Death and Miracle in the fate of the famous Russian artist Mikhail Nesterov: Unknown pages from his personal life

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

Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov - the famous Russian artist, who has gone through a difficult life path of 80 years, during which there were three wars and two revolutions. He repeatedly changed his creative role: from landscapes to murals in temples, from icons and philosophical paintings to portraits. But in his work there was something that united all these hypostases: the artist's special relationship to Death and Miracle. But not only creativity, but his whole personal life was full of miracles and tragedies, where Death and Miracle always walked side by side.

The miracle of resurrection

Mikhail Nesterov was born in 1862, and was the tenth child in the merchant family of Vasily and Maria Nesterov. The life of the future artist began with an extraordinary miracle. In infancy, the boy was very weak and frail, and once seriously ill, he almost died. Rather, he rose from the dead. The merchant turned to the best doctors in the city, but the child was fading away every day. And it seemed a terrible day had already come. Father went to church to order a memorial service for little Mishenka. And the mother, who buried her eight children who did not even live to be 2 years old, was completely distraught with grief. Putting the little icon of Tikhon Zadonsky on the baby's chest, she fell to her knees and began to sob and pray furiously … And a miracle happened: the boy moved his blue hand. Survived!

And when the gloomy father returned from the church, the baby was already breathing evenly. The next day he started to recover and since then has hardly been ill. And in the Nesterov family, this legend of the miraculous return from the world of the dead was passed down from generation to generation. This story largely influenced the worldview of the artist Mikhail Nesterov. He always remembered: somewhere very close, Death and Miracle wandered.

Awakening talent

Mikhail, studying at the gymnasium, was a mischievous and fidgety, and did not particularly strive for knowledge. Desperate parents took the 12-year-old boy to Moscow to be assigned to a technical school. But having failed all the exams, except for the law of God, drawing and calligraphy, Mikhail was forced to go to a real school, where his talent for drawing manifested itself.

As a result, Mikhail received his artistic education at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, having promised his parents to study diligently. Father with a heavy heart gave his consent, because he considered artists to be failures. And Mikhail had to prove to himself and to his father that this was not so, but much later. And while he was an "eternal" student. He studied painting for seven years already: four years in Moscow, two in St. Petersburg, a couple more years in Moscow - and not a single medal, not a single first place in competitions!

Marriage without parental blessing

- Father Michael declared contemptuously, who had come to get his blessing for marriage. His chosen one was Maria Martynovskaya, a girl from a poor family, and the merchant did not like that very much. Returning to Moscow, Nesterov set to work with great zeal and achieved the desired result.

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

At the wedding, an event took place that crept into the artist's heart with a foreboding of great trouble. The doctor invited to their wedding was urgently summoned to the woman in labor. And returning to the festive table, he said that it was too late and the woman had died.

Then Nesterov more than once in his diaries and letters recalled this episode, which foreshadowed misfortune. And death …

In less than a year, his beloved wife Mashenka, having barely given birth to a daughter, will die. The miracle of the birth of a daughter and the death of a wife will again be close. A huge grief fell on the shoulders of the young artist.

And only a little daughter Olenka helped Nesterov endure all the hardships of life in those years, and the image dear to Maria's heart remained with him all his life. For many years he spilled the image of his beloved wife on his canvases.

Lelya Prakhova

At the age of 28, Nesterov began to paint churches. And he received his first experience in the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev under the leadership of Viktor Vasnetsov. There he made friends with the Prakhov family. The eldest daughter of a friend, Lelya, inspired the artist, and he wrote a sketch from her for the icon of the Great Martyr Barbara.

But then a famous historical anecdote came out: Countess Sophia Ignatieva, visiting the cathedral, was indignant: “I can't pray for Lelka Prakhova ?!” And Mikhail Vasilyevich, who had left Kiev at that time, had to return and rewrite the image of the Great Martyr Barbara.

Nesterov fell in love with young Lelia. It took three years of thought and doubt, until the artist still wooed her. The engagement took place, which was soon broken off. The reason was one circumstance that surfaced: Nesterov had a daughter from his common-law wife, Yulia Urusman, with whom the artist met a year before the matchmaking to Lele.

How did their relationship develop, why did the lovers not get married, why did the artist decide to marry someone else during Julia's pregnancy? - all this is shrouded in mystery. One way or another, Nesterov stayed with Urusman, who gave birth to two more sons after her daughter Vera - Mikhail (1900) and Fedor in (1902), who died shortly after birth.

Subsequently, Nesterov maintains close relations with his daughter from Urusman - Vera, and has repeatedly painted her portraits.

Ekaterina Vasilieva - the artist's second wife

In 1902, when Nesterov was about forty, he met Catherine. While living in Kiev, he painted the cathedral and finished work on the canvas "Holy Russia".

Although the work was not yet completely finished, the artist had already invited acquaintances to the workshop who wanted to see this work. And somehow a 22-year-old girl, a teacher at the women's institute Ekaterina Petrovna Vasilyeva, where his daughter Olga studied, came to see him.

After talking with the artist, Katenka kindly agreed to show Mikhail Vasilyevich the city. And after several meetings, Nesterov already wrote to Ufa that he had met a woman whom he wanted to marry. He never regretted his hasty decision. They lived a fairly happy life. Catherine gave birth to the artist three children.

Death and Homeland

After the revolution of 1917, the artist stopped painting symbolic paintings, imbued with God-seeking, and switched to portraits. Life in the Soviet country showed him many "deadly miracles": this was the arrest on the denunciation of his eldest daughter Olga, who would return from the camps on crutches. And her husband will be shot as an enemy of the people, and the husband of his second daughter, Natalia, will also be shot.

Mikhail Vasilyevich, who himself served in prison for several weeks, was busy with his relatives, wrote letters to Stalin. But alas. The authorities responded to his petitions with a different "miracle": the painter was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree for the portrait of the physiologist Pavlov, and a year later, in honor of his 80th birthday, Nesterov was awarded the title of Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

Mikhail Nesterov left behind not only a huge creative legacy, but also continued his lineage in children. And he had seven of them: daughter Olga from his first marriage with Maria Martynovskaya; daughter Vera and sons Mikhail and Fedor from common-law wife Julia Urusman; two daughters and a son - Natalia, Anastasia and Alexey - from a second marriage with Ekaterina Vasilyeva.

In the last decades of his life, Mikhail Vasilyevich, who also had the talent of a writer, enthusiastically worked on memoirs, which were published as a separate book. And the last thing the artist worked on was a series of portraits of the youngest son Alexei, who was terminally ill with tuberculosis. Father, standing for hours in front of the bed of a fading boy, painted on the canvas traits dear to his heart.

On October 18, 1942, Mikhail Nesterov passed away. And on November 8, not having lived a month, the son died after his father.

And the fate of Nesterov's failed bride - Leli Prakhova developed very sadly. Without getting married, she remained alone until the end of her days, and died in Kiev in 1948.