How Pyotr Konchalovsky managed to avoid repression and why the artist was called the Soviet Cezanne

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

Few painters who defied the socialist regime during the bloody repression managed to escape punishment. Today I would like to recall the name of one of them - Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky … In those terrible years, the artist managed to remain a "pure" painter who avoided the embodiment of socialist reality and portraits of its leaders in his creations. Moreover, to take as the basis of his creativity the direction of hostile Western art, because of which he was named at one time - the Soviet Cezanne.

It should be noted that the great merit of Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR, was that Pyotr Petrovich was allowed to create freely, despite the attacks of critics thirsty for proletarian kumach and the ecstasy of socialist labor in the artist's works. Anatoly Vasilyevich convinced the guardians of the dogmas of socialist realism that Konchalovsky in a modern way "sings the poetry of our everyday life" and, apparently, the People's Commissar did it well.

In reality, Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky managed to live an amazing life full of paradoxes and quivering love … The only woman, the mother of his children, to whom he was not only a father, but also a faithful friend and demanding educator, passed his entire life. And at a time when many creative people who could not accept the revolution emigrated, and the rest tried to adapt to the realities of Soviet reality, he, Pyotr Konchalovsky continued to live in Russia and paint his famous still lifes with lilacs, portraits of their loved ones, friends and just people like him, without delving into the harsh realities of everyday life of his modern life.

At one time there was even a legend that Konchalovsky refused to paint a portrait of Stalin, justifying his refusal by the fact that he was a realist and did not paint portraits from photographs. In fact, Pyotr Konchalovsky did not refuse, but only asked a party worker: He immediately explained to him clearly that a personal meeting with the leader was out of the question and that the "father of the people" would need to be written from a photograph. To which Konchalovsky sincerely threw up his hands and complained that, alas, he could only paint from life, and unfortunately he was not trained from a photo.

This answer was not only bold, but also impudent. But everything worked out, and over time, Petr Petrovich will become a laureate of the Stalin Prize. Paradox. Say … and you will be right.

Several pages from the artist's biography

Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky (1876-1956) - the son of a hereditary nobleman, publisher and translator, was born in Slavyansk, Kharkov province. The boy showed his talent for drawing from an early age. Peter Jr. received his first art education at the Kharkov Drawing School. But at the insistence of his father, he was forced to enter the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Moscow University. However, soon the future artist, realizing his true destiny, leaves his studies at the university and completely immerses himself in painting.

At that time, thanks to the publishing work of his father, Peter was already closely acquainted with famous Russian artists - Vrubel, Surikov, Korovin, Serov, Levitan, Repin, Vasnetsov. And it was absolutely no wonder that, rotating in such a highly artistic environment, the young man was completely absorbed in art.

In 1896, young Konchalovsky, on the recommendation of Korovin, went to Paris and became a student of Laurence and Benjamin-Constant. And after returning to Russia, the aspiring artist decided to enter the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. However, his creative fuse did not last long: the academic institution caused him a feeling of deep disappointment. He leaves the Academy and goes as a student to Pavel Kovalevsky's battle painting workshop, where he will try to find his own manner and style.

At the age of 26, the young artist marries the daughter of the artist Vasily Surikov. Lyolechka, as Pyotr Petrovich called his wife, was very lucky with her husband, and their children - with their father. Konchalovsky devoted himself entirely to his offspring: he personally put his son and daughter to bed, telling stories and singing lullabies, he tirelessly sat at their bedside during illness, took them for walks and, of course, taught to draw. Lelechka's main task was to love, inspire and be the main critic and model of her husband. She also took care of the house, took the children to classes, taught music and foreign languages.

Finding yourself

Konchalovsky understood that among the galaxy of such gloriously known contemporary Russian masters of painting, who worked at the turn of two centuries, he would hardly be able to stand out. Therefore, in search of his own direction in creativity, he again goes abroad. This time to Spain, where he discovers the Post-Impressionists. Konchalovsky was deeply touched by the works of Van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse, whose influence is very obvious in the artist's early works. If I may put it that way, Konchalovsky as a painter was born in Spain. It was there that the confident voice of a new talent, who found its way in the art world, sounded.

Then there was Paris, where he became close directly to Le Fauconnier, Matisse, Picasso, and after returning to Russia, he adjoins the avant-garde artists - Mashkov, Larionov, Goncharova, Burliuk. In 1910 he took part in the exposition of the works of the avant-garde association "Jack of Diamonds". Konchalovsky finally adopts his passion for Cezanne:

Thus, having become a great admirer of Cezanne and Matisse, Konchalovsky began to paint delightful portraits: expressive, bold, reflecting the essence of the characters and destinies of the persons portrayed.

However, the First World War made its own adjustments to the artist's creative life. He was mobilized. Konchalovsky, on the front roads, he always carried his wife's letters, drawings and the first poem of his daughter near his heart, warming his soul. After demobilization, the Konchalovskys lived for some time in the Crimea, where the artist enthusiastically painted landscapes.

The Konchalovsky family met the revolution in Moscow. Emigration in their house was not even discussed, although in those windbreak years I had to live in an unheated apartment. The family spent cold evenings huddled at the cast-iron stove. Having warmed up with tea, Peter sat down at the piano, and Lyolechka persistently taught the children French. For several years the artist tried to teach at the painting studio of VKHUTEMAS, but he quickly realized that teaching was too much of a hindrance to art.

The artist acquired the house in Bugry, in the Kaluga Region, in 1932 as a dacha. The Konchalovskys spent a lot of time in it, it was here that both the artist's children and grandchildren came. Here, in Bugry, the master has created numerous magnificent landscapes and still lifes. Here he ended his life in 1956.

According to the recollections of relatives, in recent years the painter has become very careful about time - he constantly worked, tirelessly, as if trying to be in time as much as possible.

Bonus

The family weaves in the family of Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky are so remarkable and interesting that it is impossible not to say about them. As we already know, the artist married the daughter of the famous painter Vasily Surikov, Olga. Son Mikhail, in his second marriage, married the Spaniard Esperanza, and his daughter, the poet Natalya Konchalovskaya, was married for the first time to the intelligence officer Alexei Bogdanov, and her second husband was a writer, playwright, poet (then still just a beginner) - Sergei Mikhalkov. They had two sons, who later became famous directors - the elder Andrei Konchalovsky and the younger Nikita Mikhalkov. Sergei Mikhalkov also adopted Ekaterina, Natalia's daughter from her first marriage, who later married the writer Yulian Semenov, who became famous as the creator of the image of the famous Stirlitz from Seventeen Moments of Spring. Here is such an amazing interweaving of destinies in one family.

Read also: As a favorite artist of Stalin, Alexander Gerasimov secretly painted pictures in the "nude" genre.