– Russians folk pictures self made, representing a rich and expressive layer of history, culture and art of the Russian state. These once popular images, characterized by their simplicity and accessibility, speak eloquently about life and worldview ordinary people of the past.
Lubok appeared in Rus' in the 16th century. Scientists are still arguing about the origin of the name “lubok”. Some say that it comes from the word “lub,” the old Russian name for the linden tree, on the boards of which pictures were carved. Others claim that it is connected with the bast boxes in which they were carried. And Moscow legend says that it all started with Lubyanka, the street where the masters of popular print art lived.
The drawings were drawn on specially sawn boards and were called “Fryazh sheets”, then “amusing sheets” and “simple sheets”. Initially, they were dominated by religious subjects, after which lubok became a convenient and inexpensive way to disseminate information, stories of a moral and instructive nature, and propaganda. As time passed, the splint technique changed. In the 19th century, wood gave way to metal and the work became more elegant. The subjects were the lives of saints, epics and songs, fables and portraits of the imperial family, scenes from the life of peasants, fairy tales and novels, knowledge about distant countries and historical events.
Expensive popular prints decorated the royal chambers and boyars' towers. Ordinary people bought inexpensive (priced from half a penny) black and white popular prints at fairs, preferring comic drawings. Many representatives of high society refused to call the creations of self-taught folk artists art. But these days Russian folk print adorns the collections of major museums.
For New York public library the most “fruitful” period for collecting large and rare books with engravings from of Eastern Europe fell in the decade from 1925 to 1935. Then the Soviet government nationalized and sold abroad the contents of the imperial palace libraries. The New York Public Library alone contains items from nine imperial libraries, as well as publications that belonged to 30 members of the imperial family. The library acquired them on the spot (and at a good price), sending Yarmolinsky Abraham Tsalevich (1890-1975), curator of the Slavic department from 1917 to 1955, to replenish the book collections. He came to Soviet Russia in 1923 and returned to the States in 1924. Valuable exhibits from the collection of the imperial palace libraries were also acquired by the Library of Congress and Harvard University. Second-hand book dealer Hans Kraus wrote:
« These [Russian palace] collections, so little known and highly valued in the West, contained incredible materials. Such rare Eastern European works have never been seen in this hemisphere. Book collectors diligently served the kings and queens. In addition to purchased books, their collections were replenished with numerous publications received as gifts, printed on special paper, with luxurious bindings, in silk or morocco, and with the imperial coat of arms.(“The Saga of the Rare Book,” 1978, pp. 90-91.)
A significant part of the lubok library collection is also occupied by works from the collection of an outstanding cultural figure Russian Empire, Dmitry Alexandrovich Rovinsky (1824-1895). He was an extremely multifaceted personality. Privy Councilor, lawyer and judicial reformer loved art with all his heart. Through his own efforts, he bought materials and published illustrated books, including “Russian folk paintings", "Russian engravers and their works", "Dictionary of Russian engraved portraits", "Reliable portraits of Moscow sovereigns", "Materials for Russian iconography" and other collections. Having spent most of his fortune, Rovinsky collected one of the best private collections of Russian and Western European graphics. After his death, the exhibits were dispersed to various museums, libraries and other cultural institutions in Russia. In the West, a remarkable series of volumes has been preserved, which he published often in extremely small editions.
On the website of the New York Public Library, where the album is published "Russian folk popular print of the 1860s-1870s", almost 200 images are presented, we have selected 87 of the most interesting.
Accident, 1867.
New song, 1870.
The industrious bear, 1868.
Sea sirens, 1866.
How merchant women walk, 1870.
This is how Yaroslavl residents work in Moscow and have fun with beauties, 1870.
Funeral of a cat by rats and mice, 1866.
The Slanderer and the Snake, 1869.
The Little Humpbacked Horse, 1870.
Flew out into the chimney, 1872.
In Maryina Roshcha, 1868.
There is no place in St. Petersburg, he goes to the village to deceive fools, 1870.
The most remarkable of the giants, walkers and freaks, Serpo Didlo, 1866.
Jewish karchma, 1868.
Big nose fight with severe frost, 1870.
Kashchei and his desire, 1867.
Napraslina, 1867.
A tall tale in the faces, 1868.
The Newest Card Oracle, 1868.
Reforging the old into the young, 1871.
Brave warrior Anika, 1868.
Strong and brave warrior Anika, 1865.
The strong and brave Bova Korolevich defeats the hero Polkan, 1867.
Strong and glorious brave warrior Anika, 1868.
The glorious strong and brave Bova Korolevich defeats the hero Polkan, 1868.
Glorious strong and brave knight Eruslan Lazarevich, 1868.
Strong brave hero Ilya Muromets, 1868.
The strong mighty Bova Korolevich defeats the hero Polkan, Eruslan Lazarevich defeats the three-headed serpent, 1867.
Strong, glorious, brave hero Ivan Tsarevich 1868.
Peasant and Death, 1868.
Predatory wolves attacking travelers, 1868.
How a lioness raised the king's son, 1868.
Reproach of the headman with the mayor, 1870.
Truth and lies, 1871.
Crinoline, 1866.
Smoking a cigar, 1867.
Fishing on a lake, 1870.
The Massacre of Mamayev on the Kulikovo Field in 1380, 1868.
Husband amusing his wife, 1868.
Briber-usurer, 1870.
British attack on the Solovetsky Monastery, 1868.
Crossing of Russian troops across the Danube on March 11, 1854, 1869.
Song "Why are you sleeping little man", 1871.
A song about how a wife drank beer and forgot to feed her husband, 1866.
Song "Return to the homeland of a wasted innkeeper from St. Petersburg", 1870.
Presentation of bread and salt to the sovereign in Moscow, 1865.
Near Odessa April 10, 1854, 1864.
Thrifty Housekeeping, 1870.
Raek, 1970.
Romance, 1867.
Russian peasant wedding, 1865.
Shamil Iman of Chechnya and Dagestan, 1870.
The tale of how a craftsman fooled the devil, 1867.
Miser, 1866.
Stages of the Human Age, 1866.
Baiting a snake and a tiger, 1868.
Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, 1868.
Come on, Mishenka Ivanovich, 1867.
Nonsense for people's amusement. How animals and birds bury a hunter, 1865.
Village, 1970.
General Toptygin, 1868.
Ah, lady, 1870.
English milord, brave knight Guak, brave knight Francil Ventsyan, hero Bova Korolevich, hero Eruslan Lazarevich, 1861.
His Imperial Highness the Heir Tsarevich Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich and Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Fedorovna, 1871.
Mountain landscape, 1870.
Charlemagne and the snake, 1870.
The Turkish troika is in a hurry to report to the Turkish Sultan about the occupation of Kars Russian troops, 1870
Life for Tsar Ivan Susanin, 1866.
Daniel the long giant, 1868.
Katenka, 1867.
A woman beat a man, 1867.
A woman beat a man, 1867.
Our fellow is flattered by money, 1867.
Song "I'm a good gypsy...", 1867.
Song "Girls walked along the shore...", 1867.
Song "A man plowed the arable land", 1867.
Little Russian song, 1868.
For Vladimir cranberries, peddler balyasnik, 1867.
Farewell, 1867.
Dowry painting, 1867.
Russian song "Don't scold me, dear...", 1867.
Russian village song "Father Gave Me Away", 1867.
"Elephant and Pug", 1867.
Gypsy, 1867.
Railway. The downer's story about railway, 1868.
Lubok is a folk picture, a type of graphics, an image with a caption, characterized by the simplicity and accessibility of the images. Originally a type of folk art. It was made using the techniques of woodcuts, copper engravings, lithographs and was supplemented with hand coloring.
From the middle of the 17th century, printed pictures called “Fryazhskie” (foreign) first appeared in Rus'. Then these pictures were called “amusing sheets”; in the second half of the 19th century they began to be called lubok.
The drawing was made on paper, then it was transferred to a smooth board and with special cutters they deepened the places that should remain white. The entire image consisted of walls. The work was difficult, one small mistake - and I had to start all over again. Then the board was clamped in a printing press, similar to a press, and black paint was applied to the walls with a special roller. A sheet of paper was carefully placed on top and pressed down. The print was ready. All that remains is to dry and paint. Lubki were made in different sizes. What colors were loved in Rus'? (Red, crimson, blue, green, yellow, sometimes black). They painted it so that the combination was sharp. The high quality of the drawing indicated that at first the popular prints were painted by professional artists, who were left without work under Peter I. And only then gingerbread board carvers and other city artisans joined. The engraver made the basis for the picture - a board - and gave it to the breeder. He bought boards ready for prints, and sent the prints for coloring (for example, near Moscow, in the village of Izmailovo, there lived lubok makers who made engravings on wood and copper. Women and children were engaged in coloring lubok prints.
How the paints were made: Sandalwood was boiled with the addition of alum, resulting in crimson paint. The emphasis was on bright red or cherry color. Lapis lazuli was used for blue paint. They made paints from leaves and tree bark. Each craftswoman painted in her own way. But everyone learned from each other, and used the best techniques in their work.
Lubki are very popular in Russia. Firstly, they retold history, geography, printed literary works, ABCs, arithmetic textbooks, Holy Scripture. Any topic was covered in popular print with the utmost depth and breadth. For example, four full pages told about our Earth. Where and what peoples live. Lots of text and lots of pictures. Lubki were about individual cities, about various events. Caught For example, in the White Sea whale, and on large sheet a whale is drawn. Or how a man chooses a bride, or fashionable outfits, or "ABC". And all this was done with pictures. Sometimes many pictures were arranged in tiers. Sometimes there were texts on popular prints. Secondly, lubok served as decoration. Russian craftsmen gave the popular print a joyful character.
Lubok is the name comes from the word “bast” - bast, i.e. wood(inner part of tree bark). The drawings were carved on wooden boards. These pictures were sold and distributed throughout the land of Russian ofeni (peddlers), who stored their goods in bast boxes. They treasured the popular prints very much. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” tells how a peasant’s hut was on fire, and the first thing he took away were pictures. There was never any grief or crying in the popular print. He only pleased and amused, and sometimes denounced, but he did it with great humor and dignity. Lubok instilled in people faith in themselves, in their strength. The peddlers of popular prints - ophens - were expected everywhere. They brought pictures with letters to the kids, pictures with fashionable clothes about love to the girls, and something political to the men. Ofenya will show such a picture and tell you what new has happened in the country.
Lubochnye pictures were accompanied by a short explanatory text. It was distinguished by its simplicity and accessibility of images, was written in a lively and figurative colloquial language and was often reproduced in poetic form. Popular prints also include hand-drawn lubok (hand-drawn wall sheets), but the main property of lubok - mass production, wide distribution - is achieved only with the help of printing.
The subjects of popular print books were varied. “Here you will find personified a dogma, a prayer, a hetya (legend), a moral teaching, a parable, a fairy tale, a proverb, a song, in a word, everything that suited the spirit, character and taste of our commoner, that was acquired by his concept, that constitutes the subject of knowledge, edification, exposure, consolation and curiosity of millions...", wrote one of the first lubok researchers I.M. Snegirev.
Initially, Russian lubok was primarily of a religious nature. Russian engravers borrowed subjects from Russian miniatures, as well as church icons. Thus, from the early printed icons, the sheet “Archangel Michael - Governor” has been preserved heavenly powers"(1668), 17th-century popular prints depicting scenes from icons of Suzdal, Chudov Monastery, Simonov Monastery in Moscow, etc. Often these pictures replaced expensive church paintings.
In the 18th century, secular subjects were the most numerous. The source for the grotesque of many of them was foreign engravings. For example, the famous popular print “The Fool Farnos and his Wife” is from a German model; “The Shepherd and the Shepherdess” is a pastoral scene in the Rococo style, from a drawing by F. Boucher, and the grotesque, fancifully fantastic figures of the popular print “Jesters and Buffoons” are based on etchings by J. Callot, etc.
Popular prints of folklore themes were widespread among the people, as well as “amusing and amusing paintings” - images of all kinds of amusements and spectacles, among which the most frequently published popular prints were “Petrushka’s Wedding”, “Bear with a Goat” and especially “Battle of Baba Yaga with a Crocodile” ". The famous popular print “How mice bury a cat” also goes back to national folklore. for a long time considered a parody of the funeral procession of Peter I, allegedly created at the beginning of the 18th century by schismatics who fiercely fought against Peter’s reforms. Today, scientists are inclined to think that the plot of this popular print appeared in pre-Petrine times, although the earliest print of this engraving that has reached us dates back to 1731. Known in several versions, including “seasonal” ones (winter burial on a sleigh and summer burial on a cart), this popular print was repeatedly reprinted with slight deviations in the title (“How the mice buried the cat,” “The mice dragged the cat to the graveyard,” etc. ), V various techniques(wood engraving, metal engraving, chromolithography) not only throughout the 18th century, but almost until the October Revolution.
Many popular prints were created on the topic of teaching and life of various social strata population of Russia: peasant, city dweller, official, merchant, etc. (“The husband weaves bast shoes, and the wife spins the thread”, “Know yourself, show in your house”); popular prints reflected events in domestic and international life ("The Eruption of Vesuvius in 1766", "The Capture of Ochakov", "The Victory of Field Marshal Count Saltykov at Frankfurt in 1759"), the military life of Russian soldiers, their political sentiments, etc. During the period of hostilities, the lubok often served as a newspaper, poster, or leaflet-proclamation. Thus, in 1812-1815, a series of popular prints-caricatures of Napoleon and the French army, created by N.I. Terebnev, a famous Russian sculptor and artist, was released. A widely known patriotic popular print called “The Battle Song of the Donets”, which became widespread during Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905, the text to which (“Hey, Mikado, it will be bad, we’ll break your dishes”) was written by V.L. Gilyarovsky.
Popular prints with portraits of tsars were very popular among the Russian people. In 1723, Peter I introduced strict censorship of facial images royal family, which, however, did not prevent the appearance on the book market of a popular print with a portrait of an imaginary Peter III- Emelyan Pugachev and the never-reigning Emperor Konstantin Pavlovich.
Beginning in the mid-18th century, popular prints were often sewn together or published in book form with big amount illustrations, which were later preserved only on the cover. One of the first Russian popular prints is considered to be the “Biography of the glorious fabulist Aesop,” published in 1712 and first printed in civilian type. Epics, fairy tales, dream books, adaptations of so-called knightly novels, etc. were published in the form of popular prints. The most frequently published popular books were those with fairy-tale content: “About Eruslan Lazarevich”, “Bova Korolevich”. Popular print publications on historical topics were in great demand: “The Jester Balakirev”, “Ermak, who conquered Siberia”, “How a soldier saved the life of Peter the Great”, etc., as well as popular print calendars.
Lubok pictures and books were, as a rule, anonymous, had no imprint and were engraved by self-taught folk craftsmen, but there were also professional writers of popular print books. The most famous of them was Matvey Komarov, the author of the famous “The Tale of the Adventures of the English Milord George and the Brandenburg Mark-Countess Frederica-Louise” (1782), which did not disappear from the book market for 150 years. Over time, a whole literature called popular print appeared, with its own authors, publishers, traditions, etc.
Over time, the technique of making popular prints improved: in the second half of the 18th century, copper engraving began to be used, and from the beginning of the 19th century, lithography, which significantly reduced the cost of popular prints. There have also been changes in the color of the prints. So, if in the 17th-18th centuries popular prints were hand-painted by individual craftsmen using eight to ten colors, then in the 19th century - usually only three or four (crimson, red, yellow and green). By the middle of the 19th century, the coloring itself acquired the character of factory production and became more rough and careless (“on the noses”). The readership purpose of lubok publications has changed: if in the 17th century lubok served all layers of Russian society with equal success, then already in the first quarter of the 18th century the main sphere of its distribution became the growing urban population: merchants, traders, medium and small church officials, artisans. Lubok became peasant, truly mass-produced, already in the 19th century.
In the 18th-19th centuries, the main center for the production of popular prints was traditionally Moscow, where the first factories of the Akhmetyevs and M. Artemyevs arose. Gradually, the production of popular prints passed into the hands of small traders who had their own printing houses. In Moscow in the first half - mid-19th century, the main producers of popular prints were the dynasties of the Loginovs, Lavrentievs, A. Akhmetyev, G. Chuksin, A. Abramov, A. Streltsov and others, in St. Petersburg - publishers A.V. Kholmushin, A.A. .Kasatkin and others. In the village of Mstera Vladimir region Printed popular prints by archaeologist I.A. Golyshev, who did a lot to educate the people. Lubok publications of an educational nature were produced by numerous literacy committees, the publishing houses "Public Benefit" (founded in 1859), "Posrednik" (established in 1884), etc. Lubok prints of religious content, as well as paper samples and icons, were produced in the printing houses of the largest Russian monasteries, including Kiev-Pechersk, Solovetsky, etc.
In the 80s years XIX century, the monopolist of popular prints on the Russian book market became I.D. Sytin, who for the first time began to produce popular prints by machine, significantly improved the content and quality of popular prints (chromolithography in five to seven colors), increased their circulation and reduced retail prices. Through his efforts, the so-called new popular print was created, which, in its design, the nature of its design, color scheme differed from traditional leaf publications. I.D. Sytin for the first time published a series of portraits of Russian writers (A.S. Pushkin, I.S. Nikitin, M.Yu. Lermontov, N.A. Nekrasov, A.V. Koltsov and others) and selections and adaptations of their works , published popular prints on military-patriotic and historical themes, on fairy-tale, everyday, satirical subjects, popular print books, calendars, dream books, fortune-telling books, calendar calendars, lithographed icons, etc., which were purchased in the thousands directly from factories and distributed throughout Russia And
On turn of XIX-XX centuries, lubok continued to be the main type of book product intended for the broad masses, and primarily for peasants and residents of the outskirts of Russia.
The role of lubok, but as a means of mass propaganda and agitation, especially increased during the years of the revolution. In this capacity it continued to exist until the early 30s. In conditions when the majority of the country's population was illiterate, the bright, imaginative and expressive art of lubok, understandable and close to millions, perfectly met the challenges of the time. In 1915, F.G. Shilov, a famous antiquarian of pre-revolutionary Russia, released a small edition of an album of popular prints entitled “Pictures - the war of the Russians with the Germans,” created by the artist N.P. Shakhovsky in imitation of the popular print of the 18th century. All pictures in the publication were reproduced in lithography and hand-colored; the text for them was written by V.I. Uspensky, a famous collector and publisher of numerous monuments of ancient Russian literature.
Many popular prints on the theme of the revolution were created by the artist A.E. Kulikov, including “Baptism of the Revolution”, “Hearing the Horrors of War”, “Woman in the Old Life”, “Who Has Forgotten the Duty to the Motherland?” and others. His works in this genre were published in 1917 by the Fine Arts section of the Moscow Council of Soldiers' Deputies, and in 1928 State Museum Revolution of the USSR, with a circulation of 25 thousand copies, published a series of postcards of six titles with popular prints and ditties by A.E. Kulikov.
Thus, popular prints represent a unique type of antique book. Among them there are genuine works of folk art that reflect the life, customs and aspirations of the Russian people. Every popular print today is most interesting monument and a document of its era, bears the signs and features of its time - this is precisely the approach that should underlie the study of Russian popular prints. At the same time, censorship of lubok publications, which existed in Russia since the end of the 17th century and initially extended only to the “spiritual” lubok, and from the 19th century to all without exception, did not have a serious impact on its evolution.
The main reference book on Russian popular prints is the major five-volume work of D. A. Rovinsky “Russian Folk Pictures” (St. Petersburg, 1881). The owner of the best collection of popular prints in Russia, a tireless researcher of all state and known to him private collections, D.A. Rovinsky collected together, carefully described and commented, indicating sources, 1800 popular prints.
Russian graphic lubok (lubok, lubok pictures, lubok sheets, amusing sheets, simple sheets) - inexpensive pictures with captions (mostly graphic) intended for mass distribution, a type of graphic art.
It got its name from the bast (the upper hard wood of the linden tree), which was used in the 17th century. as an engraving base for boards when printing such pictures. In the 18th century bast replaced copper boards in the 19th and 20th centuries. These pictures were already produced using the printing method, but their name “popular prints” was retained for them. This type of simple and crude art for mass consumption became widespread in Russia in the 17th and early 20th centuries, even giving rise to popular popular literature. Such literature fulfilled its purpose social function, introducing reading to the poorest and least educated segments of the population.
Formerly works of folk art, initially made exclusively by non-professionals, lubok influenced the emergence of works of professional graphics of the early 20th century, which were distinguished by a special visual language and borrowed folklore techniques and images.
The artistic features of popular prints are syncretism, boldness in the choice of techniques (up to the grotesque and deliberate deformation of the depicted), highlighting thematically the main thing with a larger image (this is similar to children's drawings). From popular prints, which were for ordinary townspeople and rural residents of the 17th - early 20th centuries. modern home posters, colorful desk calendars, posters, comics, and many works of modern mass culture (even the art of cinema) trace their history back to newspapers, television, icons, and primers.
As a genre that combines graphics and literary elements, lubok were not a purely Russian phenomenon.
The oldest pictures of this kind existed in China, Turkey, Japan, and India. In China they were originally performed by hand, and from the 8th century. engraved on wood, distinguished at the same time by their bright colors and catchiness.
IN Russian state The first popular prints (which existed as works of anonymous authors) were published at the beginning of the 17th century. in the printing house of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. The craftsmen manually cut both the picture and the text on a smoothly planed, polished linden board, leaving the text and the lines of the drawing convex. Next, using a special leather pillow - matzo - black paint was applied to the drawing from a mixture of burnt hay, soot and boiled linseed oil. A sheet of damp paper was placed on top of the board and the whole thing was pressed together into the press of the printing press. The resulting print was then hand-colored in one or more colors (this type of work, often entrusted to women, was in some areas called "nose painting" - coloring with contours in mind).
The earliest popular print found in the East Slavic region is considered to be the icon of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary 1614-1624, the first Moscow popular print now preserved in collections from the late 17th century.
In Moscow, the distribution of popular prints began from the royal court. In 1635, for the 7-year-old Tsarevich Alexei Mikhailovich, so-called “printed sheets” were purchased in the Vegetable Row on Red Square, after which the fashion for them came to the boyar mansions, and from there to the middle and lower strata of the townspeople, where the popular print gained recognition and popularity around the 1660s.
Among the main genres of popular prints, at first there was only the religious one.
Among the artists who worked on the production of engraving bases for these popular prints were the famous masters of the Kiev-Lvov typographic school of the 17th century. - Pamva Berynda, Leonty Zemka, Vasily Koren, Hieromonk Elijah. Prints of their works were hand-colored in four colors: red, purple, yellow, green. Thematically, all the popular prints they created had a religious content, but biblical heroes were often depicted on them in Russian folk clothing (like Cain plowing the land on Vasily Koren’s popular print).
Gradually, among popular prints, in addition to religious subjects (scenes from the lives of saints and the Gospel), illustrations for Russian fairy tales, epics, translated knightly novels (about Bova Korolevich, Eruslan Lazarevich), and historical tales (about the founding of Moscow, the Battle of Kulikovo) appeared.
Thanks to such printed “amusing sheets”, details of peasant labor and life of pre-Petrine times are now being reconstructed (“Old Agathon weaves bast shoes, and his wife Arina spins threads”), scenes of plowing, harvesting, logging, baking pancakes, rituals of the family cycle - births, weddings , funeral. Thanks to them, the history of everyday Russian life was filled with real images of household utensils and the furnishings of huts.
Ethnographers still use these sources to reconstruct lost scripts folk festivals, round dances, fair actions, details and instruments of rituals (for example, fortune telling). Some images of Russian popular prints of the 17th century. came into use for a long time, including the image of the “ladder of life”, on which each decade corresponds to a certain “step” (“The first step of this life is played in a carefree game...”). But why is popular print called “amusing”? Here's why. Very often, popular prints depicted such funny things that you could hardly stand still. Lubki depicting fair festivals, farcical performances and their barkers, who in hurried voices beckoned people to attend the performance:
“My wife is beautiful. There is a blush under the nose, snot all over the cheek; It’s like a ride along Nevsky, only dirt flies from under your feet. Her name is Sophia, who spent three years drying on the stove. I took it off the stove, it bowed to me and fell apart in three pieces. What should I do? I took a washcloth, sewed it, and lived with it for three more years. He went to Sennaya, bought another wife for a penny, and with a cat. The cat is penniless, but the wife is a profit, whatever you give, she will eat.”
“But, shy guys, this is Parasha.
Only mine, not yours.
I wanted to marry her.
Yes, I remembered, this is not suitable with a living wife.
Parasha would be good for everyone, but it hurts her cheeks.
That’s why there aren’t enough bricks in St. Petersburg.”
A funny popular cartoon about the girl Rodionova:
“Maiden Rodionova, who arrived in Moscow from St. Petersburg and was awarded the favorable attention of the St. Petersburg public. She is 18 years old, her height is 1 arshin 10 vershoks, her head is quite large, her nose is wide. She uses her lips and tongue to embroider different patterns and embroider beaded bracelets. He also eats food without the help of strangers. Her legs serve instead of hands; she uses them to take plates of food and bring them to her lips. In all likelihood, the Moscow public will not leave her happy with the same attention that was given to the girl Yulia Postratsa, especially since seeing Rodionova and her art is much more interesting than seeing only the ugliness of the girl Yulia Postratsa.”
Russian lubok ceased to exist at the end of the 19th century. It was then that old colored sheets began to be stored and cherished as relics of a bygone past. At the same time, the study and collection of popular prints begins. Large collection the popular print was collected from the famous compiler " Explanatory dictionary living Great Russian language" by Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl. The artists Repin, Vasnetsov, Kustodiev, Kandinsky, Konchalovsky, Dobuzhinsky, Lentulov were interested in lubko.
The artistic motifs of the popular print influenced folk decorative art of the 20th century. The connection with the aesthetics of popular prints can be seen in some works by artists Fedoskino and Palekh. Some lubok traditions were used in the creation animated films on themes of folk tales.
The first person to seriously study and collect popular prints was Dmitry Aleksandrovich Rovinsky. In his collection there were every single Russian popular print that was issued to end of the 19th century century, and this is almost 8 thousand copies.
Dmitry Aleksandrovich Rovinsky - art historian, collector and lawyer by profession - was born in Moscow. I purchased the first copies for my collection in my youth. But at first he was interested in collecting Western engravings; Rovinsky had one of the most complete collections of Rembrandt engravings in Russia. He traveled all over Europe in search of these engravings. But later, under the influence of his relative, historian and collector, M.P. Pogodin, Rovinsky begins to collect everything domestic, and primarily Russian folk pictures. In addition to popular prints, D. A. Rovinsky collected old illustrated primers, cosmographies and satirical sheets. Rovinsky spent all his money on collecting his collection. He lived very modestly, surrounded by countless folders with engravings and books on art. Every year Rovinsky went on trips to the most remote places of Russia, from where he brought new sheets for his collection of popular prints. D. A. Rovinsky wrote and published at his own expense “A detailed dictionary of Russian engraved portraits” in 4 volumes, published in 1872, “Russian folk pictures” in 5 volumes - 1881. “Materials for Russian iconography” and “ Complete collection engravings by Rembrandt" in 4 volumes in 1890.
Thanks to his research in the field of art, Rovinsky was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Arts. Rovinsky established prizes for best essays in artistic archeology and best picture followed by its reproduction in engraving. He gave his dacha to Moscow University, and from the income he received, he established regular prizes for the best illustrated scientific essay for public reading.
Rovinsky bequeathed his entire collection of Rembrandt engravings, which is over 600 sheets, to the Hermitage, Russian and folk pictures to the Moscow Public Museum and the Rumyantsev Museum, about 50 thousand Western European engravings to the Imperial Public Library.
Russian lubok is a graphic type of folk art that arose in the era of Peter the Great. Sheets with bright, funny pictures were printed in the hundreds of thousands and were extremely cheap. They never depicted grief or sadness; funny or educational stories with simple, understandable images were accompanied by laconic inscriptions and were a kind of comics of the 17th-19th centuries. In every hut similar pictures hung on the walls; they were greatly valued, and the ofeni, distributors of popular prints, were eagerly awaited everywhere.
Origin of the term
At the end of the 17th century, prints from wooden boards were called German or Fryag amusing sheets by analogy with prints, the technique of which came to Russia from Western lands. Representatives of southern Europe, mainly Italians, have long been called Fryags in Rus'; all other Europeans were called Germans. Later, prints with more serious content and realistic images were called Fryazh sheets, and traditional Russian lubok was the art of folk graphics with simplified, brightly colored graphics and clearly succinct images.
There are two assumptions why funny sheets were called popular prints. Perhaps the first boards for impressions were made from bast - the lower layer of tree bark, most often linden. Boxes were made from the same material - containers for bulk products or household belongings. They were often painted with picturesque patterns with primitive images of people and animals. Over time, bast began to be called boards intended for working on them with a chisel.
Execution technique
Each stage of work on the Russian popular print had its own name and was carried out by different masters.
- At first, the contour drawing was created on paper, and the flag bearers drew it on the prepared board with a pencil. This process was called signification.
- Then the carvers got to work. Using sharp tools, they made indentations, leaving thin walls along the contour of the design. This delicate one painstaking work required special qualifications. The base boards, ready for impressions, were sold to the breeder. The first wood engravers, and then copper engravers, lived in Izmailovo, a village near Moscow.
- The board was smeared with dark paint and placed under a press with a sheet of cheap gray paper placed on it. The thin walls of the board left a black outline pattern, and the cut-out areas kept the paper uncolored. Such sheets were called prostovki.
- Paintings with contour prints were taken to colorists - village artel workers who were engaged in coloring simple paintings. This work was performed by women, often children. Each of them painted up to a thousand sheets a week. The artel workers made their own paints. The crimson color was obtained from boiled sandalwood with the addition of alum, the blue color came from lapis lazuli, and various transparent tones were extracted from processed plants and tree bark. In the 18th century, with the advent of lithography, the profession of colorists almost disappeared.
Due to wear and tear, the boards were often copied, this was called translation. Initially, the board was cut from linden, then pear and maple were used.
The appearance of funny pictures
The first printing press was called the Fryazhsky mill and was installed in the Court (Upper) printing house at the end of the 17th century. Then other printing houses appeared. Boards for printing were cut from copper. There is an assumption that Russian popular prints were first started to be produced by professional printers, installing simple machines in their homes. Printing craftsmen lived in the area of modern Stretenka and Lubyanka streets, and here, near the church walls, they sold funny Fryazh sheets, which immediately began to be in demand. It is in this area that early XVIII centuries, popular prints have found their characteristic style. Soon other places of their distribution appeared, such as Vegetable Row, and then Spassky Bridge.
Funny pictures under Peter
Wanting to please the sovereign, the draftsmen came up with amusing plots for the amusing sheets. For example, the battle of Alexander the Great with the Indian king Porus, in which the Greek ancient commander was given a clear portrait resemblance to Peter I. Or the plot of a black and white print about Ilya of Murom and the Nightingale the Robber, where the Russian hero both in appearance and clothing corresponded to the image of the sovereign, and robber in swedish military uniform portrayed Charles XII. Some subjects of the Russian popular print may have been ordered by Peter I himself, such as a sheet that reflects the reform instructions of the sovereign from 1705: a Russian merchant, dressed in European clothes, is preparing to shave his beard.
Printers also received orders from opponents of Peter’s reforms, however, the content of the seditious popular prints was veiled allegorical images. After the death of the tsar, a famous sheet circulated with a scene of a cat being buried by mice, which contained many hints that the cat was the late sovereign, and the happy mice were the lands conquered by Peter.
The heyday of popular print in the 18th century
Beginning in 1727, after the death of Empress Catherine I, print production in Russia declined sharply. Most printing houses, including the St. Petersburg one, have closed. And printers, left without work, reoriented themselves to the production of popular prints, using printing copper boards, which were left in abundance after the closure of enterprises. From this time on, the Russian folk popular print began to flourish.
By the middle of the century, lithographic machines appeared in Russia, which made it possible to multiply the number of copies many times over, obtain color printing, and a higher quality and more detailed image. The first factory with 20 machines belonged to the Moscow merchants Akhmetyev. Competition among popular prints increased, and the subjects became more and more diverse. Pictures were created for the main consumers - city dwellers, therefore they depicted city life and everyday life. Peasant themes appeared only in the next century.
Lubok production in the 19th century
Starting from the middle of the century, 13 large lithographic printing houses operated in Moscow, producing popular prints along with their main products. By the end of the century, I. Sytin’s enterprise was considered the most prominent in the field of production and distribution of these products, which annually produced about two million calendars, one and a half million sheets of biblical stories, 900 thousand pictures with secular subjects. Morozov's lithography produced about 1.4 million popular prints annually, Golyshev's factory produced close to 300 thousand, the circulation of other productions was smaller. The cheapest plain sheets were sold for half a kopeck, the most expensive pictures cost 25 kopecks.
Subjects
The popular prints of the 17th century were chronicles, oral and handwritten tales, and epics. TO mid-18th century century, Russian hand-drawn popular prints with images of buffoons, jesters, noble life, and court fashion became popular. Many satirical sheets appeared. In the 30s and 40s, the most popular content of popular prints was the depiction of city folk festivities, festivals, entertainment, fist fights, and fairs. Some sheets contained several thematic pictures, for example, the popular print “Meeting and Farewell of Maslenitsa” consisted of 27 drawings depicting the fun of Muscovites in different districts of the city. Since the second half of the century, redrawings from German and French calendars and almanacs have spread.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, popular prints have shown literary subjects works of Goethe, Chateaubriand, Francois Rene, and other popular writers of that time. Since the 1820s, the Russian style has come into fashion, which in print was expressed in a rustic theme. At the expense of the peasants, the demand for popular prints also increased. Themes of spiritual-religious, military-patriotic content, portraits remained popular royal family, illustrations with quotes for fairy tales, songs, fables, sayings.
Lubok XX - XXI centuries
In the graphic design of advertising leaflets, posters, newspaper illustrations, and signs from the beginning of the last century, popular print style was often used. This is explained by the fact that pictures remained the most popular type of information products for illiterate rural and urban populations. The genre was later characterized by art critics as an element of Russian Art Nouveau.
Lubok influenced the formation of political and propaganda posters in the first quarter of the 20th century. At the end of the summer of 1914, the publishing society “Today's Lubok” was organized, whose task was to produce satirical posters and postcards. Accurate short texts wrote Vladimir Mayakovsky, who worked on the images together with artists Kazimir Malevich, Larionov, Chekrygin, Lentulov, Burlyukov and Gorsky. Until the 1930s, popular prints were often present in advertising posters and design. For a century, the style was used in Soviet caricature, illustrations for children's and satirical caricatures.
You can't call Russian popular print modern look popular visual arts. Such graphics are extremely rarely used for ironic posters, design of fairs or thematic exhibitions. Few illustrators and cartoonists work in this direction, but on the Internet their bright, witty works on the topic of the day attract the attention of netizens.
“Drawing in Russian popular print style”
In 2016, under this title, the Hobbitek publishing house published a book by Nina Velichko, addressed to everyone who is interested in folklore. fine arts. The work contains articles about entertainment and educational nature. Based on the works of old masters, the author teaches the features of popular prints, explains how to draw a picture in a frame step by step, depict people, trees, flowers, houses, draw stylized letters and other elements. Thanks to the fascinating material, it is not at all difficult to master the technique and properties of popular prints in order to independently create bright entertaining pictures.
In Moscow on Sretenka there is a museum of Russian popular print and naive art. The foundation of the exhibition is the rich collection of the director of this institution, Viktor Penzin. The exhibition of popular prints, from the 18th century to the present day, arouses considerable interest among visitors. It is no coincidence that the museum is located in the area of Pechatnikov Lane and Lubyanka, where more than three centuries ago the same printing workers who were at the origins of the history of Russian popular print lived. The style of Fryazhsky funny pictures originated here, and sheets for sale were hung on the fence of the local church. Perhaps exhibitions, books and displays of pictures on the Internet will revive interest in Russian popular print, and it will again come into fashion, as has happened many times with other types of folk art.
