How the Russians made a splash in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century: Pottery from Abramtsevo by master Vaulin

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In 1900, at the World Exhibition in Paris, the majolica of the Russian master Pyotr Vaulin made a big splash. His ceramics were called “music in plastic and color” and were awarded the highest award. These masterpieces were born at a ceramic enterprise in Abramtsevo - under the tutelage of the patron of the arts Savva Mamontov and in creative tandem with Mikhail Vrubel. Nowadays, works from Vaulin's workshops can be seen not only in museums. Ceramic masterpieces have been preserved on the walls of buildings in different parts of Russia.

Under the auspices of Mamontov

The ingenious ceramic artist Pyotr Vaulin was born in 1870 in the Urals, in the village of Cheremisskoye, into a large village family. By the way, throughout his life he kept the peasant habit of dressing simply, being unpretentious in everyday matters and absolutely open in communication.

Having received a scholarship from the Zemstvo in 1888, the young man entered the Krasnoufim Agricultural School, where he received a specialization in pottery. The young man was so carried away by this art that after graduating from school he decided to comprehend it to the smallest detail - but not in order to copy other people's work, but with a dream to create something of his own - unique. To this end, Vaulin visited ceramics factories not only in Russia, but also in Finland, got acquainted with a variety of technologies, which gave him the basis for his own experiments in the future.

In 1890, a young talented master was invited to lead a workshop at the Kostroma Technical School, and around the same period, art workshops were opened in the Abramtsevo estate of Savva Mamontov. The patron invited Vaulin to lead them.

As you know, Mamontov had a talent for unmistakably finding talents, and under his patronage, the master's unique gift was excellently developed. Vaulin gathered around him talented artists with a passion for ceramics and a desire to learn, learn from experience and experiment.

As the chief technologist of the workshops, Vaulin was selflessly engaged in research, developing new types of glazes and improving those already created. In Abramtsevo, with the participation of the artist Mikhail Vrubel, the “recipe” for the so-called metallized glaze in the technique of restorative firing, which was successfully used in Spain in the 13th-15th centuries, was revived.

Vaulin supervised the work of the workshops in Abramtsevo for more than ten years. During this period, many masterpieces were born - for example, the majolica facing of the Metropol Hotel, made according to the sketches of Mikhail Vrubel, the panel on the building of the Yaroslavl railway station, made according to the sketches of Konstantin Korovin, ceramic masterpieces on the building of the Tretyakov Gallery based on the sketches of Viktor Vasnetsov.

Many architects agree that without Abramtsevo majolica it would have been impossible to form Russian Art Nouveau in that unique form that still admires the whole world - with elements of Russian folklore and architecture in the Byzantine style.

Ukrainian period of creativity

At the beginning of the last century, Petr Vaulin moved to Ukraine. Here, in Mirgorod, he began teaching at the Art and Industrial School named after. Gogol. However, a passion for experimentation haunts him. Together with his students, who passed on Vaulin's creative obsession, he develops a new direction of the famous Mirgorod ceramics. Its essence is that before glazing, colored engobes (thin layers of raw clay) are applied to the ceramic surface.

In Ukraine, Vaulin created many masterpieces. Moreover, he collected a huge collection of old products made by local masters and organized a museum, on the basis of which the State Museum of Pottery Art (National Museum of Ukrainian Pottery) was later established.

His majolica was ordered not only by Russians

Wanting to spread his experience wherever possible, Vaulin left Ukraine and moved to St. Petersburg in 1906. Not far from the city on the Neva, in the village of Kikerino, he opened the "Kikerinsky art ceramics plant" - together with Osip Geldwein, who was responsible for the financial component of the enterprise. In these parts, the craftsmen were attracted by a unique local raw material - the so-called blue clay.

During the "Kikerin" period, many architectural masterpieces by Vaulin appeared in St. Petersburg. A significant part of his works during these years he created, including jointly with the great Nicholas Roerich. Among these St. Petersburg projects are unique friezes on the facades of the Badayev house and the house of the Rossiya insurance company.

The "Geldwein-Vaulin" workshop had no end of orders, Vaulin took on any work, giving himself completely to it. Among his clients were both Russian and foreign majolica connoisseurs. Their orders were carried out by the best ceramists. The plant in Kikerin produced in huge quantities both majolica for building facades and tiles for fireplaces and stoves.

Life under the Bolsheviks

After the revolution, Pyotr Vaulin continued to pass on his experience to the masters. When his workshop was nationalized and renamed the "Horn" plant, he stayed on as a technical director. He also worked at the Porcelain Factory. Lomonosov and was a consultant to the porcelain factory "Proletary".

Throughout his life, Petr Vaulin not only did not hide the secrets of his craft, but also generously shared them with other masters, passing on his best practices and experience. The results of his experiments were regularly published by the journal "Ceramic Review". The master invested all his funds in the development of the domestic art of ceramics.

However, he did not manage to avoid arrest during the harsh years of repression. In 1934 he was exiled to Kuibyshev. There he was allowed to work in local research institutes.

The last years of his life Pyotr Vaulin spent in Voroshilovgrad (now - Lugansk), where he taught at a technical school. Even during the occupation of the city, he continued to do his favorite job: he worked as a consultant manager at a brick factory, opening a workshop with his son and dreaming of organizing the training of ceramics masters, despite the fact that the enterprise was under the control of the Germans. This played a fatal role in his life: after the liberation of the city by Soviet troops, Vaulin was accused of aiding the Nazis, arrested and sent to prison as a traitor to the Motherland. He died in 1943, in prison.

Many years after his death, already in 1989, the great master was rehabilitated. During the review of the criminal case, no corpus delicti was found in his actions.

The work of Vaulin and other masters at the Mamontov estate brought Russia many masterpieces. Abramtsev's workshops are worthy of a separate story. We recommend reading about how philanthropist Savva Mamontov revived Russian ceramics