Ivan Bilibin artist. Illustrations for fairy tales

students of grade 5 "B"

The project was completed in the 2015 - 2016 academic year

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COLLECTIVE PROJECT

students of grade 5 "B"

"Artists - illustrators

Russian folk tales"

Objective of the project:

• expand knowledge about the work of illustrators.

Tasks:

• get acquainted with the work of illustrators V.M. Vasnetsov, Yu.A. Vasnetsov, E.M. Rachev, T.A. Mavrina, I.Ya. Bilibin.V. V. Lebedeva;
• see interesting techniques and ways of depicting animals and people;

• show positive emotions towards artistic words
• develop an aesthetic attitude towards works of folk art, the ability to compare the expressive means of artists
• make your own illustrations for the fairy tales you read, organize an exhibition of your works.

Fundamental question:

• Why did illustrators not just draw explanations for the text of fairy tales, but create beautiful independent works that enriched Russian and world art?

Problematic issues:

1. What is illustration?
2. Who are artists - illustrators?

Subject areas:literature, fine arts, Russian language.

Project participants – students of grade 5 “B”

We got acquainted with the biographical facts and features of the work of some artists - illustrators of Russian folk tales and found outWhy did the authors not just draw explanations for the text of fairy tales, but create beautiful independent works that enriched Russian and world art?

Illustration – this is not just an addition to the text, but a work of art of its time.

Illustrators - these are artists who draw illustrations for books, helping to understand the content of the work, to better imagine the characters, their appearance, characters, actions, and the environment in which they live.

“A fairy tale is the great spiritual culture of a people, which we collect bit by bit, and through a fairy tale the thousand-year history of the people is revealed to us.”

Viktor Vasnetsov was born in the Vyatka region on May 15 (new style) 1848 in the family of a rural priest.

The father, Mikhail Vasilyevich, himself a widely educated man, tried to give his children a comprehensive education, to develop inquisitiveness and observation in them. The family read scientific magazines, drew, and painted in watercolors. Here the early artistic inclinations of the future painter received their first recognition. The motives for his first sketches from nature were rural landscapes and scenes from village life.

The village of Ryabovo, where the Vasnetsovs lived, stood on the picturesque Ryabovka River, bordered by dense coniferous forests, from whose hilly banks one could see horizons stretching for dozens of miles to the Ural Mountains. The Vyatka region with its harsh and picturesque nature, a unique way of life that preserves the foundations of the distant past, with ancient folk beliefs, ancient songs, fairy tales and epics became the basis for the formation of Vasnetsov’s early life impressions.

Victor spent nine years in Vyatka, but did not feel the need to serve the church. He devotes more and more time to drawing. On Sundays he goes to the city, to the market, to draw “types”, and studies characters. His seminar notebooks are full of sketches from memory.

In August 1867, with the blessing of his father, Viktor Vasnetsov left the seminary a year and a half before graduation and, with the money raised from the lottery, went to St. Petersburg to enter the Academy of Arts.

Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov lived a long, beautiful and difficult life. One of the most famous Russian artists of the 19th century, he knew enthusiastic admiration and a coldly restrained, to the point of complete rejection, attitude towards his work, enormous success and harsh criticism of his works, bordering on blasphemy.

He was called "the true hero of Russian painting." This definition was born not only thanks to the figurative connection with the “heroic” theme of his painting, but thanks to the awareness by his contemporaries of the significance of the artist’s personality, understanding of his role as the founder of a new, “national” direction in Russian art. The significance of Vasnetsov’s work lies not only in the fact that he was the first among painters to turn to epic fairy-tale subjects. Although it was this Vasnetsov - the author of "Alyonushka", "Bogatyrs", "Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf", widely reproduced for many years in huge editions in school textbooks, on calendars, rugs, candy and cigarette boxes - who entered the mass consciousness , obscuring the true face of the artist.

Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuznetsov (1908 – 1987)

Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuznetsov was born on May 23, 1908 in the village of Monetovo, Vokhomsky district.Kostroma region . He was the twelfth child in the family. The boy passionately loved the spruce forests of his region and watched with interest all kinds of forest animals. And on any piece of paper he found, on any wall, he tried to depict what lived in his memory and imagination. Once he painted the sad fence in front of his hut with soldiers. For this, his father beat him severely and forced him to paint over all the drawings with thick gray paint.

After graduating from a school for peasant youth in the village of Vokhma, Ivan decided to fulfill his most cherished dream - to go further to study. He is hired as a timekeeper on a timber rafting trip along the Vetluga and Volga. The money I earned allowed me to get to Leningrad, but I couldn’t get anywhere there. Then he came to Moscow. In the capital he wandered around, drawing “from life” in pubs and flophouses. A journalist from the Peasant Newspaper he met by chance saw his drawings and decided to employ the guy in his newspaper. At first, Ivan only pasted stamps and wrote on parcels the addresses of subscribers in the forwarding department of the newspaper. He accompanies some notes with his own drawings. The editors like them, and they select a capable young man for an art school.

After graduating from art school, Ivan Kuznetsov studied at the Printing Institute from 1930 to 1935.

In the thirties, the first books designed by Ivan Kuznetsov appeared. As a rule, these are modestly published books for children. Among them are “My friend and I”, “What do you have?” S. Mikhalkova, “Dog and Cat” by O. Tumanyan. These and other publications were published by Detgiz. Kuznetsov came to this publishing house at the time of its formation. It was Detgiz (now the Children's Literature publishing house) that published most of the books with his illustrations.

During the war, I. Kuznetsov, discharged from the army due to illness, was sent to tank factories in Chelyabinsk and Nizhny Tagil, where he worked as an artist-designer on instructions from the Ministry of Tank Industry.

And then his painstaking work on book illustrations continued. The artist Ivan Kuznetsov’s greatest love, one might say his destiny, was the amazing world of fairy tales. The appeal to the fairy tale was greatly facilitated by his close acquaintance with his senior namesake, Konstantin Vasilyevich Kuznetsov, while working at Cricket.

Books with drawings by Ivan Kuznetsov contain fairy tales from different nations. In preparation for work, he collects a huge amount of ethnographic material, carefully studies the nature, life, and national characteristics of the heroes of the fairy tale. And, of course, Russian fairy tales were especially close to him. Here, images of nature and signs of everyday life, well known to him from an early age, came to life. Many people of the older generation remember thin books with his drawings, such as “Geese-Swans”, “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka”, “Goat - Glass Eyes, Golden Horns” from childhood.

Since the fifties, collections of fairy tales illustrated by the artist have been published - “Mountain of Gems”, “Russian Folk Tales”, “The Magic Ring”, “The Wonderful Mill”, “Our Tales”. Later, his famous “Swan” appears, where the heroine of each fairy tale is a kind, hardworking and smart Russian woman.

Among the books designed by Ivan Kuznetsov there are both poetry and prose. His drawings included works by such authors as E. Blaginina and S. Shchipachev, K. Paustovsky and A. Platonov, L. Tolstoy and M. Gorky. He also turned to the artist’s favorite fairy-tale theme in his many famous linoleum engravings. These are “Alyonushka”, “Wonderful Carpet”, “Flying Ship”, “Firebird”, “Thin Mind”. Throughout the post-war years, the artist traveled a lot around Russia. I visited the Kama, the Oka, Baikal, and my homeland in Vokhma. He rented a room in Saltykovka near Moscow and lived and worked there for a long time. In the spring of 1966, he managed to visit Italy. He brought his wonderful drawings and watercolors, mainly landscapes, from everywhere.

The originals of Ivan Kuznetsov’s works are in various art museums, including the museum in his homeland in Vokhma, the Shushenskaya Art Gallery, and the Museum of Fine Arts in the city of Irbit. Many original works and books illustrated by him are kept in the artist’s family, with his daughter. In the last years of his life, Ivan Alexandrovich was seriously ill. On May 1, 1987, he passed away. Everything said by this artist, be it book graphics, watercolors, drawings and linocuts, is imbued with warmth and kindness. His work is close and understandable to everyone - both children and adults.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876 – 1942)

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin was born in the village of Tarkhovka, St. Petersburg province. It was his illustrations that helped create an elegant and accessible children's book.

Focusing on the traditions of ancient Russian and folk art, Bilibin developed a logically consistent system of graphic techniques, which remained fundamental throughout his entire work. This graphic system, as well as Bilibin’s inherent originality in the interpretation of epic and fairy-tale images, made it possible to talk about a special Bilibin style.

It all started with an exhibition of Moscow artists in 1899 in St. Petersburg, at which I. Bilibin saw the painting “Bogatyrs” by V. Vasnetsov. Brought up in a St. Petersburg environment, far from any fascination with the national past, the artist unexpectedly showed interest in Russian antiquity, fairy tales, and folk art. In the summer of the same year, Bilibin went to the village of Egny, Tver province, to see for himself the dense forests, clear rivers, wooden huts, and hear fairy tales and songs. Paintings from the exhibition of Viktor Vasnetsov come to life in the imagination. Artist Ivan Bilibin begins to illustrate Russian folk tales from Afanasyev's collection. And in the fall of the same year, the Expedition for Procurement of State Papers (Goznak) began publishing a series of fairy tales with Bilibin’s drawings.

Over the course of 4 years, Bilibin illustrated seven fairy tales: “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka”, “White Duck”, “The Frog Princess”, “Marya Morevna”, “The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf” , “Feather of Finist Yasna-Falcon”, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”. Editions of fairy tales are of the type of small, large-format notebooks. From the very beginning, Bilibin's books were distinguished by their patterned designs and bright decorativeness. The artist did not create individual illustrations, he strove for an ensemble: he drew the cover, illustrations, ornamental decorations, font - he stylized everything to resemble an old manuscript.

Bilibin proved himself to be a book artist; he did not limit himself to making individual illustrations, but strived for integrity.

(1893-1976)

Vladimir Alekseevich Milashevsky was born in 1893. He spent his childhood and youth on the banks of the great Russian Volga River, in Saratov, a city rich in artistic traditions.

Milashevsky showed his love for drawing very early, almost from childhood. Being a realist, he attended the Bogolyubov Drawing School in the evenings. In 1913, he entered the architectural department of the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts. Arriving in St. Petersburg to study, Milashevsky plunged headlong into the artistic life of the capital.

Milashevsky did a lot in the field of artistic design of adult books, and his illustrations for the works of classics and modern Soviet writers occupy an honorable place in the history of Soviet graphics and books. But his contribution to illustrating books for children and youth is even more significant.

He was one of the first and very few illustrators of these books, one might say, he stood at the cradle of Soviet books for teenagers and youth.

Literature had a big and responsible task to give this reader a new good Soviet book. No less difficult tasks faced the artists who were to illustrate these books. It was necessary to re-develop the principles of artistic design of books for schoolchildren, starting essentially from scratch. Soviet teenagers in those years needed not a gift book, but a mass-produced book. It had to be cheap, the drawings in it were clear and intelligible and at the same time easily reproducible, given the large circulations and modest printing capabilities of the first post-revolutionary years. This required a drawing not in tone, but “on a stroke”; it had to be expressive, clear and simple to execute.

The first illustrations for fairy tales were made by Milashevsky in 1948. He made about 25 page and half-page illustrations for Pushkin’s fairy tales, headpieces and endings.

People usually look at the pictures, but this word does not apply to Milashevsky’s illustrations: they are not looked at, but examined, and they can be looked at many times, each time revealing more and more new details. His creative generosity is amazing! No matter how much he draws, everything seems too little to him, he still wants to add some other interesting detail.

Milashevsky's illustrations are rooted in the very depths of folk life. That's why they are so believable, so convincing. It seems that the characters he depicted have a portrait resemblance, that all of them - even the merman or the devil - were exactly as and only as the artist painted them. These are not abstract fairy-tale faces, not masks, like some artists - no! - these are the exact ethnic types of fairy tale heroes, Russians and people of other nationalities, in all their diversity.

Milashevsky’s illustrations are a whole encyclopedia from which you can glean completely accurate information about the ancient the architecture of various regions of Russia and other peoples in all its details, down to the patterns of wooden carvings and paintings of window frames, about folk clothing, about household items and furnishings, about toys and utensils, about a thousand different things.

By depicting high examples of folk art, the artist, by his own admission, had in mind not only to make his drawings more interesting, but also to instill in the reader, especially the little ones, artistic taste and love for real art. Nowadays there is a lot of talk about the importance of aesthetic education of young people - Milashevsky’s illustrations are a practical step in this direction.

Milashevsky’s illustrations are characterized by some kind of inner warmth and the gentle humor inherent in a folk tale. Milashevsky's works were shown at almost all major graphic exhibitions here and abroad; they are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum in Leningrad, the State Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin, in the museums of A. S. Pushkin in Moscow and Leningrad and many other Soviet and foreign museums.

Artists - illustrators

Russian folk tales

Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov

Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov

Evgeny Mikhailovich Rachev

Tatyana Alekseevna Mavrina

Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuznetsov

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin

Vladimir Alekseevich Milashevsky

Our illustrations

to the fairy tales you read

One of the means of reflecting reality is oral folk art. Each nation has its own unique spiritual personality, arising from the instinctive-spiritual originality of perception of the surrounding world. “The spiritual identity of the people is manifested in language, songs, poetry, prayer, and fairy tales.”

The fairy tale, as the most valuable type of folk art, combines mythical, adventure, and everyday storytelling.

The most ancient type of fairy tales that have come down to us is tales about animals. By summarizing typical characters in the images of animals, people derived from the fairy tale a moral, a moral example for subsequent generations. This type includes fairy tales “The Wolf and the Fox”, “The Cat and the Fox”, “The Cat, the Rooster and the Fox”, “The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats”, as well as mixed genres of fairy tales, where, along with intelligent animals, people also participate. The best example of such interaction is the fairy tale “Turnip” (by the way, note how often a wolf and a fox take part in such fairy tales as bearers of a pronounced character).

Tales about animals remind us of the connection of the primitive race with animals, whose descendants people considered themselves to be. “A person who has preserved spiritual purity and kindness towards everything in nature speaks its language, which is why so often in fairy tales animals help the hero, give various objects to search for the truth, even fall in love with animals - and through the highest feeling of love the animal turns into a beautiful person.”

Everyday tales (anecdotal and novelistic).

The most recent genre of folklore fairy tales. The anecdotal tale developed from animal tales. What distinguishes it from the actual anecdote is a detailed narrative (not just one or two paragraphs) and a more stable storyline. An example is the lesser-known fairy tales about stupid wives, village fools and greedy priests and merchants. (slide 4)

A novelistic fairy tale is distinguished by the fact that it features a human hero who fights not against evil forces, fate, but most often against the injustice of the social system in the person of its individual representatives (for example, the already mentioned today “The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda”). The novelistic fairy tale as a genre has its written sources since about the 17th century, and in subsequent centuries it is usually authored (P. Ershov, A. Pushkin, V. Odoevsky, P. Bazhov, N. Leskov).

Through a fairy tale, the world around us was comprehended: the luminaries, the Milky Way, the stars, the seasons become close and understandable. Remember the heroes’ appeal to the Sun, Mesyats Mesyatsovich, Vetr Vetrovich, to the River - the banks of jelly.

Fairy tales - p perhaps the most interesting and exciting genre of fairy tales. Such a fairy tale can be distinguished by many characteristics:

The hero of these fairy tales is brave, handsome and courageous (however, this is where his characteristics end, he is needed only to reveal the storyline).

Animals act as helpers, and not the main characters of the fairy tale (a gray wolf, a faithful heroic horse, suddenly speaking in a human voice).

Fairy tales are collectively created and collectively preserved by the people oral artistic epic narratives in prose, which use techniques of implausible depiction of reality, fantastic fiction, the diverse and traditional forms of which, not repeating themselves in any other genre of folklore, have evolved over the centuries, in close connections with the entire way of folk life, and were in the original connection with mythology.

Images of the animal world often personify human vices, weaknesses and shortcomings in fairy tales. Often a person is compared to a beast: “angry like a wolf”, “cunning like a fox”, “stomping like a bear”, “faithful like a dog”.

In Russian folk tales, animals have their own character and habits. The fox goes by a number of nicknames: godmother-fox, little fox-sister, fox-Patricheevna, Lizaveta Ivanovna etc. Wolf - Wolf gray tail, Wolf teeth click.

Based on the studied literature and Russian folk tales, we have identified the main characteristics of animals:

Bear- good-natured, simpleton, strong, clumsy, gourmet, slow-witted, gullible lump, smart.

Wolf– angry, greedy, stupid, simple-minded, gullible, strong.

Rooster- brave, beautiful, warlike.

Hare- cowardly, weak, cunning, boastful, harmless.

Fox- cunning, forged, greedy, pretender, deceiver, thief, elegant, beautiful, fashionista.

Hedgehog- smart, careful, resourceful.

Owl- wise.

Mouse- hardworking, kind.

To illustrate Russian folk tales, various artists used their own compositional solutions, artistic means and expressive techniques to convey the fabulousness of what was happening.

Let's get acquainted with Ivan Bilibin's illustrations for Russian folk tales

Illustrations by Yuri Vasnetsov for Russian folk tales

Have you ever been in a hut on chicken legs? Among many Russian painters who sought inspiration in folk history, culture and poetry, V. Vasnetsov occupies a special place. The artist admitted: “I have always been convinced that ... in a fairy tale, in a song, in an epic, the entire image of a people, internal and external, with the past and present, and maybe the future is reflected ...” (8, p. 476). In his painting “The Guslars” are singer-storytellers. In their epic songs, the images of their favorite heroes come to life, becoming a kind of chronicle of folk history.

The name of Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov is one of the most famous and beloved among the names of Russian artists of the 19th century (37). His creative heritage is interesting and multifaceted. He was called “the true hero of Russian painting.” He was the first among painters to turn to epic fairy-tale subjects. “I only lived in Russia” - these words of the artist characterize the meaning and significance of his work. Paintings of everyday life and poetic paintings based on Russian folk tales, legends, and epics; illustrations for the works of Russian writers and sketches of theatrical scenery; portrait painting and ornamental art; paintings on historical subjects and architectural projects - such is the creative range of the artist.

But the main thing that the artist enriched Russian art with is works written on the basis of folk art. What paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov can be considered the most famous? Anyone will answer that these are the famous fairy-tale works of the master: “Bogatyrs”, which some will call “Three Heroes”, the gentle, thoughtful “Alyonushka” and, perhaps, an equally famous creation - “Ivan the Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf”. Why are these particular works so clearly imprinted in the memory of most people? Perhaps this is due to primordially Russian images or soulful fairy-tale motifs that are passed on to new generations, already at the level of folk memory, and have in some ways even become a reflection of the history of Ancient Rus'.

"Bogatyrs"(1881-98), which we admire, took about thirty years of the master’s life. That’s how long he was looking for that single idea of ​​three images personifying the soul of the Russian people. Ilya Muromets is the people's strength, Dobrynya Nikitich is his wisdom, Alyosha Popovich is the connection between the present and the past with the spiritual aspirations of the people.

Viktor Vasnetsov himself admitted that the fabulous “Alyonushka” (1881) is his favorite work, for the creation of which he traveled from Moscow to his native place. And to convey greater insight to the image, he attended many classical music concerts. Every twig, flower and blade of grass sings a song of praise to Russian nature, glorifying the beauty, freshness and at the same time sad thoughtfulness of the main character.

An equally famous work, “Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf” (1889), reveals to us the author as a deep connoisseur of everything that is called “the soul of the Russian people.” The fairy-tale characters of the beauty and the prince talk about the time when people knew how to listen and hear nature.

The works of the great master of Russian painting became the world image of everything Russian and folk in painting of the late 19th century.

Another wonderful illustrator - Bilibin Ivan Yakovlevich(1876-1942). He expressed his impressions not only in images, but also in a number of articles (4, 5). Since 1899, creating design cycles for editions of fairy tales (Vasilisa the Beautiful, Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka, Finist the Clear Falcon, the Frog Princess, etc., including Pushkin’s tales about Tsar Saltan and the Golden Cockerel), he developed - using the technique of ink drawing, highlighted watercolor, - a special “Bilibino style” of book design, continuing the traditions of Old Russian ornament (4).

In the summer of 1899, Bilibin went to the village of Yegny, Tver province, to see for himself the dense forests, clear rivers, wooden huts, hear fairy tales and songs, and began to illustrate Russian folk tales from Afanasyev’s collection. Over the course of 4 years, Bilibin illustrated seven fairy tales: “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka”, “White Duck”, “The Frog Princess”, “Marya Morevna”, “The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray wolf”, “Feather of Finist Yasna-Falcon”, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”. Bilibin did not create individual illustrations, he strove for an ensemble: he drew the cover, illustrations, ornamental decorations, font - he stylized everything to resemble an old manuscript.

For all seven books, Bilibin draws the same cover, on which there are Russian fairy-tale characters: three heroes, the bird Sirin, the Serpent-Gorynych, the hut of Baba Yaga. All page illustrations are surrounded by ornamental frames, like rustic ones

Bilibin. Red horseman window with carved platbands. They are not only decorative, but also have content that continues the main illustration. In the fairy tale “Vasilisa the Beautiful,” the illustration with the Red Horseman (sun) is surrounded by flowers, and the Black Horseman (night) is surrounded by mythical birds with human heads. The illustration with Baba Yaga's hut is surrounded by a frame with toadstools (what else could be next to Baba Yaga?). But the most important thing for Bilibin was the atmosphere of Russian antiquity, epic, fairy tale. From authentic ornaments and details, he created a half-real, half-fantastic world.

The horse was necessary for the peasant to grow bread, just like the sun itself. Images of the sun and horse in folk art merge into one. In the poetic ideas of the people, a rider on a horse freed spring from winter captivity, unlocked the sun, opened the way for spring waters, after which spring came into its own. This motif in folklore is embodied in the image of Yegor the Brave.

Baba Yaga is a fairy-tale character who lives in a dense forest. “On the stove, on the ninth brick, lies Baba Yaga, a bone leg, her nose has grown into the ceiling, snot is hanging over the threshold, her tits are wrapped on a hook, she is sharpening her teeth” (2); “Baba Yaga gave them something to drink, fed, took them to the bathhouse,” “Baba Yaga, a bone leg, rides in a mortar, rests with a pestle, covers up the trail with a broom.” V. Dahl writes that Yaga is “a kind of witch or an evil spirit under the guise of V. Bilibin Baba Yaga.

Ornamental lines clearly limit the colors, set volume and perspective in the plane of the sheet. Filling a black and white graphic design with watercolors only emphasizes the given lines. For framing the drawings of I.Ya. Bilibin generously uses ornamentation (33).

In our 21st century, the century of narrow specialization, the figure Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich is a unique phenomenon. A great artist, archaeologist and researcher, Nicholas Roerich enjoys worldwide fame as a painter and scientist. We are less familiar with his literary heritage. For example, few people know that Nikolai Konstantinovich also wrote... fairy tales. With beautiful allegorical images, with the alluring beauty of mysterious worlds. The heroes of his fairy tales are bearers of sublime feelings and thoughts that have eternal universal value (39). They encourage deep thought, incite high feelings, and direct one toward spiritual improvement.

S.K. Makovsky about N.K. Roerich: “... There are artists who recognize in man the secret of lonely spirituality. They look intently into people's faces, and each human face is a world separate from the world of everyone. And there are others: they are attracted by the mystery of the soul, blind, close, common to entire eras and Nicholas Roerich. Gallery of paintings by the artist - Zmievna, 1906 peoples, penetrating the entire element of life , in which an individual drowns, like a weak stream in the dark depths of an underground lake” (30, pp. 33-35).

The faces of the people on Roerich’s canvases are almost invisible. They are faceless ghosts of centuries. Like trees and animals, like quiet stones of dead villages, like monsters of folk antiquity, they are fused with the elements of life in the mists of the past. They are without a name. And they don’t think, they don’t feel lonely. They are not separate and as if they never existed: as if before, long ago, in obvious life, they lived with a common thought and a common feeling, together with the trees and stones and monsters of antiquity.

An artist whom one involuntarily wants to compare with Roerich is M.A. Vrubel. I'm not talking about similarities. Roerich does not resemble Vrubel either in the nature of his painting or in the suggestions of his plans. And yet, at a certain depth of mystical comprehension, they are brothers. Temperaments are different, forms and themes of creativity are different; the spirit of incarnations is one. Vrubel's demons and Roerich's angels were born in the same moral depths. From the same darkness of unconsciousness arose their beauty. But Vrubel’s demonism is active. It is more frank, brighter, more magical. More proud.

“In the painting “Pan,” the Greek god turns into a Russian goblin. Old, wrinkled, with bottomless blue eyes, knobby fingers like twigs, he seems to emerge from a mossy stump.

The characteristic Russian landscape takes on a fantastic, magical coloring - vast wet meadows, a winding river, thin birch trees frozen in the silence of the falling twilight, illuminated by the crimson of the horned moon (64).

The Swan Princess is a character in Russian folk tales. In one of them, retold by A.N. Afanasyev tells about the transformation of twelve birds - swans into beautiful girls, in another - about the appearance of the wonderful Swan-bird on the shore of the blue sea (2).

Sadko (The Rich Guest) is the hero of the epics of the Novgorod cycle. Sadko was at first a poor psaltery player who amused Novgorod merchants and boyars by playing the gusli on the shore of Lake Ilmen. With his play he gained the favor of Tsar Vodyany. The king demanded that the hero marry his daughter, who had to be chosen. In gratitude for his salvation, Sadko built churches in Novgorod in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas of Mozhaisk.

Many wonderful artists illustrated fairy tales: Tatyana Alekseevna Mavrina, Elena Dmitrievna Polenova, Gleb Georgievich Bedarev, each of their works is an amazing image that immerses us in a mysterious magical world.

Publications in the Museums section

Pictures from childhood

Guides to the world of children's literature, thanks to which lines that are still incomprehensible to the little reader acquire bright and magical images. Children's book illustrators who choose this path, as a rule, remain faithful to it throughout their entire creative lives. And their readers, growing up, remain attached to pictures from increasingly receding childhood. Natalya Letnikova remembered the work of outstanding Russian illustrators.

Ivan Bilibin

Ivan Bilibin. "Firebird". Illustration for “The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf.” 1899

Boris Kustodiev. Portrait of Ivan Bilibin. 1901. Private collection

Ivan Bilibin. "Dead Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf." Illustration for “The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf.” 1899

A theater designer and teacher at the Academy of Arts, Bilibin created a unique author’s style, which was later called “Bilibinsky”. The artist’s works were distinguished by an abundance of ornaments and patterns, fabulous images while accurately following the historical appearance of Russian costume and household items. Bilibin drew the first illustration back in 1899 for “The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf.” For forty years, the artist turned to Russian folk tales and epics. His drawings lived on the pages of children's books and on theater stages in St. Petersburg, Prague, and Paris.

Boris Dekhterev

Boris Dekhterev. Illustration for the work “Puss in Boots”. 1949 Photo: kids-pix.blogspot.ru

Boris Dekhterev. Year unknown. Photo: artpanorama.su

Boris Dekhterev. Illustration for the work “Little Red Riding Hood”. 1949 Photo: fairyroom.ru

Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots and Little Thumb, heroes of Alexander Pushkin's fairy tales, received watercolor portraits from the light brush of Boris Dekhterev. The famous illustrator created “the strict and noble appearance of a children’s book.” The professor at the Moscow State Art Institute named after Surikov devoted thirty years of his creative life not only to teaching students: Boris Dekhterev was the main artist at the Children's Literature publishing house and opened the door to the world of fairy tales for many generations of young readers.

Vladimir Suteev

Vladimir Suteev. Illustration for the work “Who Said Meow.” 1962 Photo: wordpress.com

Vladimir Suteev. Year unknown. Photo: subscribe.ru

Vladimir Suteev. Illustration for the work “Sack of Apples”. 1974 Photo: llibre.ru

The illustrations, similar to frames from cartoons frozen on book pages, were created by Vladimir Suteev, one of the first Soviet animation directors. Suteev came up with not only picturesque images for the classics - fairy tales of Korney Chukovsky, Samuil Marshak, Sergei Mikhalkov - but also his own stories. While working in a children's publishing house, Suteev wrote about forty instructive and witty fairy tales: “Who Said Meow?”, “Sack of Apples,” “The Magic Wand.” These were books beloved by many generations of children, in which, as you would want in childhood, there were more pictures than text.

Victor Chizhikov

Victor Chizhikov. Illustration for the work “Doctor Aibolit”. 1976 Photo: fairyroom.ru

Victor Chizhikov. Year unknown. Photo: dic.academic.ru

Victor Chizhikov. Illustration for the work “The Adventures of Cippolino.” 1982 Photo: planetaskazok.ru

Only a master of creating touching images for children's books could move an entire stadium to tears. This is what happened with Viktor Chizhikov, who drew the Olympic bear in 1980, and was also the author of illustrations for hundreds of children's books: Viktor Dragunsky, Mikhail Plyatskovsky, Boris Zakhoder, Hans Christian Andersen, Nikolai Nosov, Eduard Uspensky. For the first time in the history of Russian children's literature, collections of books with illustrations by the artist were published, including the twenty-volume set “Visiting V. Chizhikov.” “It has always been a joy for me to draw a children’s book”, - said the artist himself.

Evgeny Charushin

Evgeny Charushin. Illustrations for the work "Wolf". 1931 Photo: weebly.com

Evgeny Charushin. 1936 Photo: lib.ru

Evgeny Charushin. Illustrations for the work “Children in a Cage”. 1935 Photo: wordpress.com

Charushin had been reading books about animals since childhood, and his favorite was “The Life of Animals” by Alfred Brehm. The future artist re-read it many times, and at an older age he went to a stuffed animal workshop near his house to draw from life. Thus was born an animal artist who, after graduating from the Academy of Arts, devoted his work to the design of children's stories about animals. Charushin's outstanding illustrations for Vitaly Bianchi's book were even acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery. And while working with Samuil Marshak on the book “Children in a Cage,” at the insistence of the writer, Charushin tried to write. This is how his stories “Tomka”, “Wolf” and others appeared.

Ivan Semenov

Ivan Semenov. Illustrations for the work “Dreamers”. 1960 Photo: planetaskazok.ru

Ivan Semenov. Year unknown. Photo: colory.ru

Ivan Semenov. Illustration for the work “Living Hat”. 1962 Photo: planetaskazok.ru

The creator of the famous Pencil and the entire children's magazine “Funny Pictures” began with caricatures. For the sake of what he loved, he had to quit the Medical Institute, since he simply had no time to draw due to his studies. The artist’s first recognition from children came from illustrations for Nikolai Nosov’s funny stories “Dreamers” and “The Living Hat,” and the circulation of the book “Bobik Visiting Barbos” with Semenov’s illustrations exceeded three million copies. In 1962, Ivan Semenov, together with Agnia Barto, toured an exhibition of Soviet children's books throughout England. By that time, the artist headed the editorial office of “Funny Pictures” and knew literally everything about children’s literature and the life of Soviet children.

Russians still attract children folk tales. Who in childhood was not told about the adventures of Kolobok or the stubborn turnip! And then the fairy tales began. And if there were illustrations for them, then the book was reread and considered many times. The artist colorfully designed folk tales Ivan Bilibin, which placed the plot drawing in a beautiful, ornamented frame.

Inimitable paintings Viktor Vasnetsov Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf, Alyonushka, inspired by the Russian folk tale Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka, Kashchei the Immortal.

Among the artists who illustrated the plots of Russian folk tales, three artists can be especially highlighted:

• Victor Vasnetsov and his illustrations for the fairy tales Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf Little Humpbacked Horse, Three Heroes.

• Ivan Bilibin, who illustrated a lot of folk tales

  We also need to remember the artists Boris Zvorykin and Evgeny Rachev.

The literary life of any child begins with fairy tales. And first of all, what the baby looks at is the illustrations for fairy tales. The child cannot read letters, but he reads a fairy tale from pictures. Therefore, it is very important which artist illustrates the fairy tale.

Famous domestic children's illustrators are: Ivan Bilibin (for example, he illustrated the fairy tale The Frog Princess), Viktor Vasnetsov (drew for such wonderful fairy tales as the Little Humpbacked Horse and the Firebird), Yuri Vasnetsov (Teremok).

First of all, I want to remind you of a person like Ivan Bilibin - he made a huge number of illustrations for folk tales and Pushkin’s fairy tales.

Boris Zvorykin was also involved in creating illustrations specifically for fairy tales.

Evgeny Rachv is also an illustrator of fairy tales.

A very famous artist Ivan Bilibin, his illustrations adorned collections of Russian folk tales. The illustrations were drawn for children, half text and half pictures. This made it clearer for the little ones.

And this is one of the illustrations by Ivan Bilibin.

Artists who painted various fairy tale characters in their paintings. Ivan Bilibin, for example, painted beautiful pictures. Viktor Vasnetsov also drew fairy tale characters, for example from the fairy tale The Little Humpbacked Horse.



Folk tales are one of the favorite genres of folklore. They reflect the life of the people, their traditions and rituals, and usually have an instructive and educational meaning.

Children love folk tales very much. After all, this type of creativity is very easy and accessible for them to understand.

Illustrators made a huge contribution to conveying the plot of the tale to the reader. We imagine many fairy tale heroes exactly as they were seen in the pictures.

Among the famous illustrators should be named

Ivan Bilibina (The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, The Frog Princess, Vasilisa the Beautiful),

Viktor Vasnetsova (Humpbacked Horse, Firebird, Ivan Tsarevich on a gray wolf)

Yuri Vasnetsov (Three Bears, Little Humpbacked Horse).

Evgenia Rachva (created many illustrations for Russian folk tales).

A distinction should be made between artists who painted fairy-tale scenes and artists who painted illustrations for printed editions of Russian fairy tales. Of the first, one should name, first of all, Viktor Vasnetsov, who in his work turned specifically to fairy-tale plots - these are Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf and the Bogatyrs. Vasnetsov also worked on illustrations of books, for example, The Little Humpbacked Horse by Ershov, but this is not exactly a folk tale.

Of the fairy tale illustrators, of course, we should remember Ivan Bilibin, who made the most famous illustrations of Pushkin’s fairy tales and many folk tales:





And of course, we cannot forget the genius of fairy-tale illustration, my favorite artist of this genre, Evgeny Rachev, who illustrated a great sea of ​​folk tales:



Since childhood, I have kept wonderful books of Russian folk tales, the illustrations of which are probably more interesting than the fairy tales themselves. First of all, the luxurious paintings of the Vasnetsov brothers come to mind. I remember reproductions of paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov, Ivan the Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf, which hung on the wall of my great-grandmother’s house and Knights at the Crossroads, known as the Three Heroes

I still love looking at illustrations for Ivan Bilibin’s fairy tales, and I’m very proud that I have a rare edition of Bilibin’s drawings at home - a large colorful album with sketches and finished illustrations.

Among the works of female artists, I really like the illustrations for fairy tales by Elena Almazova and Inna Anfilofyeva and the magical, precise micro-details in the drawings of Elena Polenova (who, by the way, is the sister of the famous artist Vasily Polenov).

And the drawings for Boris Zvorykin’s fairy tales are reminiscent of illustrations for real historical events: the details of costumes and household items are very accurately conveyed...

There are many illustrators of fairy tales and epics. I only remembered my loved ones.

The book The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights of Pushkin with illustrations by Boris Zvorykin immediately appeared in my mind’s eye - such a bright ornamental decorativeness, a sensitive Russian harmonious tradition. Few people know that Boris Zvorykin, in addition to book illustration, was also involved in icon painting and was a translator. He was born in Moscow, in the Russian Empire in 1897, and died in 1942 in Paris, where he emigrated in 1921.

His illustrations cannot be confused with others



The sister of the famous painter Vasily Polenov, Elena Polenova, a watercolor artist, also belongs to the same Russian tradition, she was born on November 27, 1850, in St. Petersburg, then women were not allowed to study at universities, but she studied with the best Russian artists: P.P. Chistyakov, I.N. Kramskoy and in Paris with Ch. Chaplin, her illustrations are less decorative, softer