Evgeny Charushin: biography, works, paintings, photos

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

Creativity of Evgeny Charushin, humane, kind, pleases several generations of young readers, teaches children to love the magical world of birds and animals.

Charushin Evgeny Ivanovich, whose biography is presented in this article, is a graphic artist and writer. The years of his life - 1901-1965. On October 29, 1901 Evgeny Charushin was born in Vyatka. His photo is presented below.

Yevgeny Ivanovich's father - Charushin Ivan Apollonovich - provincial architect, one of the best architects of the Urals. More than 300 buildings in Izhevsk, Sarapul, Vyatka were built according to his designs. Like any architect, he was a good draftsman. The family of Ivan Apollonovich lived very amicably. Artists and musicians often gathered in the house. Parents from childhood instilled in their son a love of nature.

Charushin's favorite book

Yevgeny's favorite reading was books about our little brothers. "The Life of Animals" by A. E. Brem was for him the most dear and beloved. He cherished it and read it all his life. The fact that the novice artist depicted more and more birds and animals has a significant share of Brem's influence. Charushin began to draw early. The novice artist went to the stuffed workshop, which was locatednearby, or watching animals at home.

Sopohud

At the age of 14, he and his comrades organized the union of artists and poets "Sopohud". From a young age, Eugene wanted to capture what he saw in order to preserve the rapidly changing world. And drawing came to the rescue. Yevgeny Ivanovich said that the artist was born in it earlier than the writer. Somewhat later came the right words.

Working in the Political Department of the headquarters, studying at the Academy of Arts

In 1918, Evgeny Charushin graduated from high school in Vyatka. He studied there together with Yuri Vasnetsov. Then Yevgeny Ivanovich was drafted into the army. Here they decided to use him "according to his speci alty" - they appointed him as an assistant decorator in the Political Department of the headquarters. After serving 4 years, almost the entire civil war, Yevgeny Ivanovich returned home only in 1922.

He decided to study to be an artist. In winter, he studied at the workshops of the Vyatka Gubernia Military Commissariat, and in the same year, in the fall, he entered the VKHUTEIN (Petrograd Academy of Arts), the painting department. Evgeny Charushin studied here for five years, from 1922 to 1927. His teachers were A. Karaev, M. Matyushin, A. Savinov, A. Rylov. However, as Yevgeny Ivanovich later recalled, these were the most fruitless years for him. Charushin was not interested in the search for a new word in painting, as well as academic drawing. It was much more pleasant to go to the bird market or the zoo. The young artist at that time liked to dress in fashion. According to the memoirs of Valentin Kurdov, his close friend, he walked in colorful stockings and stockings, wore a fawn hat anda short motley coat of dog fur.

Travel, work in the Leningrad Gosizdat

Using the advice of V. Bianchi, in 1924 Evgeny Charushin went to Altai on an exciting journey with Valentin Kurdov and Nikolai Kostrov.

In 1926, Charushin went to work at the Leningrad State Publishing House, in the children's department, headed by Vladimir Lebedev, a famous artist. In those years, the artists were tasked with creating fundamentally new books for the little inhabitants of the Soviet Union, highly artistic, but at the same time informative and informative. Lebedev liked the drawn animals of Charushin, and he began to support him in every possible way in his creative searches.

Cooperation in magazines, first illustrations for books

Evgeny Ivanovich by that time (since 1924) had already worked in "Murzilka", a children's magazine. A little later, he began working at "Hedgehog" (from 1928 to 1935) and "Chizh" (from 1930 to 1941). In 1928, Evgeny Charushin received his first order from the Leningrad State Publishing House - to issue the story "Murzuk" by V. V. Bianchi. The very first book with his drawings attracted the attention of both young readers and connoisseurs of book graphics. An illustration from it was acquired by the State Tretyakov Gallery itself.

In 1929 Charushin illustrated several more books: "Free Birds", "Wild Beasts", "Like a Big Bearbecame a bear". In these works, Evgeny Charushin's outstanding skill in conveying the habits of animals was fully manifested. An orphaned little bear cub sitting on a branch; a ruffled crow that was about to peck a bone; wild boars wandering with babies … All this and much more is drawn expressively, bright, but at the same time capacious and concise. The artist, creating the image of an animal, was able to highlight the most important, characteristic features.

Evgeny Charushin's first stories

Many illustrations were made by Charushin Evgeniy Ivanovich. The works of Bianchi, as well as S. Ya. Marshak, M. M. Prishvin and other famous writers with his drawings, attracted many readers. At the same time, at the insistence of Marshak, he tried to compose short children's stories about the life of animals. His first story appeared in 1930 ("Schur"). Already in this work, not only an excellent knowledge of the characters of various animals was manifested, but also a sense of humor. In all the other stories of Yevgeny Ivanovich, one can also feel a mischievous, then soft, then a little ironic, then a kindly condescending smile. Charushin Evgeny Ivanovich is an illustrator and writer who sought to understand animals, their facial expressions and movements. The accumulated experience helped him convey this in words and illustrations. There is no fiction in what Evgeny Ivanovich created - animals always do what is characteristic of them.

Charushin's new books and illustrations for them

Charushin Evgeny Ivanovich, whose paintings were very famous at that time, began to illustrate his own compositions: "Differentanimals" (1930), "Volchishko and others", "Nikitka and his friends", "About Tomka", "About big and small", "My first zoology", "Vaska", "Cubs", "About magpie" etc. However, this turned out to be the most difficult, since, by his own admission, Evgeny Ivanovich, it was much easier for him to illustrate other people's texts than his own. In the 1930s, Charushin was recognized as one of the best artists specializing in children's books. "M. Gorky spoke very warmly about Charushin's stories. Working in the technique of color or monochrome watercolor drawing, Evgeny Ivanovich recreated the whole landscape environment with one light dynamic spot. His stories about animals are elegant and lexically simple.

More about Charushin's work

Charushin treated his readers with great respect. He was glad that the animals he painted were liked not by editors and critics, but by kids. Considering Charushin's books, we can safely say that both the illustrations and the texts themselves reflect the whole, unified inner world of their creator. Drawings and stories are informative, concise, strict and understandable to anyone, even a small child. In the collection "Chicks" (1930), consisting of short stories about owls, corostels, and grouse, Evgeny Charushin masterfully highlights the most catchy and memorable features of the characters.

Charushin knew the habits of animals very well. In the illustrations, he depicted them with extraordinary specificity and accuracy. Each of his drawings is individual, in each of them the character is depicted with his own special character, which corresponds to a particular situation. Charushin responsibly solved this problem. He said that if there is no image, there is nothing to depict. Charushinsky animals are emotional, touching. Background and environment are barely hinted at in his early books. The main thing is to show the animal in close-up, while not only creating an artistic image, but also depicting the hero as truthfully as possible. Yevgeny Ivanovich did not like animals that were poorly drawn from the point of view of biology. He also believed that drawings in a children's book should be breathing, alive. Evgeny Charushin did not like Ivan Bilibin, believing that he was not engaged in drawing, but in painting dead, cold contours.

From a variety of textures, the picturesque images of Charushin's animals are formed, which skillfully convey the fur of the beast, the feathers of the bird. It was most convenient to create picturesque in texture, complex drawings precisely in the technique of lithography. Most often, the artist used natural pastel colors. He did not recognize lithographic rules and laws, temperamentally drawing a pencil, scratching a lithographic stone with a razor and a needle. Many times, Evgeny Ivanovich could glue the missing parts in the drawing or cover them with whitewash.

Evgeny Charushin created about 20 books before the war. His biography was marked by the appearance of the following works: 1930 -"Chicks"; in 1931 - "Volchishko and others", "Chicken city", "Round", "Jungle - bird's paradise"; in 1935 - "Animals of hot countries". At the same time, he continued to illustrate such authors as S. Ya. Marshak, V. V. Bianchi, M. M. Prishvin, A. I. Vvedensky.

War years

Charushin during the war was evacuated from Leningrad to Kirov (Vyatka), to his homeland. Here he created paintings on partisan themes, painted posters, designed performances, painted the walls of the kindergarten and the foyer of the House of Schoolchildren and Pioneers, and taught children to draw.

Charushin Evgeny Ivanovich: a brief biography of the post-war years

The artist returned to Leningrad in 1945. In addition to working on books, he began to create a series of prints, which depict animals. Charushin became interested in sculpture even before the war. He painted tea sets, and then, already in peacetime, he created animal figurines from porcelain and even entire decorative groups. He tried a different approach to the design of children's books. Perspective began to appear in Charushin's drawings, space began to be indicated. The technique also changed: he began to work in watercolor and gouache, but not in broad strokes, but working very carefully on small details. In 1945, Charushin became the Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

The last book he illustrated was "Children in a Cage" by Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak. Charushin's works have now been translated into many languages of the peoples of the former USSR, as well as a number of foreign countries. His prints, illustrations, books, porcelain sculpture were exhibited at exhibitions in Paris, London, Sofia. The total circulation of Evgeny Charushin's books exceeds 60 million copies.

18 February 1965 Yevgeny Charushin died in Leningrad. He was buried at the Theological Cemetery.