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Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin paintings. Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (illustrations for Russian fairy tales)

Lawyer artist

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin was going to become a lawyer, studied diligently at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University and successfully completed the full course in 1900. But in parallel with this, he studied painting at the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, then in Munich with the artist A. Ashbe, and after, for another 6 years, he was a student of I. E. Repin. In 1898, Bilibin sees Vasnetsov's Bogatyrs at an exhibition of young artists. After that, he leaves for the countryside, studies Russian antiquity and finds his own unique style, in which he will work until the end of his life. For the refinement of this style, the energy of work and the impeccable firmness of the line of the artist, his colleagues called him "Ivan the Iron Hand."

Storyteller

Almost every Russian person knows Bilibin's illustrations from books of fairy tales that were read to him at night as a child. And meanwhile, these illustrations are more than a hundred years old. From 1899 to 1902, Ivan Bilibin created a series of six "Tales" published by the Expedition for the Procurement of State Papers. After that, Pushkin's tales about Tsar Saltan and the Golden Cockerel and the slightly less well-known epic "Volga" with illustrations by Bilibin are published in the same publishing house. It is interesting that the most famous illustration to "The Tale of Tsar Saltan ..." with a barrel floating on the sea resembles the famous "Big Wave" by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. The process of performing I. Ya. Bilibin's graphic drawing was similar to the work of an engraver. First, he sketched a sketch on paper, refined the composition in all details on tracing paper, and then translated it onto whatman paper. After that, with a kolinsky brush with a cut end, likening it to a cutter, he drew a clear wire outline in ink over a pencil drawing. Bilibin's books look like painted boxes. It was this artist who first saw a children's book as an integral artistically designed organism. His books are like old manuscripts, because the artist thinks over not only drawings, but also all decorative elements: fonts, ornaments, decorations, initials and everything else.

double headed eagle

The same double-headed eagle, which is now used on the coins of the Bank of Russia, belongs to the brush of Bilibin, an expert on heraldry. The artist painted it after the February Revolution as an emblem for the Provisional Government, and since 1992 this eagle has again become the official Russian symbol. The bird looks fabulous, not sinister, because it was drawn by a famous illustrator of Russian epics and fairy tales. The double-headed eagle is depicted without royal regalia and with lowered wings, the inscription “Russian Provisional Government” and a characteristic “forest” Bilibino ornament are made around the circle. Bilibin transferred copyright to the coat of arms and some other graphic developments to the Goznak factory.

theater artist

Bilibin's first experience in scenography was the design of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden for the National Theater in Prague. His next works are sketches of costumes and scenery for the operas The Golden Cockerel, Sadko, Ruslan and Lyudmila, Boris Godunov and others. And after emigrating to Paris in 1925, Bilibin continued to work with theaters: he prepared brilliant scenery for productions of Russian operas, designed Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird in Buenos Aires and operas in Brno and Prague. Bilibin made extensive use of old prints, popular prints, and folk art. Bilibin was a true connoisseur of ancient costumes of different peoples, he was interested in embroidery, braid, weaving techniques, ornaments and everything that created the national color of the people.

The artist and the church

Bilibin also has works related to church painting. In it, he remains himself, retains his individual style. After leaving St. Petersburg, Bilibin lived for some time in Cairo and actively participated in the design of the Russian house church in the premises of a clinic arranged by Russian doctors. According to his project, the iconostasis of this temple was built. And after 1925, when the artist moved to Paris, he became a founding member of the Icon society. As an illustrator, he created the cover of the charter and the design for the society's seal. There is his trace in Prague - he made sketches of frescoes and an iconostasis for a Russian church at the Olshansky cemetery in the Czech capital.

Homecoming and death

Over time, Bilibin reconciled with the Soviet regime. He draws up the Soviet embassy in Paris, and then, in 1936, returns by boat to his native Leningrad. Teaching is added to his professions: he teaches at the All-Russian Academy of Arts - the oldest and largest art educational institution in Russia. In September 1941, at the age of 66, the artist refused the offer of the People's Commissar of Education to evacuate from the besieged Leningrad to the rear. “They don’t run from a besieged fortress, they defend it,” he wrote in response. Under fascist shelling and bombing, the artist creates patriotic postcards for the front, writes articles and appeals to the heroic defenders of Leningrad. Bilibin died of starvation in the very first blockade winter and was buried in a mass grave of professors of the Academy of Arts near the Smolensk cemetery.

”, the author of paintings and colorful illustrations for Russian fairy tales and epics in a decorative and graphic ornamental manner based on the stylization of the motifs of Russian folk and medieval art; one of the largest masters of the national-romantic direction in the Russian version of the Art Nouveau style.

Who has not read fairy tale books with his magnificent illustrations? The master's works are an immersion in the world of childhood, fairy tales, epics. He created his own world, so unlike the environment, allowing you to retire in your fantasy and follow the heroes on dangerous and exciting journeys.

In 1895-1898 he studied at the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts.

In 1898 he studied for two months in the studio of the painter Anton Ashbe in Munich. It was here that the study of drawing was given special importance and developed in students the ability to find an individual artistic style.

While in Munich, 22-year-old Bilibin gets acquainted with the tradition of European painting:

In the Old Pinakothek - with the works of the classics: Dürer, Holbein, Rembrandt, Raphael.

In the Neue Pinakothek - with modern trends, in particular with the symbolism of Arnold Böcklin and Franz Stuck

What he saw was extremely timely for an aspiring artist. And it was at Ashbe's school that Bilibin learned his signature line and graphic techniques. First, he sketched a sketch on paper, refined the composition in all details on tracing paper, then transferred it to whatman paper, after which he drew a clear wire outline in ink over a pencil drawing with a cut-off end brush.

The development of Bilibin as book graphics was influenced by other Western book masters: William Maurice, who was one of the first to reflect the harmonious architecture of the book - a synthesis of literature, graphics and typography, and his "Beautiful Book";

Graphic artists Walter Crane and Aubrey Beardsley;

Art Nouveau curved line inspiration from Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon;

The expressive play of black and white spots by Felix Vallotton; sharpness of Thomas Heine; Lace of the lines of Heinrich Vogeler.

And also noticeable is the influence (as well as on the representatives of the Art Nouveau style in general) of Japanese engraving of the 17th-19th centuries, from where the tones of the fill, contours, isometry of space are drawn; Old Russian icons and Byzantine painting.

For several years (1898-1900) he studied under the guidance of Ilya Repin at the school-workshop of Princess Maria Tenisheva, then (1900-1904) under the guidance of Repin at the Higher Art School of the Academy of Arts.

At the time of Bilibin's studies at the Higher Art School of the Academy of Arts, where Repin arranged for the young man, there was an exhibition of Viktor Vasnetsov, who wrote in a unique romantic manner on the themes of Russian myths and fairy tales. The spectators of the exhibition were many of our artists who would become famous in the future. Bilibin Ivan Yakovlevich was among them. Vasnetsov's works struck the student to the very heart, he later admitted that he saw here something that his soul unconsciously yearned for and yearned for.

V.Vasnetsov Three heroes

He lived mainly in St. Petersburg. After the formation of the artistic association "World of Art" becomes an active member of it.

Group portrait of artists of the society "World of Art" Kustodiev

Here is what Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, one of his associates of the World of Art association, writes about Bilibin:

He was a funny, witty interlocutor (stuttering, which gave a special charm to his jokes) and had a talent, especially under the influence of wine, to write comic high-flown odes to Lomonosov. He came from an eminent St. Petersburg merchant family and was very proud of the two portraits of his ancestors, painted by Levitsky himself, one - a young merchant, the other - a bearded merchant with a medal. Bilibin himself wore a Russian beard a la moujik and once on a bet walked along the Nevsky in bast shoes and a high buckwheat felt hat ... "

So with a sense of humor and charisma order)

Bilibin himself, in his youth, once said:

“I, the undersigned, make a solemn promise that I will never be like the artists in the spirit of Gallen, Vrubel and all the Impressionists. My ideal is Semiradsky, Repin (in his youth), Shishkin, Orlovsky, Bonn, Meissonier and the like.

The era of the turn of the century—> the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th century—> the Silver Age of Russian culture—> the modern style—> the association and the magazine "World of Art", to which Bilibin was close.

This rough outline brings us to the artist's creative method. Bilibin just happened to be at the right time in the right place.

Russian modern (European analogues: Art Nouveau in France, Secession in Austria, Art Nouveau in Germany, Horta style in Belgium, New Style in England, etc.) organically combines a search for new, modern forms with an appeal to national cultural and historical sources. The characteristic features of Art Nouveau are the aestheticization of the environment, decorative detailing and ornamentation, orientation towards mass culture, the style is filled with the poetics of symbolism.

Art Nouveau had a fundamental influence on Bilibin's art. The skill that the artist possessed, the subjects that he loved and used, were wholly and completely relevant and modern in this period for two main reasons.

Firstly, the attraction of modernity (more precisely, one of the directions, there were others) to the national epic, fairy tales, epics as sources of themes and plots, and a formal rethinking of the heritage of Ancient Rus', pagan art and folk art.

And secondly, the emergence of such areas of art as book graphics and scenography to a completely new aesthetic highest level. Also, it was necessary to synthesize, create an ensemble of books and theater. This has been done since 1898 by the association and the magazine "World of Art".

Most of those who were born in the USSR began to comprehend this world with Russian fairy tales “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka”, “Marya Morevna”, “Feather Finist-Yasna Sokol”, “White Duck”, “Princess- frog". Almost every child also knew the tales of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish", "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel".

The first books with bright, beautiful illustrations by artists open a window for the child into the world of living images, into the world of fantasy. A young child reacts emotionally when he sees colorful illustrations, he presses a book to himself, strokes the image in the picture with his hand, and talks to the character drawn by the artist as if he were alive.

This is the great power of the influence of graphics on the child. It is specific, accessible, understandable to preschool children and has a huge educational impact on them. B.M. Teplov, characterizing the peculiarities of the perception of works of art, writes that if scientific observation is sometimes called "thinking perception", then the perception of art is "emotional".

Psychologists, art historians, teachers noted the originality of children's perception of graphic images: they are attracted to a colorful drawing, and with age they give more preference to real coloring, the same is noted with regard to children's requirements for realism in image forms.

At older preschool age, children have a negative attitude towards the conventions of form. The perception of works of graphic art can reach varying degrees of complexity and completeness. It largely depends on the preparedness of a person, on the nature of his aesthetic experience, range of interests, psychological state. But most of all it depends on the work of art itself, its artistic content, ideas. The feelings it expresses.

Fairy tales were read by parents, grandparents from children's books with drawings. And we knew every fairy tale by heart and every picture in our favorite book. Pictures from books with fairy tales were one of the first images of ours that we absorbed naturally in a childish way. Just like in these pictures, we then imagined Vasilisa the Beautiful.

And most of these pictures belonged to the brush of Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin. Can you imagine what influence this artist had on our worldview, our perception of Russian myths, epics and fairy tales? And meanwhile, these illustrations are more than a hundred years old.

Since 1899, illustrating fairy tales and epics (“Vasilisa the Beautiful”, “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka”, “Finist the Clear Falcon”, etc., Pushkin's tales about Tsar Saltan and the Golden Cockerel), Ivan Bilibin created an ink drawing tinted with watercolors , his "Bilibino style" of book design, based on the motifs of folk embroideries, popular prints, wood carvings, old Russian miniatures.

Impressive with their ornamental richness, these graphic cycles are still very popular among children and adults thanks to numerous reprints.

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

The process of performing I. Ya. Bilibin's graphic drawing was similar to the work of an engraver. Bilibin's books look like painted boxes. It was this artist who first saw a children's book as an integral artistically designed organism. His books are like old manuscripts, because the artist thinks over not only drawings, but also all decorative elements: fonts, ornaments, decorations, initials and everything else.

“Strict, purely graphic discipline […],” the artist emphasized, “turns its attention not only to the drawing and to the difference in the strength of individual spots, but also to the line, to its character, to the direction of the flow of a number of neighboring lines, to their sliding along form and thus to underline, explain and reveal this form by these conscious lines flowing around and embracing it. These lines can sometimes be likened to a form-fitting fabric, where the threads or stripes take the direction that the given form dictates to them.

I. Ya. Bilibin developed a system of graphic techniques that made it possible to combine illustrations and design in one style, subordinating them to the plane of a book page. The characteristic features of the Bilibino style are: the beauty of the patterned pattern, the exquisite decorativeness of color combinations, the subtle visual embodiment of the world, the combination of bright fabulousness with a sense of folk humor, etc.

The artist strove for an ensemble solution. He emphasized the plane of the book page with a contour line, lack of lighting, coloristic unity, a conditional division of space into plans and a combination of different points of view in the composition.

Ivan Yakovlevich illustrated fairy tales in such a way that children seem to go along with the heroes of a fairy tale on dangerous and exciting adventures. All the fairy tales known to us are made with a special understanding of the folk spirit and poetry.

Interest in ancient Russian art awakened in the 20s and 30s of the 19th century. In subsequent decades, expeditions were organized to study the monuments of pre-Petrine architecture, albums of old Russian clothes, ornaments, and popular prints were published. But most scientists approached the artistic heritage of Ancient Rus' only from ethnographic and archaeological positions. A superficial understanding of its aesthetic value characterizes the pseudo-Russian style, which became widespread in architecture and applied arts in the second half of the 19th century. In the 1880s-1890s, V. M. Vasnetsov and other artists of the Mammoth circle, whose national quests were distinguished by greater originality and creative originality, perceived ancient Russian and folk art in a new way in the 1880s-1890s. Bilibin's words should be addressed to these artists:

“Only quite recently, like America, they discovered the old artistic Rus', vandal-mutilated, covered with dust and mold. But even under the dust it was beautiful, so beautiful that the first minute impulse of those who discovered it is quite understandable: to return it! return!"

The dream of artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to revive the high culture of the past, to create a new “grand style” on its basis, was utopian, but it enriched art with vivid images and expressive means, contributed to the development of its “non-easel” types, which for a long time were considered secondary, in particular theatrical scenery and book design. It is no coincidence that it was in the environment of the Mammoth circle that new principles of decorative painting began to take shape. It is no coincidence that these same masters, who constantly communicated with works of ancient Russian art, were carried away by the idea of reviving ancient crafts.

The book and the theater turned out to be those areas where art directly served the satisfaction of modern social needs and where, at the same time, the stylistic devices of past centuries found the most natural application, where it was possible to achieve that synthesis that remained unattainable in other types of artistic creativity.

In 1899, Bilibin accidentally arrives in the village of Yegny, Vesyegonsky district, Tver province. Here, for the first time, he creates illustrations in the later "Bilibino" style for his first book, The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf.

In 1902, 1903 and 1904, Bilibin visited the Vologda, Olonets and Arkhangelsk provinces, where he was sent by the ethnographic department of the Alexander III Museum to study wooden architecture.

In 1899-1902, the Russian Expedition for the Procurement of State Papers published a series of books with excellent illustrations for folk tales. There were graphic paintings for the fairy tales "Vasilisa the Beautiful", "The White Duck", "Ivan Tsarevich and the Firebird" and many others. Bilibin Ivan Yakovlevich was listed as the author of the drawings. Illustrations for folk tales His understanding of the national spirit and poetry, which breathes Russian folklore, was formed not only under the influence of a vague attraction to folk art. The artist passionately wanted to know and studied the spiritual component of his people, their poetics and way of life. Bilibin brought a collection of works by folk artists, photographs of wooden architecture from his trips.

His impressions resulted in journalistic works and scientific reports on folk art, architecture and national costume. An even more fruitful result of these travels was Bilibin's original works, which revealed the master's predilection for graphics and a very special style. Two bright talents lived in Bilibin - a researcher and an artist, and one gift nourished the other. Ivan Yakovlevich worked with particular care on the details, not allowing himself to be out of tune in a single line.

Folk art also gave the master some techniques: ornamental and lubok methods of decorating the artistic space, which Bilibin brought to perfection in his creations.

His illustrations for epics and fairy tales are amazingly detailed, lively, poetic and not devoid of humor. Taking care of the historical authenticity of the image, which was manifested in the drawings in the details of the costume, architecture, utensils, the master was able to create an atmosphere of magic and mysterious beauty. This is very close in spirit to the creative association "World of Art". All of them were related by an interest in the culture of the past, in the enticing charms of antiquity.

Bilibin's artistic talent was clearly manifested in his illustrations for Russian fairy tales and epics, as well as in his work on theatrical productions. The production of the opera The Golden Cockerel designed by Bilibin in 1909 at the Zimin Theater in Moscow belongs to the same “fabulous” style with ancient Russian ornamental motifs.

In the spirit of the French mystery, he presented the “Miracle of St. Theophilus (1907), recreating a medieval religious drama; Spain of the 17th century inspired the costume designs for Lope de Vega's drama "The Sheep Spring", for Calderon's drama "The Purgatory of St. Patrick" - a theatrical production of the "Ancient Theater" in 1911. A playful caricature of the same Spain emanates from Fyodor Sologub's vaudeville "Honor and Revenge", staged by Bilibin in 1909.

Screensavers, endings, covers and other works by Bilibin are found in such magazines of the early 20th century as Mir Iskusstva, Golden Fleece, in publications of Rosehip and Moscow Book Publishing House.

In exile

On February 21, 1920, Bilibin was evacuated from Novorossiysk on the Saratov steamer. Due to the presence of sick people on board, the ship did not land people in

From childhood, we get acquainted with the work of Ivan Bilibin, entering the colorful world of fairy tales, which was created by the artistic imagination of the Master. Many of his works are so deeply embedded in our lives that their origin seems to be truly folk, going back centuries.

He made illustrations for Russian folk tales “The Frog Princess”, “The Feather of Finist-Yasna Sokol”, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, “Maria Morevna”, “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka”, “White Duck”, to the fairy tales of A.S. Pushkin - "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (1904-1905), "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel" (1906-1907), "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" (1939) and many others.

Editions of fairy tales belong to the type of small large-format books-notebooks. From the very beginning, Bilibin's books were distinguished by patterned drawings and bright decorativeness. The artist did not create individual illustrations, he strove for an ensemble: he drew a cover, illustrations, ornamental decorations, a font - he stylized everything like an old manuscript.

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 grebes (and what else can be next to Baba Yaga?). But the most important thing for Bilibin was the atmosphere of Russian antiquity, epic, fairy tales. From genuine ornaments, details, he created a semi-real, semi-fantastic world.

The ornament was a favorite motif of ancient Russian masters and the main feature of the art of that time. These are embroideries of tablecloths, towels, painted wooden and earthenware, houses with carved architraves and chapels. In the illustrations, Bilibin used sketches of peasant buildings, utensils, and clothes made in the village of Yegny.

The process of I. Ya. Bilibin's graphic drawing was reminiscent of the work of an engraver. Having sketched a sketch on paper, he refined the composition in all details on tracing paper, and then transferred it to whatman paper. After that, with a kolinsky brush with a cut end, likening it to a cutter, he drew a clear wire outline in ink over a pencil drawing. In the mature period of creativity, Bilibin abandoned the use of a pen, which he sometimes resorted to in early illustrations. For the impeccable firmness of the line, the comrades jokingly nicknamed him "Ivan - a firm hand."

In the illustrations by I. Ya. Bilibin of 1900-1910, the composition, as a rule, unfolds parallel to the plane of the sheet. Large figures appear in stately frozen poses. The conditional division of space into plans and the combination of different points of view in one composition make it possible to maintain flatness. Lighting completely disappears, the color becomes more conventional, the unpainted surface of the paper acquires an important role, the method of designating the contour line becomes more complicated, and a strict system of strokes and points develops.

The further development of the Bilibino style is that in later illustrations the artist switched from popular prints to the principles of ancient Russian painting: the colors become more sonorous and richer, but the boundaries between them are now indicated not by a black wire outline, but by tonal thickening and a thin colored line. The colors seem to be shining, but retain locality and flatness, and the image sometimes resembles cloisonné enamel.

Bilibin's passion for ancient Russian art was reflected in the illustrations for Pushkin's fairy tales, which he created after a trip to the North in 1905–1908. Work on fairy tales was preceded by the creation of scenery and costumes for Rimsky-Korsakov's operas The Tale of the Golden Cockerel and The Tale of Tsar Saltan by A.S. Pushkin.

Luxurious royal chambers are completely covered with patterns, paintings, decorations. Here, the ornament so abundantly covers the floor, ceiling, walls, clothes of the king and the boyars that everything turns into a kind of unsteady vision that exists in a special illusory world and is about to disappear.

"The Tale of Tsar Saltan" I. Bilibin illustrated first. Here is the page where Tsar Saltan overhears the conversation of three girls. It is night outside, the moon is shining, the king hurries to the porch, falling into the snow.

There is nothing magical about this scene. And yet the spirit of the fairy tale is present. The hut is real, peasant, with small windows, an elegant porch. And in the distance, a hipped church. In the 17th century such churches were built throughout Rus'. And the king's fur coat is real. Such fur coats in ancient times were sewn from velvet and brocade brought from Greece, Turkey, Iran, Italy.

And here is a drawing where the king receives shipbuilders. In the foreground, the king sits on a throne, and the guests bow before him. We can see them all. The scenes of the reception of guests, the feast are very decorative and saturated with the motifs of Russian ornament.

"The Tale of the Golden Cockerel" was the most successful for the artist. Bilibin combined the satirical content of the tale with the Russian lubok into a single whole.

Pushkin's fairy tales were a huge success. The Russian Museum of Alexander III bought illustrations for The Tale of Tsar Saltan, and the Tretyakov Gallery acquired the entire illustrated cycle of Tale of the Golden Cockerel.

And the storyteller Bilibin should be thanked for the fact that the double-headed eagle, depicted on the coat of arms of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, on ruble coins and paper banknotes, does not look like an ominous imperial bird, but like a fabulous, magical creature. And in the picture gallery of paper money in modern Russia, on the ten-ruble "Krasnoyarsk" banknote, the Bilibin tradition is clearly traced: a vertical patterned path with forest ornaments - such frames framed Bilibin's drawings on the themes of Russian folk tales. By the way, in cooperation with the financial authorities of tsarist Russia, Bilibin transferred the copyright to many of his graphic designs to the Gosznak factory.

In St. Petersburg, on Okhta, there is a famous mineral water plant "Polyustrovo". And once in its place there was another production. It was called "Joint-Stock Company of the New Bavaria Beer and Mead Factory". There was also just “Bavaria” in St. Petersburg, and in general there are many breweries. But this one is a honey brewery. And advertising pictures, as it turned out, were made for them not by anyone, but by Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin.

Fairy tale "Feather of Finist Yasna-Falcon"

Bilibin was the first of the artists who directly created a children's book, which is based on the most popular type of literature - a folk tale. The theme, large circulation, clear, accessible pictorial language of illustrations, the "festive" nature of the design - all indicate that Bilibin's books were intended for an extremely wide range of readers. Moreover, the special merit of the artist was that he did not make any discounts "for accessibility". His books carry that “noble luxury of publications”, which until then was the property of only a “rich” book for the elite. Bilibin was the first of the World of Arts to apply his extensive experience in publishing highly artistic books to work on a children's book. Other artists will soon follow his example, in particular Alexandre Benois, who created the ABC.

Many books and journal articles have been written about Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin, and many researchers are interested in his work.

However, in numerous publications about Bilibin, there is practically nothing about his cooperation with the Expedition for Procurement of State Papers. Usually they write that, by order of the EZGB, the artist illustrated folk tales. In fact, it wasn't quite like that.

In the autumn of 1899, Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin brought illustrations for three folk tales to the EZGB. He was interested in the cost of printing them, but his aunt was supposed to publish fairy tales. In all likelihood, they liked the drawings for the fairy tales very much, and the Expedition offered the artist to purchase the right to publish them from him. Bilibin agreed. In a letter from Ivan Yakovlevich to the leadership of the EZGB, the names of the tales were not indicated, but it can be assumed that among the first two were: “The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf” and “The Frog Princess”, they were printed in 1901 . After the appearance of three fairy tales, which the artist himself proposed to print, the conditions changed. Now the Expedition has ordered illustrations for three more folk tales from the artist.

At that time, the manager of the EZGB was an academician, physicist, Prince Boris Borisovich Golitsyn. From the moment he took this position, he set himself a difficult task: to turn the EZGB into an institution "which was supposed to serve as a role model for the entire paper and printing industry in Russia and, in addition, contribute to the cultural and aesthetic development of the people, releasing artistically printed on good paper -illustrated editions of Russian classics and popular works in all branches of science.

In the period from 1901 to 1903, six folk tales were published in the EZGB. In addition to the two already named, there were born: in 1902 - fairy tales: “The Feather of Finist Yasna Sokol” and “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, in 1903 - “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka” and “Marya Morevna”.

By the beginning of the 20th century, a characteristic “Bilibino style” of illustrations for folk tales had formed with its special graphic techniques, drawn from Russian popular prints, modern French and Japanese art. He always counted on the typographical reproduction of the drawing, valuing it more than the original. According to an agreement with the Expedition, the photographic prints colorized by Bilibin, from which the work was made, remained in her ownership, while the original drawings remained with the artist.

Ivan Yakovlevich considered his main task to be a deep and serious study of Russian history. On the instructions of the ethnographic department of the Russian Museum, in 1902 Bilibin went on an expedition to the Vologda, Tver, Olonets provinces, where he collected a large collection of Russian household items and costumes. The collection he collected becomes the first collection of the Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR.

In the Expedition in 1902, on the initiative of B. B. Golitsyn, a special committee was created, which was instructed to develop a project for the publication of not only well-illustrated, but also fairly cheap folk publications on art and all branches of knowledge in general. A competition was announced for book illustrations. Well-known artists and scientists, such as art critic and art theorist, painter and graphic artist Alexander Nikolaevich Benois, are invited to the work of the committee. On the issue of publishing children's books, he wrote: "Russian children were fed such rubbish in the 1880-1890s ... Isn't that why the breed of people has now spread to the last degree coarsened." Benois believed that well-published books for children are "a powerful cultural tool that is destined to play a more beneficial role in Russian education than the wisest state events and all the streams of strictly scientific words about education."

The first books with Bilibin's illustrations for folk tales were that "powerful cultural tool", they brought the artist and the Expedition for the Procurement of State Papers well-deserved fame, the books were distributed throughout Russia.

Later, I. Ya. Bilibin, together with the head of the engraving and art department of the Expedition, G. I. Frank, decided that the publication of folk tales should be temporarily stopped, that some variety should be introduced by starting to print the fairy tales of A. S. Pushkin. In correspondence with the EZGB, Bilibin writes about this: “I revere the memory of the greatest Russian poet, in comparison with whom I am a pygmy.” With such trepidation, the artist treated the work of the poet.

For several years, work continued on drawings for Pushkin's fairy tales. "Two illustrative cycles according to Pushkin" were published: "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (1904-1905) and "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel" (1906-1907). They were acquired by the Russian Museum of Alexander III and the Tretyakov Gallery. Work on "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" was not completed.

After the publication of folk tales and fairy tales by A. S. Pushkin, Bilibin's cooperation with the Expedition for Procurement of State Papers did not end, but these were no longer fairy tales.

The artist worked a lot on the design of Russian, French, German and Arabic fairy tales in exile.

Bilibins is an old Kaluga surname, which is already mentioned in the documents of 1617.

Portraits of great-great-grandfather Ivan Kharitonovich and great-grandfather Yakov Ivanovich (1779–1854), eminent merchants, can be seen in the Hermitage. They were made by the famous artist D. G. Levitsky. Great-grandfather in Kaluga owned a linen sailing factory and a large Cherepet iron foundry.

The artist's father, Yakov Ivanovich, a Privy Councilor, was the chief physician of the naval hospital. Mother, Varvara Alexandrovna, from the family of a marine engineer, was a student of the composer A. Rubinstein.

The first wife of Ivan Bilibin is an Englishwoman, artist Maria Chambers. He married her in 1902.

Bilibin's son from this wife, Alexander (1903–1972), is a theater artist. From 1917 he lived in England. He worked with his father in Paris and Prague.

Alexandra Vasilievna Shchekatikhina-Pototskaya became the artist's wife in Cairo in 1923. A student and colleague of Roerich, she worked a lot for the theater, creating original sketches for performances. The artist made an inimitable contribution to the development of Russian porcelain. Her works adorn many museums, but most of them are exhibited in the collection of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory (now a branch of the Hermitage). The artists were together during the period of emigration, and after returning to their homeland in 1936.

Mstislav Nikolaevich Pototsky (son of Alexandra Vasilievna) devoted most of his life to careful storage and at the same time popularization of the collection left after the death of two remarkable artists - his mother and Ivan Yakovlevich. They created a museum in Ivangorod, where you can get acquainted with their work.

Popova Elena Sergeevna (1891–1974) - Bilibin's last wife, applied artist.

In 1921 I.Ya. Bilibin left Russia, lived in Egypt, where he actively worked in Alexandria, traveled around the Middle East, studying the artistic heritage of ancient civilizations and the Christian Byzantine Empire. In 1925, he settled in France: the work of these years - the design of the magazine "The Firebird", "Readers on the History of Russian Literature", books by Ivan Bunin, Sasha Cherny, as well as the painting of the Russian church in Prague, scenery and costumes for Russian operas "Fairy Tale about Tsar Saltan" (1929), "The Tsar's Bride" (1930), "The Legend of the City of Kitezh" (1934) N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, "Prince Igor" by A.P. Borodin (1930), "Boris Godunov" by M.P. Mussorgsky (1931), for the ballet The Firebird by I.F. Stravinsky (1931).

Returning to Leningrad in 1936, Bilibin, together with his wife and son, settled in house number 25 on the street. Gulyarnaya (now - Lisa Chaikina St.).

When, due to Nazi bombing, the apartment turned out to be uninhabitable, Ivan Bilibin moved to the basement of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Artists, which became his second home. On February 7, 1942, he was taken to the hospital at the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he soon died of frostbite and starvation.

The illustrator found his last rest in the mass grave of professors of the Academy of Arts near the Smolensk cemetery.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (August 4 (16), 1876 - February 7, 1942) - Russian artist, book illustrator and theater designer, member of the World of Art association.

Born on August 4 (16), 1876 in the village of Tarkhovka (near St. Petersburg), in the family of a naval doctor Yakov Ivanovich Bilibin.
In 1888 he entered the 1st St. Petersburg Classical Gymnasium, from which he graduated with a silver medal in 1896. In 1900 he graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. In 1895-1898 he studied at the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. In 1898 he studied for two months in the studio of the artist Anton Ashbe in Munich. For several years (1898-1900) he studied under the guidance of Ilya Repin at the school-workshop of Princess Maria Tenisheva, then (1900-1904) under the guidance of Repin at the Higher Art School of the Academy of Arts.
He lived mainly in St. Petersburg.

“As far as I can remember,” he later recalled, “I have always been drawing.” The idols were the Wanderers. “I grew up in an intelligent family with a liberal tinge,” Bilibin wrote. - A traveling exhibition was always expected with great interest: will it give something this year? To another, academic exhibition, the attitude was different; there was no anticipation of her, nor that love.

Bilibin was young, good-looking and inventive for all sorts of tricks, however, quite harmless. One of his fellow students subsequently recalled how for the first time he “saw a young, cheerful, blackish, with a large beard for his age, a student with a curious bouncing gait, he was most often called Ivan Yakolich, but he recognized his last name later, and she was Bilibin.” And further: “At first I treated him somehow unkindly because when Repin was not in the studio, Ivan Yakovlevich was often one of the first skirmishers in terms of witticisms, cheerful conversations and common songs for drawing, but then I saw that it was He was the sweetest person, very cheerful, sociable ... ".

In the Tenishev workshop, Ivan Bilibin met Maria Yakovlevna Chambers, who later became his wife.

A charming portrait of the young artist is painted by Anna Petrovna Ostroumova-Lebedeva (1871-1955), who knew him closely: “His appearances were sudden. He was very handsome. With pale matte brown skin, he had bluish-black hair and beautiful dark eyes. Bilibin knew that he was good, and with his unexpected outfits he surprised his comrades. I remember him very much when he came in a bright blue frock coat.

After the formation of the artistic association "World of Art" becomes an active member.
The founders of the "World of Art" sympathized with the West. For Alexander Nikolaevich Benois, France was the light in the window, while Konstantin Andreevich Somov and Lev Samoilovich Bakst generally spent most of their lives in Paris. If we talk about the time perspective, then they were all impressed by the gallant XVIII century. With France and the 18th century, many also associated the ideas brought by the World of Art to Russian art.

The time in which he happened to live was difficult and controversial: Bloody Sunday on January 9, 1905, the Lena Massacre, the First World War, the February Revolution with its unfulfilled hopes, the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, emigration ... And from his pictures a clear, beautiful-hearted and conflict-free Rus'. They delight with the transparency of colors, there are almost no shadows here, shading is minimal.

For the refinement of this style, the energy of work and the impeccable firmness of the line of the artist, his colleagues called him "Ivan the Iron Hand."

All his sympathies were on the side of venerable realism. In the album of one of his friends, he wrote: “I, the undersigned, make a solemn promise that I will never be like the artists in the spirit of Gallen, Vrubel and all the Impressionists. My ideal is Semiradsky, Repin (in his youth), Shishkin ... If I don’t fulfill this promise, I will go to a foreign camp, then let them cut off my right hand and send it in alcohol to the Medical Academy. In the first place is not Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930), but Heinrich Ippolitovich Semiradsky (1843-1902), in his work realistic, even naturalistic, but very far from the Wanderers.

Describing the artist’s creative style, the well-known art critic and book critic Aleksey Alekseevich Sidorov (1891-1978) wrote: “From the very beginning, Bilibin mastered for himself a special planar system of drawing and the whole composition, basically composed of linear patterns, stylized, most likely, following the example of northern , Norwegian or Finnish artists, images in a frame, just as stylized and ornamental, using the motifs of Russian folk embroidery and woodcarving.
“Only quite recently, like America, they discovered the old artistic Rus', vandal-mutilated, covered with dust and mold. But even under the dust it was beautiful, so beautiful that the first minute impulse of those who discovered it is quite understandable: to return it! return!" - wrote Ivan Bilibin.

From the very beginning, Bilibin's books were distinguished by patterned drawings and bright decorativeness. Bilibin did not create individual illustrations, he strove for an ensemble: he drew a cover, illustrations, ornamental decorations, a font - he stylized everything like an old manuscript.

The names of fairy tales are filled with Slavic script. To read, you need to look at the intricate pattern of letters. Like many graphics, Bilibin worked on a decorative font. He knew well the fonts of different eras, especially the Old Russian charter and semi-character. For all six books, Bilibin draws the same cover, on which he has 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 windows 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 grebes (and what else can be next to Baba Yaga?). But the most important thing for Bilibin was the atmosphere of Russian antiquity, epic, fairy tales. From genuine ornaments, details, he created a semi-real, semi-fantastic world.

Bilibin's illustrations framed by floral ornaments very accurately reflect the content of the tale. We can see the details of the costumes of the heroes, the expression on the faces of the surprised boyars, and even the pattern on the kokoshniks.

In November 1904, the next issue of the World of Art magazine was published, almost entirely dedicated to Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin. The artist himself draws it up, illustrates and puts in it the article "Folk Art of the North".

Black-and-white, graphically very accurate drawings made in the northern Russian villages, Bilibin subsequently published on the pages of the journal "People's Education". Alexander Nikolaevich Benois called Bilibin "one of the best connoisseurs of Russian antiquity"8.

The books published by the Expedition for the Procurement of State Papers were distributed throughout Russia, were a huge success and made the artist's name famous.

After the February Revolution, Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin was a member of the Special Council for the Arts, which, under the chairmanship of Maxim Gorky, worked under the Provisional Government.

Bilibin did not accept the October coup. For almost two years he lived in the Crimea, then moved to Rostov-on-Don, under the onslaught of the Red Army, together with the White Guard, he fled to Novorossiysk and from there on February 21, 1920 sailed to Constantinople.

“Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin, our wonderful graphic artist and stylist, died of exhaustion,” writes A.P. Ostroumov-Lebedev in Autobiographical Notes. - None of the artists was able to feel and perceive Russian folk art, which was widely distributed and flourished among our people. Ivan Yakovlevich loved it, studied it, implemented it in his beautiful graphic works. I don’t know the details of his death, I just heard that recently he lived in the basement of the Academy of Arts, since his apartment became uninhabitable from the bombing.”

Bilibin Ivan Yakovlevich is primarily known for his graphic illustrations for the Russian epic. In the last years of his life, the artist worked on sketches for the collection of Vodovozov N.V. “The Tale of Capital Kyiv and […]

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin's illustration "The Black Rider" for the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful" was made in 1900. I. Ya. Bilibin's fairy-tale illustrations are characterized by patterning and decorativeness. The Black Rider, like other drawings by the author, is surrounded by ornaments: […]

In this picture, the artist Bilibin described the process of legal proceedings during the time of Kievan Rus. In the picture you can see how the prince sits in his courtyard and judges the guilty person. The artist depicted this process very solemnly […]

Before us is an illustration to the famous fairy tale. Bilibin is a real master who managed to convey the special beauty of this amazing genre. Fairy tales allow us to plunge into a world full of wonders. It has herbs in it. Animals and birds can […]

Probably, everyone was holding in their hands beautiful children's books in a dense colorful cover with patterns on the margins in the old Russian style. And certainly everyone knows the tale of Vasilisa the Beautiful. Let's take a closer look at […]

Ivan Bilibin subtly felt the original character and bright disposition of the people of ancient Rus' and was able to convey it in his paintings. Looking at the illustrations of this wonderful artist at first glance, it is impossible to perceive the entire […]

Bilibin illustrated fairy tales written by the Russian people. We all know Baba Yaga from childhood. She lived in an unusual hut, which stood on chicken legs. Usually she lay on the stove or bench. Yaga moved […]

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