Artist Boris Kustodiev: the main milestones of his creative biography

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

Lovers of Russian painting are well aware of the name of such a wonderful Russian artist as Boris Kustodiev. Consider in this article the creative biography of this person.

Boris Kustodiev: short biography, stages of creative maturity

The future artist was born in Astrakhan, in Tsarist Russia, in 1878. He came from an intelligent teacher's family. His parents loved Russian art and passed this love on to their children. The artist's father taught philosophy, logic and literature at the theological seminary. When Boris was 2 years old, his father died suddenly.

Nevertheless, the family was able to provide the boy with a decent education: he studied at a parochial school, then at a gymnasium. Boris Kustodiev received his first painting lessons at the local Astrakhan gymnasium.

In 1896, the young man entered the prestigious department of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. From the second year, the famous artist I. E. Repin became his teacher.

In the last year of the Academy, Boris Kustodiev, while working on his graduation picture in the Kostroma province, met his future wife Yu. E. Poroshinsky. He graduated from the academy brilliantly: with a gold medal and excellentperspectives.

First successes

After the wedding and the end of the course, the artist Boris Kustodiev goes on a tour abroad to get to know all the colors of European life. He visited Paris, Germany and Italy. He met famous European artists of that time, sat down to visit many art exhibitions and galleries.

Returning to Russia, Kustodiev continued to work on genre paintings. He created a series of works "Village Holidays" and "Fairs". The talent of the young man attracted the attention of his contemporaries. At the suggestion of Repin, Kustodiev was elected a professor at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, became a member of the Union of Russian Artists, and began to collaborate with many literary and art magazines.

Portraits of Kustodiev: a feature of the genre

Boris Kustodiev entered the history of Russian art primarily as a very talented portrait painter. It was he who created a whole cycle of portraits of his contemporaries, and his canvases are still considered masterworks.

Critics noted that in his art both the power of Repin's colors and plots and the subtle psychologism of Serov's paintings found their expression. However, the artist was able to create his own style: in his portraits, a person is characterized not only by his face and appearance, but also by the whole environment around him.

Let's consider from this point of view the famous "Merchant for Tea", written in the alarming year 1918.

Everything in this picture is permeatedfeeling of contentment and peace. The full face of the merchant, her bright clothes, household items surrounding her, even a cat that clings to her mistress - a certain thought is felt in everything: this is both gentle humor and an attempt to understand the essence of the soul of a Russian person.

In the artist's works there is a lot of things from Russian folk popular art, and from old parsuns, and from ancient Russian fairy-tale images of people and animals.

Most famous works

In addition to the aforementioned "Merchant's Woman for Tea", the following portraits of Kustodiev received the greatest popularity: the portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin, written in 1921, the portrait of Maximilian Voloshin (1924), the painting "Bolshevik" (1920), the work "Russian Venus" (1925), painting "Fair in Saratov".

All these paintings are permeated with a sense of the beauty of the national spirit, a sense of deep patriotism, their characteristic features are a riot of colors and monumentality of images.

The great Russian singer Fyodor Chaliapin and writer Maximilian Voloshin appear as Russian heroes in Kustodiev's paintings. Chaliapin stands in a fur coat wide open, he is dressed like a dandy, but at the same time there is something folk, powerful and inspired in his image. Just as huge and majestic is Voloshin, whose head rests on the clouds.

In the picture "Bolshevik" the main character, depicted against the background of a bright red banner, is ready to swing at the temple. The growth of a Bolshevik is equal to the height of an architectural structure. Thus, the artist dismantles the man of the new era, who perceives himself as the winner of the old system and the creator ofnew life.

Many canvases were painted by Boris Kustodiev during his creative life, his paintings amaze the audience with their scope and majesty.

Illustrations for literary works and theatrical works

Kustodiev also became famous as an excellent illustrator. During his life, he created many works for magazines that conveyed the image of the main characters of the works of Russian classical literature that he understood. He wonderfully illustrated the works of Leskov, drew engravings and even caricatures.

Different types of Russian art were appreciated by Boris Kustodiev, his paintings were actively used in the theatrical environment. The talent of the artist was especially vividly embodied when creating scenery for the performances of the Moscow Art Theater. These are works based on the works of Ostrovsky, S altykov-Shchedrin and even Zamyatin (by the way, one of the most famous portraits of Zamyatin belongs to Kustodiev's brush). His works were liked by his contemporaries for their simplicity, the power of the embodiment of the image and the excellent selection of colors.

Last years of life

Boris Kustodiev managed to do a lot in his creative life, his biography is a direct confirmation of this.

The artist was confined to a wheelchair for the last 15 years of his life. The fact is that he was tormented by a dangerous and severe tumor of the spine, which did not respond to surgical treatment. Kustodiev was forced to write first while sitting, and then lying down.

However, he continued to engage not only in art, but also in publicactivities, and even in 1923 joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.

Died Boris Mikhailovich in 1927, buried in Leningrad - at the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.