Bauman 38 certificate from a narcologist. Karabanov estate

On December 7, 2017, during restoration work, a copper sculpture of a lion, lost at the beginning of the 20th century, was installed on the roof of the Lev Kekushev mansion (Ostozhenka, 21).
It is known that Lev Kekushev often decorated his buildings with lions; this was a kind of signature of the master.
The facade of the house, which he designed and built in 1903 for his family, was also once crowned with a very expressive and memorable three-meter sculpture of a lion, made by the Austrian sculptor Rudolf Weyer, by analogy with the lions of the Nussdorf dam lock in Vienna (architect Otto Wagner).
Unfortunately, the building, which was built for a long and happy life, soon became the site of the architect’s personal tragedy.
He divorced his wife and left this house forever.
A few years later, a lion disappeared from the façade for unknown reasons.

This is what A.I. Kekusheva’s mansion looked like right after it was built (postcard from the home archive)

These are my photographs taken in 1982.

This year the mansion finally received restoration.
Restoration work was carried out under the leadership of GlavUpDK.
A very detailed and interesting article about the progress of restoration work.
And a sheet from the project:

And on YouTube A video of the moment the lion was installed appeared:

This idea had already been picked up by Yakov Rekk, who headed the Moscow Trade and Construction Joint Stock Company in 1898.
And so an old estate was bought on Povarskaya and in 1903, according to the design of Lev Nikolaevich, they began to build two mansions, between Skaryatinsky and Skatertny lanes. M.V. Nashchokina suggests that Kekushev began making designs for these mansions for Mamontov.
In 1904, the mansions were already built and ready for occupancy.

This is how this place was from 1904 to 1915, when, according to some sources, the architect Motylev rebuilt the facades of the first mansion closest to us in the neoclassical style and completely killed, so to speak, the entire Ponizovsky house.
And before that it was a corner of pure Franco-Belgian modernism in Moscow. In my opinion, an unrealistically beautiful quarter...

Lev Kekushev was considered by his contemporaries to be the most brilliant artist of the European movement, surpassing even Franz Schechtel. I agree with them. Shekhtel is a brilliant architect, decorator, and graphic artist. He built theatrical sets, grandiose ones of course, from his mansions. And Kekushev thought in terms of volumes, techniques, and categories of modernity. Although in history he was much less fortunate. Of all his works, crumbs remain.

A brilliant polymath, a connoisseur of world art, an excellent draftsman and a master of historical and architectural stylizations, Kekushev was the king of outrageousness. For the manufacturer Grachev, he built a villa in Khovrin - a variation on the theme of the casino in Monte Carlo, built by the Frenchman Charles Garnier. He gave his own house in Glazovsky Lane the features of the Brussels Hotel Tassel - the brainchild of Victor Horta, the founder of Belgian Art Nouveau.

But let's return to the mansion, whose appearance has hardly changed since 1904.


The complex volumetric composition of the house, characterized by the solidity of intersecting volumes, occupies the corner of the site and thus forms the facade of both Povarskaya Street and Skaryatinsky Lane. Kekushev always created complex volumes for mansions. He did not build boxes, which he then simply finished in the Art Nouveau style.



This is the basic principle from inside to outside, when the interior spaces and their layout forced a more dynamic construction of the facades and volumes of the external architectural composition of the house.
Building plans lost the simplicity of geometric constructions and became complex, multi-figured, reflecting the internal dynamics of volumes.
Modernism contrasts the simplicity and harmonious transparency of the forms of classical architecture with complex figurativeness.
Here, of course, it should also be noted that Art Nouveau used the most advanced materials and technologies in construction. The invention of reinforced concrete, the plastic properties of which helped create such light and fluid lines characteristic of the Art Nouveau style. It created the image of a flexible and durable, elastic and elastic, pliable and rigid material, which made it possible to cover vast spaces, withstand enormous loads, create large forms, flexible joints, light airy structures, without fluttering decorations and supports. Reinforced concrete significantly lightened the structure and at the same time began to visibly show its work.



Among Kekushev’s works, this mansion occupies a special place due to the variety of elements of its external and internal decorative decoration.

The center of the composition from Povarskaya Street on the façade is a three-part window on the second floor


united by an arched niche, above the archivolt of which there is a panel depicting figures of naked putti engaged in various activities in the field of art, covered with a large arched canopy.



Before the revolution, this canopy was still topped with a sculpture


the goddess Aurora scattering flowers is a symbol of joy and prosperity. At her feet little putti were playing around, one of which, as usual, was blowing soap bubbles, symbolizing the transience of life. But in the century that has passed since the building was built, Aurora has disappeared.

And the play of these different volumes and decor seemed to flow from top to bottom like such a powerful stream of water...



These large drops from below support the panels. A flowing treatment of a kind of “desudeporte” of an archivolt above the window... And then this wave breaks on a decorative balcony


fancifully and richly decorated with already ripe poppy heads and acanthus leaves



wonderful window frames, which were never repeated by Kekushev.
It must be said that there is no such common Kekushev detail on the binding as a flowing drop. Because there is a powerful flow of ornament and lines, and on the windows they would be superfluous.
It should also be noted that the window joinery was made by Kekushev from very high-quality larch material and they have not rotted for more than 100 years.



the balcony is supported or flowed down from it by 4 more flowing brackets and flows to the rhythm of the windows with rounded corners and the frames of the window portals flowing down..



the window sills end in a fringe of the same wavy vertical trim as the archivolt above the upper window. And all this makes this composition unusually stylish and attractive to smooth out. And if you stop and start looking at the house, it’s impossible to take your eyes off... Because one detail flows into another, but at the same time it all looks very whole and not fragmented.

Here I will make a slight digression and quote clever statements about the curved lines of modernity - The famous line of modernity, which received its name in architecture after the Belgian architect who popularized it - the “Orta line” - was a consequence of overcoming Euclid’s geometry in mathematics in the 19th century.
Euclidean space, the construction of which was based on straight lines, was in fact an idealization, the result of abstraction from real space.
Real space is defined by a curve, not a straight line.



In the 19th century Gaussian geometry appears, capable of describing curvature, which opposed itself to Euclidean as a more complex system. Therefore, the dominant line of modernity is a curved, “serpentine” line - lively, energetic, winding, dancing. In Art Nouveau iconography it was associated with a sea wave, the flight of drapery in a dance or the lashing blow of a whip; in ornaments it was associated with climbing vegetation or the web of a fence.



On the right is the harmonious semicircular volume of the winter garden. With almost continuous glazing for maximum use of sunlight.



Moreover, the glass is located at an angle.
They were all poisoned. Also a unique invention of modernity.
Now every year the number of etched glasses here is decreasing.


The spaces between the windows are decorated with peculiar semi-columns-pilasters along which amazingly graceful ornament flows. Like a wreath of chestnut leaves on the capital, then the trunk of a thin dandelion and the most elegant “spout” of the base. But it will not completely drain, because the corners of the wreaths and the ornament from below seem to cling to the sides of the semi-column and stop this rapid movement.
All this is supported by window sill rosettes, the same as those under the central balcony.

Above it all rises an English-style chimney


Kekushev made a lion mask on it. Your "signature". It was lost over time.
And when the mansion was restored, they placed there the same newt flower as on the other side.


On the side above the windows there is an ornament of three white flat stripes with bee or wasp nests.



it’s like notes and it seems the cheerful music is encrypted in this ornament


And a decorative, as it were, keystone, with a surprisingly elegant viscous ornament.
He is so blissful and calm that you involuntarily stop your gaze on him.

It was very surprising and symbolic that the architect placed my favorite Lorelei in different corners of the building.


Lorelei on the corner of Skaryatinsky and Povarskaya meets the dawn. She has her eyes open. The light falls on it in the first half of the day.

And Lorelei from the back facade with her eyes down - the sun is setting - night is coming

Amazing and back facade of the house





The rear facade is already more austere - this is a more private part of the building.
A massive front door is like the entrance to a castle, powerful protection from adversity and misfortune.

Unfortunately, I do not have photographs of the stables and services with the amazing horse above the gate. The staircase, which overlooks the courtyard, had a stained glass window that was amazingly preserved
Thanks to SALON magazine

The main staircase has a sculptural Kekushevka lion railing decor.

This stained glass window was covered up and opened at one's own risk by the previous New Zealand Ambassador.

In general, of course, we need to thank him not only for the restoration and preservation of this miracle of modernity, but also for popularizing it. Because M. Nashchokina’s book about this mansion was published with his direct participation.

hall..

glass of the winter garden from the inside..

Here is the horse over the stable or garage...

I can’t stop, I want to look and look at it.
Well, isn’t this newt charming, holding a garland of flowers with its paws and mouth - a symbol of well-being.

In general, modern artists and architects came up with the idea of ​​​​transforming the surrounding world through beauty.
This mansion of the great Moscow Art Nouveau architect Lev Nikolaevich Kekushev fully meets this idea. Every stroke, every detail is so beautiful that the world around seems more beautiful and better, and people cannot be evil, selfish and bloodthirsty.
Rudeness and money-grubbing have no place next to such perfection of beauty.

Beauty will save the world.

And yes, I know that the horizon is blocked, the quality of the photo is not so good. But we show what we have.
By the way, I’ve been collecting photos for three years to put them together for this post.
This is the embassy - it was forbidden to take photographs.

UPS/ Here is a rather large photo of the horse they gave me



Thanks a lot to the author of the photo :)

Moscow Art Nouveau in the faces and destinies of Lyudmila Anatolyevna Sokolova

Mansion A.I. Kekusheva on Ostozhenka, No. 21 (1900–1903)

First, a few words about the street itself.

Once upon a time, in this place next to the Moscow River there were floodplain meadows, on which hay was dried in stacks after mowing, hence the name of the stack - Ostozhye, and later - Ostozhenka (in 1935-1986 - Metrostroevskaya Street).

By the beginning of the 20th century, this piece of land in the center of Moscow became “golden”, and only representatives of the trade and financial elite could afford to settle here. The Northern House-Building Society, headed first by Savva Mamontov and then by Yakov Rekk, built luxurious mansions in the fashionable Art Nouveau style on this street, commissioning projects from the best Moscow architects, in whose ranking Kekushev occupied the top line.

His decision to build himself a house on the “Golden Mile” eloquently speaks of the fact that Lev Nikolaevich was far from a poor person! Kekushev designed this mansion for Savva Mamontov, but for some reason he rejected it. And the architect built an elegant house on a small plot, with a high ground floor, three floor levels of different heights and designs, and a pointed turret, which resembles a medieval castle.

Mansion A.I. Kekusheva on Ostozhenka

This is where he let his imagination run wild, using all the basic elements of the Art Nouveau style and making the building so original that crowds of people gathered to look at it. You don’t have to be an art critic to spot the author’s favorite techniques: windows of different shapes, framed in unique frames, asymmetry, ornamental reliefs and the use of decorative textures - rustics, a combination of white plaster with the bright color of brick.

On the spitz of the pediment, a three-meter sculpture of a lion, made by the Austrian architect Otto Wagner, stood proudly - a symbol of a strong and successful author. Unfortunately, the figure of the lion has not survived.

On the first two floors of the house there were large rooms: a hall, an adjacent living room with a bay window in the turret. The bedrooms were located in attics. The office of Lev Kekushev himself was in the corner of the building, with a window into a quiet courtyard. All rooms opened onto a luxurious staircase.

As we already know, this architect registered the mansion in the name of his wife, so it went down in history as the “Kekusheva Mansion.” He remained with Anna Ionovna when Lev Nikolaevich left the house in 1906. And three years later the mansion was sold. On the photograph of the never completed family nest in Kekushev’s archive, a handwritten inscription was preserved: “Smitsky’s House”...

This building is now occupied by the Egyptian Military Attachate. They say that the original layout of the premises and decoration elements have been carefully preserved there - wooden paneled doors with mirrored glass, the design of the main staircase and other details. I wish I could check it out!..