Portrait of professor of engraving V.V.Mate. 1902

We all know Kustodiev from his famous Merchants and Russian beauties in body. But besides the “fair” period, Kustodiev had a wonderful early period (1901-1907). He painted with a “wet” brushstroke, beautifully and selflessly, no worse than Sargent and Zorn. Then many artists painted in a similar manner, Braz, Kulikov, Arkhipov. Kustodiev was better. What made him change his style of writing - a reluctance to be one of..., or maybe a tragedy and poor health, or a change in worldview that came with a change in society, a revolution... I don’t know. But I especially love this period in Kustodiev’s work.

Nun. 1908

Portrait of the Governor General of Finland N.I. Bobrikov. 1902-1903

Portrait of P.L. Bark. 1909

Portrait of Ya.I. Lavrin. 1909

In the fall of 1896, Kustodiev entered the school at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. In those years, the fame of both Vasnetsov and Repin was already thundering. Repin drew attention to the talented young man and took him into his workshop. He did not like to talk about his work, but he talked with enthusiasm about his students. He especially singled out Kustodiev and called the young man “a hero of painting.”

According to I. Grabar, “Kustodiev’s portraits stood out against the background of dull academic exhibitions; as the master’s works, they were in the spotlight, the author was invited to all exhibitions, he became famous.” The Italian Ministry of Arts commissioned a self-portrait from him, which was placed in the hall of self-portraits of artists from different eras and countries in the famous Florentine Uffizi Gallery.

Along with portraits, genre paintings by Kustodiev appeared at the exhibitions. One of the main themes is noisy, crowded fairs in his native Volga cities. Kustodiev’s paintings could be read as stories sparkling with humor. After all, his diploma work at the academy was not a composition on a historical or religious theme, as was customary, but “Bazaar in the Village,” for which he received a gold medal and the right to a pensioner’s trip abroad. Signs of an impending disaster that radically and mercilessly changed life of Kustodiev, appeared in 1909. Suddenly my hand started to hurt, and my fingers couldn’t even hold a light watercolor brush. Terrible headaches began. For several days I had to lie in a darkened room, wrapping my head in a scarf. Any sound increased the suffering. St. Petersburg doctors found he had bone tuberculosis and sent him to the mountains of Switzerland. Shackled from neck to waist in a rigid celluloid corset, torn from his easel and paints, he lay month after month, breathing the healing mountain air of the Alps. The artist later recalled these long months “with a warm feeling, with a feeling of delight at the creative impulse and burning spirit.” Even more surprising is that Kustodiev subsequently “translated” most of the conceived themes and plots onto canvas, into real paintings.

And the disease came. It turned out to be worse than expected: a spinal cord tumor. He underwent a series of difficult operations that lasted several hours. Before one of them, the professor said to his wife:
- The tumor is somewhere closer to the chest. You need to decide what to save, arms or legs?
- Hands, leave your hands! An artist without hands? He won't be able to live!
And the surgeon retained the mobility of his hands. Only hands. Until the end of life. From now on, his “living space” was narrowed to the four walls of a cramped workshop, and the entire world that he could observe was limited to the window frame.

But the more severe Kustodiev’s physical condition was, the more selflessly he worked. During the years of immobility, he created his best things.

The Kustodiev paintings of this period are relatively small in size, on average one meter per meter. But not because it was difficult with the canvas and paints (although this also happened). It’s just that the border of the painting had to be where the brush of the artist chained to the chair could reach.

Here is his “Moscow tavern”. Kustodiev once spied this scene in Moscow and said: “They smelled of something Novgorod, an icon, a fresco.” Old Believers cabbies drink tea fervently, as if saying a prayer, holding saucers on straightened fingers. The dark blue caftans, the thick beards of the men, the white canvas clothes of the floor guards, the dark red, like shimmering background of the walls and the mass of details extracted from memory accurately convey the atmosphere of a Moscow tavern... The son and friends who did not leave the artist posed as cab drivers. The son recalled how, having completed the work, Kustodiev joyfully exclaimed: “But, in my opinion, the picture came out! Well done to your father!” And this is truly one of his best works.

Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin decided to stage A. Serov’s opera “The Power of the Enemy” on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater. He really wanted Kustodiev to complete the sketches of the scenery and costumes, and he himself went to negotiations. I saw the artist in a cramped studio, which also served as a bedroom, in a wheelchair, reclining under an easel hanging over him (this is how he now had to work), and “pitying sadness” pierced the heart of the great singer. But only in the first few minutes. Chaliapin recalled: “He amazed me with his spiritual vigor. His cheerful eyes shone brilliantly - they contained the joy of life. With pleasure, he agreed to make the scenery and costumes.
- In the meantime, pose for me in this fur coat. Your fur coat is so rich. It's a pleasure to write it..."

The portrait turned out to be huge - more than two meters in height. The majestic, lordly singer of Russia strides widely across the snow crust in a luxurious fur coat. In the picture there was a place for Chaliapin’s family, and even for his beloved dog. Chaliapin liked the portrait so much that he also took sketches for it. In order for Kustodiev to work on such a large painting, his engineer brother secured a block with a load under the ceiling. The canvas with the stretcher was suspended and it was possible to bring it closer, further away, or move it left and right. He painted the portrait in sections, without seeing the whole. Kustodiev said: “Sometimes I myself have a hard time believing that I painted this portrait, I worked so much at random and by touch.” But the calculation turned out to be amazing. The painting, according to the unanimous opinion of critics, has become one of the best achievements of Russian portrait art.

One of Kustodiev’s latest works is “Russian Venus”. Well, how can you believe that this radiant, beautifully drawn naked young woman was created at a time when the artist said: “I am tormented at night by the same nightmare: black cats dig into my back with sharp claws and tear my vertebrae...” And my right arm began to weaken and dry out. There was no canvas for Venus. And he wrote it on the back of some of his old, considered unsuccessful, paintings. The family participated in the creation of the painting. Brother Michael adapted blocks and counterweights for the canvas. The daughter posed, as for many other paintings. Lacking a broom, she had to hold a ruler in her hands. The son whipped foam in a wooden tub so that the image of even this minor detail was close to reality. This is how this one of the most life-loving paintings was born. Until the last days of his life, Kustodiev worked tirelessly. He was busy sketching scenery for the puppet theater for the fairy tale “The Cat, the Fox and the Rooster.” On May 4, I submitted 24 (!) engravings for an exhibition at the State Russian Museum...

Sun. Voinov, a friend of the artist, the author of the first monograph about him, wrote in his diary: “May 15. Kustodiev's name day. He was very sick, but sat in his chair. Gorbunov came to see him.” And in the margin there is a note: “The last time in my life I saw Boris Mikhailovich.” Gorbunov was the manager of the affairs of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR in those years. He came to inform Kustodiev: the government had allocated money for his treatment abroad. Too late. Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev died on May 26, 1927.

BIOGRAPHY

Born into a poor family, Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev (1878-1927) was preparing to become a priest. He studied at a theological school, then at a seminary, but became interested in art, and in 1896, leaving the seminary, he went to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts (AH). There he studied in the workshop of Ilya Repin and was so successful that the director invited him to be his assistant to work on the painting “Meeting of the State Council.” Kustodiev discovered a gift for portrait painting, and while still a student, he completed a number of first-class portraits - Daniil Lukich Mordovtsev, Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (all 1901), Vasily Mate (1902). In 1903, Kustodiev graduated from the Academy of Arts, receiving a gold medal and the right to travel abroad for his diploma painting “Bazaar in a Village” - Kustodiev chose Paris. In Paris, the artist managed to take a closer look at French painting and make good use of his impressions in the beautiful painting “” (1904), but less than six months later he returned to Russia, missing his homeland.

After his return, Kustodiev very successfully tried his hand at book graphics, in particular by illustrating Nikolai Gogol’s “The Overcoat” (1905), as well as in caricature, collaborating in satirical magazines during the first Russian revolution. But the main thing for him still continued to be painting. He performed a number of portraits, among which “” (1909) stood out, as well as “” (1907) and “” (1908), which turned into generalized socio-psychological types. At the same time, he enthusiastically worked on paintings dedicated to depicting old Russian life, mainly provincial. He drew material for them from childhood memories and impressions from his frequent stays in the Volga region, in the Kineshma district, where in 1905 he built a house-workshop. He unfolded fascinating stories, full of entertaining details, in multi-figure compositions "" (1906, 1908), "Village Holiday" (1910) and recreated characteristic Russian female types in the paintings "Merchant's Wife", "Girl on the Volga", "" (all 1915 ), colored with admiration and the author's soft irony. His painting became more and more colorful, approaching folk art. The result was “” (1916) - an idyllic panorama of a holiday in a Russian provincial town. Kustodiev worked on this cheerful picture in extremely difficult conditions: as a result of a serious illness, he was confined to a wheelchair since 1916 and was tormented by frequent pain.

Despite this, the last decade of his life turned out to be unusually productive. He painted two large paintings depicting the holiday in honor of the opening of the Second Congress of the Communist International, performed many graphic and pictorial portraits, made sketches of the festive decorations of Petrograd, drawings and covers for books and magazines of various contents, made wall pictures and calendar “walls”, designed 11 theatrical performances. Often these were custom jobs that were not very interesting to him, but he performed everything at a serious professional level, and sometimes achieved outstanding results. Lithographic illustrations in the collection “Six Poems of Nekrasov” (1922), drawings for Nikolai Leskov’s stories “The Darner” (1922) and “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” (1923) became the pride of Russian book graphics, and among the performances he designed, Evgeniy’s “The Flea” shone Zamyatin, staged by the 2nd Moscow Art Theater in 1925 and immediately repeated by the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater.

Kustodiev managed to devote time to the innermost, continuing with nostalgic love to recreate the life of old Russia in a variety of paintings, watercolors, and drawings. He varied the themes of Maslenitsa in different ways in the paintings “” (1917), “” (1919), “Winter. Maslenitsa festivities" (1921) and even in his wonderful portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin he used the same festivities as the background. He depicted the quiet life of the province in “The Blue House”, “Autumn”, “Trinity Day” (all 1920). In the paintings "" (1918), "" (1920), "" (1925-26) he continued the gallery of female types begun in the long-standing "Merchant's Wife". He completed a series of 20 watercolors “Russian Types” (1920) and resurrected his own childhood with maximum authenticity in a number of paintings, as well as in the series “Autobiographical Drawings” (1923) - similar to sketches.

Kustodiev’s energy and love of life were amazing. He, in his wheelchair, attended premieres in theaters and even made long trips around the country. The disease progressed, and in recent years the artist was forced to work on a canvas suspended above him almost horizontally and so close that he was not able to see the whole thing. But his physical strength was exhausted: an insignificant cold led to pneumonia, which his heart could no longer cope with. Kustodiev was not even fifty years old when he died.

A detailed chronology of Kustodiev’s life and work can be found in the section.

It was no coincidence that Kustodiev chose one of the most significant rituals for the people as the theme for his work. The artist’s unique idea was to show the attractive aspects of the national way of life, of which […]

Kustodiev, who managed to combine classical traditions with the national ideal of folk art in his work, did not refuse the innovations created by modernism and impressionism. The canvas is filled with bright light contrasts and sophistication of decorative stylization of the external […]

The painting “Trinity Day” recreated the broad spirit of folk festivities. Everyone knows the deep faith and respect for traditions on the part of the Russian people, and Trinity is one of the main Christian celebrations. In his work, Kustodiev lovingly [...]

The picturesque canvas “Bathers” by Boris Kustodiev, now kept in Minsk in the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, was written in 1917. By this time, the artist was suffering from an incurable disease - a spinal cord tumor - […]

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev was born in 1878 into the family of an Astrakhan gymnasium teacher. At the age of fifteen, the artist began to actively master the mystery of drawing from the Russian painter Pavel Vlasov. Then Boris entered […]

In the last week of February, Maslenitsa is traditionally celebrated in Rus'. Everyone, young and old, takes part in Maslenitsa festivities. Broad Maslenitsa is a national holiday, celebrated colorfully and riotously with songs, round dances, […]

The nature and culture of Russia have been ideological inspirations for many creators. Among them is the famous artist Boris Kustodiev. The master admired the harsh winter and the festive rituals of the common people. One of the sunny days he [...]

Works on Wikimedia Commons

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev(February 23 (March 7), Astrakhan - May 26, Leningrad) - Russian artist.

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev, originally from the family of a gymnasium teacher, began studying painting in Astrakhan with P. A. Vlasov in 1893-1896.

Biography

His father died when the future artist was not even two years old. Boris studied at a parish school, then at a gymnasium. From the age of 15 he took drawing lessons from a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts P. Vlasov.

• - taught at the New Art Workshop (St. Petersburg).
• - Member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

• 1914 - apartment building - Ekateringofsky Avenue, 105;
• 1915 - 05/26/1927 - apartment building of E.P. Mikhailov - Vvedenskaya street, 7, apt. 50.

Illustrations and book graphics

In 1905-1907 he worked in the satirical magazines “Bug” (the famous drawing “Introduction. Moscow”), “Hell Mail” and “Sparks”.

With a keen sense of line, Kustodiev performed cycles of illustrations for classical works and for the creations of his contemporaries (illustrations for Leskov’s works “The Darner”, 1922, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, 1923).

Possessing a strong touch, he worked in the technique of lithography and engraving on linoleum.

Painting

Kustodiev began his career as a portrait artist. Already while working on sketches for Repin’s “Great Meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901,” student Kustodiev showed his talent as a portrait painter. In sketches and portrait sketches for this multi-figure composition, he coped with the task of achieving similarities with Repin’s creative style. But Kustodiev the portrait painter was closer to Serov. Painterly plasticity, free long strokes, bright characteristics of appearance, emphasis on the artistry of the model - these were mostly portraits of fellow students and teachers of the Academy - but without Serov's psychologism. Kustodiev was incredibly fast for a young artist, but deservedly won fame as a portrait painter among the press and customers. However, according to A. Benoit:

“... the real Kustodiev is a Russian fair, motley, “big-eyed” calicoes, a barbaric “fight of colors”, a Russian suburb and a Russian village, with their accordions, gingerbread, dressed up girls and dashing guys... I claim that this is his real sphere, his real joy... When he writes fashionable ladies and respectable citizens, it is completely different - boring, sluggish, often even tasteless. And it seems to me that it’s not the plot, but the approach to it.”

Already from the beginning of the 1900s, Boris Mikhailovich was developing a unique genre of portrait, or rather, portrait-picture, portrait-type, in which the model is linked together with the surrounding landscape or interior. At the same time, this is a generalized image of a person and his unique individuality, revealing it through the world surrounding the model. In their form, these portraits are related to the genre images-types of Kustodiev (“Self-portrait” (1912), portraits of A. I. Anisimov (1915), F. I. Chaliapin (1922)).

But Kustodiev’s interests went beyond the portrait: it was no coincidence that he chose a genre painting (“At the Bazaar” (1903), not preserved) for his diploma work. In the early 1900s, for several years in a row he went to perform field work in the Kostroma province. In 1906, Kustodiev presented works that were new in their concept - a series of canvases on the themes of brightly festive peasant and provincial petty-bourgeois-merchant life (“Balagany”, “Maslenitsa”), in which the features of Art Nouveau are visible. The works are spectacular and decorative, revealing the Russian character through the everyday genre. On a deeply realistic basis, Kustodiev created a poetic dream, a fairy tale about provincial Russian life. In these works, great importance is attached to line, pattern, color spot, forms are generalized and simplified - the artist turns to gouache, tempera. The artist's works are characterized by stylization - he studies Russian parsuna of the 16th-18th centuries, lubok, signs of provincial shops and taverns, and folk crafts.

Subsequently, Kustodiev gradually shifted more and more towards an ironic stylization of folk and, especially, the life of the Russian merchants with a riot of colors and flesh (“Beauty”, “Merchant’s Wife at Tea”).

Theater works

Like many artists of the turn of the century, Kustodiev also worked in the theater, transferring his vision of the work to the theater stage. The scenery performed by Kustodiev was colorful, close to his genre painting, but this was not always perceived as an advantage: creating a bright and convincing world, carried away by its material beauty, the artist sometimes did not coincide with the author’s plan and the director’s reading of the play (“The Death of Pazukhin” by Saltykov- Shchedrin, 1914, Moscow Art Theater; “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky, which never saw the light of day, 1918). In his later works for the theater, he moves away from a chamber interpretation to a more generalized one, seeks greater simplicity, builds the stage space, giving freedom to the director when constructing mise-en-scenes. Kustodiev's success was his design work in 1918-20. opera performances (1920, The Tsar's Bride, Bolshoi Opera Theater of the People's House; 1918, The Snow Maiden, Bolshoi Theater (not staged)).

The productions of Zamyatin’s “The Flea” (1925, Moscow Art Theater 2nd; 1926, Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater) were successful. According to the memoirs of the director of the play A.D. Dikiy:

“It was so vivid, so precise that my role as a director accepting sketches was reduced to zero - I had nothing to correct or reject. It was as if he, Kustodiev, had been in my heart, overheard my thoughts, read Leskov’s story with the same eyes as me, and equally saw it in stage form. ... I have never had such complete, such inspiring like-mindedness with an artist as when working on the play “The Flea.” I learned the full meaning of this community when Kustodiev’s farcical, bright decorations appeared on the stage, and props and props made according to his sketches appeared. The artist led the entire performance, taking, as it were, the first part in the orchestra, which obediently and sensitively sounded in unison.”

After 1917, the artist participated in the decoration of Petrograd for the 1st anniversary of the October Revolution, painted posters, popular prints and paintings on revolutionary themes (“Bolshevik”, 1919-20, Tretyakov Gallery; “Celebration in honor of the 2nd Congress of the Comintern on Uritsky Square” , 1921, Russian Museum).

Literary activity

B. M. Kustodiev. Letters. Articles, notes, interviews..., [L., 1967].

Gallery

• "Introduction. Moscow" drawing
• “Morning”, (1904, Russian Russian Museum)
• "Balagany"
• "Trade fairs"
• "Maslenitsa"
• self-portrait ( , Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
• “Merchantwomen in Kineshma” (tempera, Museum of Russian Art in Kyiv)
• portrait of A. I. Anisimov ( , Russian Museum)
• “Beauty” (1915, Tretyakov Gallery)
• “Merchant's Wife at Tea” (1918, Russian Museum)
• "Bolshevik" (1919-20, Tretyakov Gallery)
• "F. I. Chaliapin at the fair" ( , Russian Museum)
• "Moscow tavern" ()
• “Portrait of A.N. Protasova” ()
• "Nun" ()
• "Portrait of Ivan Bilibin" ()
• “Portrait of S.A. Nikolsky” ()
• “Portrait of Vasily Vasilyevich Mate” ()
• "Self-portrait" ()
• "Portrait of a Woman in Blue" ()
• “Portrait of the writer A.V. Shvarts” ()
• "Fair" ()
• "Zemstvo school in Moscow Rus'" ()
• “Portrait of Irina Kustodieva with her dog Shumka” ()
• "Nun" ()
• “Portrait of N.I. Zelenskaya” ()
• "Freezing day" ()
• “Portrait of N.K. von Mecca" ()
• "Portrait of Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich" ()
• "Harvest" ()
• “Illustration for N.S. Leskov’s story “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” ()
• “Village holiday. Fragment" ()
• “At the Icon of the Savior” ()
• “The square is at the exit of the city. Scenery sketch for A.N. Ostrovsky’s play “Warm Heart” ()
• "Red Tower of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra" ()

see also

• Astrakhan Art Gallery named after P. M. Dogadin (formerly named after B. M. Kustodiev)

Notes

Bibliography

• Voinov V. B. M. Kustodiev. - L., 1925.
• Knyazeva V. P. Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev: (1878-1927), exhibition catalog / State Russian Museum; [author preface]. - L.: State. Russian Museum, 1959. - 117, p., l. ill., portrait
• Etkind M. B. M. Kustodiev. - L. - M., 1960.
• Lebedeva V. E. Kustodiev: Painting. Drawing. Theater. Book. Printmaking. - M.: Nauka, 1966. - 244 p. - 10,000 copies.(in lane, superreg.)
• Savitskaya T. A. B. M. Kustodiev. - M.: Art, 1966. - 148, p. - 25,000 copies.(region, superregion)
• Etkind M. G. Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev. - L.: Artist of the RSFSR, 1968. - 64 p. - (People's Art Library). - 20,000 copies.(region)
• Alekseeva A. I. The sun on a frosty day: (Kustodiev) / Drawings in the text and on the tab by B. Kustodiev; Cover and titles by the artist B. Ardov.. - M.: Young Guard, 1978. - 176, p. - (Pioneer means first. Issue 60). - 100,000 copies.(in translation)
• Lebedeva V. E. Kustodiev: Time. Life. Creation. - L.: Children's literature, 1984. - 160 p. - 75,000 copies.(in translation)
• Turkov A. M. Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev. - M.: Art, 1986. - 160, p. - (Life in art). - 100,000 copies.
• Bogdanov-Berezovsky V. M. Kustodiev // Meetings. - M.: Art, 1967. - P. 159-190. - 280 s. - 25,000 copies.

Links

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• Born on March 7
• Born in 1878
• Born in Astrakhan
• Died on May 26
• Died in 1927
• Died in St. Petersburg
• Artists by alphabet
• Artists of the World of Art association
• Union of Russian Artists
• Russian artists in the public domain
• Artists of Russia
• Graduates of the Repin Institute
• Artists of St. Petersburg
• Died from tuberculosis
• Buried at the Tikhvin Cemetery
• Pensioners of the Imperial Academy of Arts
• Graduates of the Imperial Academy of Arts

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See what “Kustodiev, Boris Mikhailovich” is in other dictionaries:

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev Self-portrait (1912) Date of birth: February 23 (March 7) 1878 Place of birth ... Wikipedia Kustodiev, Boris Mikhailovich - Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev. KUSTODIEV Boris Mikhailovich (1878 1927), Russian painter. Colorful scenes of peasant and provincial philistine and merchant life (Fair series), portraits (Chaliapin, 1922), illustrations, theatrical... ...

Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary - (1878 1927), owls. artist. In 1905 he completed a number of illustrations. to “The Song about... the Merchant Kalashnikov” (ed. About literacy, St. Petersburg, 1906): ink 4 page illustrations. “Alena Dmitrievna and Kiribeevich”, “Fist Fight”, “Execution of Kalashnikov”, “Ivan the Terrible in Moscow... ...

This artist was highly valued by his contemporaries - Repin and Nesterov, Chaliapin and Gorky. And many decades later, we look at his canvases with admiration - a wide panorama of the life of old Rus', masterfully captured, stands before us.

He was born and raised in Astrakhan, a city located between Europe and Asia. The motley world burst into his eyes with all its diversity and richness. The shop signs beckoned, the guest courtyard beckoned; attracted by Volga fairs, noisy bazaars, city gardens and quiet streets; colorful churches, bright, sparkling church utensils; folk customs and holidays - all this forever left its imprint on his emotional, receptive soul.

The artist loved Russia - calm, and bright, and lazy, and restless, and devoted all his work to it, to Russia.

Boris was born into the family of a teacher. Despite the fact that the Kustodievs had to face “financial hard times” more than once, the furnishings of the house were full of comfort, and even some grace. Music was played often. My mother played the piano and loved to sing with her nanny. Russian folk songs were often sung. Kustodiev’s love for all things folk was instilled in him from childhood.

First, Boris studied at a theological school, and then at a theological seminary. But the craving for drawing, which manifested itself since childhood, did not give up hope of learning the profession of an artist. By that time, Boris’s father had already died, and the Kustodievs did not have their own funds for studying; his uncle, his father’s brother, helped him. At first, Boris took lessons from the artist Vlasov, who came to Astrakhan for permanent residence. Vlasov taught the future artist a lot, and Kustodiev was grateful to him all his life. Boris enters the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg and studies brilliantly. He graduated from the Kustodiev Academy at the age of 25 with a gold medal and received the right to travel abroad and throughout Russia to improve his skills.

By this time, Kustodiev was already married to Yulia Evstafievna Proshina, with whom he was very much in love and with whom he lived his whole life. She was his muse, friend, assistant and adviser (and later, for many years, a nurse and caregiver). After graduating from the Academy, their son Kirill was already born. Together with his family, Kustodiev went to Paris. Paris delighted him, but he didn’t really like the exhibitions. Then he traveled (already alone) to Spain, where he became acquainted with Spanish painting, with artists, and shared his impressions with his wife in letters (she was waiting for him in Paris).

In the summer of 1904, the Kustodievs returned to Russia, settled in the Kostroma province, where they bought a piece of land and built their house, which they called “Terem”.

As a person, Kustodiev was attractive, but complex, mysterious and contradictory. He reunited in art the general and the particular, the eternal and the momentary; he is a master of psychological portraiture and the author of monumental, symbolic paintings. He was attracted by the passing past, and at the same time he vividly responded to the events of today: a world war, popular unrest, two revolutions...

Kustodiev worked with enthusiasm in a variety of genres and types of fine art: he painted portraits, everyday scenes, landscapes, and still lifes. He was engaged in painting, drawings, made decorations for performances, illustrations for books, and even created engravings.

Kustodiev is a faithful successor to the traditions of Russian realists. He was very fond of Russian folk popular print, which he used to stylize many of his works. He loved to depict colorful scenes from the life of the merchants, philistines, and people's life. With great love he painted merchants' documents, folk holidays, festivities, and Russian nature. For the “popularity” of his paintings, many at exhibitions scolded the artist, and then for a long time they could not move away from his canvases, quietly admiring him.

Kustodiev took an active part in the World of Art association and exhibited his paintings in exhibitions of the association.

At the 33rd year of his life, a serious illness fell upon Kustodiev, it shackled him and deprived him of the ability to walk. Having undergone two operations, the artist was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. My hands hurt a lot. But Kustodiev was a man of high spirit and illness did not force him to give up his favorite work. Kustodiev continued to write. Moreover, this was the period of the highest flowering of his creativity.

At the beginning of May 1927, on a windy day, Kustodiev caught a cold and contracted pneumonia. And on May 26 it quietly died out. His wife survived him by 15 years and died in Leningrad during the siege.

The painting was painted in Paris, where Kustodiev came with his wife and recently born son Kirill after graduating from the Academy.

A woman, who can easily be recognized as the artist’s wife, is bathing a child. “Birdie,” as the artist called him, does not “yell”, does not splash - he is quiet and intently examining - either a toy, some duckling, or just a sunbeam: there are so many of them around - on his wet strong body, on the edges of the pelvis , on the walls, on a lush bouquet of flowers!

The same Kustodiev type of woman is repeated: a sweet, gentle girl-beauty, about whom in Rus' they said “written”, “sugar”. The face is full of the same sweet charm that the heroines of Russian epics, folk songs and fairy tales are endowed with: a light blush, as they say, blood with milk, high arched eyebrows, a chiseled nose, a cherry mouth, a tight braid thrown over the chest... She is alive , real and incredibly attractive, alluring.

She lay half-lying on a hillock among daisies and dandelions, and behind her, under the mountain, unfolds such a wide Volga expanse, such an abundance of churches that it takes your breath away.

Kustodiev here merges this earthly, beautiful girl and this nature, this Volga expanse into a single inextricable whole. The girl is the highest, poetic symbol of this land, of all of Russia.

In an unusual way, the painting “Girl on the Volga” ended up far from Russia - in Japan.

One day Kustodiev and his friend actor Luzhsky were riding in a carriage and got into conversation with the cab driver. Kustodiev drew attention to the cab driver’s large, pitch-black beard and asked him: “Where are you going to come from?” “We are from Kerzhensk,” answered the coachman. "Old Believers, then?" - “Exactly, your honor.” - “So, there are a lot of you, coachmen, here in Moscow?” - “Yes, that’s enough. There’s a tavern on Sukharevka.” - “That’s great, that’s where we’ll go...”

The carriage stopped not far from the Sukharev Tower and they entered the low, stone building of Rostovtsev's tavern with thick walls. The smell of tobacco, fusel, boiled crayfish, pickles, and pies filled my nose.

Huge ficus. Reddish walls. Low vaulted ceiling. And in the center at the table sat reckless cab drivers in blue caftans and red sashes. They drank tea, concentrated and silent. The heads are cropped like a pot. Beards - one longer than the other. They drank tea, holding the saucers on their outstretched fingers... And immediately a picture was born in the artist’s brain...

Against the background of drunken red walls sit seven bearded, flushed cab drivers in bright blue robes with saucers in their hands. They behave sedately and sedately. They devoutly drink hot tea, getting burned by blowing on the saucer of tea. They are talking quietly, slowly, and one is reading a newspaper.

The floormen rush into the hall with teapots and trays, their dashingly curved bodies amusingly echo the line of teapots, ready to line up on the shelves behind the bearded innkeeper; the idle servant took a nap; The cat carefully licks its fur (a good sign for the owner - for guests!)

And all this action is in bright, sparkling, frantic colors - cheerfully painted walls, and also palm trees, paintings, and white tablecloths, and teapots with painted trays. The picture is perceived as lively and cheerful.

The festive city with towering churches, bell towers, clumps of frost-covered trees and smoke from chimneys can be seen from the mountain on which Maslenitsa fun unfolds.

The boyish fight is in full swing, snowballs are flying, the sleigh is climbing up the mountain and rushing further. Here sits a coachman in a blue caftan, and those sitting in the sleigh rejoice at the holiday. And a gray horse rushed towards them, driven by a lone driver, who turned slightly towards those riding behind, as if daring them to compete in speed.

And below - the carousel, the crowds at the booth, the rows of living rooms! And in the sky there are clouds of birds, alarmed by the festive ringing! And everyone rejoices, rejoicing in the holiday...

A burning, immense joy overwhelms, looking at the canvas, carries away into this daring holiday, in which not only people in sleighs, at carousels and booths rejoice, not only accordions and bells ring - here the whole vast earth, dressed in snow and frost, rejoices and rings, and every tree rejoices, every house, and the sky, and the church, and even the dogs rejoice along with the boys sledding.

This is a holiday for the whole land, the Russian land. The sky, snow, motley crowds of people, sleds - everything is colored with green-yellow, pink-blue iridescent colors.

The artist painted this portrait shortly after the wedding; it is full of tender feelings for his wife. At first he wanted to write it standing, at full height, on the steps of the porch, but then he sat his “Kolobochka” (as he affectionately called her in his letters) on the terrace.

Everything is very simple - an ordinary terrace of an old, slightly silvery tree, the greenery of the garden approaching it closely, a table covered with a white tablecloth, a rough bench. And a woman, still almost a girl, with a restrained and at the same time very trusting gaze directed at us... and in fact at him, who came to this quiet corner and will now take her somewhere with him.

The dog stands and looks at the owner - calmly and at the same time, as if expecting that now she will get up and they will go somewhere.

A kind, poetic world lies behind the heroine of the picture, so dear to the artist himself, who joyfully recognizes it in other people close to him.

Fairs in the village of Semenovskoye were famous throughout the Kostroma province. On Sunday, the ancient village flaunts all its fair decorations, standing at the crossroads of old roads.

The owners laid out their goods on the counters: arches, shovels, birch bark beetroot, painted rollers, children's whistles, sieves. But most of all, perhaps, bast shoes, and therefore the name of the village is Semenovskoye-Lapotnoye. And in the center of the village there is a church - squat, strong.

The talkative fair is noisy and ringing. Human melodious talk merges with bird hubbub; the jackdaws in the bell tower staged their own fair.

Loud invitations are heard all around: “Here are the pretzel pies! Who cares about the heat, has a brown eye!”

- “Baps, there are bast shoes! Fast!”

_ “Oh, the box is full! Colored prints, incredible ones, about Foma, about Katenka, about Boris and about Prokhor!”

On the one hand, the artist depicted a girl gazing at the bright dolls, and on the other, a boy gaped at a bent bird-whistle, lagging behind his grandfather in the center of the picture. He calls him - “Where are you withering, you lack of hearing?”

And above the rows of counters, the awnings almost merge with each other, their gray panels smoothly turning into the dark roofs of distant huts. And then there are green distances, blue skies...

Fabulous! A purely Russian fair of colors, and it sounds like an accordion - iridescent and ringing!..

In the winter of 1920, Fyodor Chaliapin, as a director, decided to stage the opera “Enemy Power”, and Kustodiev was entrusted with the decorations. In this regard, Chaliapin stopped by the artist’s home. Came in from the cold wearing a fur coat. He exhaled noisily - the white steam stopped in the cold air - there was no heating in the house, there was no firewood. Chaliapin said something about his probably freezing fingers, and Kustodiev could not take his eyes off his ruddy face, from his rich, picturesque fur coat. It would seem that the eyebrows are inconspicuous, whitish, and the eyes are faded, gray, but he is handsome! That's who to draw! This singer is a Russian genius, and his appearance should be preserved for posterity. And the fur coat! What a fur coat he's wearing!..

“Fyodor Ivanovich! Would you pose in this fur coat,” Kustodiev asked. “Is it clever, Boris Mikhailovich? The fur coat is good, but perhaps it was stolen,” Chaliapin muttered. “Are you kidding, Fyodor Ivanovich?” “No. A week ago I received it for a concert from some institution. They didn’t have the money or flour to pay me. So they offered me a fur coat.” “Well, we’ll fix it on the canvas... It’s too smooth and silky.”

And so Kustodiev took a pencil and began to draw cheerfully. And Chaliapin began to sing “Oh, you little night...” To the singing of Fyodor Ivanovich, the artist created this masterpiece.

Against the backdrop of a Russian city, a giant man, his fur coat wide open. He is important and representative in this luxurious, picturesquely open fur coat, with a ring on his hand and with a cane. Chaliapin is so dignified that you involuntarily remember how a certain spectator, seeing him in the role of Godunov, admiringly remarked: “A real king, not an impostor!”

And in his face we can feel a restrained (he already knew his worth) interest in everything around him.

Everything is dear to him here! The devil is grimacing on the stage of the booth. Trotters rush down the street or stand peacefully waiting for their riders. A bunch of multi-colored balls sway over the market square. A tipsy man moves his feet to the accordion. Shopkeepers are trading briskly, and there is a tea party in the cold near a huge samovar.

And above all this the sky is no, not blue, it is greenish, this is because the smoke is yellow. And of course, the favorite jackdaws in the sky. They provide an opportunity to express the bottomlessness of the heavenly space, which has always so attracted and tormented the artist...

All this has lived in Chaliapin himself since childhood. In some ways he resembles a simple-minded native of these places who, having succeeded in life, came to his native Palestine to show himself in all his splendor and glory, and at the same time is eager to prove that he has not forgotten anything and has not lost any of his former dexterity and strength.

How Yesenin’s passionate lines fit here:

"To hell, I'm taking off my English suit:

Well, give me the braid - I'll show you -

Am I not one of you, am I not close to you,

Don’t I value the memory of the village?”

And it looks like something similar is about to fall from Fyodor Ivanovich’s lips and his luxurious fur coat will fly into the snow.

But the merchant’s wife admires herself in a new shawl painted with flowers. This is how Pushkin’s poem comes to mind: “Am I the cutest in the world, the most ruddy and whitest of all?..” And standing in the doorway, admiring his wife is her husband, a merchant who probably brought her this shawl from the fair. And he is happy that he was able to bring this joy to his beloved wife...

It’s a hot sunny day, the water sparkles from the sun, mixing the reflections of the intensely blue sky, perhaps promising a thunderstorm, and the trees from the steep bank, as if melted on top by the sun. On the shore, something is being loaded into a boat. The roughly built bathhouse is also hot from the sun; the shadow inside is light, almost does not hide the women's bodies.

The picture is full of greedily, sensually perceived life, its everyday flesh. The free play of light and shadows, reflections of the sun in the water makes us remember the mature Kustodiev’s interest in impressionism.

Provincial town. Tea party. A young beautiful merchant's wife sits on the balcony on a warm evening. She is serene, like the evening sky above her. This is some kind of naive goddess of fertility and abundance. It’s not for nothing that the table in front of her is bursting with food: next to the samovar, gilded utensils, there are fruits and baked goods in plates.

A gentle blush sets off the whiteness of the sleek face, black eyebrows are slightly raised, blue eyes are carefully examining something in the distance. According to Russian custom, she drinks tea from a saucer, supporting it with her plump fingers. A cozy cat gently rubs against the owner’s shoulder, the wide neckline of the dress reveals the immensity of her round chest and shoulders. In the distance one can see the terrace of another house, where a merchant and a merchant's wife are sitting at the same occupation.

Here the everyday picture clearly develops into a fantastic allegory of a carefree life and earthly bounties bestowed upon man. And the artist slyly admires the most magnificent beauty, as if one of the sweetest fruits of the earth. Only the artist “grounded” her image a little - her body became a little plumper, her fingers plump...

It seems incredible that this huge painting was created by a seriously ill artist a year before his death and in the most unfavorable conditions (in the absence of canvas, they stretched the old painting onto a stretcher with the reverse side). Only love for life, joy and cheerfulness, love for one’s own, Russian, dictated to him the painting “Russian Venus”.

The woman’s young, healthy, strong body glows, her teeth shine in her shy and at the same time innocently proud smile, the light plays in her silky flowing hair. It was as if the sun itself entered the usually dark bathhouse together with the heroine of the picture - and everything here lit up! The light shimmers in the soap foam (which the artist whipped in a basin with one hand and wrote with the other); the wet ceiling, on which clouds of steam were reflected, suddenly became like the sky with lush clouds. The door to the dressing room is open, and from there through the window you can see a sunlit winter city in frost, a horse in harness.

The natural, deeply national ideal of health and beauty was embodied in the “Russian Venus”. This beautiful image became a powerful final chord of the richest “Russian symphony” created by the artist in his painting.

With this painting, the artist wanted, according to his son, to cover the entire cycle of human life. Although some connoisseurs of painting argued that Kustodiev was talking about the wretched existence of a tradesman, limited by the walls of the house. But this was not typical for Kustodiev - he loved the simple, peaceful life of ordinary people.

The picture is multi-figured and multi-valued. Here is a simple-minded provincial love duet of a girl sitting in an open window with a young man leaning against the fence, and if you move your gaze a little to the right, you seem to see a continuation of this romance in the woman with the child.

Look to the left - and in front of you is a most picturesque group: a policeman is peacefully playing checkers with a bearded man in the street, next to them a naive and beautiful-hearted man is speaking - in a hat and poor, but neat clothes, and gloomily listening to his speech, looking up from the newspaper, sitting near his establishment coffin master

And above, as the result of your whole life, is a peaceful tea party with someone who has gone through all life’s joys and hardships hand in hand.

And the mighty poplar, adjacent to the house and seemingly blessing it with its thick foliage, is not just a landscape detail, but almost a kind of double of human existence - the tree of life with its various branches.

And everything goes away, the viewer’s gaze goes up, to the boy illuminated by the sun, and to the doves soaring in the sky.

No, this picture definitely does not look like an arrogant or even slightly condescending, but still a guilty verdict to the inhabitants of the “blue house”!

Full of inescapable love for life, the artist, in the words of the poet, blesses “every blade of grass in the field, and every star in the sky” and affirms family closeness, the connection between “blades of grass” and “stars,” everyday prose and poetry.

Wallpaper in flowers, an ornate chest on which a lush bed is arranged, covered with a blanket, the pillowcases somehow show through the body. And from all this excessive abundance, like Aphrodite from the foam of the sea, the heroine of the picture is born.

Before us is a lush beauty, limp from sleeping on the feather bed. Throwing back the thick pink blanket, she lowered her feet onto the soft footrest. With inspiration, Kustodiev sings of chaste, Russian female beauty, popular among the people: bodily luxury, the purity of light blue affectionate eyes, an open smile.

The lush roses on the chest and the blue wallpaper behind her are in tune with the image of the beauty. By stylizing it as a splint, the artist made it “a little more” - both the fullness of the body and the brightness of the colors. But this bodily abundance did not cross the line beyond which it would have become unpleasant.

And the woman is beautiful and majestic, like the wide Volga behind her. This is the beautiful Russian Elena, who knows the power of her beauty, for which some merchant of the first guild chose her as his wife. This is a beauty sleeping in reality, standing high above the river, like a slender white-trunked birch tree, the personification of peace and contentment.

She is wearing a long, silk-shimmering dress of an alarming purple color, her hair is parted in the middle, a dark braid, pear earrings glitter in her ears, a warm blush on her cheeks, and a shawl decorated with patterns on her hand.

She fits as naturally into the Volga landscape with its beauty and spaciousness as the world around her: there is a church, and birds are flying, and the river is flowing, steamboats are sailing, and a young merchant couple is walking - they also admired the beautiful merchant's wife.

Everything moves, runs, but she stands as a symbol of the constant, the best that was, is and will be.

From left to right:

I.E.Grabar, N.K.Roerich, E.E.Lancere, B.M.Kustodiev, I.Ya.Bilibin, A.P.Ostrumova-Lebedeva, A.N.Benois, G.I.Narbut, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, N.D. Milioti, K.A. Somov, M.V. Dobuzhinsky.

This portrait was commissioned from Kustodiev for the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist did not dare to paint it for a long time, feeling a high responsibility. But in the end he agreed and started working.

I thought for a long time about who and how to seat and introduce. He wanted not just to put them in a row, as in a photograph, but to show each artist as a Personality, with his character, characteristics, to emphasize his talent.

Twelve people had to be portrayed during the discussion. Oh, these sizzling disputes of the “World of Art”! The disputes are verbal, but more pictorial - with lines, paints...

Here is Bilibin, an old friend from the Academy of Arts. A joker and a merry fellow, a connoisseur of ditties and old songs, who, despite his stutter, can pronounce the longest and funniest toasts. That’s why he stands here, like a toastmaster, with a glass raised with a graceful movement of his hand. The Byzantine beard rose, eyebrows raised upward in bewilderment.

What was the conversation at the table about? It seems that gingerbread cookies were brought to the table, and Benoit found the letters “I.B.” on them.

Benoit turned to Bilibin with a smile: “Admit, Ivan Yakovlevich, these are your initials. Did you make a drawing for the bakers? Do you earn capital?” Bilibin laughed and jokingly began ranting about the history of the creation of gingerbread in Rus'.

But to the left of Bilibin sit Lanceray and Roerich. Everyone argues, but Roerich thinks, he doesn’t think, but he thinks. An archaeologist, historian, philosopher, educator with the makings of a prophet, a cautious man with the manners of a diplomat, he does not like to talk about himself, about his art. But his painting says so much that there is already a whole group of interpreters of his work, which finds in his painting elements of mystery, magic, and foresight. Roerich was elected chairman of the newly organized society "World of Art".

The wall is green. On the left is a bookcase and a bust of a Roman emperor. Tiled yellow and white stove. Everything is the same as in Dobuzhinsky’s house, where the first meeting of the founders of the World of Art took place.

At the center of the group is Benoit, a critic and theorist, an unquestioned authority. Kustodiev has a complex relationship with Benoit. Benoit is a wonderful artist. His favorite topics are life at the court of Louis XV and Catherine II, Versailles, fountains, palace interiors.

On the one hand, Benois liked Kustodiev’s paintings, but condemned that there was nothing European in them.

On the right is Konstantin Andreevich Somov, a calm and balanced figure. His portrait was easy to paint. Maybe because he reminded Kustodiev of a clerk? The artist has always been successful with Russian types. The starched collar is white, the cuffs of a fashionable speckled shirt, the black suit is ironed, sleek, plump hands are folded on the table. There is an expression of equanimity, contentment on the face...

The owner of the house is an old friend Dobuzhinsky. How many things we experienced with him in St. Petersburg!..How many different memories!..

Dobuzhinsky's pose seems to successfully express disagreement with something.

But Petrov-Vodkin abruptly pushed back his chair and turned around. He is diagonally from Bilibin. Petrov-Vodkin burst into the artistic world noisily and boldly, which some artists, for example Repin, did not like; they have a completely different view of art, a different vision.

On the left is a clear profile of Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar. Stocky, with a not very well-built figure, a shaved square head, he is full of keen interest in everything that happens...

And here he is, Kustodiev himself. He depicted himself from the back, in half profile. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, sitting next to him, is a new member of society. An energetic woman with a masculine character is having a conversation with Petrov-Vodkin...

Kustodiev Boris Mikhailovich
Born: February 23 (March 7), 1878.
Died: May 28, 1927 (age 49).

Biography

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev February 23 (March 7) 1878, Astrakhan - May 26, 1927, Leningrad) - Russian artist.

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev, originally from the family of a gymnasium teacher, began studying painting in Astrakhan with P. A. Vlasov in 1893-1896.

Boris Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan. His father was a professor of philosophy, history of literature and taught logic at the local theological seminary.

His father died when the future artist was not even two years old. Boris studied at a parish school, then at a gymnasium. From the age of 15 he took drawing lessons from a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts P. Vlasov.

In 1896 he entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He studied first in the workshop of V. E. Savinsky, and from the second year - with I. E. Repin. He took part in the work on Repin’s painting “The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901” (1901–1903, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg). Despite the fact that the young artist gained wide fame as a portrait painter, for his competition work Kustodiev chose a genre theme (“At the Market”) and in the fall of 1900 he went to the Kostroma province in search of nature. Here Kustodiev meets his future wife Yu. E. Poroshinskaya. On October 31, 1903, he completed the course with a gold medal and the right to an annual pensioner’s trip abroad and throughout Russia. Even before completing the course, he took part in international exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Munich (big gold medal of the International Association).

In December 1903, he came to Paris with his wife and son. During his trip, Kustodiev visited Germany, Italy, Spain, studied and copied the works of old masters. Entered the studio of Rene Menard.

Six months later, Kustodiev returned to Russia and worked in the Kostroma province on the series of paintings “Fairs” and “Village Holidays”. In 1904 he became a founding member of the New Society of Artists. In 1905–1907 worked as a cartoonist in the satirical magazine “Zhupel” (the famous drawing “Introduction. Moscow”), after its closure - in the magazines “Hell Mail” and “Iskra”. Since 1907 - member of the Union of Russian Artists. In 1909, on the recommendation of Repin and other professors, he was elected a member of the Academy of Arts. At the same time, Kustodiev was offered to replace Serov as a teacher of the portrait-genre class at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, but, fearing that this activity would take a lot of time from personal work and not wanting to move to Moscow, Kustodiev refused the position. Since 1910 - a member of the renewed "World of Art".

1913 - taught at the New Art Workshop (St. Petersburg). 1923 - member of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia. In 1909, Kustodiev showed the first signs of a spinal cord tumor. Several operations brought only temporary relief; for the last 15 years of his life, the artist was confined to a wheelchair. Due to illness at work, he was forced to write while lying down. However, it was during this difficult period of his life that his most vivid, temperamental, and cheerful works appeared.

He lived in Petrograd-Leningrad during the post-revolutionary years. He was buried at the Nikolskoye cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1948, the ashes and monument were moved to the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Wife - Kustodieva Yu. E.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

1914 - apartment building - Ekateringofsky Avenue, 105;
1915 - 05/26/1927 - apartment building of E.P. Mikhailov - Vvedenskaya street, 7, apt. 50.

Illustrations and book graphics

In 1905–1907 he worked in the satirical magazines “Zhupel” (the famous drawing “Introduction. Moscow”), “Hell Mail” and “Iskra”.

Kustodiev, who has a keen sense of line, performed cycles of illustrations for classical works and for the creations of his contemporaries (illustrations for Leskov’s works “The Darner”, 1922, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District”, 1923).

Possessing a strong touch, he worked in the technique of lithography and engraving on linoleum.

Painting

Kustodiev began his career as a portrait artist. Already while working on sketches for Repin’s “Great Meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901,” student Kustodiev showed his talent as a portrait painter. In sketches and portrait sketches for this multi-figure composition, he coped with the task of achieving similarities with Repin’s creative style. But Kustodiev the portrait painter was closer to Serov. Painterly plasticity, free long strokes, bright characteristics of appearance, emphasis on the artistry of the model - these were mostly portraits of fellow students and teachers of the Academy - but without Serov's psychologism. Kustodiev was incredibly fast for a young artist, but deservedly won fame as a portrait painter among the press and customers. However, according to A. Benoit:

“... the real Kustodiev is a Russian fair, motley, “big-eyed” calicoes, a barbaric “fight of colors”, a Russian suburb and a Russian village, with their accordions, gingerbread, dressed up girls and dashing guys... I claim that this is his real sphere, his real joy... When he writes fashionable ladies and respectable citizens, it is completely different - boring, sluggish, often even tasteless. And it seems to me that it’s not the plot, but the approach to it.”

Already from the beginning of the 1900s, Boris Mikhailovich was developing a unique genre of portrait, or rather, portrait-picture, portrait-type, in which the model is linked together with the surrounding landscape or interior. At the same time, this is a generalized image of a person and his unique individuality, revealing it through the world surrounding the model. In their form, these portraits are related to the genre images-types of Kustodiev (“Self-portrait” (1912), portraits of A. I. Anisimov (1915), F. I. Chaliapin (1922)).

But Kustodiev’s interests went beyond the portrait: it was no coincidence that he chose a genre painting (“At the Bazaar” (1903), not preserved) for his diploma work. In the early 1900s, for several years in a row he went to perform field work in the Kostroma province. In 1906, Kustodiev appeared with works that were new in their concept - a series of canvases on the themes of brightly festive peasant and provincial petty-bourgeois-merchant life (“Balagany”, “Maslenitsa”), in which the features of Art Nouveau are visible. The works are spectacular and decorative, revealing the Russian character through the everyday genre. On a deeply realistic basis, Kustodiev created a poetic dream, a fairy tale about provincial Russian life. In these works, great importance is attached to line, drawing, and color spots; forms are generalized and simplified - the artist turns to gouache and tempera. The artist's works are characterized by stylization - he studies Russian parsuna of the 16th–18th centuries, lubok, signs of provincial shops and taverns, and folk crafts.

Subsequently, Kustodiev gradually shifted more and more towards an ironic stylization of folk and, especially, the life of the Russian merchants with a riot of colors and flesh (“Beauty”, “Russian Venus”, “Merchant’s Wife at Tea”).

Theater works

Like many artists of the turn of the century, Kustodiev also worked in the theater, transferring his vision of the work to the theater stage. The scenery performed by Kustodiev was colorful, close to his genre painting, but this was not always perceived as an advantage: creating a bright and convincing world, carried away by its material beauty, the artist sometimes did not coincide with the author’s plan and the director’s reading of the play (“The Death of Pazukhin” by Saltykov- Shchedrin, 1914, Moscow Art Theater; “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky, which never saw the light of day, 1918). In his later works for the theater, he moves away from a chamber interpretation to a more generalized one, seeks greater simplicity, builds the stage space, giving freedom to the director when constructing mise-en-scenes. Kustodiev's success was his design work in 1918–1920. opera performances (1920, “The Tsar’s Bride”, Bolshoi Opera Theater of the People’s House; 1918, “Snow Maiden”, Bolshoi Theater (not staged)). Scenery sketches, costumes and props for A. Serov’s opera “The Power of the Enemy” (Academic (former Mariinsky) Theater, 1921)

The productions of Zamyatin’s “The Flea” (1925, Moscow Art Theater 2nd; 1926, Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater) were successful. According to the memoirs of the director of the play A.D. Dikiy:

“It was so vivid, so precise that my role as a director accepting sketches was reduced to zero - I had nothing to correct or reject. It was as if he, Kustodiev, had been in my heart, overheard my thoughts, read Leskov’s story with the same eyes as me, and equally saw it in stage form. ... I have never had such complete, such inspiring like-mindedness with an artist as when working on the play “The Flea.” I learned the full meaning of this community when Kustodiev’s farcical, bright decorations appeared on the stage, and props and props made according to his sketches appeared. The artist led the entire performance, taking, as it were, the first part in the orchestra, which obediently and sensitively sounded in unison.”

After 1917, the artist participated in the decoration of Petrograd for the first anniversary of the October Revolution, painted posters, popular prints and paintings on revolutionary themes (“Bolshevik”, 1919–1920, Tretyakov Gallery; “Celebration in honor of the 2nd Congress of the Comintern on Uritsky Square”, 1921 , Russian Museum).

Memory

In 1978, a series of stamps with a post block and an artistic marked envelope were published, dedicated to the artist and his work. Also, an artistic marked envelope with the image of B. M. Kustodiev was released in 2003 (artist B. Ilyukhin, circulation 1,000,000 copies).

In Astrakhan, next to the Astrakhan Art Gallery named after P. M. Dogadin, there is a monument to Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev.

House-Museum of Kustodiev B.M. in Astrakhan is located at st. Kalinina, 26 / st. Sverdlova, 68.

A street in the Vyborg district of St. Petersburg is named after B. M. Kustodiev.