What is true and what is fiction in the story of an artist in love and a million scarlet roses

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

Alla Pugacheva's song "A Million Scarlet Roses", created by Raymond Pauls on the verses of Andrei Voznesensky, tells about the love of a poor artist for an actress. The plot of the song is based on the true story of the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani, who unrequitedly fell in love with the French actress Margarita de Sevres.

About the artist

Niko Pirosmani is a primitivist artist, self-taught and a real nugget of the people, whose fame spread throughout Georgia after his death. Niko Pirosmani was born in the Georgian village of Mirzaani into a peasant family. His parents were farmers who owned a small vineyard and livestock. The future artist was orphaned early and remained in the care of his two older sisters, Mariam and Pepe, with whom he moved to live in Tbilisi in 1870. In 1872, living in a small apartment near the Tbilisi railway station, he worked as a servant for wealthy families and learned to read and write in Russian and Georgian. Later he worked as a cattle breeder, a conductor, took odd jobs and dreamed of opening a painting workshop in order to earn a living by doing what he loved. But the customers were in no hurry to visit him. And Pirosmani did not have a permanent job. They said about Niko that he lives "like a bird", not caring about the past or the future. The artist tirelessly painted pictures and sold them for such an insignificant amount that it did not even cover the cost of paint. One paid 30 rubles for his painting, and to the other he could draw a signboard for lunch. It was difficult for him to find his place in life.

Creation

Pirosmani painted still lifes depicting wine, barbecue and Georgian bread, scenes of merry feasts, as well as animals and trees. There were also people of various classes in his paintings - peasants, merchants, artisans, priests and princes. But Niko loved ordinary people more. Therefore, he filled his works with genre scenes of peasant life. Pirosmani worked as naturally as he breathed. His naive, kind, artless paintings have a salutary effect on feelings, return trust in the world and children's faith in magic. He was not a professional artist and did not try to compose a composition - in his paintings, things seem to exist on their own, causing a feeling of loneliness. The color palette of Pirosmani's works is gloomy, and even large scenes are imbued with an atmosphere of alienation and melancholy.

Niko Pirosmani has never had personal happiness, and each of his work, in which he depicted festive food or people, contains hidden deep feelings. This is both joy and pain. Both happiness and sadness. Pirosmani himself once said that everyone has their own reasons for sadness and it makes no sense to compare whose sadness is greater. Pirosmani is today one of the most beloved artistic figures in the country. Every city has its own genius. In Tbilisi, this is undoubtedly Niko Pirosmani. When someone asks a Georgian about Niko Pirosmani, he almost shouts: “Who doesn't know a great self-taught artist ?! He is a symbol of Georgia, our Van Gogh!”And having fished out a 1 lari note from a wad of money, he ardently explains:“Look, on the front side there is the handsome Pirosmani, on the back side there is his beloved old Tiflis and a fallow deer from his picture. Every Georgian "Pirosmani" has …

Love and "A Million Scarlet Roses"

Even those people who have never seen his works have probably heard the legend about how Pirosmani once sold all his property in order to buy all the flowers in Tbilisi for the woman he loved. So who was the one for whom the artist spent the rest of his days in poverty? The story of his love for Margarita de Sevres, a French dancer and singer, who once came to Georgia on tour, became a symbol of unrequited and deep love. The plot of the romantic story, which formed the basis of the famous song by Alla Pugacheva "A Million Scarlet Roses", was first described by Konstantin Paustovsky from the words of the Zdanevich brothers (these are the first collectors of Pirosmani's paintings). The artist's feelings were painful and overwhelming, the girl did not share Niko's feelings. She ignored his many advances. Her heart remained callous even after Niko painted her portrait ("Actress Margarita").

According to legend, on his birthday, Pirosmani sold all his property, which he barely earned (teahouse) and bought all the flowers in the city with the proceeds. Pirosmani sent nine carts with flowers to the house of Marguerite de Sevres. According to legend, the actress was really impressed by the sea of flowers she saw, but when she went outside, she only kissed the artist on the lips and left. The miracle did not happen. But historians claim that they never met. Niko sent her flowers, and he himself went to revel with friends. The further fate of Pirosmani was sad: after the story with flowers, he finally became impoverished, moved to dukhans. He painted there on whatever it was necessary - on the walls, on cans, cardboard, table oilcloths. The artist died of hunger and cold in April 1918, then he was 56 years old. Glory came to Niko Pirosmani after his death. In 1968, an exhibition of paintings by Niko Pirosmani, who had been dead for 50 years, was held in the Louvre. They say that an elderly woman stood in front of the portrait of the actress Margarita for a long time. Eyewitnesses claim that it was the very same Marguerite de Sevres. There is even a photograph in which the aged Margarita poses next to a portrait by Pirosmani. And the artist's deed still inspires creative people.