Niko Pirosmanishvili's paintings. A million scarlet roses, or who was the woman because of whom the artist Niko Pirosmani went bankrupt

Many today know that the song “A Million Scarlet Roses” retells the love story of the famous Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani. Seeing the singer and dancer Margarita de Sèvres, who arrived in Tiflis in March 1909, shopkeeper Nikolai Pirosmanishvili exclaimed: “Not a woman, a pearl from a precious casket!” He sold his shop and bought roses with all the money, strewing the pavement in front of the hotel with a flower carpet. his goddess lived.

What happened next? Some say that Margarita was shocked: “You sold your shop to give me flowers? I will never forget this, my beautiful knight! But a few days later she accepted the advances of another, richer admirer and left with him. And Nikolai, left without a shop, became an artist.

Others say that, having sent Margarita flowers, Niko did not stand “barely breathing” under the beautiful lady’s balcony, but went to feast at the dukhan with his last money. Touched by Margarita, she sent her admirer a note with an invitation, but he could not tear himself away from the friendly feast, and when he came to his senses, it was too late, the actress left the city.

Alas, this whole story is just beautiful fairy tale. Researchers of Pirosmani's work are confident that there was neither this in his life unrequited love, neither the sale of the shop, but famous portrait“Actress Margarita” was written not from life, but from a poster. And the story was written by Konstantin Paustovsky, who visited Tbilisi a few years after Pirosmani’s death.

Niko Pirosmani. "Actress Margarita"

In the real life of the artist fatal role a completely different drama played out.

Like a bird

Despite the fact that the Kalantarov family was educated, Nikolai himself could not adapt to either science or any craft. I studied at a printing house for several months. Little by little he learned painting from traveling artists. He tried to work as a brake conductor for freight cars on the railway - so almost his entire salary was “eaten up” by fines either for being late or for not showing up for work. They said about Niko that he lives “like a bird,” not caring about the past or the future. And what was especially strange about him was that he claimed to see saints, and after these phenomena his hand itself reached out to draw.

Niko Pirosmani. "Street cleaner"

In the end, when Nikolai decided to quit his job as a conductor, the railway authorities were happy to give him such a big severance pay that he was able to start a dairy shop. But he didn’t stay in trade for long either, he quit his shop and decided that he would make a living as an artist. This happened several years before Margarita de Sevres arrived in Tiflis - that is, Niko could no longer sell the shop for her sake.

Niko Pirosmani. "Still life"

He drew everything: paintings, signs, he could even paint a wall or write the name of the street and house number on it. I never bargained about payment either. One paid 30 rubles for his painting, and for another he could paint a sign for lunch and a glass of vodka. Sometimes, instead of money, he asked to buy him paint or oilcloth - after all, as you know, Pirosmani painted his paintings not on canvas, but on oilcloth. Some claim that these were ordinary oilcloths taken from tables in dukhans, others - that the oilcloths were special, produced for some technical purposes. Be that as it may, they turned out to be excellent material for paintings: the images on them did not become covered with cracks over time, as happens with canvases.

Outcast

Niko Pirosmani. "Portrait of Ilya Zdanevich"

The Zdanevichs convinced Niko that his paintings would be a success with the educated public. Kirill purchased from Pirosmani a large number of paintings, many of which were made to order by the artist. In February 1913, Ilya published an article in the Transcaucasian Rech newspaper about Pirosmanashvili’s work under the title “The Nugget Artist.” Already in March, several of his paintings appeared at an exhibition in Moscow. Other collectors became interested in Pirosmanishvili’s work. The illustrated edition “Sakhalkho Purtseli” included a photo of Pirosmani and a reproduction of his “Wedding in Kakheti”.

“An artist whose work could glorify the nation and give it the right to participate in the current struggle for art,” the article said. “Understanding color and using it place Pirosmanishvili among the great painters.”

And his pride did not last long. The spirit workers and other acquaintances for whom he painted, having learned that Niko “had become a great artist,” began to make contemptuous jokes about him. He never received full recognition from critics and art critics. In the same “Sakhalho Purtseli” a caricature appeared: Niko stands in one long shirt with bare legs, and next to him an art critic says: “You need to study, brother. In 20 years you may be out good artist, then we will send you to the exhibition of young people.” But Niko was already over fifty by that time.

Feeling like a stranger - this time not only among the rich, but also in the familiar world of dukhans, Pirosmanishvili stopped drawing, sank and turned into a complete tramp. He did not say hello to his acquaintances, wandered aimlessly through the streets, muttering something under his breath. In the spring of 1918, he was found in the basement of a house, lying directly on broken bricks. He no longer recognized anyone; at the hospital where he was taken, they wrote down: “A man of about 60, poor, origin and religion unknown.” A couple of days later he died, and he was buried without a funeral service, in a common grave for the poor.

Georgian artist Pirosmani lived short life, approximately 55-56 years old. Little attention was paid to him. The facts are confirmed not by documents, but by approximate eyewitness accounts. Therefore, Pirosmani’s biography has become overgrown with fiction, and we have no choice but to follow the legendary outline. The style of his works is called primitivism. There is no derogatory meaning in this word. It simply means "primary". After all, he is just a brilliant self-taught artist who did not study anywhere, but simply took paints and painted, as children do.

Signboard

Let's look at one of Pirosmani's masterpieces. The artist painted a sign for the Zagatala pub. It was painted in oil on oilcloth at an unknown time. The work is full of obscure charm. Either because of the color, or because of the phaeton and the carriage with passengers drawn by horses in the foreground, or, perhaps, because of the largest inscription, made in red raised letters on a white background.

Two carriages are driving towards each other on the green grass. Behind them it spreads like a lake White background inscriptions. In the distance, against the backdrop of the mountains, a peasant cart pulled by oxen rides, and even further away a horseman can be seen on horseback. And above all the dark but joyful landscape in the background there is a blue sky with a full moon. It illuminates a distant city, bathed in its silvery light. However, against the backdrop of the mountains, a red sun shines with rays emanating from it. You might think that the pub is open 24 hours a day. Admiration is the main thing that can be said about this sign.

What do we know about Niko’s childhood and youth

Having turned over all the archives, art historians suggested that Niko Pirosmani was born in 1862. It is impossible to say anything reliably about him based on dates; this is only an assumption. This event took place in a large peasant family in the village of Mirzaani. Nico was the youngest of four children. He was seven or eight years old when his father died, then his mother and older brother. Perhaps two sisters survived. Little boy The widow of a manufacturer from Baku, E. Kalantarov, took him to the neighboring village of Shulaveri. He spent about 15 years in this family, learned to read and write in Georgian and Russian. It is believed that he briefly returned to his sister in Mirzaani and was a shepherd. Together with Kalantarova's son Georgiy, Niko went to Tiflis, where he studied to work in a printing house. Then he left there and lived in the house of Kalantarova’s brother. From traveling artists he learned to use paints and paint signs for shops and houses. And also visited the zoo. Let's see how Pirosmani worked. The artist often painted animals. He has a king of animals, a red deer against the backdrop of a landscape, a simple family of roosters in the village, a neat pig with piglets. Behind the naivety of Pirosmani’s works, the paintings hide sadness and sadness, joy and anxiety.

"Giraffe"

The artist dreamed of giving everyone freedom, and he painted a giraffe without a cage. How can one not remember N. Gumilev.

Somewhere far, far away on Lake Chad, an exquisite giraffe roams. He is slender and graceful. Its skin is decorated with a magical pattern. Only the moon dares to equal her when she crushes and sways in the waters of deep lakes. The look is sad, sad and full of silent questions big eyes giraffe Pirosmani. The artist wrote that he remembers the smell of incredible grasses, his smooth and joyful run among them - this colored ship of the savannah. The azure sky alone reminds a giraffe caught and caged of his homeland.

Independent earnings

For four years, Niko worked on the railroad as a conductor and in repair shops. At this time, a magnificent storyteller-tramp came there. His name was Alyosha Peshkov. His stories captivated everyone who heard him. He was prompted to write down his stories. This is how “Makar Chudra” appeared in print, and a great Russian writer was born. Niko broke the rules: he was late and skipped. He was fined, and finally he resigned. He was given severance pay, and together with a friend, the aspiring artist, who had not yet completely found himself, opened a shop selling milk. At the same time, he saved some money and built a house in Mirzaani. For the shop, Niko painted two signs with a black and a white cow. For six years Niko struggled with trading, almost giving it up. His companion gave him one ruble every day. Finally, he abandoned trade completely and began to do what his soul was drawn to - painting. This happened in 1900.

Freelancer

The long-awaited, albeit semi-impoverished freedom for Pirosmani has arrived. He sold the paintings that he quickly painted for the dukhan workers very cheaply. For only thirty rubles, sometimes for lunch, dinner, or just for a glass of chacha.

Most often he painted for Bego Yaxiev. He lived with him for several years.

Later, Pirosmani will paint the picture “Bego’s Company” - a feast at a laid table. According to one assumption, the man who raised the fish high is a self-portrait.

For the son of the Eldorado fan, who stood in a large amusement park, Niko Pirosmani painted a magnificent lion on black oilcloth.

Black royal lion

It amazes with its grandeur and restraint of colors. There are not many of them: only four or five. Black oilcloth serves as a background, and white paint is used to create all the shades of the king of beasts shining in the setting rays of the sun. The painter from God did not understand color worse than artists who graduated from the academy.

A bronzed body filled with unspent power, menacing fangs, a magnificent mane, and at the same time the saddest eyes. This painting is Pirosmani’s masterpiece, and is associated these days with thefts and scandals, lawsuits by heirs. For now she is still in Moscow. It is unknown when she will return to her homeland, but according to auction estimates, she is worth more than one million dollars. That's what Pirosmani's gift was. During his lifetime, few people appreciated the paintings, much less understood them. The exception is the collector Kirill Zdanevich, but we will talk about him a little later.

Fantastic love story

In 1905, or perhaps 1909, the beautiful Frenchwoman Margarita de Sèvres came to Tiflis on tour. She entertained the capital's audience with her singing and dancing. This historical character. Her photographs and posters have been preserved. True, in modern France they don't know anything about her. It is also assumed that beautiful story Pirosmani’s love for her was invented by the romantic K. Paustovsky. He came to Tiflis when the artist himself was no longer alive. But, one way or another, I will have to tell this story, which is like a beautiful dream, the awakening from which was tragic. Pirosmani attended Margarita's performance. He was shocked. It is unknown where he got the money, but in the morning the entire pavement and sidewalk in front of the house where Margarita lived were littered with flowers of all kinds: lilacs, acacias, anemones, poppies, peonies, lilies, honeysuckle, begonias, hawthorns.

The amazed Margarita sent the fan a note and a ticket to the performance, and the carefree artist spent the entire evening hanging out with friends. When he remembered the invitation, Margarita was no longer in the city. Pauls' song "A Million Scarlet Roses" is also a beautiful variation on this theme, nothing more. The portrait of Margarita presented above, as art historians suggest, was copied from a poster. And standing nearby is an elderly woman who came to the Louvre in 1969 for the Pirosmani exhibition to see her portrait. There was this fairy tale story or not, she is very poetic and beautiful.

Fame and recognition

By 1912, all the shops and dukhans were hung with Pirosmani’s works. The artist painted more than two thousand paintings. During the years of war and revolution, their number was reduced to three hundred. Artists Kirill Zdanevich and his brother Ilya were the first to become interested in him as researchers and collectors.

Here is a portrait of Ilya, painted by Pirosmani. In 1616, the brothers organized a small exhibition of his paintings. The artist immediately dreamed of building big house, where you can gather, drink tea and talk about art.

Harsh reality

The dreams were not destined to come true. The hungry and cold year 1918 arrived. The artist caught a severe cold, spent three days half-dead in the basement, where he was accidentally found, and died in the hospital. He was buried in a pauper's common grave and his resting place is unknown.

Artist's creativity

Pirosmani's painting is a hymn to the constant holiday that he created day after day in spite of his half-starved existence. These are mainly abundant feasts and feasts on signs. Great place His work features images of animals. Donkeys with peasants, fallow deer, beautiful well-fed cows, pigs. All images have the sad eyes of the artist himself. All paintings have a black background, since the artist did not use canvas, but black oilcloth, often taken from the table in the dukhan where he worked.

Pirosmani House-Museum

It is located in the village of Mirzaani in a house that the artist himself built. This one-story building has a terrace and a cellar. It exhibits 13 early works of the master.

Nearby in Kakheti is located local history museum in Sighnaghi, where 15 paintings by Pirosmani are exhibited.

Niko Pirosmani is a truly legendary artist. First of all, thanks to his stunning original works in the style of primitivism. But also because little is known for certain about his life. And the facts presented in this material are collected bit by bit.

Fact 1. Niko Pirosmani - an orphan from the Georgian outback

Nikolai Pirosmanashvili was born in the Kafetin village of Mirzaani, in the Tiflis province, which at that time belonged to Russian Empire. The year of his birth is considered to be 1862. The Pirosmanashvili family was peasant and poor. When Niko, himself youngest child, was six years old, his breadwinner father died, and soon his mother and older brother died. Since childhood, Niko worked for his late father’s family of employers. With them, the boy moved to Tiflis in 1870, where he learned to read Georgian and Russian, and studied the trade in a printing house for several months. He also studied painting with traveling artists, and together with them he painted signs for shops and houses. But Pirosmani never received a formal education.

Fact 2. Niko Pirosmani is an unlucky businessman

After an unsuccessful experience working as a brake conductor on the railway, Niko Pirosmani, together with his friend Dimitra Alugishvili, started their own business: they opened a dairy shop. Pirosmani himself drew signs for her and painted the walls. But the artist’s commercial streak never showed. And those around him considered him strange, irresponsible and “not of this world.” In 1900, Pirosmani decided to make a living exclusively by what he loved and did with pleasure - painting.

Fact 3. Today Niko Pirosmani would be called a graphic designer

Niko Pirosmani’s main source of income was creating signs for various types of retail establishments. This kind decorative arts was extremely popular at that time in Tiflis. The artist created rich, attractive, appetizing and sometimes bizarre still lifes and complex compositions for shops, pubs, pubs and eateries. I wrote inscriptions on the signs in Georgian and Russian. In the latter case - often with errors.

Fact 4. Niko Pirosmani wrote on oilcloth

Paints for signs and decorative panels Pirosmani cooked on his own, since buying ready-made ones was an unprecedented luxury. Canvases or other special materials were also hard to find. Therefore, the artist used what was always at hand - oilcloths from the tables of the establishments for which he worked. Most of these oilcloths were black, which served as a deep background for his original works, as well as an independent color, which was difficult to decipher and determine even professional artists. “The impression of some things done in this manner was extraordinary,” said writer Konstantin Paustovsky.

Niko Pirosmani. "Firewood Seller"

Fact 5. Animals in Niko Pirosmani’s paintings have the same face

Animalistic subjects are one of Pirosmani’s favorites, along with the depiction of peasants. As is typical for many primitivist artists, the animals in Pirosmani’s paintings bear little resemblance to their prototypes. real world. But they have exactly the same look - sad and no longer expecting anything. The artist's own view.

Niko Pirosmani. "Black Lion"

Niko Pirosmani. "Giraffe"

Fact 6. Niko Pirosmani may have loved an actress - the one who loved flowers

There is a version that Niko Pirosmani was unrequitedly in love with the French actress Margarita le Sevres and spent all his meager savings in order to strew the pavement in front of her house with flowers. This half-legend, half-truth inspired Andrei Voznesensky and Raymond Pauls to write popular song"Million Scarlet roses".

Niko Pirosmani. "Actress Margarita"

Fact 7. Prohibition took away Niko Pirosmani’s bread

In mid-1914, with the outbreak of World War I, prohibition was introduced in the Russian Empire, and most catering establishments in Tiflis closed. Niko Pirosmani lost most customers and, accordingly, earnings.

Fact 8. Niko Pirosmani feasted only in paintings and died in homeless poverty

In Pirosmani’s paintings we often see scenes where Georgian men feast carefree, where wine flows like a river, and tables are laden with snacks. IN real life Pirosmani such holidays rarely happened. In Tiflis he did not have own home, he was forced to huddle in basements. IN Once again, for several days in a row, numb and numb in a basement on Molokanskaya Street, the artist’s body could not withstand hunger and deprivation. He was discovered and taken to the hospital, but Niko Pirosmani soon died. He was 56 years old. He was buried in a common grave for the poor.

Niko Pirosmani. "Holiday"

Fact 9. Real success came to Nick Pirosmani posthumously

The artist Pirosmani was supported by the Society of Georgian Artists, as well as the futurists, who exhibited his works at their collective exhibitions and prepared art historical materials about him. And yet, his primitive works did not have much success with the public. Today, out of several thousand of his creations, only about 300 have survived. Wall paintings were destroyed along with old buildings or deliberately by the Bolsheviks. From paintings made on wooden boards, the owners hard times made walls for furnaces. Get acquainted with unique heritage Niko Pirosmani can be found in State Museum arts of Georgia in Tbilisi, in the State Museum of Oriental Art and Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, as well as in the artist’s house-museum in the village of Mirzaani. In addition, reproductions of Pirosmani’s paintings can be admired in most cafes and restaurants serving Georgian national cuisine.

Niko Pirosmani. "Peasant Woman with Children Walking to Fetch Water"

Niko Pirosmani. "Still life"

Niko Pirosmani. "Gorgeous"

Revelry during the grape harvest, 1906
On May 5, 1918, 95 years ago, poor artist Niko Pirosmani was dying in one of the hospitals for the poor in Tbilisi. The day before, his neighbors, realizing that Niko had not appeared in public for a week now, got together and opened the door to the closet where he lived. The 56-year-old “painter,” as his friends called him, lay in a deep, hungry faint. He didn’t even have the strength to open his eyes...

Actress Margarita, 1909

Leaning against the door frame, stood a tall, very thin Georgian with a thin face and sad eyes, in an old jacket and, without moving, looked at Margarita.

It was the traveling artist Niko Pirosmanishvili. He loved Margarita. She was the only person in the world for him. Every inch of land where Margarita had not set foot seemed to him like a remnant of desert. But where her trace remained, there was blessed land. Every grain of sand on her warmed her like a tiny diamond.

So, obviously, Iranian poets would sing about Pirosmani’s feelings mediocre. But they would still be right, despite the flowery speech. The day when Nico did not hear her voice was the darkest day on earth for him.

Excessive love evokes desires that are inaccessible to a sober person. Which of the people in their everyday state could come up with the wild thought of kissing human voice, or gently stroke a singing oriole on the head, or, finally, laugh along with the sparrows when they raise a frantic din, dust and bazaar around you?

Pirosmani sometimes had an amazing desire to carefully touch Margarita’s trembling throat when she sang, a desire to touch this mysterious voice with just her breath, this warm stream of air that produces such a magnificent excited ringing.

People say that too much love conquers a person.

Niko's love did not conquer Margarita. That's what everyone thought, at least. But it was still impossible to understand whether this was really so? Nico couldn't say it himself. Margarita lived as if in a dream. Her heart was closed to everyone. People needed her beauty. But, obviously, she did not need her at all, although she took care of her appearance and dressed well. Rusting silk and breathing oriental perfumes, she seemed to be the embodiment of mature femininity. But there was something menacing in this beauty of hers, and it seems that she herself understood it.

Niko Pirosmani. Self-portrait, 1900

No one really knew where Pirosmani came from. Then, after Pirosmani’s death, Kirill Zdanevich collected his biography from scraps and crumbs, and, although incomplete, reconstructed his life. Pirosmani was born in 1862 in the Kakheti village of Mirzaki into the family of a poor peasant. As a boy, his parents gave him as a servant to a wealthy Georgian family in Tiflis.


Chariot next to the diner

Pirosmani worked as a servant until he was twenty. Then he became a conductor in the Transcaucasian railway. That's when he first started drawing. His first work was a portrait of the station master and his wife. Obviously, it was a very poisonous and caricatured portrait, because the station chief, having seen the portrait, immediately kicked Pirosmani out of service.

Childless millionaire and poor woman with children

What was to be done? Pirosmani could not engage in what the majority of the poor people in Tiflis were doing at that time - insignificant dark affairs, successful and unsuccessful deception. He was too sincere and proud for this. He was not a slacker and a Tiflis kinto - half-poor, cheerful and insolent. He did not know how, like a quinto, to make money “out of thin air,” from an anecdote, from an indecent joke, from a “donkey cry.”

Rich merchant

At one time, Pirosmani sold milk on the outskirts of the Maidan and somehow survived on his meager income. But this activity also disgusted him. He loved painting, only painting, and, above all, he painted his entire shop like lush flower. He gave away his first paintings as gifts and was happy when they were willingly taken.

Large jug of wine in the forest

Sometimes he sold his paintings, or, as they were called on the Maidan, “pictures,” to resellers of all sorts of little-needed things. Such things, as they say, were “not for everyone” and were called the mysterious foreign spruce “brick-a-bra.” According to the resellers, it was a very beautiful and tempting word, especially since it was not clear either to the resellers themselves, or to Pirosmani, or to the buyers. But the bet on this word was unsuccessful. The buyers were very surprised, even frightened, and did not take the paintings. Resellers paid Pirosmani pennies for his paintings.

Gvimradze's revelry

And Pirosmani was starving. Sometimes he would sit down by the wall of a house or by the trunk of a dusty tree as old as the world and sit quietly until his head stopped spinning. He had to return to his homeland, to the village, where Pirosmani would inevitably have to bear the brunt of everyday life and family traditions. Pirosmani also painted his house in the village from top to bottom, to the great admiration of his relatives and neighbors.

Revelry of the Five Princes, 1906

Then Pirosmani held a feast in this house. After this, he painted four paintings depicting this village festival. The feast was surprising in that, contrary to most feasts, there were no rich people at it. The guests stood, sat and lay, raising their horns with wine high. This picturesque and elegant crowd was painted by Pirosmani very boldly.

Lion and sun

Finally, Pirosmani came up with what he thought was a successful solution. He returned to Tiflis and began to paint bright signs for dukhans over several lunches with wine and several dinners. He took part of his earnings in cash to buy paints and pay for lodging. But there was never enough money for materials. The spirit workers willingly removed the old tin signs and offered to write on them, having first covered up the blackened coloring.

Doctor on a donkey

But Pirosmani did not agree to this. The tin signs were rusting. And Pirosmani knew that no matter how uneducated an artist he was, or, as the Russians say, a self-taught artist, he could, perhaps, compete with some great artists in the strength and purity of his colors and designs (he had seen good reproductions of their paintings). Maybe even with Delacroix himself - one high school student, who also dreamed of becoming an artist, told him a lot about this Frenchman. There was no material, and Pirosmani began to write on the only thing that was always at hand in every, even the cheapest dukhan - on a simple oilcloth taken from the table. Oilcloths were black and white. Pirosmani wrote, leaving unpainted pieces of oilcloth where needed.

Threshing bread in the village

Then he applied this technique to portraits. The impression of some things made in such a manner was extraordinary. I always remembered his oilcloth “Prince”, where a pale old man in a black Circassian coat stands with a horn in his hands on meager soil. Behind him is visible, brought almost to a topographical diagram mountainous Caucasus. The prince's Circassian coat was precisely an unmarked piece of oilcloth of a deep black color, especially sharp in the dim light of dawn. I could not understand in any way what colors were used to convey this lighting.

Musha with a wineskin. Musha with a barrel. 1911-1912

For portraits like this, Pirosmani in his heyday received twenty to thirty rubles. Visitors liked Pirosmani's signs - transparent grapes, pumpkins, orange persimmons, curly tangerine gardens and rich still lifes of various herbs, eggplants, kebabs, cheese and fried fish"loco". But Pirosmani could not endlessly paint these still lifes for signs.

Ortachal beauty, 1905

Excess, as always, caused boredom. Then Pirosmani began to write on signs crowded feasts on the grass, on narrow peasant tablecloths. The signs showed people, landscape and animals, mostly long-suffering donkeys.

Hunter, 1907

Sometimes Pirosmani, together with the owner, came up with a name for the dukhan. The more intricate the name, the more I liked it. Pirosmani, grinning, wrote: “Electric kebabs” or “You don’t need to drink alone.” Such catchy names were especially loved in the Georgian province, somewhere in Ozurgeti, Akhalkalakha or Sagarejo...

White pig with piglets

Most of Pirosmani's paintings were people, but various animals also occupied a special place in them: lions, gazelles, buffaloes, giraffes, camels and the artist's unrequited friends - donkeys.

Vintage

Art always takes a person by the heart and squeezes it a little. And a person will never forget this obvious touch of beauty. A person will not forget that state of spiritual fullness and wingedness that sometimes one - only one - gives him! - a line of magnificent poetry or a painting that has survived several centuries in order to convey its beauty to us.

Family company, 1907

If I had not known Pirosmani, I would have seen the Caucasus underdeveloped, like a weak photograph, without colors and shadows, without details and contours and without the blue haze of its semi-eastern and semi-European spaces. Pirosmani filled the Caucasus for me with the juice of fruits and the sharpness of dry colors. He introduced me to this country, where at the same time you feel a slight and incomprehensible sadness with joy. The eyes of Georgian beauties sparkle with joy and restrained sadness. They usually quickly and easily disappear into the crowd, these beauties, although the poet’s gentle request is addressed to them: Look back at me, genatsvale! Genatsvale, look at me!

Deer family, 1917

This summer morning was no different at first. Still inexorably, setting everything ablaze, the sun rose from Kakheti, the donkeys tied to telegraph poles were crying, the same ferocious-looking black-mustachioed people walked along the streets with large cans and reluctantly shouted: “Naft! Naft!”, offering kerosene to the housewives .

Tatar - camel driver

Everything was as always: the Kura was noisy at the mills near the Donkey Bridge and the half-empty trams were ringing faintly. The morning was still dozing in one of the alleys in Sololaki, the shadow lay on the low wooden houses gray with time.

Fruit shop

In one of these houses, small windows were open on the second floor, and Margarita was sleeping behind them, covering her eyes with reddish eyelashes. As if in liquid glass, Mount David, the cable car and Griboyedov’s grave were visible above Sololaki. It is overgrown with ivy. I often went to Mount David, to the sacred Mtatsminda and saw there the graves of the great Georgian poets - Ilya Chavchavadze and Akaki Tsereteli. Their lyricism and simultaneous penchant for sarcasm gave special depth to Georgian literature and surrounded it with a sharp and subtle air of classical clarity.

Yes, but I digress...

Shota Rustaveli and Queen Tamara, 1914-1915

In general, the morning would really be the most ordinary, if you did not know that it was the morning of Niko Pirosmanishvili’s birthday and if it were not for that very morning that carts with a rare and light load had not appeared in a narrow alley in Sololaki. This load was obviously so light that the carts did not even creak under it, but only rumbled slightly, bouncing on the large stones of the pavement

Lamb and Soaring Angels

The carts were loaded to the brim with cut flowers sprinkled with water. This made it seem as if the flowers were covered with hundreds of tiny rainbows. The carts stopped near Margarita's house. The growers, talking in low voices, began to remove armfuls of flowers and dump them on the sidewalk and pavement at the threshold.

Batumi port

When the first carts drove away and the entire pavement was already strewn with flowers, the first carts were replaced by second ones. It seemed that the carts brought flowers here not only from all over Tiflis, but also from all over Georgia. The smell of flowers filled the Sololaki street. The first housewives appeared at the windows. They hurriedly combed their resinous hair and eagerly looked at the amazing sight: the flower-growers, the most ordinary arob-makers, but the legendary drovers from the Arabian Nights were loading the entire street with flowers, as if they wanted to fill the houses with them up to the second floor.

Arsenal Mountain at night, 1908

The laughter of the children and the cries of the housewives woke Margarita. She sat up in bed and sighed. Whole lakes of smells - refreshing, affectionate, bright and tender, joyful and sad - filled the air. It was perhaps the smell of the heavenly spaces, remaining after the slow passage of the night starry sphere over our earth, or the smell of an embryo, locked for a long time under the shell of an ordinary flower seed, and now freed by water, heat and strong salts of the earth.

Brother and sister. Scene from the play by V. Guniya

On both sides, at the entrance to the alley, crowds had already gathered and were noisy. People stared at the incomprehensible spectacle. The incomprehensibility of what happened confused people, and therefore no one dared to be the first to step on this flowering carpet, which reached people to their very knees. As for small children, they could even get lost in these flower piles. Therefore, the women, full of admiration and pride from the consciousness of the mystery that had approached close to their worn thresholds, familiar to the last crack (and they knew all the cracks because they often had to wash these thresholds), held their children tightly by the hands and did not let them go from them.

Girl with a ball

There were so many flowers here! It's pointless to list them! Late Iranian lilac. There, in each cup there was hidden a small drop of cold moisture, like a grain of sand, with a spicy taste. Dense acacia with silvery petals. Wild hawthorn - its smell was stronger the more rocky the soil on which it grew. Delicate blue speedwell, begonia and many colorful anemones. Graceful beauty of honeysuckle in pink smoke, red funnels of morning glory, lilies, poppies, always growing on the rocks exactly where even the smallest drop of bird’s blood fell, nasturtium, peonies and roses, roses, roses of all sizes, all smells, all colors - from black to white and from gold to pale pink, like the early dawn. And thousands of other flowers.

Woman with children walking to fetch water

Excited Margarita, still not understanding anything, quickly got dressed. She put on her best, richest dress and heavy bracelets, tidied up her bronze hair and, while dressing, smiled, without knowing why. Then she laughed, then tears appeared in her eyes, but she did not wipe them, but only shook them off with a quick movement of the head. Tears scattered in different directions and burned on her dress for a long time. She guessed that this holiday was arranged for her. But by whom? And on what occasion? And then she remembered that today, it seems, is Pirosmani’s birthday. Maybe he sent all these mountains of flowers to her in memory of this half-forgotten day.

Woman with a mug of beer, 1905

But why did he send it on the day of his birth, not hers? At this time, the only person, thin and pale, decided to cross the border of the flowers and slowly walked through the flowers to Margarita’s house. The crowd recognized him and fell silent. It was a poor artist Niko Pirosmanishvili. Where did he get so much money to buy these snowdrifts of flowers? So much money!

Giraffe, 1905

He walked towards Margarita's house, touching the walls with his hand. Everyone saw how Margarita ran out of the house to meet him - no one had ever seen her in such a blaze of beauty, hugged Pirosmani by her thin, sore shoulders and pressed herself against his old checkmen.

Peasant woman with her son

“Why,” asked Margarita, breathless, “why did you give me these mountains of flowers on your birthday?” I don't understand anything, Niko. Pirosmani did not answer. But Margarita, with all her being, all her nerves, all the blood beating in her body, understood even without his answer the power of his love and for the first time kissed Niko firmly on the lips. Kissed in front of the sun, sky and ordinary people- residents of the Tiflis Sololaki quarter.

Boy on a donkey

Some people turned away to hide their tears. People thought that great love would always find its way to a loved one, even if it was a cold heart. Because everyone knew that Pirosmani loved Margarita, but she did not love him at all, but only pitied him for his bitter and unsuccessful life.

Bear in moonlight, 1914

Pirosmani's love story is told in different ways. I repeated one of these stories. I have written it down briefly without attaching undue importance to its pure authenticity. Let picky and boring people do it. But I cannot remain silent about one thing, because this is, perhaps, one of the most bitter truths on earth - soon Margarita found herself a rich lover and ran away with him from Tiflis.

Father and son

To each his own…

Fisherman among the rocks, 1906

Saint George Anchorite

Shota Rustaveli, 1913

Lady with a Flower and an Umbrella, 1905

Ortachala beauty with a fan

X artist, whose naive art inspired the avant-garde artists Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Ilya Mashkov, Pyotr Konchalovsky, was accidentally discovered by the Zdanevich brothers - the poet Ilya and the artist Kirill, who saw one of Pirosmani's works in Tiflis...

This apparent simplicity is akin to archaic traditions in art - an icon or a fresco. Niko Pirosmani’s seemingly simple paintings - portraits, still lifes, images of animals - bring him closer to works that have gone down in the history of painting. The restrained palette of his canvases, which are not even canvases - he often painted on oilcloth, conveys eternal images, so close and understandable to everyone.

The wandering artist created signs for Tiflis dukhans on tin and painted everyday scenes like a feast in the village or a meeting between a childless rich man and a poor woman with many children... The signs that so amazed the Zdanevichs almost all disappeared over time - during difficult years in Georgia they were used to make chimneys . Little of his oilcloths have survived either. What has come down to us is today stored in museums in Russia and Georgia.

“On a summer evening in 1912, when the sunset was fading and the silhouettes of blue and purple mountains against a yellow background were losing their color, plunging into darkness, we approached the station square, dusty and empty, seeming huge, we stopped, surprised by the silence, so strange here... We entered into the large and spacious hall of the tavern. There are paintings hanging on the walls... We look at them, amazed, confused - before us is a painting the likes of which we have never seen! Completely original, she was the miracle we were looking for. The apparent simplicity of the paintings was imaginary. In them one could easily discern echoes of the ancient cultures of the East, but the traditions of Georgian folk art prevailed.”

Kirill Zdanevich

"Company come in"

Brother and sister. Scene from the play

Beauty with a fan

Holiday

Boy with milk

Prince with a horn of wine

Childless millionaire and poor woman with children

Not much is still known about the life of Niko Pirosmanishvili, or Pirosmani. Unfortunately, the memories of his contemporaries about him are scattered and incomplete. Even the date of birth has not been fully determined - approximately 1862. Coming from peasant family, he was born in the village of Mirzaani in Kakheti. Orphaned early. He lived in a wealthy Kalantarov family in Tiflis, where the boy was sent into service. However, Niko lived well with the “important gentlemen”: he was raised as his own son, taught Georgian and Russian, and indulged in his passion for painting. In general, the Kalantarovs loved the orphan and protected his delicate nature in every possible way.

“The little, then young Pirosmanashvili is remembered as an impressionable, lively, passionate and kind boy. There were many children in the house, he grew up with them, participated in their games. They were playing a theater in the yard, and he, excited, fussed and made noise with everyone - he loved the theater... On the other hand, there was something unusual about him that distinguished him from those around him - he drew wonderfully, he was like a family artist, a kind landmark of the house. All this must have determined the unusual nature of his position.”

Art critic Erast Kuznetsov

He had his own room, they took him with them to the theater and to prayer in the temple. When Niko turned 20, he was taken to a photographer for a portrait. In it we see a well-groomed and well-dressed young man. The reverent attitude of the Kalantarov family played in the formation young man dual role: he retained the purity of his soul and a good attitude towards the world and at the same time turned out to be unsuited to hardships adult life. He, of course, tried to get a profession - at the age of 28 he got a job as a conductor on the Transcaucasian Railway. The employee from Pirosmanishvili was not very responsible. He was late for work, violated official instructions, for which he received fines from his superiors. In addition, he was often sick... In general, his service did not go well. Four years later, Niko resigned. And again he found himself without a profession, without a home, without a position... Using severance pay and money borrowed from friends, he opened his own dairy shop. He rented a small room, which he decorated with images of cows, and painted a beautiful sign above the entrance. His affairs went uphill. He paid off his debts and even began to make a profit. But the businessman from Pirosmani did not succeed - after a few years he went bankrupt. The reasons are still unclear: either a friend-companion deceived him, or a fatal love happened...

“Pirosmanashvili met a woman whom he loved for the rest of his life. The French singer and dancer Margarita, beautiful and graceful, captured Niko’s imagination. He could not recover from amazement; Margot seemed to him “a beautiful angel who descended from heaven.” Happy Niko joyfully gave up his heart and, without hesitation, his entire fortune. And then the huge black eyes of Mademoiselle Margarita last time looked at Niko; she disappeared forever, ruining the artist’s life.”

Kirill Zdanevich

Margarita

She simply ran away with a rich gentleman, leaving memories of great love: one day a crowd of onlookers gathered near the actress’s house, who were perplexed, looking at the “whole sea of ​​flowers” ​​that grew under her windows - this was a gift from the poor artist... Famous song Raymond Pauls to the verses of Andrei Voznesensky is dedicated to this particular story. The rejected Pirosmani did not become bitter, but forgave Margarita. In his portrait, the actress is depicted in a white dress, with a bouquet of flowers, among the meadows. She does not stand on the ground, but hovers like an angel, and only two felled trees are a symbol of the failed feelings of two.

Niko Pirosmani was an artist-native and an artist-wanderer. Having no shelter, he traveled and painted to order, but his work cost a pittance. He accepted his fate and did not resist it. Painting was the only craft that he was capable of. Although he never received any special education. Georgy Yakulov wrote that Pirosmani “was forced to learn from his instinct.”

He painted the life he knew and loved: the heroes of his canvases are sellers, fellow villagers, women with children... The images of animals are amazing - lions, giraffes, deer have human eyes...

In 1913, an exhibition of paintings by futurist artists “Target” was held on Bolshaya Dmitrovka in Moscow. Among the works of Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova, paintings by Niko Pirosmani, brought by Ilya Zdanevich from Tbilisi, were also exhibited.

Fruit shop

Georgian woman with tambourine

Man on a donkey

Mother and child

Man with a wineskin

In May 1916, Zdanevich organized a one-day exhibition of Pirosmani's works in Tiflis. It is unknown whether Niko himself was there. Several of the artist’s paintings collected in one place forced the public to talk about him as a phenomenon in Georgian culture. The newspapers argued: some rejected his art, others admired him. “None of the artists I knew had such a feeling of Georgia as Niko. It seems to me that with the advent of his paintings my life became richer and happier. When I admire Pirosmani’s paintings, I feel how the mighty forces and juices of the earth, enclosed in Niko’s oilcloths, renew me.”,” wrote artist David Kakabadze.

The Georgian Art Society even found the artist and invited him to a meeting. Knowing about life's difficulties, collected and handed him 10 rubles. Proud Pirosmani did not like alms, but accepted the money with the words that he would buy paints with it and paint a picture for Art Society. And he kept his word - a few days later he brought the canvas “Wedding in Georgia of Old Times.” No one saw him again at the Society meetings...

The fame that fell on the artist quickly gave way to ridicule - a caricature of Niko Pirosmani was published in the newspaper. Most likely, it was a behind-the-scenes struggle between supporters and opponents of his artistic manner– primitivism. Pirosmani, of course, was far from intrigues and hardly knew about them, but the publication painfully wounded the artist. In his hearts, he tore up all the works that he had previously been proud of. And he finally withdrew into himself, turned away from the people who all his life considered him an eccentric...

Radishchevsky Museum and a wonderful addition to its permanent exhibition, which presents such names of Russian avant-garde artists as Ilya Mashkov, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Olga Rozanova, Vladimir Franchetti, Marc Chagall... All of them are in different time were inspired primitive art like merchant signs. For Pirosmani, a sign was not a craft, but real painting, from which his great, albeit naive, art grew.