Curvy beauties of Boris Kustodiev. The people's ideal of beauty: plump Russian beauties in the paintings of Boris Kustodiev

Probably no artist has caused so much controversy and conflicting assessments as Russian painter of the early twentieth century Boris Kustodiev. He was called the Russian Rubens, as he glorified the specific female beauty in his works - his greatest popularity was brought to him by his healthy merchant women and buxom naked Russian beauties. Kustodiev tried to capture the people's ideal of beauty, while he himself was not a fan of women with curvaceous.

The artistic direction that Kustodiev gravitated towards in the 1910s is called neoclassicism. It implied an orientation towards great examples classical art, on tradition academic painting. Such trends largely ran counter to avant-garde movements modernist art of the early twentieth century. Art Nouveau aesthetics focused on other standards of beauty: refined sensuality, refined kink, decadence and fatigue. Kustodiev's merchants' and peasant women were the complete opposite of these ideals.

Boris Kustodiev’s appeal to the aesthetic canons of the past was a kind of escape from reality - a severe illness (paralysis of the lower body due to a tumor in the spine) chained the artist to wheelchair, A Russian realities 1917-1920 forced to flee into a fantasy world from the old way of patriarchal Russia with merchant women and folk festivals in quiet provincial cities. Thanks to Kustodiev’s works, we can form an idea of the pre-revolutionary life of the Volga peasants and townspeople, whose life was so fully and colorfully reflected in the artist’s paintings.

Kustodiev is the author of a whole gallery of female images. He was often accused of depicting not the folk, but the common people's ideal of beauty, although his works are far from idealized - many see irony and grotesqueness in them. Some critics argue that it creative manner- this is a “dream about an unprecedented Russia”, where portly women symbolize the harmony, peace and comfort of the Russian world.

Representatives of the intelligentsia often became models for Kustodiev’s merchants; G. Aderkas, a medical student who lived next door, posed for him for “Merchant’s Wife at Tea.” Kustodiev’s wife did not have the same curvaceous figures as his models. But when they asked him why he painted portly women, he answered: “Thin women do not inspire creativity.”

The naked, curvaceous Russian beauties inspired not only the author. They say that Kustodiev’s “Beauty” (1915) drove one metropolitan crazy, who admitted: “Apparently, the devil led the artist’s daring hand when he wrote his “Beauty,” for he forever disturbed my peace. I saw her charm and tenderness and forgot my fasts and vigils. I’m going to the monastery, where I will atone for my sins.” Critics saw in this picture “admiration, eroticism, and irony.”

AND private collection in Russia, respectively.

History and creation

For real life Kustodiev had one taste, and another for painting. The models for his deeds of sale were often representatives of the intelligentsia, portly women. Kustodiev himself was not a fan of this type, and his wife, Yulia, did not have curvaceous figures, being fragile, inconspicuous in appearance. In this regard, Kustodiev noted that “thin women do not inspire creativity.” This time he invited the talented performer of Chekhov's plays, one of the leading actresses, and the host of the Moscow Art Theater Faina Shevchenko. Playing both magically daring beauties and shamelessly overfed women, wildly and carnivorously bored on feather beds, Shevchenko endowed her characteristic roles with a kind of sweeping picturesqueness and was, by definition theater critic P. A. Markova, “dazzling in simplicity, bright, internally filled, with a powerful temperament and with an open heart". Kustodiev first saw the young, ruddy and plump Shevchenko in August 1914 at a rehearsal of the play “The Death of Pazukhin” based on the novel by Saltykov-Shchedrin, for which he made the scenery, and became interested in her. In the production of Vasily Luzhsky, Shevchenko played the wife of the state councilor Nastasya Ivanovna Furnacheva, “a very plump lady,” according to Saltykov-Shchedrin, a thoughtless, lazy and constantly bored daughter of an Old Believer merchant, thirty years old, and sprinkled with pearls - the type that probably attracted Kustodiev and which gave him the idea of creating a painting. After the premiere, which took place on December 3, Kustodiev went into the actor’s dressing room, and Shevchenko agreed to a modest request to pose for him. However, having already learned about the plot of the painting in the workshop, she exclaimed: “What are you talking about! Me, actress Art Theater, will I sit naked?! And then thousands of people will see me, what a shame!” After persuasion from Kustodiev “for the sake of art,” Shevchenko nevertheless agreed to undress for collective image Russian woman, perhaps not without the help of Luzhsky himself. Having learned about what had happened, the main director of the Moscow Art Theater, Konstantin Stanislavsky, was angry and called Shevchenko a “libertine,” but realizing that talents were not being wasted, he changed his anger to mercy and gave the actress new roles.


Pencil sketch of Kustodiev	“Blanket”, study for “Beauty”	"Model. Right leg, left foot"

In Moscow, Kustodiev first made pencil drawing from life, and after returning home in St. Petersburg he began painting the main canvas. The artist’s son, Kirill Kustodiev, recalled:

In April 1915, we moved to Vvedenskaya Street (house 7, apartment 50), where there was a workshop with two large windows facing the street. On the other side of the street there is a square surrounding the Vvedenskaya Church. Soon my father began working here on the painting “Beauty,” which was a kind of result of his search own style, started back in 1912. The basis for the painting was a pencil and sanguine drawing made from life (Moscow Art Theater actress Sh. posed). The duvet that my mother gave to my father on his birthday was also painted from life. He worked on the painting every day, starting at six or seven in the morning and working all day. On the tenth of May, my mother and sister left for Terem, and we were left alone. Once, my grandmother, who lived in St. Petersburg that summer, brought us three plaster figurines bought at the Sytny market. My father really liked them, and he included them in the picture (on the chest of drawers, on the right). At home we had a wonderful old chest wall with painting on iron - red roses in a vase on a black background. My father used this motif for the patterns on the chest, although he changed the color.

According to his son, “at the beginning of August he [Kustodiev] finished “Beauty”. Later I heard from my father that in this picture he finally found his own style, which had not been given to him for so long. Remembering P. A. Fedotov, the small Dutch who admired him, he sought, like them, to captivate the viewer, to force him to pay attention to eloquent details. But the basis of the picture was Russian popular print, signs, toys craftsmen, Russian embroidery and costumes". The picture differs from the pencil sketch in the difference in facial features, as well as in the irony and exaggeration of the female image, which now had nothing in common with the real Shevchenko.

Composition

Original 1915 - 141 × 185.5 cm, oil on canvas; bottom right signature: “B. Kustodiev/1915". 1918 version - 81 × 93 cm, oil on canvas; Signature at bottom left: “B. Kustodiev/1918". 1919 version - 75.5 × 102 cm, oil on canvas; signed . 1921 version - 72 × 89 cm, oil on canvas; bottom right signature: “B. Kustodiev/1921".

In its own famous painting Kustodiev combined national-romantic images with the perfection of neoclassical forms, based on the traditions of classical art and academic painting, which for him, apparently, were the paintings of Titian and Rubens. Going against the prevailing modernism at that time, but taking into account new artistic trends, he contrasted the imposingness of his plump and full-blooded beauties with the anemic and refined affectations from the paintings of representatives of decadence.

In “Beauty,” Kustodiev turned to a genre of nudity that is rare for Russian art - a luxurious merchant’s wife, drowsy from sleep, rising from her luxurious bed amid the foam of white down pillows and lace, appears from under a satin blanket like Aphrodite from a mother-of-pearl shell. There is no sharp decadent break in the beauty, despite the unnaturally bent arm at the elbow, with which she rests on the feather bed; on the contrary, in the somewhat awkward pose of the beauty, slightly leaning back, in combination with the tiny feet with which she steps on a soft ottoman, one can see a strange grace and the unique charm of chaste purity. The abundant beauty of a kind of merchant, Russian “Venus of Urbino” by Titian - scarlet cherry lips, rosy cheeks, peach chin, turquoise eyes, golden wheat hair, swan neck, a magnificent figure and rounded shoulders, a sleek and smooth body - like “blood and milk”. In folk ideas, this is female beauty, it is akin to downy pink pillows and a blanket embroidered with lace in a marshmallow-colored cover, the roundness of its shape and folds so similar to its owner.

To the side of the high bed-chest, with bound corners and a canopy painted with floral patterns and roses, you can see the edge of a chest of drawers, filled with eye-catching things - beautiful sculptures and women's toiletries. In contrast to the background of cold blue, azure, turquoise and sapphire shades of wallpaper with bouquets and garlands of roses, a heavy chest of drawers and a rather awkward chest were decorated by Kustodiev in a fairy-tale, epic style, to match the plumage of the firebird: red, purple, coral, crimson, ruby, scarlet, in general, all kinds of shades of red and pink flowers. The interior, made in a typical “merchant style”, is decorated with all sorts of images of lush and blossoming roses, symbols of the revival of beauty and flowering, consonant with the morning awakening of this beautiful blooming merchant’s wife, who is in the prime of female beauty. She looks at the viewer with a mysterious expression on her face, not at all embarrassed by her nakedness, with some serenity, but at the same time a sweet expectation of someone or something. In the picture, every detail is a metaphor, and the beauty seems to have become the fruit of the view of a naive artist and the sophisticated aestheticism of the Silver Age of Russian culture.

Criticism and fate

"Beauty" was exhibited among other works by Kustodiev and sketches for "Pazukhin" at the "World of Art" exhibitions in Petrograd and Moscow, organized by Konstantin Kandaurov. Kustodiev himself developed a scheme for hanging the paintings and set prices for them, estimating “Beauty” most highly - at 4 thousand rubles; four works were purchased by Igor Grabar for the Tretyakov Gallery. At the exhibition, Kustodiev and Shevchenko met again; the model remarked, “Very fat!”, the artist replied, “What it is,” and kissed her hand. Reviews of the film were varied and contradictory: some critics called it a “sad misunderstanding,” and some found that the image of the Beauty was imbued with “subtle irony”; Meanwhile, art collector Stepan Krachkovsky admitted in a letter to Kustodiev that “your “Beauty” is the highlight of all exhibitions.” She simply drove one metropolitan crazy, who, after visiting the exhibition, admitted that “apparently, the devil led the impudent hand of the artist Kustodiev when he wrote his “Beauty,” for he forever disturbed my peace. I saw her charm and tenderness and forgot my fasts and vigils. I’m going to the monastery, where I will atone for my sins.” Konstantin Somov also really liked “Beauty,” to whom Kustodiev presented a miniature painting specially written for him with a sleeping merchant’s wife and a brownie looking at her, created in 1922 and named accordingly, “The Merchant’s Wife and the Brownie.”

Kustodiev repeatedly repeated the plot of the picture, apparently considering it a kind of programmatic work and the result of the search for his own style in creativity. He gave one to Maxim Gorky, and wrote the other especially for Fyodor Chaliapin, depicting the heroine from the back in a rather theatrical style (it is noteworthy that it was Gorky who introduced Chaliapin to Kustodiev). Having a close relationship with Shevchenko, Chaliapin loved his “Beauty” very much and in 1922 he took her with him to Paris, to emigrate. Known as "The Bride" (also "The Merchant's Wife at the Chest"), the same year painting exhibited in the gallery on Unter den Linden in Berlin, where the critic Georgy Lukomsky called Kustodiev the Titian of Russia and the work itself Danaea of Yaroslavl. Chaliapin's "Beauty" of 1919 was sold in 2003 at the so-called "Russian auction" at Sotheby's in London to an unknown Russian buyer by telephone for a record 845 thousand pounds sterling ($1 million 200 thousand) for a work of art.


"Beauty" 1918 (Tula Museum fine arts)	"Beauty" 1919 (private collection)	"Beauty" 1921 (State Tretyakov Gallery)

The original "Beauty" from 1915 is in the State Tretyakov Gallery. Until 1926, it was kept in the artist’s family, then in private collections, and in 1938 it came to the Tretyakov Gallery from the Leningrad Purchasing Commission after, presumably, the confiscation of the property of those arrested during the 1937 repressions. The 1918 version is in the Tula Museum of Fine Arts, and is the pride of the collection of the Russian art department, where it was given as a gift from G. P. Malikov in 1959. The Tretyakov Gallery also houses a smaller version from 1921, which is distinguished by its absolute repetition of the 1915 composition.

Possible fake

In 2005, there were reports in the press that the painting “Odalisque”, attributed to Kustodiev and dated 1919, was sold at Christie’s London auction ( 35 × 50 cm), for which an unknown Russian art dealer paid 1.5 million pounds sterling ($2.9 million), exceeding estimate more than seven times. Despite the non-publicity of the transaction itself, it soon became known that the new owner of the work was Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, or rather the American Aurora Fund, which belongs to him, through which the billionaire is actively buying abroad Russian art for “patriotic” and “socially oriented” purposes. According to auction house Christie's, the painting was in the private collection of Russian emigrant Leo Maskovsky until 1989, when it was put up for auction by his widow, sold, and then disappeared from view until new sale, that is, until 2005. In 2009 this work number one was included in the fifth and last volume list of the catalog of fake works of art "Warning: possibly fake!", being recognized a skillful fake brushes by a connoisseur of creativity Kustodiev on the basis of the conclusions of three independent experts from the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum and the All-Russian Art Scientific and Restoration Center named after I. E. Grabar. Art critics noted that “Odalisque” has a stylistic similarity with Kustodiev’s cycle of “Beauties,” but only “represents a thoughtful repetition of Kustodiev’s favorite theme.” Immediately after familiarizing himself with the examination, Vekselberg sent the painting back and demanded the return of his money, which, however, did not happen, after which in 2010 he filed a lawsuit in the High Court of London for auction house Christie's, which initiated own investigation and who ordered new examination in Great Britain. Court hearings took place only in 2012: after 20 days of hearings, the judge Guy Newey ruled that “Odalisque” most likely did not belong to Kustodiev, and thus ruled in favor of the Aurora Foundation, recognizing its right to terminate the deal with Christie’s and return only the money spent on the purchase of the painting.

In art

Comments

Notes

Yuon K. Poet and painter. - Magazine “Ogonyok”. - Pravda Publishing House, May 25, 1952. - No. 22 (1303). - P. 24. - 33 p.
, With. 163.
Gorgeous (undefined) . State Tretyakov Gallery
, With. 191.
, With. 62.
, With. 254.
Kustodievsky beauties (undefined) . Museums of Russia (December 28, 2003). Retrieved April 17, 2017.
The people's ideal of beauty: plump Russian beauties in the paintings of Boris Kustodiev (undefined) . Kulturologia.ru. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
Maria Chekhovskaya. Kustodiev: “Everyone wants to live, even cockroaches” (undefined) . Pravda.Ru (March 7, 2013). Retrieved April 17, 2017.
Ksenia Larina, Ksenia Basilashvili, Anna Benidovskaya. Artist Boris Kustodiev and his painting “Beauty” (undefined) . Echo of Moscow (February 24, 2008). Retrieved April 17, 2017.
Maria Mikulina. Appeared in a new color. Kustodiev: when the creative is more important than the physical (undefined) . Private correspondent (September 23, 2015). Retrieved April 30, 2017.
In the family circle. From the collection of “open letters” (undefined) . Russian State Library. Retrieved April 17, 2017. (unavailable link)
, With. 22.
Faina Vasilievna Shevchenko (undefined) . Moscow Art Theater. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
"Beauty" Kustodieva (undefined) . Magazine "Cultural Capital" (April 19, 2016). Retrieved April 17, 2017.
Joyful paintings by Boris Kustodiev (undefined) . Culture news (May 27, 2005). Retrieved April 17, 2017.
Nadezhda Dunaeva. How Faina Shevchenko broke Fyodor Chaliapin's heart (undefined) . Evening Moscow (November 7, 2012). Retrieved April 17, 2017. (unavailable link)
, With. 149.
Anton Belyakov. Beauties and muses: great and beautiful (undefined) . Glamor (December 15, 2015). Retrieved April 17, 2017.
, With. 289.
, With. 290.
, With. 215.
, With. 192.
, With. 94.
Belle (Krasavitca). Kustodiev, 1919 (undefined) . Sotheby's (May 21, 2003). Retrieved June 29, 2017.
, With. 217.
“Beauty” Kustodieva (undefined)
, With. 154.
B. M. Kustodiev. Gorgeous. 1915 (undefined) . Unified collection of digital educational resources. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
, With. 150-152.
, With. 26.
, With. 21-22.
, With. 164.
, With. 164-165.
, With. 150.
Biography of Kustodiev (1878-1927) (undefined) . Kustodiev-Art.ru. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
, With. 301.
, With. 239.
Tatiana Markina. New millionaire of Russian art (undefined) . Kommersant (May 26, 2003). Retrieved April 17, 2017.
Alexander Kan. Chaliapin's archive is being sold at Sotheby's (undefined) . BBC Russian (20 May 2003). Retrieved April 17, 2017.
, With. 210.
G. K. Lukomsky. Kustodiev and Grabar. (Exhibition at Unter den Linden). // The day before. - November 3, 1922. - No. 176. - P. 5. - 8 p.
Firebird. - 1922. - No. 9. - 36 p.
"Beauty" by Kustodiev was sold for a record amount - 1 million 200 thousand dollars (undefined) . NEWSru.com (May 21, 2003). Retrieved April 17, 2017.
Ekaterina Drankina. Museum of Private Ambitions (undefined) . Kommersant (April 19, 2004). Retrieved April 20, 2017.
Beauty (1915) (undefined) .
Beauty (1918) (undefined) . State catalog of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
Department of Russian Art (undefined) . Tula Museum of Fine Arts. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
Gorgeous. 1921 (undefined) . Art-Catalog.ru. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
Russian "Odalisque" sold in London for $2.5 million (undefined) . Lenta.ru
"Odalisque" by Kustodiev was auctioned for $2.7 million (undefined) . NEWSru.com (December 1, 2005). Retrieved August 3, 2017.
"Odalisque" to appear in British court (undefined) . Snob (September 20, 2010). Retrieved August 3, 2017.
Roman Sobol. International art scandal (undefined) . NTV
Roman Dolzhansky, Tatyana Markina. Viktor Vekselberg cheated on "Odalisque" (undefined) . Kommersant (July 19, 2010). Retrieved August 3, 2017.
Vekselberg is suing Christie's over a fake painting (undefined) . RIA Novosti (July 19, 2010). Retrieved August 3, 2017.
Odalisque (Kustodiev) (undefined) . Christie's. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
Valery Igumenov. Why is the Viktor Vekselberg Foundation suing Christie’s? (undefined) . Forbes (October 29, 2010). Retrieved August 3, 2017.
A painting by Boris Kustodiev, sold at Christie’s for $3 million, was included in the “Catalogue of Forgeries” (undefined) . ArtInvestment.ru (May 9, 2009). Retrieved August 3, 2017.
Bad examinations have weakened the Russian art market (undefined) . Lenta.ru (April 23, 2009). Retrieved August 3, 2017.
Polina Oldenburg. The world of painting has been rocked by a scandal again (undefined) .

Speaking about the Russian artist Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev, one immediately recalls the images of buxom merchant women, whom he painted quite a lot - in the interior and against the backdrop of a landscape, naked and in elegant dresses.

There are many questions for the artist - why merchants’ women and why almost everyone female images on the artist’s canvases have, by modern standards, not the most “ideal” forms... However, talk about ideal forms the very last thing. It's all individual. More importantly, the first part of the question is why merchants?

In search of a causal connection, I leafed through the artist’s biography. Boris Kustodiev lived in a difficult era - he lived through a revolution, a time of famine, persecution of scientists and artists who were suspected of being “bourgeois.” Kustodiev, who portrayed to a greater extent merchant and pre-revolutionary Russia, got it to the fullest. However, he himself did not belong to this class; he was often malnourished and lived from hand to mouth.

In his dreams he was carried away far away - to a nourishing and peaceful pre-revolutionary Russia, to his childhood and to the small outbuilding of a rich merchant's house, which was rented by the Kustodiev family. Here the boy received his first vivid ideas about the life and types of provincial merchants.

“The whole way of rich and abundant merchant life,” B. M. Kustodiev later wrote, “was in full view...

“Merchantwomen” by Kustodiev are, first of all, childhood observations carried by the artist through the decades. Secondly, the image of the merchant's wife is conveyed by the artist with slight irony. Russian Venuses are young and beautiful, they have pleasant full faces, not causing negative emotions, but Kustodiev is definitely ironic, as if he allows the viewer to smile kindly when he sees the plump and kind merchants, their feasts, tea parties, dishes... dresses of all the colors of the rainbow...

Thirdly, the artist admires the healthy, full-breasted, stately Russian beauties, in whom there is something unusually captivating.

Fourthly, the sleek figures of women have symbolic meaning. The artist conveys real and reliable information about natural and healthy life people in patriarchal Russia.

What is more - irony or admiration? It hardly makes any difference. As the artist himself said: “It seems to me that the picture, no matter what the plot it has, will be strong with love and the interest with which the artist wanted to convey his mood. And why is it necessary to have a plot, that is, a plot as we understand it - so that the picture teaches something and tells something. Can’t a painting only be beautiful?”

Russian beauties Kustodieva

Beauty, 1915

The model was the Moscow Art Theater actress F.V. Shevchenko.

Merchant's wife having tea, 1918

Merchant's wife with a mirror, 1920

State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Russian Venus, 1925

Russian girl at the window, 1923

Kostroma State Historical-Architectural and art museum-reserve

Autumn, 1924

Summer. Province, 1922

Merchant's wife and brownie, 1922

In old Suzdal

Moscow. State Tretyakov Gallery

Merchants. 1912

Kyiv National Museum of Russian Art, Ukraine

In the bathhouse. 1920

In a birch grove

Varvara. 1920

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Meeting (Easter day). 1917

Two merchant women. 1913

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Girl on the Volga. 1919

National Museum Fine Arts named after. Gapara Aitieva, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Bather. 1921

Bather. 1922

Tyumen regional museum fine arts

Merchant's wife. 1920

Tomsk Regional Art Museum

Merchant's wife. 1919

Vologda regional art gallery

Merchant's wife. 1915

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Merchant's wife on the balcony. 1920

Merchant's wife on a walk. 1920

Museum-apartment of I.I. Brodsky, St. Petersburg

Merchant's wife on a walk (Province). 1920

Art Museum named after. Makharbek Tuganov, Vladikavkaz

Merchant's wife with purchases. 1920

National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk

Merchant's wife, drinking tea. 1923

Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum

A young merchant's wife in a checkered scarf. 1919

Autumn in the provinces. Tea party. 1926

State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Found a mistake? Select it and press left Ctrl+Enter.

“Beauty” Kustodieva

From reviews and memories of contemporaries

Kustodiev K.B., son of the artist

In April 1915, we moved to Vvedenskaya, where there was a workshop with two large windows facing the street...

Soon, my father began working here on the painting “Beauty,” which was a kind of result of the search for his own style, which began back in 1912.

The basis for the painting was a pencil and sanguine drawing made from life (the Moscow Art Theater actress Sh posed). The duvet that my mother gave to my father on his birthday was also painted from life.

He worked on the painting every day, starting at six or seven in the morning and working all day.

On the tenth of May, my mother and sister left for Terem, and we were left alone. Once, my grandmother, who lived in St. Petersburg that summer, brought us three plaster figures bought at the Sytny market. My father really liked them, and he included them in the picture (on the chest of drawers, on the right). At home we had a wonderful old chest wall with iron paintings - red roses in a vase on a black background. My father also used this motif for the patterns on the chest, although he changed the color.

Analysis by art critics

From the monograph by V. Volodarsky

Also in 1915, Kustodiev completed final formation his style with the painting "Beauty". Here he revealed traditional tastes in an image colored at the same time with admiration, eroticism, and irony, depicting not just a plump, but this time a particularly plump woman. Half-sitting, half-lying on the bed, she, like Titian’s “Venus of Urbino,” calmly looks at how the viewer perceives her. This disarming frankness helps transform the image from almost ambiguous situation into the realm of aesthetics. Kustodiev delighted in conveying the similarity of his model’s delicate and smooth pink skin with the color and smoothness of a satin blanket trimmed with lace, juxtaposing large rounded shapes female body with the softness of down pillows and blanket folds. The whole atmosphere of the alcove with wallpaper on the wall decorated with roses, with a painted elegant lower wall of the bed, a soft ottoman under the woman’s foot, with figurines (in another version - flowers and decorations) on the chest of drawers, evokes a feeling of a sensually sleepy, sweet, relaxing and calm life , personified by the Kustodiev beauty and her familiar environment.

From the monograph by V. Kruglov

The problems of synthesis worried the author in the paintings “Beauty” and “Russian Venus”, marked by hypertrophy of forms and colors, in equally serious and ironic. The plump, golden-haired, clear-eyed “beauty” after sleep, bashfully covering her breasts, is depicted leaving the soft feather bed on a painted forged chest. Curvy, with fresh skin and beautiful hair, she calmly looks at the world, embodying the people's idea of healthy beauty, of what a merchant's wife should be. The interior with furniture, a soft pink blanket and lace pillowcases, an expensive chest, soft blue wallpaper with bouquets and garlands of roses embody the popular idea of prosperity. In this work, as in the work "Russian Venus", the master, through the power of talent, created a new one, living according to its own laws. artistic reality, marked by the features of neo-romanticism, also similar and dissimilar to life, just as the bouquets on the chest and the wall are similar and dissimilar to real flowers. Through the power of talent, the variegated colors of nature are transformed into new, enchanting harmonies. The delicately and exquisitely painted picture is rich in texture, infinitely interesting to the eye in how skillfully the various materials filling the room and the greatest jewel - the woman's body - are conveyed.

From the monograph by I.V. Razdobreeva

In 1915, the artist wrote his famous “Beauty” (repeated many times).

Irony, along with the glorification of beauty, is palpable in all versions of Kustodiev’s “Beauty”.

A plump young woman, who had just been basking on a downy feather bed, and who, it seemed, had not yet completely overcome drowsiness, threw back the satin blanket, revealing her white-pink, marshmallow-like body. And the colorful canopy, and the painted chest on which she deigned to rest, and the decorations on the chest of drawers, and the wallpaper in the “packets” - everything screams in color, everything speaks of “luxury” and the absolutely monstrous bad taste of the hostess. The senseless, thoughtless animal life of a delightful blonde, the entire interior of the bedchamber is the ultimate dream of the philistine. Admiration for the carnal beauty of this merchant's wife, her health, the primitive joy of being and evil irony are woven here into one inextricable knot. In Kustodiev’s art, admiration and irony delicately balance on the scales.

Art Gallery, No. 43

The artistic movement to which Kustodiev belonged in the 1910s can roughly be called “neoclassicism.” It implied an orientation towards the great examples of the past - taking into account the latest artistic trends. This is a kind of “passeism” - both in the formal and in the content area (the latter is generally characteristic of the ideology of the “World of Art”), but transformed by obvious grotesque and indispensable irony (a slight smile can be seen already in the title of this masterpiece - as, by the way, and in the title of the “Russian Venus” written a decade later, which undoubtedly continues the tradition of Kustodiev’s “beauties”). "Looking back" at the past - in in this case- I was motivated by two more things. The first (personal) motivation is the artist’s severe illness, which deprived him of “external” impressions. He had to live in a fantasy world, one of the “core” images of which is this “beauty”. The second (objective) is a war that destroyed the unified art space. Painters found themselves cut off from each other, and therefore turning to the old masters (in “Beauty” you can hear an echo of the Venetians of the Renaissance and Rubens) under these conditions looked like a “conceptual” act. By the way, “Beauty” was the favorite painting of A. M. Gorky, who received one of its versions as a gift from the artist’s hands.

Merchants and beauties are Kustodiev’s “know-how”. They demonstrate the mature manner of the master, while at the same time being a visible expression of his ideas about human beauty. Yes, this expression is somewhat caricatured, but such irony often acts only as a means of protection against too “refined” criticism. Hence the certain shockingness with which Kustodiev presents his heroine, placing her in the center of the canvas and highlighting her. The harmonious context formed by the colorful interior is clearly dictated by her image (acting indirectly in the opposite direction, clarifying and clarifying some of the character traits of the “beauty”). The whole picture is a dream of beauty, which - who knows? - suddenly he will really save the world. This is a dream, this is a dream. This is a dream about an unprecedented Russia. Kustodiev saw her in his soul, tied her to mid-19th century, to some “unfamiliar city” (so as not to be accused of inventing), and made contemporaries and descendants fall in love with this image, complete healthy strength, stature and grace. “Aesthetes” grin: “Well, is this really beauty?” “Aestheticism” is always narrow. In reality, beauty comes in different forms. The ideal of beauty is flexible and changes depending on geography, era, social conditions life. Beauty antique statues argues with beauty Byzantine art, and the glorification in Gothic art of mortified flesh (through which the dazzling light shines inner beauty) contradicts the Renaissance cult of poeticized sensuality. Kustodiev has his own ideal. And it is truly ideal, otherwise it would not have excited several generations of art lovers with its strange grace.

Ideal of beauty:

Bright flowers on the wallpaper, as well as the flowers with which the chest is painted, are associated with the blooming age of a healthy beautiful woman. All of Kustodiev’s heroines in this series look like sisters - they are young, healthy, “financially sufficient.”

The face of the “beauty” conceals a strange expression, which is generally characteristic of the Kustodiev heroines of this series (or, if you prefer, the “cycle”). It is serene and at the same time crafty; the heroine looks at the viewer, not at all embarrassed by her nakedness, as if realizing that the main jewel here is her.

A soft pink duvet (and clean lace pillowcases) is a sign merchant world who loves coziness, comfort and warmth. Thus, in social sense the heroine of the canvas is attributed without difficulty.

The body shapes of the “beauty” are characterized by roundness - in the heroine of the canvas, unlike many other characters in painting of that time, there is nothing sharp, broken, or flashy. Moreover, this is, so to speak, a flexible roundness - pay attention to the unnaturally bent arm at the elbow. In general, the somewhat awkward pose of the “beauty” “rhymes” with chaste purity.

Lovingly painted tiny feet - combined with full body and a certain “bullshit” - give rise to a feeling of the heroine’s fragility, which further “idealizes” her image, which is characterized by a strange grace and unique charm.

The entire interior - and, above all, the huge forged and brightly painted chest - is a kind of “frame” for the heroine, testifying to the prosperity, stability and regularity of her existence.

Tretyakov Gallery 2008

In his most famous painting, Kustodiev managed to combine images of the national-romantic movement in art with the perfection of neoclassical forms. According to the recollections of the artist’s daughter, “the basis of the picture was Russian popular prints, signs, toys of folk craftsmen, Russian embroidery and costumes.” The folk ideal acquired a special monumentality in Kustodiev’s works; his merchant women are peculiar goddesses, personifying folk ideas about happiness, satiety and prosperity. But the artist gave exaggerated forms to the people's dream. He turns to the genre of nudes, which is rare in the history of Russian art. The merchant's wife, drowsy from sleep, appears from under a satin blanket, like Aphrodite from a mother-of-pearl shell. In the picture, every detail is a metaphor, everything serves as an illustration folk ideas O female beauty- wheat hair, scarlet cherry lips, cheeks like rosy apples, a swan neck, a sleek, smooth body - “blood and milk.” In the image of his beauty, Kustodiev combines the look of a naive artist and the sophisticated aestheticism of a Russian Silver Age.

« Gorgeous"is one of the most famous paintings the great Russian artist Boris Mikhailovich (1878-1927). 1915, oil on canvas, 141x185 cm. Currently in Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

The painting, which is distinguished by some piquancy, in our time seems to be a classic depiction of a Russian woman, painted by one of the most famous painters past. During the time of Kustodiev himself and now, the painting “Beauty” had and is having a tremendous impact on the viewer.

A certain metropolitan, who saw a naked Russian beauty, which Kustodiev depicted incredibly realistically, said that he literally lost his head and attributed the power of the canvas to the Devil himself: “Apparently, the devil moved the impudent hand of the artist Kustodiev when he wrote his “Beauty,” for he forever confused my peace. I saw her charm and tenderness and forgot my fasts and vigils. I’m going to the monastery, where I will atone for my sins.” Of course, the Devil or other forces of darkness have nothing to do with it. The “blame” for the fact that the audience was seized with a strong feeling at the sight of Kustodiev’s paintings was only his extraordinary talent.

Boris Mikhailovich possessed a truly divine gift of creation. He saw nature and light with some unknown eighth sense, and was able to convey his thoughts and feelings with the help of paints extremely realistically, so that people received such a vivid impression that it literally tore them out of reality and completely carried them away into the world of fantasies and dreams. However, it was not only natural talent that made Kustodiev the greatest master Russian painting, but also the desire to constantly work and improve, to always be original and surpass other artists in terms of skill. Another secret of Kustodiev was deep love to their country and the culture of the Russian people, to Russian people and manifestations Russian society in all spheres of life. Love for Russian culture is presented in Kustodiev’s paintings very clearly, and this captivates the viewer, who sees in his works something very familiar, as if part of his own history, the story of his life, an incident from the past was imprinted on the picture.

The painting "Beauty" was written in 1915. At this time, the artist was already confined to a wheelchair. However difficult situation did not break the artist. On the contrary, his paintings became even more colorful, lush and cheerful. It is at this very moment last period Kustodiev’s creativity, such paintings as “Beauty”, “Merchant’s Wife at Tea” and others appeared. It is known that the painting was painted from life, and the model for “Beauty” was an actress from the Art Theater. The muse for the painting was actress Faina Vasilievna Shevchenko (born April 5, 1893 in Voronezh).

In the painting, a plump, rosy-cheeked beauty leaves a colorful, painted bed. Despite the fact that the beauty is naked, her appearance and pose look chaste. The whole image of the painting resembles a mixture of popular prints, Dymkovo toys, Khokhloma and modern painting techniques at that time. This combination makes the picture not only realistic, beautiful, colorful, catching the viewer’s eye, but also understandable and familiar to a person who lives in Russia and is familiar with its traditions.