Russian artist who opened the beauty of St. Petersburg to compatriots: Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva

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

Surprisingly, at the beginning of the 20th century, St. Petersburg was considered a dull and bureaucratic city - nothing to do with the inspiring image that attracts travelers from all over the country. The city owes much of its modern reputation to Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, the artist who discovered its majestic beauty.

Her engravings depict endless distances, a gloomy sky, Senate Square, huge historical buildings, The Bronze Horseman and cathedrals - everything that is now considered the “calling card” of St. Petersburg. An architectural landscape, especially one made in an engraving, is an unusual topic for an artist of those years, and this was all the more unexpected for those who were deceived by Anna's innocent and soft appearance. A short, modest woman in pince-nez (she had poor eyesight from her youth), she seemed more like someone's kind aunt, but in fact she had an iron character and an endless desire for self-improvement.

Anna Ostroumova was born in 1871. Her father, Peter Ostroumov, was a secret adviser to the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, she received an excellent education, but her parents were worried about her love for drawing, which knew no bounds. Unlike her brothers and sisters, Anna has been fragile, painful and impressionable since childhood. When she was five years old, there was a fire in the house. It was with this terrible childhood experience that doctors, and she herself, explained Anna's tendency to depression and the occurrence of frightening hallucinations. Naturally, her parents feared that art classes would further shatter her unstable psyche.

But Anna always found ways to violate all existing rules and prohibitions - for example, in the gymnasium she decided to abandon the use of solid signs, which led the teachers to complete confusion. On the other hand, parents sought to instill independence in their daughters - they had to provide for themselves, not relying on parents or a successful marriage - therefore they did not suppress their love of freedom too much and generally supported the desire to get some kind of "normal" profession.

Against the will of her parents, Anna entered the Imperial Academy of Arts and plunged headlong into the restless life of creative Petersburg. The family made her decision difficult. Anna's health left much to be desired, in addition, she suffered a difficult love, breaking off relations because they prevented her from creating. The brothers did not find anything better than to declare on one of her visits home that if she were really gifted, she would not get so tired of drawing and painting - after all, everything is easy for a talented person!

Anna did not give up. She strove to get into a student with Repin, but their relationship was not always successful. Ilya Efimovich recommended the ambitious girl to go to Paris to continue her studies: "There you will figure everything out …".

However, from among the Parisian artists, Anna chose Whistler, a representative of American Art Nouveau, keen on Japanese engraving. Seeing Anna's sketches, he was horrified and accused her of complete illiteracy, but soon became imbued with her and asked to accompany him to his homeland, where, according to him, Anna "could learn so much."

Poisoning with lead paint, which was common among artists, in the case of Anna Ostroumova led to an exacerbation of asthma and an allergic reaction to oil paint. The artist tried to be distracted by watercolors. The forced break in her favorite business allowed her to master watercolor painting masterfully. In the future, she was no longer engaged in oil painting.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the artist entered the close circle of the world of art. She was friends with Somov even during her studies at the Academy. He even helped her with the arrangement of her life, because the young artist did not have the slightest idea of life. During these years, working on the magazine "World of Art" and the postcards issued by the society, it was Anna Ostrumova who initiated a new stage in the development of artistic engraving. Prior to that, Russian engraving was, as a rule, an arrangement for printing an already existing painting. Anna turned engraving into an independent artistic phenomenon.

She admired the ruthlessness of the engraving, the clarity and definiteness of its lines - no nebulae, no hesitation. She was a real "world of art" with an unusual, sharp, but full of admiration outlook on the world, masterfully mastered the line and composition.

In 1905, Anna married her cousin Sergei Lebedev, who divorced his wife for this marriage. He himself was an outstanding person - a famous chemist, inventor of synthetic rubber. Their marriage was happy and creatively fruitful for the next thirty years - until Sergei's death from typhus.

Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva refused to leave the city during the blockade and continued to work even in the most terrible and difficult days. Almost maniacally, the artist created more and more engravings, as if trying to support her beloved city, again and again to say words of love to him … When she did not have the strength to work, Anna wrote down her memories - from her youth, diary entries were a way for her to stay in reality, not to succumb to the surging darkness …

Fragile, sickly Anna had an iron rod. Despite the increasing frequency of asthma attacks and rapidly deteriorating eyesight, she did not quit her job and teaching - she had students and followers. She lived for eighty-three years and, in addition to many paintings, engravings based on impressions from travels in Russia and abroad, created eighty-five works dedicated to St. Petersburg.

She has been working on the views of St. Petersburg for over fifty years. First - idyllic views of Pavlovsk, then powerful, solemn Petersburg, then - revolutionary Petrograd, industrial, socialist Leningrad …

In every aspect of her hometown, she found beauty - the rhythm of trees, subtle shades of white nights, endless perspective, power and lyricism, tenderness and strength. For hundreds of years, we have seen Petersburg through the eyes of Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva.

Text: Sofia Egorova.