What were the wives of great and famous Russian artists: Gallery of female portraits

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

Truly, behind every great man stands great woman … And even if she is not even very noticeable against his background, her role is almost always very significant. And today I would like to tell a little about the wives of famous artists and present to the reader a gallery of their portraits painted by their husbands, Russian masters of painting of the late 19th - early 20th centuries.

Most of us know exactly as much about artists as is written about them in school textbooks, as well as what we have heard on TV, or read in books. But, as a rule, in this information there is practically no information about their personal life, about those women who stood behind them, loved, inspired, faithfully served them as muses and models. And these, believe me, are very important pages and facts from their biographies.

Olga Fedorovna Trubnikova-Serova

The painter Valentin Serov met his future wife Olga while studying at the Academy of Arts, where he entered at the age of fifteen. Their fateful meeting took place in the house of the artist's maternal aunt - Adelaida Semyonovna Simonovich. She and her husband took the girl into foster care after the death of her hopelessly sick mother with tuberculosis. For nine long years, young people in love have been waiting for the moment when they can get married. We wrote hundreds of letters to each other during this time and said many warm words, filled with love and tenderness.

And this day has come, thanks to Pavel Tretyakov, who bought the painting "Girl in the Sunshine" from Valentin Alexandrovich. And he, finally, was able to play a wedding with Olga Fedorovna Trubnikova with the money raised. In the winter of 1889, the young people got married in St. Petersburg in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos, Ilya Repin himself was a witness at their wedding.

Once Chistyakov, Serov's teacher, when he saw Olga for the first time, fascinatedly declared: And a friend wrote in her memoirs:

Olga possessed spiritual beauty, modesty and immense devotion, she was."

When Serov in 1911 suddenly died of an attack of angina pectoris at the age of 46, Olga Fedorovna fell ill with a severe form of Graves' disease. She then miraculously managed to get out, and she lived for another 16 years. And all these years, a fragile woman devoted to the work of her husband, his children and grandchildren.

And Serov was never able to paint her full-fledged portrait. Only sketches, sketches, sketches. Apart from the painting "Summer", where Olga turned out to be a character who accidentally got into the frame. Perhaps the artist was afraid of "evil fate", so that, ironically, he would not harm the most dear creature. Who knows …

Read also: The story of one portrait by Serov: how the fate of the "girl illuminated by the sun" developed.

Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela-Vrubel

Fateful was the meeting of the artist Mikhail Vrubel with Nadezhda Zabela, a graduate of the Kiev Institute for Noble Maidens and the St. Petersburg Conservatory, at one of the rehearsals of Engelbert's opera. The painter was fascinated by the timbre of her voice and outstanding appearance. Almost immediately after meeting a young, promising opera singer, Mikhail proposed to the girl. Subsequently, he told her sister that if his chosen one had then refused him, he would have committed suicide. But Natalia gave her consent without hesitation. And in the summer of 1896, their wedding took place in Switzerland, and then a long honeymoon trip.

As Savva Mamontov wrote in his memoirs: However, after 1896 the artist's heart completely belonged only to his Nadezhda.

And what is interesting, all their life together, Vrubel was completely absorbed in the career of his wife. He was present at all rehearsals and performances, invented and made stage costumes for her with his own hand. And, of course, he tirelessly painted the image of his Muse: in ordinary portraits and fairy-tale mythological female characters: the Swan Princess, Margarita, Snow Maiden, Vesna and so on. Their only baby, Savva, born in 1901, died in infancy. This tragedy severely undermined his father's health and, nine years later, Vrubel, suffering from mental illness, and by that time also blind, died suddenly of consumption. Natalya Ivanovna Zabela survived her husband by only three years and died at the age of 45.

Read also: At the mercy of demons: the famous paintings by Mikhail Vrubel, created one step away from madness.

Lydia Vasilievna Ankudinova-Sychkova

In 1903, the St. Petersburg young lady Lidia Ankudinova went down the aisle with the novice, but promising painter Fedot Sychkov. The son of a poor barge haule, a graduate of the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg Fedot Sychkov at that time was an unusually popular portrait painter in the capital. Wealthy clients were attracted by his ability to write quickly and believably, accurately capturing the features of the external appearance of the portrayed. Among the "models" of the novice master were bankers, officials, and society ladies.

However, the newlyweds almost immediately left the capital for the artist's homeland in the village of Kochelaevo, Penza province. It was there, in the Mordovian outback, that the young wife became the artist's real muse, his friend and favorite model. The graceful fragile figure and pretty face of L. V. Sychkova with transparent blue eyes can be recognized in many of the master's paintings.

Lydia Vasilievna walked with Fedot Sychkov a happy life, sharing with the artist joy and luck, sorrow and sorrow.

Read also: Russian village in original paintings, permeated with positive and valiant enthusiasm.

Maria Fedorovna Petrova-Vodkina

The young artist Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin looked at his betrothed Maria-Josephine Yovanovich during a retirement trip to France. The daughter of the hostess of the boarding house where the artist lived won his heart. Having achieved consent to paint her portrait, Kuzma Sergeevich dared to propose to her already in the third session: Marie, embarrassed and agitated, fled into the garden. But by the end of autumn 1906, the newlyweds had a civil wedding, signed at the city hall, and moved from the suburbs to live in Paris. A year later, the artist will write: "I found a woman on Earth …"

Soon the couple moved to Russia and got married. Marie, having accepted the rite of baptism, became Maria Fedorovna. The couple lived for about three decades in harmony, love and tenderness. Mara, always remaining in the shadows, completely subordinated her life to serving her husband's talent, although she herself had excellent musical talent. After his death, she wrote the memoirs "My Great Russian Husband", in which she described their married life and her desire to preserve the artist's legacy.

Read also: Oddities in the life of the artist Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin and one Frenchwoman for life.

Maria Martynovskaya is the first wife of Mikhail Nesterov

As is known from the biography of the famous painter Mikhail Nesterov, he had a very stormy personal life, and he was married twice. For the first time, the artist went down the aisle with his beloved Maria Martynovskaya without parental blessing, since his father did not like a girl from a poor family, and the heir himself greatly disappointed his father. At that time, Mikhail could not graduate from the art school in any way, although he had been studying there for seven years.

In the summer of 1885, the lovers, without having achieved parental consent, got married., - the artist recalled later.

However, the happiness of the young turned out to be short-lived, as soon as she gave birth, Maria died, leaving her newborn daughter Olga in the artist's arms. And only thanks to this tiny creature, the artist in those years was able to survive the grief that fell on him.

Ekaterina Petrovna Vasilyeva-Nesterova - second wife

When Nesterov was about forty, he met Ekaterina, she was the cool lady of the daughter of Mikhail Vasilyevich, who at that time was studying at the Kiev gymnasium. Once a young teacher asked the artist to look at his work in the artist's studio, and he fell in love with her like a boy: "She is really beautiful, tall, graceful, very smart and, by general reviews, is a wonderful, reliable, selfless person," he would write later to my friend.

In the second marriage, which was quite happy, the Nesterovs had three children. Both his wife and all his children posed for the artist for numerous portraits and plot paintings, where they acted as prototypes of various characters. For forty years Yekaterina Petrovna was a faithful companion of the artist, a devoted friend and beloved woman. Until his death, she shared with him all the hardships of everyday life and moments of joy.

Read also: Death and Miracle in the Fate of the Famous Russian Artist Mikhail Nesterov: Unknown Pages from Personal Life.

Lola Landshof-Braz

The wife of the famous Russian portrait painter Osip Emanuilovich Braz was the artist Lola Landshof. She was the adopted daughter of a major German entrepreneur and a close friend of Lyubov Mendeleeva-Blok. The girl was fond of painting and was even included in the list of St. Petersburg artists. Therefore, it is not surprising that their acquaintance took place in one of the St. Petersburg art circles. Young people united by common interests started a family and gave birth to two sons. In the post-revolutionary years Osip Emmanuilovich restored ancient paintings in the Hermitage. And in 1924 he was arrested on a number of false charges. He was charged with buying paintings for export abroad.

Without much investigation, the artist was sentenced and sent to Solovki. Thanks to the petition of Igor Grabar, Osip was transferred to Novgorod. The artist's wife with children at that time was forced to leave Russia. They moved to Germany. Due to constant malnutrition, one of the sons developed tuberculosis. The boy could not be saved even abroad. No wonder they say - trouble does not go alone. Soon the second son also dies. Osip, who by that time had managed to free himself, barely had time to come to his death.

Heartbroken parents moved to Paris, where Lola soon dies from the same tuberculosis, and after her, Osip Braz himself dies.

It is difficult to disagree with the fact that these women played a big role in the creative destiny of each of the above-mentioned artists. In our further publications, you can learn many more interesting stories from the personal lives of the great and famous masters of the brush who lived and worked at the turn of the last two centuries.