Portrait of parsnip in good quality. Pasternak, Leonid Osipovich

Leonid Osipovich Pasternak - Russian artist, representative of Art Nouveau, original painter and graphic artist, master genre compositions And book illustration. Father of the poet Boris Pasternak.

The name of Leonid Pasternak is well known to lovers of fine art, primarily as the creator of illustrations for Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection.” The artist’s works are kept in many museums in Russia and abroad. Numerous creative heritage includes both paintings and graphics, in which drawing occupies a significant place. It is in this technique that the talent of Leonid Pasternak is especially clearly revealed.

Self-portrait

Pasternak spent his childhood and youth in Odessa. According to the artist’s recollections, he “began to draw very early and fell in love with this activity very much.” As a high school student, Pasternak entered the Odessa Drawing School of the Encouragement Society fine arts and graduated from it in 1881 with a silver medal. Did the parents not approve of the young man's aspirations for professional pursuits art. Therefore, he entered the medical faculty of Moscow University. In MoscowParsniptried to get into the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Zodiacchildhood, butthere were no vacancies. It is translated intoOdessato the Faculty of Law of Novorossiysk University, Withwhose students had the right to travel abroad.

In 1882yearLeonid Pasternak leaves for Munichen.The Academy of Arts in Munich was considered in those years one of the best art schools in Western Europe, and it was especially famous for teaching drawing.

In 1885 Pasternak returned to Odessa, graduated from university,receiving a law degree. He needed to go military service and he doesto the artilleryvolunteer.Impressions from the warriorservice were reflected in the first great job“News from the Motherland”, with which the artist debuted at the exhibition of the Partnership of Mobile art exhibitions in 1889. The picture was a success and was acquired by Tretyakoveven before the opening of the exhibition.

News from home. 1889

The drawings made in Munich also made a great impression on the audience. In my memoriesLeonid Pasternakwrote: “I soon established a reputation as a real draftsman, not only among young comrades, but also among famous old Itinerant artists.”

Pasternak goes home to Odessa, and here, in his homeland, he meets and falls in love with charming girl, the brilliant pianist Rosalia Kaufman. She did dizzying musical career, was a professor music classes Odessa branch of the Imperial Russian musical society. But she preferred quiet to her success and fame. family happiness. Rosalia's parents were rich; they had a monopoly on the sale of seltzer water in the south of Russia. The wedding took place in Moscow in 1889, where the artist moved from Odessa.

Pasternak with his wife Rosalia Isidorovna

In Moscow, Pasternak became close to the artists grouped around Polenov: Serov, Korovin, Levitan, Vrubel. This art group played important role in the formation of Russian art of the 20th century. The artists were united by the desire to convey paintings direct vision of the world, the desire for emotional and decorative expressiveness of color. These tasks were close to the creative search of Leonid Pasternak. In the drawing “Artist N. D. Kuznetsov at work” (1887), the free, soft manner of execution conveys the light-air environment of the workshop.

To my family. 1891

In 1894, Leonid Pasternak was invited to teach at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

Light becomes the basis for the emotional expressiveness of the drawing and creates an atmosphere of creative concentration. In the paintings “Debutante” (1892), “Reading the Manuscript” (1894), “On the Eve of Exams” (1894) light and color scheme not only create a certain mood, but also reveal the inner state of the characters. The artist was especially attracted to the effects of evening lighting.

On the eve of exams. 1894

The marriage of Leonid Pasternak and Rosa Kaufman turned out to be extremely happy. A year after the wedding, the young couple’s first child, Boris, the future great Russian poet, is born. Three years later - son Alexander, a future prominent architect. His wife and children often visit their parents in Odessa, and Leonid Osipovich also comes here in the summer. Rosalia Kaufman gave birth to four children for her husband and never regretted leaving the musical field.

Leonid Pasternak, Boris Pasternak, Rosalia Pasternak, Alexander Parsnip , Berta Kaufman, Josephine Parsnip and Lydia Pasternak

Sons Boris and Alexander

LeonidPasternak createdportrait gallery of prominent cultural figures:writerth L. N. Tolstoy and Gorky, poets Verhaeren and Rilke, musicians Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Chaliapin, artists Korovin and Serov...

Pasternak's creativity attracts with sincerity, high professional skill and constitutes one of best pages Russian graphics.

Leonid OsipovichPasternak was one of the founding members of the Union of Russian Artists, which arose in 1903. Along with Serov, Korovin, Nesterov and VrubelParsnipstood at the origins of creationassociations. Exhibitionspaintings by artists of this union were major event, from them it was possible to judge the paths of development andsuccessesRussian art.

Portrait of son Boris, 1917

Boris Pasternak will write about his father:"Dad!" But, after all, this is a sea of ​​tears, sleepless nights and, if I were to write it down, volumes, volumes, volumes. Surprise at the perfection of his skill and gift, at the ease with which he worked (jokingly and playfully, like Mozart) at the multitude and significance of what he accomplished - the surprise is all the more vivid and ardent because comparisons on all these points shame and humiliate me. I wrote to him that there is no need to be offended, that his gigantic merits are not appreciated even in a hundredth part, while I have to burn with shame when my role is so monstrously inflated and overestimated... I wrote to dad... that, ultimately, he triumphs yet he, he, who lived such a true, unfictional, interesting, moving, rich life, partly in its blessed 19th century, partly in loyalty to it, and not in the wild, devastated unreal and fraudulent twentieth..."

In 1921, Leonid Osipovich and Rosalia Isidorovna left for Germany for treatment: the artist needed eye surgery. Their daughters go with them, and their sons Boris and Alexander remain in Moscow.

When leaving, the Pasternaks thought that it would not be for long and kept their Soviet passports. But a happy fate saves them from returning to the USSR: after the operation, Leonid Osipovich’s eyes appear so much interesting topics and the work that needs to be completed in Germany, that he keeps postponing and postponing his return.

In 1927 and 1932, two personal exhibitions Pasternak. During this period his interest in Jewish theme, he publishes in Russian and Hebrew the most interesting monograph “Rembrandt and Jewry in his work.”

In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany, and the dark era of Nazism began. Pasternak and his wife leave to join their daughters, who by that time already live in England.

In June 1935, Boris Pasternak was in Paris at the anti-fascist congress. Thirty years later last time saw my brotherJosephinewrote down the impressions of this meeting: “In the summer of 1935, in Munich, our family received news that on such and such a day Boris would spend several hours in Berlin on his way to Paris. My parents were with us at that time in Munich, and since they did not feel completely healthy and could not accompany us, my husband and I went to Berlin alone.<…>It was clear that he was in a state of acute depression<…>But the more I looked and listened to Boris’s words, the more I felt the pain of parting with something infinitely dear to me. I so deeply loved his uniqueness, his incomparable truthfulness, the purity of his poetic vision, his unwillingness and inability to make concessions in art.”

Died in August 1939Rosa Kaufman - artist's wife, from a heart attack. As Josephine Pasternak writes to Mikhail Poizner, shedied during a thunderstorm, which she was very afraid of. Two days later, World War II began.

Despite bereavement And old age the artist continues to work. During the war years he created the paintings “Bach and Frederick the Great”, “Mendelssohn conducting Handel’s Messiah”, “Tolstoy at his desk”, “Pushkin and the nanny”, “Scenes from Soviet life”.

Leonid Pasternak greeted the message about the victory over fascism and the end of World War II. He died on May 31, 1945. He was eighty-three years old. A life-long road in which an entire era is reflected.

To relatives 1891

Under the lamp, Leo Tolstoy in the family circle. 1902

Portrait of E. Levina. 1917

Illustration for L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection.”

April 3rd, 2012

It's hard to tell which direction artistic creativity Leonid Osipovich Pasternak succeeded to the greatest extent. Fans of book illustration admire his drawings for the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "Resurrection". Supporters of graphic works view his lithographs with satisfaction. His pastel paintings also brought the artist wide fame. Finally, the works done in oil testify to L. Pasternak’s extraordinary gift as a painter.

Leonid Pasternak To his family 1891

Let us turn to the fate and creativity of Leonid Osipovich Pasternak (according to Jewish name he is Abraham Leib ben Yosef, but it was not possible to determine when he changed the original name given to the Jew on the eighth day of his life).

Leonid Pasternak (photo 1880)
Leonid Pasternak Self-portrait 1908

He was born in Odessa in 1862. The father of the future artist maintained an inn on the outskirts of the city. Mother, like most Jewish women in the Pale of Settlement, was illiterate, but she was smart and strong man. Leonid is the youngest of six children in the family and the most beloved.

The boy's ability to draw appeared very early, but this only annoyed his parents: they rooted for him in their souls and wanted him to go out into the world - to become a pharmacist, doctor or attorney at law. And the boy pulled the cooled coals out of the stove and painted both the floor and the walls with them. At the age of 7, he already met his first “patron of the arts”: he was a janitor, an art lover, who ordered the boy’s drawings for a small fee.

Young Pasternak graduated from the Odessa Drawing School (1881), studied at private studio E.S. Sorokin in Moscow (1882). At the request of his parents, he studies at the Faculty of Medicine for a year, then at law, but his talent and desire to do what he loves take over: Leonid enters the Royal Munich Academy of Painting through a competition and goes to Germany. These were three years (1882-1885) of inspired and intense work, the development of his professional skills. His studies have ended, and within a year Leonid undergoes mandatory military service in the artillery unit, but devotes every free minute to drawing.

After the service, he goes home to Odessa, and here he meets, falls in love and is rewarded with the reciprocation of a wonderful girl, by that time already a famous pianist in Russia, Rosalia Kaufman.

L.O.Pasternak with his wife Rosalia Isidorovna

Rosalia at 13 years old

L. Pasternak Self-portrait with his wife, 1927

Their wedding took place in Moscow in 1889. And as a wedding gift, it’s also good luck: at the exhibition of the Itinerants, where Pasternak gave the painting “News from the Motherland,” Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov buys it for his gallery.

L. Pasternak News from the Motherland 1889

This gave Pasternak the opportunity to make a trip to Paris, which he had dreamed of all his life. After the trip, the artist’s style changes somewhat, his brush and pencil become more free and refined.
In 1890, a son, Boris, the future remarkable Russian poet, was born into the Pasternak family. T. The artist's other son, Alexander, would become a prominent architect.

L.O.Pasternak with his wife and sons

L. Pasternak. Sons Boris and Alexander

Successes L.O. Pasternak in development artistic skill allowed him to open his art school in Moscow. He is invited to teach at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he becomes one of the leading teachers. Pasternak would remain in this position for more than a quarter of a century. Obtaining this position, like all changes in his life, was accompanied by another test of fortitude. Pasternak knew that candidacies for professors were approved by the head of the school council, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, a known anti-Semite. It would seem that the simplest move that many Russian Jews were forced to resort to was to be baptized, change the faith of their fathers, and then the obstacle was removed. But Leonid Pasternak, in a letter to the school inspector Prince Lvov, states: “I grew up in a Jewish family and will never agree to leave Jewishness for a career or generally to improve my social position.”

L. Pasternak Meeting of the Council of Artists - Teachers of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. 1902

So Pasternak passed the test of fortitude and devotion to his people, and Grand Duke signed the desired appointment. strengthened financial situation a family where by 1902 four children were already growing up.

L. Pasternak's first genre works brought him closer to the painters, the future founders of the Union of Russian Artists, in which L. O. Pasternak would play one of the leading roles.

At the next exhibition of the Itinerants, Leonid Pasternak's painting "Debutante" attracts the attention of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. They are introduced, and the Pasternaks become Tolstoy’s frequent guests in Moscow and Yasnaya Polyana, where the artist draws a writer surrounded by family and friends, busy creative work and physical labor.

.
Portrait of Leo Tolstoy

L. Pasternak. Under the lamp,L.N. Tolstoy in the family circle, 1902.

Many of the artist’s paintings from Tolstoy’s series are now in the Tretyakov Gallery. Pasternak also created wonderful illustrations for “War and Peace” and “Resurrection,” which were approved by Tolstoy himself and awarded a medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900.

L. Pasternak Illustration for Leo Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection". While reading. Nekhlyudov reads to Katyusha.
L. Pasternak Illustration for Leo Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection". In the courtroom

The artist made a significant contribution to establishing the uniqueness of the Moscow school of painting. He was one of the first to consider the art of book illustration as an independent artistic genre.
When the artist was 43 years old, St. Petersburg Academy Arts elected him academician of painting.

Traveling a lot around Western Europe, L.O. Pasternak paints portraits of many cultural and scientific figures (among them is a portrait of A. Einstein).

In the years leading up to October revolution, Pasternak participates in international exhibitions in Germany, Austria, France, in the first post-revolutionary years he took part in a number of Russian exhibitions.

IN Soviet times the artist spends considerable time first in Germany, then in England.

In 1921, Leonid Osipovich and Rosalia Isidorovna left for Germany for treatment: the artist needed eye surgery. Their daughters go with them, and their sons Boris and Alexander remain in Moscow.

Rosalia, Lydia, Josephine and Leonid Pasternak upon arrival in Berlin in 1921

When leaving, the Pasternaks thought that it would not be for long and kept their Soviet passports. But a happy fate saves them from returning to the USSR: after eye surgery, Leonid Osipovich has so many interesting topics and works that need to be completed in Germany that he postpones and postpones his return.

L. Pasternak Self-portrait in a yellow robe
Loris Corinth Portrait of Leonid Pasternak 1923

In 1927 and 1932, two personal exhibitions of Pasternak were held in Berlin. During this period, his interest in Jewish themes intensified; he published in Russian and Hebrew the most interesting monograph “Rembrandt and Jewry in his work.”
In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany, and the dark era of Nazism began. Pasternak and his wife leave to join their daughters, who by that time already live in England.
Leonid Pasternak died in Oxford on May 31, 1945.
The artist’s works are today presented in many museums and private collections in Europe, America, Asia and Australia.

Here are some of his most famous works:

L. Pasternak At work. Etude

L. Pasternak. Music lesson 1909

L. Pasternak The night before the exam 1895. Musee d'Orsay, Paris

L. Pasternak Moscow concert of Wanda Landowska 1907

On the shore, 1906

In the interior. 1907

At the window. Autumn. 1913.

L. Pasternak Moscow in the winter of 1912
L. Pasternak R. Rilke in Moscow 1928

Portrait of E. Levina. 1917

L. Pasternak. Unloading wagons in the Odessa port. 1912.

Golden autumn. Vorovyovy Gory

Leonid Osipovich was given a lot by fate: loving parents, wife - kindest soul a man, his devoted friend and assistant, capable and beautiful children, one of whom is the brilliant poet Boris Pasternak. The artist had a happy fate, and he deserved this happiness.

L.O. died Pasternak on May 31, 1945 in Oxford, and years later, on the gravestone, the daughters inscribed a verse by Boris Pasternak, who had passed away by that time:

“Farewell to the spread wingspan, free perseverance of flight, and the image of the world revealed in words, and creativity and miracle-working.”

Fate favored the artist: he left this world long before his firstborn wrote the novel “Doctor Zhivago”, and in it, putting his innermost thoughts into the mouths of the main characters: “The Jewish people must be “dissolved” in the name of deliverance from suffering and given they are free to join Christianity,” or: “There is no beauty among the Jews, while Christianity is permeated with an aesthetic principle,” and many other sayings unworthy of either their righteous father, the painter, or the great ancestor of King David, to whose family they, the Pasternaks, , belonged to (blog.i.ua)

Leonid Osipovich Pasternak(1862-1945) - Russian painter and graphic artist Jewish origin, a magnificent master of book illustration, and also versatile and very talented person, who managed to convey his talent and Creative skills to his children, among whom was worldwide famous writer Boris Pasternak. But, unfortunately, the name itself genius artist Ironically long years was in oblivion.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Pasternak-020.jpg" alt="Self-portrait.

The Pasternak family, being one of the oldest and most respected Jewish families, believed that their lineage originated from King David himself. And mother and father dreamed that their youngest would become “a pharmacist, or a doctor, or, at worst,"ходатаем по делам"».!}

masterpieces" with ordinary black coal. And one day the janitor of their yard asked the boy to draw pictures on a hunting theme and promised to pay five kopecks for each work in order to decorate the janitor's room with them. The boy coped with the task perfectly: at the age of 6 he received recognition and his first income .

And years later, Leonid Pasternak, remembering that fateful janitor, will call him “my Lorenzo Medici" Yes, and a passion for drawing with charcoal and with a simple pencil, laid down from childhood, will remain with the artist until the end of his days.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Pasternak-005.jpg" alt=" “News from the homeland.”

The talented young artist returned to Moscow with a whole arsenal of experimental educational works, which were instantly snapped up by collectors. And then the time came for Pasternak to go to serve in the army, where he also free time worked fruitfully on painting. A large canvas, written under the impression of the service - “News from the Motherland”, was bought straight from the easel by Pavel Tretyakov for his collection.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Pasternak-022.jpg" alt=" L.O. Pasternak and his wife." title="L.O.Pasternak with his wife." border="0" vspace="5">!}

Soon the artist marries a fairly famous pianist Rosalia Kaufman. The newlyweds will settle in Moscow, and after a year their first child will be born, who will become a laureate in the future Nobel Prize- master literary word Boris Pasternak. Then a son, Alexander, a future architect, and two daughters, Josephine and Lydia, will be born.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Pasternak-002.jpg" alt=" Portrait of Boris Pasternak against the backdrop of the Baltic Sea. (1910). Author: L.O. Pasternak." title="Portrait of Boris Pasternak against the backdrop of the Baltic Sea. (1910).

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Pasternak-026.jpg" alt="Leo Tolstoy at work." title="Leo Tolstoy at work." border="0" vspace="5">!}

Once, at an exhibition of works by the Itinerants, where Leonid Osipovich exhibited his work “Debutante,” the two met talented craftsmen- pen and brush. The Pasternaks were introduced to Leo Tolstoy, who later became frequent guests in his house.

Mirror" by Leo Tolstoy - this is what Leonid Pasternak was called in those years, in confirmation of which it should be said that the artist created not only great amount illustrations for his works, and thirty-six portraits of the writer.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Pasternak-027.jpg" alt=" Leo Tolstoy on arable land.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Pasternak-019.jpg" alt="“Students. The night before the exam." (1895). Author: L.O.Pasternak." title="“Students. The night before the exam." (1895).

In addition, Leonid Pasternak painted a huge number of portraits of great and famous contemporaries. Rubinstein and Scriabin, Gershenzon and Gorky, Mechnikov and Einstein posed for him. He had friendly relations with the latter for many years. The artist created a series of portraits of the famous scientist.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Pasternak-024.jpg" alt=" Self-portrait with his wife.

The first personal exhibition of the artist’s works in the USSR took place in 1979 at the Tretyakov Gallery, and 22 years later another exhibition entitled “Pasternak in Russia and Germany” was held there. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth, the master’s creations were exhibited in his homeland - in Odessa. Today, the master’s paintings adorn the world’s largest museums and collections.

Feshinskaya" манере, которые в наши дни продаются за десятки миллионов долларов.!}

Leonid Osipovich Pasternak - versatile and very talented person. He managed to pass on his gift and creative abilities to his children, among whom was the world famous writer Boris Pasternak - author brilliant novel"Doctor Zhivago".

The future artist, graphic artist, illustrator and writer spent his childhood in Odessa, in a large Jewish family with six children. Leonid's father, who was then still called Avrum Yitzchok-Leib Pasternak (or Posternak, this spelling is found in several historical documents), and the whole family, did not approve of the boy from a Jewish family’s passion for art, but did not interfere with it. In those days, Odessa was one of the few large cities Russian Empire, where Jews could live and do business freely, so commerce especially flourished among them. Leonid's grandfather, Kiva Yitzchok, was one of those people who founded the Jewish funeral brotherhood in Odessa.

But the boy was undoubtedly talented and immensely passionate about his art, so he did not follow in the footsteps of his ancestors and began studying at a drawing school, which later became famous art school named after M. Grekov. However, to future profession he did not come right away, trying to find himself in medicine (Moscow University, 2 years) and law (Odessa Novorossiysk University, from 1883 to 1885). Even during his years of study, he did not abandon his passion for painting and soon realized that this is what he wanted to do in the future.

The level of his skill was so high that one of the paintings was purchased. After this, Pasternak decided to move to live in, where he successfully married and started a family. In total, four children were born in the family - two sons and two daughters.

Pasternak's artistic career in Moscow is developing well. He becomes a participant in regular exhibitions of the Itinerants, a member of the famous World of Art association. For a decade in 1880 he taught at the School of Fine Arts Gunsta A.O., in 1894 he was invited to work at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, which later became famous throughout the country VKHUTEMAS. It is interesting that when agreeing to teach, Pasternak specifically indicated that he did not intend to be baptized into Orthodoxy. But he still used a name that was not the one his parents gave him at birth.

He perceived the revolution with restraint, but did not accept it. In 1921, Pasternak with his daughters and wife left for an operation in Germany and never returned to his homeland. While living abroad he created famous portraits famous people eg Albert Einstein, Rainer Maria Rilke and John Osborne. In 1924, he had the opportunity to go on an expedition to Palestine, which conducted historical and ethnographic research. The year before, he wrote and published the book “Rembrandt and Jewry in His Work.”

When life in Germany became dangerous for Jews due to the Nazis coming to power, Pasternak left the country in 1938 and settled in Great Britain, in Oxford, where he died in 1945.

The artist’s merits are appreciated in Israel - one of the streets in Tel Aviv bears his name. Open in Odessa Memorial plaque in honor of a talented native of the city.

"...his gigantic merits are not appreciated even in a hundredth part"

Rubinstein and Scriabin, Tolstoy and Gorky, Mechnikov and Einstein posed for him.
He was famous as a brilliant portrait painter and master of illustration.
His paintings are kept largest museums world and hundreds of collectors.

However, for many decades the name of Leonid Osipovich Pasternak was forgotten.
Perhaps the brilliant father was overshadowed by the shadow of the brilliant son - the poet Boris Pasternak.

Leonid Pasternak Boris and Alexander

Boris Pasternak wrote about his father:
"Dad!" But, after all, this is a sea of ​​​​tears, sleepless nights and, if I were to write this down,
- volumes, volumes, volumes. Surprise at the perfection of his skill and gift, at
the ease with which he worked (jokingly and playfully, like Mozart) in front of a multitude
and the significance of what he had done - the surprise is all the more lively and ardent because
comparisons on all these points shame and humiliate me. I wrote to him that there is no need
to be offended that his gigantic merits are not appreciated even in a hundredth part, while
I have to burn with shame when they inflate and overestimate so monstrously
my role... I wrote to dad... that, in the end, he triumphs, he,
who lived such a true, unfictional, interesting, active, rich life,
partly in its blessed 19th century, partly in loyalty to it, and not in the wild,
devastated by the unreal and fraudulent twenties..."

Leonid Pasternak Portrait of Boris Pasternak against the backdrop of the Baltic Sea 1910

Leonid Pasternak Self-portrait

Leonid Pasternak was born in April 1862 in Odessa. He was youngest child V
large Jewish family. Apparently, out of an excess of feelings, his parents immediately named him
two names - Abram and Isaac. However, at home they called only Leonid.
On this occasion, the artist even had to write explanatory notes in official
institutions. By the way, the surname originally sounded not Pasternak, but Posternak.

Posternak Sr. kept an inn, his mother ran the household, was illiterate, but
smart and strong-willed woman. The Parsnips believed that they descended from the Abarbanels.
This is one of the oldest and most respected Jewish families, descended from King David

The parents dreamed that their son would become “a pharmacist, or a doctor, or, at worst,
“We are interceding for business,” as the artist later recalled. But most of all a boy
I wanted to draw, and I had to do it in secret from my mom and dad.
The most accessible tool is coal.
The first success and order came at the age of six. The janitor instructed the talented boy
sketch several paintings on hunting themes with charcoal. The customer paid five
kopecks for each painting and decorated the janitor's room with them. Subsequently, Leonid Pasternak
will call this janitor “my Lorenzo Medici.” By the way, love for charcoal sketches
and Leonid Pasternak will have the pencil for the rest of his life.

Leonid Pasternak Portrait of Chaliapin 12/30/1913

B. L. Pasternak

Parents wanted their son to become a doctor or lawyer. Leonid Pasternak enters the
Moscow University, Faculty of Medicine. I would envy him here myself
Michelagelo. But what attracted the great sculptor repelled our hero -
anatomicalist. Leonid Pasternak could not overcome his disgust for corpses, but that part
He studied the anatomy that an artist needs. Then he transferred to law school
faculty of Moscow University, and then even to Odessa, or rather
Novorossiysk University. Odessa University (the only one in the empire) gave
the right of students to travel abroad. Pasternak took advantage of this right and
went to enter the Royal Academy of Munich through a competition. And passed
number one! He studied in the class of the famous draftsman Ludwig von Herterich.

Self-portrait of Professor Ludwig von Herterich.

His experiments in drawing were so good that the teacher did not correct them
and allowed me to take it home. In Moscow, Pasternak's works were immediately snapped up by collectors.
Pasternak graduated from the Munich Academy of Arts with a gold medal and in the same year
received a law degree as an external student.

The next stage in the young artist’s life is military service. Year. First big canvas
written under the impression of the army. The painting “Letter from the Motherland”, not yet completed
- straight from the easel - acquired by Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov for his famous gallery.

Leonid Pasternak News from the Motherland

Leonid Pasternak married the famous pianist Rosa Kaufman. Young family
settled in Moscow, a year later her first child was born - the future Nobel laureate
Prize, writer Boris Pasternak. Then a son, Alexander, and two
daughters, Josephine and Lydia.

Lydia and Josephine, daughters of Leonid Pasternak, 1908

Family portraits and sketches became Leonid Pasternak's favorite subject. They
conveyed the atmosphere of warmth and comfort that reigns in the family, and also sold well.
They joked about Leonid Pasternak that his children “feed” their parents!

Leonid Pasternak Two women 1930s

Pasternak was the first Russian artist to call himself an impressionist. At the same time, how
notes art critic Elizaveta Plavinskaya, he was not afraid of a cool attitude
to the impressionism of the Itinerants, who programmatically put truth above beauty.

“He was more of a modernist than them and than Repin. He allowed himself quick
generalizations and approximate fluid contours in the spirit of the Parisian Dutch, and
also sharp transformations of a line into a spot, which was too tough for the same Repin,
unfamiliar with the Munich school. But Pasternak did not tell his German comrades
inferior in mastery of color, being able to achieve a glow in the interior of soft and
colorful, like the impressionists, and dramatic, in the spirit of thoroughly
half-forgotten caravaggism,”
— wrote Plavinskaya.
By the way, the Association of Itinerants in Moscow did not accept Pasternak into its ranks.

Leonid Pasternak Lady with two children in a boat

However, it was at the exhibition of the Itinerants in 1893 that a significant meeting took place.
Leo Tolstoy stopped near Pasternak’s painting “Debutanka” and the author was introduced to him
work.
“Yes, yes, I know that name. I keep an eye on his work." , said Tolstoy.

Parsnips became Tolstoy's frequent guests both in Moscow and in Yasnaya Polyana.
As a result, a series of portraits of the great writer was born, in addition, Pasternak
became one of best illustrators works of L. N. Tolstoy. His illustrations
to the novel “Resurrection” were exhibited in 1900 in the Russian Pavilion at the World
exhibition in Paris, where they were awarded medals. Many sketches from the “Tolstoy series”
Got into Tretyakov Gallery. Pasternak is sometimes called the “mirror” of Lev Nikolaev.
By the way, the Tolstoy Museum houses 200 works by Leonid Pasternak, 36 portraits
graph and illustrations for his works.

Leonid Pasternak Tolstoy

I purchased Pasternak’s painting “Students” Luxembourg Museum in Paris.

“It’s a significant fact, - wrote the Odessa press. — Luxembourg
- one of the first art museums in the world. Only very
a great artist, and only if he is French. Paintings belonging to foreigners
There are only a few in Luxembourg. Not a single Russian painting.”
Thus, Pasternak’s “Students” became the first Russian painting in the famous museum.

Leonid Pasternak The night before the exam 1895

Leonid Osipovich painted a series of portraits of Albert Einstein. They met
in Berlin at the Soviet embassy. We went there to listen to a concert, lecture, watch
short theater performance or take part in casual conversation.
One day at this embassy, ​​Rosa Pasternak was playing the piano, and someone asked her,
could she accompany Einstein? However, Einstein objected.
He said:
“I won’t risk performing after such an expert!”
“Still, his mother persuaded him. And he actually played and she accompanied
to him. And my father sketched it. And so a sheet appeared, where the player is drawn
Einstein on the violin" - recalled Lydia, Pasternak’s daughter.
Einstein and Pasternak kept in touch for many years. The result was a series
portraits of the great scientist.

History cannot be rewritten: Leonid Pasternak is considered one of the founders of Leninism.
He was the first of the academic artists to depict Lenin and other leaders
revolution, making sketches at congresses, presidiums and congresses.

True, many of these portraits, as well as their models, were subsequently destroyed
new government.

Leonid Pasternak with his wife and daughters went to Germany in 1921,
the official version is for treatment. It was informally joked that after writing a series
portraits of the leaders of the revolution, he decided to stay away from them. Parsnips a lot
works. In 1923, Pasternak’s essay “Rembrandt and Jewry in
his work,” and again dozens of portraits follow.

Rembrandt Van Rijn The Jewish Bride

Leonid Pasternak Still life with peaches and black grapes 1930s

However, in 1938, he had to flee Nazi Germany. Almost the entire circulation
the books, which included memories of Tolstoy, were destroyed by the Nazis. His anniversary
the exhibition was banned. Leonid Osipovich was going to return to Moscow, but before that
decided to visit my youngest daughter Lydia, already living in Oxford. Because of war
the artist had to stay in England. On 31 May 1945 he died in Oxford.
On May 2, 1999, in a house in the north of Oxford where the Russian artist lived, a
Leonid Pasternak Museum.