June 19 (July 1) 1889 - October 6, 1953
- Russian (Soviet) sculptor. People's Artist of the USSR (1943). Full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). Winner of five Stalin Prizes(1941, 1943, 1946, 1951, 1952). From 1947 to 1953 -
Member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Arts.

Many of Vera Ignatievna’s creations have become symbols Soviet era. And when a work becomes a symbol, it is impossible to judge its artistic value - the symbolic value will somehow distort it. The sculptures of Vera Mukhina were popular while heavy Soviet monumentalism, so dear to the hearts of Soviet leaders, was in fashion, and were forgotten or ridiculed later.

Many of Mukhina’s works had a difficult fate. And Vera Ignatievna herself lived difficult life, where worldwide recognition coexisted with the possibility of losing her husband at any moment or going to jail herself. Did her genius save her? No, it was the recognition of this genius that helped strongmen of the world this. What helped was the style, which surprisingly coincided with the tastes of those who built the Soviet state.

Vera Ignatievna Mukhina was born on July 1 (June 19, old style) 1889 into a wealthy merchant family in Riga. Soon Vera and her sister lost their mother, and then their father. The father's brothers took care of the girls, and the sisters were not offended by their guardians in any way. The children studied at the gymnasium, and then Vera moved to Moscow, where she took painting and sculpture lessons

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The guardians were still afraid to let the young girl go to Paris, the Mecca of artists, and Vera was brought there not by talent, but by an accident. While sledding, the girl fell and severely injured her nose. And in order to preserve the beauty of their niece, the uncles had to send her to a better place. plastic surgeon in Paris. Where Vera, taking advantage of the opportunity, stayed for two years, studying sculpture with the famous sculptor Bourdelle and attending anatomy courses.

In 1914, Vera returned to Moscow. During the First World War, she worked as a nurse in a hospital, where she met her future husband, surgeon Alexei Andreevich Zamkov. They married in 1918, and two years later Vera gave birth to a son. This couple miraculously survived the storms of revolution and repression. She is a merchant family, he is a nobleman, both have difficult character and “non-working” professions. However, the sculptures of Vera Mukhina win in many respects creative competitions, and in the 20s she became a famous and recognized master.

Her sculptures are somewhat heavy, but full of power and indescribable healthy animal strength. They perfectly correspond to the calls of the leaders: “Let’s build!”, “Let’s catch up and overtake!” and “Let’s exceed the plan!” Her women, judging by appearance, they can not only stop a galloping horse, but also lift a tractor onto their shoulder.

Revolutionaries and peasant women, communists and partisans - socialist Venuses and Mercurys - ideals of beauty that all Soviet citizens should be equal to. Their heroic proportions, of course, were almost unattainable for most people (like modern fashion model standards 90-60-90), but it was very important to strive for them.

Vera Mukhina loved to work from life. Sculptural portraits of her husband and some friends are known much less than her symbolic works. In 1930, the couple decided to flee the Union, tired of bullying and denunciations and expecting the worst, but in Kharkov they were taken off the train and taken to Moscow. Thanks to the intercession of Gorky and Ordzhonikidze, the fugitives received a very lenient punishment -
exile for three years in Voronezh.

"The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman" save Vera from the iron broom of the thirty-eighth. Among many projects, architect B. Iofan chose this one. The sculpture adorned the USSR pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris, and the name of Vera Mukhina became known throughout the world. Vera Mukhina is congratulated, given orders and awarded prizes, and most importantly, now she is saved from bullying. She is entrusted with teaching at the art university. Later she goes to work in the experimental workshop of the Leningrad porcelain factory.

After the war, Vera Mukhina worked on the monument to M. Gorky (designed by I.D. Shadr) and P.I. Tchaikovsky, which was installed in front of the Conservatory building after her death.

Vera Mukhina: Socialist art

Vera Mukhina and Alexey Zamkov, television program "More than Love"

Vera Mukhina, TV Broadcast
"How the idols left"

Vera Mukhina Museum in Feodosia

Museum

Virtual trip
around the museum V. I. Mukhina

Vera Mukhina, student French sculptor Bourdelle, became famous thanks to the sculptural group “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”. Against the backdrop of the everyday, illustrative understanding of realism that reigned in the 1930s and 40s, the artist fought for the language of images and symbols in art. She was engaged not only in monumental projects, but also applied creativity: developed patterns for fabrics, sets and vases, experimented a lot with glass. In the 1940s and 50s, Vera Mukhina won the Stalin Prize five times.

Heiress of the Riga Medici

Vera Mukhina was born in Riga in 1889. Her grandfather Kuzma Mukhin made a multimillion-dollar fortune selling hemp, flax and bread. At his own expense, he built a gymnasium, a hospital, a real school and jokingly compared himself with Cosimo de' Medici, the founder of the famous Florentine dynasty of patrons of the arts. Kuzma Mukhin's son Ignatius married the pharmacist's daughter for love. The young wife died in 1891, when eldest daughter Masha was five years old, and the youngest Vera was very little. In 1904, the girls lost their father, and relatives from Kursk took the orphans into their home.

Three years later, the sisters moved to Moscow. Here Vera Mukhina began to study drawing and painting. It was the time of fashion creative associations. Mukhina's first teacher was Konstantin Yuon, a member of the Union of Russian Artists.

Vera Mukhina. Photo: domochag.net

Vera Mukhina. Photo: vishegorod.ru

Vera Mukhina. Photo: russkiymir.ru

“Sometimes I thought that he taught how to combine incompatible things. On the one hand, rational, almost arithmetic calculation of the elements of drawing and painting, on the other hand, the requirement permanent job imagination. Once a composition was assigned on the theme “Dream”. Mukhina drew a picture of a janitor falling asleep at the gate. Konstantin Fedorovich winced with displeasure: “There is no fantasy in dreams.”

Art critic Olga Voronova

At some point, Vera Mukhina realized that she did not want to paint pictures. In 1911, she first tried to work with clay in the workshop of the sculptor Nina Sinitsina. And almost immediately I got the idea to study sculpture in Paris, the artistic capital of the world. The guardians didn't let me in. Then, in search of a new experience, Mukhina moved to the class of avant-garde artist Ilya Mashkov, one of the founders of the “Jack of Diamonds” association.

During the Christmas holidays of 1912, disaster struck. While sledding down a hill on an estate near Smolensk, young artist crashed into a tree. A branch cut off part of his nose. The bleeding girl was taken to the hospital - here she was given nine plastic surgery. “Life is worse,” said Mukhina, taking off the bandages for the first time.

To distract her, her relatives allowed a trip to Paris. Vera Mukhina settled in a boarding house and began taking lessons from Emile Antoine Bourdelle, the most famous sculptor of the era, a student of Rodin himself. From Bourdelle she learned all the basics of the craft: “to grasp the form firmly,” to think about the object as a whole, but to be able to highlight the necessary details.

Generalist artist

"The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman." Photo: voschod.ru

"The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman." Photo: mos.ru

"The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman." Photo: dreamstime.com

From Paris, Mukhina and other young artists went to Italy to study Renaissance art. I stopped by Moscow, planning to then return to Paris, but the First World War struck World War. The artist became a nurse in the hospital. In 1914, she met a young doctor, Alexei Zamkov, who was leaving for the front. Soon fate brought them together again. Zamkov, dying of typhus, was brought to the hospital, Mukhina was leaving him. Soon the young people got married and had a son, Vsevolod.

In 1916, the artist began to collaborate with the Alexander Tairov Chamber Theater. At first she sculpted parts of the scenery for the play “Famira-kifared”, then she took up modeling stage costumes. In the 1920s, Vera Mukhina worked with Nadezhda Lamanova, a Russian fashion star who had previously dressed royal family, and now I sewed outfits for Soviet women. In 1925, Lamanova and Mukhina published an album of models, “Art in Everyday Life.” That same year they were invited to present canvas and linen dresses with wooden buttons at the World Exhibition in Paris, where the “peasant” collection received the Grand Prix.

As a designer, Mukhina designed Soviet pavilions at international fur and book exhibitions. But she didn’t forget about sculpture. In the 1920s, she created several famous works: “Flame of the Revolution”, “Julia”, “Wind”. The “Peasant Woman” - a woman “made from black soil”, “grown” with her feet into the ground, received special admiration. by male hands(Mukhina sculpted them from her husband’s hands). In 1934, “The Peasant Woman” was exhibited in Venice, after which it was sold to the Trieste Museum, and after World War II the sculpture ended up in the Vatican. A copy was cast for the Tretyakov Gallery, the first place where “The Peasant Woman” was stored.

At the same time, Mukhina’s husband Alexey Zamkov created the first industrial hormonal drug - “Gravidan”. The doctor had envious people and opponents, and bullying began. In the spring of 1930, Mukhina, Zamkov and their son were detained while trying to leave Soviet Union. This fact was made public only in the 2000s, when a denunciation fell into the hands of journalists former colleague Zamkova. High-ranking patients and friends stood up for the doctor, among whom were Budyonny and Gorky. Zamkov was “only” sent to Voronezh for three years. Mukhina went into exile with her husband, although she was allowed to remain in the capital. The couple returned to Moscow ahead of schedule - in 1932.

"Don't be afraid to take risks in art"

In 1937, Vera Mukhina won a sculpture competition for a pavilion that was planned to be built at the World Exhibition in Paris. The original idea belonged to the architect Boris Iofan, who designed the Soviet pavilion:

“The Soviet Union is a state of workers and peasants, this is what the coat of arms is based on. The pavilion was to be completed by a two-figure sculptural group: a worker and a peasant woman crossing a hammer and sickle - all my life I have been fascinated by the problem of the synthesis of architecture and sculpture.”

Mukhina proposed a solution in the ancient spirit: naked figures directed upward. The worker and the collective farmer were ordered to be “dressed.” But the author's main ideas - a lot of air between the figures to create lightness, and a fluttering scarf emphasizing dynamism - remained unchanged. However, approvals took a long time. As a result, the first statue in the USSR from steel plates was created in emergency mode in just three weeks. Mukhina sculpted the reduced model in parts and immediately transferred it to the Institute of Mechanical Engineering (TsNIIMASH) for enlargement. Here, fragments of the sculpture were carved from wood. Then the workers climbed inside the parts and tapped them, placing a sheet of metal just 0.5 millimeters thick. When the wooden “trough” was broken, a fragment of steel was obtained. After assembly, “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” was cut up and, loaded into wagons, sent to Paris. There - also in a hurry - the 24-meter statue was reassembled and placed on a pedestal 34 meters high. The press vied with each other to publish photographs of the Soviet and German pavilions located opposite each other. Today these photographs seem symbolic.

VDNH). The pedestal - the “stump”, as Mukhina called it - was made a little over 10 meters high. Because of this, the feeling of flying disappeared. Only in 2009, after reconstruction, “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” was installed on a specially erected pavilion, similar to Iofan’s pavilion.

In 1942, Alexey Zamkov, who since the late 1930s had been accused of witchcraft and unscientific methods of treatment, died of a heart attack. At the same time, Mukhina’s best friend, Nadezhda Lamanova, passed away. Work and a new creative hobby - glass - saved me. Since 1940, the sculptor collaborated with the experimental workshop at the mirror factory in Leningrad. Based on her sketches and the methods she invented, the best glassblowers created vases, figurines and even sculptural portraits. Mukhina developed the design of a half-liter beer mug for Soviet catering. Legend also attributes to her the authorship of the faceted glass created for the first dishwashers.

In 1941–1952, Mukhina won the Stalin Prize five times. One of her last works was a monument to Tchaikovsky in front of the Moscow Conservatory. It was installed after the death of the sculptor. Vera Mukhina passed away on October 6, 1953. After her death, Minister Vyacheslav Molotov was given a letter in which Mukhina asked:

"Do not forget art, it can give the people no less than cinema or literature. Don’t be afraid to take risks in art: without continuous, often erroneous searches, we will not develop our own new Soviet art.”

Vera Mukhina was born on July 1, 1889 in Riga into a merchant family. As a child, she lived in Feodosia (1892-1904), where her father brought her after the death of her mother.

Having moved to Moscow, Vera Mukhina studied at a private art studio Konstantin Yuon and Ivan Dudin (1908-1911), worked in the sculpture workshop of Nina Sinitsina (1911). Then she moved to the studio of the painter Ilya Mashkov, one of the leaders of the group of innovative artists “Jack of Diamonds”.

She continued her education in Paris in the private studio of F. Colarossi (1912-1914). She also attended the Grande Chaumire Academy (Acadmie de la Grande Chaumire), where she studied with the famous French monumental sculptor Emile-Antoine Bourdelle. At the same time, I took an anatomy course at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1914 she traveled to Italy, where she studied Renaissance art.

In 1915-1917, during the First World War, she was a nurse in a hospital in Moscow. At the same time, from 1916 she worked as an assistant to production designer Alexandra Ekster at the Chamber Theater under the direction of Alexander Tairov.

After October revolution The country adopted a plan for the so-called “monumental propaganda”, within the framework of which sculptors received orders from the state for city monuments. Vera Mukhina in 1918 completed the design of the monument to Novikov - Russian public figure XVIII century, which was approved by the People's Commissariat for Education. However, the clay model, which was stored in an unheated workshop, cracked from the cold.

In 1919 she joined the Monolit association. In 1924 she became a member of the "4 Arts" association, and in 1926 - the Society of Russian Sculptors.

In 1923, she participated in the design of the pavilion of the Izvestia newspaper for the first All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Exhibition in Moscow.

In 1926-27 she taught in the modeling class of the Art and Industrial College at the Toy Museum, from 1927 to 1930 - at the Higher Art and Technical Institute in Moscow.

By the end of the 1920s, easel sculptures “Julia”, “Wind”, “Peasant Woman” were created. In 1927, “Peasant Woman” was awarded first prize at the exhibition dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. In 1934, the sculpture was exhibited at International exhibition in Venice, after which it was purchased by the Trieste Museum (Italy). After the Second World War it became the property of the Vatican Museum in Rome. The bronze cast of the sculpture was installed in the Tretyakov Gallery.

In 1937, at the World Exhibition in Paris, Vera Mukhina was awarded the Grand Prix gold medal for the composition “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”. The sculpture crowned the Soviet pavilion, designed by architect Boris Iofan. In 1939, the monument was erected in Moscow near the northern entrance to the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (now VDNH). Since 1947, the sculpture has been the emblem of the Mosfilm film studio.

From 1938 to 1939, the artist worked on sculptures for the Moskvoretsky Bridge by architect Alexei Shchusev. However, the sketches remained unfulfilled. Only one of the compositions - "Bread" - was performed by the author in large size for the exhibition "Food Industry" in 1939.

In 1942 she was awarded the title "Honored Artist of the RSFSR", in 1943 - People's Artist of the USSR.

In the years Patriotic War Mukhina created portraits of Colonel Khizhnyak, Colonel Yusupov, the sculpture “Partisan” (1942), as well as a number of sculptural portraits of civilians: Russian ballerina Galina Ulanova (1941), surgeon Nikolai Burdenko (1942-43), shipbuilder Alexei Krylov (1945).

Since 1947, Vera Mukhina has been a full member of the USSR Academy of Arts and a member of the academy's presidium.

Among the famous works of Vera Mukhina are the sculptures “Revolution”, “Julia”, “Science” (installed near the Moscow State University building), “Earth” and “Water” (in Luzhniki), monuments to the writer Maxim Gorky, composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (installed near the Moscow Conservatory) and many others. The artist participated in the design of the Moscow metro station "Semyonovskaya" (opened in 1944), and was engaged in industrial graphics, clothing design, and design work.

Vera Ignatievna Mukhina is a laureate of five Stalin Prizes (1941, 1943, 1946, 1951, 1952), awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Badge of Honor, and the Order of Civil Merit.

The name of the sculptor was given to the Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School. In Moscow, in the Novo-Peredelkino district, a street is named in her honor.

Ona modeled feminine dresses and sculpted brutal sculptures, worked as a nurse and conquered Paris, was inspired by her husband’s “short thick muscles” and received Stalin Prizes for their bronze incarnations.

Vera Mukhina at work. Photo: liveinternet.ru

Vera Mukhina. Photo: vokrugsveta.ru

Vera Mukhina at work. Photo: russkije.lv

1. Dress-bud and coat made of soldier’s cloth. For some time, Vera Mukhina was a fashion designer. First sketches theatrical costumes she created in 1915–1916. Seven years later, for the first Soviet fashion magazine Atelier, she drew a model of an elegant and airy dress with a bud-shaped skirt. But Soviet realities also made their own changes to fashion: soon fashion designers Nadezhda Lamanova and Vera Mukhina released the album “Art in Everyday Life.” It contained patterns of simple and practical clothes - a universal dress, which “with a slight movement of the hand” turned into an evening dress; caftan “made from two Vladimir towels”; coat made of soldier's cloth. In 1925, at the World Exhibition in Paris, Nadezhda Lamanova presented a collection in the à la russe style, for which Vera Mukhina also created sketches.

Vera Mukhina. Damayanti. Costume sketch for the unrealized production of the ballet “Nal and Damayanti” at the Moscow State Theater chamber theater. 1915–1916. Photo: artinvestment.ru

Kaftan made from two Vladimir towels. Drawing by Vera Mukhina based on models by Nadezhda Lamanova. Photo: livejournal.com

Vera Mukhina. Model of a dress with a skirt in the shape of a bud. Photo: liveinternet.ru

2. Nurse. During the First World War, Vera Mukhina completed nursing courses and worked in a hospital, where she met her future husband Alexei Zamkov. When her son Vsevolod was four years old, he fell unsuccessfully, after which he fell ill with bone tuberculosis. Doctors refused to operate on the boy. And then the parents performed the operation - at home, on the dining table. Vera Mukhina assisted her husband. Vsevolod took a long time to recover, but recovered.

3. Favorite model of Vera Mukhina. Alexey Zamkov constantly posed for his wife. In 1918, she created a sculptural portrait of him. Later, she used it to sculpt Brutus killing Caesar. The sculpture was supposed to decorate the Red Stadium, which was planned to be built on the Lenin Hills (the project was not implemented). Even the hands of the “Peasant Woman” were the hands of Alexei Zamkov with “short thick muscles,” as Mukhina said. She wrote about her husband: “He was very handsome. Internal monumentality. At the same time, there is a lot of man in him. External rudeness with great spiritual subtlety.”

4. “Baba” in the Vatican Museum. Vera Mukhina cast a bronze figure of a peasant woman for an art exhibition in 1927 dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. At the exhibition, the sculpture received first place, and then went on display at the Tretyakov Gallery. Vera Mukhina said: “My “Baba” stands firmly on the ground, unshakably, as if hammered into it.” In 1934, “The Peasant Woman” was exhibited at the XIX International Exhibition in Venice, after which it was transferred to the Vatican Museum.

Sketches for the sculpture “Peasant Woman” by Vera Mukhina (low tide, bronze, 1927). Photo: futureruss.ru

Vera Mukhina at work on “The Peasant Woman”. Photo: vokrugsveta.ru

Sculpture “Peasant Woman” by Vera Mukhina (low tide, bronze, 1927). Photo: futureruss.ru

5. A relative of the Russian Orpheus. Vera Mukhina was a distant relative opera singer Leonid Sobinov. After the success of “The Peasant Woman,” he wrote her a humorous quatrain as a gift:

At the exhibition with male art weak.
Where to run from female dominance?
Mukhina's woman captivated everyone
By ability alone and without effort.

Leonid Sobinov

After the death of Leonid Sobinov, Vera Mukhina sculpted a tombstone - a dying swan, which was installed on the singer’s grave. The tenor performed the aria “Farewell to the Swan” in the opera “Lohengrin”.

6. 28 carriages of “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”. Vera Mukhina created her legendary sculpture for the 1937 World Exhibition. “The ideal and symbol of the Soviet era” was sent to Paris in parts - fragments of the statue occupied 28 carriages. The monument was called an example of sculpture of the twentieth century; a series of souvenirs with the image of “The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman” was released in France. Vera Mukhina later recalled: “The impression made by this work in Paris gave me everything an artist could wish for.” In 1947, the sculpture became the emblem of Mosfilm.

“Worker and Collective Farm Woman” at the World Exhibition in Paris, 1937. Photo: liveinternet

"The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman." Photo: liveinternet.ru

Museum and Exhibition Center "Worker and Collective Farm Woman"

7. “My hands are itching to write it”. When artist Mikhail Nesterov met Vera Mukhina, he immediately decided to paint her portrait: “She is interesting, smart. Outwardly, it has “its own face,” completely finished, Russian... My hands are itching to paint it...” The sculptor posed for him more than 30 times. Nesterov could work enthusiastically for four to five hours, and during breaks Vera Mukhina treated him to coffee. The artist wrote it while working on the statue of Boreas, the northern god of the wind: “This is how he attacks the clay: he will hit here, he will pinch here, he will beat here. Your face is burning - don’t get caught, it will hurt you. That’s how I need you!” The portrait of Vera Mukhina is kept in the Tretyakov Gallery.

8. Faceted glass and beer mug. The sculptor is credited with the invention of the cut glass, but this is not entirely true. She only improved its form. The first batch of glasses based on her drawings was produced in 1943. Glass vessels became more durable and were ideal for the Soviet dishwasher, which had been invented shortly before. But Vera Mukhina actually came up with the shape of the Soviet beer mug herself.

Mukhina, Vera Ignatievna- Vera Ignatievna Mukhina. MUKHINA Vera Ignatievna (1889 1953), sculptor. Early works romantically elevated, laconic, generalized in form (“Flame of the Revolution”, 1922-23), in the 30s. symbolic (symbols of the new system in the USSR) work... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Soviet sculptor, folk artist USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). She studied in Moscow (1909–12) with K. F. Yuon and I. I. Mashkov, and also in Paris (1912–14) with E. A. Burdelle. Since 1909 she lived... ... Big Soviet encyclopedia

- (1889 1953), Soviet sculptor. People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). She studied in Moscow (1909 12) with K. F. Yuon and I. I. Mashkov, and also in Paris (1912 14) with E. A. Bourdelle. She taught at the Moscow Higher Art School (1926-27) and... ... Art encyclopedia

- (1889 1953) Russian sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). Early works are romantically elevated, laconic, generalized in form (Flame of Revolution, 1922-23), in the 30s. symbolic (symbols of the new... Big encyclopedic Dictionary

Genus. 1889, d. 1953. Sculptor. Student of K. Yuon, E. A. Bourdelle. Works: “Flame of the Revolution” (1922 23), “Peasant Woman” (1927), group “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” (1935 37), tombstone of M. A. Peshkov (1935), group… … Big biographical encyclopedia

- (1889 1953), sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). Early works are romantically elevated, laconic, generalized in form (“Flame of the Revolution”, 1922 23); in the 30s created symbolic works... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1889, Riga 1953, Moscow), sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1943), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947). She studied in Moscow in the studio of K.F. Yuona (1909 11). In those same years, I met the artist L.S. Popova, who not only... Moscow (encyclopedia)

Vera Muhina Vera Mukhina. Portrait by artist Mikhail Nesterov Date of birth ... Wikipedia

Vera Ignatievna Mukhina Vera Muhina Vera Mukhina. Portrait by artist Mikhail Nesterov Date of birth ... Wikipedia

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