Forgotten parsnips. Artist leonid osipovich pasternak Pasternak painting artist

"... his gigantic merits are not appreciated even in a hundredth part"

Rubinstein and Scriabin, Tolstoy and Gorky, Mechnikov and Einstein posed for him.
He was famous as a brilliant portrait painter and master of illustration.
His paintings are kept by the largest museums in the world and hundreds of collectors.


However, for many decades the name of Leonid Osipovich Pasternak was forgotten.
Perhaps the brilliant father was obscured by the shadow of a brilliant son, the poet Boris Pasternak.

Leonid Pasternak Boris and Alexander

Boris Pasternak wrote about his father:
"Dad!" But, after all, this is a sea of ​​​​tears, sleepless nights, and if you write it down,
volumes, volumes, volumes. Surprise at the perfection of his skill and gift, before
the ease with which he worked (jokingly and effortlessly, like Mozart) in front of the multitude
and the significance of what he did - surprise is all the more lively and ardent because
comparisons on all these points shame and humiliate me. I wrote to him that
be offended that his gigantic merits are not appreciated even in a hundredth part, while
I have to burn with shame when so monstrously inflated and overestimated
my role ... I wrote to dad ... that, in the end, he still triumphs, he,
who lived such a true, non-fictional, interesting, mobile, rich life,
partly in his blessed XIX century, partly in loyalty to him, and not in the wild,
devastated unreal and fraudulent twentieth…"

Leonid Pasternak Portrait of Boris Pasternak in front of the Baltic Sea 1910

Leonid Pasternak Self portrait

Leonid Pasternak was born in April 1862 in Odessa. He was the youngest child in
large Jewish family. Apparently, from an excess of feelings, his parents named him immediately
two names - Abram and Isaac. However, at home they were called exclusively Leonidas.
On this occasion, the artist even had to write explanatory letters in official
institutions. By the way, the surname originally sounded not Pasternak, but Posternak.

Posternak Sr. kept an inn, his mother ran the household, was illiterate, but
smart and strong-willed woman. The Pasternaks believed that they were descended from the Abarbanels.
This is one of the oldest and most respected Jewish families, which comes from King David

Parents dreamed that their son would become "a pharmacist, or a doctor, or, at worst,
“we intercede on business” - as the artist later recalled. But most of all the boy
strove to draw, and he had to do it secretly from mom and dad.
The most accessible tool is coal.
The first success and order came at the age of six. The janitor instructed the talented boy
sketch with charcoal a few pictures on hunting themes. The customer paid five
kopecks for each picture and decorated the janitor's room with them. Subsequently, Leonid Pasternak
will call this janitor "my Lorenzo Medici." By the way, love for charcoal sketches
and a pencil will remain with Leonid Pasternak for life.

Leonid Pasternak Portrait of Chaliapin 12/30/1913

B. L. Pasternak

Parents wanted to see their son as a doctor or a lawyer. Leonid Pasternak enters
Moscow University at the Faculty of Medicine. Here I would envy him myself
Michelangelo. But what attracted the great sculptor repelled our hero -
anatomist. Leonid Pasternak could not overcome his disgust for corpses, but that part
anatomy, which the artist needs, he studied. Then transferred to law
faculty of Moscow University, and then completely to Odessa, or rather
Novorossiysk University. Odessa University (the only one in the empire) gave
the right for students to travel abroad. Pasternak used this right and
went to enter the competition at the Munich Royal Academy. And passed
number one! He studied in the class of the famous draftsman Ludwig von Herterich.

Self-portrait of Professor Ludwig von Herterich.

His drawing experiments were so good that the teacher didn't correct them.
and let me take it home. In Moscow, Pasternak's work was immediately snapped up by collectors.
Pasternak graduated from the Munich Academy of Arts with a gold medal and in the same year
received a law degree - externally.

The next stage in the life of a young artist is military service. Year. First big canvas
written under the influence of the army. The painting "Letter from the Motherland", not yet completed
- straight from the easel, - Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired for his famous gallery.

Leonid Pasternak News from home

Leonid Pasternak married the famous pianist Rosa Kaufman. Young family
settled in Moscow, a year later the first-born was born - the future Nobel laureate
awards, writer Boris Pasternak. Then the son Alexander and two
daughters, Josephine and Lydia.

Lydia and Josephine, daughters of Leonid Pasternak, 1908

Family portraits and sketches became Leonid Pasternak's favorite subject. They
they conveyed the atmosphere of warmth and comfort that prevails in the family, and they also sold well.
They joked about Leonid Pasternak that his children “feed” their parents!

Leonid Pasternak Two women 1930s

Pasternak was the first Russian artist to call himself an impressionist. At the same time, as
notes art critic Elizaveta Plavinskaya, he was not afraid of a cool attitude
to the impressionism of the Wanderers, who programmatically put truth above beauty.

“He was more modernist than they and than Repin. He allowed himself quick
generalizations and approximate fluid contours in the spirit of the Parisian Dutch, and
also sharp transformations of the line into a spot, which was too tough for the same Repin,
unfamiliar with the Munich school. And to his German comrades, Pasternak did not
inferior in possession of color, being able to achieve a glow in the interior of a soft and
colored, like the Impressionists, and dramatic, in the spirit of a thoroughly
half-forgotten by all caravagism,

Plavinskaya wrote.
By the way, the Association of Wanderers in Moscow did not accept Pasternak into its ranks.

Leonid Pasternak A lady with two children in a boat

Nevertheless, it was at the exhibition of the Wanderers in 1893 that a landmark meeting took place.
Leo Tolstoy stopped near Pasternak's painting "Debutanka" and the author was introduced to him
work.
“Yes, yes, I know that name. I follow his work" , Tolstoy said.

Pasternaks became Tolstoy's frequent guests both in Moscow and in Yasnaya Polyana.
As a result, a series of portraits of the great writer was born, in addition, Pasternak
became one of the best illustrators of Leo Tolstoy's works. His illustrations
to the novel "Resurrection" were exhibited in 1900 in the Russian pavilion at the World
exhibition in Paris, where they were awarded a medal. Many sketches from the "Tolstoy series"
ended up in the Tretyakov Gallery. Pasternak is sometimes called the "mirror" of Lev Nikolaev.
By the way, the Tolstoy Museum has 200 works by Leonid Pasternak, 36 portraits
graph and illustrations for his works.

Leonid Pasternak Tolstoy

Pasternak's painting "Students" was acquired by the Luxembourg Museum in Paris.

"A significant fact - wrote the Odessa press. — Luxembourg
one of the first art museums in the world. Only very
great artist, and then, if he is French. Paintings owned by foreigners
There are only a few in Luxembourg. Not a single Russian painting."

Thus, Pasternak's "Students" became the first Russian painting in the famous museum.

Leonid Pasternak The night before the exam 1895

Leonid Osipovich painted a series of portraits of Albert Einstein. They met
in Berlin at the Soviet embassy. They went there to listen to a concert, a lecture, to watch
a short theatrical performance or take part in a casual conversation.
Once in this embassy, ​​Rosa Pasternak was playing the piano, and someone asked her,
could she accompany Einstein. However, Einstein objected.
He said:
“I will not dare to speak after such a master!”.
“But my mother persuaded him. And he really played, and she accompanied
to him. And my father drew it. And so a sheet arose, where a playing
on the violin Einstein,
- recalled Lydia, Pasternak's daughter.
Einstein and Pasternak kept in touch for many years. The result was a series
portraits of the great scientist.

History cannot be rewritten: Leonid Pasternak is considered one of the founders of Leniniana.
He was the first of the academic artists to capture Lenin and other leaders
revolution, making sketches at congresses, presidiums and congresses.

True, subsequently many of these portraits, like their models, were destroyed.
new power.

Leonid Pasternak with his wife and daughters went to Germany in 1921,
official version - for treatment. Unofficially, they joked that after writing a series
portraits of the leaders of the revolution, he decided to stay away from them. Pasternak a lot
works. In 1923, Pasternak's essay "Rembrandt and Jewry in
his work”, and again dozens of portraits follow.

Rembrandt Van Rijn Jewish Bride

Leonid Pasternak Still life with peaches and black grapes 1930s

However, in 1938, they had to flee from Nazi Germany. Almost the entire circulation
the books, which included memories of Tolstoy, were destroyed by the Nazis. his anniversary
the exhibition was banned. Leonid Osipovich was going to return to Moscow, but before
decided to visit his youngest daughter Lydia, who was already living in Oxford. Because of war
the artist had to stay in England. On 31 May 1945 he died at Oxford.
May 2, 1999 in the house in the north of Oxford, where the Russian artist lived, was opened
Museum of Leonid Pasternak.

It is difficult to say in which direction of artistic creativity Leonid Osipovich Pasternak succeeded to the greatest extent. Lovers of book illustration admire his drawings for the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "Resurrection". Supporters of graphic works consider his lithographs with satisfaction. His pastel paintings also brought the artist wide fame. Finally, the oil paintings testify to the outstanding gift of L. Pasternak as a painter.

Leonid Pasternak To relatives 1891

Let us turn to the fate and work of Leonid Osipovich Pasternak (by the Jewish name he is Avraham Leib ben Yosef, but when he changed the original name given to the Jew on the eighth day of his life, it was not possible to establish).



Leonid Pasternak (photo 1880)
Leonid Pasternak Self-portrait 1908

He was born in Odessa in 1862. The father of the future artist kept an inn on the outskirts of the city. Mother, like most Jewish women in the Pale of Settlement, was illiterate, but she was a smart and strong person. Leonid is the youngest of six children in the family and the most beloved.

The boy's ability to draw appeared very early, but this only annoyed his parents: they rooted for him with their souls and wanted him to go out into the world - to become a pharmacist, doctor or barrister. And the boy pulled out the cooled coals from the stove and painted both the floor and the walls with them. At the age of 7, he already met his first "philanthropist": it was a janitor, an art lover who, for a small fee, ordered drawings for the boy.

Young Pasternak graduated from the Odessa Drawing School (1881), studied in the private studio of E.S. Sorokin in Moscow (1882). At the request of his parents, he studies at the Faculty of Medicine for a year, then at the Faculty of Law, but talent and the desire to do what he loves take over: Leonid enters the Royal Munich Academy of Painting and goes to Germany. These were three years (1882-1885) of inspired and intense work, the formation of his professional skills. His studies are over, and during the year Leonid does his compulsory military service in an artillery unit, but devotes every free minute to drawing.

After the service, he goes home to Odessa, and here he meets, falls in love and is reciprocated by a wonderful girl, by that time already a well-known pianist in Russia, Rosalia Kaufman.

L.O. Pasternak with his wife Rosalia Isidorovna

Rosalia at 13

L. Pasternak Self-portrait with his wife 1927

L.O. Pasternak. The pain of creativity

Their wedding took place in Moscow in 1889. And as a wedding gift - still good luck: at the exhibition of the Wanderers, where Pasternak gave the painting "News from the Motherland", Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov buys it for his gallery.

L. Pasternak News from the Motherland 1889

This made it possible for Pasternak to make a trip to Paris, which he had dreamed of all his life. After the trip, the artist's style changes somewhat, his brush and pencil become freer and more refined.
In 1890, the son of Boris, the future wonderful Russian poet, was born in the Pasternak family. T. The artist's other son, Alexander, would become a prominent architect.

L.O. Pasternak with his wife and sons

L. Pasternak. Sons Boris and Alexander

Success L.O. Pasternak in mastering artistic skills allowed him to open his art school in Moscow. He is invited to teach at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he becomes one of the leading teachers. Pasternak will remain in this post for more than a quarter of a century. Getting this position, like all the changes in his life, was accompanied by another exam for fortitude. Pasternak knew that professors were approved by the head of the school council, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, a well-known Judeophobe. The simplest, it would seem, move, which many Russian Jews were forced to resort to, was to be baptized, to change the faith of their fathers, and then the obstacle was removed. But Leonid Pasternak, in a letter to the inspector of the school, Prince Lvov, declares: "I grew up in a Jewish family and will never agree to leave Jewishness for a career or in general to improve my social position."

L. Pasternak Meeting of the Council of Artists - teachers of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. 1902

So Pasternak passed the test of fortitude and devotion to his people, and the Grand Duke signed the desired appointment. The financial situation of the family was strengthened, where by 1902 four children were already growing up.

The first genre works of L. Pasternak brought him closer to the painters, the future founders of the association of the Union of Russian Artists, in which L. O. Pasternak would play one of the leading roles.

At the next exhibition of the Wanderers, Leonid Pasternak's painting "Debutante" attracts the attention of Leo Tolstoy. They are introduced, and the Pasternaks become Tolstoy's frequent guests in Moscow and Yasnaya Polyana, where the artist draws the writer with his family and friends, engaged in creative work and physical labor.

.
Portrait of Leo Tolstoy

L. Pasternak. Under the lamp,L.N. Tolstoy in the family circle, 1902

Many of the artist's paintings from the Tolstoy series are now in the Tretyakov Gallery. Pasternak also created wonderful illustrations for "War and Peace" and "Resurrection", which were approved by Tolstoy himself and awarded a medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900.

L.Pasternak Illustration for the novel by Leo Tolstoy "Resurrection". For reading. Nekhludoff is reading to Katyusha.
L.Pasternak Illustration for the novel by Leo Tolstoy "Resurrection". In the courtroom

The artist made a significant contribution to the establishment of the originality of the Moscow school of painting. He was one of the first to consider the art of book illustration as an independent artistic genre.
When the artist was 43 years old, the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts elected him an academician of painting.

Traveling extensively in Western Europe, L.O. Pasternak paints portraits of many cultural and scientific figures (among them is the portrait of A. Einstein).


In the years preceding the October Revolution, Pasternak participated in international exhibitions in Germany, Austria, France, in the first post-revolutionary years he participated in a number of Russian exhibitions.

In Soviet times, the artist spends considerable time first in Germany, then in England.

In 1921, Leonid Osipovich and Rozalia Isidorovna leave for Germany for treatment: the artist needed an eye operation. Their daughters are traveling with them, while their sons Boris and Alexander remain in Moscow.

Rosalia, Lydia, Josephine and Leonid Pasternak upon arrival in Berlin 1921

Leaving, the Pasternaks thought that it would not be for long, and kept their Soviet passports. But a happy fate saves them from returning to the USSR: after the operation of the eye, Leonid Osipovich has so many interesting topics and works to be completed in Germany that he keeps postponing and postponing his return.

L. Pasternak Self-portrait in a yellow coat
Loris Corinth Portrait of Leonid Pasternak 1923

In 1927 and 1932, two personal exhibitions of Pasternak were held in Berlin. During this period, his interest in Jewish subjects increased, he published in Russian and Hebrew the most interesting monograph "Rembrandt and Jewry in his work."
In 1933, Hitler comes to power in Germany, the dark era of Nazism begins. Pasternak and his wife leave for their daughters, who by that time already live in England.
Leonid Pasternak died in Oxford on May 31, 1945.
The artist's works today are presented in many museums and private collections in Europe, America, Asia and Australia.

Here are some of his most famous works:


L. Pasternak At work. Etude

L. Pasternak. Music lesson 1909

L. Pasternak Night before the exam 1895 Museum d * Orsay, Paris

L.Pasternak Moscow concert by Wanda Landowska 1907

On the Shore, 1906

In the interior. 1907

At the window. Autumn. 1913

L. Pasternak Moscow in the winter of 1912
L. Pasternak R. Rilke in Moscow 1928

Portrait of E. Levina. 1917

L. Pasternak. Unloading of wagons in the Odessa port. 1912.

Golden autumn. Vorovyovy Gory

Leonid Osipovich was given a lot by fate: loving parents, his wife is a kind-hearted person, his devoted friend and assistant, capable and beautiful children, one of whom is the brilliant poet Boris Pasternak. The artist had a happy fate, and he deserved this happiness.

Died L.O. Pasternak on May 31, 1945 in Oxford, and years later, on the gravestone of his daughter, they inscribed the stanza of Boris Pasternak, who by that time had passed away:

"Farewell, spread wingspan, Flight's free perseverance, \ And the image of the world, revealed in the word, \ and creativity, and wonderworking"

Fate favored the artist: he left this world long before his first-born wrote the novel Doctor Zhivago, and in it, putting his innermost thoughts into the mouths of the main characters: “The Jewish people must be “disbanded” in the name of deliverance from suffering and they are free to join Christianity", or: "Beauty does not live among the Jews, while Christianity is permeated with an aesthetic principle", and many other sayings that are unworthy of either their righteous father, the painter, or the great ancestor of Tsar David, to whose family they are, Pasternak , belonged (blog.i.ua)

Leonid Osipovich (Itskhok-Leib, Isaac Iosifovich) Pasternak - artist, teacher, professor, academician.

“My art has one advantage over the word, literature: it is international and understandable in all languages. Painting, drawing, landscape, portrait - be it written by a Swede, a Frenchman, a Russian or a Jew - is understandable to everyone, and we do not yet need a special language, a special art ... "

L. Pasternak

On April 3, 1862, in Odessa, in a large Jewish family of the owner of the inn Joseph Pasternak and his wife Leah, the son of Yitzchok-Leib, the future artist Leonid Pasternak, was born.

Yitzchok's (Isaac's) grandfather Akiva Pasternak came to Odessa from Galicia at the beginning of the 19th century; in 1813, his son Joseph was born, who eventually became the head of a large family and the owner of an inn near the New Market on Koblevskaya (the unpreserved house was on the odd side of the street between Olgievskaya and Konna).

Joseph Pasternak sought to educate his children, and young Isaac entered the prestigious Richelieu Gymnasium. He studied successfully, but he was increasingly attracted to drawing, the ability to which manifested itself in early childhood. At the age of seven, he received his first order from a janitor neighbor - to paint several pictures on hunting themes; the customer, whom the artist later jokingly called “my first Lorenzo Medici,” was pleased with the work and paid five kopecks for each painting.

Later, one of my father's guests, journalist and publisher M.F. Freidenberg, attracted the already high school student Pasternak to cooperate in the Odessa humorous illustrated magazines Mayak and Pchelka. The artist later recalled this beginning of his career in his autobiographical book “Records of Different Years”: “Once I was walking along Deribasovskaya and ran into Mikhail Fedorovich Freidenberg walking towards me. “By the way! You seem to be drawing, aren't you? Won't you come to my place for a minute? .. "". And then the events developed as follows: Freidenberg asked Pasternak to make a drawing for the cover of the new Mayak magazine. The young artist was frightened and began to refuse. Then the “employer” said: “I need to leave for a while, but you sit here - here is paper, pencils and ... goodbye! I will even lock you up with a key so that you, what good, do not run away before my arrival ... ”. Pasternak successfully coped with the first responsible order in his life, Freudenberg was delighted: “Well, I am saved, thank God! Well done! .. I knew! Well done you! After all, I turned to our two real artists - the devil knows what happened! But the release of the first issue has already been announced, but I still don’t have anything ... God Himself sent you to me - we will work with you!” And indeed, "we got it right"! While still a high school student in the eighth grade, I became a real art contributor to the Mayak magazine, and then to The Bee. The main thing was that we sincerely attached to each other and became friends for life; he even became my son-in-law by marrying my younger sister.” (In 1883, Mikhail (Moses) Freudenberg married Anna (Asa) Pasternak).

However, Leonid Pasternak worked in "Mayak" and "Bee" more out of friendly feelings for the publisher than for other reasons. “His soul did not lie to caricatures, which he found the lowest kind of art,” wrote M. Freidenberg later. In any case, for an aspiring artist, working in magazines was a useful practice.

In 1881, Leonid Pasternak graduated from the Richelieu Gymnasium and the Odessa Drawing School of the Fine Arts Society (1879-1881, studied with F. Bauer and L. Iori-ni); for outstanding achievements in the drawing school was awarded a silver medal. In the same year, at the insistence of his parents to acquire an “earthly” profession, he entered the medical faculty of Moscow University. In 1882, he applied for admission to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MUZhViZ), but the attempt was unsuccessful due to the lack of a free study place. In 1883, Leonid Pasternak moved to the Faculty of Law, from which he graduated as an external student already in Odessa at the Novorossiysk University (1885).

In parallel, he continued his art education. In 1881-1882. attended a private school-studio of Professor MUZhViZ E.S. Sorokin; in 1882-1885 studied in the natural class of the Munich Academy of Arts with professors I.K. Herterich and A. Liezen-Meyer (graduated with a gold medal).

Then I had to spend a year (1885-1886) in the Odessa artillery barracks, serving military service.

In 1887 L.O. Pasternak again went to Munich, spent some time at the Academy. Returning home, he painted a portrait of his niece Augustine Yakubson, the daughter of Katya's sister and her husband, a merchant of the 2nd guild, Leonty Yakubson (the canvas was introduced into scientific circulation by the Odessa local historian S.Z. Lushchik).

In February 1889, the young artist Leonid Osipovich Pasternak married the famous pianist Rosalia Isidorovna Kaufman (1867-1939), whom he met during the period of cooperation with The Bee (her portrait, however, the work of another artist, adorned one of the covers magazine). The wedding took place in Moscow; shortly before the marriage, the first creative success came - P.M. Tretyakov purchased for his gallery the still unfinished painting “News from the Motherland” (“Letter from Home”, 1889), without waiting for its appearance at the 17th exhibition of the Association of the Wanderers (from 1888 to 1901, L.O. Pasternak was a permanent exhibitor TPHV).


“Letter from home”, 1889

On February 10, 1890, the first-born son Borya, the future poet and prose writer Boris Pasternak, appeared in the family. In addition to the eldest, Boris (1890-1960), Alexander (1893-1982), Josephine (1900-1993) and Lydia (1902-1989) were born to the Pasternak spouses. Throughout his career, his wife and children were the master's favorite models (about Leonid Pasternak, jokingly, they said that his children feed their parents, hinting at his success in depicting children's life). The family lived in Moscow, but spent every summer in Odessa; the younger Pasternaks were friends with Alexander, Evgeny and Olga Freidenberg, the children of Leonid Osipovich's sister Anna. Participation in the exhibitions of TYURH (a member of the association since 1892) was also connected with Pasternak's hometown.

In Moscow, L.O. Pasternak entered the “Polenov circle”, met V.D. and E.D. Polenov, K.A. Korovin, I.I. Levitan, V.A. Serov, A.E. Arkhipov, S.A. Vinogradov, M.V. Nesterov and other artists. In con. 1880s - early. 1890s gave private drawing lessons, taught in the fine arts classes of the artist-architect O.A. Gunsta. In 1889-1894. ran his own drawing school. In 1891 he completed illustrations for the collected works of M.Yu. Lermontov.

In 1893, at the Traveling Exhibition, the artist met L.N. Tolstoy. During his first visit to the writer in Khamovniki L.O. Pasternak showed him his illustrations for "War and Peace", executed in 1892 by order of the magazine "North". The drawings delighted Tolstoy. He then decided at the first opportunity to invite Pasternak to cooperate. A few years later, the artist was lucky to become one of the first readers (still in manuscript) of the novel “Resurrection” and the author of famous illustrations for it (1898-1899). L.O. Pasternak often visited L.N. Tolstoy in his house in Khamovniki and in the Yasnaya Polyana estate; made portraits of the writer and members of his family. Many years after Tolstoy's death, the artist wrote: “Summing up the past, remembering Lev Nikolaevich, I ask myself how I deserved the happiness bestowed on me by fate, not only to be a contemporary of this legendary man, but also to know him personally, visit him, talk with him, draw and write him... How to convey the bliss I experienced when one day, in a conversation with me, N. Ge remarked: "Tolstoy loves you - this is a great happiness."

In 1894, for the painting “On the Eve of the Exams”, the artist was awarded a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Munich, in 1900 for illustrations for the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "Resurrection" was awarded a silver medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1902, the painting “L.N. Tolstoy in the Family Circle” was acquired by Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich for the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.


On the eve of exams


L.N. Tolstoy with family

In 1900 L.O. Pasternak visited Europe (with a group of South Russian artists, including K. Kostandi, P. Nilus, G. Golovkov, A. Stilianudi), in 1904-1906 and 1912. traveled to Italy and Germany, in 1907 he visited Holland, Belgium, England.

L.O. Pasternak in 1903 became one of the founding members of the Union of Russian Artists, at whose annual exhibitions he exhibited his portraits, landscapes and interiors; took part in exhibitions of the "World of Art" (1903-1905), MOLI, Russian and Finnish artists, the "36 Artists" society, etc.; in 1907 he was among the organizers of the Free Aesthetics association. In 1905, the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts L.O. Pasternak was awarded the title of academician.

From 1894 to 1921, as a professor, L.O. Pasternak taught at MUZhViZ (after the revolution it was renamed the Second State Free Art Workshops, then at VKHUTEMAS), first he led the natural, then the figure classes. His students were M. Saryan, S. Gerasimov, V. Ko-na-shevich, V. Perelman, B. Takke, V. Shtranikh and others.


“Congratulations” (1915, State Tretyakov Gallery).

In addition to teaching, the artist worked during these years on portraits of his contemporaries; he captured on paper and canvas writers M. Gorky, V. Bryusov, Vyach. Ivanov, K. Balmont, E. Verkharn, S. An-sky, M. Gershenzon, composers A. Skryabin, S. Rachmaninov, singer F. Chaliapin, microbiologist I. Mechnikov, English director G. Craig, Prince P. Kropotkin and a lot others. Among the portraits, one cannot fail to note the group portrait of the artist’s children “Congratulations” (1915, State Tretyakov Gallery), remarkable in composition and spirituality.

Leonid Pasternak had a reputation as one of the best draftsmen and portrait painters of his time. His creative method was based on quick, almost instantaneous sketches, capturing “the very essence of the depicted”. The artist managed to preserve the feeling of fixing the impression in his paintings too - by choosing the most acute moment, as if by a random movement that reveals the image. And although Pasternak is often called a Russian impressionist, this is more true of the master's manner than his method and style. Thus, pastels gravitate more towards impressionism, while formal portraits reveal the features of the Art Nouveau style.

With wife and sons

In the first post-revolutionary years, L.O. Pasternak participated in a number of exhibitions; worked in the Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquity under the Moscow City Council. In 1920-1921. the artist fulfilled an official order for the creation of portraits of the leaders of the revolution, made a large number of sketches at meetings of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, at congresses of Soviets, at the Congress of the Comintern.

Life in the capital was difficult, and Leonid Osipovich and Rozalia Isidorovna needed treatment, which was impossible to get in Moscow. In 1921 they left for Germany. Together with them, daughters Josephine and Lydia left Russia, while their sons, Boris and Alexander, remained in Moscow. In February-March 1923, Boris Pasternak visited his parents in Berlin. During this visit, Leonid Osipovich created his last and, perhaps, one of the best drawings of his eldest son (currently kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery).

At the beginning of 1924, L.O. Pasternak took part in a historical and ethnographic expedition to Palestine, organized by the Parisian publisher A.E. Kogan. From this trip, the artist brought dozens of drawings and sketches, some of which were supposed to be included in a two-volume monograph on Palestine.

Self portrait with wife

In Germany, Leonid Osipovich continued his celebrity gallery. Here he made portraits of artists M. Lieberman and L. Corinth, writers A. Remizov and G. Hauptman, poet R.-M. Rilke, composers S. Prokofiev and G. Eisner, physicist A. Einstein, German Chancellor G. Stresemann, and others. Two personal exhibitions of the artist took place in Berlin (1927 and 1932); he exhibited at the Berlin Secession, exhibitions of Russian art in Paris, The Hague, Berlin, USA.

After the National Socialist Party came to power, Pasternak, as a Jew, was forbidden to engage in creativity and teaching; Leonid Osipovich and Rozalia Isidorovna again faced the question of changing their place of residence. At first they thought about returning to the USSR, the artist began to negotiate in the Soviet embassy, ​​but they were not successful.

In 1938, the Pasternaks left for England, where their daughters already lived. Shortly after arriving in London, on August 23, 1939, Rosalia Isidorovna died of a heart attack. Leonid Osipovich moved to the youngest daughter Lydia in Oxford. Despite the heavy loss and advanced age, the artist continued to work. So, during the war years, he created the paintings “Bach and Frederick the Great”, “Mendelssohn Conducting Handel’s Messiah”, “Tolstoy at the Desk”, “Pushkin and the Nanny”, “Scenes from Soviet Life”.


Tolstoy at his desk

In 1975, the book “L.O. Parsnip. Recordings of different years. The memoir material was collected and edited by Josephine Pasternak and prepared for publication by Alexander Pasternak.

Avrum Yitzchok-Leib Pasternak was born on March 22 (April 3), 1862, into a Jewish family in Odessa, in the house of M.F. in house number 9 on Rozhdestvenskaya Street in Slobodka (“Gruzdyev’s inn”), where the whole family moved when the future artist was still a child. Grandfather, Kiva-Yitzchok Posternak, was one of the founders of the Odessa Jewish funeral brotherhood ( chevra kadisha).

In addition to him, the family had five children. In early childhood, he showed a love for drawing, although at first his parents did not approve of this hobby. From to Leonid studied at the Odessa drawing school, but he did not immediately choose the career of an artist. In 1881 he entered Moscow University and studied at the medical faculty for two years. In the city he transferred to Novorossiysk University (Odessa) and studied there at the Faculty of Law until 1885 (in the lists of students for the 1883-1884 academic year and in the lists of graduates for 1885, it appears as Yitzchok P O sternak).

In parallel with his university studies, Pasternak continued to paint. In 1882, he studied at the Moscow school-studio of E. S. Sorokin. In the mid-1880s, he also studied at the Munich Academy of Arts, where he studied with Gerterich and Liezen-Meyer, in addition, he took etching lessons from I. I. Shishkin.

After the acquisition of his painting “Letter from Home” by P. M. Tretyakov for the Tretyakov Gallery, Pasternak decides to move to Moscow, where in the city he marries pianist Rosalia Isidorovna (Raitsa, or Rose, Srulevna) Kaufman, who previously worked as a piano teacher in Odessa Music School of the Russian Musical Society (in the synagogue record about the birth of the first son Boris in 1890, it already appears as Isaac Iosiev P O sternak).

Participates in the annual exhibitions of the Wanderers. Member of the association "World of Art". In the late 1880s - early 1890s, he served as a teacher at the School of Fine Arts of the artist-architect A. O. Gunst. In the city of Pasternak, he received an invitation to teach at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (later - VKHUTEMAS) and accepted it, specifically stipulating that he would not be baptized.

Family

Books

  • L. Pasternak. Rembrandt and Jewishness in his work. Berlin: S. D. Zaltsman Publishing House, 1923 (in Russian); Berlin: Yavne, 1923 (in Hebrew).

Works

  • At work. Etude. Oil
  • Portrait of A. G. Rubinstein (1886),
  • Illustrations for the novel by L. N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
  • Illustrations for the novel by L. N. Tolstoy "Resurrection". 1899
  • Illustrations for the drama "Masquerade" by M. Yu. Lermontov (1891),
  • Illustrations for the poem by M. Yu. Lermontov (1891)
  • "Meeting of the Council of Teachers of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture" (1902)
  • L. N. Tolstoy with his family in Yasnaya Polyana (1902)
  • "News from home"
  • Portrait of S. S. Shaikevich
  • Portrait of A. B. Vysotskaya. 1912. Pastel
  • Portrait of M. Gorky (1906),
  • Portrait of A. N. Scriabin (1909),
  • Portrait Il. M. Mechnikov (1911),
  • Portrait of Vyach. Ivanova (1915)
  • Music lessons. 1909. Pastel

    Pasternak leo tolstoy.jpg

    Lev Tolstoy

    Pasternakluchsolnzaint.jpg

    Sunbeam

    Pasternak VyachIvanov Berdyaev Bely.jpg

    Vyacheslav Ivanov, Lev Kobylinsky-Ellis, Nikolai Berdyaev and Andrey Bely

    Pasternakvorobyovygory.jpg

    Gold autumn. Sparrow Hills.

    Pasternak boris alex.jpg

    Sons Boris and Alexander

    Pasternak Apples.jpg

    Picking apples (1918)

    Pasternak-rilke.jpeg

    Rainer Maria Rilke

    Thumbnail creation error: File not found

    He will be waiting (Old Jew)

External images
illustrations for the novel "Sunday"
(L.N. Tolstoy)
img0.liveinternet.ru/images/attach/b/0/22396/22396279_06Utro_Nehludova.jpg
img0.liveinternet.ru/images/attach/b/0/22396/22396383_08V_teatre.jpg
img0.liveinternet.ru/images/attach/b/0/22396/22396457_10V_koridore_suda.jpg

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Notes

Links

  • at Rodovod. Tree of ancestors and descendants
  • on the Runivers website
  • "Boris Pasternak. Life of wonderful people. book dm. Bykov contains a lot of interesting information about the poet's father.

An excerpt characterizing Pasternak, Leonid Osipovich

“Look, Natasha, how terribly it burns,” said Sonya.
- What is on fire? Natasha asked. – Oh, yes, Moscow.
And as if in order not to offend Sonya by her refusal and to get rid of her, she moved her head to the window, looked so that she obviously could not see anything, and again sat down in her former position.
- Didn't you see it?
“No, really, I saw it,” she said in a pleading voice.
Both the countess and Sonya understood that Moscow, the fire of Moscow, whatever it was, of course, could not matter to Natasha.
The count again went behind the partition and lay down. The countess went up to Natasha, touched her head with her upturned hand, as she did when her daughter was sick, then touched her forehead with her lips, as if to find out if there was a fever, and kissed her.
- You are cold. You're all trembling. You should go to bed,” she said.
- Lie down? Yes, okay, I'll go to bed. I'm going to bed now, - said Natasha.
Since Natasha was told this morning that Prince Andrei was seriously wounded and was traveling with them, she only in the first minute asked a lot about where? How? is he dangerously injured? and can she see him? But after she was told that she was not allowed to see him, that he was seriously injured, but that his life was not in danger, she obviously did not believe what she was told, but convinced that no matter how much she said, she would be answer the same thing, stopped asking and talking. All the way, with big eyes, which the countess knew so well and whose expression the countess was so afraid of, Natasha sat motionless in the corner of the carriage and was now sitting in the same way on the bench on which she sat down. She was thinking about something, something she was deciding or had already decided in her mind now - the countess knew this, but what it was, she did not know, and this frightened and tormented her.
- Natasha, undress, my dear, lie down on my bed. (Only the countess alone was made a bed on the bed; m me Schoss and both young ladies had to sleep on the floor in the hay.)
“No, mom, I’ll lie down here on the floor,” Natasha said angrily, went to the window and opened it. The groan of the adjutant was heard more distinctly from the open window. She stuck her head out into the damp night air, and the countess saw her thin shoulders tremble with sobs and beat against the frame. Natasha knew that it was not Prince Andrei who was moaning. She knew that Prince Andrei was lying in the same connection where they were, in another hut across the passage; but this terrible unceasing groan made her sob. The Countess exchanged glances with Sonya.
"Lie down, my dear, lie down, my friend," said the countess, lightly touching Natasha's shoulder with her hand. - Well, go to bed.
“Ah, yes ... I’ll lie down now, now,” said Natasha, hastily undressing and tearing off the strings of her skirts. Throwing off her dress and putting on a jacket, she tucked her legs up, sat down on the bed prepared on the floor and, throwing her short, thin braid over her shoulder, began to weave it. Thin long habitual fingers quickly, deftly took apart, weaved, tied a braid. Natasha's head, with a habitual gesture, turned first to one side, then to the other, but her eyes, feverishly open, fixedly stared straight ahead. When the night costume was over, Natasha quietly sank down on a sheet spread on hay from the edge of the door.
“Natasha, lie down in the middle,” said Sonya.
“No, I’m here,” Natasha said. "Go to bed," she added with annoyance. And she buried her face in the pillow.
The countess, m me Schoss, and Sonya hurriedly undressed and lay down. One lamp was left in the room. But in the yard it was bright from the fire of Maly Mytishchi, two miles away, and the drunken cries of the people were buzzing in the tavern, which was broken by the Mamon Cossacks, on the warp, in the street, and the incessant groan of the adjutant was heard all the time.
For a long time Natasha listened to the internal and external sounds that reached her, and did not move. At first she heard her mother's prayer and sighs, the creaking of her bed under her, the familiar whistling snore of m me Schoss, Sonya's quiet breathing. Then the Countess called Natasha. Natasha did not answer her.
“He seems to be sleeping, mother,” Sonya answered quietly. The Countess, after a pause, called again, but no one answered her.
Soon after, Natasha heard her mother's even breathing. Natasha did not move, despite the fact that her small bare foot, knocked out from under the covers, shivered on the bare floor.
As if celebrating the victory over everyone, a cricket screamed in the crack. The rooster crowed far away, relatives responded. In the tavern, the screams died down, only the same stand of the adjutant was heard. Natasha got up.
- Sonya? are you sleeping? Mother? she whispered. No one answered. Natasha slowly and cautiously got up, crossed herself and carefully stepped with her narrow and flexible bare foot on the dirty cold floor. The floorboard creaked. She, quickly moving her feet, ran like a kitten a few steps and took hold of the cold bracket of the door.
It seemed to her that something heavy, evenly striking, was knocking on all the walls of the hut: it was beating her heart, which was dying from fear, from horror and love, bursting.
She opened the door, stepped over the threshold and stepped onto the damp, cold earth of the porch. The chill that gripped her refreshed her. She felt the sleeping man with her bare foot, stepped over him and opened the door to the hut where Prince Andrei lay. It was dark in this hut. In the back corner, by the bed, on which something was lying, on a bench stood a tallow candle burnt with a large mushroom.
In the morning, Natasha, when she was told about the wound and the presence of Prince Andrei, decided that she should see him. She didn't know what it was for, but she knew that the date would be painful, and she was even more convinced that it was necessary.
All day she lived only in the hope that at night she would see him. But now that the moment had come, she was terrified of what she would see. How was he mutilated? What was left of him? Was he like that, what was that unceasing groan of the adjutant? Yes, he was. He was in her imagination the personification of that terrible moan. When she saw an indistinct mass in the corner and took his knees raised under the covers by his shoulders, she imagined some kind of terrible body and stopped in horror. But an irresistible force pulled her forward. She cautiously took one step, then another, and found herself in the middle of a small cluttered hut. In the hut, under the images, another person was lying on benches (it was Timokhin), and two more people were lying on the floor (they were a doctor and a valet).
The valet got up and whispered something. Timokhin, suffering from pain in his wounded leg, did not sleep and looked with all his eyes at the strange appearance of a girl in a poor shirt, jacket and eternal cap. The sleepy and frightened words of the valet; "What do you want, why?" - they only made Natasha come up to the one that lay in the corner as soon as possible. As terrifying as this body was, it must have been visible to her. She passed the valet: the burning mushroom of the candle fell off, and she clearly saw Prince Andrei lying on the blanket with outstretched arms, just as she had always seen him.
He was the same as always; but the inflamed complexion of his face, the brilliant eyes fixed enthusiastically on her, and especially the tender childish neck protruding from the laid back collar of his shirt, gave him a special, innocent, childish look, which, however, she had never seen in Prince Andrei. She walked over to him and, with a quick, lithe, youthful movement, knelt down.
He smiled and extended his hand to her.

For Prince Andrei, seven days have passed since he woke up at the dressing station in the Borodino field. All this time he was almost in constant unconsciousness. The fever and inflammation of the intestines, which were damaged, in the opinion of the doctor who was traveling with the wounded, must have carried him away. But on the seventh day he ate with pleasure a piece of bread with tea, and the doctor noticed that the general fever had decreased. Prince Andrei regained consciousness in the morning. The first night after leaving Moscow was quite warm, and Prince Andrei was left to sleep in a carriage; but in Mytishchi the wounded man himself demanded to be carried out and to be given tea. The pain inflicted on him by being carried to the hut made Prince Andrei moan loudly and lose consciousness again. When they laid him down on the camp bed, he lay with his eyes closed for a long time without moving. Then he opened them and whispered softly: “What about tea?” This memory for the small details of life struck the doctor. He felt his pulse and, to his surprise and displeasure, noticed that the pulse was better. To his displeasure, the doctor noticed this because, from his experience, he was convinced that Prince Andrei could not live, and that if he did not die now, he would only die with great suffering some time later. With Prince Andrei they carried the major of his regiment Timokhin, who had joined them in Moscow, with a red nose, wounded in the leg in the same Battle of Borodino. They were accompanied by a doctor, the prince's valet, his coachman and two batmen.
Prince Andrei was given tea. He drank greedily, looking ahead at the door with feverish eyes, as if trying to understand and remember something.
- I don't want any more. Timokhin here? - he asked. Timokhin crawled up to him along the bench.
“I'm here, Your Excellency.
- How is the wound?
– My then with? Nothing. Here you are? - Prince Andrei again thought, as if remembering something.
- Could you get a book? - he said.
- Which book?
– Gospel! I have no.
The doctor promised to get it and began to question the prince about how he felt. Prince Andrei reluctantly but reasonably answered all the doctor's questions and then said that he should have put a roller on him, otherwise it would be awkward and very painful. The doctor and the valet raised the overcoat with which he was covered, and, wincing at the heavy smell of rotten meat spreading from the wound, began to examine this terrible place. The doctor was very dissatisfied with something, he altered something differently, turned the wounded man over so that he again groaned and, from pain during the turning, again lost consciousness and began to rave. He kept talking about getting this book as soon as possible and putting it there.


Boris Pasternak's father, Isaac (Yitzhok) Iosifovich, was born on March 22, 1862
in Odessa. He was the sixth and youngest child in the family. His father kept a small
hotel. At the age of three months, Isaac fell ill with croup and almost suffocated.
from a violent fit of coughing; father threw a faience pot on the floor - a boy
got scared and stopped coughing; as usual in Jewish families, after a difficult
disease, he was given a different name to mislead the demon, and he became
Leonid.

Drovni. Pencil. 1892


Moscow Red Square. Pencil. 1894


Street. Pencil. June 12, 1898

Isaac-Leonid did not dream of any other career, except for an artistic one, but his parents
wanted to give him a more reliable occupation and sent him to study medicine. After studying for a year
he escaped from the medical faculty of Moscow University and switched to law
faculty, leaving more time for artistic pursuits. From legal to
In Moscow, he transferred to a law school in Odessa - there the rules were even more liberal,
allowed to travel abroad for a long time without deduction; legal education Leonid
As a result, Pasternak received, but with a two-year break at the Munich Royal
academy of arts.


Pair with tie-down. Pencil. 1903


Volkhonka, 14. Pencil. 1913


Moscow. It. pencil, charcoal. 1916


In the garden. Pencil. 1918

After graduating from Novorossiysk University, he had to spend a year at
military service and chose artillery. After military service, Leonid Osipovich met
with the young pianist Rosalia Kaufman, who became his wife. To the moment
acquaintance with Leonid Pasternak, she was one of the most popular concert
pianists in Russia. They married on February 14, 1889. A year later, in Moscow, was born
their first child is son Boris. In the same 1889, at the exhibition of the Wanderers, a painting
Pasternak's "Letter from the Motherland" is bought for his gallery by Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov.



At the piano. (R.I. Pasternak) Ink. 1890


At the table, sleeping. Pencil. 1890


Behind the book (R.I.Pasternak) Ink. Dec 20 1890


On the sofa (R.I. Pasternak). Ink. 1892


Sleeping high school student (B. Pasternak). It. pencil. July 22, 1902


Boris Pasternak at the piano. Coal. 1909


B. Pasternak. Coal 1918


Boris Pastenrak. Charcoal, pencil. 1918

In 1893, Pasternak met Tolstoy: at the next exhibition of the Association
Wanderers Lev Nikolaevich praised his painting "Debutante", Leonid Osipovich
admitted that he was going to illustrate "War and Peace", and asked for an audience for
clarification. Tolstoy made an appointment, he liked Pasternak's sketches unusually,
the artist was invited to visit the house, he came with his wife. Leonid Osipovich painted
a writer with family and friends, engaged in creative work and physical labor.
Many of the artist's works of this period are now in the Tretyakov Gallery.


L.N. Tolstoy. Coal. 1906

In 1900, the young Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke came to Moscow.
Wanting to visit Tolstoy, Rilke met his favorite illustrator,
receiving a letter of recommendation and the most gracious welcome.


R.-M. Rilke in Moscow. Coal.

Leonid Pasternak was friendly with Levitan, with whom they had long
talk about the fate of the Jews in Russia; with Nesterov, Polenov, Vrubel,
S. Ivanov; The Polenovs introduced him to old Ge. Leonid Osipovich writes
portraits of cultural and art figures: Gorky, Bryusov, Scriabin,
Rachmaninov, Chief Rabbi of Moscow Maze.


A.N. Skryabin. It. pencil. Oct 30 1913


Scriabin at the rehearsal of "Prometheus". Coal. 1915

On September 16, Leonid and Rosalia Pasternak and their daughters leave for treatment in Germany:
the artist needed eye surgery. After the operation, Leonid Osipovich was offered many
new and interesting works, and the artist never returned to the USSR. In 1933 Pasternak
leaves for England with his wife, to live with his daughters.

The artist's works are presented today in many
museums and private collections in Europe, America, Asia and Australia

Other reproductions by Leonid Osipovich:


Near the window. Pencil. 1894


Narrow street. Color. pencil. July 12, 1900


At the gate. Coal. 1904


Landscape with gothic church. Pastel. About-in Rügen. 1906


On a walk. It. pencil. Raiki, 1907


London, Parliament. Coal. Aug 1 1907


House on the outskirts. Pastel. 1908


For tea. Watercolor. Raiki, July 11, 1909


By the sea. Coal. 1911


Venice, bridges. Pastel. 1912


Venice. Color. paper. Pastel. 1912..


Field work. Pencil. 1918

Reproductions from the book "Boris Pasternak. Airways".
(Moscow. Soviet writer. 1982).

Text based on the book of the ZhZL series by Dmitry Bykov "Boris Pasternak" and
article by Maya Bass "The Happy Fate of L. Pasternak"


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