Brothers-artists Korovin: Two different worldviews, two opposites, two dissimilar destinies

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

The history of art, mixed with the human factor, has always been full of various mysteries and paradoxical phenomena. For example, in the history of Russian fine arts there were two painters, two siblings who simultaneously studied and graduated from the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow. However, their creativity and worldview were completely different, however, like themselves, they were diametrically opposed both in character and in fate. It will go about the Korovin brothers - Constantine and Sergei.

- wrote P. Ettinger. And the difference between them in years is only three years.

Both brothers were born in Moscow, into a well-to-do merchant family of Old Believers. From childhood, as long as they could remember, artists I. M. Pryanishnikov and L. L. Kamenev. And the boys' parents themselves were creative people: Alexei Mikhailovich was fond of literature, mother - music and drawing. Parents in every possible way encouraged their children to strive for creativity, and the fate of the Korovin brothers was predetermined from an early age. The plans of the parents did not change even when the father suffered a catastrophic ruin, which led to a significant deterioration in the financial situation of the family.

However, despite financial difficulties, in 1876, when Sergei was 17 years old and Konstantin was 14, the brothers became students of an art school. Initial training in drawing by Korovin took place at home under the guidance of her mother and artist Pryashnikov.

The elder Sergei immediately began to study painting, and the smaller one - architecture. However, a year later, Kostya changed the faculty, and graduated from college at the painting department in the class of Alexei Savrasov and Vasily Polenov, who instilled a passion for bright colors in a talented student. Sergei, while studying in the full-scale class, with all his heart became attached to Vasily Perov and his work. Both brothers were considered the most gifted students on the course. And since during their studies the Korovin family already lived in great need, the brothers had to earn extra money by drawing lessons. At the end of the school, the brothers parted ways. The choice of the direction of the genre in painting largely predetermined their fate. According to S. D. Miloradovich:

H] Sergey Alekseevich KOROVIN (1858-1908)

With the Moscow School of Painting, Korovin senior linked his entire future destiny. For almost a decade he was a student here, and having received a diploma, he became a teacher, where he worked until his death. In his work, Sergei followed in the footsteps of the Itinerants. The plots of his canvases were edifying and moralizing, and of course Vasily Perov was a role model.

The need for his own creativity in Sergei Korovin was so high that as soon as the holidays began, he left for the Moscow region and immediately plunged into the peasant life., - from the memoirs of Konstantin. Sergei Alekseevich discovered new facets of the hard peasant life, and penetrated this environment deeper than many of his other contemporaries, depicting the darkest sides of the life of the Russian peasantry.

At the age of 25, Sergei married a girl from a peasant family. Their life was very modest. One of the 2 rooms that they rented was a workshop for the artist, and in the other his wife was engaged in sewing. They lived poorly, but amicably.

Sergei Alekseevich - as a teacher he enjoyed respect, but at the same time the sad fame of a "belated eccentric". Although he was a teacher from God: he knew how to get out of the official tone of a teacher and infect students with his enthusiasm and inspiration. And at the same time he created his own canvases, saturated with sympathy for the common people. Yet at the time of violent political reaction, very few artists had the courage to address serious social vices.

“Seryozha is more talented than me,” Konstantin Alekseevich used to say, “but how sad is his muse!” And that said it all.

Need, and after it illness, prevented Korovin from realizing many of his most interesting creative ideas. He died of heart failure and was buried in Moscow at the cemetery of the Intercession Monastery.

Konstantin Alekseevich KOROVIN (1861-1939)

Kostya is by nature a cheerful and radiant creator who dreams of conveying all the beauty and joy of the world around him with the help of his colors. Unlike his older brother, Konstantin's canvases boiled with life, played with color, and although they were sometimes without plot, they brought the viewer a delight in beauty - and that says it all.

Konstantin, after graduating from the Moscow School, went to St. Petersburg and became a student at the Academy of Arts. But very soon, disappointed in the academic methods of teaching, after three months he leaves his studies. His bright and free coloring, "joyful" manner of painting, conventionality of details ran counter to academic precision.

A significant place in the work of Korovin was occupied by Paris, where the artist traveled throughout his life. And where in the end he emigrated, and where he found his last refuge. One of the artist's favorite cities is shown with the amazing delight and trepidation of a man, enchanted by his wonderful beauty.

The name of Konstantin Korovin is known not only as a Russian impressionist, who painted mesmerizing northern and southern landscapes, romantic views of Paris, interesting still lifes and excellent portraits, but also as a theater artist, professional decorator, master of industrial drawing.

After the revolution in Russia, Korovin actively fought for the preservation of art monuments, organized auctions and exhibitions in favor of released political prisoners, and collaborated a lot with theaters. Since 1918, the artist lived on the estate and taught in free state art workshops. In 1923, the artist was forced to travel abroad and settle in France.

Along with the gift of a painter, Konstantin Alekseevich also possessed an outstanding literary talent. It so happened that the complete loss of sight forced the artist to abandon painting, but Konstantin Alekseevich, without losing heart, began to write stories. The artist died in Paris in the fall of 1939.

So different was the creativity, and the life, and the fate of the Korovin brothers, each of whom left their invaluable contribution to the history of painting.

Siblings, artists in the history of Russian art are a fairly common phenomenon. Victor and Apollinary Vasnetsov, their fates and work - in the review.