Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich: biography, creativity and photos

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich is known in the creative circles of artists as a painter, graphic artist, set designer. Ups and downs, brilliant success and complete non-recognition were in his long life. Currently, you can get acquainted with his works in many art museums and exhibition halls in Moscow, Saratov (the artist's homeland) and other cities of Russia and abroad. What did the artist want to express with his works, why successes alternated with recessions in his work? This will be discussed in the article.

Short biography

Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich was born in the family of the icon painter Kuznetsov Varfolomey Fedorovich in 1878 in the city of Saratov. My father owned a painting workshop and painted temples, painted royal portraits and church images commissioned by government agencies. Evdokia Illarionovna, his mother, embroidered beautifully, loved painting and music. Pavel was surrounded by caregrandmother Marina and grandfather Illarion, living in their house since birth. In the photo below you can see Pavel in the arms of his grandfather.

At the age of seven, the future artist and his mother went to the Radishevsky Museum, which opened in Saratov, for the first time. As a child, Pavel could watch his father work for hours. Already in childhood, he joined the fine craft.

Growing up, Pavel entered the painting studio in Saratov, where from 1891 to 1896 he studied under the guidance of artists G. P. Barakki and V. V. Konovalova.

Study in Moscow

At the age of nineteen, Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov went to Moscow and entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MUZhViZ). His first teachers were A. E. Arkhipov, N. A. Kasatkin, L. O. Parsnip. Fate in the school, Kuznetsov stood out among classmates not only with talent, but also with an inexhaustible passion for work. During the years of study, he practiced in the workshops of V. A. Serov and K. A. Korovin. The student was fascinated by the painting abilities of his teachers. During the summer holidays, Kuznetsov came to his homeland in Saratov. He loved to spend time in the gardens he had loved since childhood, among the airy colors of the surrounding nature, the Volga expanses.

Paintings with trees in bloom - this is one of the main subjects of his work throughout his life. At the end of the summer vacation, in a letter to his teacher V. A.silver paints can be delirious.

… A shady, cobbled street. Large overgrown ravine. Sokolovaya Mountain, the highest in the vicinity of Saratov. Artists come here with easels to capture the course of the great river. Slopes - "Berendeevo kingdom" - small houses of artisans clinging to each other, orchards, the Volga and the steppe alluring left bank, the Cathedral, and the bell factory … And in the morning the bells ring …

Creative Commonwe alth

During the years of study at MUZhViZ, Kuznetsov and a group of students created the Blue Rose creative community.

Two small silver medals Pavel Kuznetsov received in 1900-1902 for drawings and painting sketches. The main direction of the artist Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov in the early period of creativity is the movement from impressionism (the art of observing reality) to symbolism (the desire for innovation, the use of symbolism). He strives to express the state of the soul in painting, which brings him closer to music and poetry. Pavel collaborates with magazines and takes part in the design of scenes in theaters. This period of creativity is associated with symbolism.

In 1902, Pavel Kuznetsov's father gave way to his son and his two comrades from the Moscow school on the painting of the Kazan Church, not assuming what their high art, far from church canons, would turn out for young artists. In the biography of Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov there is a fact of a loud scandal and litigation with the diocesan authorities over the heretical painting of the temple. As a result, paintingwere destroyed.

Creativity after graduation

After graduating from MUZhViZ in 1904, Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich decided on a symbolist orientation in his work. The visible world dissolves in the artist's paintings, his works glow with images-shadows, reflecting the elusive vibrations of the soul. In his writings, a special place is occupied by the water cycle, which takes place in a fountain beloved since childhood. He transfers his childhood memories to canvases, showing the theme of the perpetual motion of life. The paintings will captivate with their colors, mood of sadness and something unspoken.

Original methods of working with tempera allow the artist to make diluted shades of colors, enveloping the images of the picture in a colored fog. A visual demonstration of these techniques is in such paintings as "Morning" and "Blue Fountain" (pictured above), written in 1905. These are dreams poured into colors. Figures without clear outlines are so blurred in the space of the paintings that it seems that at some moment they are able to soar …

Fame

Fame came to the Russian artist Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov early. He was not 30 years old when his works were presented in 1906 in Paris at the famous exposition of Russian art arranged by S. P. Diaghilev. It was after this exhibition that Kuznetsov was honored to be elected a member of the Autumn Salon. Few artists have been given this opportunity.

In the spring of 1907, an exhibition of symbolists "Blue Rose" was held in Moscow, herKuznetsov is the direct initiator. It showed his works of the same name. Among the 16 exhibitors, Kuznetsov was a trendsetter of tastes.

The artist collaborates in the field of magazine graphics with well-known magazines "Art" and "Golden Fleece". Together with the artists Utkin, Matveev and Lansere, Kuznetsov designs the famous villa of Ya. E. Zhukovsky in the Crimea. In the photo Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov (left) and A. T. Matveev (1909).

Creative Crisis

The years that have passed since the exhibition are not the best time in the artist's work. His works of symbolist orientation are perceived by compatriots as painful, strange. The artist is going through a deep creative crisis, realizing that he has exhausted himself and cannot justify the hopes that were placed on him. Kuznetsov decides to travel to get new experiences and get out of the crisis. He visits Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, the Kyrgyz steppes. The years of Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov's life in the East played a decisive role in his further work.

A new flowering of talent

The heyday of his talent marks the cycle of paintings "Kyrgyz Suite". These are "Sleeping in the Sheep", "Sheep Shearing", "Evening in the Steppe" and others. The coloring of colors, the strength of contrasts, the pattern of compositions of paintings acquires expressive simplicity.

Pictures of the steppe cycle are endowed withlyrical, penetrating, poetic sound. The paintings "Teahouse", "In the temple of Buddhists" evoke theatrical associations in the viewer. Kuznetsov paints still lifes, among which "Still life with Japanese engraving" stands out.

Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich takes part in the creation of sketches for the decorative panels "Asian Bazaar" and "Picking Fruits", which adorn the Kazansky railway station in Moscow. Kuznetsov-decorator works in the style of monumental art.

The activity of the artist after 1917

After the revolution, Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov worked in the art section of the Moscow City Council, participated in the design of holidays. In 1918 he was elected to the Collegium of the People's Commissariat for Education, he began teaching in art workshops. He worked in the monumental workshop from 1920 to 1927 and received the title of professor, and from 1927 to 1929 he lectured as a professor of the fresco-monumental department of the painting faculty of the VKhUTEIN.

Kuznetsov participates in exhibitions with his works. In 1923, in France, he took part in the Barbasange Gallery. In 1924, Kuznetsov wrote The Parisian Comedians. In the picture, the decorative laconism of style unexpectedly revealed itself in an expressive, picturesque, colorful manifestation.

In 1929 the artist was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. His personal exhibitions were held in the main museums of Moscow: the Tretyakov Gallery andState Museum of Fine Arts. At an exhibition in Paris (1937), Kuznetsov's panel "The Life of a Collective Farm" was awarded a silver medal.

The next and last take-off of the artist's work falls on the period from the late 20s to the early 30s of the twentieth century. He paints the following paintings: "Portrait of the sculptor A. T. Matveev", "Mother", "Cotton sorting", "Pushball".

Last years of life

The master lived a long fruitful life, reaching old age. Many of his peers, with whom he studied and worked, passed away, and he continued to write until his death. His last works were still lifes and landscapes. According to experts, these paintings by the artist were inferior in subject matter and style to his early works, but they were striking in their creative longevity.

Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov died in 1968 on February 22 in Moscow. His works are in the permanent exhibition of art museums in Moscow and the Tretyakov Gallery. In Saratov, in the homeland of Kuznetsov, the house-museum also has a permanent exhibition of his works. The artist left his mark on art as the leader of Russian pictorial symbolism.