Pasternak Leonid Osipovich: paintings, biography

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

Not everyone knows that the father of the famous Russian poet and writer Boris Pasternak is an equally talented person, namely the artist Pasternak Leonid Osipovich. His work will be discussed in this article.

Childhood

The young artist Pasternak Leonid Osipovich (1862-1945 - years of life), whose real name sounds like Avrum Yitzchok-Leib, grew up in a poor Odessa family. The future talented painter was the youngest of six children. The boy began to show creative abilities very early. However, despite the obvious giftedness of their child, the parents took Leni's passion without enthusiasm. And yet the young artist did not refuse to study at an art school. The boy continued to study fine arts even after graduating from high school. Although Leonid chose medical practice as his speci alty, he combined visits to the studio of master E. Sorokin in parallel with his studies at the university. Moreover, studying in the speci alty gave the future artist the opportunity toto thoroughly study the features of the human body, its specifics in movement and statics.

Then the master's studies took an even more unexpected turn. At twenty-one, Leonid suddenly changed his profession and continued his studies at the Faculty of Law. However, life's searches did not end there either, and after a short time he left his native city and left to try his luck in Germany.

Life abroad

Settling in Munich, Pasternak Leonid Osipovich devoted several semesters to the study of painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. It was there that life brought the master together with the mother of the famous Russian artist Serov, who at that time organized a circle. It was this meeting that became a landmark both for the Pasternak family and for the Serov family. Leonid Osipovich's acquaintance with this woman laid the foundation for many years of friendship between several generations.

First publications

During the session, the artist returned to Odessa for a while, where he first published his work in humorous magazines. These were sketches, caricatures, sketches, sketches. As Maxim Gorky himself admitted to the artist much later, it was at that time that Pasternak captured the first, in the writer's words, "tramp" in Russian literature.

The master's training didn't end there. After graduating from the university, Pasternak Leonid Osipovich, whose biography was replenished with another important achievement, served as a volunteer. Even during the passage of military duties, he did notstopped making sketches and small sketches. This is how his author's style was formed.

Private life

In Pasternak's hometown, Leonid Osipovich met Rosa Kaufman, an incredibly talented pianist. Already in 1889, the lovers got married and moved to live in Moscow. There, Rosa gave one concert after another, and Leonid became interested in the Polenov circle.

A year later, the newlyweds had their first son. It was he who later became a famous Russian poet. It was Boris Pasternak. Three years later, the couple had a son, Alexander, who became a successful architect.

In addition to boys, there were also women in the Pasternak family. In 1990, the young artist had a daughter, Josephine, two years later, her beloved wife Rosa gave her husband Lydia. Pasternak dedicated a separate gallery to his children. These canvases capture all the soulfulness and warmth of the family nest, which the young spouses have built.

Recognition

In 1889, a significant year for the young artist, luck again smiles at him, and the respected collector Pavel Tretyakov buys the first known painting by the master “Letter from the Motherland”. It was a successful year for Pasternak. After the exhibition of this painting, the name of the artist was forever fixed on a par with his no less famous contemporaries.

After a resounding triumph in the Moscow society of connoisseurs of painting, Pasternak Leonid Osipovich became popular among the artists of that time. Hebegan to cooperate with no less famous collectors and craftsmen. Moreover, the artist himself began to give lessons to novice painters. So, even Ilya Repin sent young students to study with Pasternak. Later, the master began to give private lessons in Moscow. Seeing success, he decided, together with his friend, the artist Shtemberg, to open a personal studio for learning to draw. While working with students, Pasternak established himself as a progressive artist and teacher. So, while teaching, he not only taught his students the basics of fine arts and academic drawing, but also showed young people new, previously unused techniques. The master learned all this earlier, while studying in Germany. Thus, Russian art gradually developed in the direction of European art.

Journal work

Since 1890, Leonid Osipovich, under the patronage of the Russian writer, playwright and publicist Fyodor Sologub, became the artistic editor of the new magazine "Artist". A year later, Pasternak undertook to manage the publication of the works of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov with illustrations. The artist not only decorated this collection with his illustrations, but also gave other talented, but less well-known artists the opportunity to work on it. Among them was Mikhail Vrubel, not very famous at that time, but no less talented from this.

In addition to work in the field of journalism, the master also excelled in painting. In 1892 Pasternak Leonid Osipovich wrote "The Torments of Creativity". The painting has become a landmark in the artist's piggy bank.

Creating portraits

Despite the fact that Leonid Osipovich Pasternak is known as a painter, portraits make up a large part of his creative heritage.

Even in this form of fine art, the artist has embodied his own innovative ideas. The most striking feature of Pasternak's portraits is that the master not only depicted a bust of a person, but also turned to the inner world of the depicted. In his paintings, the artist sought to convey the whole character, mood of the person being portrayed, his experiences, sorrows, mood swings. Pasternak painted in an impressionistic manner. Despite the fact that this style can be attributed to the entire work of the artist, nevertheless, it is in portraits that this property manifests itself most powerfully.

International success

Pasternak continued to develop as a master and already in 1894 he took the post of teacher at an art school. At the same time as Pasternak, other outstanding masters became teachers, among them Serov, N. Kasatkin and K. Korovin. Thanks to their activities in the teaching field, the school has become one of the most progressive not only within Russia, but even became famous abroad. Young enterprising teachers, many of whom were educated abroad, introduced new standards in the teaching of painting. In addition, it was this group of teachers who contributed to the introduction of courses for general education. So, Vasily Klyuchevsky became a teacher of Russian history. Later, Leonid Osipovich captured it on one of hisportraits. It is worth noting that the school did not in vain find great fame for itself: thanks to the selfless work of teachers, many of the students later became great masters. Among them are such famous artists as Gerasimov, Konchalovsky, Krymov, Shcherbakov and others.

However, the glory of Pasternak is not limited to this. In 1894, the artist's painting "On the Eve of the Exams" won first place at the international exhibition in Munich. It was also purchased in 1890 to decorate the Luxembourg Museum directly from an exhibition in Paris.

After such a resounding success, the demand for Pasternak's work became quite logical. Already in 1901, the Luxembourg Museum ordered several well-known painters at that time, including Leonid Osipovich, to depict scenes from Russian life. Pasternak painted one of his most famous works, the beautiful painting "Tolstoy with his family." It was highly appreciated even by Prince Georgy Alexandrovich himself, having looked at the World of Art exhibition.

Later, Pasternak himself became the founder of the department of Russian art in the city of Düsseldorf. During his work abroad, the master fruitfully used the time allotted to him and visited the Mediterranean coast. While in Italy, the artist made many sketches of landscapes.

Life outside the Motherland

During the events of 1905, Leonid Osipovich spent a whole year in Berlin. The work he liked at the school had to be stopped, since the educational institution was closed. At this time, Pasternak participated in many European exhibitions, includingnumber in Berlin. In parallel, the master painted for many foreign customers.

Since 1912, during the treatment of Rosa Pasternak in Kissingen and near Pisa, the master began his large canvas “Congratulations”. According to the idea, the children came to please their parents with gifts for the anniversary of the silver wedding, as the artist depicted them. Leonid Osipovich Pasternak completed the painting in 1914. She was a resounding success.

During this period the master lived in Moscow. It was here that Pasternak Leonid Osipovich wrote "Portrait of a Son" - one of his most famous creations.

Starting from 1921, Pasternak lived in Berlin. Despite the deterioration of his he alth and impaired vision, he felt a surge of creative energy and during this time painted a series of portraits of famous personalities, including A. Einstein, M. R. Rilke and many others. In 1924, in company with friends, he went on a trip to Egypt and Palestine. During the trip, Pasternak wrote a series of vivid sketches.

During the Nazi takeover, most of the artist's works were publicly burned, and exhibitions were banned. In this regard, at the end of the thirties, Pasternak moved to London, where he painted a series of paintings, subsequently transferred to the British Museum. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the master died in Oxford.

At the moment, the rich legacy of the artist is kept in many of the most famous museums in the world, including the Moscow Tretyakov Gallery. It is difficult to assess what contribution he made to Russian andworld art Leonid Osipovich Pasternak. The master's paintings still take pride of place at international exhibitions.