Clown Pencil and his Inkblot

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

Hero of Socialist Labor, People's Artist of the Soviet Union, the famous and beloved all over the world clown Pencil is the creative pseudonym of the most talented circus artist Mikhail Nikolayevich Rumyantsev.

He was born in St. Petersburg in 1901. His father worked at the Simmens and Halske (Electrosila) plant. Mom was seriously ill for a long time. When Mikhail was six years old, his brother Konstantin was three years old, and his sister Lena was one year old, my mother died. Life has become hard and devoid of any color.

With difficulty graduating from a comprehensive school, Mikhail enters an art school. But the study did not please the young man. He secretly dreamed of travel, battles, Indians. In 1914, the war began, and life became even more difficult, besides, in 1917, a revolution broke out. Mikhail moved from one city to another in search of some work.

In 1922 he came to Staritsa, where he got a job in the city theater to write posters. But in those difficult times, attendance at the theater was very low, and by 1925 the fees had fallen so much that it became impossible to support the troupe. Later, he had a chance to work as a poster artist in the Tver cinema, but the young man understood perfectly well that everything hedoing is just a way to survive and feed yourself. The soul asked for something else…

The situation changed dramatically after he managed to see the stars in Moscow

world cinema. The decision came immediately - he will be an actor.

The future clown Pencil goes to study at the Stage Movement Courses, led by V. I. Tsvetaeva. This helped him later start his studies at the school of circus art, where he chose the class of eccentric acrobats. The students were taught clowning by the theater actor M. S. Mestechkin, who will later become the director of the circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.

A year passed, and Mikhail began to enter the arena with very small and not very interesting numbers. Being a modest man, he was too clamped in the circus arena. Colleagues advised him to take ready-made scenes of old clowns, but they did not know the young carpet-maker well - he would not have agreed to play someone else's role for all the benefits of the world. He was looking for his image.

The decision came, as always, suddenly. Once, in the program of the summer circus in Moscow, he went to the arena in the costume and make-up of Charlie Chaplin. Since 1930, Rumyantsev began to work independently in the Smolensk Circus. He always meticulously and strictly evaluated his performances. Clown Pencil very soon realized how important dynamics and tempo are in carpet work.

Increasingly, the image of Charlie began to interfere with him, and he began to pick up a new costume and make-up. It took him a long time to "collect" his new image. Clown Pencil dreamed of having a four-legged friend, and one day hebrought a thoroughbred Scottish terrier. Mikhail Nikolayevich liked the dog very much, and immediately it was named Klyaksa. The clown Pencil and his faithful Klyaksa were bright and memorable heroes on the arena.

Pencil is a "universal" clown, he mastered various genres of circus art, which allowed him to parody many numbers. M. N. Rumyantsev passed away on March 31, 1983.

Clown Pencil. His biography was, is and will always be an example for many young artists. An example of the greatest diligence, complete dedication to the beloved viewer and unshakable loy alty to the once chosen cause.