"There's a Russian spirit, where Rus smells ..." - these famous lines from Pushkin's "Lukomorye" can rightly be attributed to the work of another person who glorified the fatherland - Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov - to the whole world. He is the pride of Russian art, an architect and an artist-folklorist, whose works are deeply folk, truthful and extremely talented.
From the depths of centuries
Almost all of Viktor Vasnetsov's paintings are turned to gray-haired antiquity. On his canvases, the distant past of Ancient Rus revives . Myths and fairy tales, created by a bright folk fantasy, inspired the artist to create so beloved by us "Alyonushka" and "Ivan the Prince", galloping through the forest thicket on his good helper - Ser Volke. About the heroic time of the formation of the Kiev principality, internal strife and the struggle against the Polovtsians tell us such pictures of Viktor Vasnetsov as "The Knight at the Crossroads" and "After the Battle of Prince Igor". The history of the land of the Russian and its long-suffering people, so rich and generous with soul and with such a heavy share, unfolds before our eyes, as if in a kaleidoscope - it is only necessary to move from one painting to another. The artist originally combined in the work of real historical, mystical and epic motives, becoming the creator of his own genre in painting. This is evidenced by the paintings of Viktor Vasnetsov: "The battle of Dobryni with the Serpent", "The Warriors of the Apocalypse" and many others.
The singer of life is "natural"
However, the contribution of the master to the development of everyday life is no less significant. Greatness and simplicity, high and mundane, solemn and everyday, everyday, equally grasp the artist. This is evidenced by the paintings of Viktor Vasnetsov from the "peredvizhnicheskogo" period. A peasant girl walking along a narrow path with a rocker, a group of village folks by the tree, inveterate gamblers sitting out till morning for preference, shopping malls and benches in the Novgorod square, the noise and din of the crowd are all interesting and close to the artist, everything attracts him, in everything. He sees the poetry of the "life of the real," the life of the people. And to spectators acquainted with his works, this element of simple and natural everyday life also becomes dear. Therefore, Viktor Vasnetsov's paintings are deeply folk and human, truly Russian in spirit and essence.
Portrait Artist
And what was the artist himself? To find out, let's turn to his self-portrait. Yes, the range of creativity of the master is so wide that he created a lot of works in this genre. From the picture Vasnetsov Viktor Mikhailovich ("Self-portrait", 1873), we are looking at a middle-aged man with strikingly wise and kind eyes. The face is thin, even somewhat emaciated and sorrowful, but surprisingly spiritualized, attentive. Thin features, beard and long hair, and most importantly, the expression of love and understanding, compassion in the eyes bring a person in a portrait with Jesus Christ or Prince Myshkin from Dostoevsky's novel. "Not of this world," standing above material temptations, struggles for benefits and privileges, completely surrendered to the service of art and the homeland, Vasnetsov is indeed akin to these personalities. The similarity - internal and external - is especially noticeable if we compare this author's work with another written by another master. The portrait of Vasnetsov's brush by ND Kuznetsov shows the artist in work clothes, with a palette and brushes in his hands. That's how - from the everyday situation to immortality - he stepped.
Democratic motives
Many paintings by the artist Viktor Vasnetsov raise the theme of people's grief and suffering. On the canvas "From an apartment to an apartment" we see an elderly couple, forced to move out of their homes. It is worthwhile to look more closely at the mournful, hunched figures, and in the heart sneaks a note of deep sadness and sincere sympathy. It is clear that the poor people are not voluntarily wandering now along the ice-bound embankment of Petersburg. Most likely, they were expelled by the owner for non-payment, and now tired and frozen, defenseless in the face of a ruthless autocratic system, the husband and wife sadly walk along the street. In their hands they keep knots with their poor belongings. The motive for loneliness and homelessness is enhanced by the fact that there is no other person on the waterfront. Only the seagulls fly in the whitish sky, but the angry dog bared teeth at the travelers. What the artist wanted to say with his work is understandable without words. Democratic motifs are pervaded by other paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov, whose names you already know.
And again, "Alyonushka"
Far not always the master, having set to work, immediately brings his creation to the end. For many years, Onegin wrote Pushkin. Four times, Tolstoy rewrote War and Peace. Such examples are known and painting. Gradually worked on his famous "Alyonushka" Vasnetsov. In the beginning, in 1880, he wrote a forest landscape: mighty trees, impassable thicket and a reed overgrown with reeds, with dark, deep water. And a year later he was added to the lyrical figure of the girl, so fragile and defenseless against the background of harsh nature. The author clearly wanted the audience to sympathize with the heroine of the picture. And they loved Alyonushka - from the heart and soul.