2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
Just for a moment remember the famous Soviet fairy tales of Marshak or Chukovsky. How interesting it was to read them at one time, in particular due to the fact that the books were filled with interesting illustrations. Unfortunately, few people remember that they were created by the hand of the famous illustrator Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich, who has been doing this work since the 30s of the last century. His drawings have become a truly classic design for favorite children's books, and therefore are often used in our time. This article will tell the biography of Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich, namely its most interesting moments, which led the artist to choose the path of illustrating works for children.
Childhood
Before you go directly to the paintings of Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich, you should consider how the history of this outstanding artist began. He was born on May 7, 1888 in the city of Novocherkassk. His father was an engineer, and his mother was an ordinary housewife. However, when he was nine years old, the whole family moved to Chernigov, where he received his firsteducation. As he himself noticed, in childhood he was not at all attracted to draw, especially children's drawings. His true dream at that time was the sea, namely the construction of ships. True, like all childhood dreams, she quickly changed, as the boy became interested in astronomy and became interested in music, studying the violin. It was not until he was a teenager that he decided to paint, and because he did it with enthusiasm, he soon acquired a sufficient level to attend art school.
Beginning of education
As mentioned earlier, Konashevich Vladimir Mikhailovich received his first education in Chernigov. Here, in a real school, which, however, was more based on the study of natural and mathematical sciences, he was able to find teachers, painters Mikhailov and Gypsy. They gave him a sufficient level of knowledge to move to Moscow in 1908 and there to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
Vocational studies
He studied at MUZHVZ until 1913, where he studied under the guidance of famous teachers - Korovin, Pasternak and Malyutin. Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich did not leave much knowledge about his activities during this period, but, as you know, it was during his studies that he began to develop his own special style in graphics, which, however, he did not intend to use later, although he became famous for this.
Career start
After graduation, the artist Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich moved to Petrograd, with which he later connected all histhe rest of your life. At first he tried to move in different directions, and because of this, he even served for a long time in the Pavlovsk Palace, which at that time was a museum, until in 1918 he began to engage in graphics, namely illustrating children's books.
Funny drawings
It is now illustrations and Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich are inextricably linked, but once it was not so at all. In fact, he came to such creativity quite by accident. By 1918, his daughter was growing up, who was 3 years old, but she lived far from her father - in the Urals, with her mother. In order to somehow please her, he decided to draw funny pictures for her that would personify each letter of the alphabet, and then send them in letters. These drawings were once seen by one of the artist's friends. He liked them so much that Konashevich's first book, The ABC in Pictures, was soon published. After that, he decided to enliven children's books with fun and funny drawings.
1920s
During the period of the 1920s, Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich's drawing style was still not well-established, and therefore he was engaged in two types of activities at once. He completely directed his art to graphics, but at the same time he began to teach at the Repin Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, as well as in a number of other schools. He finished his teaching career only in 1930.
But in practice itpopularity in the art of graphics only grew. He painted a number of excellent pictures for Fet's poems, as well as the stories of Turgenev, Chekhov, Zoshchenko and many others. In addition, he created a series of woodcuts and lithographic series depicting Pavlovsk in the mid-1920s.
1930s
By 1930, Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich had completely decided on the scope of his activity, as he focused exclusively on illustrating children's books. He directly collaborated with one publishing house - "Rainbow", and to be more precise, with the department dealing with children's and youth literature. Quite quickly, he became a recognized master of his craft, since his manner of drawing simultaneously showed playful grotesqueness, as well as an intricate decorative component. He developed this style while writing graphics for the "World of Art" in 1922-1924.
Fairy tale creatures
It is easy to see that all the heroes of the books depicted by him leaned towards the fairy-tale theme. As you know, his most favorite works were the stories written by Korney Chukovsky. By the way, by this time they were already good friends and often worked in tandem. He illustrated Chukovsky's works several times, each time reworking his style of writing. All this even led to the fact that they began to attack him in the newspapers. The most humiliating for a talented artist was the article "About Artists-smudgers", which was published in the newspaper "Pravda" in 1936.
However, this did not stop the artist at all, so he continued to write beautiful illustrations for an adult and children's book, although he still focused on the latter. Konashevich paid his attention not only to Soviet works, but also to foreign ones. He drew illustrations for the books of such famous writers as Hans-Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and many others. He took on almost any work - Estonian, African, French fairy tales. The songs were often illustrated by him more than once.
War period
Unfortunately, by 1941 the country was at war. Fearing Nazi troops, the artist was forced to flee to Leningrad, so he spent the entire period of the blockade in this city. In 1943, he completed magnificent illustrations for Andersen's fairy tales, but there are no other striking works in this period. Even after the war, his art could not achieve the same vivid effect as before, as his fantasy was tightly restrained by the numerous tenets of the country.
Rebirth
The period of its revival began only in the mid-1950s after the death of Stalin. He simply amazed at first with his excellent pictures for the collection "Floats, the boat floats", and then for English fairy tales. After that, several other excellent books were published. His most recent work was the illustration of all the fairy tales of the greatest Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. came out into the lightthis book is after the death of the artist, who died in 1963. Shortly before that, he was also able to receive a Silver medal at the international book exhibition, which was held in the city of Leipzig. It was given to him precisely for the book "The boat is sailing, sailing", which is recognized as the main artistic work of Konashevich.
Other paintings
Draw, albeit infrequently, Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich and still lifes, as well as landscapes, which he performed in an interesting manner. It is not known exactly where he learned this way of drawing, which was very specific to the Soviet Union, but he managed to do it. For his works, he took exclusively Chinese paper and painted on it only with ink or watercolor, which allowed him to create truly beautiful pieces of art.
Conclusion
Agree, now it is simply impossible to imagine what the books of Chukovsky and other writers would be like if Vladimir Mikhailovich refused to revive them with the help of his drawings. His imagination was truly unique, since no other artist in Russia produced the same number of illustrations. Slightly grotesque, but still cute characters have been delighting kids across the country for decades.
He really managed to find his own style, which markedly distinguished him from all other illustrators. The artistic manner and colorfulness of the drawings made them very popular with readers of both children and adults. Now his works are kept in many Russian museums, includingTretyakov Gallery and the State Russian Museum, occupying places of honor and attracting visitors.
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