Konstantin Andreevich Somov (1869-1939)
With many self-portraits by
Konstantin Andreevich Somov staring face, marked - almost wound - a deep seriousness. Meanwhile, the artist went to Russian art as a master of charming, amusing, but lightweight "trifles" gallant genre of life ladies and gentlemen XVIII century. Although
Somov was also an interesting portrait artist and author of the excellent full-scale landscapes, yet his personality, which is drawn to us by his letters and diaries, of course, more and more important than the genre, which he so resolutely chosen. This is one of the deepest ironies
somovskogo creativity.
Somov - the largest representative of the World of Art ", but it takes a special place. Miriskusniki have many services to the Russian artistic culture. They opened the viewer much forgotten in Russian art, raised a culture of book decoration, made the work of the artist in the theater of an art. In short, were the universals involved in all the same hard. This quality, however, was not characteristic
Somov. He did not created for the theater, and his work in the book can not be attributed to the better, that they made.
Somov never sought to become a cultural figure, like his friend Alexander Benois: he was always first and foremost an artist. Although life keenly, painfully was dissatisfied with himself, but not because of lack of the wide range of his work, but because of insufficient, as it seemed perfect for something only he thought was the main. A range of field of view could be narrowed down and narrowed to the limit: on a small microcosm of walks and fireworks until - in recent years - across the room, a fragment of the table, to the edge of the mirror with a reflection of his own face.
.
Somov constantly puts himself in difficult conditions, are increasingly limiting the subjects of their works
. His art is distinguished by strict discipline and consistency. One manifestation of this - polished skill. Artist looking for perfection until death. In regard to the hardness of the figure, the integrity of the circuit sophistication of colors - in general, "finishing the form" a thorough, but not dried - he was at the height and skills of its growing years, in later works, even going over a certain limit normal. Luba distinguished taste for the details to the strokes of a. These are the unforgettable red heels miniature shoes of his gentlemen and ladies.
Somov, as a true miriskusnik, like the past, and, like many of his friends, the love that dates back to childhood. He was born in AI
Somov, a major art historian, curator of the Hermitage, the owner of a large collection of old paintings and especially graphics. And the fact that in childhood
Konstantin Somov was holding drawings Fedotova, or old engravings, did not go for him in vain. He felt as if they had a direct follower. Retrospectivist artist was not a flight into the beautiful "yesterday", but rather to carefully looking at the real world and find the invisible, deeply intimate connection with the past, based on "internal memory". Self-portrait in 1898
Somov depicts himself lying on an old couch. A few years later on the same couch, just as certainly real, there will be the heroine of the past centuries - "Sleeping young woman in a blue dress" (1909). Only her head submissively bowed to his shoulder, eyes closed, and the artist is awake, listening intently to the "voices of the past". In situ most of his work are unexpectedly embedded memories. Watercolor "The child" (1898) from the open window into the garden, children's toys on the trunk is made from nature and it would seem so clear and simple. But not for nothing that the clock on the wall faces, and figures of characters - women and children - appear only in the mirror. Real scene
Somov saw the specter of bygone childhood, for an instant splash in the mirror at home, where time stands still.
Somov received artistic training at the Academy of Arts, for three years worked in the studio of Ilya Repin. But in 1897 he left the Academy. Indeed, in those years he was fully independent artist. Among his early works - fresh, . plein air "Portrait of NF Ober" (1896) and is something only "
somovsky" "Portrait of Father" (1897), . where the model is strangely frozen, . a mirror, . in which the reflection is shifted, . makes unexpected, . almost harassing accent: behind the man seemed to open some kind of veil, . which he knows,
. The past is seen through the present. The same idea is to life and "retrospective portraits", the heroine who try on clothes and postures of the past centuries: "Portrait of K. Benoit (1896)," Lady in Blue (Portrait of EM Martynova) "(1897 -1900), Portrait AP Ostroumova "(1901).
. Even in the academic years appear at first Luba "gallant genre" ( "Rest on the walk," "The lady at the pond", 1896)
. The terms of their stories is extremely limited, the content pointed slightly. All this caused a certain irritation at Repin, who could not understand why his talented pupil assume an "childish folly green grass". Repin, however, perfectly understood the intention of this limited
somovskih genres.
Somov - not only among artists at the turn of centuries, who renders a person a puppet, refusing to represent him in the fullness of life and soul. But Luba is the impotence of art appears as a deeply informed, a drama, but the unavoidable fact, which he fearlessly follows increasingly emphasizing the puppet of his characters. Particularly dramatic "Lady in Blue". The artist puts its heroine in a scheme in which she had no opportunity to express their grief differently as in conventional, exquisite gestures. Contrast ruefully compressed lips ladies in blue and mute eloquence of her expression and gesture create here the image of the tragic muteness. Heroes
somovskih portraits and compositions stiffness, locked in a shell or a person poses. Their eyes are often directed at the viewer, and her lips tightly compressed in the thread - they are doomed to silence. In the portrait EP Olive (1914) model with the fingers, woven into the lock, recalls standing next to a porcelain figurine. It is hard to believe that a few years earlier at the Serov same woman really lived, moved. The same automatic features and characters of genres
Somov, dance, plastic which is akin to those antics and affectation, which helps to dislodge from the minds of unpleasant thoughts.
. Among the most significant works
Somov - a series of graphic portraits, including portraits of Blok (1907), EE Lancere (1907), M. Kuzmin (1909), MVDobuzhinsky (1910)
. In them the artist reaches the peak of his skill. But the more attention he pays the envelope itself, "shells" of individuals, the more they look empty, devoid of expression. Highlights on their polished surfaces provide no insight into the soul - the person literally becomes repulsive. But it would be wrong to see this as a negative characteristic - this is not the image quality of people, but rather the quality of the image. It tends to naturalism, but it underlined his illusory, fictitious. This is an illusion, and in general the quality
somovskogo world charm is in its transience, this Fourth of July fireworks. Characters unknown to the imminent end - about him realize viewer. The poet Mikhail Kuzmin seen in idyllic short plays Luba "skull, hidden under the rags and flowers", but perhaps it says much more straightforward than that depicted by the artist. He shed occasionally points directly to the inevitability ( "Harlequin and death", 1907). Rather, the very note of serenity and harmony of the golden evening light hint that this "air lock".
But the world
Somov and indeed more and more immersed in the dream. In the twenties, his life becomes difficult. Features private orders sharply diminished in the theater it is not working on a service can not. The mood of sadness and nostalgia increasingly break with him next to the purely erotic scenes, which include the famous illustrations of the "Book of the Marquise" (1918). In the film "Fireworks" (1922) sense of alienation and mild sadness, which had inspired the audience
Somov, already endowed with the characters themselves: so they are looking at the lights flash and the festivities, to which they are not involved, look at the other side of river.
. In 1923,
Somov went to New York with an exhibition of art ц°цЁц?ц?ц?ц?
. In Russia, he never came back, stayed in Paris. Paris during the artist's work is still not known. He illustrated books, portraits, lovingly and carefully enumerates the objects in still lifes. During these years, still life for him - a genre almost central. In the painting "Still Life. Windows. Landscape "(1934) lists the name itself retreating deep into the image objects. Table, which sparkle with glass bottles, clocks and even book bindings, barred the door-window, the upper glass door which is wide open in the sunlight and green foliage. The light penetrates the dark world of the room, but the glass, tapped at such an angle that the mirror reflects the landscape outside the window, pushes it taketh all "zaokonnuyu" reality outside of interior space. Pane, as if turned on its hinges, slams and throws a reflection of the landscape in the landscape itself, and at this point is that the glass in the frame are indeed the mirror, closing the dark silence of the room itself to itself.
.
Somov, died in Paris on May 6, 1939 at the hands of a close friend
. He has long been seriously ill and almost helpless. He was lucky: he did not live up to the declaration of war, which began so afraid.
Materials Used by articles of Tar in the book.: 1989. One hundred and anniversaries. Arts Calendar. Annual illustrated edition. M. 1988.
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Konstantin SOMOV (1869 - 1939)
Konstantin Andreevich Somov was born in St. Petersburg on Nov. 18, 1869. He was the son of the keeper of the Hermitage and the editor of the Bulletin of Fine Arts, a connoisseur of painting and engraving A. I.
Somov.
From childhood the boy dreamed of becoming a painter. Receiving a general education in a private school to. I. May, a young man entered the Academy of Fine Arts, where from 1894 to 1897 he studied at and. E. Repin. In February 1897, without finishing the Academy,
Somov went to Paris, and from autumn 1899 for a long time settled in St. Petersburg.
Even in high school close friendship bound him with A. Benoit In. Nouvel, D. Filosofova, and later with C. Diaghilev - organizers of the society "World of Art".
"World of Art" was a heterogeneous organization of contradictory ideological settings, like many other artistic groups, arising at the turn of XX century. For the Luba in painting the most important and most valuable was the "cult of beauty", which was associated with a contemplative attitude towards the world and, above all, to the world of things. He saw life from some artificially created them "beautiful hideaway". E. Repin, capable young man, "as he called the teacher, showed different sides of his talent. He drew a charming Harlequins and XVIII century among the ladies man bosquets, and its small fine work occurs the curious world of the past.
. "Bright remember feeling astonished surprise and then delight, when he brought his sketch on a given Repin theme" Around the pond. "
. The lady in the hair and dress XVIII century stands with his back to the viewer in front of an openwork lattice and feeding swans
. The impression of extraordinary sophistication combined colors, great freshness, delicacy and tenderness, "- recalls a. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva.
In early work, "In August" (1898, whereabouts unknown) depicts two lovers, sitting by the pond. Figures of immobile. Cold and uncomfortable surrounding nature. Strong wind mixes the branches and leaves of trees in a single mass, and it seems that with the next gust of all fly off into the unknown distance. Landscape and figures submitted in this unusual aspect, there is a feeling that the ghost of sleep, whimsical fantasy, unreality of what is happening. The picture evokes a feeling of anxiety and wrench. It appears close to the Luba Symbolist poetry.
Perhaps without realizing it until the end,
Somov to the bitter irony looked at his surroundings and his irony was the brutal truth. In modern life the artist felt the spirit of philistinism. Rightly observes P. Yaremich: "...
Somov inherently powerful realist akin Vermeer van Delft and Peter de Guohua, and drama of his situation is duality, in which everyone gets an outstanding Russian painter. On the one hand, it draws and beckons life as the most valuable and admirable, on the other hand, the inconsistency with the general life of the artist's life distracts him from the present in other areas, more distant, where the artist to himself. "
. The artist creates his own special "
somovsky" world
. In his small canvases depicted tired zabyvshiesya in dreams lady in pink, silver silk, lush crinolines. Love said in a whisper, cautiously and quietly pass a note, furtively kissing.
Somov admires and ridicules this life over these "toy" feelings.
In the painting "Echo of the past tense" (1903, TG) depicts an elegant lady in a dress that looked like a foamy wave, with the gas headdress on his head. She sits in a somewhat artificial posture and reminds doll with big staring eyes, with penciled eyebrows and lips. In her faded cheeks, swollen eyelids, in the dry parchment skin hid age. Behind the door balcony sunny and hot, and deep in the shady rooms cold and damp. TlцІn. "Echo of the past tense" - no irony, and bitterness and sadness.
Longing, tenderness show through more in his series "harlequinade" ( "Fireworks", "Pierrot and Columbine, Harlequin and the lady"). Criticism from. Ernst wrote about
Somov: "From his art rises pungent smell of roses and crumbling decay.
When
Somov turned to the portrait genre, it was felt the student and. E. Repin and worthy contemporaries. A. Serov.
From Repin at Luba - the ability to reveal sharp individual, unique in a person's character through gesture, posture, facial expressions, but in the interest
the internal process of life he is closer creativity in. Serov. "A series of portrait work Luba - wrote a. N. Benoit - will talk about our time, such as full and true words, as they say Holbein drawings and pastels by Latour.
Many known portrait of the artist: portraits of his father - an art And. I. Luba (1897, RM), A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva (1901, RM), A. Block (1907, TG), A. Kuzmin (1909, TG), M. Dobuzhinsky (1910, TG), E. Lancere (1907, TG), in. Ivanova (1909, TG), in. Nouvel (1914, RM), and others.
In the famous portrait-painting "Lady in Blue" (1900, TG), which shows the artist who died early in the E. M. Martynov,
Somov rose to deep psychology. Brooder young woman with book in hand is against a background of decorative
landscape. Carefully, flowing brush strokes, written tender, fine-featured face, fragile shoulders, the graceful hands. In the guise of Martha-new - the charm of youth, intelligence, enchanting femininity combined with painful delicacy, mental fatigue.
Portraits
Somov - a bright page in the development of realistic art of XX century. And not only portraits but also landscapes. Do flaming "Fire", a suite of the seasons ( "Autumn", "Spring", "Summer", "Summer. Rainbow ") _ all of them lyrically heartfelt romantic. The combination of decorative filigree graphic quality and consistent generalized, sometimes symbolic image. Benoцўt Ostroumova-Lebedev remembered that the special investigation technique differed jewelry artist, ornamental skill, and at the same time,
Somov admired contemporary decorative sense of color.
. In the work of Luba visible features, extremely characteristic of his era, which is so desperately appreciated and understood one of the organizers of the World of Art "From
. P Diaghilev: "We live in a terrible time of fracture, we are condemned to die, to give a new lease of a new culture, which would take away what is left of our weary wisdom. It says history, confirms the same aesthetics. We have witnessed the greatest moment in history and the results of all in the name of the new unknown culture. "
Creativity Luba reflected the complexity and the sharp contradictions of the age. Along with the works, which appeared sickly refinement, the desire to escape from the outside world, the artist creates portraits and landscapes workshop, which will remain a bright beacon of Russian realistic art of the late XIX - early XX century. Umer K. A.
Somov in Paris in 1939.
Biographies
Portfolio
- One of the works to. A. Luba can be found in the section "Russian Art" on a private page, George Mitrevski (Auburn University, USA).
