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Mikhail
Alexandrovich Vrubel (1865-1910) is a Russian artist of remarkable talent
and an unusual outlook on life. His paintings were produced in alternately
hostile and sympathetic atmosphere. In his lifetime, he knew both praise
and disdain, the spectator’s opinions ranging from “wild ugliness” to “fascinating
symphonies of a genius”. Gradually, however, Vrubel’s painting came to
be viewed as an integral part of Russian culture. Some scholars were inclined
to relate his painting directly to the Early Renaissance or Late Byzantine
art and looked upon Vrubel as a proud artistic individual who held aloof
from contemporary trends. On the other hand, many art historians of today
tend to consider Vrubel as the founder of Russian Art Nouveau.
Born into the family of a military lawyer, Vrubel first finished the St.
Petersburg University (in 1880) to become a lawyer, but the same year entered
the Academy of Arts. In his autobiography, written in 1901, Vrubel referred
to his Academy years as the happiest in his life as an artist. For that
he was indebted to professor Pavel
Tchistyakov, who was famous for his method of teaching painting and
drawing. Among Tchistyakov’s pupils were such outstanding painters as Vasily
Surikov, Viktor Vasnetsov
and
Vasily Polenov who all thought
very highly of their teacher. Vrubel owed much to the Academy and never
shared the distaste felt by many advanced painters of the time. Vrubel’s
art, academic in a sense, was based on the cult of the model and drawing.
His Academy drawings on classical subjects are striking for their elegant
workmanship.
However, even during his training, Vrubel never was a devoted follower
of the Academy style. Along with an expressiveness and rich imagination,
his works, already at this period, reveal a taste for improvisation, fragmentary
composition, his characteristic “unfinished” manner peculiarly fused with
classical style and monumentality. In 1884, the famous art historian Adrian
Prakhov, who supervised the re-construction of the old and construction
of the new cathedrals in Kiev, invited Vrubel to take part in the restoration
of the Old Russian murals and mosaics in the 12th century Church of St.
Cyril. The knowledge Vrubel acquired in the process of this work contributed
to the perfection of his style as a painter. In St. Cyril’s Church, Vrubel
executed new murals in place of the lost ones, The
Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles (Pentecost) and
Three
Angels over the Body of Christ. Later, he was commissioned to paint
icons for the iconostasis of the church, which he did in Venice where he
spent several months in the years 1884-85. In Venice, Vrubel was particularly
impressed by the medieval mosaics in the Church of San Marco and
the Early Renaissance paintings by Giovanni Bellini and Cima
da Conegliano. It was in Venice that Vrubel’s palette acquired new
strong saturated tones resembling the iridescent play of precious stones.
In Venice, Vrubel produced four large icons, including The
Virgin. He drew the face of the Virgin from the studies of
E. Prakhova, wife of A. Prakhov.
Back in Kiev, Vrubel started a series of watercolor studies for the recently
built Cathedral of St. Vladimir, among them several versions of The
Lamentation (1887) and The Resurrection (1887).
The jury rejected all his projects. In Kiev Vrubel started to work on the
theme of the Demon. The Kiev versions of the Demon, both the pictures and
sculptures, have not survived. In fact, Vrubel did not take pains to preserve
his works, being more interested in the process of creation than in the
result.
Other works of the Kiev period include the large canvas Portrait
of a Girl against a Persian Carpet and The
Oriental Tale (1886), the latter inspired by The Arabian Nights,
Hamlet
and Ophelia (1884) and numerous watercolors with flowers. The
murals, canvases, or small watercolors done in Kiev have none of the Art
Nouveau style, which was to appear only in Vrubel’s works of the Moscow
period.
Vrubel planned to stop in Moscow for a few days during his business trip,
but the acquaintances from Moscow's artistic life kept him in Moscow for
years. During his first year in Moscow, Vrubel went on working on the paintings
he had conceived in Kiev. Among others are The
Seated Demon (1890) and a series of illustrations for Mikhail
Lermontov’s poem The Demon (1890) and his novel A Hero of Our
Time (1890-1891). The illustrations made his name known to the public
but brought him notoriety rather than fame: too unusual for the tastes
of 1880s, they caused bewilderment and derision. But in the artistic circles
of Russia, Vrubel was received favorably. He found support from Savva
Mamontov, a famous Moscow patron of arts, who invited the artist to
work at the pottery shop on his estate in Abramtsevo near Moscow and commissioned
him to paint the scenery for his Private Opera in Moscow. Mamontov also
built up a clientele commissioning Vrubel to paint decor for mansions.
Together with Mamontov and his family Vrubel traveled in Europe.
Later on, Vrubel tried himself at various artistic media such as applied
art (ceramics, majolica, stained glass), architectural masks, stage set
and costume design, and even architecture. His talent proved truly universal:
in everything he did, and he could do almost everything, was the search
for a lucid beautiful style. This search eventually made Vrubel the true
founder of Russian Art Nouveau, a style that partially grew out of Russian
neo-romanticism.
The most characteristic feature of this style is its cult of beauty – melancholic,
enigmatic and refined – and its tendency to the synthesis of arts in everything,
be it an illustrated book, a theater performance, or décor. Art
Nouveau never was confined to easel painting or sculpture alone. It found
its way into people’s households becoming an essential part of interior
decoration. The somewhat affected mannerism generally typical of the style,
also manifested itself in Vrubel’s works of the Moscow period. His panels,
ceramic dishes, stylized furniture, costumes, and vignettes, perfect as
they are, are at the same time superficial, as if intended for a fancy
ball.
Vrubel’s best Moscow works include the Fortune-Teller
(1895), Lilac (1900), At
Nightfall (1900), Pan
(1899), The Swan Princess (1900)
as well as the portraits of Savva Mamontov
(1891), his business partner K. Artsybushev
(95-96), and Painter’s Wife in Empire Dress
(1898).
In 1896, in an opera in St. Petersburg, Vrubel heard the singer Nadezhda
Zabela, he fell in love with the voice immediately. After the performance
they got acquainted and, half a year later, married. At the time Vrubel
was referred to as the husband of the famous opera singer Nadezhda Zabela.
They settled in Moscow, and Nadezhda started to sing in Mamontov’s Private
Opera.
In the last years of the 19th century, Vrubel was preoccupied with motifs
of the Russian epic and fairy tales, this largely under the influence of
Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas, e.g. The Snow Maiden, The Tale of Tzar
Saltan, and others, where his wife sang the parts of the Snow Maiden,
the Swan Princess, princess Volkhova, etc. He designed dresses for his
wife, both for the stage and for real life, he drew stage sets, designed
costumes.
Later, he resumed work on the Demon theme. In 1901, he started his large
canvas Demon Downcast. Exhibited in 1902, the painting overwhelmed
the audience and won real fame for the artist. The painting, charged with
motion, is strongly decorative. Striving to create the astounding effect,
Vrubel, who at the time, was already unbalanced, repainted the Demon’s
face, his sinister eyes, his lips, twisted by pain. He repeatedly repainted
the picture even when it was on display until he had one of his breakdowns.
Having recovered, Vrubel never again returned to this theme. While in the
hospital, he painted a great deal from life – portraits, landscapes, still
lifes, as if in hope to rejuvenate the faded palette of his art through
painstaking study of nature. Most of these late works were painted from
life. They include numerous portraits of Vrubel’s wife, a portrait of his
little son (1902), several self-portraits, and, at last, his remarkable
Pearl
Oyster (1904) where the mystifying play of the mother-of-pearl
is rendered with the virtuosi brush of the artist.
Alongside these works, Vrubel produced many versions of the prophet, inspired
by the famous Pushkin’s poem. In one of the versions, the Prophet’s face
is actually a self-portrait while the figure of the six-winged Seraph is
apparently Azrael, the angel of death. Azrael
(1904), though not so famous as the Demon Downcast, is one
of Vrubel’s best achievements. In his many variations on the Prophet theme,
Vrubel relates a tragedy of the artist who, as he believed, failed to fulfill
his mission to “sear the hearts of men with righteous word”.
Unfortunately, many of Vrubel’s works have changed with time; he used to
add bronze powder to his oils to give them a glistening effect. Bronze
darkened, and Vrubel’s paintings lost their initial coloring.
In 1906, when Vrubel was hospitalized in Dr. Usoltsev’s mental clinic,
he continued to make studies for the Prophet and even his rapidly developing
blindness did not prevent him from doing this. At the same time, Vrubel
executed the Portrait of the Poet Valery
Briusov, destined to be his last work.
During the last four years of his life Vrubel lived in complete mental
decline.
Bibliography:
Vrubel by N.Dmitriyeva. Russian Painters of the XIX century.
Moscow. 1990.
Michail
Vrubel: The Artist of the Eves by Mikhail Guerman. Parkstone
Press, 1998.
The
Art of Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910) by Aline Isdebsky-Pritchard.
UMI Research Press, 1982.
The
Art and Architecture of Russia (Pelican History Art) by George
Heard Hamilton. Yale Univ Pr, 1992.
A
Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Artists 1420-1970 by John
Milner. Antique Collectors' Club, 1993.