burst into his house. He is not going to give in to her. He probably intends to offer her money so that she won't bother his family anymore. She also came for the boy, perhaps in the expectation that now, when he has grown up, he will begin to work for her.

The boy's own mother is not richly dressed. She is wearing dark outerwear, from under which one can see the hem of a brown skirt and a motley striped long apron, which were worn by peasant women. A red scarf is tied on the head. In one hand, the woman holds a small bag with things, in the other - a piece of paper, apparently a document confirming her right to a child.

You can guess how events will unfold further. The child will remain in the family, the peasant woman who left him will take the money offered by the foster father and leave. But the peace and tranquility of the people living in this house is still destroyed. The woman who raised the child is used to considering him her own, she is scared at the thought that he will be taken away from her. The child, perhaps, did not even suspect that his father and mother were not his relatives. How long will it take before the mental storm subsides, caused by the appearance of someone else's aunt, who calls herself his mother?

It is impossible not to admit that the artist skillfully showed the deepest experiences of people whom he captured at a dramatic moment for them.

Glossary:

- an essay based on Makovsky's painting two mothers

- description of the picture in Makovsky two mothers, foster mother and native

- Makovsky two mothers description of the picture

– Two mothers exposition

- Makovsky two mothers

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Olga SKURATOV,
teacher at school number 199, Moscow

Boris Mikhailovich Nemensky - artist and warrior

Boris Mikhailovich Nemensky - People's Artist of Russia, participant in the Great Patriotic War, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts, full member of the Russian Academy of Education, head of the Department of Plastic Arts and Art Pedagogy, professor, laureate of State Prizes and Prizes of the President of the Russian Federation, creator of an innovative system of general art education , Commander of the Order "Defender of Justice" for his great contribution to educational, educational and cultural activities for the benefit of Russia, awarded by the United Nations Council on Public Awards.

The works of B.M. Nemensky are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, as well as in other Russian and foreign museums, they adorn private collections in Germany, England, France, Japan.

First steps

Boris Mikhailovich Nemensky was born on December 24, 1922 in Moscow. His mother, Vera Semyonovna, was a dentist, and his father, Mikhail Ilyich, was a financier who worked for a long time in the Council of People's Commissars after the revolution. These outstanding people brought an amazing fusion of two cultures into the life of their son: the Russian people came through the mother - the daughter of a village priest, the city raznochinnaya through the father - a young man from Presnya. It was in the family that the complex process of forming the artist's personality began.

The whole life of Boris Nemensky is connected with Moscow. On Sretenka in the heart of the capital he spent his childhood. Here the first steps into the world of art were taken in the studio of the Palace of Pioneers, led by a young talented artist and teacher A.M. Mikhailov. The enthusiasm of this person, his enthusiasm for introducing the studio students to creativity were great: meetings and conversations with famous artists, the first exhibition of works in the Tretyakov Gallery and much more left an indelible mark on the souls of the guys, influenced the further choice of life path. Boris Mikhailovich's parents carefully, although with some anxiety, followed their son's passion. After some doubts about the correctness of the chosen path, meeting with K. Yuon, the father advised his son to go to the art school in memory of 1905. In 1940, Boris Nemensky was admitted immediately to the third year.

Front

All plans for a peaceful life were destroyed by the war. The young artist was forced to graduate from the Art School already in evacuation in Saratov, in 1942. But the young man did not take advantage of the direction to continue his studies at the Surikov Institute, evacuated to Central Asia, he returned to his native city. In Moscow, the soldier Nemensky was appointed to serve in the Studio of Military Artists named after M.B. Grekov. The artists of this studio went to the front lines, made sketches from nature in the battlefields in the thick of the war. Not a single significant military operation was complete without the participation of studio artists. Their sketches, sketches, paintings participated in traveling exhibitions arranged in the troops. Most of these works have not been preserved, while the survivors are in Russian museums and private collections.

The first months of service in Grekov's studio were not easy for the young man. After all, art is its own judgment about life, and he did not yet know this very life. It is hard to start work, to truly prove oneself, judging the front only from the stories and works of senior comrades. The young artist did not succeed at all, he was often called to the "carpet" to the authorities, even the question arose of being expelled from the studio.

The first business trip fell on the eve of 1943 to the Kalinin Front in the Velikiye Luki region. Youthful maximalism called to the front line, to where the battles raged, where, it seemed, the “real thing” was being done. From this trip, Boris Mikhailovich brought sketches and sketches, but, according to the author himself, they were lost among the works of more experienced studio workers. However, the abundance of impressions, constant work from nature, the ability to learn from older comrades did their job: etudes and drawings each time became more serious, more competent.

Many years later, the artist B.M. Nemensky will regret that, behind the military "exoticism" of attacks and battles, at first he could not see the main thing - a soldier, a simple man in an overcoat, who decided the fate of victory, his inner world, feelings, thoughts. And it is this main thing with each subsequent trip to the front that will fill the thoughts and heart of the artist more and more deeply, and then will be one of the most important themes of his work. It is the front that will become a “school of life and art” for the master, helping to better understand people and himself, to take new bold steps in the profession.

Artists from time to time returned from regular units to the front-line headquarters - the Moninsky House of Officers near Moscow - to hand over finished works and exchange experiences. During these weeks, the young artist is trying his hand at easel painting, looking for his own style, working on the idea. The idea of ​​the first picture (the moment of carrying the wounded pilot by orderlies) and its implementation took about a month. Already after the war, Boris Mikhailovich will recall that the desire to do “everything is right” in the compositional and pictorial solution, the “truth of the fact”, dictated by the requirements of wartime, then overshadowed the “capacity of content”.

Together with his friend Mikhail Gavrilov, Nemensky makes a new attempt: the idea is born to paint a canvas about the deportation of Soviet people to Germany. But in the end, the co-authors left the work, realizing that the picture turns out to be uninteresting and unexpressive. A new, more familiar plot was born - "Return to their native places." The joy of creativity and the bitterness of disappointment will visit Boris Nemensky more than once. During this period, the realization begins to come that there is little knowledge and understanding in art, something more is needed - one's own experiences, one's personal pain and joy.

Many years later, this law will become the main one in the new system of aesthetic education that B.M. Nemensky. “Not an ounce of feeling can be borrowed: after all, every picture is a confession. The authenticity of feelings must live in it, otherwise the cold will settle, at best, only a delicacy of professionalism, fireworks.

Victory Spring

The whole front-line situation and the inner mood of the participants in the events demanded truth and persuasiveness, which imposed a special responsibility on the military artist, whose work was in demand and understood in a harsh time, when, it would seem, the muses should have been silent. “I remember that I once sat all day in a deep and soft chair, standing right in the middle of one of the streets leading to the center of Berlin. There was a fight at the crossroads ... Both sides of the street, like two long volcano vents, formed an impenetrable, buzzing tent over it fire and smoke. And along the street they were walking back and forth, soldiers with cartridges were running, carrying away the wounded, moving equipment. As we moved forward and the houses, burning down, collapsed, the fighters dragged my chair farther and farther. “Here, here, come on, soldier, sketch how Hitler’s lair is on fire, that’s how they need it!” (1-6)

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May 8, 1945 - the end of the war ... Rejoicing, everywhere groups of Soviet soldiers celebrating the long-awaited victory, machine-gun fireworks ... And on the Brandenburg Gate, climbing the assault ladders, an artist in a soldier's overcoat sits and draws a city still smoking in places, trying to catch and capture in color an amazing feeling of aching joy of victory. It is this sketch, unfortunately, that has not been preserved, but the last front-line works made in April-May 1945 are stored in the workshop of Boris Mikhailovich. (7-8) They feel a certain confusion, as after the end of a great deed, when the long-awaited moment of calm comes. The severity of the victory is mixed with a bright feeling of expectation of a new joyful life, “when the breath of spring became not just spring, but the breath of peaceful life that overcame the war, when it seemed unconsciously that immediately after the war everything on earth would be as good as it had never been before.”

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The victorious 1945 will also be the year of the first creative victory of Boris Nemensky. The painting "Mother" (9), painted by a twenty-two-year-old youth, will not only immediately attract attention, it will become the beginning of the formation of the artist's creative method, will take a special place in the history of Russian painting.

Mother . (1945 )

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This picture immediately left no one indifferent, neither critics nor spectators, splashing out homesickness, quiet tenderness for mother and sons separated by the war. A common motif for that time: soldiers sleeping on the floor in a peasant's hut. But it sounded in a new way under the brush of a young artist. The desire to paint a picture about ordinary Russian women, who motherly met soldiers in every village, in every city, the desire to write about her mother, who also surrounded the care of Greek artists in her Moscow apartment before or after trips to the front, resulted in an expression of gratitude to the woman -mothers, "great gratitude to ordinary Russian women who warmed us with maternal affection, women whose grief and whose services to the Motherland can neither be measured nor rewarded." It is no coincidence that in the image of a young soldier, carefully covered with a warm scarf, the features of the author are guessed. Exhibited at the All-Union Exhibition, the painting immediately became famous and was acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery.

The works of B.M. Nemensky are paintings-meditations filled with polyphonic content. The process of their creation is always long, but this does not mean that the canvas itself is painted for a long time, its artist just strives to "write quickly, in one breath." It is the process that is complex and sometimes painful - from the birth of an idea to its maturation: numerous sketches, sketches, sketches, doubts.

Nemensky gradually develops his own style of work on the work. A special creative method of the artist begins to take shape. In search of a composition, he does not correct old canvases, but writes new ones, which “speeds up the process of work, gives it a lightness of immediacy.” If at first the artist destroyed the old canvases, then over time he came to the conclusion that they are useful for comparison in the process of work.

Surikov Institute

After the end of the war, already being a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR, Boris Mikhailovich continued his education, becoming a student at the Moscow Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov. Unexpectedly, with the beginning of studies, difficulties began. At the very first viewing, student Boris Nemensky was told that his path was wrong, that it was necessary to “forget everything and learn again.” The contradictions between the proposed rules of work and the inner feelings of the artist were sharply outlined.

In the third year, the sketches of the new composition proposed by Nemensky once again did not receive approval. But the internal position that has already been formed - to trust more in oneself, one's feelings and experience in work - gives the young artist the strength to start working no matter what. And just six months later, student B. Nemensky will be awarded the State Prize for the painting “About the Far and Close”.

About Far and Near (1950)

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The material for the picture was the impressions and experiences of the very first business trip of a Greek student at the end of 1942 to the active unit, which occupied a bridgehead that deeply cut into enemy positions. Field mail was rarely and irregularly delivered to this sector of the front. Under such conditions, the letters, which the soldiers read aloud and many times, acquired a special value. Work on this canvas revealed the talent of an artist who not only loves, but also knows how to unravel the human face. Well-known art historian N.A. Dmitrieva notes the special quality of this work - "the skill of delicate, careful writing, the ability to sculpt and work out faces on a small scale, conveying ... the shadows of a hidden feeling."

The sketch proposed by the artist for his thesis was also rejected for the "elementary" composition. This lyrical work about a sister of mercy, full of poetry, will be written after graduation.

Masha (1956)

The image of the sister of the field hospital, almost a girl, has become a favorite among many viewers. The picture captivates with kindness, sincerity and a slight note of sadness, it “lives the image of a fairy tale, told in its own way, like a soldier, truthfully, artlessly, sincerely” (L.A. Nemenskaya). In the double illumination of the cold morning window and the table lamp, the figure of the girl seems very touching. Her gaze is directed somewhere inward, focused on some subtle, elusive memories or dreams. The author was able to convey an amazing state "between dream and reality, between reality and dream." The creative search was long, many faces were written. And as a result, an image appeared so penetrating that many soldiers who went through the war assured that it was the nurse who saved them that was depicted in the picture.

Past present Future

All the first paintings by Boris Mikhailovich Nemensky on a military theme had a specific addressee - people who went through the crucible of the Great Patriotic War. The feelings and memories of the artist merged with the life impressions of the audience, coming out on the eternal theme of the soldier’s love for his homeland, these were works “not about how he fought, but about why he fought, where he took his spiritual strength.”

But time passed, the Great Patriotic War gradually began to go down in history, a new spectator grew up who no longer remembered it. However, in the 50s. the theme of the war became associated not only with the past, but also with the future, intertwining with the political problems of the time. For the artist, the rethinking of the role of the military theme in art began with a discussion around, it would seem, one of the most lyrical paintings about the war - “The Breath of Spring”.

Breath of spring.

Like all the works of the master, the plot of the picture is autobiographical. From a diary dated May 15, 1944 from the Ukrainian Front:

"Gardens are blooming! And in the forest where we stopped, an incredible hubbub of birds - especially at dawn ... And flowers - some kind of pale blue flowers on a gray, still covered with last year's foliage, ground. We guys loved to get up before everyone else and listen and watch this music. Still, it’s strange: is it really necessary to become a soldier in order to see and understand all this native beauty? »

Who then could have known that this topic would not only captivate the artist, but, having become spiritual anguish and joy, would be the theme of the picture after the war.

The fragile world of awakening spring nature opens up to a young fighter, sensitively listening to the silence of the morning, at the moment of respite between fights: birch trees flowing in the fog, willow drops, golden alder fluffs ... The joy of such a discovery is mixed with anxiety. According to the memoirs of B. Nemensky, it was at such moments at the front that a new sense of homeland came to the boy soldiers and personal responsibility for its fate grew stronger.

But it was precisely this depth and humanity of the picture that caused serious attacks by critics, the artist was accused of lack of patriotism and weakness of the ideological concept, of “excessive enthusiasm” for the inner experiences of his characters. The audience stood up to defend the artist, touched to the core by a picture coming from the heart. They filled out guest books, participated in discussions during exhibitions, and wrote letters to newspapers. “He reveals the soul of a soldier,” some said. “Many paintings depict what is on the surface, but you need to depict what is inside ... Nemensky created a deep image of a Soviet person, an image taken from life ...” - others picked up. (eleven)

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The earth is scorched. (1957)

This picture is the beginning of a new stage in the artist's work (12). It not only brings the viewer back to the events of the past war, but makes you think about whether this will happen again. The artist begins to think in large-scale, generalized images, leading his viewers to universal timeless problems.

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Pitted by explosions, carved by caterpillars, the incinerated earth is a full-fledged hero of this picture. The screaming color emphasizes all the drama of events, it is not so much the color of the earth as the color of the tragic experience. “This canvas, most likely, is about a land created for arable land, joy and work, about a war that turns it into a hellish likeness of an alien, dead, uninhabitable planet, into a desert zone,” the author writes. People are not even immediately noticeable in the break of the trench. The artist seeks to convey to the audience the feeling of fatigue of these soldiers and to show their resilience no matter what. In this soldier's heart lives an uncontrollable craving for the world, for work, for the native land, everything lives that gives strength to endure and endure. The image of a peasant warrior holding a few surviving grains at the bottom of the trench in the palm of his hand, according to N.A. Dmitrieva, "one of the highest achievements of Nemensky and perhaps one of the most powerful human images in Soviet painting."

"Soldier Fathers"

One of the main themes to which B.M. Nemensky, - the theme of fatherhood: "Insecurity, gullibility, openness of childhood - and the strength, right and most difficult duty of the father to decide and answer." The memory of feelings returns to the first days of the war, when in the frozen city practically wiped off the face of the earth by the retreating fascists, the fighters found a miraculously surviving girl. She was all wrinkled, like an old woman, and could not even cry. “I remember how much care and pain there was in all the actions of the soldiers in relation to the girl. How much awkward tenderness ... and barely restrained hatred: the perpetrators of the disaster were just around the corner, ”the artist writes in his memoirs.

In the picture, the real story takes on a symbolic sound: the soldier is the savior of life, the feelings of the soldier, like the feelings of the father, are the desire to protect. Against the backdrop of destroyed stoves and shell craters, a tiny girl, surrounded by soldiers, is like a spark of a saved life in a dense protective ring. The light comes from a small figure, illuminating the faces of the soldiers, it is he who "warms their hearts, gives strength to continue their mission." (13)

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Symbol of Sorrow

Themes related to the war in the work of B.M. Nemensky's works become an appeal not only to the past, but also to the present and future, intertwined with the disturbing problems of the world. The artist raises the problems of attitude to war, to life, to man: “I saw arable land turned into a desert, burning cities and villages on Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, German soil. Not even with consciousness - I hate war with every cell of my body. I hate what it brings and what leads to it: the stupid hatred of man for man, people for people, fed by fascism, still being fed!”

unnamed height. (It's us, Lord!) 1960–1995.

This work is the favorite brainchild of the artist. In the first version, which appeared at the exhibition, the painting was called "The Nameless Height" (Fig. 22), and in the last one, "This is us, Lord" (Fig. 23). The author has repeatedly returned to this topic. “The whole process of work turned out to be, as it were, an internal dispute, squeezing out of oneself the hatred and distrust accumulated over the years of the war, the process of dismembering, as it were, a single idea: the German is a fascist.” In total, there are five finished versions of this work, in each of which the artist reveals the theme in a new way.

The plot of the picture originates from the front-line episode of the first trip to the combat area in Velikiye Luki. “I walked on foot, with the full gear of a soldier-artist. Walked for a long time, tired. And he sat down on a stone sticking out from under the snow, or a stump, to chew on a cracker and give his legs a rest. I suddenly noticed that the snow was swaying the grass right under me. But the grass in winter is not soft, it cannot sway from a light wind. I looked up and stood up. It turned out that I was sitting on a dead German soldier - almost completely covered. Reddish hair swayed ... And I was amazed - a boy, a young man of my age and even something like me ... "

The plot of the picture is two young soldiers who died in battle, a Russian and a German. “The war cut short their lives, spreading their bodies on the spring earth. One - in a light, washed-out tunic, facing the sky, spread out in an inverted crucifix. The other, tucking his arm under him, buried his nose. They are authentic like soldiers, but you can see how at the same time they look like sleeping children” (L.A. Nemenskaya).

Appearing at the All-Union Exhibition, the picture caused a lot of controversy, discussions took place in the Union of Artists, in the Union of Writers, on the pages of the magazine "Artist", the picture was shown at exhibitions in seven cities of the country, where the audience left their feedback. One of the main accusations of official criticism is "pacifism" and "abstract humanism". But the viewer did not agree with the critics. The famous writer Konstantin Simonov also supported the artist in difficult times. In the preface to one of the master's albums, he wrote: “What did the artist want to tell us about with this painting of his? About the feat of a young man who defended and defended his Soviet land in this inhuman war? Yes, about it. But not only about this. And, in my opinion, also that, without questioning the beauty of human feat in war, we must not forget that war itself is far from the best way to resolve disputes between people ... So - I look at the picture ... and think about that it was the personal experience of the war that demanded from Nemensky the creation of this picture, far from pacifism, but imperiously reminding us that there should not be a new war, it has no right to be. I share this feeling, I love this picture, which corresponds not only to my memories, but also to my thoughts about the future.

In 1986, the painting was exhibited at the artist's personal exhibition in Moscow. L.A. Nemenskaya recalls that the attention of the author was attracted by one spectator who did not leave the empty shaded hall for a long time. This, as it turned out, was a man who fought as part of a contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. The picture also reflected his personal tragic experience. And ten years later, when a new version of the painting was exhibited in the Museum of the Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill, a similar meeting will take place with veterans of the Chechen war.

The painting "Nameless Height" for a long time "registered" in the artist's studio, there was no place for it in any permanent museum exhibition. In 1985, she almost died due to hot water gushing out of a burst pipe. And then Nemensky agreed to transfer the canvas to Germany, to the Museum of Modern Art in the city of Aachen. The famous German collector P. Ludwig, sincerely passionate about Russian art, convinced the artist that many more viewers would see her there. However, a month later, Boris Mikhailovich decides to recreate the canvas, calling it "This is us, Lord." In this last version, the author minimized the signs of a specific war, which made the stated problem sound with renewed vigor, outside of time and space. (14)

(14)

The theme of women's destinies, crippled by the war, sounded especially tragic a few decades after the end of the war. “I was especially worried about the theme of female loneliness generated by the war - the theme of brides and wives of dead soldiers. They blessed their husbands for the feat, helped in difficult times and are still doing the feat, they will do it until their death. (15-16)

(15)

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Losses (1963–1969)

The painting is part of a quadriptych dedicated to the tragic destinies of women. This is a symbol of sorrow and loneliness, mourning for the happiness that has gone forever, either on a small grave mound, or on a “nameless height”. According to the author's memoirs, "not only Russians, but also German and Japanese women cried at the pictures (one - red - version remained in Tokyo after the exhibition)".

Appeal to the feelings of the audience, the impulse to reflect on life are typical not only for easel works, but also for Boris Nemensky's still lifes. These works are always philosophical, very concise, there are no random objects on them, everything here carries a certain semantic load.

The memory of the Smolensk land. (1993)

For many years, Boris Mikhailovich did not turn to the genre of still life, although the world of objects lived in many of his paintings. But former students somehow brought the artist from near Smolensk a pierced soldier's helmet and a handful of spent cartridges. These objects, echoes of past events that had lain in the ground for decades, gave birth to a chain of associations. The artist remembered a cracked stove iron, which he saw in the surviving stove of a Russian village burned to the ground, and two similar rounded metal objects appeared in the picture: one as an echo of peaceful life, the other from the flames of war. They froze, as if on a pedestal, on a tabletop board - a still life-monument of the past tragedy. The artist did not add anything to the composition, the sleeves were needed only for the design of the frame (17).

(17)

All life impressions find a lively immediate response in the artist's work. (Ill. 28-32) “Periodically, in the soul, tired of thoughts and traumas, there is an urgent need to touch the light, to joy. Then, first of all, you try to immerse yourself with a brush, a feeling, not in the disharmony of the complex problems of our time, but in the harmony of love, family, and childhood. Boris Mikhailovich creates bright, fragile, poetic works. This is how genre scenes and portraits, landscapes of northern and central Russia, close to the heart, are born. “Poetry pervades all the pores of our lives. It is possible not to notice, not to understand, but without the poetic "virus" there would be almost no business that we would do with pleasure, whether it be growing potatoes, flowers or a child. In fact, this is the basis of precisely human feelings - humanized by centuries, the basis of normal - I emphasize, not special, but normal, our relations. To the family, to nature, work or society.

Artist-teacher

The activities of B. Nemensky artist for fifty years are inextricably linked with the activities of B. Nemensky teacher. In 1957, he began his teaching career at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. IN AND. Lenin, and since 1966 he has been teaching at the art department of VGIK. Over the years B.M. Nemensky brought up a whole galaxy of interesting original artists. Among them are A. Akilov, M. Abakumov, V. Balabanov, A. Bedina, V. Braginsky, G. Guseinov, V. Chumakov, A. Petrov and others. Boris Mikhailovich is the creative director of the art department of the University of the Russian Academy of Education, director of the Center continuous art education in Moscow.

More than thirty years ago, B. Nemensky's program "Fine Arts and Artistic Work" appeared in a comprehensive school. The artist is convinced that ordinary literacy in any field, even artistic, is only evidence of mastering a certain level of craft, which, as practice shows, does not at all guarantee the spiritual development and spiritual wealth of a person. The new program for the first time considered art as a true way of educating the individual. B.M. Nemensky for the first time proclaimed the importance of artistic education in the system of general school education of the child's feelings - before that, the emotional-sensual sphere remained the lot of extracurricular activities of schoolchildren. Communication with art outside of emotions is impossible (this applies to both the artist and the viewer), so art forms a person's personal attitude to the world. “Human emotions are the soil on which beliefs and habits are most firmly fixed, and especially strong - for life - are acquired in childhood, adolescence, youth, because it is at this time that a person’s worldview is most emotional.” Since emotional memory is much stronger than rational memory, it is through art that a child can most successfully master social experience, the content of which actively influences the formation of a person’s worldview.

“We can and must measure our path ... by the future. We must compare our deeds not with what was, but with what should be. After all, the future needs not only the majority, but the whole people, to a single person, to be introduced to culture, to the spiritual wealth and wisdom accumulated over the centuries in art, ”this is how the artist, teacher, philosopher Boris Mikhailovich Nemensky sees the goal of art.

The proposed material was successfully used in work with students of the 5th grade at the lessons of fine arts, dedicated to the disclosure of the theme of the Great Patriotic War in easel painting. Acquaintance of children with the work of B.M. Nemensky as a front-line artist and as the author of the program, according to which they have been studying for five years, has a strong emotional impact.

Literature

Dmitrieva N.A. Boris Mikhailovich Nemensky. - M., 1971.
Nemenskaya L.A. Boris Nemensky. - M.: White City, 2005.
Nemensky B.M. Confidence. - M.: Young Guard, 1984.
Nemensky B.M. The wisdom of beauty. - M.: Enlightenment, 1987.
Nemensky B.M. Knowledge of art. - M.:. Publishing house of URAO, 2000.
Nemensky B.M. Open the window. - M.: Young Guard, 1974.

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