The strange union of the Russian Van Gogh Zverev and the poet's widow: And 40 years of age difference is not an obstacle to happiness

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

It really was a strange union: the brilliant artist Anatoly Zverev, who was called the Beast for his unbridled temper, and the widow of Nikolai Aseev, who became the muse of the avant-garde artist. Ksenia Aseeva was almost 40 years older than him, but she saw in him a representative of her era. In the past, she had meetings with Kataev, Yesenin and Mayakovsky, Velimir Khlebnikov was in love with her. He has a poor childhood, a passion for alcohol, fights and fights. But there was something that connected these two destinies into one.

Russian nugget

He was born in 1931 in Moscow. Parents were completely ordinary people: Timofey Ivanovich returned from the Civil War as an invalid and served as an accountant, his wife, Pelageya Nikiforovna, was a laborer. There were nine children in total, but only three survived until adolescence: Anatoly and his two sisters, Tonya and Zina.

The father and mother tried to feed and clothe the children, but there was no time or energy for some activities and entertainment. After the death of my father, it was very difficult, my mother struggled. Anatoly suffered from loneliness and occupied himself on his own. He enrolled in art studios in Sokolniki and Izmailovo, and drew enthusiastically in class at school.

Gradually, this world, where you can paint any grayness with the brightest colors, completely captured him. True, he did not find understanding at home. Mom, completely not understanding what to do with her son's drawing, assigned him to study at a vocational school to become a painter. Still, brushes and paints were present in this profession.

After receiving his diploma, Anatoly Zverev was hired to work in Sokolniki Park, where he painted playgrounds. There, he drew attention to the young painter Alexander Rumnev, an actor and connoisseur of fine arts, who undertook to patronize the artist. Later Anatoly Zverev entered the art school, from where he was expelled for his bohemian behavior.

Nicknamed the Beast

Anatoly Zverev was really unbridled disposition. He could easily fall into anger, get angry and utter rudeness to his interlocutor. He walked away rather quickly, too, although he could easily start drawing instead of words of apology. But his main drawback was his excessive passion for alcohol.

Zverev was almost always a little drunk, but he also did not shy away from abundant libations. At the same time, he invariably needed company. He collected numerous friends, usually also artists. Heated arguments escalated into fights, the cause of which was always envy. Zverev's paintings sold well, he was known abroad, and he always had money. Colleagues believed that he was just lucky, they are definitely no less talented than he is.

However, hardly anyone else could boast of the ability to create a real masterpiece in a few minutes, add a few grains of cottage cheese to a canvas with a bouquet of lilacs and achieve incredible vividness of the image. His paintings could not be confused with others. He came up with different techniques, used several times and then moved on to a new one. Picasso himself called him the best Russian draftsman.

Officially, he was married once, and his chosen one was "Lucy No. 1", as he himself called his wife. Lucy was an athlete, posed for Zverev and immediately received an offer from him. She bore him a daughter and a son, and then retrained as an artist. But the marriage lasted only a few years. The artist never married again, but he had affairs. And then he met his muse.

And in old age - a young maiden

Ksenia Sinyakova was born in Kharkov in 1892. There were five sisters, each of whom was amazingly good and unique in its own way. The Sinyakov sisters were called the muses of Russian futurism; Pasternak, Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov took turns fond of them.

The poet Nikolai Aseev fell in love with Xenia, he dedicated piercing poems to her and won the heart of the beauty. The spouses were friends with poets and writers, creative personalities constantly gathered in their house, Velimir Khlebnikov once, in the presence of Mayakovsky and Yesenin, declared his love to Oksana and even made an offer. But she herself only needed her Kolya. She was happy with him and stayed with him until his last day.

Could this woman have imagined that she will have to experience ardent feelings again in adulthood, and even fall in love with a man who was born when she herself was almost 40 years old.

Strange Love

They were introduced in 1968 by the artist Dmitry Plavinsky. Anatoly Zverev fell in love almost at first sight. He wrote letters to Oksana Aseyeva, gave flowers and constantly painted her portraits. And she turned out to be invariably young and beautiful on them, much better than she was at that time. He saw her as the very girl who excited the minds and hearts of men during her youth.

This strange alliance might seem ridiculous or ridiculous to someone, but not for the artist himself. He confessed: Xenia is for him a muse, mother, daughter and the Mother of God in one person. Who was he himself for Oksana Aseeva? A kind of greetings from the past, the personification of a great era, where art was appreciated, where she herself was young and beautiful. When Aseeva's neighbors, tired of his drunken antics, advised Oksana Mikhailovna to hand Zverev to the police, she answered in a soulful voice: "This man is my lover!"

Anatoly Zverev and Oksana Aseeva were not at all shy about their age difference. It seems they were above any convention. They could have long conversations about art, playfully poke fun at each other, or just be silent, sitting next to them. The main thing is that they were invariably good together.

True, the artist still drank and yes, sometimes he made fights. When he, drunk, was not allowed into the house of his beloved, he laid newspapers for himself and spent the night right at the doorstep. And in the morning he was allowed into the apartment. The neighbors nevertheless periodically called the police, and then Oksana Mikhailovna begged the representatives of the law to be more careful with the artist, not to hurt him and in no case injure his hands.

Zverev often called her the Old Woman, but when she said that she was unpleasantly treated like that, he immediately renamed her the Old Man. However, such disagreements did not in any way affect either their feelings or their attitude towards each other.

Oksana Aseeva died in 1985. Anatoly Zverev came to her apartment and asked to leave him alone with the coffin, where his beloved lay. Then he painted the last portrait of his muse. And he left just a year after her death.

Anatoly Zverev considered his teacher Leonardo da Vinci. Everything that is associated with the name of this great artist is one continuous mystery, which mankind has been trying to solve for five centuries. About three thousand books have been written about him, having read every single one, we could hardly understand this legendary personality shrouded in secrets. However, the key to some of his encrypted works was unexpectedly found by researchers at the turn of the 20th century. And in this case it would be appropriate to note: "Everything ingenious is simple."