Spring with Boris Kustodiev

The National Art Museum hosts an exhibition not to be missed

The new building of the National Art Museum houses a Boris Kustodiev temporary exposition on the occasion of the 145th anniversary of the gifted Russian painter. And here, in the ‘blue hall’ of the modern gallery, almost the entire collection of Kustodiev, which is in the collection of our main treasury, is presented. As it turns out at today’s exhibition, the National Art Museum stores many precious masterpieces of the ‘last singer of the merchant-kulak environment’, including stately Kustodiev women, the famous watercolours from the Rus series, and little-studied sculptures of the artist.

Opening the summer season

So, the main lure of the current exhibition at the National Art Museum can be called photographs by Boris Kustodiev. Few people know that he was a keen photographer. Since 2009, his family black-and-white photographs have been kept in the house-museum of B. M. Kustodiev in Astrakhan — the photo album was presented to the city by the artist’s granddaughter Tatyana Kirillovna. Today, many of these photos have been digitised, they can be found on the Internet, but the originals are presented to the Belarusian audience for the first time thanks to the co-operation of the National Art Museum with Astrakhan colleagues.

The Mansion

It is well known that the artist spent the happiest years of his life in The Mansion — a country house in the old Russian style in the Klevantsovskaya Volost of the Kineshma District of the Kostroma Province. A series of photographs dedicated to the construction of the house, side by side at the exhibition with a wonderful warm picture called The Mansion (My House) — the pearl of the exhibition. It is curious that the canvas was painted by the artist in 1914 as a landscape, with the facade of his favourite dacha in the centre. But in 1918, Boris Kustodiev returned to the painting to include himself and his loved ones in it — his wife Yulia with the dachshund Daisy in her arms, son Cyril and daughter Irina. 
“Since 1916, the artist had to use a wheelchair due to illness and could no longer go to his beloved dacha. Maybe that’s why he inscribes a family portrait in the landscape, as a sweet memory of happy days. And he puts all his love into the picture, which will subsequently help him survive a severe physical illness,” exhibition curator Alla Vasilevskaya says.
Alas, the fate of the wooden The Mansion can be considered unenviable. The house was not preserved: empty, at first it was plundered, and then completely burned down. But the architectural appearance of the dacha, built according to the project of Dmitry Stelletsky (a friend of Kustodiev) and according to the plan of the architect Yuri Stravinsky (the elder brother of the composer Igor Stravinsky), is captured for eternity in the picture, which is kept in Minsk more than a hundred years later.  

If you are a dancer, then dance

Due to a tumour of the spinal cord, doctors forbade Kustodiev to paint, but he did not listen to them, and the period when the artist was already seriously ill remained the most prolific in his creativity. His works in the field of sculpture are practically unknown. In 1922, Kustodiev took up small-scale plastic arts in earnest, creating two models — Merchant in a Fur Coat and Merchant’s wife on a Walk. A year later, he made two models of figurines based on his picturesque images from the Rus series by order of the Volkhov Plant — Harmonist and Dancer, they are presented at the exhibition. Over the years, this porcelain pair became a textbook and was later produced at other factories, in particular at the Leningrad LFZ and the Dmitrovsky factory in Verbilki.  
“Despite the fact that the models were created by a completely ill artist, Kustodiev managed to transfer his cheerful vision of the world into miniature figurines: by the way, they are still popular among modern porcelain collectors,” exhibition curator Alla Vasilevskaya explains. 
  
At the Window 

There is no art outside the craft 

We walk with her past the famous painting by Kustodiev Merchant’s Wife with Purchases, we both pay attention to how attentive the artist is to the costume — the bright dress, the lace mantilla, the painted scarf of the white-bodied stately woman definitely return us to the era where the petty official Balzaminov dreams about an advantageous marriage.  

Maslenitsa 

Another priceless painting by Boris Kustodiev in the collection of the National Art Museum is Maslenitsa, 1919. In total, there are at least 15 of them in the artist’s creativity. 
“But ours differs from others in that it clearly reads the influence of Pieter Bruegel the Elder on the work of Boris Mikhailovich. Here he seeks to provide a panoramic view of the urban space, and at the same time to write out the details in a jeweller’s way. Look at the face of this lady, how masterfully her cheeks, dimples and smile are written out,” the curator pays attention.
It was interesting to learn from Alla Vasilevskaya, a researcher at the fund department, that Kustodiev is a very technical artist. He constantly studied the school of the old masters, not only their style of painting, but also technology. Hence, the good preservation of his paintings. “As they say, great masters are talented in absolutely everything, there is no art outside the craft,” the curator concludes. 
Kustodiev’s sketches of scenery for theatrical productions are very rarely exhibited. Fortunately, there are as many as eight (!) sketches for the Flea play based on the play by E. Zamyatin at the Moscow Art Theatre in our exhibition. “Never have I had such a complete, such an inspiring unanimity with the artist, as when working on the Flea play. I got to know the whole meaning of this community, when Kustodiev’s showy, bright scenery appeared on the stage, props and dummies made according to his sketches appeared. The artist led the whole performance, took, as it were, the first part in the orchestra, which obediently and sensitively sounded in unison,” recalled production director Aleksei Dikiy.

Portrait of K.B. Kustodiev

Times are always the same 

It is curious today to reread the review of the Flea of the first People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, “In the performance of the Art Theatre, there was no depressing impression. It was terribly fun. The wonderful art of the actors, as it were, reconciled with reality. Yes, it’s all gone, it’s all wild, it’s all pitiful, but it’s all drawn before you by the finest artist, and the beauty of his colouring, the grace of his painting, the softness of his touch enchant you and soften the sharpness of the impression…” the author continued.

Bust of the artist M.V. Dobuzhinsky

By the way, after the revolution, the artist was offered to go abroad. His daughter recalls father’s reaction: “In 1924, the Dobuzhinskys left Leningrad. Somov went abroad to accompany our exhibition and did not return. Kustodiev was also offered to go... Dad even turned pale with indignation: ‘I am Russian, and no matter how difficult it is for all of us here now, I will never leave my homeland!’ I don’t remember who this ‘offerer’ was, but dad no longer shook hands with him and was worried for a long time, recalling this conversation... For the past two years, his right hand has almost completely dried up, he could no longer work without a bullpen. Once he showed me his hand asking me to see how the muscles have sunk, it has completely dried up... How much inexpressible torment was in these words and how much courage and patience! But even in these difficult years, he steadfastly and courageously endured hardships — lack of everything, cold. And despite his illness, he worked daily, hourly, creating paintings for the people, ‘for everyone’, as he liked to say.”
Be sure to visit the Boris Kustodiev exhibition at the National Art Museum. Everyone can visit it until May 21st.
Such an extensive collection is presented for the first time in the last quarter of a century, it includes 40 works of painting, graphics, sculpture and decorative and applied art.  

By Victoria Popova

Photos by Yelizaveta Kobetskaya