Exactly 100 years ago, Russia found a Patriarch. The artist Pavel Korin saw in the new Russian church a sign of the approach of the Kingdom of Heaven
One day in 1931, writer Maxim Gorky sat down with artist Pavel Korin and said:
- You know what, paint a portrait of me.
The artist replied that he had never painted a portrait before, so he was afraid of wasting time. But in the end he agreed. This was the beginning of an amazing collaboration and friendship between the venerable writer and the then little-known artist, who would soon become famous as the best portrait painter of the Soviet Union. The portrait of Prince Alexander Nevsky, familiar to everyone from school textbooks, the portrait of the “demon of war” Marshal Zhukov, portraits of artists Mikhail Nesterov and Kukryniksy, writer Alexei Tolstoy, academician Zelinsky, Sergei Konenkov and Vasily Kachalov - this is all Korin. But it all started with Gorky. However, that's not what this is about.
Pavel Korin
So, one day, after another posing session, Maxim Gorky saw sketches piled up in a heap in the corner of the studio - sketches of some grandiose canvas: a solemn religious procession of priests under the gloomy bulk of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin - the domes sparkled furiously in the sun, and below spread the radiance from the embroidered gold of archbishop's robes.
- What is this? – the writer became interested.
“Requiem,” the artist answered not very confidently.
- No, my friend, the title should determine the content, but I don’t see that in this title...
The writer once again carefully looked at the sketches and thoughtfully shook his head: no, you can’t be so careless during the Second Godless Five-Year Plan.
Pavel Korin. Fragment of a portrait of A.M. Gorky
– You see, this is all leaving our lives. Leaving nature - leaving people... By the way, remember, Sergei Yesenin has such a wonderful poem “Leaving Rus'”?
And then he began to recite:
“I don’t blame those who leave for sadness,
Well, where are the old people?
Chasing young men?
They are uncompressed rye on the vine
Left to rot and crumble..."
“Yes,” the writer sharply summed up his thoughts. – I would call it that: “Rus' is leaving.”
“Thank you, Alexey Maksimovich,” Korin exclaimed fervently, “I will certainly take your advice.”
The support and patronage of the almighty “engineer of human souls” was then very necessary for him.
Pavel Korin in the studio next to the painting “Portrait of the Kukryniksy artists” (1958)
Each artist has his own main canvas - his business card, his soul crucified on a stretcher, his dream come true. For Korin, such a main canvas became an imaginary painting - the conceived “Requiem”, or “Departing Rus'”, was never painted, despite the fact that Pavel Dmitrievich worked on the composition of the painting for several decades, wrote, and made sketches of the interiors of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. According to his plan, it was supposed to be an epic canvas - 40 square meters, almost as much as “The Appearance of Christ to the People” by Alexander Ivanov.
Pavel Korin. Rus' is leaving
But when the picture suddenly appeared before his mind's eye in all its details, when he suddenly understood with all clarity what exactly he wanted to draw, or rather, WHAT seemed to appear by itself from hundreds of sketches and drawings, his hands seemed to be paralyzed with fear.
And he never touched the huge primed canvas that was made especially for Korin. For many years this giant canvas stood as a silent reproach in his studio.
But in art, many things do not at all depend on the will of the creator, or rather, those people whom the Creator instructs to create something for His needs. Since the Creator needs something, it will appear in any case, you don’t even have to worry. And therefore, Korin’s unwritten canvas one way or another still came to light - albeit in the form of sketches and many scattered sketches.
The Creator needed to send His children a Sign.
Pavel Korin from the very early childhood promised to serve God, because he was born in July 1892 in the world-famous village of Palekh, Vladimir province - into a family of hereditary Russian icon painters. At the age of ten, Pavel, like his older brothers, was accepted into the Palekh icon painting school, then he and his brother Alexander went to work in Moscow and went to study at Moscow school painting, sculpture and architecture (MUZHVZ).
At the same time, he and his brother contracted to work in the artel of the “Bogomazov” K.P. Stepanov at the Donskoy Monastery, where the Palekhians were willingly taken. This is how the Korin brothers ended up building churches for the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery in Moscow, which was created with funds Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fedorovna, sister Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The best church painters of that time worked at the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent: Viktor Vasnetsov, Vasily Polenov, Mikhail Nesterov. It was Mikhail who began to long years friend and mentor of Pavel Korin. Together with Nesterov, they painted the main dome of the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary of the Martha and Mary Convent, and then Pavel Korin alone decorated the under-dome space of the temple, the arches of windows and doors.
Fresco by Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary” of the Intercession Church of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent
By the way, in the monastery Pavel Korin found his future wife- a pupil of the monastery, Praskovya Tikhonovna.
Then came the heavy and hungry revolutionary years. The Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent was closed, Princess Elizaveta Fedorovna was arrested and executed. In order to somehow feed his family, Pavel Korin had to get a job as an anatomy specialist at the 1st Moscow University: he sketched various organs of corpses, and he also taught drawing techniques at the MUZHVZ (or rather, after the revolution the school changed its name to the 2nd State Art Workshops).
Princess Elizabeth Feodorovna
But, despite all the persecution, the artist remained faithful to Orthodoxy and deeply sympathized with all the events of the Russian Church of this period. Korin was also deeply worried about the arrest of Patriarch Tikhon in May 1922 and the trial of the primate of the church. Like many hundreds of Muscovites, he considered it his duty to take the parcel to the patriarch, imprisoned in the former treasury chambers of the Donskoy Monastery. Korin also went to Donskoy, handed over a parcel of food and warm clothes sewn by former nuns of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent, and in gratitude received a photograph of the patriarch and a response on a piece of paper: “I received it and thank you. Patr. Tikhon." Pavel Dmitrievich always kept this note, glued to the back of the photograph, as a blessing.
Patriarch Tikhon
The death of the patriarch in April 1925 produced an even greater shock on the artist. Despite unspoken prohibitions, crowds of people went to say goodbye to the patriarch at the Donskoy Monastery, where the coffin stood for several days. Corin was there all those days, and what he saw of the mass people standing at the tomb of the patriarch had an extraordinary effect on him. strong impression. I also remember the words of the sermon of Metropolitan Tryphon (Turkestan):
“We must bear the cross, and I noticed that, as if as a reminder of this, sorrows befall us, sometimes expected, sometimes mostly catastrophic, as now...
In his diary, Pavel Korin wrote: “Donskoy Monastery. Funeral service for Patriarch Tikhon. There were a great many people. It was the evening before dusk, quiet and clear. People stood with lit candles, crying, funeral singing. An old schema-monk passed by. Rows of beggars stood near the fence. A blind man sat to the side and with him a boy of about thirteen, they sang some old verse. I remember the words: “Let’s raise our hearts to spears.” This is a painting from Dante! This is Michelangelo's Last Judgment, Signorelli! Write it all down, don’t let it go. This is a requiem!
The artist connected his idea with Berlioz’s “Requiem”: “Remember the Day of Wrath, what greatness! This is how I would paint a picture. “The day of wrath, the day of judgment that will turn the whole world into ashes.” What music! This pathos and groan should be in my picture. Thunder, brass pipes and bass. This handwriting must exist!
This is how the idea of a painting arose, perpetuating the images of the Russian clergy and believers, who, it seemed, would soon completely disappear in the new godless Russia.
Corin began to walk with notebook to services in Moscow churches, sketching the faces that particularly interested him.
He soon met Metropolitan Tryphon, a former nobleman and former abbot of the Moscow Epiphany Monastery, who voluntarily went as a regimental priest to the First World War, having received several combat wounds. In Moscow he led a completely miserable life. Agreeing to pose for future painting, Bishop Tryphon gave Korin a letter of recommendation, in which he asked other bishops to help the artist. Moreover, many prominent priests agreed to pose for the painter only because Bishop Tryphon himself had previously posed for him! Thanks to the help of Bishop, Korin was able to meet both secret monks from the dispersed Smolensk Zosimova Hermitage of the Vladimir diocese, and with the nuns of the closed Ascension Monastery in the Moscow Kremlin, who were hiding from persecution.
Pavel Korin. Tryfon (Turkestan). (Fragment of the picture)
Maxim Gorky also became an instrument of God’s plan, who, on the advice of Mikhail Nesterov, ordered a huge portrait from the poor artist - twice the height of a man. He contributed to the fact that Pavel Dmitrievich was hired to work in restoration workshops Pushkin Museum, he also arranged a trip for the Korin brothers to Europe and Italy to get acquainted with the masterpieces of world art.
But, most importantly, Gorky created all the conditions for the implementation of the large-scale plan of “Requiem”.
First of all, he agreed that Korin could freely draw sketches in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, because in those years all Kremlin churches were closed to the public.
Pavel Korin. Drawing in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin
He also knocked out a new spacious workshop for the artist on Malaya Pirogovskaya Street, where a huge canvas for a painting could fit (the canvas itself was made to a special order in Leningrad at Gorky’s personal request).
But in 1936 Gorky died, and dark days came for Korin. He was literally bombarded with accusations that he had “become detached from reality, was not participating in the development of proletarian art, and had gone into depicting the reactionary environment.”
Yesterday’s friends wrote denunciations about him to the NKVD: “P. Korin’s preparation for the main picture is expressed in a hundred sketches, the models for which are terry fanatics preserved in Moscow, fragments of the clergy, aristocratic families, former merchants, etc. He claims, but very uncertainly, that he collected this entire collection of obscurantists in order to show their doom. Meanwhile, judging by the sketches, he does not create any impression of doom. Masterfully portrayed fanatics and dark personalities clearly turn into heroes, Christian martyrs, persecuted but not giving up champions of religion.”
In the newspaper Izvestia in April 1937, two accusatory articles were published, where Korin was called a “reactionary”: “in his workshop, the Trotskyist-fascist evil spirits created a laboratory of obscurantism.”
It would seem that after such denunciations the artist’s fate was sealed, but God protected Korin. As a result, all the repressions were limited only to the fact that the Tretyakov Gallery removed from the permanent exhibition all his paintings, which were declared “formalist daub.”
He had to almost completely hide his inner world from others. Lighting a lamp at home in front of the icons, which he collected with great love and understanding of their spiritual and artistic value, to acquaintances who knew that he was a believer, Orthodox, church person, he said: “You light it, sit opposite, and somehow pleasantly and easily stand on soul. The light will sparkle like a firefly quietly and beautifully...”
The attitude towards the artist changed only during the war, when in 1942 Pavel Dmitrievich, by order of the USSR Committee for the Arts, created the triptych “Alexander Nevsky”, where the holy Russian prince, clad from head to toe in steel armor, stood against the backdrop of a banner with the face of Christ . Stalin was delighted - it was precisely such an iron Russian giant, without any “Vasnetsov’s” caftans and morocco boots, that could break the back of the fascist beast.
Pavel Korin. Triptych "Alexander Nevsky"
Korin also supervised the restoration of paintings at the Dresden Gallery. In the destroyed Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv, he restored the frescoes of Viktor Vasnetsov and Mikhail Nesterov, for which he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR, he became a laureate of the Lenin and Stalin Prizes.
At the same time, he continued to work on his main idea. In 1948, he told Patriarch Alexy (Simansky) about his idea, who readily agreed to pose for the artist. Several sessions took place, but the patriarch was constantly distracted by vain affairs: someone was calling on the phone, it was necessary to resolve some of the most urgent and urgent matters that had important political implications.
In the end, he and Alexy agreed that Korin and his wife would come to Odessa, where the patriarch would rest, and there they could continue their work, combining it with a vacation at sea. But a sudden heart attack prevented Korin from carrying out his plans.
Alexy Simansky
IN last years Neither recognition nor personal exhibitions pleased Pavel Dmitrievich: his relatives more than once noted that Korin often bitterly repeated that he had not fulfilled his purpose, had not completed his most important painting.
But the unexpected happened: the picture began to exist on its own. And not at all the way the artist himself intended it.
Look carefully at the sketch.
Pavel Korin. Rus' is leaving
The red color of the liturgical vestments of Metropolitan Tryphon and the patriarchs standing behind him clearly tells us that this is a festive Easter service. You can even accurately establish the date: it is May 5, 1918. It was on this day that Bishop Trifon Turkestanov of Dmitrov, vicar of the Moscow diocese, led the last Easter service in the Assumption Cathedral, which turned out to be the last service in the cathedral in general - after which the Bolsheviks closed access to the temple for believers.
But the date here has a very conditional meaning. This Easter service is already taking place in a mystical and metaphysical space, because both living and resurrected patriarchs gathered to glorify the risen Christ: St. Tikhon (Bellavin) and Sergius (Stragorodsky), metropolitans and bishops, priests and monks who perished in the millstones of Stalin’s Moloch.
Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin
“Do not be surprised at this: for the time is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.”
It seems that people standing with their backs to the altar of the Assumption Cathedral are just waiting for the deacon’s sign in order to leave the temple forever at the end of the service. The huge chandeliers have been extinguished, scaffolding has already been installed in the cathedral, the Royal Doors are already closed...
But in fact, the artist depicted the very beginning of the Easter service - the censing. Right now Protodeacon Father Mikhail, raising right hand with a censer, bows low and exclaims in a thick bass voice:
- Bless the censer, Vladyka!
But at the same time he is not addressing Metropolitan Tryphon, and his hand is extended not to the east, as usual, not to the altar and not to the serving Metropolitan Tryphon, but to the west.
Metropolitan Tryphon himself looks there, his only sighted eye wide open in surprise, as do all the patriarchs, and everyone standing in the church. And one cannot help but wonder what the Metropolitan saw.
If you imagine yourself in the place of Metropolitan Tryphon and look in the same direction, then it is obvious that his gaze is drawn to the image of the Savior on the fresco “The Last Judgment,” which, according to tradition, is always located on the western wall of every Orthodox church.
But there is no longer a fresco there: both the walls of the temple and the Heavens themselves opened up in anticipation of the Second Coming.
It is from Christ, risen and coming to judge the living and the dead, that the protodeacon asks for blessings; it is the Savior - the Living and Incarnate God - who is now the leader at this liturgy, preceding the onset of the Last Judgment.
No, the Russian Church is not going to go anywhere. It was gathered here by Christ himself in anticipation of a quick judgment, which he is preparing to accept calmly and with love for the Lord.
“And he said to me: These are they who came out of the great tribulation; they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they now abide before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple, and He who sits on the throne will dwell in them” (Revelation of St. John the Theologian).
The Last Judgment has already begun.
(1892-1967)
L. D. Korin is one of the largest, most complex and tragic figures in Russian art of the 20th century.
He was born in the famous village of Palekh into a family of hereditary icon painters. The path in life was predetermined.
However, talent required development. Korin moved to Moscow, in 1911 he became an assistant to M.V. Nesterov in working on the painting of the Church of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent.
A meeting with Nesterov, who understood art as a spiritual feat, as well as another “meeting” - with the work of A. A. Ivanov, admiration for his ascetic life, strengthened Korin’s dream of devoting his whole life to serving art, reaching the heights of mastery, and becoming a successor of the great traditions of Russian painting . In 1916, Korin graduated from the Moscow School of Painting and Painting, but was dissatisfied with his first independent work
, realizes how far away the cherished ideal is, how difficult the path to the intended goal is.
In 1918-25, in the midst of turmoil in the country and in art, Korin seemed to bear voluntary obedience: he drew a lot, copied, and studied anatomy. He is convinced that new and recent artistic movements do not expand, but sharply narrow the artist’s possibilities, do not give him sufficient plastic means, that this movement is not upward, but downward.
The creative heritage of the artist Pavel Dmitrievich Korin is unusually diverse. He came from icon-painting Palekh and at first developed as a master icon painter. At the same time, Pavel Korin forever retained his interest in inner world
person and subsequently became one of the outstanding portrait painters of our time. Perhaps the same purely iconographic tradition of miniature landscapes on Palekh icons
Over time, the artist led to the creation of a number of completely original panoramic landscapes.
These bewitchingly beautiful picturesque “ribbons” give the viewer a feeling of the boundless space and beauty of Russian nature, and present the artist himself as a subtle lyricist and a profound philosopher.
Portrait of Pavel Korin. Artist Mikhail Nesterov
Pavel Korin. My motherland
Message quote
Korin Pavel Dmitrievich “Leaving Rus'” In 1925, Patriarch Tikhon died in his Moscow residence (Donskoy Monastery). The death of the saint of the Russian Orthodox Church caused a mass pilgrimage of people to the bed of the deceased. Streams of people flowed along all the roads to Moscow, to the walls of the Donskoy Monastery. Silently, day and night, all Orthodox Rus' walked. Ceremony
funeral services, clergy of all degrees and ranks, crowds of believers, among whom were fanatics and holy fools... 
*clickable
Writers, composers, scientists, and artists visited there - everyone who could then understand the significance of what was happening. Among the artists was the sincere singer of “Holy Rus'” Nesterov, and with him was his student and by that time his friend Pavel.
At the walls of the Donskoy Monastery, Pavel Korin saw how this Rus', wretched in Everyday life, in these last - tragic and at the same time stellar moments for her - she showed all the strength of her character. This Rus' left in the Russian way, with its departure showing a sign of eternity.
Different characters - young and old, men and women, bishops and monks, abbess and young nuns, cripples and beggars on the stone steps of churches and just lay people. They all went into the past with the unshakable belief that this departure was temporary, with the hope of returning and the conviction of the rightness and holiness of their cause. The artist cried when, following the ministers who left the temple, they began to destroy beautiful architectural monuments decorated with frescoes by talented masters.
Pavel Korin then made a few for memory pencil sketches. And on one of the drawings he signed: “Two schema-monks met, as if they had come out of the earth... From under an overhanging gray eyebrow an eye looks out, looking wild.” And young artist
originatedidea to write big picture, to which he gave the name "Requiem".
At first these were just sketches, which he wrote selflessly, with inspiration reaching the point of despair. The plot and composition of the picture were not yet completely clear, and the characters characters have already been born on the canvas. They were alive - with their passions, faith, confusion. Sometimes some colleagues planted seeds of doubt in the artist’s soul, but did not cool his creative fervor, although they tormented him greatly.
In Palekh, and then in Moscow, in an icon-painting workshop, Pavel Dmitrievich often came into contact with ministers of the Russian Orthodox Church. The impressionable artist felt with great acuteness the full depth of the tragic situation of the church, which came into conflict with the young Soviet power. This struggle was fierce, and when the destruction of the clergy began in the country, Pavel Korin realized: he was leaving the stage public life great power. It was in this departure that he saw something deep, full of inner drama. artistic canvas.
Corinne,when he painted a large picture immortalizing the passing away old Rus', he said: “I worried about our entire Church, about Rus', about the Russian soul. I tried to see people enlightened and to be in an elated state... For me, there is something incredibly Russian in the concept of “passing away”. When everything passes, then the best and most important thing is - it will all remain".
Not considering himself a portraitist, Pavel Dmitrievich conceived the idea of creating a multi-figure composition with a clearly defined plot basis: "The church goes out for the last parade." He made sketches for the planned painting long before the final sketch of its composition. These were already completely independent, masterful portraits, total number which reached several dozen.
Father and son. (S. M. and St. S. Churakov). 1931
One of the earliest (some researchers consider it the best) was the sketch “Father and Son”. This companion portrait self-taught sculptor S. M. Churakov and his son, later a famous restoration artist. They are presented in almost full height. The figure of Churakov Sr. depicted in the foreground is a tall, strongly built old man with a prophet’s beard.Michelangelo- amazes the viewer with extraordinary force. He stands confidently on his legs wide apart, raising his right shoulder and clasping his hands behind his back. His head bows down; a beautiful face with a high open forehead, furrowed with sharp wrinkles, overshadowed by deep thought.
The son standing behind seems to complement this image, developing and varying the theme of deep thought. Outwardly, the figure of the young man resembles his father, although it is much smaller and thinner. Here is the same deeply concentrated pose with a bowed head and clasped hands, but it is clear to the viewer that these are completely different, in many ways even contrasting figures.
Thin, nervous face young man, framed by thick dark brown hair covering the forehead; a thin youthful beard, frantically intertwined fingers - everything speaks of a more complex, but also weaker internal organization.
“Three” in the center is the Elder Elagina, on the left is Sophia Mikh. Golitsyna, 1933-35
A few years later, Pavel Korin wrote the sketch “Three”. Three female figures, representing three different ages, reflected the master’s three different approaches to solving the portrait. The central figure is a squat, hunched old nun, leaning heavily on a stick... One of the leading church figures appears before the viewer, perhaps in the past - the abbess of some monastery. A long black robe with a cape envelops this gloomy figure. From under a huge fur-trimmed hat pulled down over his forehead and a black scarf covering his cheeks, the details of the old man’s face, masterfully sculpted with color, stand out in relief. At first glance, it is clear that this is a powerful, decisive, courageous person.
Behind the old woman, on the right, stands an elderly woman in semi-monastic clothes. Hercovered with warmth and quiet tranquilitybeautifulface framed by a black scarf, with a high open forehead and kind, sad eyes speaks of the difficult, long-suffering fate, wise patience and perseverance of the Russian woman.
The third figure - a young, big-eyed beauty, slender and tall - personifies the heroic-romantic direction in Korin's work. She, like her neighbor,in the same dark semi-monastic robe, but her proudly raised head is not covered.
Protodeacon M. K. Kholmogorov
In 1935, a portrait of Protodeacon Kholmogorov was painted. When the first sketches for "Requiem" appeared, many greeted them with hostility. Recognizing the undeniable talent of Pavel Korin, he was reproached for escaping reality, poetizing the dark aspects of the “legacy of the past,” and apologizing for religiosity, butwasin these sketchesAnda reflection of the revolution, albeit indirect for now. The essence of this reflection lay in the extreme intensity of human passions, in the powerful element of faith. The “Requiem” in the sketches gradually grew into a symbolic “requiem” for the passing old world.
Hieromonk Pimen and Bishop Anthony
Metropolitan Tryphon
At the end of the 1930s, Korin stopped writing sketches for his painting, explaining this by attacks from ill-wishers. But there were also deeper ideological reasons and creative order. Developed rapidly new life, which required the artist to update and expand the themes of his work. Turning to new heroes (portraits of remarkable figures of Soviet culture) noticeably slowed down the work on the planned picture, but did not stop it.
Young hieromonk. Father Fedor. 1932
Gorky, who came to see Korin, asked him in detail about the composition of the future canvas and inquired about the title. “Requiem,” the artist answered not very confidently. - “I don’t see the address. The title should determine the content.” And then the writer said, looking at the sketches: “All of them are passing away. Passing away. Passing Rus'. I would call it that: “Leaving Rus'.” And somehow Immediately after these words, everything fell into place, the idea and concept of the picture acquired a clear and distinct harmony.
Schema mother Seraphim from the Ivanovo Monastery in Moscow
Schemanitsa from the Ivanovo Monastery. Study for the painting "Requiem". 1930s.
For almost a quarter of a century (with interruptions), Korin wrote the final sketch of the painting, which he completed in 1959. This sketch was a smaller version of the intended canvas; it not only gives an idea of its composition and artistic structure, but also reveals the specific content of each image. This is a sketch of a multi-figure group portrait, created according to the example of the best examples of this genre.
Beggar. 1933
The action of the film by Pavel Korin unfolded in the depths of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. A multifaceted crowd, having filled the cathedral, is preparing for the ceremonial exit. This solution to the plot allowed the artist to turn all the characters in the picture to face the viewer, which contributes to the most multifaceted disclosure of portrait characteristics.
The highest clergy is located in the center of the picture. Four patriarchs came together in one church, successively leading the Russian Orthodox Church. This circumstance speaks in favor of the fact that the design of the entire canvas is not limited to displaying
to the life of the tragically departing Holy Rus'. For a long time some art critics (G. Vasiliev) considered the painting as "the last parade of those condemned by history to oblivion". The critic noted that “their alienation from life is mercilessly emphasized by the desolation of the huge cathedral. The artist conceived the picture as “Requiem” is a departure from the powerful social phenomenon called Orthodoxy.”
Schema-abbess mother Tamar. 1935
Yes, the idea of the ongoing tragedy can be read both in the composition of the picture and in the faces of its characters. But the faces of most of them are clouded not only with grief, they are also marked by deep, concentrated thoughts. There is no hint in the film that we are seeing victims of historical disruption, humbly accepting the verdict of the era. Therefore, among the characters there are very few bowed figures and people with downcast eyes. To the left of the pulpit, the viewer sees a tall hieromonk, proudly throwing back his head. Next to him are two folk types: an ancient old man, but still full of unquenchable strength, and a blind beggar. The right side of the composition is rich in various types and characters. The overall reddish-blue color of the canvas with abundant splashes of gold, the strict majesty of the background filled with Russian painting wonderfully interpreted by the artist, the mysterious flickering of candles - everything enhances the harsh, intense solemnity of this monumental scene.
These are the images of Korin's Requiem. As we see, in all these outwardly, and sometimes internally dissimilar people, there is one thing - a spiritual core, faith. They lived with it, they died with it, accepting death with dignity, in a Christian way. It was faith, the Christian view of man as a microcosm, the affirmation in man of the consciousness of his uniqueness and godlike significance (the servant of God is no longer anyone’s slave!) that gave them high individuality. All of them are separate hypostases of one idea...
Young nun. 1935
"The Passing Rus'" conceived by Pavel Korin is a canvas of a large historical and philosophical plan. But the artist never transferred the essentially finished painting onto a large canvas. Stretched on a giant stretcherThe canvas still stands in the artist’s studio-museum. Why didn’t a brush or even coal touch him?Some believed that the artist felt an insurmountable contradiction between the plan and the chosen path of implementation. So Kamensky wrote: "Korin conceived the picture as a solemn requiem, as a high tragedy. But tragedy only acquires real vitality and greatness of passions when, in a collision, the dying side has
human beauty
And
historical justice. The characters in "Departing Rus'" do not have these qualities. Korin himself proved this best of all in his sketches. He depicted with... psychological force a string of spiritual and physical cripples, stubborn fanatics, those born blind, dying without insight... And when Corin began to compose a picture from his sketches, intending to create a tragic composition, the objective content of the individual images he created began to contradict overall plan. Korin had the spiritual insight to understand this and the courage to refuse to create the canvas."
However, facts contradict such statements. Singer, for example, notes that in the sketch there are simply wonderful characters: the same old hero from the couple “Father and Son”, some female types are the flesh of those eternal prototypes that at one time gave birth to the noblewoman Morozova and the Streltsy from Surikov, Martha and Dositheus by Mussorgsky, Father Sergius by L. Tolstoy.
There were other circumstances whythe painting was unfinished. Party functionaries stood guard over the principle of socialist realism and zealously ensured that “ideologically harmful, alien to the people” works did not see the light of day. Back in 1936, a letter was received from one of them, Angarov, addressed to Stalin: “Korin’s preparation for the main picture is expressed in hundreds of sketches, the sitters for which are terry fanatics, the surviving remnants of the clergy, aristocratic families, and merchants. So, for example, among Korin’s sitters there is a person who has graduated from two higher educational institutions and in 1932 he became a monk. Former princesses who have now become nuns, priests of all ranks, protodeacons, holy fools and other scum pose for Corin...
Our attempts to prove to him the falsity of the topic he took have so far been unsuccessful... I ask for your guidance on this issue.”
In the last years of his life, Pavel Dmitrievich passionately wanted to complete his painting. The only serious obstacles were age and a sharp deterioration in health. He was already about seventy years old, he had suffered two heart attacks, and his work required a lot of strength. And yet the master did not want to give up. Korin was even going to order a special lifting chair and begin work. But his strength waned, and shortly before his death the artist said with bitterness: “I didn’t have time.”
Northern ballad - the left part of the triptych Alexander Nevsky. 1943
Pavel Korin did not believe in the finalthe departure of Holy Rus' into the disappearance of Orthodox spirituality. He passionately believed: “Rus' was, is and will be. Everything false and distorting its true face may be protracted, albeit tragic, but only an episode in the history of a great people.”
An ancient tale - the right part of the triptych by Alexander Nevsky. 1943
Saved by the Ardent Eye. 1932
The left part of the sketch of the unrealized triptych Flashes. 1966
The right part of the sketch of the unrealized triptych of Flashes. 1966
The central part of the sketch of the unrealized triptych Flashes. 1966
Archimandrite Father Nikita.
Peresvet and Oslyabya - the right side of the sketch-variant of the unrealized triptych
Dmitry Donskoy. 1944
Dmitry Donskoy and Sergius of Radonezh - the central part of a sketch-variant of an unrealized triptych
Dmitry Donskoy. 1944
Dmitry Donskoy. Morning of the Kulikovo field. 1951
Village priest. Father Alexy. Fragment
Hieromonk Mitrofan. Fragment
Father Ivan, priest from Palekh. 1931
Schema-abbot Mitrofan and Hieromonk Hermogenes. 1933. On the back, on the top bar of the stretcher, the author’s inscription: Schema-Abbot O. Mitrofan (with a cross) from “Zosimova Hermitage”
St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. 1932.
Portrait of N.A. Peshkova. 1940
Portrait of M.V. Nesterova. 1939
Portrait of K.N. Igumnova. 1941-1943
Portrait of Marshal G.K. Zhukova. 1945
After Gorky's death in 1936, the circumstances of the artist's life changed dramatically; he was actually forced to stop working on the painting. The already prepared huge canvas remained untouched.
You can see Korin’s painting “The Passing Rus'” in its entirety
During the Great Patriotic War Corinneturns to a historical topic, on which he continued to work until his death.He is attractedimages of warriors - defenders native land, spiritual ideals of Russia.
This is Alexander Nevsky - the central figure of the famous triptych (1942), in which the features of both saints from ancient Russian icons and mighty heroes of the Italian Renaissance live.
Alexander Nevsky (1220-1263) has long been revered in Rus'. Blordly princebecame famous as the protector of the Russian land. His whole lifewas dedicated to serving the Fatherland. At the height of the war, by decree of the Presidium Supreme Council The USSR established the Order of Alexander Nevsky on July 29, 1942.
The power of the image created by Korin turned out to be such that reproductions of Alexander Nevsky decorated front-line dugouts and front-line newspapers. A huge copy of the painting, made by a group of soldiers who stormed Ancient Novgorod, was installed at the entrance to the city. Soldiers were walking to the west, and the legendary Russian commander called them to fight for freedom. Thus, art, expressing the “national spirit,” fought. The work of Pavel Korin, along with the anthem “Get up, great country,” was at that time something more than a simple work of art.
Alexander Nevsky fully expresses what Pavel Dmitrievich Korin said: “ Art should be heroic, educate and uplift the spirit of the people.”
All his life Corin fought. As an artist. As a collector of works doomed to destruction ancient Russian art. As an outstanding restorer, to whom humanity owes the salvation of many great works, including the masterpieces of the Dresden Gallery. How public figure- defender of cultural monuments of Russia. But Korin failed to win the main victory - to complete the work to which he felt called.
,
M. V. Nesterov. Portrait of brothers P. D. and A. D. Korin. 1930. Moscow, Tretyakov Gallery
The portrait of the Korin brothers, complex in design, captivates with the internal unity found in the image of these two artists. The brothers admire the antique vase, which one of them holds in his outstretched hand. This vessel is the compositional center of the portrait.
(1892-1967) - one of the largest, complex and tragic figures in Russian art of the 20th century. He was born in the famous village of Palekh into a family of hereditary icon painters. The path in life was predetermined. However, talent required development. Korin moved to Moscow, in 1911 he became an assistant Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov in work on the painting of the Church of the Marfo-Mariinskaya Convent. Meeting with Nesterov, who understood art as a spiritual feat, as well as another “meeting” - with creativity Alexander Andreevich Ivanov, admiration for his ascetic life strengthened Korin’s dream of devoting his whole life to serving art, reaching the heights of mastery, and becoming a successor of the great traditions of Russian painting.
In 1916, Korin graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MUZHVZ), but, dissatisfied with his first independent works, he realized how far away the cherished ideal was, how difficult the path to the intended goal was. In the years 1918-1925, in the midst of turmoil in the country and in art, Korin seemed to bear voluntary obedience: he drew a lot, copied, and studied anatomy. He is convinced that new and recent artistic movements do not expand, but sharply narrow the artist’s possibilities, do not give him sufficient plastic means, that this movement is not upward, but downward.
In 1925, Korin, like A. A. Ivanov once, found his own theme. Patriarch Tikhon dies in April of this year. All Orthodox Russia gathers in Moscow for his funeral. Shocked by what he saw, Nesterov's student, an Orthodox Russian man, Pavel Korin, recognizes himself as an artist of this Russia, seemingly doomed, but continuing to live, confident in its spiritual righteousness. He plans to depict a religious procession during the funeral of the patriarch.
Soon work began on preparatory sketches for the painting, which Korin called "Requiem". At the same time, the artist creates the first big job- panoramic landscape “My Homeland” (1928). This is a view of Palekh from a distance. Korin seems to be touching his native land, gaining strength to implement a grandiose plan. He again seems to swear allegiance to the great national tradition, to his constant teachers - A. A. Ivanov and M. V. Nesterov.
Working on sketches for big picture took ten years. The last portrait - of Metropolitan Sergius, the future patriarch - was painted in 1937. Executed with a plastic power rare for the art of the 20th century, the sketches together form a unique portrait series. Orthodox Rus' - from the beggar to the highest church hierarchs - appears before the viewer. The characters are united by a common state, full of inner spiritual fire, but each has an individual character.
In 1931, Korina unexpectedly visited the workshop Maksim Gorky. From him the painting received a new name - “Leaving Rus'”, which distorted the original plan, but also “covered” the artist from possible attacks. Thanks to Gorky, brothers Pavel and Alexander Korin go to Italy. There they study the works of old masters, Pavel Dmitrievich paints landscapes and the famous portrait of Gorky (1932). At this time, Korin's pictorial style finally took shape: powerful plastic modeling, a chased and generalized form, a restrained and at the same time rich color scheme with the introduction of individual color accents, dense, multi-layered painting, using glazes (Korin is a brilliant expert in painting techniques).
After Gorky's death in 1936, the circumstances of the artist's life changed dramatically; he was actually forced to stop working on the painting. The already prepared huge canvas remained untouched. The sketch shows that “Departing Rus'” could become the most significant work of Russian painting after 1917, full of power and symbolic meaning. This is the Church going to war. In the center are three patriarchs, Tikhon, Sergius and Alexy, of whom Corinus was a contemporary. In front of them is the Metropolitan in red Easter vestments (Easter is the holiday of the Resurrection and eternal life). The huge archdeacon raises the censer with an exorbitantly (and deliberately) long hand in a gesture signifying the beginning of the liturgy: “Bless the censer, Vladyka!” - but he does not address the patriarchs, as custom requires, but, as it were, directly to God. This is the Church “going” into eternity.
In fact, Korin emphasizes the same qualities of spiritual asceticism in portraits of cultural and scientific figures, for which the artist received an order in 1939. Among those portrayed are M. V. Nesterov, Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy, actors V. I. Kachalov, L. M. Leonidov, pianist K. N. Igumnov; after the war, portraits of M.S. were added to them. Saryan, S. T. Konenkov, Kukryniksov, Italian painter R. Guttuso. With all the skill and power of these works, in their painting itself there is a feeling of tragic anguish, the painting seems to close and crystallize, spontaneity disappears, the paintings seem to be encased in the armor of smooth, dense strokes. It `s naturally. And Korin himself feels like a warrior, constantly repelling the onslaught of hostile forces.
During the Great Patriotic War, the artist turned to a historical theme, which he continued to work on until his death. Images of warriors - defenders of not just their native land, but the spiritual ideals of Russia - attract Korin. This is Alexander Nevsky, the central figure of the famous triptych of the same name (1942), in which the features of both saints from ancient Russian icons and mighty heroes of the Italian Renaissance live.
All his life Corin fought. As an artist. As a collector of works of ancient Russian art doomed to destruction. As an outstanding restorer, to whom humanity owes the salvation of many great works, including the masterpieces of the Dresden Gallery. As a public figure, he is a defender of cultural monuments of Russia. But Korin failed to win the main victory - to complete the work to which he felt called.
Dzyak A.V.
Literature.
1. Mikhailov A.I. "Pavel Korin". M., 1965.
2. "P. D. Korin: Album." M., 1972.
3. Korin P. D. “Letters from Italy.” M., 1981.
4. Razgonov S. "Height. The life and deeds of Pavel Korin." M., 1982.
5. "P. D. Korin on art: Articles. Letters. Memories of the artist." M., 1988.
Korin's paintings are deeply humane, deeply picturesque - this is a high level in the development of Russian art. And Korin’s life - intense, passionate, completely devoted to art - can serve as an example for many artists.
IN Tretyakov Gallery hanging watercolor "". This is a simple Central Russian landscape: low slopes, ravines, on the slope - dark log huts, all around - autumn fields... An extremely simple landscape, but in every feature of it - rye worts, dandelions, a bell tower reaching into the sky - there is so much charm that the viewer can stand in front of this painting for a long time and, leaving, note the name of the great artist in his memory Pavel Korin.
"was written by Korin in 1927. Few people knew the artist then. He lived, unknown, somewhere in an attic on the Arbat and dreamed on canvases of the quiet expanses of his Vladimir-Shuya native land. Perhaps this seclusion would have continued for a long time if the discoverer of talents, Gorky, had not found Pavel Korin.
Korin knew Gorky’s work very well and had seen the writer at art exhibitions more than once. At one of them, Gorky drew attention to the works of Pavel Korin and expressed a desire to visit his workshop.
Korin remembered the third of September 1931 for the rest of his life. On this day, Gorky came to his studio and found, God knows how, the attic of a Paleshan artist. Attentively, one after another, he looked at Korin's works. He especially liked the group portrait "" - one of the sketches for the painting "". I looked at the sketches and copies from Ivanov and said:
- Great. You are a great artist. You have something to say! - the writer said to Korin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- To Italy, my sir, go... to Italy!
- How can we go, Alexey Maksimovich?
- Come with me. I’m leaving in a month, and you get ready.
Such a high assessment of Gorky was a complete surprise for Corina. This is how their friendship began.
Korin lived in Italy for about a year. In the galleries of Florence, Rome, a high painting Renaissance. And he, a hereditary icon painter, who has absorbed the Russian traditions into flesh and blood national painting began to study the creations of Mikel - Angelo. Raphael. Korin made many skillful copies, wandered with a sketchbook around the outskirts of Rome, where Alexander Ivanov had previously painted sketches.
It was then that the artist had the idea to write portrait of Gorky. Daring dream! After all, Gorky was painted by outstanding Russian artists - V.A. Serov, I.E. Repin, M.V. Nesterov, in the Soviet era - V.M. Khodasevich, I.I. Brodsky and many other painters.
But Gorky, as if guessing the artist’s thoughts, once said:
- You know what, - write - a portrait of me.
Corin became worried. Will he be able to capture for posterity the great writer as he was now, in his declining years?
Gorky encouraged him:
- It’s okay, it’s okay, you can handle it, it’ll work out!
“Stands tall at full height, an old man Having passed through the mountains and crossroads of life, he looks forward and thinks about his own. The artist emphasized the past years with sharp folds of wrinkles on the cheeks and neck, broad shoulders slightly hunched from the weight of the years endured, overhanging eyebrows and unruly strands of hair. gray hair on the right temple and an old mustache hiding his lips - yes, an old man! And then - look at the eyes. Clear, attentive, they see far and see new roads along which to go, along which it's already underway life, and with it this person. And his wrinkles, and gray hair, and the fatigue of his body, emphasized by the artist, make him look younger - special look, give him a special strength and strength, uh, yes, this old man is younger than many of us,” wrote playwright L. Afinogenov about the portrait of Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, which was painted in 1932.
In one of the letters to his wife Corinne talks about working on the portrait: “Pashenka, I wrote today with frenzy, my throat is dry, my back is all wet, even Alexei Maksimovich noticed and says: “Your eyes are sunken.” And a few days later he continues in another letter: “Hurray! Hooray! Hooray! The portrait came out. The head is almost ready, just a little bit of finishing left to do tomorrow. Everyone is delighted. Alexey Maksimovich himself is pleased. Here are his words: ...Many people painted from me, and everything was unsuccessful, your portrait is successful.”
Later, in his memoirs, Korin told how, during joint walks with Gorky, he saw the writer as he captured him in the portrait: “He walked, leaning on a stick, stooping, his angular shoulders rose high, graying hair stood out over his high forehead; he walked, deep in thought, against the backdrop of the Bay of Naples.”
The portrait was completed in 1932, and Gorky donated it to the Tretyakov Gallery. In subsequent years Corinne made a lot drawings about to write another portrait of Gorky, but this was prevented by the death of the writer in 1936. Corin did drawing from the deceased Gorky. Now it is kept in the writer's museum in Moscow.
A year passed, and Moscow heard about the young painter. At the exhibition “XV Years of the RSFSR” in 1933 appeared portrait of A.M. Gorky, written by Pavel Korin in Sorrento.
The picture caused controversy. Some pointed out that the anatomical details were not verified, others that the painting was rather dry and whitish. But no matter what the professionals said about individual imperfections, the viewer was captivated by the monumental figure of Gorky, standing on the seashore, leaning on a stick.
Korin’s dream of becoming an artist began early, in his childhood. And this is not an accident: he was born and raised in the world-famous village of Palekh in the family of an icon painter. Currently, this village in the Ivanovo region is the center of miniature painting on lacquerware. Over several centuries, the Korin family produced many painters, but the most outstanding was Pavel Dmitrievich Korin. Before becoming an artist by vocation, he was already one by birth. Remembering his childhood, Korin talked about how his father and older brothers worked, how wonderful pictures appeared - bright and colorful - on special boards prepared by his mother. Usually the whole family worked in creating icons. As a child, Pavel learned to grind paints and prepare boards on which icons were painted. But not only icon painting was the source of Pavel Korin’s artistic education. The very life of the Paleshans, their houses with wooden carvings, painted walls, and the surrounding nature are marked by special beauty.
|
|
|
|
The boy's talent manifested itself early, but the narrow framework of icon-painting traditions did not allow his talent to develop. Many advised Pavel to go to Moscow to study with masters of painting. But Pavel Korin did not immediately find the way to great art. For many years he worked in icon-painting workshops in Moscow, first as an apprentice, then as a master. Chance brought Korin together in 1911 with the remarkable Russian painter M.V. Nesterov.
“Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov,” recalled Korin, “had a huge influence on me. I was eighteen years old and I was an icon painter dreaming of high art. And then a meeting with Nesterov. Nesterov always spoke fieryly and somehow sublimely about art. In one of the conversations he told me: “You know, Corin, art is a feat.” Later, on his life path artist, I understood the truth of these words, and then I believed. I worked with Mikhail Vasilyevich, saw how he wrote: his whole method of work amazed and delighted me. I learned the craft of execution from him.”
Having met the young man Korin, Nesterov immediately guessed his deep nature, talent, nobility, and extraordinary mind. He advised the young painter to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. "You need a systematic art education", he said to Corin. In 1912, twenty years old, Korin became a student at this school. Outstanding Russian painters - K.A. Korovina, S.V. Malyutina, A.E. He studied the art of drawing, composition, perspective, tone, color from Arkhipov, mastered the basics of the artist’s skill, but he always considered Nesterov first of all to be his teacher.
Many years later Corinne created portrait of Nesterov. He perfectly conveyed the stern restraint of his teacher and his passionate love for art.
The portrait is dynamic: it seems that Korin shook Nesterov at the moment of an acute, principled dispute about art.
This friendship continued for many years. In Nesterov’s house, Korin met outstanding scientists, writers, and artists. Nesterov had an invaluable influence on the formation of the aesthetic and social views of the young artist.
Korin learned a lot from Nesterov: devotion to Russian art, exactingness, and tireless search for something new. All his life, Korin strived to improve his skills and not stop there.
Korin graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1916. A year later, the Great October Socialist Revolution took place. A new life was being created before the artist’s eyes.
Korin was offered to work at the school, which became known as " Free art workshops" Korin taught, together with V.V. Mayakovsky worked in ROSTA's Windows of Satire, wrote revolutionary slogans, painted posters, and participated in the design of festive street decorations. All the time, Korin worked tirelessly as a painter, improved his skills, and wrote copies of works by the great masters of Russian painting. In order to study more deeply the anatomy of the human body, he worked for several years in the anatomical theater.
Every summer Korin went to his native Palekh, wrote sketches there, culminating in a painting - a panorama " My motherland", on which the artist worked for many twenty years.
Korin always wanted to paint a Russian landscape “subtly, carefully and with a solemn mood.” And he created a typical poetic image of Russian nature, its middle zone. Coniferous and deciduous forests, fields crossed by country roads, gray-blue early evening sky - this is how Pavel Korin captured Palekh in his painting. Panoramic landscape is Korin's favorite genre in painting. IN creative heritage there are many artists landscapes of Italy, central Russia, Crimea.
Love for art, desire to preserve greatest works of the past for posterity prompted Korin to start collecting and restoring works of art. Korin collected his collection of ancient Russian paintings for forty-five years, and then donated it to the Tretyakov Gallery. Often the works of ancient masters fell into the hands of Korin in such a form that years of persistent painstaking work were needed before the pristine beauty appeared before the viewer.
Korin was fascinated by restoration work, and the artist devoted many years to it. Hundreds of masterpieces of Russian and world classics found a second life, having been in the skillful and talented hands of an artist-restorer Pavel Korin. For almost ten years, Korin led a group of restorers in the Museum’s workshops fine arts named after A.S. Pushkin, who brought life back to the masterpieces of the Dresden Gallery. Korin himself restored “ Sistine Madonna» Raphael. The restoration work was a civic feat for Korin. And although she took away the artist’s precious time, which he needed to create own works, he gave himself entirely to her. And there were a lot of creative ideas. Back in the 30s, he began working on a series of portraits of his contemporaries: scientists, writers, pilots, artists. Already the portrait of Gorky defined a special, “Korinsky” style in the portrait genre.
|
|
|
|
The artist never strived for a documentary-narrative image. For him, the main thing was to recreate the character of a person, to reveal his spiritual essence. Portraits of Korin conveyed the charm of the personality of the person depicted; it seemed that the artist wanted to convey to the viewer part of his love for those whose portraits he painted.
Korin was attracted to bright human characters. In 1940 he began work on portrait of People's Artist Vasily Ivanovich Kachalov, whose performances were a holiday for his contemporaries.
In this portrait, he wanted to convey the feeling of the joy of art, its festivity, optimism, faith in happiness that permeates Kachalov’s work. Korin depicted the artist in full height, emphasizing the monumentality and majestic posture of his figure. Posing for the artist, Kachalov read him poems and excerpts from performances.
During the Great Patriotic War, Korin turns to the themes of the heroic past of the Russian people. He paints a huge triptych."
|
|
|
|
The image of Alexander Nevsky, who saved Rus' from foreign enslavement, was close to the artist and echoed the characters of his contemporaries who defended the Soviet country from the Nazis. In the central part of the triptych “Korin” depicted a Russian prince on the banks of the Volkhov River. In the distance one can see the golden domes of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod and the serried ranks of soldiers.
When Novgorod was liberated from the Nazis by the Soviet Army in 1944, a huge copy of this painting was installed at the entrance to the city. The ancient Russian warrior greeted his heroic descendants.
Having finished work on the triptych. Korine started writing the series portraits of Soviet commanders, among which was a portrait of an outstanding Soviet commander Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.
IN post-war years Korin became increasingly fascinated by the genre of portraiture. In 1956, he painted a group portrait of famous Soviet artists - satirists Kukryniksy. “I was working on a portrait,” Korin recalled, wrote Mikhail Vasilievich Kupriyanov(KU), Porfiry Nikitich Krylov(KRY), Nikolai Alexandrovich Sokolov(NIKS), and also painted artists Kukryniksy. This was the most important point of my portrait.
I wanted to understand and express what made them this way. The portrait was difficult. I had to convey the inner spiritual posture of each of them and unite in one powerful, extremely expressive and sharp posture the Kukryniksy artists, artists of political satire...”
Korin loved to paint people of art, and he was especially attracted to painters. To penetrate into the creative world of the artist, to capture in his portrait the originality and uniqueness of his talent - such a task seemed especially interesting to Korin.
Soviet sculptor Sergei Timofeevich Konenkov Corinne was depicted in a work blouse. It seems that the sculptor has just stepped away from the machine. His large, worn-out hands lie calmly, resting. The gaze is turned to the just completed work. The portrait was painted in 1947, when the name of the sculptor was already widely known.
In 1961, in Italy, Korin met with the outstanding Italian artist Renato Guttuso, whose works he had long known from many Moscow and European exhibitions. Guttuso is a progressive artist, his favorite heroes are peasants, fishermen, and workers. Korin wrote Guttuso in his workshop. A small room, one of the artist’s paintings hangs on the wall, there are cans of paints. Guttuso sits on a folding chair, as if stopping his work for a second.
Corinne began, as usual, with pencil drawing. By the end of the first session, when the artist sketched the outline of the head, Renato and his friends who were in the studio decided that the portrait was almost ready. Great was their surprise when Korin persistently and persistently searched for the desired background for the portrait for many more days, strove to convey as accurately as possible the passionate, irreconcilable character of the Italian painter in paint, and to transfer onto the canvas the sunny colors of Guttuso’s homeland - Sicily.
The last years of his life, Korin was fascinated by monumental art. He dreamed of his works decorating public buildings.
One day the architect A.N. came to visit Pavel Dmitrievich. Shchusev. He suggested that Korin create mosaics to decorate a Moscow metro station. Komsomolskaya - ring", built according to his design.
Shchusev used motifs of ancient Russian architecture in the architecture of this station. Korin created eight mosaics on Russian history themes, and today they decorate the ceiling of the station. One of the most successful works is a mosaic depicting the Moscow prince Dmitry Donskoy defender of Russian lands from the Tatar - Mongol conquerors.
|
|
|
|
