Interesting facts about Russian paintings. The most interesting facts about painting
Over time, many works of art acquire a whole trail of stories. Good or not, completely different, unusual, often creepy, they add a certain aura to the most unassuming picture. By the way, such auras are perfectly visible to bioenergetics specialists and psychics. Events are also associated with the paintings. Whether they occur as a result or simply coincide in time - we will not argue. And here short review We will make similar works, we will tell the history of painting.
One of the most notable among the “damned” is a reproduction of the painting “The Crying Boy” by the Spaniard Giovanni Bragolin. It is known that the artist painted it from his own son. But the sitter, due to his age, could not cry to order. Then the father got down to business and brought the child to the right state. He knew that the baby was terrified of fire. Therefore, the father lit matches and held them near the boy’s face, the child began to cry, and the artist got to work.
Bragolin sacrificed his child's nerves for the sake of his passion for drawing. Further, the legend says that one day the child could not stand it and wished to his father: “Burn yourself!”, and a couple of weeks later the baby died of pneumonia. His father also survived him for a short time; he burned down in his house.
Further history continued in England in 1985. At this time, an epidemic of fires began in the northern part of the country. Residential buildings are burning, completely arbitrarily, and people are dying.
The only one interesting detail it becomes that after the fire only one thing remains untouched - a certain reproduction. The number of messages is growing and reaching a critical mass.
One of the inspectors states that it is the “Crying Boy” who turns out to be common feature all fires.
After this, newspapers and the police receive a flood of messages describing all cases involving this reproduction. It comes to the point that it is officially proposed to get rid of this ominous picture in the house. Interestingly, the original itself is considered lost, there is only a copy.
The next “fire-hazardous canvas” is the creation of the impressionist Monet “Water Lilies”.
One after another, for an unknown reason, the creator's workshop burned, then the owners' houses - a cabaret in Montmartre in Paris, the house of a French philanthropist, the New York Museum of Modern Arts. On this moment The painting behaves quietly and hangs calmly in the Mormoton Museum (France).
Another “burner” is located in Edinburgh in the Royal Museum. A particularly unimpressive painting, a portrait of an old man with his arm outstretched. According to legend, the fingers on this hand move, but not everyone can see this. But those who saw it will soon die in fire.
There are two known victims of this painting - Belfast (a sea captain) and Lord Seymour. Both claimed that they saw the fingers moving and both died. The director of the museum also found himself between a couple of fires. On the one hand, the public demands to get rid of the “cursed” painting, and on the other hand, this is the main means of attracting visitors. So the old man is at ease in the museum.
Not fewer mysteries associated with the famous “Gioconda” by da Vinci. And here the Sami’s impressions of the picture are varied: some are delighted by it, while others are frightened and lose consciousness. There is an opinion that this famous portrait has a very bad effect on the viewer. More than a hundred such events have been officially recorded (!), when museum visitors lost consciousness while contemplating the painting. One of these victims was French writer Stendhal.
There is also information that the model Mona Lisa died relatively young, at 28 years old, and the great Leonardo six for long years remade the picture, corrected it, and until his death.
Another bad painting, “Venus with a Mirror,” is by Velazquez. It is believed that everyone who acquired it either died a violent death or went bankrupt...
Even museums were very reluctant to include it in their exhibitions and the picture constantly migrated. Until one day a visitor attacked her, cutting the canvas with a knife.
The next horror story, “Hands Resist Him,” was written by Californian surrealist artist Bill Stoneham. He wrote it with a photograph of himself and his sister in 1972. The picture showed a boy with a face not drawn and a girl doll, almost the size of a child, standing by a glass door. Children's hands rest against the door from the inside.
The story of troubles with this painting began with the art critic who assessed it.
He died unexpectedly and quickly. The next one was a film actor. Further there is a gap in the story; the painting was considered to have disappeared. And then a certain family discovers her in the trash heap and, of course, drags her into the house. Moreover, they hang it in the nursery. As a result, the daughter does not sleep at night, screams, and says that the children in the picture are moving and fighting. They put a camera with a motion sensor in the room, and it goes off at night.
The family decides to get rid of the painting and puts it up for online auction. Immediately, the organizers began to receive a sea of complaints that after watching the films for a long time, people became ill, even having heart attacks.
In the end, “Hands Resist Him” is bought by the owner of a private art gallery. Which now also becomes the owner of a pile of complaints against her. By the way, he also receives offers from exorcists. Psychics generally speak with one voice about the evil emanating from the painting.
This photo was the prototype for “Hands Resist Him”:
This is also Stoneham but later
Russian painting also has its oddities. Ever since school, everyone knows Perov’s Troika. The root of this trio is a little fair boy. Perov found a model for this image in Moscow. A woman with her 12-year-old son was walking down the street on a pilgrimage.
The woman lost all her other children and her husband, and Vasya became her last consolation. She really didn’t want the boy to pose, but later she agreed anyway. But after the painting was completed, very quickly, Vasya died... The woman asks to give her the picture, but the artist can no longer do it, the picture at that time is already in the Tretyakov Gallery. And Perov then paints a portrait of the boy and gives it to his mother.
Vrubel also has such hard work. The portrait of his son Savva was painted shortly before the boy’s unexpected death.
But “The Demon Defeated”…. Vrubel constantly rewrote it, changed the coloring, and the work had a very serious impact on the artist’s psyche.
He never stopped working, even after the work was placed at the exhibition... Vrubel even came to the exhibition and worked on the canvas. Bekhterev himself examined him. As a result, the relatives call the psychiatrist Bekhterev and he makes a terrible diagnosis. Vrubel is placed in a hospital, where he soon dies.
Another interesting couple of paintings.
One of them is “Maslenitsa” by Kuplin
the second belongs to Antonov.
The paintings gained particular fame in 2006, when a recording appeared on the Internet, allegedly on behalf of one student. Who stated that the copy belongs to the pen of a madman, but there is a feature in the picture that immediately indicates the author’s mental disorder. Many people start looking for this difference, but of course they don’t find it... or rather, there are many options offered, but it’s not possible to check for correctness... yet)
Another scarecrow was the portrait of Maria Lopukhina, painted during the time of Pushkin.
Her life was very short and almost immediately after creating the picture she died of tuberculosis.
Her father, rumored to be a Master Mason, managed to capture his daughter's spirit in a painting. And now every girl who looks at the portrait risks dying. She already has more than a dozen then young girls on her account. In 1880, the painting was bought by philanthropist Tretyakov. After this, the rumors die down.
The next “dark” painting is “The Scream” by Munch. His life was one big black streak of tragedy - the death of his mother in early age, the death of a sister and brother, then the “schizophrenia” of another sister. In the 90s after nervous breakdown he is treated with electric shock. He is afraid of sex and therefore not to marry. Munch dies at the age of 81, having handed over his paintings (1200), sketches (4500) and 18,000 photographs.
Munch's main painting was his "The Scream".
Many who had to come into contact with the painting receive a blow of fate - they get sick, quarrel with loved ones, fall into severe depression or die.
There are also some very scary stories. One employee, completely healthy man, he accidentally dropped it and as a result received attacks of headache with increasing severity, this lasted until the minister committed suicide. Another person who dropped the painting was in a car accident and received severe fractures of his arms, legs, ribs, pelvis and a concussion. And here we can include a curious visitor who poked the picture with his finger. A few days later he burns alive in his own house.
The Dutchman Pieter Bruegel the Elder wrote “The Adoration of the Magi” within two years.
The model for the Virgin Mary was his cousin, a barren woman who was beaten by her husband for this. It was she who caused the bad aura of the picture. The canvas was bought by collectors four times and after that, no children were born in the families for 10-12 years. In 1637, Jacob van Kampen bought the painting. By that time, he already had three descendants, so he was not afraid of the curse.
If you look at this image for about five minutes in a row, the girl in the picture changes - her eyes turn red, her hair turns black, and fangs grow.
“The Rain Woman” was written by Svetlana Taurus in 1996. Half a year before, she began to feel some kind of attention, observation.
Then one day Svetlana approached the canvas and saw this woman there, her whole image, colors, textures. She painted the picture very quickly, it felt like someone was moving the artist’s hand.
After this, Svetlana tried to sell the painting. But the first buyer quickly returned the painting, because it seemed to her that there was someone in the apartment, she dreamed of this woman.
There was a feeling of silence, a feeling of fear and anxiety. Rain. The same thing was repeated several more times. Now the painting hangs in one of the stores, but there are no more buyers for it. Although the artist thinks that the painting is simply waiting for its viewer, the one for whom it is intended.
In almost every significant work art is a mystery, a “double bottom” or secret history, which I want to reveal.
Music on the buttocks
Hieronymus Bosch, "The Garden of Earthly Delights", 1500-1510.
Fragment of part of a triptych
Disputes about meanings and hidden meanings most famous work Dutch artist have not subsided since its appearance. The right wing of the triptych called “Musical Hell” depicts sinners who are tortured in the underworld with the help of musical instruments. One of them has music notes stamped on his buttocks. Oklahoma Christian University student Amelia Hamrick, who studied the painting, translated the 16th-century notation into modern style and recorded “a 500-year-old ass song from hell.”
Nude Mona Lisa
The famous "La Gioconda" exists in two versions: the nude version is called "Monna Vanna", it was written by little-known artist Salai, who was a student and model of the great Leonardo da Vinci. Many art historians are sure that it was he who was the model for Leonardo’s paintings “John the Baptist” and “Bacchus”. There are also versions that dressed up as women's dress Salai served as the image of the Mona Lisa herself.
Old Fisherman
In 1902, the Hungarian artist Tivadar Kostka Csontvary painted the painting “The Old Fisherman”. It would seem that there is nothing unusual in the picture, but Tivadar put into it a subtext that was never revealed during the artist’s lifetime.
Few people thought of placing a mirror in the middle of the picture. In each person there can be both God (the Old Man's right shoulder is duplicated) and the Devil (the Old Man's left shoulder is duplicated).
Was there a whale?
Hendrik van Antonissen, Shore Scene.
It would seem like an ordinary landscape. Boats, people on the shore and a deserted sea. And only an X-ray study showed that people gathered on the shore for a reason - in the original they were looking at the carcass of a whale washed ashore.
However, the artist decided that no one would want to look at a dead whale, and rewrote the painting.
Two "Breakfasts on the Grass"
Edouard Manet, "Luncheon on the Grass", 1863.
Claude Monet, "Luncheon on the Grass", 1865.
The artists Edouard Manet and Claude Monet are sometimes confused - after all, they were both French, lived at the same time and worked in the style of impressionism. Monet even borrowed the title of one of Manet’s most famous paintings, “Luncheon on the Grass,” and wrote his own “Luncheon on the Grass.”
Doubles at the Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci, "The Last Supper", 1495-1498.
When Leonardo da Vinci wrote The Last Supper, he gave special meaning two figures: Christ and Judas. He spent a very long time looking for models for them. Finally, he managed to find a model for the image of Christ among the young singers. Leonardo was unable to find a model for Judas for three years. But one day he came across a drunkard on the street who was lying in a gutter. He was a young man who had been aged by heavy drinking. Leonardo invited him to a tavern, where he immediately began to paint Judas from him. When the drunkard came to his senses, he told the artist that he had already posed for him once. It was several years ago, when he sang in the church choir, Leonardo painted Christ from him.
"Night Watch" or "Day Watch"?
Rembrandt, "Night Watch", 1642.
One of Rembrandt’s most famous paintings, “The Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburg,” hung in different rooms for about two hundred years and was discovered by art historians only in the 19th century. Since the figures seemed to appear against a dark background, it was called “Night Watch,” and under this name it entered the treasury of world art.
And only during the restoration carried out in 1947, it was discovered that in the hall the painting had managed to become covered with a layer of soot, which distorted its color. After clearing the original painting, it was finally revealed that the scene represented by Rembrandt actually takes place during the day. The position of the shadow from Captain Kok's left hand shows that the duration of action is no more than 14 hours.
Overturned boat
Henri Matisse, "The Boat", 1937.
At the New York Museum contemporary art in 1961, Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" was exhibited. Only after 47 days did someone notice that the painting was hanging upside down. The canvas depicts 10 purple lines and two blue sails on a white background. The artist painted two sails for a reason; the second sail is a reflection of the first on the surface of the water.
In order not to make a mistake in how the picture should hang, you need to pay attention to the details. The larger sail should be the top of the painting, and the peak of the painting's sail should be toward the top right corner.
Deception in self-portrait
Vincent van Gogh, "Self-Portrait with a Pipe", 1889.
There are legends that Van Gogh allegedly cut off his own ear. Now the most reliable version is that van Gogh damaged his ear in a small brawl involving another artist, Paul Gauguin.
The self-portrait is interesting because it reflects reality in a distorted form: the artist is depicted with his right ear bandaged because he used a mirror when working. In fact, it was the left ear that was affected.
Alien bears
Ivan Shishkin, "Morning in the Pine Forest", 1889.
The famous painting belongs not only to Shishkin. Many artists who were friends with each other often resorted to “the help of a friend,” and Ivan Ivanovich, who painted landscapes all his life, was afraid that his touching bears would not turn out the way he wanted. Therefore, Shishkin turned to his friend, the animal artist Konstantin Savitsky.
Savitsky drew perhaps the best bears in history Russian painting, and Tretyakov ordered his name to be washed off the canvas, since everything in the painting “from the concept to the execution, everything speaks about the manner of painting, about creative method, characteristic of Shishkin."
The innocent story of "Gothic"
Grant Wood, " American Gothic", 1930.
Grant Wood's work is considered one of the most strange and depressing in the history of American painting. The picture with the gloomy father and daughter is filled with details that indicate the severity, puritanism and retrograde nature of the people depicted.
In fact, the artist did not intend to depict any horrors: during a trip to Iowa, he noticed a small house in gothic style and decided to portray those people who, in his opinion, would be ideal as inhabitants. Grant's sister and his dentist are immortalized as the characters Iowans were so offended by.
Salvador Dali's Revenge
The painting "Figure at a Window" was painted in 1925, when Dali was 21 years old. At that time, Gala had not yet entered the artist’s life, and his muse was his sister Ana Maria. The relationship between brother and sister deteriorated when he wrote in one of the paintings “sometimes I spit on the portrait of my own mother, and this gives me pleasure.” Ana Maria could not forgive such shocking behavior.
In her 1949 book, Salvador Dali Through the Eyes of a Sister, she writes about her brother without any praise. The book infuriated Salvador. For another ten years after that, he angrily remembered her at every opportunity. And so, in 1954, the painting “A Young Virgin Indulging in the Sin of Sodomy with the Help of the Horns of Her Own Chastity” appeared. The woman’s pose, her curls, the landscape outside the window and the color scheme of the painting clearly echo “Figure at the Window.” There is a version that Dali took revenge on his sister for her book.
Two-faced Danae
Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn, "Danae", 1636 - 1647.
Many secrets of one of Rembrandt's most famous paintings were revealed only in the 60s of the twentieth century, when the canvas was illuminated with X-rays. For example, the survey showed that in early version the face of the princess who entered into love affair with Zeus, it was similar to the face of Saskia, the painter’s wife, who died in 1642. In the final version of the painting, it began to resemble the face of Gertje Dirks, Rembrandt’s mistress, with whom the artist lived after the death of his wife.
Van Gogh's yellow bedroom
Vincent Van Gogh, "Bedroom in Arles", 1888 - 1889.
In May 1888, Van Gogh acquired a small workshop in Arles, in the south of France, where he escaped from those who did not understand him Parisian artists and critics. In one of the four rooms, Vincent sets up a bedroom. In October, everything is ready, and he decides to paint “Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles.” For the artist, the color and comfort of the room were very important: everything had to evoke thoughts of relaxation. At the same time, the picture is designed in alarming yellow tones.
Researchers of Van Gogh's work explain this by the fact that the artist took foxglove, a remedy for epilepsy, which causes serious changes in the patient's perception of color: the entire surrounding reality is painted in green and yellow tones.
Toothless perfection
Leonardo da Vinci, "Portrait of Lady Lisa del Giocondo", 1503 - 1519.
The generally accepted opinion is that the Mona Lisa is perfection and her smile is beautiful in its mystery. However, American art critic (and part-time dentist) Joseph Borkowski believes that, judging by her facial expression, the heroine has lost many teeth. While studying enlarged photographs of the masterpiece, Borkowski also discovered scars around her mouth. “She “smiles” like that precisely because of what happened to her,” the expert believes. “Her facial expression is typical of people who have lost their front teeth.”
Major on face control
Pavel Fedotov, "Major's Matchmaking", 1848.
The public, who first saw the painting “Major's Matchmaking,” laughed heartily: the artist Fedotov filled it with ironic details that were understandable to the audience of that time. For example, the major is clearly not familiar with the rules of noble etiquette: he showed up without the required bouquets for the bride and her mother. And her merchant parents dressed the bride herself in an evening ball gown, although it was daytime (all the lamps in the room were extinguished). The girl obviously tried on a low-cut dress for the first time, is embarrassed and tries to run away to her room.
Why is Liberty naked?
Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix, "Freedom on the Barricades", 1830.
According to art critic Etienne Julie, Delacroix based the woman's face on the famous Parisian revolutionary - the laundress Anne-Charlotte, who went to the barricades after the death of her brother at the hands of royal soldiers and killed nine guardsmen. The artist depicted her with her breasts bare. According to his plan, this is a symbol of fearlessness and selflessness, as well as the triumph of democracy: the naked breast shows that Liberty, as a commoner, does not wear a corset.
Non-square square
Kazimir Malevich, "Black suprematist square", 1915.
In fact, “Black Square” is not black at all and not square at all: none of the sides of the quadrangle are parallel to any of its other sides, and to none of the sides of the square frame that frames the picture. A dark color- this is the result of mixing various colors, among which there was no black. It is believed that this was not the author’s negligence, but a principled position, the desire to create a dynamic, mobile form.
Specialists from the Tretyakov Gallery discovered the author's inscription on the famous painting by Malevich. The inscription reads: “The battle of the blacks in the dark cave.” This phrase refers to the title of the humorous painting by the French journalist, writer and artist Alphonse Allais, “The Battle of Negroes in a Dark Cave in the Dead of Night,” which was a completely black rectangle.
Melodrama of the Austrian Mona Lisa
Gustav Klimt, "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer", 1907.
One of Klimt's most significant paintings depicts the wife of the Austrian sugar magnate Ferdinad Bloch-Bauer. All of Vienna was discussing whirlwind romance Adele and famous artist. The wounded husband wanted to take revenge on his lovers, but chose very unusual way: he decided to order a portrait of Adele from Klimt and force him to make hundreds of sketches until the artist began to vomit from her.
Bloch-Bauer wanted the work to last several years, so that the sitter could see how Klimt's feelings were fading. He made a generous offer to the artist, which he could not refuse, and everything turned out according to the scenario of the deceived husband: the work was completed in 4 years, the lovers had long since cooled off to each other. Adele Bloch-Bauer never knew that her husband was aware of her relationship with Klimt.
The painting that brought Gauguin back to life
Paul Gauguin, "Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?", 1897-1898.
The most famous painting Gauguin has one peculiarity: it is “read” not from left to right, but from right to left, like the Kabbalistic texts in which the artist was interested. It is in this order that the allegory of human spiritual and physical life unfolds: from the birth of the soul (a sleeping child in the lower right corner) to the inevitability of the hour of death (a bird with a lizard in its claws in the lower left corner).
The painting was painted by Gauguin in Tahiti, where the artist escaped from civilization several times. But this time life on the island did not work out: total poverty led him to depression. Having finished the canvas, which was to become his spiritual testament, Gauguin took a box of arsenic and went to the mountains to die. However, he did not calculate the dose, and the suicide failed. The next morning, he swayed to his hut and fell asleep, and when he woke up, he felt a forgotten thirst for life. And in 1898, his business began to improve, and a brighter period began in his work.
112 proverbs in one picture
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, "Dutch Proverbs", 1559
Pieter Bruegel the Elder depicted a land inhabited by literal images of Dutch proverbs of those days. The painting contains approximately 112 recognizable idioms. Some of them are still used today, for example, such as: “swim against the current”, “banging your head against the wall”, “armed to the teeth” and “big fish eat little fish”.
Other proverbs reflect human stupidity.
Subjectivity of art
Paul Gauguin, "Breton Village in the Snow", 1894
Gauguin's painting "Breton Village in the Snow" was sold after the author's death for only seven francs and, moreover, under the name "Niagara Falls." The man holding the auction accidentally hung the painting upside down because he saw a waterfall in it.
Hidden picture
Pablo Picasso, "Blue Room", 1901
In 2008, infrared radiation revealed that hidden beneath the Blue Room was another image - a portrait of a man dressed in a suit with a bow tie and resting his head on his hand. “As soon as Picasso had new idea, he took up the brush and embodied it. But he did not have the opportunity to buy a new canvas every time a muse visited him,” art historian Patricia Favero explains a possible reason for this.
Unavailable Moroccans
Zinaida Serebryakova, “Naked”, 1928
One day Zinaida Serebryakova received a tempting offer - to go to creative journey to depict nude figures eastern maidens. But it turned out that it was simply impossible to find models in those places. Zinaida's translator came to the rescue - he brought his sisters and fiancee to her. No one before or since has been able to capture closed oriental women naked.
Spontaneous insight
Valentin Serov, “Portrait of Nicholas II in a jacket,” 1900
For a long time, Serov could not paint a portrait of the Tsar. When the artist completely gave up, he apologized to Nikolai. Nikolai was a little upset, sat down at the table, stretching out his arms in front of him... And then it dawned on the artist - here is the image! A simple military man in an officer's jacket with clear and sad eyes. This portrait is considered the best depiction of the last emperor.
Another deuce
© Fedor Reshetnikov
The famous painting “Deuce Again” is only the second part of an artistic trilogy.
The first part is “Arrived on vacation.” Clearly a wealthy family the winter vacation, joyful excellent student.
The second part is “A deuce again.” A poor family from the working-class outskirts, the height of school year, the dejected stunner, who again grabbed the deuce. In the upper left corner you can see the painting “Arrived for Vacation”.
The third part is “Re-examination”. Country house, summer, everyone is walking, one malicious ignoramus, who failed the annual exam, is forced to sit in four walls and cram. In the upper left corner you can see the painting “Deuce Again”.
How masterpieces are born
Joseph Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed, 1844
In 1842, Mrs. Simon traveled by train in England. Suddenly a heavy downpour began. The elderly gentleman sitting opposite her stood up, opened the window, stuck his head out and stared for about ten minutes. Unable to contain her curiosity, the woman also opened the window and began to look ahead. A year later, she discovered the painting “Rain, Steam and Speed” at an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and was able to recognize in it the same episode on the train.
Anatomy lesson from Michelangelo
Michelangelo, "The Creation of Adam", 1511
A pair of American neuroanatomy experts believe that Michelangelo actually left behind some anatomical illustrations in one of his most famous works. They believe that the right side of the painting depicts a huge brain. Surprisingly, you can even find complex components such as the cerebellum, optic nerves and pituitary gland. And the eye-catching green ribbon perfectly matches the location of the vertebral artery.
"The Last Supper" by Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh, Café Terrace at Night, 1888
Researcher Jared Baxter believes that Van Gogh’s painting “Cafe Terrace at Night” contains an encrypted dedication to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper.” In the center of the picture stands a waiter with long hair and in a white tunic reminiscent of the clothes of Christ, and around him there are exactly 12 cafe visitors. Baxter also draws attention to the cross located directly behind the waiter in white.
Dali's image of memory
Salvador Dali, "The Persistence of Memory", 1931
It is no secret that the thoughts that visited Dali during the creation of his masterpieces were always in the form of very realistic images, which the artist then transferred to canvas. Thus, according to the author himself, the painting “The Persistence of Memory” was painted as a result of associations that arose from the sight of processed cheese.
What is Munch screaming about?
Edvard Munch, "The Scream", 1893.
Munch talked about how he came up with the idea of one of the most mysterious paintings in world painting: “I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned against the fence - I looked at the blood and flames over the bluish-black fjord and the city - my friends moved on, and I stood, trembling with excitement, feeling an endless cry piercing nature." But what kind of sunset could frighten the artist so much?
There is a version that the idea of "The Scream" was born to Munch in 1883, when several powerful eruptions of the Krakatoa volcano occurred - so powerful that they changed the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere by one degree. Copious amounts of dust and ash spread throughout to the globe, even reaching Norway. For several evenings in a row, the sunsets looked as if the apocalypse was about to come - one of them became a source of inspiration for the artist.
A writer among the people
Alexander Ivanov, "The Appearance of Christ to the People", 1837-1857.
Dozens of sitters posed for Alexander Ivanov for his main picture. One of them is known no less than the artist himself. In the background, among travelers and Roman horsemen who have not yet heard the sermon of John the Baptist, you can see a character in a robe tunic. Ivanov wrote it from Nikolai Gogol. The writer communicated closely with the artist in Italy, in particular on religious issues, and gave him advice during the painting process. Gogol believed that Ivanov “has long since died for the whole world, except for his work.”
Michelangelo's Gout
Raphael Santi, "The School of Athens", 1511.
Creating famous fresco"The School of Athens", Raphael immortalized his friends and acquaintances in the images of ancient Greek philosophers. One of them was Michelangelo Buonarotti “in the role” of Heraclitus. For several centuries, the fresco kept the secrets of Michelangelo's personal life, and modern researchers have suggested that the artist's strangely angular knee indicates that he had a joint disease.
This is quite likely, given the peculiarities of the lifestyle and working conditions of Renaissance artists and Michelangelo’s chronic workaholism.
Mirror of the Arnolfini couple
Jan van Eyck, "Portrait of the Arnolfini couple", 1434
In the mirror behind the Arnolfini couple you can see the reflection of two more people in the room. Most likely, these are witnesses present at the conclusion of the contract. One of them is van Eyck, as evidenced by the Latin inscription placed, contrary to tradition, above the mirror in the center of the composition: “Jan van Eyck was here.” This is how contracts were usually sealed.
How a disadvantage turned into a talent
Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn, Self-Portrait at the Age of 63, 1669.
Researcher Margaret Livingston studied all of Rembrandt's self-portraits and discovered that the artist suffered from strabismus: in the images his eyes look in different directions, which is not observed in the portraits of other people by the master. The illness resulted in the artist being able to perceive reality in two dimensions better than people with normal vision. This phenomenon is called "stereo blindness" - the inability to see the world in 3D. But since the painter has to work with a two-dimensional image, this very flaw of Rembrandt could be one of the explanations for his phenomenal talent.
Sinless Venus
Sandro Botticelli, "Birth of Venus", 1482-1486.
Before the appearance of the "Birth of Venus" the image of a naked female body in painting it symbolized only the idea of original sin. Sandro Botticelli was the first of the European painters to find nothing sinful in him. Moreover, art historians are sure that the pagan goddess of love symbolizes on the fresco Christian image: her appearance is an allegory of the rebirth of a soul that has undergone the rite of baptism.
Lute player or lute player?
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, "The Lute Player", 1596.
For a long time the painting was exhibited in the Hermitage under the title “The Lute Player”. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did art historians agree that the painting depicts a young man (probably Caravaggio’s acquaintance, the artist Mario Minniti, posed for him): on the notes in front of the musician one can see a recording of the bass line of Jacob Arkadelt’s madrigal “You know that I love you” . A woman could hardly make such a choice - it’s just hard on the throat. In addition, the lute, like the violin at the very edge of the picture, was considered a male instrument in Caravaggio’s era.
Admiring still lifes, we can hardly imagine what was depicted in the first paintings painted in this genre. And on them, in fact, the products of decay were painted: rotting fruits, withering flowers. Very often such works were decorated with a human skull. The artists once again wanted to remind us that we are all just guests in this world...
The most expensive painting in the world is considered to be “The Massacre of the Innocents” by Rubens. The painting wanders from one rich man to another, and its price is steadily rising. It was last purchased for more than 73 million euros. It is not surprising that the buyer wished to remain anonymous...
The artist most offended by “grateful” fans can be called Henri Matisse. In 1961, the Museum of Modern Art, located in New York, presented his painting “The Boat” to visitors. And only after almost a month and a half, a casual art connoisseur noticed that the masterpiece was hanging not as it should be for a masterpiece, but upside down. The confusion was terrible...
Even during the life of Ilya Repin on his famous Ivan An assassination attempt was made on Ivan the Terrible, who had just killed his son. The mad icon painter, unable to withstand the king’s terrible gaze, cut the canvas with a knife. Not only the best restorers were involved in the restoration, but also Repin himself. But the master did not want to return to to the original Ivan Ivan the Terrible, who appeared 20 years ago, and painted the Tsar’s face in a new way. As a result, it turned out purple. The restorers, secretly from Repin, returned the face of Ivan IV to its original color. When the picture was shown to the artist, he did not pay attention to such “arbitrariness.”
Can Christ and Judas have the same face? Maybe if it's the sitter's face. The painting “The Last Supper” cost Leonardo da Vinci a titanic effort. The artist found the person who posed for him as “Christ” quite quickly - a church choir singer was perfect for his role. But the search for “Judas” took three years. One day, walking down the street, the master saw a drunkard who could not get out of the cesspool. The lover of the green serpent was still young, but due to regular libations he looked much older than his years. Leonardo brought him to the nearest drinking establishment, sat him down at the table and began to draw. Imagine the artist’s amazement when the sober drunk said that he had already posed for him several years ago! This was the same singer...
Manet and Monet are confused not only by modern art lovers - they were also confused by their contemporaries. The artists not only lived at the same time and had similar surnames, but also borrowed ideas from each other. After Manet presented the painting “Luncheon on the Grass” to the public, Monet, without thinking twice, painted his own, and under the same name.
Many of Vasnetsov’s “colleagues” did not like either him or the paintings he painted. They nicknamed the battlefield strewn with corpses, left after the battle between Prince Igor and the Polovtsians, nothing more than “Carrion.” Another painting by the master, “Flying Carpet,” received an even more malicious name: “Carpet with Ears.”
Today, in every museum you can listen to wonderful guides who will tell you in detail about the collection and the artists represented in it. At the same time, many parents know that it is difficult for most children to spend even an hour in a museum, and stories about the history of painting tire them quite quickly. To prevent children from getting bored in the museum, we offer a “cheat sheet” for parents - ten entertaining stories about paintings from the Tretyakov Gallery that will be of interest to both children and adults.
1. Ivan Kramskoy. "Mermaids", 1871
Ivan Kramskoy is primarily known as the author of the painting “Unknown” (it is often mistakenly called “Stranger”), as well as a number of beautiful portraits: Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Shishkin, Dmitry Mendeleev. But it’s better for children to start getting acquainted with his work from magical picture“Mermaids”, with which this is the story.
In August 1871, the artist Ivan Kramskoy was visiting the country estate of his friend, an art lover and famous philanthropist Pavel Stroganov. Walking in the evenings, he admired the moon and admired its magical light. During these walks, the artist decided to paint a night landscape and try to convey all the charm, all the magic of a moonlit night, to “catch the moon” - in his own words.
Kramskoy began work on the painting. The river bank appeared in moonlit night, a hillock and a house on it, surrounded by poplars. The landscape was beautiful, but something was missing - magic was not born on the canvas. Nikolai Gogol’s book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” came to the artist’s aid. more precisely the story entitled " May night, or the Drowned Woman” - fabulous and a little creepy. And then mermaid girls appeared in the picture, illuminated by moonlight.
The artist worked so carefully on the painting that he began to dream about it and constantly wanted to complete something in it. A year after it was bought by the founder of the Tretyakov Gallery, Pavel Tretyakov, Kramskoy Once again I wanted to change something in it and made small changes right in the showroom.
Kramskoy’s canvas became the first “fairy-tale” painting in the history of Russian painting.
2. Vasily Vereshchagin. "Apotheosis of War", 1871
It so happened that people have always fought. From time immemorial, brave leaders and powerful rulers equipped their armies and sent them to war. Of course, they wanted distant descendants to know about their military exploits, so poets wrote poems and songs, and artists created beautiful paintings and sculptures. In these paintings, the war usually looked like a holiday - bright colors, fearless warriors going into battle...
The artist Vasily Vereshchagin knew about the war firsthand - he took part in battles more than once - and painted many paintings in which he depicted what he saw with his own eyes: not only brave soldiers and their commanders, but also blood, pain and suffering.
One day he thought about how to show all the horrors of war in one picture, how to make viewers understand that war is always grief and death, how to let others look at its disgusting details? He realized that it was not enough to paint a picture of a battlefield dotted fallen soldiers, - there were such paintings before. Vereshchagin came up with a symbol of war, an image, just by looking at which, everyone can imagine how terrible any war is. He painted a scorched desert, in the middle of which rises a pyramid of human skulls. There are only dry, lifeless trees around, and only crows fly to their feast. In the distance one can see a dilapidated city, and the viewer can easily guess that there is no more life there either.
3. Alexey Savrasov. “The Rooks have Arrived”, 1871
Everyone has known the painting “The Rooks Have Arrived” since childhood, and probably everyone wrote from it school essays. And today teachers will definitely tell children about Savrasov’s lyrical landscapes and that already in the very title of this picture one can hear a joyful harbinger of the morning of the year and everything in it is filled with deep, close to my heart sense. Meanwhile, few people know that the famous “Rooks...”, as well as all the other works of Savrasov, might not have existed at all.
Alexey Savrasov was the son of a small Moscow haberdasher. The boy’s desire to engage in painting did not cause delight in the parent, but nevertheless, Kondrat Savrasov sent his son to the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture. Both teachers and classmates recognized the talent young artist and predicted a great future for him. But it turned out that, without even studying for a year, Alexey, apparently due to his mother’s illness, was forced to stop studying. His teacher Karl Rabus turned for help to the Chief of Police of Moscow, Major General Ivan Luzhin, who helped the talented young man receive an art education.
If Luzhin had not taken part in the fate of the young artist, one of the most famous paintings in the history of Russian painting would never have been born.
4. Vasily Polenov. "Moscow courtyard", 1878
Sometimes, in order to write beautiful picture, the artist travels a lot, long and meticulously searching for the most beautiful views, in the end, finds the treasured place and time after time comes there with a sketchbook. And it also happens that in order to create a wonderful work, he just needs to go to his own window, look at a completely ordinary Moscow courtyard - and a miracle happens, an amazing landscape appears, filled with light and air.
This is exactly the miracle that happened to the artist Vasily Polenov, who looked out of the window of his apartment in the early summer of 1878 and quite quickly painted what he saw. Clouds glide easily across the sky, the sun rises higher and higher, warming the earth with its warmth, lighting up the domes of churches, shortening thick shadows... It would seem to be a simple picture, which the artist himself did not take seriously at first: he wrote it and almost forgot about it. But then he was invited to take part in the exhibition. He didn’t have anything significant, and Polenov decided to exhibit “Moscow Courtyard”.
Oddly enough, it was this “insignificant picture” that brought fame and glory to Vasily Polenov - both the public and critics loved it: it has warmth and bright colors, and its characters can be looked at endlessly, inventing a story about each of them.
5. Ivan Shishkin. "Morning in pine forest", 1889
“Morning in a Pine Forest” by Ivan Shishkin is probably the most famous painting from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery. In our country everyone knows her, thanks to reproductions in school textbooks, or maybe thanks to chocolates"Teddy Bear."
But not everyone knows that Shishkin himself painted only a morning forest in a foggy haze, and has nothing to do with bears. This picture is the fruit joint creativity Shishkin and his friend, artist Konstantin Savitsky.
Ivan Shishkin was consummate master depict all sorts of botanical subtleties - critic Alexander Benois He was fairly scolded for his passion for photographic accuracy, calling his paintings lifeless and cold. But the artist was not friends with zoology. They say that this is why Shishkin turned to Savitsky with a request to help him with the bears. Savitsky did not refuse his friend, but did not take his work seriously - and did not sign.
Later, Pavel Tretyakov purchased this painting from Shishkin, and the artist invited Savitsky to leave a signature on the painting - after all, they worked on it together. Savitsky did so, but Tretyakov did not like it. Declaring that he bought the painting from Shishkin, but didn’t want to know anything about Savitsky, he demanded a solvent and removed the “extra” signature with his own hands. And so it happened that today in Tretyakov Gallery indicate the authorship of only one artist.
6. Viktor Vasnetsov. "Bogatyrs", 1898
Viktor Vasnetsov is considered the most “fabulous” artist in the history of Russian painting - it is his brushes that belong to such famous works, like “Alyonushka”, “The Knight at the Crossroads”, “ Bogatyrskiy skok" and many others. But his most famous picture- “Bogatyrs”, which depicts the main characters of Russian epics.
The artist himself described the picture as follows: “The heroes Dobrynya, Ilya and Alyosha Popovich are on a heroic outing - they are noticing in the field whether there is a enemy somewhere, are they offending anyone?”
In the middle, on a black horse, Ilya Muromets looks into the distance from under his palm, the hero has a spear in one hand, and a damask club in the other. On the left, on a white horse, Dobrynya Nikitich takes his sword out of its sheath. On the right, on a red horse, Alyosha Popovich holds a bow and arrows in his hands. There is a curious story connected with the heroes of this picture - or rather with their prototypes.
Viktor Vasnetsov thought for a long time what Ilya Muromets should look like, and for a long time he could not find the “right” face - brave, honest, expressing both strength and kindness. But one day, completely by chance, he met the peasant Ivan Petrov, who came to Moscow to earn money. The artist was amazed - on a Moscow street he saw the real Ilya Muromets. The peasant agreed to pose for Vasnetsov and... remained for centuries.
In the epics, Dobrynya Nikitich is quite young, but for some reason Vasnetsov’s painting depicts a middle-aged man. Why did the artist decide to act so freely with folk tales? The solution is simple: Vasnetsov portrayed himself in the image of Dobrynya; just compare the picture with the artist’s portraits and photographs.
7. Valentin Serov. “Girl with peaches. Portrait of V. S. Mamontova”, 1887
"Girl with Peaches" is one of the most famous portraits in the history of Russian painting, written by the artist Valentin Serov.
The girl in the portrait is Verochka, the daughter of philanthropist Savva Mamontov, whose house the artist often visited. It is interesting that the peaches lying on the table were not brought from warm regions, but grew not far from Moscow, right in the Abramtsevo estate, which was a completely unusual thing in the 19th century. Mamontov had a gardener-magician working for him - in his skillful hands, fruit trees bloomed even in February, and the harvest was harvested already at the beginning of summer.
Thanks to Serov’s portrait, Vera Mamontova went down in history, but the artist himself recalled how hard it took him to persuade a 12-year-old girl, who had an unusually restless character, to pose. Serov worked on the painting for almost a month, and every day Vera sat quietly in the dining room for several hours.
The work was not in vain: when the artist presented the portrait at the exhibition, the public really liked the painting. And today, more than a hundred years later, “Girl with Peaches” delights visitors to the Tretyakov Gallery.
8. Ilya Repin. “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581,” 1883–1885.
Looking at this or that painting, you often wonder what was the source of inspiration for the artist, what prompted him to paint just such a work? In the case of Ilya Repin’s painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581,” guess about true reasons not at all easy.
The painting depicts a legendary episode from the life of Ivan the Terrible, when in a fit of anger he struck death blow to his son Tsarevich Ivan. However, many historians believe that in fact there was no murder and the prince died of illness, and not at all from the hand of his father. It would seem that what could force an artist to turn to such a historical episode?
As the artist himself recalled, the idea to paint the painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan” came to him after... a concert at which he heard the music of the composer Rimsky-Korsakov. It was the symphonic suite "Antar". The sounds of music captured the artist, and he wanted to embody in painting the mood that was created in him under the influence of this work.
But music was not the only source of inspiration. Traveling around Europe in 1883, Repin attended a bullfight. The sight of this bloody spectacle impressed the artist, who wrote that, “having become infected... with this bloodiness, upon arriving home, he immediately began the bloody scene “Ivan the Terrible with his son.” And the blood picture was a great success."
9. Mikhail Vrubel. "Demon Seated", 1890
How sometimes the title of a painting means a lot. What does the viewer see when first looking at Mikhail Vrubel’s painting “The Seated Demon”? A muscular young man sits on a rock and sadly looks at the sunset. But as soon as we say the word “demon”, the image of a magical evil creature immediately appears. Meanwhile, Mikhail Vrubel's demon is not an evil spirit at all. The artist himself has said more than once that the demon is a spirit “not so much evil as suffering and sorrowful, but at the same time a powerful spirit, ... majestic.”
This painting is interesting for its painting technique. The artist applies paint to the canvas not with a conventional brush, but with a thin steel plate - a palette knife. Similar technique allows you to combine the techniques of a painter and a sculptor, literally “sculpting” a picture using paints. This is how a “mosaic” effect is achieved - it seems that the sky, rocks, and even the hero’s body itself are not painted with paint, but are laid out from carefully polished, perhaps even precious stones.
10. Alexander Ivanov. "The Appearance of Christ to the People (The Appearance of the Messiah)", 1837–1857.
Alexander Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People” is a unique event in the history of Russian painting. It’s not easy to talk about it with children, especially 6-7 year olds, but they should definitely see this monumental canvas, on which the artist worked for more than 20 years and which became his life’s work.
The plot of the picture is based on the third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: John the Baptist, baptizing the Jewish people on the banks of the Jordan in the name of the expected Savior, suddenly sees Him coming, in whose name he baptizes people. ABOUT compositional features paintings, about its symbols and artistic language the children will find out later. During the first acquaintance, it is worth talking about how one painting became the artist’s life’s work.
After graduating from St. Petersburg Academy arts Alexander Ivanov was sent “for an internship” to Italy. “The Appearance of Christ to the People” was supposed to be a work of record. But the artist takes his work very seriously: he carefully studies Holy Bible, history, spends months searching for the right landscape, spends an endless amount of time looking for an image for each character in the picture. The money that was allocated to him for work is running out, Ivanov leads a miserable existence. The painstaking work on the painting led to the artist's vision being damaged and him having to undergo long-term treatment.
When Ivanov completed his work, the Italian public enthusiastically accepted the painting; this was one of the first cases of European recognition of a Russian artist. In Russia, it was not immediately appreciated - only after the artist’s death did real fame come to him.
While working on the painting, Ivanov created more than 600 sketches. In the room where it is exhibited, you can see some of them. It is interesting to use these examples to trace how the artist worked on the composition, landscape, and images of the characters in the picture.
Bill Stoneham "Hands Resist Him"
1972
This work, of course, cannot be ranked among the masterpieces of world painting, but the fact that it is strange is a fact.
There are legends surrounding the painting with a boy, a doll and his hands pressed against the glass. From “people are dying because of this picture” to “the children in it are alive.” The picture looks really creepy, which gives rise to a lot of fears and speculation among people with weak psyches.
The artist assured that the picture depicts himself at the age of five, that the door is a representation of the dividing line between real world and the world of dreams, and the doll is a guide who can guide the boy through this world. Hands represent alternative lives or possibilities.
The painting gained notoriety in February 2000 when it was listed for sale on eBay with a backstory saying that the painting was “haunted.” “Hands Resist Him” was bought for $1,025 by Kim Smith, who was then simply inundated with letters from creepy stories and demands to burn the painting.
