Gerasimov exhibition in the historical museum opening hours. Sergey Gerasimov
And Gerasimov. 1920s
Photo. Private collection, Moscow
Continuing the post
"Alexander Gerasimov. To the 135th anniversary of his birth"
February 10 - April 11, 2016
The name of Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov is known quite widely, although recently it has been remembered more often with an unkind word. Of course, the flagship of socialist realism, “Stalin’s Velazquez”, the powerful leader of the Moscow Union of Artists, the President of the USSR Academy of Arts, a member of the party elite, he had power over the destinies, lives, biographies of his competitors and used this power. Gerasimov’s images and self-portraits paint the image of an obese man with a puffy face over an artistic bow tie - a belated type of the broad Moscow painter - a free, expansive bon vivant. Perhaps this is exactly what Gerasimov would have been if he had lived in a different time - a participant in the SRH, a plein air painter, no stranger to restrained impressionism, an attentive portrait painter, an author of sensual floral still lifes and philosophical landscapes with endless fields and endless roads. Of course, Gerasimov also implemented this program of the moderate Russian painter of the early twentieth century. But everything he created in the field of “totalitarian art” does not allow us to talk about him solely as an artist. How can one talk about the delights of a life study, about the fluency of a brushstroke, about coloristic unity, if the imprinted motif is, for example, the majestic profile of a deceased leader in a mourning frame of flowers and scarlet ribbons!
Remaining exclusively within the framework of the program of Russian impressionism, Gerasimov would hardly have been able to occupy a leading position in the art world. A student of Konstantin Korovin, Valentin Serov, Abram Arkhipov, an admirer of Repin, he created a number of successful, professional, artistic works in the direction they set, repeating what he had done at MUZHVZ, following the beaten path among followers and admirers like him. If the artist were content with this in a humble way and position, then one could, without feeling like a cynic, selflessly enjoy the damp shine of the terrace (“After the Rain”, 1935, Tretyakov Gallery) and even effectively comment on the impressions of the picture with a line from Pasternak: “The drops have the weight of cufflinks, / and the garden blinds like the reach, / splashed, dripped / with a million blue tears.” However, the author's name makes this admiration and similar commentary ethical nonsense.
The reputation of a “militant realist artist,” the creator of the Stalinist canon, who implanted it with all his might and means, threatens to cut Gerasimov out of the history of art and from the field of criticism. But in cultural usage, the artist’s chamber works, executed outside of officialdom, have already established themselves as unfading examples of salon impressionism, loved by the public and collectors without taking into account the time and circumstances of their creation.
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Our group on Facebook State Historical Museum (SHM) - State Historical Museum (SHM) He’s always posting pictures from the upcoming exhibition - so I collected them and show them to you:
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In the Historical Museum, in the building that was the former Lenin Museum, and before that the City Duma, an exhibition of paintings by Alexander Gerasimov opened. Timed to coincide with the 135th anniversary of the artist’s birth.
The main thing here is not to confuse. In that generation of Gerasimov artists (not relatives) there were several. So, this is exactly the one that stood out for its portraits of leaders.
However, the State Historical Museum did not limit itself to showing these same, once specially kept, leaders. Attracted other museums and private collectors. The result is a retrospective - from the time of studying at MUZHVZ, slightly from Serov (he soon slammed the door for political reasons and left teaching), and more from Korovin and Arkhipov.
True, in the early works the influence of these artists is not too noticeable - I would rather remember the calmer and more classical Petrovichev or Turzhansky (not exactly academicism, but definitely without modernism).
Korovin did not show much enthusiasm for the work of this student. While he was still unable to distinguish himself in the “nude” genre, the teacher nevertheless praised the nuances of colorism: “You know, something has awakened in you. This is interesting".
This is how Alexander Gerasimov studied until the First World War. Called up, he served on the ambulance train. In the 20s he returned to Moscow, joined the AHRR (Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia), and began to look for his place in life. First with things like “Collective Farm Field”.
For some time, Gerasimov has to earn extra money by doing design work. A chance acquaintance with Voroshilov, and then painting his portrait, helps to make up my mind. Still not having government orders, Gerasimov is working on a portrait of Lenin. I worked for about two years, destroying options that seemed unsuccessful. What emerges, in the end, is the same classic “Lenin on the Tribune”, subsequently reproduced many times. And the painting here, by the way, is still good.
After some time, Voroshilov arranged a meeting between several artists and Stalin. Including Gerasimov (who would later paint a picture dedicated to this meeting - we will talk about it further). In general, the artist’s position is strengthening.
True, there will be no more free work. Official portraits of the “leaders” were made under official control. Here, by the way, it’s interesting: starting from the early 30s, images of Stalin carefully emphasized the idea of succession - almost never without a sculpture of Lenin in the background. But Gerasimov shows himself to be a connoisseur of composition - it is the new leader who invariably turns out to be its center.
At the same time, persecution of “formalism” is unfolding. And we see that Gerasimov’s official works are becoming more and more similar to photographs painted in local colors. Meanwhile, he could have done it differently - and evidence of this is the series of “Parisian” works of 1934 (the author was released for achievements achieved on a creative trip abroad). Here you can see that he once studied with Korovin.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, Alexander Gerasimov is creating another one of his “epochal” films. “Stalin and Voroshilov in the Kremlin” (better known as “two leaders after the rain”). Its main multi-meter variant lives in permanent exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery. But - as often happened in those days - the author is ordered to produce numerous reduced repetitions. Here is one of them at the State Historical Museum exhibition.
With another such repetition, a funny thing happened. The result, shown not so long ago at one of the antique salons, has already amused the public a lot, and risks attracting no less attention at the exhibition in the Historical.
The current owner purchased this work by Gerasimov as “A Herd of Cows on a Collective Farm Field.” But in the process of research by experts, it was revealed that there is another one under the top image. The paint in the upper part of the canvas was washed off - and the “two leaders” appeared before the viewer against the backdrop of cows and cow sheds.
By the way, the exhibition catalog reproduces the intermediate stage of this work - when only the heads of both characters appear against the sky. In general, pure sur and social art.
You, of course, noticed the asymmetry of the work itself and the strange shape of the frame. But the fact is that here two fragments of the canvas are simply connected. The author, presumably, regretted throwing it away good canvas, and the “leaders” no longer found a market after Stalin’s death. So I wrote over my “cows” - and cut off the unnecessary part (it was kept in the family).
But let's go back to earlier years. For the leaders on the Kremlin wall, Gerasimov received his first Stalin Prize (there will be four in total). And in his workshop he keeps a bust of Stalin - and more than one.
Alexander Gerasimov received the second prize, by the way, for depicting an event that did not happen.
This huge canvas, which came to the exhibition from the Russian Museum, is called “Hymn to October. A ceremonial meeting of Moscow workers on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution on November 6, 1942.”
This solemn meeting did not take place in Bolshoi Theater. But the artist was commissioned to do the work, and he completed it. And he received the award.
But let's return to the story of the artists' visit to Stalin. That visit took place in 1933, and the painting on the theme of that event was painted in 1951.
And here it is interesting how the artist placed the characters. Himself - closer to the leader. The pose is confident, he calmly makes sketches.
But this is how tense and constrained his fellow artists are.
An interesting fragment from the exchange of letters between the participants of that meeting: “Well, in general we can say – we won! We need to develop an offensive... We must organize exhibitions that are cheerful, full of sun, joy, children, women, a healthy body... Enough of the art of freaks, gloom, melancholy, despondency...”
But leaders, as we know, are not eternal. And following the leader’s departure, Alexander Gerasimov is deprived of the post of president of the Academy of Arts, his “correct” paintings are removed from the museum halls. No, of course, there are no repressions, but we need to look for new topics.
Now from the 50s - the not very convincing “Pushkin and Mickiewicz”.
"Taras Bulba".
"Polovtsian dances".
And most of all – neutral floral still lifes.
What would have happened to Alexander Gerasimov and how would he have worked if he had not been tempted by painting portraits of leaders? Who knows…
The exhibition will last almost until mid-April.
I’ll end with a short anecdote from life. The Minister of Culture came to the opening. While speaking, he recalled the recent success of the Tretyakov Gallery and said: “But you also have a student of Serov here.”
Moscow museums are closed on Mondays. But this does not mean that the public does not have the opportunity to become acquainted with beauty. Especially for Mondays, the site’s editors have launched a new section, “10 Unknowns,” in which we introduce you to ten works of world art from the collections of Moscow museums, united by one theme. Print out our guide and feel free to take it to the museum starting Tuesday.
2016 marks the 135th anniversary of the birth of the Soviet artist Alexander Gerasimov. He is considered to be the main portrait painter of leaders, the author of the typological image “Lenin on the Tribune” and the epic “Hymn to October”. But at the same time, throughout his life he created lively, impressionistic portraits of friends, family members, and still lifes in the best traditions of painting late XIX century, painted genre scenes and city landscapes. And all this little-known heritage is presented at the exhibition, which takes place at the State Historical Museum from February 10 to April 11, 2016.
Alexander Gerasimov "In the garden. Portrait of Nina Gilyarovskaya", 1912
Alexander Gerasimov began his artistic education at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he entered at the age of 20. His mentors were the largest Russian painters at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: A. Arkhipov, N. Kasatkin, K. Korovin. Korovin is especially indicative in this regard: the best friend of Valentin Serov, a portrait and landscape painter, one of the main artists of the Russian impressionist, he instilled in Gerasimov a sketch style of painting, a bold free brushstroke and a rich, bright color.
Alexander Gerasimov "Family Portrait", 1934
Gerasimov felt himself primarily a portrait painter, although he often turned to landscape painting and still lifes, creating a number of surprisingly subtle, atmospheric landscapes (“March in Kozlov”, 1914; “After the Rain. Wet terrace", 1935, etc.) Among his portraits, individual and group, ceremonial images of the leaders of the state and party, solemn epic canvases dedicated to the anniversaries of the October Revolution play an important role. From these works Gerasimov was known throughout the USSR from childhood: portraits of Lenin and Stalin , created by his brush, decorated Soviet textbooks. At the same time, in unofficial painting, free from canons and conventions, the artist’s talent manifested itself brighter and more multifaceted.
Alexander Gerasimov "Hagia Sophia", 1934
In 1934, Alexander Gerasimov went to big Adventure in Europe. It must be said that he was incredibly lucky: few people could officially leave the country in the pre-war decade and the heyday of repression and count on being freely allowed to return. The artist visits Constantinople, Paris, Venice, Florence. During the trip, he creates many studies and sketches. Among them are "Rome. Castel Sant'Angelo", "Venice. Doge's Palace", Constantinople "Hagia Sophia". In these sketches one feels architectural skills artist, received at the school: he, while maintaining an impressionistic free painting style, becomes very precise, even graphic, in conveying the forms and details of the building. Later, in 1950, Gerasimov again came to Italy as part of a large delegation of cultural workers. Contemporaries recalled that upon seeing St. Peter's Cathedral, the artist shouted to the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich in pure Tambov dialect: “Dear friend, look at what acasia!”
When Vuchetich approached Gerasimov and wanted to reprimand him for his impudence, Alexander Mikhailovich began to talk in the purest French about the frescoes that he saw. This story once again proves that Gerasimov, despite his picturesque propaganda, remained a representative of the cultural intelligentsia, versed in high art.
Alexander Gerasimov "After the rain. Wet terrace", 1935
The artist’s sister recalled how the painting was painted. She said that Alexander Mikhailovich was literally shocked by the appearance of the garden after the rain. “There was a fragrant freshness in nature. The water lay in a whole layer on the leaves, on the floor of the gazebo, on the bench and sparkled, creating an extraordinary picturesque chord. And further, behind the trees, the sky cleared and turned white,” the artist wrote. The painting, which Gerasimov called “Wet Terrace,” appeared with lightning speed - it was painted within three hours. At the same time, this picture was not painted by chance. The artist repeatedly used the picturesque motif of nature refreshed by rain in official painting commissions.
Alexander Gerasimov "Bath", 1938
Although the painting “Bath”, painted in 1938, is a domestic sketch on the theme of the new Soviet life, in fact it is an excellent sketch with several models. Throughout the history of painting, such sketches were created as student works: on them, young masters practiced their ability to paint various body poses, dynamics and proportions. Gerasimov, who by 1938 had already become an Honored Artist of the RSFSR and Stalin’s favorite artist, in this genre scene reveals his genuine, bright and multifaceted artistic talent.
Alexander Gerasimov "Portrait of the ballerina O.V. Lepeshinskaya", 1939
Alexander Gerasimov "Portrait of the ballerina O.V. Lepeshinskaya", 1939
Portraits of actors in Soviet painting of the 1920–1930s were painted by such artists as I. Grabar, M. Nesterov, P. Korin, P. Villas. It was characteristic that this genre gravitated towards classical art: the heroes of the paintings were ballet dancers and opera singers, while almost no one wrote film actors. Traditions were preserved in compositional techniques: in the portrait of Olga Lepeshinskaya, in addition to the ballerina herself, an important role is played by the mirror in which the artist is reflected, which allows us to recall “Portrait of Henrietta Girshman” by Valentin Serov. And although the image of Gerasimov is only fragmentary, it becomes an important sign connecting the eras.
Alexander Gerasimov "Portrait of the oldest artists Pavlov I.N., Baksheev V.N., Byalynitsky-Birul V.K., Meshkov V.N.", 1944
In a group portrait of artists from 1944, Gerasimov depicts his contemporaries as if they were representatives of the intelligentsia of the late 19th century. In every detail, he emphasizes that those portrayed belong to a cultural academic environment. Poses, gestures, details, a bust of the Roman emperor, paintings in gilded frames - everything serves to convey the general mood. It should be understood that this work was written at the height of the Great Patriotic War.
Alexander Gerasimov "Roses", 1948
The artistic effect of the painting was largely predetermined by the high painting technique based on reflexes. Just as in the painting “After the Rain. Wet Terrace,” Gerasimov develops the genre of still life with flowers painted impasto, that is, dense, bright and thick strokes. The reflections of the table surface are cast in silver. The artist used glazes - translucent and transparent layers of paint that are applied over a dried painting layer, with the help of which he achieved the effect of wet surfaces. An interesting technique used by Gerasimov: not only horizontal, but also vertical surfaces are reflected, since the artist places a mirror behind the bouquet, which endlessly multiplies objects and expands the space.
Alexander Gerasimov "Bombay Dancer", 1953
Usually free time the master spent time on a sunbed, covered with a light Uzbek robe, given to him during a trip to Central Asia, and read, read and read, but with a magnifying glass, since glasses no longer helped. Gerasimov brought from his travels not only gifts, but also beautiful sketches, which speak much more about the artist’s talent than official portraits. In addition to a series of Italian watercolor sketches, Gerasimov created several amazing portraits. The Bombay Dancer from 1953 is a perfect example of this: vibrant colors and precision in detail create National character, and the dynamic pose conveys the atmosphere of traditional Bombay dances.
Alexander Gerasimov "News from the Virgin Lands", 1954
With the beginning of the reign of N.S. Khrushchev, Gerasimov was gradually relieved of all posts, and his paintings were removed from museum exhibitions. Although the work of Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov was much broader and infinitely more diverse than is commonly believed, meaning commissioned portraits of leaders, new era I tried to forget his name. But, obviously, in Russian painting Soviet period there are not many masters who left behind such a rich and varied heritage and preserved the traditions of the greats in their works artists of the XIX century.
The collection of works by the remarkable Russian artist, classic of Soviet art Sergei Vasilyevich Gerasimov is distinguished by its monographic completeness and, thanks to its high artistic quality, enjoys well-deserved authority in our country and abroad. Various aspects of Gerasimov’s multifaceted talent are widely presented, and each stage creative development reflected by characteristic samples. Whole line works is the pride of national culture. Gerasimov's work of the Soviet period is rightfully considered programmatic, clearly expressing the most fruitful tendencies of socialist realism.
All of Gerasimov’s works - be it a large-format plot-thematic picture or a small scenic sketch, easel graphic composition or book illustration - are recognized immediately, at first glance, testifying to his artistic originality, the uniqueness of what he has done in art. They express - and express with talent - the spiritual and aesthetic ideal of the era in which the artist lived.
The collection of works by Gerasimov can tell about the artist’s versatile interest in the world around him, about conveying both the dramatic and harmonious aspects of existence. Gerasimov was distinguished by his close attention to the life of people and nature, to the life of an individual and phenomena of broad social significance, to the “small” and the significant.
Becoming creative individuality Gerasimov took place during a period of kaleidoscopic changes in various artistic directions, at a time of intense experimentation and intense ideological clashes between opposing groups, schools and ephemeral schools. The young artist was not carried away by the whirlpool of maximalist attitudes of numerous avant-garde movements. He remained faithful to the aesthetic precepts of the realistic school of Russian painting. This was facilitated by the lessons he learned from S.V. Ivanova, K.A. Korovina, V.A. Serova, A.E. Arkhipova, L.O. Pasternak while studying first at the Stroganov Central Art - industrial school(1901 - 1907), and then at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1907-1911).
The Tretyakov Gallery has two paintings artist, executed in the pre-revolutionary period of creativity. The main body of his work from this time in the gallery consists of graphics. This disproportion is not due to a gap in the assembly, but the sooner the more the preference that Gerasimov then gave to graphic techniques, or more precisely, watercolors. He received the title of artist in 1912 for a watercolor sheet - “ Portrait of a man. Portrait of book publisher and educator I.D. Sytin».
The young Gerasimov worked most intensely and effectively in 1905 - 1913. Watercolors from those years allow us to speak about his early creative maturity; Even then he developed as an extraordinary artist, found his themes and his special intonation in art. His works testify to his keen powers of observation and his ability to vividly and convincingly convey his impressions. In such sheets as “” (1906), “” (1909), “” (1913) and many others, Gerasimov completely mastered the art of “erasing random features” from the depicted motif and revealing the poetic essence in it.
The nature of the selection of vital material and the chamber nature of images in early works they talk about the artist’s attraction to lyrical art. He purposefully developed his own type of soulful landscape and interior, intimate domestic scenes and intimate portraits. He was worried about the theme of the Russian outback: the Russian province found in him a remarkably deep and thoughtful artist - a poet. WITH special attention and with sensitivity he looked closely at the undemanding beauty of rural nature, inseparable from the life of ordinary people.
Gerasimov saw folk life in those years as far from idyllic: he noticed contrasts in it, a complex interweaving of the joyful and the everyday. This is how she looks in his works" Recruitment"(1911), "" (1911).
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In Gerasimov’s early works the precious quality of his art was already fully manifested: they are all surprisingly Russian not only in themes, but also in their attitude. And one more important quality is inherent in them: the purity of lyrical intonation. The young artist’s attitude towards the reproduced phenomenon as something extremely familiar, evoking a deep personal feeling, and at the same time as something general, national - this attitude is expressed in them with naturalness and artistic ease.
In terms of the depth of lyrical experience, the image of Russian nature created by Gerasimov in watercolor “” is akin to the “wind” landscape in the poetry of Alexander Blok. The main thing in it is not external details, but a strong feeling of the Motherland, a thought about its “tear-stained and ancient beauty.” The national note is clearly heard here, but is expressed without any ethnographic accents in the plot.
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The content of this sheet is characterized by internal integrity, achieved by the organic fusion of landscape and genre-everyday images; and mentally they are inseparable, equally subordinate to the general artistic idea.
In search of a form adequate to ideological and lyrical tasks, the master developed individual stylistic techniques. He recreated a living and changeable image of the surrounding world, as a rule, in an impulsive, free manner. A dynamic watercolor (sometimes mixed with white) brushstroke, endowed with color-tonal richness, made it possible to convey the world in constant development and movement. This is typically Gerasimov's picturesqueness, capable of capturing instant changes in nature, its most fragile states. In each motif, the artist was not interested in a static moment, but in a state understood as a process, as a life that lasts and pulsates before the viewer’s eyes - be it the life of the human spirit or the surrounding nature. The genre scene in watercolor "" (1906) does not have a developed action, but is permeated with a reverent mood. The poetic perception of an ordinary fragment of village reality here is largely achieved by the subtlest harmony of warm and cold colors, the richness of, at first glance, modest color palette, in which silver-gray shades predominate, as if melting at the places of contact and transition. Gerasimov continued the traditions of Russian lyrical landscape, the traditions of A.K. Savrasova, I.I. Levitan, V.A. Serova, K.A. Korovina.
Learned from K.A. Korovin’s impressionistic principle of the equivalent existence of each individual object in a light-air environment is masterfully embodied in such things by Gerasimov as “ Mozhaisk ranks" (1908), " Bazaar in Mozhai" (1908), " Fair"(1908).
In graphics, which was an independent area of interest for Gerasimov in the initial period of his creativity, he looked for modern themes, which he later developed into painting. IN " Portrait of A.G. Gerasimova, the artist's wife"(1913) translated into the language of painting and watercolor techniques: improvised fills, plastic hints. Form is created to a much greater extent by color than by academic chiaroscuro. Color achieves the illusion of an airy environment around the female figure.
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The sketchy nature of the letter turned out to be equivalent to the living and direct characterization of the model. This is a kind of mood portrait. Despite all the artist’s passion for pictorial effects, the image of a person in a portrait is not reduced to a self-sufficient pictorial-plastic phenomenon. He attracts attention with a psychologically in-depth understanding of the internal state of the person depicted.
Military service since 1914 causes a rather long break in the artist’s work. Gerasimov returns to active duty creative activity only after the Great October Socialist Revolution. In the first years of Soviet power, radical changes took place in his art. If in the pre-revolutionary time, filled with the search for an individual creative style, Gerasimov was restrained, shunned extremes and throwing, did not enter into internal disputes with himself, worked smoothly, developing in a calm ascending manner to ever higher skill and professionalism, now he is reassessing previously acquired values . This relatively short segment creative biography Gerasimov was a kind of period of storm and stress.
He responded to the events of the revolutionary era, which radically transformed the entire social and emotional atmosphere in the country, by changing the style, updating already tested artistic techniques and principles of shaping. Aesthetics and artistic practice constructivism: thus, in some works of the first post-October years, he deliberately exposes the process of plastic composition. Among them there were also works in which the influence of folk art, in particular the artistic primitiveness, was traced. In those years, Gerasimov was not the only one affected by the fascination with the primitive. Traces of this influence, as well as the influence of general searches related to the problems of monumental art and artistic synthesis, are visible in the sketch of the panel "" (1918). By working on a panel intended to decorate the building of the former Moscow City Duma, Gerasimov took part in the implementation of Lenin’s plan for monumental propaganda.
The pictorial plane of the sketch was occupied by the figure of a peasant, whose large and confident step symbolized the movement of the Russian village towards a new life. Based on the image conveyed in the language of the “naive” folk art, the feeling remains real prototype. The sketch revealed Gerasimov’s desire to create a monumental style of the revolutionary era. Experience in the field of monumental art helped him later create artistic images, epic in the breadth of phenomena covered.
The desire to express the heroic and dramatic collisions of the era with appropriate visual means led to the emergence of a monumental and expressive principle in Gerasimov’s art. But in parallel with this stylistic line in his work there is further development and the enrichment of lyrical motifs, to which he returned after plastic experiments. The artist received new colors and emotional shades from the lyrical and optimistic aspects of realism.
In those same years, work on a new topic for him acquired fundamental importance for Gerasimov - self-portrait. The Tretyakov Gallery has two of his paintings, executed in 1923 and 1929.
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The basis of their content is determined by the idea of responsibility imposed on the artist by the era of grandiose social changes. The entire structure of ideological and figurative characteristics in both works indicates the author’s deep sense of involvement in the new time. The power of expression of this feeling is brought in them to the degree of concentration at which the individual is organically transformed into the typical, and therefore the image of the person being portrayed is perceived as the personification of the artist of the Soviet era.
In the 1920s, Gerasimov's portrait genre underwent a noticeable evolution: the intimate chamber portrait was replaced by a type portrait. It reveals new character Soviet people and the internal scale of the images is significantly enlarged. It is to the typical images of Russian peasants that Gerasimov owes his fame as the largest Soviet portrait painter. The most significant of these works: "", "". They summarize the destinies of people that took shape in new historical conditions.
The hero of the portrait "" (1926) is a peasant, still dressed in a soldier's overcoat, who has just returned to peaceful life.
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Newspaper reports give rise to difficult thoughts about the peasant's lot, about the need to break the old way of rural life. The personal and social are intertwined in these reflections of the farmer; he weighs his fate against the fate of the multimillion-dollar peasant Russia, reared by the revolution. While preserving all the specificity of his model, Gerasimov transforms the impression of it into a holistic image, picturesque in nature, marked by signs of a capacious artistic generalization.
The search for the heroic in the everyday life of the Soviet village led Gerasimov to the creation of a classic work of the era - “ Collective farm watchman"(1933). This portrait takes us to the memorable years of collectivization and introduces us to one of the ordinary heroes of collective farm construction.
The feelings, thoughts and deeds of the depicted collective farmer are enlarged by the era itself, born of the awareness of the need for his modest work, an understanding of the importance of his contribution to the common cause. The artist succeeded in creating a typical image of a Soviet man, whose spiritual appearance and moral beauty were forged in the crucible of a great turning point, in the conditions of a new social reality. The image of this energetic person is visually activated by the dynamic manner of painting and the confident movement of a wide brush across the canvas. Striving for generalization, Gerasimov does not depict everyday trifles and particulars, but shows the figure of a peasant close-up, in strong motion.
In a number of paintings of the 1920s and 1930s, Gerasimov created a kind of group portraits of rural workers. These works are also interesting as pages of the history of the Soviet country. In the film “” (1927), the viewer faces a multifaceted peasant Rus' seething with passions, entering on the threshold of a new life. The communist proletarian throws a revolutionary slogan into this socially heterogeneous crowd, passionately and convincingly calling for a conscious reorganization of the world. In the center artistic research Gerasimov - the problem of self-determination and moral formation of the Russian peasantry in the first decade of Soviet power. In the depicted scene, the artist’s real impressions are condensed: in the depiction of each character, much that is unimportant is discarded and, on the contrary, attention is focused on revealing the socially typical. For the sake of this kind of expressiveness, Gerasimov consciously uses some possibilities of grotesque imagery. Thanks to this, the expressiveness of the characteristics increases, and the meaning of the depicted scene seems to be exposed and becomes clearly visible.
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The kulaks, the rich with gloomy faces and leaden, heavy glances, hide behind the backs of the middle peasants and the poor. Among the latter, there are noticeable manifestations of enthusiasm and awakened faith in the possibility of a better life. It is in the images of these peasants that Gerasimov notes the sprouts of a new consciousness. The sharpness of his artistic vision and deep knowledge of folk psychology helped him sculpt extraordinary characters. The era of radical restructuring of the peasant worldview found in the person of Gerasimov an intelligent, historically insightful interpreter. Along with the colorfulness of the social type, a large role in creating the intense image of the picture belongs to the dynamic development of the plot and the expressive drama of the compositional structure. As if restraining himself, the artist balances the expressiveness of his creative expression by turning to a soft color scheme.
Close attention to people's fate should have awakened Gerasimov's interest in the historical picture. In the 1930s, his first works of the historical-revolutionary genre appeared. In the sketch for his famous painting "" (1932) deep drama has already appeared figurative solution plot. Depicting the scene of the farewell of the Red partisans to their fallen comrade, Gerasimov gives it an epic meaning and permeates it with the harsh and high “music of the revolution.”
There is no hopelessness in its tragedy: it is a heroic tragedy, conveying to the viewer the courageous truth about the historical inevitability of revolutionary victims. The scene is not overwhelming in its content and does not make a depressing impression. A private episode from the Civil War turned into collective image revolutionary era. The depiction of an event is freed from the power of details and genre everyday life. The pathetic style achieved by the increased emotional intensity of plastic means and compositional construction is successfully correlated with the ideological and artistic concept of the work.
The historical and revolutionary theme in Gerasimov’s work organically develops the images and themes that form the basis of plot compositions from folk life and, of course, portraits - paintings like “ To the collective farm watchman».
One of most significant works in Gerasimov’s creative heritage is the painting “” (1928 - 1930). In it he achieved that figurative completeness that gives rise to a feeling of universality, the universality of the content: somehow you forget that, according to its formal characteristics, the picture is a work of the everyday genre. Indeed, the massive boat seems to be a pedestal for a multi-figured monument to working people, and the scene of the fishing team’s dinner is perceived as some kind of significant event, endowed with almost universal meaning. An ordinary everyday situation is important for the artist as a reason for thinking about the moral beauty of work, which is affirmed as the basis of a harmonious and sustainable social existence. Gerasimov focused on the stocky human figures, imbuing the images of fishermen with epic power. The artel acts here as the guardian of the high moral standards of people's life.
One can say about each of the characters: a person is strong and beautiful only through hard work. In their manner of carrying themselves - sedately, unfussily, with a sense of self-esteem - Gerasimov emphasized those facets of the national character that were polished by the centuries-old experience of the Russian people. An epic landscape with a wide breath of river space matches the people. The reproduced scene is devoid of idealization: the characters are emphatically rude and brutal. Boldly sacrificing details, masterfully using the figurative possibilities of restrained coloring, the artist finds a laconic, plastically accurate, monumental form.
Gerasimov's most famous work is the painting "" (1937). This work of his fully met the requirements of great style. socialist era. The canvas depicts how, at a festive table, right in the field, collective farmers honor the heroine of rural labor. She, with an order on her chest, sits in the center next to an elderly peasant woman and the chairman of the collective farm, who enthusiastically delivers a welcoming speech. Since the painting’s appearance at the All-Union Art Exhibition “Industry of Socialism” it has been a constant success.
The secret of this popularity, again, lies not in the entertaining nature of the narrative, but in the emphasis on the most significant aspects of Soviet life. Not a sluggish statement of well-known facts, but a poetic statement of collective farm innovation sounds in the figurative structure of the work. I would like to believe that its author was completely alien to any social demagogy and desire to embellish reality. He was truthful in conveying the main essence and historical implications of the depicted event.
IN unbreakable connection With ideological content the paintings are hers stylistic features. So that the viewer can feel the major atmosphere of a rural holiday, Gerasimov turns to plein air painting and creatively implements the lessons of impressionistic decorativeness. Loud-sounding colors, multi-colored reflexes on the clothes and faces of collective farmers, a whole colorful symphony of reflections on the tablecloth and on every object that came into the artist’s field of vision, subtle flows of warm and cold reflections - all this forms a picture amazing in its beauty and entertainment. But the artist needs the colorful radiance of the canvas and the entire light-colored element of the picture not as such, but to internally fill the scene with a certain content, to convey the emotional uplift and freshness of the feelings of the Soviet people. IN " Kolkhoz holiday"there is that thoroughness in the expression of social meaningful idea, which, as a rule, was excluded from the arsenal of tasks of classical impressionism, which sought to recreate instant visual impressions. Being a programmatic work of Soviet art, "" became for many generations of our artists a school of painting skills, an example of an innovative solution to a modern theme.
It is easy to notice that in Gerasimov’s plot-thematic works the landscape is important not as a background, but as an organic environment integral to a person. It is impossible to achieve such an impression if you do not engage in pure landscape. For Gerasimov, starting from his first steps in art, the landscape was always large and independent topic. In the field of the landscape genre, the artist created a lot of aesthetically valuable and significant things.
Nature in Gerasimov’s depiction evokes a feeling of calm balance and harmony; its innermost rhythms are inextricably linked with the rhythms of a person’s mental life. The above does not mean that the emotional palette of Gerasimov, a landscape painter, is monotonous. He did not confine himself within the confines of refined lyrics alone. Some of his landscapes are imbued with romantic elation and tension. And yet, Gerasimov preferred various gradations of poetic and fragile manifestations of her inner life to dramatic states in nature. The masterly skill with which he reveals the chaste beauty of the modest and ordinary in nature gives charm and deep meaning to the simple motifs of his works. Everything in them breathes naturalness and attracts with the immediacy of the transmission of the measured existence of nature. Pessimism is not characteristic of Gerasimov’s worldview. His landscapes express the inexhaustible mental health of the Russian person.
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The geography of Gerasimov’s landscape motifs is extremely wide, but his favorite theme invariably remained Central Russian nature. The city to which the artist constantly returned was Mozhaisk. Here, in his native places, with which the artist’s idea of the Motherland, of Russia, is firmly fused. Gerasimov created his best landscapes. Their distinctive feature is the organic interweaving of local and national-Russian flavor. In the historical and artistic lexicon the concept “ landscape by Sergei Gerasimov».
The best works of this kind, such as "" (1929), "" (1936), "" (1939). " Evening in the city"(1940), "" (1940) and others, it is impossible just to look: they require careful observation, you need to get used to them and listen for a long time to the almost physically tangible rich sound palette - from barely distinguishable voices and rustles to the incessantly loud noise falling from wooden dam of water.
"(1939) is one of the artist’s most poetic creations. The figurative content of this masterpiece of Soviet landscape painting is perceived through the prism of “ Winter dreams» P.I. Tchaikovsky, " winter morning » A.S. Pushkin and others lyrical works Russian art recreating a painting winter nature. In the context of these associations, it is especially clear national character landscape created by Gerasimov.
In the modest motif of a snow-covered village outskirts, on a gray day, the pristine silence of which is disturbed by the creaking of sled runners and the clear-voiced barking of a little dog, the artist noticed and revealed those qualities of Russian nature that we experience as something timeless, corresponding to the age-old ideas of our people about beauty and challenging we have a deep and precious feeling of love for our country.
The color scheme of Gerasimov’s landscape works is exquisitely complex, built on pure watercolor shades and the most delicate reflections. All this melodic “color music” sounds, as a rule, within the general limits (in “ Winter" - silver) tonality. The constant changes in color qualities, the vibration of shimmering colors is one of the explanations for the amazing vitality of the appearance of nature in Gerasimov’s paintings. They allow you to feel the continuity of the processes occurring in her, experience her inner spirituality and feel that “she has a soul, she has a language.”
Twice, in 1935 and 1939, Gerasimov visited the Caucasus and wrote a cycle there landscapes. The most famous are those created in Kislovodsk.
Like no one else before him, Gerasimov felt and captured the atmosphere resort town and the surrounding mountain landscapes. The constant “hero” of the works of this cycle is the southern sun, pouring bright light streets crowded with people and enhancing light and shadow and color contrasts. Despite his attachment to the Central Russian landscape, Gerasimov perfectly, with the spontaneity and insight inherent in his art, conveyed the original beauty of southern nature.
Industrial landscapes occupy an important place in Gerasimov’s creative heritage - images of landscapes transformed by the creative energy of Soviet people. They appeared, as a rule, as a result of the artist’s creative trips to various construction sites of the first five-year plans. The properties of this kind of landscapes can be judged from the painting “ White Sea - Baltic Canal. Nadvoitsky node"(1933). The Russian writer Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin, having visited this place before the revolution, called it the region unafraid birds. Now a completely different region has opened up before the artist - transformed beyond recognition. Gerasimov remains a lyricist in the industrial landscape.
The panoramic coverage of the vast space seemed to exclude any intimacy in the picture. However, this landscape, like other similar works, is psychological. For the artist, it is a form of reflection about the “fathom steps” of the Soviet country, about Soviet people, masterfully inhabiting nature, which, as the artist shows, remains close and commensurate with man, despite the enormity of industrial incursions into it.
During the Great Patriotic War, Gerasimov’s brush effectively served his people: during this heroic and difficult time for the country, he created the canvas “” (1943). It is dedicated to the feat of a Russian peasant woman, whose son, a partisan, is taken away to be shot. A simple Russian woman boldly throws angry words of curse into the face of the fascist punisher. Ideologically - moral significance The depicted scene lies in the nature of the clash between its two main participants, personifying two different, irreconcilable ideologies. The moral superiority of a woman - a mother over an executioner - is shown with a degree of clarity that makes one recall the poster form: the declarative expression in art met the needs of wartime. The psychological completeness of the conflict gives visual persuasiveness to the main idea of the work, which incorporates historically rich content.
In characterizing the heroine, the artist proceeds from those high moral criteria that were the only acceptable for Soviet people during the harsh years of military trials: from the entire possible range of feelings of a woman, he emphasizes her feelings of civic duty and hatred of the enemy. The same categorical moral assessments are responsible for the lampooning sharpness in depicting the image of the fascist rapist. The smoke of fires and the corpses of executed people, as well as the huge dark shadow falling from him and seeming to trample on the Russian soil, complement his characterization.
The image of a peasant woman in " Partisan's mothers“embodied that unprecedented and unexpected rise of national self-awareness for the invaders, which determined the mass heroism of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. With its entire figurative structure, the picture inspired the idea of the impending victory of the Soviet people in their righteous struggle against fascism.
In 1941 - 1943, Gerasimov worked in Samarkand. The amount he accomplished during this period is worthy of surprise. In addition to the painting "" he writes landscapes, creates extensive graphic series.
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After returning to Moscow, the artist makes a trip to the Ukrainian front, visiting the newly liberated Iskov and Novgorod. Depicting cities and monuments of ancient Russian architecture destroyed by the invaders, he every time raises his voice to an angry protest against the barbarity and savagery of the conquerors. Then Gerasimov began work on historical painting, dedicated to the Pugachev uprising. It is known that historical genre During the era of the Great Patriotic War, it experienced its heyday, and not only in the fine arts, but also in literature, cinema, and theater. Masters of art brought history to their service today. Their works told about the heroic events of the past in order to maintain among their contemporaries a sense of pride in their Motherland and its freedom-loving people. The image of Pugachev captured Gerasimov’s imagination for a long time. The artist returned to work on it later, in the 1950s. With this image he connected his ideas about the origins of the love of freedom, which was inherent in the Russian character from time immemorial - that love of freedom, heroic examples which he observed during the war. Watercolor "" (1943) introduces the artist to the world of these ideas and historical analogies.
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Throughout the war years, Gerasimov did not stop working on the lyrical landscape. From his love for his native nature he drew moral and mental strength, which helped to withstand the difficult trials of wartime. These landscapes were inspired by a deep attachment to their father’s land - a feeling that was experienced especially intensely then. In the canvas “” (1945), written at the very end of the war, Gerasimov expressed a mood of joyful hope, a premonition of a long-awaited victory.
The theme of the eternal renewal of spring nature is perceived here as an artistic analogy of the victory of life over death. A similar comparison of moral forces with the inexhaustible forces of Russian nature can also be found in B.L. Pasternak, who wrote in the same year, 1945:
.. Spring breath of the homeland
Washes away the traces of winter from space
And the black ones are circled with tears
From the tear-stained eyes of the Slavs.
For the artist and poet, the spring revival of nature is consonant with the renewal of the feelings and moods of the Soviet people.
The freshness of the first discovery of beauty in simple and everyday landscapes, sincerity and deep penetration are characteristic of the whole group landscapes created by the artist in the post-war period. Gerasimov likes to depict wide panoramic views. And, even when reproducing a closed space, he appreciates in it breakthroughs into the alluring distance - be it a piece of sky in the gap of branches or a forest road that draws the eye into the depths, as, for example, in his landscapes “ First green" (1954) and "" (1955).
In all these works, visual authenticity in the depiction of nature is complicated and inspired by the transfer of its rich inner life. Trembling admiration for the discreet beauty of a fragrant garden, washed by spring rain, is expressed in the painting “” (1955). At the sight of a wildly blooming lilac bush and reflections of the sky on the window glass of a country house, at the sight of wet greenery and breaking through the foliage sun rays the viewer is given the opportunity to experience the fullness of existence and comprehend the internal connection that unites nature and man. Gerasimov glorifies in such landscapes the morally cleansing power contained in nature.
The theme “traditional for Russian fine art” played a noticeable role in Gerasimov’s creative practice. The foreign world through the eyes of a Russian artist" The Tretyakov Gallery houses works depicting views of cities in Austria, Greece, Italy, and Turkey. England.
Endowed with a subtle ability to capture the originality of new places, Gerasimov did not write their detailed “ portraits”, and shared with the viewer the poetic feelings that they evoked in him.
His love for nature found expression in Gerasimov’s use of the still life genre. Still life, in Gerasimov’s understanding, is not a “staging”, but an image of a part of life. The artist’s credo is especially clearly expressed in “ Bells"(1940 - 1945), where plucked meadow flowers and the landscape spreading outside the window are combined into a picturesque whole, subordinated to a single life rhythm.
