How the son of a Volga shoemaker became a cult artist of the Russian avant-garde: Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin

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

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin is a Russian artist who combined in his work the traditions of world art and the original language of painting, which was also deeply national in spirit. It was he, once the son of a shoemaker, who was able to create the monumental work and icon of the Russian avant-garde - Bathing the Red Horse.

Biography and origin of the surname

The birthplace of Petrov-Vodkin was a small town on the banks of the Volga. The artist owes his unusual surname to his grandfather. His grandfather was a shoemaker in a Volga town, and, as is often the case, a heavy drinker as a shoemaker (it is not for nothing that the Russian language has the expression "drunk as a shoemaker"). Petrov drank so much that people themselves began to call him Vodkin. And later a double surname was fixed - Petrov-Vodkin. The boy's youth passed in the harsh conditions of poverty and hunger. But his rare talent helped him overcome all difficulties, and the determination to become an artist led him first to art classes in Samara, and then to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he studied under the guidance of the famous Valentin Serov.

The story of how Petrov-Vodkin became an artist is no less interesting than the story with his surname. Young Kuzma once decided to swim on the Volga, but, having reached the middle of the river, he began to sink. Fortunately, the boatman spotted him from the shore and rescued him. But a week later, the same boatman drowned himself. Then Petrov-Vodkin took a piece of tin and painted on it a boat, people and the sky. At the bottom he signed: "Eternal memory". This was his first work of art, in memory of the boatman who saved the young man. There is another version: after graduating from high school, Petrov-Vodkin got a summer job at a small shipyard with plans to enter a railway college in Samara. Not passing the exam, he decided to enter the "Art classes of Fyodor Burov" in 1896. And so his work began.

Petrov-Vodkin found his unique style quite late when he came up with the idea to paint using only three colors: red, yellow and blue. This is how his famous three-color palette was born. In the period from 1901 to 1907, Petrov-Vodkin traveled extensively in France, Italy, Greece and North Africa. During this time, his allegorical compositions were imbued with the influence of European symbolism, and originality was suppressed by the aesthetics of modernity.

The first iconic work

His first famous work was Dream (1910), which sparked a debate among Russian contemporary artists. The main defender of the painting was Alexander Benois, and the main critic was Ilya Repin. Thus, Petrov-Vodkin was discussed by two of the largest Russian artists of the time.

Bathing the Red Horse

Soon Petrov-Vodkin was able to develop his own style, harmoniously saturated with light. His monumental compositions resembled ancient Russian frescoes, which were a source of inspiration for him. Bright, logically complete and balanced. In 1912, at the World of Art exhibition, the artist presented his painting Bathing the Red Horse, which immediately became famous. Some contemporaries considered the canvas "a hymn to Apollo", while others - a forerunner of a future cataclysm and renewal of the world. And the latter were right. World War I broke out just two years later, and the Russian Revolution came five years later. The painting was completed in 1912, and by 1917 red was already known as the color of the revolution.

"Bathing the Red Horse" may well be considered the main picture of the Russian revolution. Petrov-Vodkin himself was an extraordinary character: an adventurer who loved to experiment. It's a stunning picture: disturbing, powerful, mysterious. Everything seems to be very simple: a boy and a horse. But what a bewitching intensity these figures have! A simple plot, rounded lines, dominant bright red colors in the background, and finally a symbolic horse made this work an icon of the Russian avant-garde. Petrov-Vodkin himself was not a political person. He never belonged to a political party. When asked to comment on a political situation, he used to say, "Don't get involved in this hellish mess." Belief in the importance of humanism, the strength of the human spirit and the triumph of good over evil fueled the enthusiasm with which Petrov-Vodkin greeted the October Revolution of 1917. In his famous painting "1918 in Petrograd", also known as "Petrograd Madonna", the events of the revolution are interpreted as bloodless and humane. This form of idealization was characteristic of the mature works of Petrov-Vodkin.

A similar humanity is noticeable in his portrait of the famous poetess Anna Akhmatova, and in the portrait of Vladimir Lenin. One of the more unusual aspects of Petrov-Vodkin's style was his use of spherical perspective (comparable to a fisheye lens). In this technique, he was an outstanding master.

Still life with lilacs

In 1928, Petrov-Vodkin painted a canvas, which in 2019 was sold at an auction in London for almost $ 12 million. This is Still Life with Lilacs. The painting was painted by the artist in 1928, but suddenly disappeared in the 1930s. It turned out that the work was exchanged for "Portrait of Giovanni Scheuwiller" by the Italian artist Achilles Funi. The exchange was initiated by Boris Ternovets, an art historian and critic. It is interesting that under the canvas with the lilacs of Petrov-Vodkin, another picture is hidden. Infrared images showed that there is actually another work under the painting - the unfinished Madonna and Child.

Literature

In the second half of the 1920s, Petrov-Vodkin fell ill with tuberculosis. Acrid oil paints badly affected his lungs and he had to give up painting for several years. At this time, he returned to literature and wrote three autobiographical volumes: "Khvalynsk", "Euclid's Space" and "Samarkandia". Petrov-Vodkin died on February 15, 1939 in St. Petersburg. For his creative career and famous works, Petrov-Vodkin was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.