"Slavic composers" - a large group portrait of the young artist I. Repin

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

Moscow businessman and philanthropist-Slavophile A. A. Porohovshchikov took part in the construction of an exquisite and luxurious hotel and a luxurious restaurant "Slavianski Bazaar" (architect August Weber). It was decided to decorate it with the painting "Slavic Composers". Initially, it was called "Collection of Russian, Polish and Czech Musicians". She was supposed to convey to the viewer the idea that all Slavs are brothers.

History of the painting

List of composers who had to write in the picture for A. A. Porokhovshchikov, compiled by Nikolai Grigorievich Rubinshtein.

He was a virtuoso pianist, a wonderful conductor, founder and first director of the Moscow Conservatory. He approached the compilation of the list biased. He did not include such geniuses as P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. P. Mussorgsky, A. P. Borodin, and C. Cui.

Porohovshchikov wanted the recognized master K. Makovsky to paint a large-scale multi-figure canvas. The price of 25 thousand rubles turned out to be unacceptable for the organizers. Other painters asked for 15 thousand. A businessended with I. E. Repin is a young graduate of the Academy of Arts, for only one and a half thousand rubles, who was very poor financially.

Getting Started

Most of the musicians had already died by the time the picture was painted in 1872. The work of I. Repin began to be helped by a music critic who once supported the Mighty Handful, Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov.

In the painting "Slavic Composers" it was required to write both the musicians living at that time and those who had already died. The indefatigable V. Stasov, helping the artist, looked everywhere for their portraits. I. E. Repin did almost all the work in St. Petersburg. Only musicians living at that time posed for him: M. A. Balakirev, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and E. Napravnik. Ilya Efimovich himself wrote about this in his memoirs. He brought to Moscow an almost finished canvas, which he had only finalized in the ancient capital.

Place painting

The restaurant "Slavyansky Bazaar" opened in the late spring of 1872 in the business center of Moscow on Nikolskaya Street. It combines Russian cuisine (the chef studied in Paris) and European service. Only we althy people could visit it regularly. It was considered good form to have breakfast in it and at that time to talk about business and make a deal. Transactions were not pennies, but millions. Lunches and dinners were not popular there.

The restaurant has one feature that was not found anywhere else. Having completed breakfast with champagne and coffee with liqueur, the client demanded cognac. If the guestordered an expensive, excellent quality cognac worth 50 rubles, then at the time of payment he was presented with a crystal decanter from this cognac, painted with golden cranes. Merchants collected these, as they called, "cranes", and competed among themselves in their number. The ceiling of the restaurant was glass, gable, and it was supported by metal structures in the form of lattices. They were reflected in the plates on the table.

In the concert hall of the restaurant, made in the Russian style, which had the name "Russian Chamber", among other portraits, the painting "Slavic Composers" was placed.

Who is written in the picture

In the center are, talking, M. I. Glinka (died in 1857), M. A. Balakirev and V. F. Odoevsky (died in 1860). Behind them, A. S. Dargomyzhsky, who was also no longer alive, is sitting on a chair. Behind him you can see I. F. Laskovsky. In the court uniform on the right - A. F. Lvov. He listens to what A. N. Verstovsky.

The group at the piano is formed by brothers A. and N. Rubinstein. A. N. Serov (father of the artist V. Serov) stands between A. Rubinstein and Lvov.

A separate group consists of the late A. P. Gurilev, D. S. Bortnyansky and P. I. Turchaninov. Foreign Slavic composers are written in the background and left. On the left - the Czechs: E. Napravnik is standing, B. Smetana, K. Bendel and V. Horak are sitting. In the background, I. E. Repin placed the Poles. K. Lipinsky stands in front of the door. Next to him on the far right is S. Moniuszko. Next F. Chopin and M. Oginsky.

The picture "Slavic composers", descriptionwhich was limited to listing the depicted musicians, does not allow us to say anything more. It is informative.

Oddities of design

The very idea of mixing composers from different countries and peoples, living and dead, in one painting "Slavic Composers" surprised not only the young painter. I. Turgenev spoke of her as a "vinaigrette". He believed that it was impossible to think of anything worse than this plot.

It's hard to talk about the artistic merits of the work. The painting “Slavic Composers” (Repin) is surprising and good only because you don’t have to flip through albums looking for portraits. However, the Moscow public did not take her enthusiastically, but she was a success.

Over time, the painting “Slavic Composers” was moved to the Moscow Conservatory, as the restaurant was closed at one time, and later there was a fire in it.

The strange and unusual idea of Rubinstein lives a life of its own exactly where the virtuoso pianist worked - at the Moscow Conservatory.