Life and work of Surikov. Creativity Surikov (briefly)

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

Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (1848-1916), Russian artist, unsurpassed master of historical paintings, was born in Krasnoyarsk, in the family of an employee. He received his first drawing experience at school, with a teacher N. V. Grebnev. The teacher noticed the boy's ability to paint and advised his parents to send him to St. Petersburg for special education, which was done in 1869. In the northern capital, the future artist was admitted to the Academy of Arts, graduating in 1875.

Career start

Two years later, Vasily Surikov moved to Moscow, where he settled. While still a student, the young painter managed to prove himself as a master of historical associative images, his first significant work was the painting "View of the monument to Peter the Great", in which he depicted an equestrian statue of the emperor against the backdrop of St. Isaac's Cathedral. The canvas was created in 1870.

First masterpieces

The work of Vasily Surikov was continued in 1877, when the artist created sketches of four Ecumenical Councils for painting the Moscow Church of ChristSavior. Then, impressed by the ancient architecture of the capital, Surikov proceeded to his first masterpiece of the Moscow period, the painting "Morning of the Streltsy Execution". The work was completed in 1881. The execution of the rebels with the personal participation of Peter I on Red Square was reflected by the artist with frightening authenticity. The life and work of Surikov always bore the seal of some special indisputability, not a single stroke gave reason to doubt something.

Antiquity as a style in creativity

The artist masterfully mastered all the techniques of drawing, which gave him the opportunity to address the theme of Russia's historical past. They were shown the conflict between the Russian New Age and the medieval period, and this conflict does not involve the dominance of either side and can continue for centuries. Surikov's work is thoroughly saturated with the "spirit of antiquity", as I. N. Kramskoy figuratively put it in his correspondence with V. V. Stasov in 1884.

Menshikov and Morozova

Painter-historian Vasily Surikov periodically confirmed his role, creating one masterpiece after another. In 1883 he painted the painting "Menshikov in Berezov", and in 1887 he created another masterpiece of painting called "Boyar Morozova". The first canvas told about the exile to Siberia of one of the most powerful courtiers, the favorite of Peter the Great, Duke Menshikov. The second picture depicted the transportation of the schismatic Theodosius Morozov, sentenced to seclusion, from the prison to the Chudov Monastery.

Surikov's creativity, his deep talent, embodied in a huge canvas measuring 5 x 3 meters, is a grandiose phenomenon in the world of painting. "Boyar Morozova" was purchased by the Tretyakov Gallery, where the painting is still located.

Holiday theme

The painting "The Capture of the Snowy Town", painted by him in 1891 and dedicated to Maslenitsa, is not inferior to Vasily Surikov's previous masterpieces.

The characters depicted on the canvas amaze with their expressiveness, the festive action is depicted by the artist as an all-destroying element. In the center is a Cossack attacking a snowy "bastion", around the spectators who came to the Maslenitsa festivities.

Surikov's creativity was reflected this time in the prowess of the Russian people, who are able to create a dashing attack out of the blue, without any reason, but from this a whole event necessarily arises. So it happened with the painting "The Capture of the Snow Town", a simple game turned into a real assault on the fortifications, albeit a theatrical one. Such are Russian games in the paintings of Russian painters, such is the work of the artist Surikov. Russian fine art is impulsive.

Follow-up works

The subsequent works of Vasily Surikov became a certain stage in his activity. The canvases he created for the period from 1895 to 1907 are still full of drama, but the perspective of the events reflected in the paintings is already different, with less expression. It's about canvases:"Stepan Razin" (1907), "Suvorov Crossing the Alps" (1899) and "The Conquest of Siberia by Yermak" (1895). All works are written virtuoso, but they lack the polyphony of drama.

In an effort to increase the degree of persuasiveness of the plot of the picture, Surikov reduces the number of characters, thus shifting the semantic load to the remaining images. This technique always brings results. The artist expands the brilliance of the texture and enhances the expressiveness of each character separately and all together, forcing them to interact.

Vasily Surikov compensates for the lack of expression in his paintings by focusing on the plot component. And this approach also brings results. For example, the painting "The Conquest of Siberia by Yermak" was painted in the best battle traditions, with many guns, bright flashes of shots, suggesting death and destruction. In reality, of course, everything happened less dramatically, as evidenced by the studies of scientists relating to that time. However, painting is an art form that requires repeated exaggeration.

The canvas "Suvorov's Crossing the Alps", of course, is also written with some grotesque. There is a political reproach to the predatory ambitions of the presumptuous French. With his passage through the Alps, Suvorov painfully clicked the French military leaders on the nose. All these nuances were fully reflected by the artist.

Surikov's work, whose pictures, like a mirror, reflect someaspects of public life at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, to a large extent contributed to the development of Russian art.

The painting "Stepan Razin" reveals the worship of ordinary warriors to their commander. He is an indisputable authority for them, the chief military leader. When Stenka Razin, without hesitation, threw the princess overboard, it was an inhuman act that could become a reason for the disappointment of the soldiers in the leader. However, they continued to extol their chieftain. Dissatisfied with himself, gloomy as a cloud, Stepan Razin sits in the middle of the boat, surrounded by loyal subjects. The chieftain is seriously concerned, and the artist also managed to convey his mood. All of Surikov's work consists of his attempts to reflect reality on his canvases, even if it is sometimes impartial.

Surikov as a realist artist

Each picture of the painter is the quintessence of Russian life, its separate fragment, which is presented by the master in a true reflection. This approach, which excludes the distortion of reality, is the work of Surikov, which cannot be briefly described, a deep analysis is needed.

To the well-deserved title of an artist-historian, one more definition can be added - "realist painter". Surikov's work, a brief description of his paintings, the main milestones of his life path have been studied for many years by art historians. The conclusions of the research are not always unambiguous, but one thing is clear - the artist Vasily Surikov is certainlythe property of Russian culture of the first magnitude.