Artist Borisov-Musatov: paintings and their description

The lyrical mood of searching for true beauty, the artistic embodiment of the dream of the ideal was conveyed in painting by Victor Borisov-Musatov. His paintings are akin to poetry and music, they are filled with a peculiar coloring of refined sadness. All the work of the artist is permeated with something ghostly and very personal. Maybe because he wrote his paintings with his beloved sister and beloved wife.

Appearing in the light in 1870 in Saratov, he lived a short but creative life, leaving us the mysteries of romantic images in the depicted world.

A look through the glass of the passing time

Carried away in his youth painting, Viktor Borisov-Musatov paintings begins to write very early. At the age of sixteen, trying to convey his artistic vision of the surrounding domestic life, he creates one of his first masterpieces - the painting "Window". A great and mysterious life full of illusions and riddles, the artist conveys in the image of a huge flowering garden, the corner of which can be seen through the window of the house.

The paintings of Victor Borisov-Musatov seem to us as an illusory world, in which we look from afar, through the darkened glass of the past era.

The artist improves his skills by studying at the Petersburg Academy of Arts, in a private workshop of P. Chistyakov, and later in Paris, in the workshop of the historical painter Fernand Cormon. In France, he visits the Louvre, admires the collection of masterpieces exhibited by him. Borisov-Musatov admired the work of Botticelli.

Great influence on him had the canvases of the French artist Puvi de Chavanna, close in spirit and creative mood.

Trying various techniques of drawing with pastel, tempera and watercolor, creating landscape and portrait sketches, gaining experience and skill in the most advanced art studios of the time, under the influence of impressionism, the artist Borisov-Musatov is formed. His paintings have their own unique handwriting of the creator, they convey a unique author's vision of the world.

The world is a ghostly and tender

The confrontation of the rational prose of reality with romantic moods of sadness at the turn of the century, over the past century, pushes creative people to the idea of returning to the past. Borisov-Musatov is also inclined to this, whose pictures, like the illustrations of past days, are full of peace and harmony, typical of memories.

In search of the ideal

A stormy creative flourishing in the art of the turn of the century created a lot of talented individuals, original artists, among them Valentin Serov, Isaak Levitan and Mikhail Vrubel.

The creative association "World of Art" rallied the authors in an effort to express the artist's personality through creativity, while recreating the style of the time.

Borisov-Musatov walked in his own unique way in art. Victor Elpidiforovich did not try to attach his paintings to a specific historical period. Drawing the old days, he called it "just a beautiful era," in which he was so comfortable to continue searching for his ideal.

Creative flourishing, illuminated by love

By the age of thirty the artist has acquired earthly happiness. Having made an offer to Elena Vladimirovna Alexandrova, whom he had long loved, he gets consent. Next to him is now not only a beloved woman, but also a talented artist, companion and assistant. The happy Borisov-Musatov paintings create one after another, filling them with female forms, which he writes from nature (his wife and sister are posing for him). In 1901 there appeared an interesting painting "Tapestry", followed by "The Waters", and a year later - the pictures "Ghosts" and "Emerald Necklace".

Girls from under his hand come out like poetic dreams: vague elusive features and almost transparent, magical, colorful combinations. The ancient noblemen's estates are the backdrop for creative visions and are, in fact, thus the vast illusory world in which the author looks through the window of his meditative and sad perception.

The World Reflected on the Water

The maturity of artistic talent, the peak of his creative heyday is a picture of Borisov-Musatov "The Reservoir", written in 1902.

Together with his wife and sister, the artist visits the estate of the princes of the Prozorovsky-Golitsyns in Saratov province. Owners rarely visited the estate, and it was in desolation.

It was there, in Zubrilovka, in the overgrown old park in the background of the old manor Borisov-Musatov makes sketches and creates sketches for the picture. His inspired perception of the space of a deaf manor creates a space for imagination. By the power of his imagination the author gives a touch of poetry and mystery to the fading around him.

Compositional finds of "Pond"

The painting came out strictly compositional, clear lines and complex forms give it monumentality. The great tranquility of nature we see through its reflection on the water surface. The blue of the heavens and the greenery of the trees, written in an impressionistic manner, alternate in a strictly rhythm designed by the artist, creating a magnificent serene background for the two female figures. Gently-lilac shades of girls' outfits perfectly fit into the color range of the canvas, thus creating a sense of completeness and balance of form.

The light contrast of the rest of nature and excitement on the faces of women is emphasized compositionally: the reservoir has a rounded shape, and the human figures are slightly shifted to the side. Unrealistic picture gives some details, the oval of the pond is beyond the canvas, as well as duplicating it in the form of a skirt of one of the girls. This combination resembles a rhythm in music, making a structural canvas.

Another feature of the picture was the absence of a horizon line. Using this technique helped the artist to bring together the foreground images with the background. Heroines are located at the bottom of the picture, and the water surface is above them, as in a raised mirror.

The unusual color palette, the freshness of the colors and the intimate lyrical presentation of the material amazed contemporaries, who appreciated the skill of the artist.

The colors of the dying autumn

The year 1905 the artist holds in Tarusa, these are the last days of his life and work. It is there that there are landscapes "On the balcony., Tarusa", "Hazel bush", "Autumn song". A gentle palette conveys the light sadness of a withering nature, this escaping elusive moment is so close to the inner state of the author.

The painting "Autumn Song" by Borisov-Musatov is full of quiet reverie. Romantic mood conveys refined colors and generalized images. Juicy and bright fragments alternate with an earthy gray color. In the silhouettes, a musical rhythm is seen.

How the black and white keys of the piano give birth to music, so the autumn foliage and green fields form the basis of the canvas. Slightly blurred outlines, smooth flowing of colors from one color to another, reflected heavens in the water - all this acts soothingly, but at the same time causes a dreary mood.

The painting "Autumn Song" by Borisov-Musatov is a mysterious painting, a search for the true beauty of the depicted time of the year, a great love for the native nature.

Canvases with moods

Borisov-Musatov does not plan any plot and narrative in his canvases. Pictures are the movements of his soul, expressed through a frozen moment on the canvas, conveying the mood of the artist.

Nature is not just a background, it becomes an equivalent part of the paintings. In this unity with the elements, the secret of the artist's creativity.

Borisov-Musatov is carried away by the mystery, and the veil of it is in every creature of his. Romantic perception of the world pushes the author to write ghostly and otherworldly worlds, peeping through the depicted reality.

The artist believed in the all-conquering power of art, trying to convey in his canvases the true beauty and the desire for an ideal and eternity.

Sudden death interrupted short-lived creative career of Viktor Borisov-Musatov in October 1905. Leaving behind a small but unique creative heritage, this artist had a great influence on the further development of Russian art.