Tea drinking in a peasant hut description of the painting. Kulikov Ivan Semenovich, artist - Murom - history - catalog of articles - unconditional love

Kulikov Ivan Semenovich (1875-1945)

Painter and teacher, author of portraits, landscapes and paintings on themes of Russian life, Ivan Semenovich Kulikov was born in the city of Murom, Vladimir province. He received his primary art education (1893-1896) at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, where his teacher was the famous painter and draftsman E.K. Lipgart. The young man was even more fortunate to have teachers at the Academy of Arts (1896-1902): among them were V.E. Makovsky and I.E. Repin. By the way, academician I. Kulikov under the leadership of I.E. Repin took part as an “apprentice” in his work “Meeting of the State Council...”

In 1902, the young painter graduated from the Academy, receiving a gold medal, the title of artist, and the right to travel abroad at the expense of the Academy for his paintings “In a Peasant Hut” and “Portrait of the Architect V.A. Shchuko.” A three-year business trip to Italy and France benefited young I.S. Kulikov. In 1904 and 1912 he was awarded prizes at competitions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, in 1905 he received a silver medal at the World Exhibition in Liege, and in 1915 he was awarded the title of academician of painting.

Apparently, the first half of the 1910s was the best time for the artist creatively. In 1915 the guns were already talking. And if the First World War did not concern everyone, then the Civil War that broke out after it, of course, was a tragedy for every Russian. Who came out of it is another matter. I.S. In his last years, Kulikov worked in his small homeland: from 1930 he taught at an art studio in Murom, and there and in the village of Pavlovo he contributed to the founding of local history museums. In a word, he sowed good things that cannot but be beautiful.

Self-Portrait (1896)

(April 1 (13), 1875 - December 15, 1941, Murom) - Russian artist, master of portraits and everyday scenes.

Self-Portrait (1921)

Self-Portrait (1939)

Ivan Semenovich Kulikov was born into a family of peasants in the village of Afanasovo, Murom district, Semyon Loginovich Kulikov and Alexandra Semenovna Savinova. The artist's father was a good roofing and painting craftsman. At the head of a small artel, he took part in the construction and renovation of many buildings, churches and residential buildings in the city of Murom

Portrait of a father. (1898)

Portrait of a Mother (1896)

In his autobiography, written later, he writes that at first he was engaged in painting and drawing at home, without any guidance. His passion was noticed at the district school, where he entered after graduating from primary school, where he received his initial art education. The Murom artistic environment was limited mainly to icon-painting workshops.
In the summer of 1893, on the recommendation of his former district school drawing and painting teacher N.A. Tovtsev, Kulikov met the famous artist A.I. Morozov, who sometimes spent the summer in Murom, where he found subjects for his works. He drew attention to the young man’s abilities and recommended that his parents send him to the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts at the Academy in St. Petersburg. Morozov laid the foundations of his skill and helped in his further training.

Alexander Ivanovich Morozov (1835-1904)

In September 1893, Kulikov traveled to Moscow for the first time, visited the Tretyakov Gallery, the Rumyantsev Museum, and got acquainted with the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Already at this time, certain artistic preferences of I.S. Kulikova. In his memoirs, he writes: “I was struck by Repin’s paintings and portraits: “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son,” “They Didn’t Expect,” Surikov’s paintings, Ivanov’s large painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People,” which at that time was in the Rumyantsev Museum, and There are also Fedotov’s things, which I also admired."
In November 1893 he goes to St. Petersburg. Failure to enter the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts again led Kulikov to academician of painting A.I. Morozov, who at that time taught drawing at the St. Petersburg School of Law, simultaneously fulfilling small orders for illustrations, icons, and portraits. He needed an assistant who could stretch and prime the canvases and do underpainting. Having secured the support of his father, Kulikov became Morozov’s assistant, working for him five hours a day, studying a kind of “kitchen” of the artist, his techniques and methods of work, the basic principles of composition and color, which later influenced the development of the artist’s skill.
Alexander Ivanovich Morozov was one of the genre painters of the 60s. And everything that was characteristic of them is also characteristic of his best works. Like many other artists of this time, mass, or, in the words of V.V. Stasov's "choral" scenes depicted a crowd of people, albeit vividly, but externally, in contrast to the Wanderers, who entered a new level of realism, where each folk type was deeply individual.
In January 1894, Ivan Semenovich Kulikov, on the recommendation of Morozov, was accepted into the drawing school of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts, where he stayed for 3 years, and at the same time studied with E.K. von Liphart, who taught painting at the school of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. In the summer of 1894, Kulikov worked as an assistant to the artist E.K. von Liphart.
In the fall of 1896, Kulikov became a volunteer student at the Academy of Arts at the studio of the artist V. E. Makovsky.
But already in November 1896, the artist submitted a request to enter the workshop of I.E. Repin, where he was transferred in November 1896 on the recommendation of E.K. von Liphart. Repin had a huge influence on him; in fact, he largely shaped Kulikov as a person and as a painter.

I. E. Repin. Self-portrait" (1887)

In the spring of 1898, at the request of his teacher, Kulikov became a student at the Academy of Arts. Ilya Efimovich trusted his beloved student so much that in 1901 he invited him, together with B.M. Kustodiev, to take part in the creation of his grandiose canvas “The Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council on May 7, 1901.” Ivan Semenovich made 17 full-scale portrait sketches, almost the bulk of them

I.E. Repin Meeting of the State Council (1903)

Already in his student years, Kulikov was characterized by a desire for genre versatility; the choice of themes was influenced by both the genre workshop of V. Makovsky and the workshop of Repin. This is both a psychological portrait and a genre scene. Subsequently, the range of themes expanded - landscape and still life were added.

Still life with violin.(1890)

The first model. (1896)

Schoolboy. (1897)

The old woman from Nezhilovka (1898)

Old man. (1898)

Peasant Woman with a Saucer (1899)

Merchant's ball. (1899)

Trees by a Pond (1900s)

Girl in a Blue Shawl (1901)

Portrait of Alexander III. State Museum of A.S. Pushkin

In the pedagogical system I.E. Repin included diverse types of work, such as: sketches from life in classrooms, sketches, etc. The daily routine in the workshop was very strict. From 9 a.m. to 12, sketches were written from life, from two to four they were engaged in sketches and sketches, until seven in the evening they worked on sketches, and from seven to eight they made sketches from models
In 1900-1901, Kulikov made about 20 illustrations for Maxim Gorky’s works “Konovalov” and “Twenty Six and One,” which are located in the A. M. Gorky Apartment Museum and the Murom Historical and Art Museum.
Intense work in Repin's workshop, work on a competition painting, on illustrations for the stories of A. M. Gorky - all this led Kulikov to exhaustion of his nervous system. I. E. Repin recommended that Kulikov contact the famous doctor Botkin and the Academy Council with a request for leave to travel to his homeland. In Murom, the artist finds himself surrounded by his relatives and loved ones. From them he makes numerous etudes and sketches, composes the picture and, most importantly, finds the opportunity to paint the entire group for the competition picture, consisting of 7 people, at once. On his native land he regains his strength. His health is quickly restored. He maintains constant contact with St. Petersburg, with his friends, with Ilya Efimovich.
Close ties united the young students of Repin’s workshop. One of the closest friends of I.S. Kulikov from the Higher Art School can, without a doubt, be called B.M. Kustodieva.
Artist P.D. Buchkin in his book (About what is in memory. Leningrad, 1963) writes about the fascination of young people with the Swedish artist Anders Zorn, whose works could be seen at exhibitions: “After the exhibition of the Swedish artist Zorn, young people began to imitate him. A broad stroke, freely sculpting the form, has come into fashion.” On the work of I.S. Kulikov was seriously influenced by the innovative quests of the Swedish artist, his style, and the search for new paths in art.
But Zorn did not remain indifferent to Russian talents. It was he who noticed the work of young I.S. Kulikov, being at the reporting student exhibition in the halls of the Academy of Arts in the fall of 1898 about the work of I.S. Kulikov's "Village Tailors", made by the artist in 1897, he expressed his positive opinion.

Village tailors. (1897)

In November 1902, Kulikov graduated from the Academy of Arts. His competition work “Tea drinking in a peasant hut” (1902) was awarded the Big Gold Medal and gave him the right to be a personal honorary citizen and the right to travel abroad.

Tea drinking in a peasant hut" (1902)

In a peasant hut (option)

In August 1903, Kulikov went abroad as a pensioner. Not every artist who graduated from the Academy of Arts is given such a chance as the Academy of Arts Council grants a trip abroad.
Report for the first year of I.S.’s retirement trip. Kulikov's works were exhibited at the "Spring Exhibition": "Portrait of Evgeniy Nikolaevich Chirikov", "Portrait of My Mother", "Portrait of Mrs. O. Ya.Ya." Here are genre works: “Spinners” (award from the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts); ""Old lady with chickens"", ""Washerman""; several sketches: “The Spinner”; ""Study of a woman's head in the sun"", ""Study of a worker""; several drawings. I.S. Kulikov appealed to the Council of the Academy of Arts with a request to extend his retirement trip to complete his education abroad. According to the resolution of the academic meeting on February 23, 1904, pensioner support was continued for the second year, until January 1, 1905.

Italian women. (1905)

It was at this time that he visited Italy, Germany, France. I.E. Repin strongly recommended that his student get acquainted with the Parisian salons in which I.S. Kulikov was unable to visit in the fall of 1903, during his first retirement trip.
The Academy Council dated February 7, 1905, considering it desirable to continue I.S. Kulikov received pension support for another year, decided to submit this for the benefit of the academic meeting. The meeting decided to continue issuing pensioners' allowance to I.S. Kulikov for another year, until January 1, 1906.
Kulikov's paintings receive well-deserved recognition. In 1904, 1912 I.S. Kulikov was awarded prizes at competitions of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. After the departure of I.E. Repin from the Academy of Arts I.S. Kulikov was included in the list of applicants for the vacant position of workshop manager, but in 1908 he refused this offer.
In 1908, students of I.E. Repin are united in the Community of Artists, which, according to the artist I.I. Brodsky, replaces the Union of Artists. Ivan Semenovich joins his friends in the workshop. Since 1909, the artist became one of the active members of the Society named after A.I. Kuindzhi.
The entire creative heritage of Ivan Semenovich Kulikov can be conditionally divided into two main genres, which remained prevalent over all others throughout the master’s work. This is an everyday genre and a portrait. A portrait, in the master’s understanding, is, first of all, the artist’s in-depth interest in the subject being portrayed, in his inner world.
The main feature of the portrait images of I.S. Kulikov is the artist’s even and attentive attitude towards nature. Kindness is not only a characteristic of the artist himself, but also his approach to the model; this is the property that he inherited from his teacher I.E. Repin and carried it through all his work.
During his years at the Academy of Arts, Ivan Semenovich Kulikov painted a portrait of his friend Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev. The portrait was painted in Murom, when Kustodiev was visiting the Kulikovs.

Portrait of Kustodiev (1899, Murom Historical and Art Museum)

Friends often painted portraits of each other.

Kustodiev B.M. Portrait of I.S. Kulikov. (1900s)

Thus, the portrait of I.S. Kulikov brushes B.M. Kustodiev is in the collection of the Vladimir Art Gallery. Kustodiev paints his friend Ivan Semenovich in his usual village setting, with a balalaika in his hands.

Portrait of the artist V.V. Belyashin. (1900 State Vladimir-Suzdal Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve)

Later Kulikov would write another of his Academy comrades, L.V. Popova. At first glance, this portrait is more prosaic. Conservativeness, constraint in everything: both in the compositional solution and in the presentation of the model. Laconism of external details: from a neutral background to a minimum of accessories. But all this helps to reveal the full depth of the image, its psychologism.

Portrait of L.V.Popov.(1900)

In none of Ivan Semenovich’s portraits are there repeated approaches to the model; each portrait has its own methods, its own technical means; that's why they are so diverse. But the greatest success and popularity was brought to Kulikov by his diploma work: “Portrait of the architect V.A. Shchuko" "which was noted by all art critics writing about I.S. Kulikov, as one of the best portraits of the artist.

Portrait of the architect V.A. Shchuko. (1902, State Russian Museum)

After returning from a retirement trip in 1903, I.S. Kulikov creates his painting “Portrait of My Mother,” which was awarded the Grand Silver Medal at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Liege in 1905.

Portrait of My Mother (1903)

The portrait was considered a family heirloom, and the proposal to transfer the portrait to the Tretyakov Gallery was rejected.
Portraits and all paintings by I.S. Kulikov are quite static. There is little movement or dynamics in them. But there is an internal energy in them. One of the most dynamic portraits by I.S. Kulikova - portrait of Ekaterina Semyonovna, the artist’s sister, painted in 1911.

Portrait of E.S. Kalinina (1911)

No less dynamic is the portrait of the writer E.N. Chirikov.

Portrait of E.N. Chirikov. (1904)

Living permanently in Murom, the artist does not break away from the creative life of the capital. When traveling to St. Petersburg during opening days, he lives in furnished rooms on Vasilyevsky Island, where many artists lived. He spends his free time in the midst of the creative intelligentsia, artists, writers, and actors who were regulars at the famous Vienna restaurant. In the restaurant "Vienna" I.S. Kulikov meets with writers A.N. Tolstoy, E.N. Chirikov, A.I. Kuprin, S.G. Skitalets (Petrov) and many others. Apparently, this is where the desire to depict the then popular writer E.N. came from. Chirikov. Several versions of the portrait are known, but the portrait executed by Kulikov during the Nizhny Novgorod Fair of 1904 is the most interesting.
I.S. Kulikov was a famous artist at the beginning of the twentieth century, and many art collectors purchased his works for their collections. The artist met Anatoly Leonidovich Durov, a popular circus performer who had amassed an interesting collection in his homeland of Voronezh, in the early 1900s. in St. Petersburg, in the same famous restaurant "Vienna".
A.L. Durov, on one of his visits to Murom, in 1911, where he performed at the famous Murom Fair, ordered his portrait from the artist. The portrait never made it into Durov’s collection, but remained with the artist.

Portrait of A.L. Durov. (1911)

Portrait of S.I. Senkov. (1908)

Nadya Kalinina. (1909)

Portrait of M.O. Menshikov. (1914)

An interesting portrait of archaeologist A.S. Uvarov, which fits into the framework of the psychological portrait.

Portrait of A.S. Uvarov. (1916)

As a master of the everyday genre, I.S. Kulikov became famous for his numerous works, which began in his academic years under the leadership of I.E. Repina. I.E. Repin was very pleased with his student. The works of I.S. Kulikov were awarded prizes by the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. At the All-Russian competition of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts on February 2, 1903 in household painting, the artist received the A.A. Kraevsky 900 rubles for the painting “Spinners”

The Spinners (1903)

Girls with buckets (Fetching water). (1904, State Russian Museum)

The canvas “The Dreamer” was exhibited at the “Spring Exhibition” in 1906, and then was reproduced in the “Niva” magazine for the same year. "The Dreamer" was exhibited at international exhibitions - in Munich in 1907, and then in the same year in Hamburg.

Dreamer (1905)

In 1906 I.S. Kulikov was awarded first prize at the competition named after A.I. Kuindzhi for such genre works as “On a Holiday” and “With Lanterns in the Garden.”

On a holiday (1906)

With lanterns in the garden. (1906. Murom Historical and Art Museum)

Among the genre compositions of I.S. Kulikov’s work “Feeding the Chickens”, performed by the artist in 1907, is no less interesting.

Feeding the Chickens (1907)

This painting was shown at the 36th exhibition of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions and did not go unnoticed by its teacher I.E. Repin.

Three Maidens (1907)

Old woman Daria from Prudishchi (1908)

The Forester's Family (1909)

Shepherd. (1909)

The Shepherd (1909)

Peasant woman with a rake. (1909)

Portrait of a Peasant Woman (1910s)

Meadow (1911)

Old Man Reading (1911)

Girl with a Tues (1912)

In 1912, the canvas “Bird Cherry” was created, one of the portraits of the artist’s wife E.A. Kulikova, which was also exhibited at exhibitions under the name “Spring”.

Spring. (1912)

Bird cherry. (1912)

At the outskirts

At the outskirts. (1913. State Tretyakov Gallery)

Peasant Woman (1913)

The theme of fairs and bazaars, so popular at the beginning of the century, did not bypass the work of I.S. Kulikova. Goryushkin-Sorokopudov and Kustodiev wrote their own versions on this topic; rich material I.S. Kulikov was given local Murom fairs.

Bazaar in Murom. (1907)

Market at the carousel. (1908)

Bazaar with bagels. (1910)

Fair in Murom (1910-1912)

Fair. (1910)

Painting by I.S. Kulikov's "Bride's Dress", awarded at a competition at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and now in the Yaroslavl Art Museum, represents a classic version of the wedding ceremony in Rus'.

Bride's Dress (1907)

Thoughtful (1906)

Winter evening. (1907)

In the boyar's chamber. (1906-1907)

An ancient ceremony of blessing the bride in the city of Murom (1909)<

Happy Holidays (Zardela) (1911)

In Russian attire. (1916. House-Museum of I.S. Kulikov) - portrait of the artist’s wife

The work "Hawthorns in the Garden" - from a series of works about past times, was exhibited by the artist in 1914 in Venice, where it subsequently remained.

Return from the City (1914)

Carpenter (Egor Tereshkin). (1916)

In 1912, the artist was offered to head the Kharkov Art School, but refused the offered position. In October 1915, I.S. Kulikov ran for and received the title of academician of painting for a series of paintings about Murom. His first attempt to become an academician of painting in 1913 failed.

Murom monasteries. (1914)

Nikolo-Zaryadskaya Church. (1916)

Street of old Murom

After 1917, Kulikov continued to work on the village theme. Ivan Semenovich always avoided any dramatic, heavy subjects. And he himself was a cheerful, friendly, open person, he loved life and its joys.
Immediately after the revolution I.S. Kulikov worked mainly on the artistic decoration of the city for revolutionary festivities. In the first years of the revolution, I.S. Kulikov did not create a single significant canvas; for the most part he repeated old themes.

Girls (1918)

Tanya with a cat (1927)

At the beginning of 1919, on behalf of the department of public education I.S. Kulikov headed the commission for selecting works of art from the collection of Countess Uvarova in the village of Karacharovo, located several miles from the city. The beginning of Count Uvarov's collection was laid by his famous ancestors - Razumovsky, Sheremetyev. Over the years, the museum received collections of N.G. Dobrynkin and the academician of painting I.S. Kulikova. Having a large collection of ancient Russian costumes and antique utensils, Ivan Semenovich donated it all, along with his paintings, to his native city. The Murom Historical and Art Museum (MIHM) was opened to visitors in January 1919 and was located in the former house of the Zvorykin merchants.

Murom Historical and Art Museum

In the fall of 1923, I.S. Kulikov continued his work in the museum he created as a researcher in the department of painting and ancient Russian life. At this time he creates sketches of Murom.
The artist, seeking to realize his creative potential, turned to teaching in the post-revolutionary years. He creates a drawing school in Murom and is engaged in teaching.
In 1929, Kulikov painted the famous painting "Athletic Girl". (A. Samokhvalov wrote his “Girl in a T-shirt” four years later.)

Sportswoman. (1929, Murom Historical and Art Museum)

The artist made two copies of the painting, one of which is in the Murom House-Museum of I.S. Kulikov, another repetition - in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
Continuing the youth-Komsomol theme, I.S. Kulikov creates the paintings "Jungsturm" (1929) and "International Youth Day".

Jungsturm. (1929, Murom Historical and Art Museum)

International Youth Day. (1929)

Pioneers (1929)

In the 20s and 30s I.S. Kulikov paints portraits of famous fellow countrymen, as well as portraits of leaders of the Soviet state.

Painter M.I.Shamilin. (1929)

Portrait of Andrianov. (1929)

Shock worker Sudakov. (1931)

He also paints landscapes and views of Murom

Harvest. (1930)

Bogland. (1930)

One of the artist’s major works in the late 30s was the design of the suburban halls of the Yaroslavl (Northern) station.
As in pre-revolutionary times, I.S. Kulikov is an active participant in exhibitions. One of the most famous was the exhibition "Petrograd artists of all directions for 5 years (1918-1923)", which was exhibited in 1923 in the halls of the former Academy of Arts. At this first exhibition after the revolution, he exhibited 12 canvases. He also participated in the autumn exhibition of the Association of Artists in 1923.
Takes part in exhibitions of Murom artists.

Participants of the Second Exhibition of Murom Artists. Second from left - I. S. Kulikov.
Photo. 1925

In 1926, Kulikov organized his personal exhibition in Murom, which became a significant phenomenon in the artistic life of the city.
From 1927 to 1930 he was a participant in exhibitions and a member of the Society of Artists named after I.E. Repina.
In 1929, a personal exhibition of works by I.S. Kulikov was organized in Moscow at the House of Scientists, where the artist met with A.M. Gorky.
The artist exhibits his works at foreign exhibitions. In 1929, he showed his work “The Physical Culture Girl” at the “Art and Handicraft Exhibition of the USSR” in Philadelphia. The traveling "Art and Handicraft Exhibition of the USSR" (exhibition-bazaar) was exhibited initially in New York, and then in Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit. It was opened on February 1, 1929 at the Grand Central Palac and was exhibited for five weeks. This is the first exhibition of Soviet art abroad.
Leading an active lifestyle, I.S. Kulikov joined the Union of Artists in 1922 and became an active member of the Gorky branch of the Union of Artists. In 1940, the artist participated in an exhibition of artists from the older generation of the periphery in Moscow, where his works also did not go unnoticed.

Seller of Pavlovsk goods / shopkeeper / (1936, Pavlovsk Historical Museum)

Pavlovsk artisan. (1937)

Cockfighting. Study (1938)

Night buying. (1938)

Peaches. (1938)

At the piano. (1938)

Family at the table. (1938)

Portrait of pilot V.P. Chkalov. (1938)

Portrait of pilot M.M. Matveev. (1940)

The artist’s most recent work can be considered his multi-figure composition “Exit of the Nizhny Novgorod Militia in 1612.” At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War I.S. Kulikov continues to work on the topic, considering it relevant to himself, but unexpected death prevents him from finishing the work.
The artist’s wife was Elizaveta Arkadyevna Kulikova, née Sokolova. The wife of her mother’s brother was the niece of the famous inventor in the field of television V.K. Zvorykin. The families communicated a lot and carried on active correspondence. The image of his wife was captured by Kulikov on the canvases “In Russian Attire”, “At the Outskirts”, “Portrait of E. A. Kulikova”, etc.

Portrait of E.A. Kulikova (1925)

The artist’s only daughter, Tatyana, a teacher of Russian language and literature, married N. A. Bespalov, who later became an artist and Honored Architect of the RSFSR.

Tanya with bows. (1927)

Portrait_T.I. Kulikova (1938)

In 1947, a museum of the artist was opened in the house built by Kulikov’s father, where his family had lived since 1883. In 2007, by decision of local authorities, the museum was closed, all exhibits were transported to the Murom Historical and Art Museum. The house is privately owned by the artist's descendants.

House-Museum of I.S. Kulikova

B 1880 Murome and the family of Semyon Loginovich and Alexandra Semenovna Kulikov, former serfs from the village of Afanasovo, Murom district, Kovarditsky volost, settled. Semyon Loginovich Kulikov was an outstanding roofing and painting specialist. On April 1 (13), 1875, a son, Ivan, was born into the Kulikov family, who had 3 daughters. Childhood was short-lived. Even before entering primary school, he mastered the craft of a painter and roofer, learned to paint marble and carve doors and floors to look like oak or ash, knew how to rub paints with chimes on a stone slab and knew all the names of paints.

As a student first at an elementary school and then at a district school, Kulikov was fond of drawing, made copies from illustrated magazines, visited icon-painting workshops, and attempted to draw his loved ones from life. The teacher of drawing and drawing at the district school, N.A. Tovtsev, drew attention to the student’s hobbies. Like a real teacher, Tovtsev drew the attention of Kulikov’s parents to the need for their son to receive an art education.

After graduating from the district school in 1889, Kulikov became a full member of the artel, helping his father in painting and roofing work, in selecting colors for painting premises, in drawing up estimates and accounts. He perfectly masters alfrey work, trims wall panels to look like expensive types of wood, and paints ceilings and walls with ornaments. The young man devotes all his free time to drawing from life and copying. Unfortunately, almost no of these drawings have survived, and only a few sketches and still lifes dated 1893 confirm the accuracy of the eye and the fidelity of the hand, the sense of proportion and the ability to capture portrait likeness.

Continuing to work in the artel, the young man, enchanted, walked under the windows of the icon-painting workshops and watched how icons were painted. He spent a long time admiring the works of ancient Russian painting in Murom cathedrals and made attempts to get acquainted with icon painters. And in his dreams an irresistible desire for art, knowledge, and mastery of painting appeared. On the recommendation of his former drawing teacher Tovtsev, in the summer of 1893 Kulikov met the famous artist, academician of painting Alexander Ivanovich Morozov. Morozov sometimes spent the summer in Murom, where he found subjects for his works. He drew attention to the young man’s abilities and recommended that his parents send him to the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts at the Academy in St. Petersburg. In September 1893, Kulikov went to Moscow for the first time, where he spent several days in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Rumyantsev Museum, and got acquainted with the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In Moscow, Kulikov learned that the main artistic forces were concentrated in the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, that the Hermitage and the Mikhailovsky Palace housed wonderful collections of works of art by foreign and Russian masters.

Still life with violin

November 17, 1893 Kulikov travels to St. Petersburg. He was stunned by the majestic building of the Academy with its huge exhibition halls, in which a competitive exhibition of students was opened at that time. For almost two months, Kulikov has been visiting the Hermitage every day. He immediately attempts to enter the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, but is refused. Failure to enroll in school again led Kulikov to academician of painting A.I. Morozov, who at that time taught drawing at the St. Petersburg School of Law, simultaneously fulfilling small orders for illustrations, icons, and portraits. Kulikov became Morozov’s assistant, working for him five hours a day, studying a kind of “kitchen” of the artist, his techniques and methods of work, the basic principles of composition and color, which later influenced the development of the artist’s skill. On the recommendation of Morozov, in January 1894, Kulikov was admitted to the school of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. Work with Morozov, classes at the School, studying and copying works in the Hermitage, the systematic and purposeful accumulation of knowledge and skill had such a beneficial effect on the development of the future artist that Morozov instructed his student to paint icons for the iconostasis of one of the churches in Yekaterinburg, and already in March 1894 d. waives tuition fees. During the exam, Kulikov received his first monetary award for a complex still life painted in oil paints. Kulikov felt an even greater need for systematic art education. He did not give up his cherished dream of entering the Academy of Arts, where the greatest Russian artists I.E. Repin, B.E. Makovsky, I.I. Shishkin, A.I. Kuindzhi taught.

Despite the fact that the Kulikov family had been living in the city for more than ten years, it continued to be in the peasant class of the village of Afanasovo. To enter the Higher Art School, the consent of the village assembly was required. On August 26, 1896, Ivan Semenovich received this permission and in the fall of 1896 he was enrolled as one of 14 volunteers out of 70 entering the workshop of Vladimir Yegorovich Makovsky. However, Kulikov’s classes in the workshop of V. E. Makovsky lasted only about a month. To some extent, the views of the novice artist did not quite coincide with the beliefs of the venerable leader. At the beginning of his studies with Makovsky, Ivan Semenovich could not allow any convention in the depiction of portraits. During classes, Makovsky immediately demanded not to copy nature, but to create a portrait-image, which Kulikov did not quite understand. As a sensitive teacher, Makovsky, from the very first sketches, noticed that Kulikov’s painting style was closer to Repin’s. He advised Ivan Semenovich to go to Repin’s workshop. And Kulikov’s dream comes true: he is transferred to the workshop of Ilya Efimovich Repin.

Although Repin did not consider himself a good teacher, there were several features in his teaching activity that had a positive impact on his students. First of all, he always knew how to find an individual approach to his student, establish contact with him, inspire the student in a timely manner or provide assistance in something. In the spring of 1898, at the request of Repin, Kulikov was transferred from a volunteer to a student at the Higher Art School at the Academy, and in the fall, Kulikov was awarded a scholarship in the amount of 350 rubles per year. The elderly father could no longer provide the necessary financial assistance to his son. The scholarship created an opportunity for creative work and study without worrying about food.

Kulikov knows no rest even during the summer holidays, continuing to work in his native Murom region. Surviving academic works and sketches reveal the gradual growth of the novice artist’s skill. During holidays and vacations, Kulikov makes numerous sketches of peasants, artisans, and village relatives.

At the same time, Kulikov tried his hand at portraiture. “Self-Portrait” (1896), “Portrait of a Mother” (1896), “Portrait of the Actor Zaitsev” (1898), “Portrait of B. M. Nustodiev” (1899), portraits of relatives and friends - at first very timid and executed with an uncertain hand, without the freedom and scope that were later characteristic of the artist, then more and more free and approaching Repin’s manner of penetrating into the depths of the psychology of the person depicted. Small sketches: “Painter” (1896), “Boy” (1897), “Boy in a Red Shirt” (1898), “Sitting Boy in a Red Shirt” (1898), “Peasant Woman at Tea Party” (1899) and many others characterize the choice of the artist’s creative path, whose work was based on depicting the life of ordinary people.

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Self-portrait

First model

Village tailors

Schoolboy

Portrait of a boy

Father's portrait

Old lady from Nezhilovka

Peasant woman drinking tea

Portrait of B.M. Kustodiev

While working on the painting “Portrait of a Mother,” Kulikov set the task of creating a generalized maternal image. The artist’s mother, Alexandra Semyonovna, a former serf in the village of Mishino, Murom district, lived a difficult and full of hardships life. With her maternal instinct, she understood her son’s aspirations and supported him in everything. He responded to her with filial affection and love. Wherever he was, he always remembered his mother with great gratitude, and in letters he shared with her both his joys and failures. Despite her illiteracy, his mother was his best adviser, was proud of her son’s successes and, despite all the difficulties, approved of his aspirations and activities. The portrait shows a face mottled with wrinkles, laboring hands lowered to the knees, and a somewhat hunched figure. All this emphasizes the collective image of the Russian peasant mother, who, despite the changed material conditions of life, in her habits remained a typical peasant woman, a zealous housewife and an eternal worker. The artist is stingy to the extreme when it comes to visual means. He focuses all his attention on the face, which has a lot of warmth and light, and on the hands, depicted with special skill. The soft palette of the portrait is based on brownish, grayish and purple tones. There is nothing superfluous in the portrait. Even the chair with a curved back, on which the mother was initially seated, was eventually replaced by a stool due to compositional considerations. Having invested his whole soul, all his knowledge, all his talent into creating a portrait of his mother, Kulikov created a living image of a Russian mother, a peasant woman, a hard worker.

Portrait of a mother

During these same years, Kulikov made attempts to create compositions on genre themes. “A Corner in a Bourgeois House”, “Student’s Room”, “Funeral of the Poor and the Rich”, “Merchant’s Ball” - these titles characterize the artist’s search for themes. However, none of these sketches pleased the artist.

Merchant's Ball

Kulikov met the beginning of the twentieth century full of creative ideas and aspirations. After the death of his father in October 1900, his elderly mother remained dependent on him. It was necessary to think about competitive work, about graduating from the Academy, about independent life, about helping my mother. He, together with his friends Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev and Lukian Vasilyevich Popov, is intensively preparing for competitive exams. At the reporting exhibition in the fall of 1900, Ivan Semenovich shows the genre portrait-painting “Parasha”. In this work, Kulikov shows his sympathies for the common people, who were especially close to him. The portraits of ordinary people he created were perceived as paintings reflecting the peasant life of Russia, the life of working people. The genre portrait-painting “Parasha” became for Kulikov a kind of program for creating female images. Subsequently, at fairs, festivities, in towers and peasant huts, pretty Russian women, old, young and very young, were present everywhere in his works. One could recognize them as the artist’s relatives—sisters and nieces living in the villages of Murom district: Afanasovo, Prudishchi, Mishina, and Nezhilovka.

For several years Kulikov had been hatching a plot for a competition film. He stopped at the everyday scene of tea drinking in a peasant hut. This topic was not an accident, because at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, a kind of cult of tea drinking began to flourish in Russia. In 1899, the first small sketch “Peasants at Tea Party” was written; in 1900, a sketch for the competition work “In a Peasant Hut” was created, which depicts a group of peasants at a festive table with a samovar. At the same time, Kulikov makes many full-scale sketches of tea parties, including individual figures.

At the same time, Kulikov created portraits of his artist friends L.V. Popov and V.V. Belyashin. The portrait of the original artist V.V. Belyashin was subsequently exhibited at many art exhibitions, including at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1909, at the Spring Academic Exhibition in 1906, following which Kulikov was awarded the A.I. Kuindzhi. At the students’ reporting exhibition, Kulikov exhibits several sketches made during the summer vacation - “Old Woman in Red”, “Village Hunter”, “Janitor”, “Girl with Chickens”. In the future, the plot with chickens will be repeated by him in the famous painting “Grandma with Chickens,” which has several options.

Portrait of I.V.Popov

Portrait of the artist V.V. Belyashin

Self-portrait

Girl in a blue scarf

A young man reading a book (Reading)

At the end of 1900, I.E. Repin recommended that A.M. Gorky involve Kulikov among his students to illustrate his works (Kulikov completed illustrations for the stories “Konovalov” and “Twenty-Six and One”). In February 1901, Repin invited Kulikov to participate in the work on the portrait of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, on which they worked together for about three weeks. Kulikov continues to work on illustrations for his works. While in Murom in the summer of 1901, Kulikov made several drawings of Murom tramps, even writing down their surnames. One of the drawings made from life in a tavern actually corresponded to the events described by Gorky in the story. Apparently, at the same time as this drawing, a sketch was made with the inscription “Sergei the tramp.” Currently, 46 of the 62 illustrations made by the artists are in the A.M. Gorky Museum in Moscow, never seeing the light of day and not appreciated by lovers of book graphics. Later, in 1939, I. S. Kulikov painted a portrait of A. M. Gorky, which was not exhibited anywhere.

Intense work in Repin's workshop, work on a competition painting, on illustrations for the stories of A.M. Gorky, work on a portrait of the Grand Duke - all this led Kulikov to a disease with exhaustion of the nervous system. I. E. Repin recommended that Kulikov contact the famous doctor Botkin and the Academy Council with a request for leave to travel to his homeland. In Murom, the artist finds himself surrounded by his relatives and loved ones. From them he makes numerous etudes and sketches, composes the picture and finds the opportunity to paint the entire group at once for the competition picture. On his native land he regains his strength. His health is quickly restored. Kulikov spent the spring of 1901 in Murom, collecting materials for the competition work, which he expected to complete by the fall and take part in the competition. The theme of the competition painting “In a Peasant Hut” continued to excite him. He makes numerous sketches and sketches of his village relatives, planting them both in groups and individually. Moreover, during these years, serving tea and drinking tea was so common that not a single guest was allowed to leave without tea. It is known that in many houses, especially in those where there was wealth, the samovar was not removed from the table for days on end. Kulikov noticed the existing way of life and created a work that was not only genre, but also, to some extent, historical.

At the end of 1900, I. E. Repin received an order to create a composition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the State Council. Having rested and gained strength on his native soil, Kulikov returned to St. Petersburg, temporarily stopping work on the competition film. Together with Kustodiev, during council meetings, they make sketches from different points in the meeting room of the Mariinsky Palace. Kulikov was given the task of constructing the perspective of the hall. This task was not an easy one, because the interior of the hall was oval in shape and full of complex architectural details. Kulikov constructed a perspective, which became the basis for the approved sketch that formed the basis of the composition. At the same time, a broadly written sketch of the hall was prepared, where Ilya Efimovich could include individual figures of dignitaries during meetings of the Council. In order to find the best composition, Repin took several photographs during the Council meeting. In the world history of fine art there is hardly a similar example, when on a huge canvas measuring more than 40 square meters it was necessary to place 82 figures, to create a group portrait that would reflect an entire era in the development of the state system of Tsarist Russia. Work on “The State Council” lasted almost two years. All this time, Kulikov and Kustodiev worked with inspiration and youthful energy all daylight hours. By the fall of 1902, the painting was basically finished. Work continued with tension on the overall composition, on creating the color balance of the painting, grandiose in size. It is important that Repin did not correct the portraits painted by Kulikov and Kustodiev with a brush, but only verbally indicated what needed to be made weaker and what stronger. The artists were also pleased that, along with working under the guidance of their teacher, they received a significant monetary reward for that time; which provided them with the opportunity for creative work for a long time.

In connection with his work on “The State Council,” Kulikov was unable to take part in the competitive exhibition in the fall of 1901. His competition was postponed to the next year. The composition of the competition painting “In a Peasant Hut” is extremely simple. A peasant family is presented at the festive table. The hut is small in size, such that it was difficult for the artist to find a point to cover all seven family members at once. Therefore, he depicts a group sitting in the red corner of the hut, slightly above. All characters follow a strict family structure: young men talk, their wives listen attentively, the elderly wisely support the conversation. All this is permeated with sunlight falling from the window. Red shirts and scarves, sunlit log walls and icon frames in the shrine create the impression of warmth and comfort, family well-being and happiness. Various shades of red shirts and dresses in combination with bright scarves and shawls support the festive mood of the peasant family. In the competition work, Kulikov managed to make the colors burn, turn a stuffy hut into a sparkling golden palace, fall in love with all the characters for their balance and calmness, for the ability of Russian peasants, after hard everyday days, to forget all the hardships of the difficult peasant lot in a short holiday.

Simultaneously with the main work, a portrait of the architect V.A. Shchuko was presented at the competitive exhibition. The choice of these two works cannot be considered an accident. At the competitive exhibition, Ivan Semenovich declared himself as an artist with multifaceted talent, equally a master of the everyday genre and an excellent portrait painter.

In a peasant hut

Portrait of the architect V.A. Shchuko

In 1901-1902 Kulikov paints portraits of a student of the Academy, the future famous Russian and Soviet architect V. A. Shchuko, writer E. N. Chirikov, landscape painter Khrenov, violinist Yu. M. Gurvich, artist N. F. Vitberg. They once again confirmed the artist’s maturity, his talent, and desire to create realistic portraits of his contemporaries. In 1902, Kulikov took part in several exhibitions: the 20th exhibition of the Moscow Society of Art Lovers, the 21st exhibition of the Society of Art Lovers in St. Petersburg, an exhibition of students of the Higher Art School at the Academy.

Portrait of the writer E.N. Chirikov

Classes in Repin's workshop have come to an end. Under the leadership of Ilya Efimovich, Kulikov not only studied, but was also educated. He received the basics of compositional and figurative thinking, mastered drawing and perspective, and found his own individual style. By the end of his studies at Repin’s workshop, thanks to regular visits to the Hermitage and the Russian Museum, as well as copying works of classic painting, Kulikov became one of the experts in the history of fine art.

November 1, 1902 Ivan Semenovich Kulikov graduates from the Academy. On December 7, 1902, the Vladimir Treasury Chamber notified Kulikov of the exclusion “from the 2nd half of 1902 from the taxable estate and account of the peasants of the village of Afanasova.” One could understand the joy and pride of the young man and his elderly mother due to the fact that, in the conditions of class Russia, a peasant son had achieved some freedom and independence. As a student at the Academy, he realized that he could not create anywhere other than the ancient Murom land close to him. He understood that cold and official Petersburg could not provide him with subjects for works of art from the life of ordinary people. He chooses a place of permanent residence in Murom, in a small “own” house he inherited, with workshops built according to his drawings by the artist’s father shortly before his death. Here he was surrounded by his native nature, like-minded city and country people.

In the winter of 1903, Kulikov created several small genre works “The Spinner”, “The Laundress”, in which he shows the hard work of women, and one of the first large genre works “The Spinner”. In its composition, the painting “Spinners” is to some extent reminiscent of the competition painting “In a Peasant Hut.” The artist looks at a group of girls somewhat from above. A group of peasant girls located diagonally fills almost the entire plane of the work. The girls' movements are leisurely and full of grace. Simple sundresses and scarves, illuminated through the small window of a peasant hut by the setting rays of the winter sun and the reflections of the fire of an iron stove, burn like precious clothes made of brocade and gold. This whole scene with its simple furnishings, a bench, painted bottoms, and a basket for yarn represents part of the Kulikovs’ house in Murom.

Art criticism immediately drew attention to these works by the young artist, who exhibited “Portrait of My Mother” and “Spinners” at the Spring Exhibition in 1904. This was the emergence of a new artist with a definite and clear direction - an artist-writer of everyday life, an artist of a realistic direction, a continuer of ideas Itinerants The paintings “Spinners” and “Spinner” from the exhibition were purchased by famous art collectors and art collectors Sveshnikov and Tsvetkov. Kulikov considered “Portrait of My Mother” a family heirloom and never parted with it, despite the tempting offer of its acquisition by the Tretyakov Gallery.

Portrait of my mother

In August 1903, Kulikov went abroad as a pensioner of the Academy. During his three months abroad, he visited famous museums in Berlin, Dresden, Munich, and traveled through Italian cities. Kulikov spent about a month in the museums of Paris, studying the famous Louvre and its unique collection of paintings. In Paris, Kulikov was greatly impressed by the Barbizons, whose painting was close to the Russian realistic school. In 1904, at the insistence of I.E. Repin and on the recommendation of the Council of Professors of the Academy, Kulikov again went abroad. Graduates received secondary business trips abroad infrequently. However, the success at the Spring Exhibition of his works was predetermined by the Council’s decision to send Kulikov abroad for a second time. Repin recommended to many of his students to study modern French painting, in which the depiction of the landscape, the state of nature, and the work of ordinary people was brought to perfection. In 1905, the Council of Professors of the Academy for the third time provided the opportunity for Kulikov to travel abroad to continue his art education and study the painting of great masters. Acquaintance with Western European painting enriched the artist, confirmed his philosophical views on the role and significance of the artist in history, in the development of society, and developed his taste. However, not finding soil for his creativity, Kulikov did not stay abroad for long, without creating a single significant work there, with the exception, perhaps, of a portrait of two pretty Italian women and several sketches made in Venice, Florence, and Paris.

Italians

Having completed his art education, Kulikov devoted himself entirely to his favorite work - painting. He was in constant correspondence with his academic friends and systematically traveled to St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod to participate in exhibitions. In Murom, Kulikov had the opportunity to rethink everything he had studied at the Academy and seen during his travels abroad in the best Western European museums. Creative determination, observation and knowledge of the life of the people helped Kulikov to develop his own pictorial language in a relatively short time. Immediately after participating in the Spring Exhibition of 1904 after graduating from the Academy, he gained fame. Since 1904, Kulikov has not missed a single Spring exhibition, at which over 14 years he exhibited more than 140 works. In 1908, after long and careful preparation, he participated in the exhibition of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Participates in many international exhibitions: in Liege (1905), in Munich (1909), in Rome (1910, 1912), in Venice (1911, 1914).

At first, he did not set himself the task of creating large compositions, limiting himself to small genre paintings from peasant life. As a rule, he snatches individual scenes from life, where the characters of ordinary people, their psychology and tastes, their aspirations and experiences are in focus. Kulikov is most successful in portraying female images. The clothes of peasant women, despite their simplicity, were bright, built on contrasts, in the most unusual combinations. Bright scarves and shawls emphasized this contrast. Each work is imbued with love for the characters depicted.

One of the significant works created by the artist in 1905-1906 is the painting “On a Holiday” (or “Village Holiday”), shown for the first time at the Spring Academic Exhibition in 1906, and subsequently at the exhibition of the Association of Itinerants. In the painting, the artist depicts a small scene of a village festival. From the general festive crowd he snatches a group of resting peasants. The main attention is drawn to the festively dressed girl placed in the foreground. The girl's pretty face is framed by a dark red scarf with bright flowers. A long dark green dress emphasizes the stately figure of the girl. The whole crowd is permeated with sunlight. Multi-colored clothes based on contrasts of red and green shades emphasize the festive mood. The painting is painted so generally and sweepingly, so vividly, that it seems as if it was done at one time and is perceived as a large sketch. In the painting “On a Holiday,” Kulikov showed himself as a master master of painting techniques. And not only by Repin’s technique, but also by all the means and methods, the knowledge of which he received from studying not only the works of Russian artists, but also the achievements of Western European masters, and the French impressionists in particular.

On a holiday

At the Spring Academic Exhibition in 1906, Kulikov exhibited several works at once: “Women”, “Girl in a Fur Coat”, “Boys with Lanterns”, “Thinking”, “Twilight”, “First Snow”, as well as a portrait of the artist V.V. Belyashin, made while still studying at the Academy, “The Dreamer”, “With Lanterns in the Garden”, 17 portraits of dignitaries written by Kulikov for the “Great Meeting of the State Council”.

Thought about it

The small sketch “With Lanterns in the Garden” attracted the attention of viewers with its broad brushwork and lighting effects achieved with a minimum of visual means. In the evening garden, near a tea table covered with a white tablecloth with a samovar, three girlish figures are placed, illuminated by red and orange lanterns hanging on the trees. The work was written boldly and quickly, with temperament and inspiration. Using a wide brush, the strokes are laid according to the shape of the dresses. The relationships of the color spots are balanced. His painting “The Dreamer” (1905) was exhibited at the same exhibition. Above the high Oka expanses, a peasant girl is depicted almost in profile. Her figure is filled with vitality and grace, optimism and dreams. The evening dawn, against which the girl is depicted, foreshadows the birth of a bright and happy coming morning, the dream of a young peasant woman striving for freedom.

With lanterns in the garden

Dreamer

Following the results of the Spring Exhibition of 1906, at the A.I. Kuindzhi competition for a series of works, I.S. Kulikov was awarded the first prize, which at the beginning of the century was considered one of the highest awards for an artist. The award of the prize was recognition of the talent of the young artist who had just graduated from the Academy. Despite the fact that landscape occupied a secondary place in Kulikov’s work, in many genre works the landscape is an integral part of the composition. An example of this can be such genre works as “Grandma with Chickens”, “At the Outskirts”, “Bird Cherry”, “Hawthorns in the Garden” and many others. In depicting nature, Kulikov found his own style, special flavor, and color harmony. Being a student of Kuindzhi, in plein air painting Kulikov creates a kind of images of Russian nature in central Russia with its subtle color relationships and soft sunlight. In Murom, Kulikov found fertile ground for creativity. The environment around him and the people close to him inspired the artist. He worked daily and hourly, winter and summer, and did not waste his strength on trifles and trifles. Every year he creates works, gradually complicating compositional tasks. Using every opportunity, he makes sketches of his village relatives. Sometimes these sketches suggested to him the subjects of his paintings.

The Kulikov house in the city gradually became a center where relatives from the surrounding villages met on market and fair days. Relatives were pleased and flattered to see their images on the artist’s canvases. The artist gives some portraits to his relatives. Summer and winter 1906-1907. Kulikov is working on several compositions at the same time. He considered the most significant of them to be “On a Holiday”, “Feeding the Chickens”, “In the Yard” and “Three Girls”, which he exhibited at the exhibition of the Wanderers in 1908. At the same time, the artist tried his hand at a more complex everyday genre and paints two large canvases, “On a Winter Evening” (“On Winter Days”) and “Bazaar in Murom.”

Grandma with chickens

Feeding chickens

Three girls

Portrait of S.I. Senkov

At the Spring Exhibition of 1908, among other works, Kulikov showed a genre portrait painting “Old Woman Daria from Prudishchi.” In his work, Kulikov gives preference to the depiction of young peasant women. The exception is several portraits of elderly women, including portraits of the mother, old lady Daria from Prudishchi and some others. Painted with a broad brush, the portrait is distinguished by its insight into the inner world of an elderly woman, looking back into the past. However, in her barely perceptible movement one can still feel strength and vitality. Depicted against the background of golden logs of a peasant hut, the woman sat down on a bench near the table. A dark purple sundress and scarf, a crimson jacket and apron, illuminated through the window, create a certain emotional mood, helping to create the image of an elderly peasant woman, deep in her concerns and wise in her own way.

Old woman Daria from Prudishchi

These works were, as it were, programmatic for the artist’s further creativity. They reveal the main theme of his work - the theme of life and everyday life of the Russian peasantry. These works, exhibited at the Traveling Exhibition, were distinguished by the integrity of the artist’s creative views. Despite the difference in themes and execution techniques, they formed a wonderful ensemble, which once again emphasized the talent and originality of the artist from ancient Murom.

He tries not to miss any more or less significant exhibition. His authority among the artistic community increased so much that after Repin left his professorial position, Kulikov was included in the list of candidates for election to the post of professor-head of the workshop of the painting department of the Higher Art School. I.E. Repin, to whom Kulikov turned for advice, with all his characteristic energy and categoricality, did not advise Kulikov to be a teacher at the Academy, arguing that the freedom of the artist is above all. Kulikov refused the proposed position, just as in 1912 he refused to be the director of the Kharkov Art School.

Along with working on paintings, he studies archeology, ethnography and numismatics. For his works he collects peasant costumes, village utensils, and house carvings. The ancient Murom land is filled with these objects, and Kulikov in a short period of time becomes the owner of a unique collection of ancient Russian costumes, shoes, sundresses, kokoshniks, scarves, objects of applied art - spinning wheels and caskets. Kulikov did not see collecting activity as an end in itself, but through the study of objects created by our ancestors, he wanted to truthfully convey the historical situation to the viewer in his works. For the most part, he was interested in ethnographic material characteristic of the ancient Murom region. It is known that great work on the preservation of historical and cultural monuments, including archaeological monuments, architectural monuments, fine and applied arts, was carried out by the Archaeological Society, the chairman of which, after the death of archaeologist A.S. Uvarov, became his wife P.S. Uvarova, whose estate was located in the village of Karacharovo near Murom. Kulikov executed a portrait of archaeologist A.S. Uvarov in the traditional manner of portraiture of the late 19th century. According to the agreement with the archaeologist’s wife, Kulikov was supposed to create a whole gallery of family portraits, but due to the revolutionary events, he managed to make only two portraits - A.S. Uvarov and his wife, and the wife’s portrait is known only from photographs.

In the summer of 1910, Kulikov took part in an archaeological expedition led by P.S. Uvarova to excavate the Podbolotevsky burial ground. During excavations, he makes sketches of the found objects and burials. Accumulating knowledge of archeology, Kulikov gradually became an expert in this field, and in September 1910, the Vladimir Provincial Scientific Archival Commission elected him to be a full member of the commission.

Portrait of A.S. Uvarov

Throughout his career, the main subjects for Kulikov’s works were scenes from the life of the Russian village, its way of life, and traditional ways of life. In his best works, he shows a deep knowledge of peasant life, the psychology of peasants, their aesthetic views and aspirations, and reveals the spiritual beauty and character of ordinary people from the village. A feature of his work is his admiration for ordinary people, their internal culture and optimism. In the works, the state of sadness is accompanied by hope for the best. Kulikov perceives the entire world around him as a person with an optimistic worldview.

Peasant woman with a rake

Nadya Kalinina

Cowherd

Portrait of an Old Believer (Old Man Reading)

Girl with a pussy

Russian girl

Peasant woman

Wildflowers

Carpenter Egor Tereshkin

Self-portrait

Russian and Soviet artist, academician of the Imperial Academy of Painting, recognized master of genre painting and portrait painter.

Artist Ivan Semyonovich Kulikov was born in April 1875 in the city of Murom. His parents (Semyon Loginovich Kulikov and Alexandra Semyonovna Savinova) came to the city from the village of Afanasovo, Murom district, in search of a better life. The father of the future artist was a specialist in painting and a good roofer; very soon he created and headed a small artel for the construction and repair of residential buildings, churches, and administrative buildings.

In 1893, Vanya Kulikov, on the recommendation of his drawing and drawing teacher, met the artist A.I. Morozov, who sometimes came to Murom for the summer. It was Morozov who strongly recommended that Ivan’s parents send the young man to St. Petersburg, to the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts at the Imperial Academy.

In the fall, Ivan Kulikov goes to the capital and becomes an assistant and student of A.I. Morozov, who prepares the student for admission to the school of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts.

Since 1894, Ivan Semyonovich became a student of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and two years later he entered the Academy of Arts as a volunteer. In 1898, at the request of I.E. Repin, Kulikov becomes a full-fledged student of the Academy, and takes an active part in the work of I.E. Repin and B.M. Kustodieva over the painting “Meeting of the State Council”, writes illustrations for the works of Maxim Gorky.

In 1902, Ivan Semyonovich graduated from the Academy and presented his competition work “Tea drinking in a peasant hut.” For this painting, the young artist receives a Big Gold Medal and the right to travel abroad at government expense.

From 1903 to 1905, Kulikov lived and worked in Europe, visiting Italy and France.

In 1915, for a series of paintings about his hometown of Murom, the waders artist was awarded the title of academician.

After the revolution, the artist settled in Murom, worked in the local museum, and with great enthusiasm collected paintings, sculptures, objects of applied art, books, and documents from abandoned estates and houses. It was thanks to the efforts of Ivan Semyonovich Kulikov that our culture managed to preserve a huge number of real cultural relics.

The artist died in December 1941 and was buried in the cemetery of his hometown.

Paintings by artist Ivan Semenovich Kulikov

Constantly expanding. If at first artist satisfied with minor genre scenes from the life of the Russian village, then during the heyday of his creative powers he produced works of the historical genre. One of his themes is the depiction of scenes from the life of the boyars. Revealing the beauty of the ancient way of life, idealizing it to a large extent, Kulikov creates works that are joyful in color. From this cycle of works characteristic of the artist are: “Gathering of the Bride” (1906), “On Winter Days” (1907), “In the Boyar’s Mansion” (1912), “Boyars in the Garden” (1913), “In Russian Attire” ( 1916). Kulikov, in his calm, unhurried images of prison life, makes the viewer see a life full of emotions and passions. One of the typical examples is the painting “Gathering of the Bride.” This painting was first shown by the artist at the Spring Exhibition in 1907. The canvas depicts a scene of preparations for a wedding. Two beautiful girls are seeing off their friend, and maybe their older sister. They all live their own lives, their own destiny, their own hopes. In the center is a slightly embarrassed, happy bride. She is wearing luxurious antique clothes. An elderly woman tries on earrings for her. The girl on the right leaned on the back of the chair. She does not seem to participate in this scene, lost in her dreams, wondering about her fate. The face of the friend sitting on the left expresses the sadness of the inevitable separation. It is not for nothing that at the Spring Exhibition this work received the second prize of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists in the historical genre.

In the boyar's mansion

Bride gathering

On winter days

In a kokoshnik

Happy holiday (Zardela)

It is impossible not to dwell on one of Kulikov’s major works from this cycle - the painting “Boyaryshni” (“Bride’s Dress”), located in the Yaroslavl Art Museum. The work, significant in size, was exhibited by the artist at several exhibitions, including the Spring Exhibition and the exhibition in Venice in 1908. A young beautiful girl in rich clothes and a kokoshnik sits with a casket filled with precious jewelry. She is calm and focused on one thought that is clear to her. A barely hidden smile suggests that she is thinking about happiness. The friends around her carefully and curiously look into the casket. The youth and beauty of the girls is emphasized by an elderly woman in simple peasant clothes standing nearby. There is a sad smile on her face. This group fills the entire small room, the interior of which is written in an extremely general way. Just as in the previous work, the artist creates a composition of five characters with different characters and moods.

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Hawthorns (Bride's headdress)

One of the last works of this cycle is the portrait painting “In Russian Attire” (1916). His wife Elizaveta Arkadyevna Sokolova posed for the artist for this work. It is possible that Elizaveta Arkadyevna influenced the creation of a number of paintings in which she “played” a leading role. She was transformed either into a pretty peasant woman in the painting “At the Outskirts”, or into a modern city woman in the painting “Cheryemukha”, and in the painting “In Russian Attire” a Russian beauty is depicted in expensive brocade clothes, in a kokoshnik embroidered with pearls, with a necklace of precious stones , earrings. After the death of Ivan Semenovich, Elizaveta Arkadyevna became an active promoter of her husband’s work; she organized a house-museum, which she headed for more than 30 years until she was very old, and to which she donated many of the artist’s works, which were family heirlooms. Having paid a kind of tribute to the “terem” theme, which many artists were keen on during these years, Kulikov remained an artist-writer of everyday life, reflecting in his work the everyday ways and life of ordinary people, village and city residents of the early 20th century.

In Russian attire

At the outskirts

Bird cherry

Being an old-timer of Murom, constantly living there, Kulikov could not help but pay attention to one of the characteristic features of the merchant city - the famous Murom bazaars and fairs. In 1907, he created a canvas for the first time on this topic: “Bazaar in Murom,” which he exhibited at the Spring Exhibition in 1908. As in most works, the plot is extremely simple. On a sunny summer day, the colorful crowd of the market is noisy. She is shown in such a general way that many faces and figures are the background against which several foreground figures emerge. In this work, Kulikov again used what had become his favorite technique of depicting figures illuminated against the light. The figures appear in silhouette either against the backdrop of a narrow strip of sky or against the backdrop of a sunlit landscape. A pretty girl in a dark green dress and a crimson scarf is moving towards the viewer on the right. She is thoughtful and focused. Her movements are leisurely and graceful. On the left is an official looking at ancient books and things lying on the ground, and an old woman selling them under a sunlit umbrella.

“Bazaar in Murom” (“Bazaar at the Carousel”), “Bazaar with Bagels”, “Boys at the Bazaar” - all these works, although written in different years, were written in the same style, in the same spirit. Some female characters can be seen in several of Kulikov's works. Such an example is the image of a peasant woman in a green dress and a crimson scarf with flowers, depicted in several works. On the canvas “On a Holiday” this peasant woman is placed in the foreground in the center of the composition. At the same time, on the canvas “Fair in Murom” she is placed among the fair crowd.

Being an expert in Russian national costume, Kulikov caught the peasants’ love for bright red shirts and sundresses, blue and yellow scarves and shawls, painted spinning wheels, sleighs and arches. The skillful use of additional colors in the color scheme of the works emphasized their optimistic and life-affirming mood. Sedate old men and women, pretty girls, cheerful guys, peasants and townspeople - representatives of the main classes of the provincial trading town were the heroes of his canvases. And, as a rule, in the foreground, and sometimes in the center of the composition, as if for contrast in the festively dressed crowd, the artist highlights the dark figure of a beggar with a canvas begging bag over his shoulder.

Bazaar in Murom

Market at the carousel

Fair in Murom

Bazaar with bagels

On a hot day

Boys at the market

Portrait of the artist A.L. Durov

Market near the church

Two years before the start of the First World War, Kulikov created a socially sensitive work, “Recruitment” (1912). The recently ended Russian-Japanese War, the death of Russian people, the mobilization of many relatives and friends from the Murom district - all this could not fail to impress the young artist. The painting depicts a festively dressed crowd. In the center of the composition are healthy Russian male recruits. They are ready to go through fire and water. One of the guys is a daring accordion player. He stretched out the furs of the talyanka, trying at the same time to lift the spirits of the mourners and drown out the melancholy of separation. The second one retreated into himself, experiencing the acute pain of parting with his young beautiful wife, whose beauty is emphasized by her festive outfit, and his old father. Both of them - both the wife and the father - are left without a breadwinner and a loved one for a long time, and maybe forever.

Recruitment set

At the Spring Exhibition of 1910, Kulikov exhibited several works, including such as “The Ancient Rite of Blessing the Bride,” “The Peasant’s Family,” “The Beggar,” “The Helmsman” and others. He again shows his desire to reflect peasant life with its customs and rituals in his works.

In the painting “Ancient Rite of Blessing of the Bride,” the artist reflected an ancient ritual that existed among peasants at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the center of the picture, on the floor, covered with straw according to the ancient custom, the bride is kneeling. Her face, depicted in profile, is turned to her parents, father and mother with bread and salt - all according to the ancient routine. On the right in the picture are close relatives: here is a grandmother, who apparently feels sorry for her granddaughter, and an older, already adult sister, very similar to her mother, and a very teenage girl, looking with interest at the scene taking place. In the bowed figure of the bride one can feel submission to fate and silent agreement with the will of the parents. There is not a single smile on the faces of those present. Everyone is focused on the bride and full of sympathy and pity for her. As in many other works, Kulikov introduces entire planes of bright, intense tones, taken in full force, into this picture. The artist’s rich palette, built on a harmonious combination of red, blue, pink and purple, enhances the emotional impact of the work.

Ancient ceremony of blessing the bride

Forester's family

In 1914, Kulikov created the genre painting “Return from the City.” Against the backdrop of a cityscape with ancient Murom cathedrals fading into the winter haze, a peasant boy and girl are returning from the city. Their movements are smooth and unhurried. Apparently, the guy is escorting his young wife from the city to the village. They are sad and focused. A pretty girl with a beautiful oval face, with sad and thoughtful eyes personifies tenderness and purity. She is dressed in a tanned, ocher-colored fur coat and covered with a checkered shawl. A box of city gifts is slung over her shoulder. Judging by the smartly tied scarf, the dashingly put on hat, and the fashionable mustache for the urban bourgeoisie, significant changes have taken place in the young man’s psychology. He developed other interests and views. He managed to wean himself from hard peasant labor. Despite the fact that the young people walk together, their subtle movements, glances, and facial expressions emphasize the brewing conflict. It is possible that these farewells are the last, and in another moment - and the young man will remain in the city, and the girl with heavy thoughts and experiences returns to her home in the village. “Return from the City” is written in the author’s favorite tones, characteristic of the first period of his work. The guy's purple and black clothes contrast with the ocher and brownish tones of the girl's clothes. This contrast is emphasized by the clear silhouette of the figures against the background of the winter landscape.

Returning from the city

In October 1915, I.S. Kulikov was awarded the highest recognition: the Academic Council awarded him the title of academician of painting. But this artist is interested not only in oil painting. Since 1907, Kulikov has taken part in many exhibitions of watercolors of the Society of Russian Watercolorists (1907, 1908, 1912, 1914, 1917), the Lemercier Gallery (1913), the Society of Artists named after I. E. Repin (1927, 1928, 1929) and others . At these exhibitions, Kulikov acted as an artist depicting the life of the Russian peasantry, creating mainly watercolor portraits of pretty peasant women in Russian national clothes, bright cotton scarves, and sometimes shawls. The plots, simple in their theme, attracted lovers of fine art with their simplicity of execution, grace, subtlety of elaboration, and the artist’s sincere attitude towards the village women. A large number of watercolor works were completed by Kulikov in the post-October period.

Currently, a small number of watercolor works by Kulikov have been preserved. Many watercolors were purchased immediately after the exhibitions, and a significant part of them were exported abroad. The genre watercolor “Beyond the Water” (1904), kept in the Russian Museum, is remarkable in its craftsmanship. Two pretty girls are depicted against the backdrop of a winter village landscape. One of them looks at the viewer. She is dressed in a sheepskin coat and has a yoke with buckets on her shoulder. On the head there is a red-brown half shawl. The second girl is wearing a bright red scarf and dark clothes. Both figures of girls are illuminated by the weak morning winter sun. In the distance there is a group of women at a well. Most watercolor works are characterized by simplicity of the plot, emphasizing one or another detail of peasant life.

Even in his academic years, Kulikov tried his hand at tempera and pastel techniques. His works are distinguished by softness, delicate color relationships, lightness and airiness. Among the best works are the small work “The Spinner” (1904), located in the collections of the house-museum, a portrait of an unknown woman (1906), and portraits of girls (1908 and 1910). Sometimes Kulikov introduces charcoal into his pastel works. Kulikov achieved great success in portraits made with sanguine in combination with charcoal or Italian pencil. Kulikov basically mastered this technique while still at the Academy. Even then, in academic drawings using sanguine, Kulikov saw that with the help of sanguine it was possible to convey the warmth of the human body and a great naturalness of the image.

Portrait of a Peasant Woman

Portrait of a mother

After 1917, Kulikov created a gallery of portraits of his contemporaries. Kulikov chooses people close to him in character, creativity, and social status. In almost every portrait he shows his gentle and friendly character, sincerity and humanity. He saw people exactly as he was. In almost all portraits without exception (except for one “Defender Giving a Speech”), we will not find movement, any expression, or unnecessary gestures. Each portrait has a calm pose and an expressive face. Portraits of women are marked by a combination of beauty and tenderness. And although Kulikov was not considered a great psychologist in portraiture, one can find depth of character in his works. Many portrait artists of Repin's school remained faithful to the realistic depiction of a person with his complex inner world. Each portrait of those years is characterized not only by the individual traits of a particular person, but in each portrait an image of a person who was a part of society was created.

Kulikov made a significant number of portraits in two pencils in the 1920s. Portraits of Red Army soldiers and participants in the Civil War are known, and since 1925 the artist has created a large number of female portraits. Among these portraits, perhaps the best is the portrait of the artist’s wife, made in 1925. The graceful profile, delicate facial features, radiant gray eyes, bare neck and shoulder, framed by brown hair and a dark gray fur cape - all this emphasizes the beauty of the forty-year-old beloved by the artist women, his companions and models. In this portrait, the artist seemed to synthesize the image of his life partner and, like the image of his mother, he created a generalized image of his beloved woman.

In the 1930s, Kulikov made several portraits of famous Murom doctors: surgeon N. N. Pechkin, former chief surgeon of the Botkin Hospital, pediatrician A. G. Mladov, portraits of many public figures of the city.

Portrait of E.A. Kulikova

Portrait of E.S. Kalinina

Portrait of the surgeon N.N. Pechkin

Portrait of M.O. Menshikov

The First World War and the February Revolution did not have any serious influence on Kulikov’s work, with the exception of the painting “Recruitment”, created on the eve of the war, and several sketches and sketches made by the artist during the days of the February Revolution in Murom, where he was in this time. While in Murom at the end of February 1917, Kulikov witnessed rallies and demonstrations. At the beginning of November 1918, the city leadership adopted a resolution to open a museum of the local region in the mansion of N.A. Zvorykin. The mansion, located in the city center, built in the Empire style, was most suitable for the museum. The suite of rooms on the second and third floors was convenient for organizing the exhibition. Kulikov took up the work of organizing the museum. Being an expert in archeology and ethnography, the owner of a unique collection of Russian national costume and decorative arts, Kulikov and his assistants create the first exhibition of the museum with 1,500 exhibits and open the museum on January 1, 1919. Kulikov gives the most valuable exhibits from his collection - objects - to the museum decorative and applied arts, ancient Russian clothing, shoes, jewelry, his paintings, which are still the main fund of the museum, although the number of exhibits has increased tenfold. The museum’s exhibition also included works by Kulikov, who, as an artist, appeared for the first time before the city’s residents. On behalf of the Department of Public Education, at the beginning of 1919, Ivan Semenovich headed a commission to select works of art, paintings, engravings, sculptures, porcelain, furniture, books, brochures, art products and other collections from the collection of Countess Uvarova for the organization of a public museum. Under his leadership, regulations on the subdepartment for museum affairs and the protection of monuments of art and antiquities are being developed.

In the fall of 1918, Kulikov approached the Department of Public Education with a proposal on the need to organize a drawing school in Murom. After Kulikov was appointed head of the drawing school, he devoted himself with all the passion of an artist to educating the new generation. He not only conducts practical classes in drawing and painting, conveys his knowledge about Renaissance artists, impressionists and Barbizons, the Wanderers and students of I.E. Repin, but also develops a theoretical course in which he gives basic concepts about painting and composition, about color and light, about line and perspective, about proportions and plane. In July 1919, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Kulikov at which the unification of artists took place. At the same time, a decision was made to admit everyone who wanted to study there to the art school.

Unable to take part in art exhibitions in Moscow and Leningrad, in January 1926 Kulikov organized a personal exhibition at the House of Education Workers, which was located in a former real school. This exhibition attracted the attention of the city community and lovers of fine art. Busy with organizational work in the museum, in drawing courses and in the art workshop, Kulikov did not have the opportunity to work creatively. Part of the time had to be devoted to household chores, without which it was difficult to live during these years. The means of subsistence were not enough; he had to support his family by exchanging things, sometimes unique ones, for food. In 1919, the artist had a daughter.

Tanya with bows

Tanya with a cat

At the piano

Portrait of T.I. Kulikova

Family at the table

In 1923, an exhibition of artists of all directions for 5 years (1918-1923) was organized in Petrograd, in which Kulikov took part for the first time after the revolution. This exhibition was one of the first exhibitions in which masters of various creative orientations could participate. In 1918, a professional union of artists was created in Petrograd, which Kulikov joined in 1922 as an unemployed painter. In Petrograd, he makes an attempt to get some orders in order to provide a minimum subsistence level for his family. Meetings in Petrograd with fellow artists confirmed his belief that during this difficult period he should not tear himself away from his native land. The family remaining in Murom urgently demanded to return home, since their financial situation was the most critical. In the fall of 1923, Kulikov returned to Murom, where he continued to work in the museum he created as a researcher in the department of painting and ancient Russian life.

Many artists, especially portrait painters, were able to create privately paid commissions. During these years, Kulikov performed a large number of commissioned, mostly female, portraits in two colors, made with sanguine and Italian pencil or charcoal. Using minimal means, the artist achieves great picturesqueness and portrait resemblance. Warm shades of Siena stone combined with cool tones of pencil or charcoal, delicate drawing of details and decorations created the illusion of a picturesque image. Unfortunately, only a few works by the artist executed in this manner have survived. Many of them are in private collections, many are irretrievably lost. He did not attach any importance to most commissioned portraits. However, the portraits that have survived and are known from exhibitions can be a kind of gallery of female images.

In 1921-1925. for the Vladimir and Murom museums, Kulikov makes several original repetitions of pre-revolutionary works: “Winter Walking” (“Pogulyanka”) (version 1914), “Granny with Chickens” (version 1907), “At the Outskirts” (version 1913 .) and others. Continuing his work at the museum, Ivan Semenovich makes several sketches of Murom architectural monuments, most of which are included in the museum’s exhibition as a kind of illustration, including sketches of the Mother of God Cathedral, Nikolo-Zaryadskaya and Nativity churches, and shopping arcades. In these sketches, the artist records the architectural monuments of ancient Murom, preserving their images for posterity. The sketches reveal the exact and characteristic features of the monuments that shaped the urban environment and were an example of the high level of architectural creativity of Murom architects.

House in Panfilov

Murom monasteries

Nikolo-Zaryadskaya Church in Murom

Nikolo-Embankment Church in Murom

Street of old Murom

The restoration of the activities of the I.E. Repin Society had a positive impact on Kulikov’s creative activity. About 100 leading Russian artists took part in the exhibition of the I.E. Repin Society. At the first exhibition of the society, Kulikov showed 10 graphic works, mainly portraits made in sanguine and charcoal, and watercolors. The following year he submitted 18 works to the exhibition. However, many of the paintings were either the author’s repetitions of works of the pre-revolutionary period - “The Old Lady with Chickens”, “Fair”, “Shepherd”, “Nastya”, or small sketches of nature and architectural landscapes of the city that were simple in their plot: “Peasant Square in Murom”, “Corner of Murom” and others. After a long break, Kulikov again returned to the watercolor technique, which he considered the most difficult in the fine arts. For the first time, Kulikov turns to the topic of depicting youth, which in subsequent years will be one of the most important topics in his creative activity for him. With the exhibitions of the I.E. Repin Society, Kulikov seemed to have regained strength, having become involved in creative life. Meetings at the exhibition with like-minded people, creative discussions, a sense of comradely mutual assistance - all this gave the artist a second wind and forced him to join an active creative life.

At the exhibition of the I. E. Repin Society in 1929, Kulikov showed a number of works. Among them are “Athletic Girl”, “Jungsturm”, “Pioneers”. In “Athletic Girl,” the artist depicted a girl in a moment of rest. She is wearing a white T-shirt with black stripes, emphasizing the graceful lines of her figure. The girl holds a volleyball ball in her hands. A look full of optimism and faith in the future emphasizes her cheerful and sociable character. For “The Athlete,” Kulikov chose the weaver Pana Ivanova, who captivated with her cheerfulness and activity. She was the Komsomol leader of the factory, and later became the secretary of the city Komsomol committee. Subsequently, “The Athlete” was reproduced many times, and in 1939 it was exhibited at an exhibition of Soviet fine art in Philadelphia.

Sportswoman

Portrait of V.I. Lenin

At the same time as “The Athlete”, Kulikov showed a second portrait of a contemporary called “Jungsturm” at the exhibition. Against the backdrop of a waving red banner with a hammer and sickle and a barely outlined silhouette of a factory, a perky young Komsomol girl in a tunic is depicted. There is a cheerful smile on the girl’s dark face, which emphasizes her sociable character and femininity. The portrait is built on a combination of contrasting colors - red and green, which are in a balance that creates the impression of the integrity of the work of art.

Jungsturm

“Old Man with a Newspaper” (“Reading”) and “Painter Shamilin” are of significant interest. An elderly peasant in a fur hat and short fur coat is reading a newspaper with great attention. The visual aids are very sparse. Bright light falls on the figure from the back to the right, which creates contrast in the lighting. One part of the face is in shadow. The ocher color palette creates an optimistic mood and emphasizes the depth of the peasant’s psychological state.

While reading

Painter M.I.Shamilin

Among the works that Kulikov exhibited at the exhibition of the I.E. Repin Society was the composition “International Youth Day” (1929). Ivan Semenovich had a desire to make a painting reflecting one of the aspects of the life of young people. The work is filled with a festive and joyful mood, which is emphasized by the bright light of a sunny day, a banner fluttering in the wind and the red headscarves of the girls. For Kulikov, the most important thing was the search for the image of a contemporary, and at the exhibition in 1929 he proved that he had found this image.

International Youth Day

Pioneer leader

Creating a gallery of portraits of his contemporaries, Kulikov could not help but pay attention to the work of the workers. During these years, Kulikov painted portraits of labor shock workers Bushueva and Sudakov (both 1931), as well as one of the city’s first Stakhanovites, the blacksmith Rudnikov (1937).

Shock worker Sudakov

Portrait of Bushueva

In the summer of 1932, the republican association "Rosinstrument", which included enterprises from the cities of the Gorky region, Murom, Pavlov-on-Oka, Vacha and Vorsma, invited Kulikov to carry out work illustrating the past, present and future of industrial enterprises in a large region. As a learned archaeologist and ethnographer, Kulikov studies the history of the former village of Pavlova, gets acquainted with its old residents, makes drawings of ancient houses and streets, and creates a gallery of portraits. He is trying to recreate the image of the old Pavlov. In his notebooks, biographies and memories of Pavlovsk old-timers appear about the life of the pre-revolutionary village, about morals and customs: about cockfights, about Pavlovsk lemons. Drawings appear: “Handicraftsman’s House on Gryaznushka Street”, “Ostrozhnaya Street”, “Improvnaya Street”, the names of which speak for themselves. Gradually, a gallery of portraits of Pavlovsk old-timers appears, mostly former artisans who created their works of applied art - intricate locks, multi-item penknives, tool sets back in tsarist times. The first task set by the artist - to recreate the image of old Pavlov, in 1936-1938 culminated in the creation of several works, among which the most significant are “The Sobenshchik” (1936), “Pavlov’s Handicraftsman” (1937), “Blacksmith” (1937), “ Cockfight" (1937), "Night Buying" (1938). In 1936, the Industrial Museum was opened in Pavlov, the first exhibition of which was created with the active participation of Kulikov. Most of the works that the artist made at the request of Rosinstrument were transferred to the museum.

Pavlovsk handicraftsman

Night buying

Cockfighting

In January 1935, the Union of Artists was organized, and Kulikov became a member of the Gorky branch (GOSSKh) and the Partnership created under it. Despite poor health, Kulikov continues to paint. For a number of years he has been interested in landscape and still life. In landscape, however, he confines himself to small sketches characterizing the nature of the ancient Murom land, showing himself to be a subtle lyricist who knows the laws of plein air painting. The expanses of the Oka banks, the blue expanses of the Ilemna River, the outskirts of the suburban villages of Podbolotnya, Nezhilovka, Yamskaya Sloboda, masterfully executed by Kulikov, are saturated with space and light, sun and air.

Bogland

At the exhibition of landscapes held in Gorky in 1940, Kulikov exhibited more than 20 landscapes that received the approval of viewers and the artistic community. In 1935, he took part in the 3rd Gorky Regional Exhibition, where he exhibited two works. A significant event in the artistic life of the country was the organization in 1940 of an exhibition of works by artists from the periphery, at which Kulikov exhibited several portraits made in graphics, and the exhibition “Artists of the Older Generation of the RSFSR,” at which many of Ivan Semenovich’s works enjoyed well-deserved success. Among them, “Self-Portrait” (1939) and “Family Portrait” (1938) attracted the most attention from viewers. In “Self-Portrait” a gentle and kind character is conveyed. The lively face of the elderly artist emphasizes his wisdom, some hidden attractive force. The portrait can only be compared to a masterfully painted portrait of the mother. Painted with great skill by the artist's hands. During his life, Kulikov painted a large number of self-portraits, each of which can characterize a certain stage of the artist’s work; self-portraits are the mirror that reveals the depth of the artist’s worldview, the depth of his soul.

Self-portrait

In 1938, Kulikov led a group of artists in painting the suburban hall of the Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow, for the decoration of which he completed several excellently painted still lifes with fruit. The accidentally preserved still life “Peaches,” located in the local museum, was painted in the classical manner used by the old masters. The still lifes “Poppies”, “Apples”, “Vegetables” and many others are excellently written. His still lifes are distinguished by conscientiousness of execution, spontaneity of perception of nature, and originality. Each still life - flowers, fruits or vegetables - is painted in a lush, picturesque manner, permeated with sun and air, evoking a feeling of joy.

After the tragic death of the outstanding pilot of our time V.P. Chkalov, Ivan Semenovich decides to recreate the image of Valery Pavlovich. He collects photographs, gets acquainted with Chkalov’s family, makes sketches of the apartment and dacha where Chkalov lived, and gets acquainted with one of V.P. Chkalov’s associates, pilot G.F. Baidukov. Creating the image of a fearless pilot, a conqueror of airspace and at the same time a gentle and loving father and husband was not easy. Kulikov paints a portrait of V.P. Chkalov. The powerful figure of a pilot in a civilian suit, on whose lapel is the highest awards of the Motherland for unprecedented flights over the North Pole to the USA. The concentrated face in a three-quarter turn characterizes Chkalov as a purposeful, strong-willed person.

Portrait of pilot V.P. Chkalov

Portrait of pilot M.M. Matveev

At the end of 1940, after the exhibition “Artists of the Older Generation of the RSFSR,” Kulikov again became involved in active life. All winter he has been working on sketches for the large historical canvas he has planned, “Exit of the Nizhny Novgorod Militia in 1612.” In March 1941, the sketch was completed. The work was supposed to be completed for the art exhibition “Our Motherland” on the 25th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. To create historical verisimilitude, Kulikov again studies the historical events of the Time of Troubles, weapons, costumes, customs, and makes numerous drawings in the State Historical Museum in Moscow, in the Gorky and Murom local history museums. The surviving sketches of “The Militia” create the full impression of a finished work. From them one can judge the author's grandiose plan. The canvas depicts Dmitry Pozharsky and a militia army surrounded by a mass of people, residents of Nizhny Novgorod. In the center of the composition, Prince Pozharsky in battle armor on a white horse at the head of the army descends to the river through the Ivanovo Gate of the Kremlin. On the left you can see the wide Trans-Volga region, from where military men are moving to join the lead detachment. The old people, women and children remaining in the city each experience the event in their own way: some look at the marching defenders of the Fatherland with envy, others experience separation from their husbands and sons.

Sketch. Exit of the Nizhny Novgorod militia in 1612

Work on “The Militia” coincided with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Regardless of his age, state of health, everyday difficulties that arose, and the need for night shifts, Kulikov continued to work on the work, improving the compositional solution, color structure, and making sketches from nature. In the first days of the war, together with other artists of the city, he took an active part in decorating the city, drawing posters, helping to decorate the hospital, donating a large number of his works to it.

Kulikov was not in good health. It deteriorated sharply due to the outbreak of the Patriotic War, when the artist was burdened with heavy worries about supporting his family, heating and lighting the house, and night shifts. On December 15, 1941, while transporting firewood from a fuel depot, Kulikov died. A few days after his death, the executive committee of the city Council of Workers' Deputies decides to perpetuate the artist's memory, his house is transformed into a house museum, the street passing through the former Fair Square in Murom is named after him.

In the glorious galaxy of Repin's students, the name of Ivan Semenovich Kulikov is among the faithful followers of the realistic school of painting. Various kinds of deviations from the truth were alien to him. Thanks to the integrity of his nature, it is almost impossible to identify any stages in his work. He spent his entire adult life improving the knowledge he acquired at the Academy. He never parted with a pencil and notebook, sketchbook and paints. Kulikov always worked with full dedication. Perhaps that is why his works are distinguished by peace and tranquility, tenderness and lyricism. His heroes are calm and balanced, without external effects, but full of internal strength and energy, charm and love. Kulikov's pictorial works are saturated with the Russian national spirit. A rich range of colors, craftsmanship - all these qualities are characteristic of Kulikov’s work.