Pavel Kuznetsov artist biography. Pavel Kuznetsov

November 17, 1878 in Saratov, in the family of an icon painter was born the artist Pavel Kuznetsov, one of the most interesting Russian artists of the first half of the twentieth century. The parents of many artists were skeptical about the creative inclinations of their children, but Kuznetsov's father did not oppose the choice of his son, although he dreamed of a career as a musician for him...

Pavel Kuznetsov (left) and Alexander Matveev

“I remember myself from the age of three, since when I first saw the rising sun in the spring, when my family moved to blooming gardens ... A golden sun appeared in the illuminated green-purple sky, reflected in the spring waters of the giant expanse of the Volga,” the artist recalled .

At the age of 13, he entered the Studio of Painting and Drawing, where his teachers were the original and original Vasily Konovalov and the famous "singer of the Volga", landscape painter, portrait painter, photographer, theater decorator Hector Salvini-Baracchi. There, Kuznetsov met another outstanding artist, Viktor Borisov-Musatov, and became friends with the future outstanding sculptor Alexander Matveev.

After studying at the Studio, Kuznetsov entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, passing his exams with flying colours, and continued to study with great enthusiasm. Here, his teachers were the Wanderer Abram Arkhipov, one of the first Russian impressionists Konstantin Korovin and the famous portrait painter Valentin Serov.
Kuznetsov's collaboration with Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, with whom he painted the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in 1902, turned out to be interesting - however, the free interpretation of the canon outraged the parishioners to such an extent that the murals were destroyed. Recalling a colleague in his book Euclid's Space, Petrov-Vodkin wrote:

“Spray from him on a sazhen, he himself, as if bathed in paint, is glossy and glows with a jacket and trousers. The hair on the temples and on the forehead flutters with the wind from his movements. Pavel attacks the canvas: either he rushes towards it with a jump, or he sneaks up to him in order to catch the gaping form by surprise. Do not interfere with his rebound: crush, knock down ... "

Pavel Kuznetsov. Shearing

In the period 1905-1907, the young Kuznetsov came to an attempt to depict the ideal as a symbol, in the form of a blue and white fountain that supports itself and turns everything around it into a blue-white radiance. The paintings "Morning (Birth)" and "Fountains" became an expression of this principle. The same principle was used in the emblem of the new Blue Rose art association (a flower that became the image of a source of earthly beauty seen in the sky), which was created by Kuznetsov and his friends.

The association was fully formed already in 1907, after an exhibition under the same name. The exhibition was enthusiastically received by the public, but the critics were divided. And if Grabar spoke extremely negatively, stating that the beauty of the "Blue Rose" destroyed art, then Makovsky rightly suggested that the victory of the spirit over the flesh in the image could become a dangerous destruction of balance.

In the Blue Rose, however, judging by the further fate of the participants, they themselves understood that the young stage of the “white and blue fountains” was not the limit, and stopping at this stage risks putting tortured and unnatural mysticism in place of inspiration.

Kuznetsov soon became friends with symbolists, including the poet Valery Bryusov, and began to publish in the symbolist magazines Art and Golden Fleece. The Golden Fleece manifesto stated:

“Art is eternal, because it is based on the imperishable, on what cannot be rejected. Art is one, because its only source is the soul. Art is symbolic, because it carries a symbol in itself, a reflection of the eternal in the temporal. Art is free, because it is created by a single creative impulse. The Blue Bears also worked in accordance with this manifesto.

Pavel Kuznetsov. In the steppe Mirage. 1911

Kuznetsov received recognition outside of Russia in Paris (1906), where his work was given a deservedly high rating at an exhibition of Russian art, and he himself was elected a life member of the Autumn Salon, an association of artists that included such world-famous masters as Renoir , Cezanne, Modigliani, Chagall and Matisse.

Kuznetsov had a creative crisis at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, when his paintings began to arouse suspicion that he had nothing more to say to the viewer. In an attempt to breathe new life into his work, Kuznetsov went to the Trans-Volga steppes (1911-1912), and then to Central Asia for another two years.

This period gave the world that Kuznetsov, whom we know - inspired, recognizable, the author of paintings, as if shrouded in a ghostly haze of a dream or vision. Kuznetsov "hunts" for the moment when the image of the object is just beginning to appear before the viewer. Placed on the canvas, this moment creates dynamism in what is supposed to be motionless (still life "Morning").

Kuznetsov's "Kyrgyz Suite" is compared with the works of Gauguin, but there is a significant difference in approach: the chthonic and archaic in Gauguin are usually beautiful in themselves, emerging from the earth, ready to merge with the beautiful natural. Not so with Kuznetsov, who shows the creative participation of man in elevating nature to the highest beauty that arises only in merging with culture.

Just as the idealist Don Quixote cannot set off on a journey without the pragmatic Sancho, so the blue fountains of the Symbolists had to find a connection with the earth. But it is possible only where harmony and commonwealth are found. In the paintings of the "Kyrgyz Suite" Kuznetsov found what he was looking for. He wrote about his discovery:

“A huge air-steppe space opens up, which does not interfere with the thought and gaze of a person from flying through endless distances, rushing to the horizons, drowning and amazingly dissolving in the sky…”

Pavel Kuznetsov. In the steppe 1912

His most remarkable work during this period is the famous Mirage in the Steppe. Everyday scenes of the earth turn out to be illuminated by a phantasmagoria happening in the sky, which seems familiar to the participants in the picture (that's why they turned their backs to it), but this is not an image of a dream - this is an image of unity, usually seen only in a dream, but always present in life, you just need to be able to notice.

October 1917 and the path to this event became for Kuznetsov another step towards the discovery of talent, giving a lot of opportunities for activities in various fields. Kuznetsov published a magazine, taught, led the painting section in the fine arts department of the People's Commissariat of Education. One of his tasks throughout 1917 was to bring art to the common soldiers, who later made up the majority of the revolutionary people.

“I was instructed to draw up a plan for the work of the section and to select a contingent of persons capable of delivering accessible lectures and conducting tours of museums and galleries. All this had to be presented not dryly and coldly, but in such a way as to develop desire and interest in the new viewer, so that he would be involved in all manifestations of artistic life, so that real art would become his need, part of his spiritual life, would elevate him, develop his taste and the desire to express oneself in art,” Kuznetsov recalled about the task that inspired him.

Pavel Kuznetsov. Pushball. 1931

To implement these ideas, the Council of Soldiers' Deputies began already in June 1917 to publish a special literary and artistic magazine, The Path of Liberation, intended for soldier readers. Kuznetsov became the art editor. Interestingly, out of all 16 Blue Rose participants, only three chose to leave Soviet Russia, while the rest perceived the idea of ​​a new state as a new opportunity for creativity, and, most importantly, bringing its fruits to all the people.

In 1923, the Soviet government sent him to Paris, with an exhibition of 200 of his works, which was of great importance in refuting the Western propaganda stuff about "Bolsheviks - the destroyers of culture." However, the trip that revealed to him a new artistic understanding of the surrounding world was a trip to the Caucasus and the Crimea (1925-1930). The third peak of his work was marked by topics that he has not yet disclosed:

“The collective pathos of monumental construction, where people, machines, animals and nature merge into one powerful chord,” Kuznetsov said about the work, inspired by Armenia.

Pavel Kuznetsov. Artik tuff processing. 1929

Crimea, with its bright southern color, forced the artist to move away from his beloved blue haze that enveloped his “eastern” works, and give free rein to green, yellow and red, as in the paintings “Spring in the Crimea” or “Road to Alupka”. Starting from this period, the image of the sky changes greatly in his works.

The sky, which in the "Kyrgyz Suite" seems to dominate what is happening on earth, on the contrary, begins to acquire shades of that earthly thing that a person does. The idea of ​​creation becomes central in his works, organically growing out of the creative finds of his youth, and the theme of man - earth begins to prevail over the theme of the sky. His later life is devoted to travel: he traveled around the country, alone and with his students, worked on new canvases, honing the authenticity of conveying impressions.

In 1928, he received the degree of Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR, and in the post-war years he continued his teaching activities, continuing to write until his death in 1968. The secret of Kuznetsov’s creative longevity is that he never closed himself on any one topic, was not afraid to combine what seemed incompatible at first glance - for example, introducing elements of ancient Russian painting into his favorite oriental motifs.

P. Kuznetsov. Rest of the shepherds. Tempera. 1927

Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov artist

He is an amazing colorist...
V. E. Borisov-Musatov

Philosophers are also born among artists. Every era knows such creators. They differ from others in their special vision of the world, understanding it in the categories: Good and Evil, Life and Death, Love and Hate, Earth and Space. Each object in their works is endowed with a soul, a thought; it speaks not only with other objects, but also with a person. Man for them is a particle of the eternal and infinite universe.

One of these artists-philosophers Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov. He was our contemporary. It has been 48 years since his death. From the day of birth - 147.
The artist was born in the family of an icon painter in Saratov. The city was merchant. Its provincial appearance is far from a fairy tale. But Pavel Kuznetsov himself created a fairy tale. He was born a dreamer and visionary. On moonlit nights, he liked to walk to the central city square. There were fountains built by a visiting Englishman. Their heavy bowls seemed almost airy in the ghostly blue-yellow light. Thin mother-of-pearl jets beat from the depths, and the sphinxes that adorned the fountains seemed to come to life. They turned their impenetrable faces to the boy, and he ran away with a mixed feeling of delight and fear ...
If the nights gave Pavel Kuznetsov communication with the mysterious, then the hot summer days - the diversity and multicolor of real life. She came to his city along with caravans of imperturbable camels and nomads in outlandish clothes. She brought with her the colors and smells of the Volga steppes, someone else's speech. Different flow of time, different rhythms. Rampant color was combined with unhurried, slow movements of people.
Dreamy, poetic Pavel Kuznetsov became a painter.

In Saratov, there was a Society of Fine Arts Lovers and a Painting and Drawing Studio attached to it. This was a rarity for the province of that time. Teachers V. V. Konovalov and G. P. Salvini-Baracchi did not particularly torment the students in the classes with endless studies. They took them to the Volga, to the fields and forests. Nature, Kuznetsov recalled, "... raised ... to the heights of creative excitement."
At the age of nineteen, Pavel arrived in Moscow and entered the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. With great interest he visited the workshops of two major artists -
V. Serov and K. Korovin. The teachers were senior comrades. They exhibited their works together with the works of students, went with them to sketches.
In the capital, everything was interesting to him - new exhibitions, plays, poetry evenings, philosophical disputes, lectures on art, music. Future painters also showed themselves multifaceted.
Kuznetsov painted sets for the Bolshoi Theater and staged amateur performances. Even in school, he accomplished a lot. Became a participant in several exhibitions, traveled to the North. In 1906 he went to Paris.
This ever-hungry city has discovered Russian art. Russian operas and ballets were performed in its theaters, icons, portraits of the 18th century, and paintings by contemporaries were shown in the Salon. Kuznetsov brought them to the French capital. He studied Paris, and Paris studied young Muscovites, including him. Nine works of the painter interested the French press. He was recognized and one of the few Russian artists was elected a member of the Autumn Salon.
Not a student, but a famous artist, Pavel Kuznetsov returned to his native school.
What paintings made it possible to talk about Kuznetsov as a master with his own vision of the world and handwriting?
This is a series of paintings about fountains. I remembered the Saratov night impressions. The artist called symphonies paintings about fountains and babies: “Morning”, “Spring”, “Blue Fountain” and others.

They are different, but connected by one motive - Eternal Spring. There is no earth and sky, but only strange, always inclined bushes of flowering trees. They seem to hug fountains. Their cups are always full. Shadow-figures move towards them in a solemn, slow rhythm.
The colors of earth and sky, air and water, flowing into each other, are looking for their color essence. In the meantime, as if covered with a smoky veil.
Trying to solve for himself the question: what are the origins of life, the artist constantly varied this theme. He painted one painting after another. But at some point he realized that he was repeating himself. To move forward, he needed to realize life itself, and not just its origins. The usual atmosphere of Moscow with its exhibitions, meetings, disputes began to weigh on him. In 1908 the artist left for the Kyrgyz steppes. And I realized: the vast sky, boundless spaces, people with their homes, camels and sheep - everything speaks of the eternity of life. “Sleeping in a Shed”, “Mirage in the Steppe”, “Sheep Shearing”… On the new canvases, the figures of people dozing in anticipation at the bowls of fountains are no longer the same. Shearing sheep, cooking, contemplating the steppe mirages, sleeping in and around sheepfolds - everything is solemn slowness. The wisdom of this life is in the unity of the three worlds: man, nature and animals.
The embodiment of earthly wisdom for Kuznetsov is a woman - the main character of his paintings. It is she who is the source and center of life. The women in Kuznetsov's works have no age, one is similar to the other and is repeated in the other, like grass in the steppe, leaves on the steppe acacia.

Harmonious and open life in the steppe - harmonious and open color in the paintings of Pavel Kuznetsov. Blue, green, blue, red, yellow alternate with each other, repeat one in the other. They sound like the instruments of a large orchestra.
The artist returned to Moscow, amazed her with his steppe canvases, and soon went to Samarkand and Bukhara.
He finally understood: everything that he saw in the Kyrgyz steppes and here, "... was one culture, one whole, imbued with the calm, contemplative mystery of the East."
With the outbreak of the First World War, I had to forget about the proposed trip to Italy and again to Bukhara. Something else was to come - first work in a prosthetic workshop, then service in the military office and, finally, the school of ensigns.
During these years, when "... we had to arm ourselves with patience and spiritual strength", when the work was exhausting to the utmost, and one kind of artificial arms and legs could make you forget about the beauty of the world, Pavel Kuznetsov painted the most joyful, bright canvases - still lifes. At night, when the tired artist stood at the easel, the memory generously gave back what he once saw. A bright ray of sunshine seemed to burst into the workshop. Crystal and porcelain vases, oriental fabrics and fruits, jugs and trays, mirrors and flowers appear on the canvases. The beam touched every object, and melons and apples filled with juice appeared. Crystal flashed with rainbow colors, and fabrics with outlandish patterns.
But why did people leave his canvases? Why did he fill all the space on canvases only with objects? They either converged, as if in a round dance, or calmly rested on the spread out fabrics, reached out to empty houses, were reflected in the mirrors and in each other. The objects seemed to want to renounce the people engaged in the war, the destruction of their own kind. War is always unnatural to the cycle of life. It was unnatural to the life philosophy of Pavel Kuznetsov, and he protested as best he could.
Immediately after the October Revolution, the artist plunged into public work. He was one of those who actively desired to create a new, proletarian culture. He worked in the Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquities, in the commissions for the nationalization of private collections, in the arts council of the Tretyakov Gallery, in the theater board.
Eleven years later, he returns to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, teaches, runs a workshop. In his youth, he wrote with his teachers. Now she works with students on the streets and squares of Moscow. On the day of the celebration of the first anniversary of the October Revolution, a giant panel with the image of Stepan Razin and his associates appeared on the facade of the Maly Theater. It was a joint work of Professor Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov and his students.
Public and pedagogical work did not reduce the creative tension of the master. He returned to the past. And the East became the past again. His new canvases combined Kyrgyz and Bukhara impressions. Familiar scenes appeared.

But now the memories did not hold Pavel Kuznetsov as sharply as before. The pulse of the new life beat too strongly for the artist not to feel it. Creation has become the main meaning of this life. And the painter conceived a series of paintings united by the theme of labor.
In 1923, Pavel Kuznetsov was sent to Paris with his exhibition. It was supposed to refute the opinion of the West that art has been destroyed in Russia. Kuznetsov brought to France about two hundred works: pictorial, graphic, theatrical. It was an imposing exhibition that drew admiring reviews.
What topics worried the artist after returning? First of all, the theme of creation. Work in the fields and vineyards, tobacco plantations. The work of shepherds, builders, oil workers. Almost to old age, Pavel Varfolomeevich traveled around the country alone and together with his students. He visited the Crimean and Caucasian collective farms, the construction of Yerevan and the Baku oil fields, and the cotton fields of Central Asia. But, working on new canvases, the artist now strove for the authenticity and accuracy of natural impressions.
In 1930 he paints a large painting "Mother". It crystallized the wisdom of a mature artist. The main theme of the picture is work. A tractor is moving across a huge field, leaving furrows of plowed land behind it. Almost the entire space of the picture is occupied by the figure of the mother. She is feeding the child. And here, for the umpteenth time, the artist affirms the idea: a woman is the source of life, of everything that exists on Earth.
From the ghostly women at the fountain bowls, from the steppe Madonnas, he went to this image. Pavel Varfolomeevich lived for almost forty more years, painted a lot of pictures. But "Mother" is one of the central ones in his work of the Soviet period.
On the threshold of old age, he mentally returned to his former works. Reflected on them, analyzed, criticized. He treated those that remained in the studio especially meticulously. Many remade, rewrote. Some were completely destroyed.
Fairy fountains were the dawn of his creative life, the Kyrgyz steppes - her day. The last canvases of the master with chamber, laconic still lifes seemed to be streaming the rays of the setting sun. Slipping over the ground for the last time, they disappeared over the horizon...

(1878 – 1968)

Pavel Kuznetsov is one of the most harmonious Russian artists in terms of his worldview. A happy moment in his career was travel to the Volga steppes and Central Asia, which he made during the tenth years of the 20th century.

Here he opened up a new world - steppes, deserts, with their endless space, straight lines of the horizon and a high dome of the sky, ordinary people who have inhabited this bare land since time immemorial, with quiet herds of sheep, camels, with low yurts that fit so organically into this quiet scenery.

Using the principle of "double transformation", Pavel Kuznetsov expelled elements of chance from his works not only from the selection of objects, but also from the system of pictorial and plastic interpretation.

The rhythms of bowed heads and curved figures unite people with a landscape that hardly knows sharp contrasting explosions. The color uniformity of the figures of people and animals, earth and sky, trees and grasses - the universal color harmony of the world equally consistently reveals the uniformity of all its elements.

This harmony in the paintings of Pavel Kuznetsov is realized in a purified and ideal form, and therefore is related not so much to a specific life phenomenon that appeared before the artist’s eyes, but to the picture of the world in general.

Such a sense of universality accompanies the artist almost throughout his entire career, only at the very end, rather by the will of external circumstances, giving way to the poetry of the particular.

Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov was born on November 5 (17), 1878 in Saratov in the family of "pictorial and icon-painting masters" VF Kuznetsov, from whom he received his first artistic skills.

He studied at the Drawing School at the Saratov Society of Fine Arts Lovers (1891-1896), at the Moscow School of Painting. Sculptures and architecture (1897-1904) by A.E. Arkhipov, N.A. Kasatkin, L.O. Pasternak and in the workshop of V.A. Serov and K.A. Korovin. For sketches and drawings he was awarded two small silver medals.

He was greatly influenced by the work of V.E. Borisov-Musatov. Together with his friends, he organized an art community at the school, later called the Blue Rose.

Collaborated with the magazines "Art", "Golden Fleece", traveled around Russia and Western Europe, made a number of decorative paintings. Member of the art associations "World of Art" (since 1910), "Free Aesthetics" (1907-1917), "Autumn Salon" (since 1906).

In 1908-1912 he made trips to the Kyrgyz steppes, in 1912 he visited Bukhara, in 1913 - Tashkent, Samarkand. The impressions from these travels shaped the style and creative views of the artist. In 1913-1914 he worked on sketches for panels for the Kazan railway station. In 1914-1915 he collaborated with A.Ya. Tairov at the Moscow Chamber Theater.

After the revolution, he was a member of the Collegium and the Department of Fine Arts of the People's Commissariat of Education (1918-1924), was engaged in teaching, made many trips around the country. Founding member and chairman of the "4 Arts" association, Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1929).

Painter, graphic artist, theater designer. Landscape painter, portrait painter, author of still lifes, decorative panels. Teacher.

Husband E.M. Bebutova. Studied in 1891-1897. at the Bogolyubov Drawing School under V.V. Konovalov, from 1897 to 1903 - at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under K.A. Korovin and V.A. Serov. Participant and one of the organizers of the exhibitions "Scarlet Rose" (Saratov, 1904) and "Blue Rose" (Moscow, 1907). Member of associations "World of Art", "Four Arts". Since the early 1900s experienced a strong influence of V.E. Borisov-Musatov. In pre-revolutionary art, he drew subjects for decorative and symbolist paintings from the brilliance of the East ("Mirage in the Steppe", 1912, State Tretyakov Gallery). Subsequently, while preserving the poetic structure of the images, he gives the compositions greater dynamics and concreteness ("Shepherds' Rest", 1927, State Russian Museum; "Cotton Sorting", 1931, State Tretyakov Gallery). In addition to the philosophical landscape, he paid tribute to the portrait ("Portrait of Elena Bebutova", 1922, State Tretyakov Gallery). He worked in the field of theatrical and decorative painting and graphics. His paintings are also in the museums of Astrakhan, Barnaul, Vladivostok, Kazan, Kirov, Kostroma, Kursk, Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Perm, Saratov, Smolensk, Syktyvkar, Khabarovsk, Cheboksary, Yaroslavl, Almaty, Yerevan and others.

Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich

Pavel Kuznetsov

(1878-1968)

Nature endowed P. V. Kuznetsov with a brilliant pictorial gift and inexhaustible energy of the soul. The feeling of delight before life did not leave the artist until old age. Art was for him a form of existence.

Kuznetsov could have joined the fine arts as a child, in the workshop of his father, an icon painter. When the boy's artistic inclinations were clearly defined, he entered the Studio of Painting and Drawing at the Saratov Society of Fine Arts Lovers, where he studied for several years (1891-96) under the guidance of V. V. Konovalov and G. P. Salvi-ni-Baracchi.

An exceptionally important event in his life was a meeting with V. E. Borisov-Musatov, who had a strong and beneficial influence on the Saratov artistic youth.

In 1897, Kuznetsov brilliantly passed the exams at the MUZhVZ. He studied well, standing out not only for the brightness of his talent, but also for his genuine passion for work. During these years, Kuznetsov was under the spell of the pictorial artistry of K. A. Korovin; no less profound was the disciplinary influence of V. A. Serov.

At the same time, a group of students rallied around Kuznetsov, who later became members of the well-known creative community "Blue Rose". From impressionism to symbolism - this is the main trend that determined the search for Kuznetsov in the early period of creativity. Having paid tribute to plein air painting, the young artist sought to find a language that could reflect not so much the impressions of the visible world as the state of the soul.

On this path, painting came close to poetry and music, as if testing the limits of visual possibilities. Among the important accompanying circumstances is the participation of Kuznetsov and his friends in the design of symbolist performances, cooperation in symbolist magazines.

In 1902, Kuznetsov with two comrades - K. S. Petrov-Vodkin and P. S. Utkin - undertook an experiment in painting in the Saratov Church of Our Lady of Kazan. Young artists did not constrain themselves by observing the canons, giving full rein to their imagination. The risky experiment caused a storm of public indignation, accusations of blasphemy - the murals were destroyed, but for the artists themselves this experience was an important step in the search for a new pictorial expression.

By the time the MUZHVZ ended (1904), Kuznetsov's symbolist orientation had become quite clear. The picturesque discoveries of Borisov-Musatov acquired special significance. However, the balance of the abstract and the concrete, which marks the best Musatov's works, is not characteristic of Kuznetsov's symbolism. The flesh of the visible world melts in his paintings, his picturesque visions are almost surreal, woven from images-shadows, denoting the subtle movements of the soul. Kuznetsov's favorite motif is a fountain; The artist was fascinated by the spectacle of the water cycle as early as childhood, and now memories of this are resurrected on canvases that vary the theme of the eternal cycle of life.

Like Musatov, Kuznetsov prefers tempera, but uses its decorative possibilities in a very peculiar way, as if with an eye on the techniques of impressionism. The whitened shades of color seem to tend to merge into one whole: a barely colored light - and the picture seems to be shrouded in a colored fog ("Morning", "Blue Fountain", both 1905; "Birth", 1906, etc.).

Kuznetsov gained fame early. The artist was not yet thirty when his works were included in the famous exposition of Russian art arranged by S. P. Diaghilev in Paris (1906). Clear success led to the election of Kuznetsov as a member of the Autumn Salon (not many Russian artists received such an honor).

One of the most important events in Russian artistic life at the beginning of the century was the Blue Rose exhibition, opened in Moscow in the spring of 1907. Being one of the initiators of this action, Kuznetsov also acted as the artistic leader of the entire movement, which has since been called the Blue Rose. In the late 1900s the artist experienced a creative crisis. The strangeness of his work sometimes became painful; it seemed that he had exhausted himself and was unable to justify the hopes placed in him. All the more impressive was the revival of Kuznetsov, who turned to the East.

A decisive role was played by the artist's wanderings across the Volga steppes, trips to Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent. At the very beginning of the 1910s. Kuznetsov performed with the paintings of the "Kyrgyz Suite", which marks the highest flowering of his talent ("Sleeping in the Sheep", 1911; "Sheep Shearing", "Rain in the Steppe", "Mirage", "Evening in the Steppe", all 1912, etc. ). It was as if a veil had fallen from the artist's eyes: his coloring, without losing its exquisite nuances, was filled with the power of contrasts, the rhythmic pattern of the compositions acquired the most expressive simplicity.

Contemplativeness, characteristic of Kuznetsov by the nature of his talent, gives the pictures of the steppe cycle a pure poetic sound, lyrically penetrating and epic-solemn. Adjacent in time to these works, the Bukhara Series (Teahouse, 1912; Bird Market, In the Temple of Buddhists, both 1913, etc.) demonstrates an increase in decorative qualities, evoking theatrical associations.

In those same years, Kuznetsov painted a number of still lifes, among them the excellent "Still Life with Japanese Engraving" (1912). The growing fame of Kuznetsov contributed to the expansion of his creative activity. The artist was invited to participate in the painting of the Kazan railway station in Moscow, he performed sketches ("Picking fruits", "Asian Bazaar", 1913-14), but they remained unfulfilled. In 1914, Kuznetsov collaborated with A. Ya. Tairov in the first production of the Chamber Theater - the play "Sakuntala" by Kalidasa, which was a great success. Developing the rich potency of Kuznetsov as a decorator, these experiments undoubtedly influenced his easel painting, which increasingly gravitated towards the style of monumental art (Fortune Telling, 1912; Evening in the Steppe, 1915; At the Source, 1919-20; "Uzbek", 1920; "Poultry", early 1920s, etc.).

During the years of the revolution, Kuznetsov worked with great enthusiasm. He took part in the design of revolutionary festivities, in the publication of the journal "The Way of Liberation", conducted pedagogical work, and dealt with many artistic and organizational problems. His energy was enough for everything. During this period, he creates new variations of oriental motifs, marked by the influence of ancient Russian painting; his best works include magnificent portraits of E. M. Bebutova (1921-22); at the same time he published the lithographic series "Turkestan" and "Mountain Bukhara" (1922-23). Attachment to the chosen circle of subjects did not exclude the artist's lively reaction to the current reality.

Impressed by a trip to Paris, where in 1923 his exhibition was arranged (together with Bebutova), Kuznetsov wrote "Paris Comedians" (1924-25); in this work, his inherent decorative laconism of style turned into unexpectedly sharp expression. New discoveries were brought by the artist's trips to the Crimea and the Caucasus (1925-29). Saturated with light and energetic movement, the space of his compositions gained depth; such are the famous panels "Grape Harvest" and "Crimean Collective Farm" (both 1928). During these years, Kuznetsov persistently sought to expand his plot repertoire, referring to the themes of labor and sports.

A stay in Armenia (1930) brought to life a cycle of paintings that, in the words of the painter himself, embodied "the collective pathos of monumental construction, where people, machines, animals and nature merge into one powerful chord."

With all the sincerity of his desire to respond to the social order, Kuznetsov could not fully satisfy the orthodox new ideology, who often subjected him to harsh criticism for "aestheticism", "formalism", etc. The same accusations were addressed to other masters of the "Four Arts" association (1924- 31), of which Kuznetsov was a founding member and chairman. Works created in the late 1920s - early 1930s. (including "Portrait of the sculptor A. T. Matveev", 1928; "Mother", "Bridge over the Zang-gu River", both 1930; "Cotton Sorting", "Pushball", both 1931), - the last high take-off of creativity Kuznetsova. The master was destined to outlive his peers, but having reached old age, he did not lose his passion for creativity.

In his later years, Kuznetsov was mainly occupied with landscape and still life. And although the work of recent years is inferior to the former, Kuznetsov's creative longevity cannot but be recognized as an exceptional phenomenon.

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Kuznetsov Pavel Varfolomeevich

Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov was born on November 18 (5), 1878 in Saratov in the family of the craft icon painter Varfolomey Fedorovich Kuznetsov, whose workshop fulfilled orders of the spiritual and secular order. His wife Evdokia Illarionovna loved music and painting. From birth, children absorbed the atmosphere of love for art that reigned in the family. Pavel's older brother Mikhail became a painter, the younger Victor became a musician. But the most outstanding ability was undoubtedly Paul.

At the end of the 19th century, Saratov was the largest commercial and industrial center of Russia. The cultural life of the city was rich and varied; a conservatory and a music school were opened, the best opera and drama theater troupes toured, and public education activities were widely developed.

All this had a beneficial effect on the formation of the personality of the young Pavel Kuznetsov. But the creation of one of the richest art museums in the country, founded in 1885, was of the greatest importance. Soon, under the influence of this event, the Society of Fine Arts Lovers was organized in Saratov, a drawing studio was opened under it, then transformed into a serious professional school, which Pavel Kuznetsov attended in 1891-1896. He studied with prominent teachers who headed the school's two main departments. Drawing was taught by V.V. Konovalov, a graduate of the Imperial Academy of Arts, a student of P.P. Chistyakov. Painting - G. P. Salvini-Baracchi, an Italian artist who lived in Saratov for many years and brought up a whole galaxy of famous masters of painting. A man of romantic enthusiasm, artistry and lively energy, Barakki not only laid the foundations of painting technique, but also gave Kuznetsov the first lessons in plein-air creativity on trips to sketches in the vicinity of Saratov and the Volga Islands.

Years of schooling prepared Kuznetsov and his comrades for mastering new trends in world art and, first of all, impressionistic style. But the decisive milestone in their familiarization with the discoveries of French innovators was a meeting in the mid-1890s with V.E. His own search lay in line with impressionism and neo-romanticism. Visiting his native city during the summer months, Musatov invited novice artists and painted sketches from nature side by side with them in the garden of his house on Volskaya Street. In the process of this joint work, the master told young people about the work of Monet, Renoir, Puvis de Chavannes and other famous European artists.

The result of the Saratov lessons was the brilliant admission of Pavel Kuznetsov to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in September 1897. By the will of fate, it was this year that significant changes took place in the School itself, which contributed to the renewal of teaching methods and aesthetic views in general. The Wanderer K.A.Savitsky left the place of the head of the field class. V.A. Serov, K.A. Korovin, I.I. Levitan became professors of the School.

In the elementary grades of the School, where L.O. Pasternak, A.E. Arkhipov, N.A. Kasatkin taught, education still had an academic character. Well prepared by his studies with V.V. Konovalov, Kuznetsov succeeded in this as well. Already in 1900-1901 he received a small silver medal for sketches; in 1901-1902 - for drawings. Since 1899, he constantly took part in exhibitions of students of the School. However, Kuznetsov achieved real pictorial freedom by working under the guidance of Serov and Korovin, whom he always considered his main teachers. Passion for Korovin's colorism, the mastery of the brush, the plasticity of the brushstroke, the dynamism of the composition even pushed aside the influence of Musatov for a while. But pictorial intuitionism, organic for Korovin, still did not become the main direction of Kuznetsov's early searches. Work in Serov's workshop helped him to join the tasks of creating a grand style, to strict internal discipline and a monumental and decorative writing system.

The role of teachers was not limited to classes with students in workshops. In 1899, Korovin introduced Kuznetsov and his countryman sculptor A.T. Matveev to Savva Ivanovich Mamontov. In his Moscow pottery workshop outside Butyrskaya Zastava, Kuznetsov met with Polenov, Vasnetsov, Vrubel, Chaliapin and other remarkable people of that era.

One of the most famous signs of the times was the active work of leading Russian artists in the theater. Masterpieces of theatrical design were created by Korovin, Golovin, Roerich, Bakst, Benois, a circle of masters who united around the World of Art magazine. In 1901, Kuznetsov, together with his colleague from the School, N.N. Sapunov, first got the opportunity to apply his talent in this area. Young artists created scenery and costumes based on Korovin's sketches for Wagner's opera Valkyries, which premiered in early 1902 at the Bolshoi Theater.

Exhibitions of paintings organized by the World of Art magazine were considered extremely prestigious at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1902, at the initiative of Serov, Pavel Kuznetsov received an invitation to participate in such an exhibition, where he showed nine landscapes. The work "On the Volga" was reproduced on the pages of the magazine.

In 1902, several more important events took place in Kuznetsov's life. He made a trip to the North, to the coast of the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean, from where he brought a series of lyrical landscapes. Arriving in Saratov in the summer, together with P.S. Utkin and K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, he took part in the painting of the border of the Church of Our Lady of Kazan. These murals have not been preserved: the excessive freedom of interpretation of canonical subjects caused outrage among the clergy, and soon the painting was destroyed.

In April 1904, Pavel Kuznetsov graduated from the Moscow School with the title of non-class artist. By this time, a new system of his pictorial language had developed, in which from now on flatness and decorativeness, a restrained palette of pastel colors, and a matte “tapestry” texture prevailed. Panel paintings painted in this vein were shown at the Evening of New Art in Saratov in January 1904. This evening preceded the exhibition "Scarlet Rose", which opened in Saratov on April 27, 1904. Its organizers were Pavel Kuznetsov and his closest like-minded friend Peter Utkin. The exhibition was the first manifestation of the young generation of Russian symbolist painters, one of whose leaders was Kuznetsov.

March 18, 1907 in Moscow on Myasnitskaya Street opened the second exhibition of the community of artists that has developed around Kuznetsov and Utkin. She was given the name "Blue Rose". It went down in history as the central event of Russian pictorial symbolism. In the period between exhibitions and in the years following the Blue Rose, Kuznetsov created a cycle of works directly related to symbolist themes. These are the canvases "Morning", "Birth", "Night of the consumptive", "Blue Fountain" and their variants.

In 1907-1908, Kuznetsov made his first trips to the trans-Volga steppes. However, his awakened interest in everyday life and images of the East was not immediately realized in painting. This was preceded by an experience of no small importance for the artist in the monumental painting of the villa of the collector and philanthropist Ya.E. Zhukovsky in New Kuchuk-Koy on the southern coast of Crimea.

In the second half of the 1900s and early 1910s, Kuznetsov became a regular exhibitor at many major exhibitions. These are the Salons of the magazine "Golden Fleece", exhibitions of the Union of Russian Artists, the Moscow Association of Artists, an exposition of Russian art arranged by S.P. Diaghilev in 1906 at the "Autumn Salon" in Paris, "Wreath" and others.

In 1911, at the World of Art exhibition, Kuznetsov presented works that marked the beginning of a new period of his work. These are canvases of the "Kyrgyz Suite" - the most numerous cycle of the artist's works. The best of them are “In the steppe. At work”, “Sheep shearing”, “Rain in the steppe”, “Mirage in the steppe”, “Evening in the steppe”, “Sleeping in a shed”, “Fortune-telling” - refer to the first half of the 1910s. In them, the artist achieved the perfection of image and style, finally formulated the principles of his artistic language. Among the main features of Kuznetsov's Orientalism are the contemplation of the worldview, the interpretation of life as a timeless being, the sublime conventionality and impersonality of the characters in the paintings, and the fabulously epic feeling of nature. The plastic solution of the works is dominated by rhythmic calm, compositional harmony, and local coloring.

In 1912-1913 Kuznetsov visited Bukhara, Tashkent and Samarkand. The impressions from the trip to Central Asia were reflected in several picturesque series and two albums of autolithographs "Mountain Bukhara" and "Turkestan", executed in 1922-1923. They show a more traditional look of the East. It is characterized by an open decorative effect and some variegation of color, the desire to convey the spicy aroma of the Asian world. Echoes of oriental motifs are also present in Kuznetsov's large-scale still lifes of the 1910s.

The result of showing works of the steppe and Asian cycles at exhibitions was an invitation to take part in the painting of the Kazansky railway station under construction, which Kuznetsov received from the architect A.V. Shchusev. In the sketches of the mural “Picking Fruits” and “Asian Bazaar”, mastery of the techniques of monumental painting, an organic interpretation of Eastern culture, and the Renaissance majesty of human images are synthesized.

Kuznetsov's ability to convey the special spirit of the East was also appreciated by the famous theater director A.Ya. Tairov. He invited the artist to design Kalidasa's play "Sakuntala", staged at the Chamber Theater in 1914.

In 1915-1917, Kuznetsov was in military service, studied at the School of Ensigns. After the February Revolution of 1917, he took part in the publication of the literary and artistic journal The Path of Liberation. In 1918 he was elected head of the painting workshop of the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he taught until 1930. Over the years, the school was reorganized first into the State Free Art Workshops, and then into Vkhutemas and Vkhutein.

In the late 1910s - 1920s, Kuznetsov, like many other artists, actively participated in the process of updating the state's cultural policy. From 1918 to 1924 he worked at the Fine Arts College of the People's Commissariat for Education; was a member of the Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquities of Moscow and the Moscow Region. Since 1919, he worked in the Saratov Collegium of the Fine Arts Department, led the preparatory workshops at this department.

In 1918, the artist E.M. Bebutova became the wife of Pavel Kuznetsov. Her ceremonial, intimate, theatrical portraits of different years became the most successful works of this genre in his work. In 1923, the "Exhibition of Pavel Kuznetsov and Elena Bebutova" was exhibited at the Barbasange Gallery in Paris.

In 1924, Kuznetsov and Bebutova joined the 4 Arts Society, which included artists of various trends who remained in the positions of subject easel art and aesthetic criteria for mastery. Kuznetsov was elected chairman of the society.

In 1929, Pavel Kuznetsov received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. His personal exhibition was held at the State Tretyakov Gallery.

In 1930 the artist visited Armenia, and in 1931 - Azerbaijan. Such creative business trips were a common practice in the artistic life of that time. The trips resulted in series of paintings on the topic of building new quarters in Yerevan and oil fields in Baku. The Armenian series was exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow in 1931.

In the 1930s, the artist made a number of creative trips around the country. One of the creative successes was the panel “Kolkhoz Life” executed for the International Exhibition of 1937 in Paris. It received the Silver medal of the exhibition. The artist collected materials for it during a trip to Michurinsk.

During the 1930s - 1940s, Kuznetsov was engaged in pedagogical work, in painting he preferred landscape and still life, created a number of genre and thematic paintings.

In 1956-1957 the artist's personal exhibition took place in Moscow and Leningrad, and in 1964 - in Moscow.

In the last years of his life, the master worked mainly on the landscapes of Majori, Dzintari, Palanga, spending a lot of time in the Baltic creative houses.

Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov died, a little short of his 90th birthday, on February 21, 1968 in Moscow, and was buried in the German cemetery.