Why the Itinerants disowned the artist Bodarevsky and removed his canvases from the opening days

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

The Wanderers are a special caste of Russian artists who have left behind a most valuable legacy in the treasury of world art. Who does not remember the names of the most prominent of them. But today I would like to recall the forgotten name of the Itinerant, whom colleagues in the workshop considered completely alien in their midst. And, be the will of some of them, to be a gifted portrait painter Nikolai Kornilievich Bodarevsky expelled from the partnership. For what he fell into disgrace with his colleagues and why they could not exclude the "careless" artist from their ranks - further, in the review.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Nikolai Bodarevsky was one of the most popular artists. His paintings were reproduced in copies on prints and postcards. The master-portraitist had no end to his customers. However, many of the Wanderers would like to point him to the door of their Fellowship. They could not stand him, but according to the charter, they could not exclude him from their midst, and Bodarevsky himself never broke with them, remaining a member of the Association until 1918. It was from that time that a lot of efforts were made to make his name forgotten, although some of his works are well known even now, however, sometimes without authorship.

What was the reason for such disagreement and hostility among creative people, you ask? After a century, from the point of view of both the modern viewer and the critic, this will seem so insignificant and even ridiculous, but then such a confrontation was a matter of honor, and sometimes it came to the point that Bodaevsky's paintings were literally with a fight removed from expositions immediately before the opening of exhibitions …

So, what was the artist's fault and what were the bad things about his work?

A bit from the biography of the disgraced artist

Nikolai Kornilievich Bodarevsky was born in 1850 in Odessa into a noble family who considered themselves descendants of the family of Moldavian rulers Chegodar-Bodareskul. Regardless of the genealogy, the Bodarevskys lived very modestly - their father served as an ordinary official, occupying a low rank - a titular councilor. The son's talent for drawing manifested itself early, and the parents in every possible way tried to develop the boy's artistic abilities. Therefore, Nikolai received his first art education at the Odessa Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts.

And as a 19-year-old boy, Bodarevsky entered the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, where he proved himself to be one of the best students. In 1873 he was awarded two gold medals for the painting "David plays the harp before Saul", and in 1875 he received the title of class artist of the 1st degree in historical painting for the canvas "The Apostle Paul Explains the Dogmas of Faith Before King Agrippa."

In 1880, a talented young man joined the Itinerants and began to exhibit his canvases at Traveling Exhibitions. Having proved himself excellently, in 1884 he became an official member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. The career of the painter began to develop rapidly and in 1908 Bodarevsky was awarded the title of academician, and in 1913 his personal exhibition was held in St. Petersburg.

As mentioned above, Bodarevsky remained loyal to the Association of the Itinerants until 1918. Although with many colleagues in the "mobile shop" for many years he had no working relationship. Our hero was fundamentally distinguished by his views on art, and the ideological content of his paintings, and the very approach to painting, which determined the perception of his work in a narrow circle, and later, in the entire art community. But most of all, he annoyed some of his colleagues with his outstanding appearance and non-standard behavior.

- this is how he was characterized in the memoirs of T. L. Schepkina-Kupernik.

Many Wanderers saw in him a master who specialized only in portraits of women and pornographic "nudes", and godlessly idealized ones. It was also believed that his beauties definitely came off candy or cigarette boxes, only in an enlarged form. And the portraits of influential persons, among whom was the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna herself, are immensely embellished and flattering.

Among his colleagues, the main opponent of Nikolai Kornilievich was Efim Volkov, a landscape painter of average talent, now completely forgotten. One sight of Bodarevsky aroused fierce hatred in him, and he did not miss an opportunity to bring the incident to a fight. - from the memoirs of one of the Itinerants.

Moreover, Volkov, as a rule, was the initiator of the massacres. He, speaking to Bodarevsky's face frank, extremely offensive words for the author's pride, ordered the workers to remove pictures that were inadmissible according to the charter of the partnership, which were strikingly out of the general range of the exposition. And, of course, that the tense atmosphere was discharged by a thunderstorm, which often reached fist fights.

Interestingly, most of the Itinerants were on Volkov's side. In their opinion, almost every time, preparing the TPHV exposition, the pictures of our hero - large, bright and "loud", spoiled the whole face of the upcoming exhibition. And once the members of the partnership turned to Repin, as the most respected and authoritative member of society, with a request to clear the exhibition of Bodarevsky's paintings. Repin was very upset and tried to calm down the rebels: Everyone somehow calmed down, and the next day, making the last round before the opening day, Repin could not resist: he went up to Bodarevsky and, tugging at his sleeve, said in a pleading tone:

In fairness, it should be noted that Bodarevsky, as an artist, had the widest creative range - he was equally excellent at painting canvases on historical and religious themes, landscapes, portraits, including salon, genre scenes and piquant "nudes" … did not confine himself to the narrow limits of any genre, constantly developed and improved. However, to some of his less talented and less fortunate colleagues, such a scale seemed inconsistent, not allowing them to hone their skills in a certain direction.

But the most key claim to the artist's work was the subject. The Wanderers, following the rules, tried to capture the "true life" of the common people, which was often seen in the depiction of poor peasants, beggars, drunkards, religious fanatics on church holidays. Therefore, the scene on the Bodarevsky beach, where the mother and the baby are sunbathing, did not seem vital to them at all. By the way, even the peasants at Bodarevsky looked quite happy with life, they sang and danced ("Little Russian Wedding"). Although some colleagues admitted that the subject matter of such works generally coincided with the directions and goals of traveling exhibitions, they terribly criticized the artist for the lack of social acuteness on his canvases.

And when the artist managed to paint a girl with a cat and a girl with a flower, this was perceived by the Association for the standard of vulgarity and a mortal, unforgivable sin for the itinerant. With this cat, Nikolai Kornilevich practically signed his own "verdict" … But, he was an old member of the Association of Itinerants, and it was very difficult to get rid of him. The charter of the community did not imply expulsion from membership for the inconsistency of artistic means and techniques in creativity.

So the artist Bodarevsky remained a heavy cross for the Itinerants.

However, after the revolution, the artist moved to his native Odessa, thereby moving away from the partnership. In 1921, Nikolai Bodarevsky died at the age of 71, and in 1923 the itinerant movement itself disintegrated.

A real look at the work of Bodarevsky, a century later

After a century, looking at the work of the persecuted master through the eyes of a modern person, I would still like to draw a line under the above.

Bodarevsky is an excellent portrait painter

For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that Bodarevsky's portraits were distinguished by a great similarity to the model, color harmony and a free manner of writing, which fully replaced the absence of a deep psychological characteristic. It was this approach to portrait painting that attracted customers to the brush of Bodarevsky.

In addition, it is very difficult to notice in them the author's desire to embellish and rejuvenate the model by making a "doll" out of it. Take, for example, the famous portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in 1907 - recently it has been often reproduced, as a rule, without the author's indication. The empress in the portrait is beautiful, majestic, but the artist did not hide the first traces of wilting, nor the absence of a smile, nor the eternal pain in his eyes. And, mind you, no flattery.

The same can be seen in other portraits. The recognized Moscow beauty and millionaire Margarita Morozova in Bogdaevsky looks less attractive than in portraits of other artists, in Serov, for example, or in photographs. Here we see the image of not an empty, limited coquette, but a woman with a deep inner world and very serious interests. In fact, Morozova was fond of philosophy and was one of the founders of the Religious-Philosophical Society. At one time, she gathered around her the intellectual elite of Moscow.

Bodarevsky - monumentalist

Bodarevsky is also the author of a large monumental project, namely, unique mosaic compositions that decorate the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, erected on the site where Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded by a terrorist.

And one more project, embodied by the artist, is well known to many, but, again, without authorship. In 1889, the artist received an order from the director of the Moscow State Conservatory, V. I. Safonov, for fourteen portraits of prominent composers to decorate the 1700-seat Big Concert Hall. By the opening in March 1901, the portraits were completed. In the middle of the last century, some of them were damaged, but restored and still adorn the conservatory.

Spicy "nude" by Nikolay Bodarevsky

And finally, the most important thing that needs to be said. You will be very surprised to learn that what the artist's colleagues viciously and uncompromisingly accused as having "descended to the level of pornography" was just a rather modest "nude" by today's standards, without which a rare artist can do today. By the way, Bodarevsky had very few such "pornographic" works.

Another claim put forward to the artist was that his style was constantly "drifting": from academism to modernism and from realism to neo-classicism … But it's really great that the master was fluent in various styles and techniques of painting! What is criminal here?

It seems that today many have discovered not only the amazing multifaceted talent of the artist Nikolai Bodarevsky, but also got an excellent opportunity to analyze and learn about the mores and disagreements in the artistic environment of the people of art of the last century.

Continuing the theme of the Itinerants who worked at the junction of two eras, our story: Nikolai Kasatkin - "Nekrasov of Russian Painting" and the last Itinerant, who became the first People's Artist of Soviet Russia.