100 rubles in gold for a bride, salvation on Valaam and other vicissitudes in the life of the "wizard of light" Arkhip Kuindzhi

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

Arkhip Kuindzhi - a genius and original nature, a man-legend, whose life deserves immense respect, writing novels and chronicles, making films … and not only documentaries. He is truly the hero of his time and the blacksmith of his destiny. Hopelessly poor and fabulously rich - he devoted himself entirely to art, one single woman, charity and love for all living things.

- Nicholas Roerich wrote about his teacher. And if we say that a person is the blacksmith of his own happiness and destiny, then this fully applies to Arkhip Ivanovich. "Oneself-one" - this is the motto and formula of all his work, as well as all his life …

Riddles and Providences of Fate

Everything related to the birth and origin of the artist's surname still looks very mysterious. Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi was born in the month of January in the city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov. But what year is still not known for certain, since three passports were found in his personal archive: in one of which the year of birth is indicated in 1841, in the second - 1842, and in the third - 1843.

Not everything turned out to be so simple with the surname. His father was the Russianized Greek Ivan Emendzhi, which was recorded in the metric of Arkhip. From Turkish "Yemenji" it is "a working man". But the baby, thanks to the office worker, for some reason, for some reason, got the surname of the grandfather-jeweler “Kuyumji”, which was inscribed in the newborn's measure in the wrong transcription. By the way, the grandfather's surname, translated from the same Turkish, meant “goldsmith”. This is how Kuindzhi became Arkhip's foresight of fate.

The early orphaned boy first lived with his older brother, then with his aunt, where she grazed geese. Until the age of ten, he only managed to finish several classes of elementary Greek school, and there was no question of a decent education. When Arkhip grew up a little, he did a feasible job during the construction of the church, and later served as a "room boy" for the Italian bread merchant Amoretti.

During these years, the teenager already began to show an extraordinary talent for drawing. Once a grain merchant who was visiting his owner, seeing Kuindzhi's drawings, advised the boy to go to Feodosia to the famous seascape painter Ivan Aivazovsky and ask him to be his student. And apparently the advice of a kind person hooked Arkhip so much that he, without hesitation, went to Crimea on foot. However, Aivazovsky did not see the spark of God in the young teenager, but only entrusted him to rub the paints. Soon Arkhip, disappointed in his teacher, left him. But he still received his first painting lessons in Feodosia: Aivazovsky's relative Adolf Fessler became Kuindzhi's first mentor. A little later, returning to Mariupol, Kuindzhi began working as a retoucher for a local photographer - the science behind which Arkhip went to Crimea, the homeland of his ancestors, was not in vain.

In the early 1860s, he moved to St. Petersburg, dreaming of entering the Academy of Arts, but after three unsuccessful attempts he was taken only as a volunteer. Kuindzhi could not be called a diligent student, he often skipped lessons and was not very eager to complete academic assignments. But his creative works immediately attracted the attention of the Itinerant artists Ilya Repin, Viktor Vasnetsov, Ivan Kramskoy. They then invited a talented young man to the association of traveling exhibitions, and he immediately left the academy.

It is paradoxical, but true: at first they did not want to be admitted to the academy, but after many years the academy invited Arkhip Kuindzhi to the ranks of its teachers.

The life of the poor artist was gradually improving, his paintings began to sell well, sometimes even ten times more expensive than the canvases of famous painters. It won't take long for him to become famous and rich.

Read also: "Moonlit Night on the Dnieper": the mystical power and tragic fate of the painting by Arkhip Kuindzhi.

The legendary love story of an artist

It was the first feeling of love that prompted Kuindzhi to go to St. Petersburg to become a famous artist. While still living in Mariupol and working as a retoucher, 17-year-old Kuindzhi fell in love for the first and last time in his life. The young Greek woman Vera Ketcherji took possession of the young man's heart. But there could be no question of wooing a beggar orphan with the daughter of a rich merchant - it was necessary to do something incredible in order to get her hand. And he will achieve … True, not immediately, it will take almost seventeen years before Arkhip Ivanovich marries his Vera.

There was a completely reliable legend, as if Vera's father, who was not eager to give his daughter for a beggar, set Kuindzhi a condition: bring one hundred rubles in gold - your Vera. Three years later, Arkhip returned from St. Petersburg with money, but his whole appearance spoke of the price at which these gold coins went to the unlucky groom. This time, Vera's father refused the young man, arguing that he needed to become well-off, and not save on every piece of bread.

The father tried to persuade the girl to find a better chosen one for himself. However, all his efforts were unsuccessful: - answered the daughter. And Arkhip Vera promised to wait as long as necessary. And I waited …

And when finally Arkhip Ivanovich was able to achieve in life and fame, and recognition, and security, they got married. On a honeymoon trip, the young, having a large choice, went not anywhere, but to the holy island of Valaam. However, this trip almost cost the young spouses their lives. Having got into a terrible storm, the ship was wrecked. And only a few, including the Kuindzhi couple, managed to escape. Miraculously, finding himself with his wife in a boat, Arkhip rowed to the shore, which was urine in his strong hands. As always, the thirst for life, perseverance and the providence of fate helped.

And then he will tell his wife: To which Vera will answer him:

And so it happened … On their food they spent a paltry small sum of fifty kopecks every day, a little money was spent on paints, brushes, canvases and a workshop. The spouses also did not keep servants, except for the only janitor. They lived very modestly, but very happily. The most expensive thing in their apartment was the piano played by Vera Leontievna. When she sat down to play music, Arkhip Ivanovich took up the violin - their duet was heard throughout the district.

And all his huge fortune from the sale of paintings, Arkhip Kuindzhi spent on talented students, sent them to study abroad, he paid for trips to medical resorts for the sick. He helped free of charge anyone who got into trouble. Arkhip Ivanovich was a saintly person with a bright soul and a noble heart. Having saved up one hundred thousand rubles, Arkhip Ivanovich contributed them to the Academy so that the interest from this money would go to encourage talented students. All his life Kuindzhi remembered how hard it was for a young talent to break through, and how at one time Aivazovsky was not supportive of the poor boy from Mariupol.

Weakness of the artist

Arkhip Ivanovich had a passion, over which the St. Petersburg cartoonists often liked to joke, or even sarcastically. Every day at noon, at the sound of the artillery cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Kuindzhi went out onto the roof of his house and began to feed the birds from his hands, which had flown in advance from all over the area. They literally covered their breadwinner from head to toe. It was a mesmerizing sight: a gray-haired stocky man, radiant all with happiness, shared his daily bread, which he got by hard work, with the feathered brethren. A lot of money was spent on such feeding for the pets. The artist bought cereals, bread, and meat for crows, and provided first aid to wounded birds. He dragged all victims of cold and injuries into the house, warmed them up, nursed them and released them. Once he glued the damaged wing of the urticaria butterfly, and it flew away safely …

The painter also had a special love for plants. Kuindzhi tried not to trample the grass, avoided accidentally crushing a beetle, caterpillar or the same ant. Arkhip Ivanovich was also kind to people, distributing money to everyone in need. And, as a rule, he did his good deeds in such a way that the person did not even know where the help came from. The generosity of his soul knew no bounds. In the last years of his life, Arkhip Ivanovich bequeathed the millionth fortune acquired by his work and personal deprivation to the independent Society of Artists created by him.

Seclusion

By the age of forty, having risen to the very top of fame and having a tremendous interest in his person and his creations, Arkhip Ivanovich suddenly "falls silent". There are no more sensational Kuindzhi exhibitions. None of the artist's paintings are on sale. He is imprisoned for twenty years in his workshop and, secretly, even from his closest students and friends, begins new searches and devotes himself entirely to work. And numerous admirers, in bewilderment, began to say that he was completely written out, fizzled out as an artist.

But how wrong they were. Neither talent nor desire to create disappeared anywhere. Kuindzhi managed to create a huge number of paintings and graphic works, which were estimated after his death at half a million rubles, which at that time would have been enough to assess the artistic heritage of more than a dozen popular artists. Over the past many years, the only spectators have been the Lord and his beloved wife Vera.

Crimea - the artist's haven

Crimea was the historical homeland of Arkhip Kuindzhi. His ancestors were Greeks, who were resettled from the Crimean peninsula to the Azov Sea by the decree of Catherine II. It was here that the painter took his first and last steps in great art.

In the last years of his life, every summer Arkhip Kuindzhi and his wife left Petersburg for the Crimean coast, where they once acquired the village of Kikeneiz with a plot of land with a kilometer strip of beach. There they lived very modestly in a collapsible house on a picturesque hillside overlooking the sea. Kuindzhi was fascinated by the amazing nature of Crimea, which, experimenting with colors and light-air environments, he captured in his landscapes.

The artist traveled a lot in the harsh Russian North, the Caucasus, Ukraine, bringing many sketches of sketches, ready-made canvases from his trips. His artistic heritage includes a series of works dedicated to these amazing places.

Read also: Arkhip Kuindzhi: landscape philosophy of the renowned artist.

The last exhibition of the genius master

At the turn of the century in 1901, Kuindzhi, yielding to the persuasion of friends and students, broke his seclusion and showed them several of his last canvases, including the famous work Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Soon, the last public exhibition was organized during the artist's life, he was again remembered and talked about. There were both flattering reviews and critical remarks. But after the exposition, no one saw his new paintings. Another ten years of silence followed.

This decade of life was marked for Kuindzhi by the creation of such masterpieces as "Rainbow", "Red Sunset" and "Night". The last picture combines the artist's childhood memories and a passion for contemplating the night sky. After all, it was it that raised the artist to the pinnacle of fame.

In the summer of 1910, while in the Crimea, Kuindzhi unexpectedly contracted pneumonia. The wife decided to take her husband to St. Petersburg, but the hope of recovery was dwindling every day. The situation was aggravated by the painful heart of the artist. He went into eternity, leaving behind a bright memory and a huge creative legacy.

Vera Lavrentievna outlived her husband by ten years and died of hunger in Petrograd in 1920. And she regretted only one thing all her life, that God did not give them children with Arkhip.

But they really say: it is impossible to truly understand the artist's paintings without delving deeper into him as a person, into his life …

Many contemporaries really did not understand Kuindzhi's painting, and often reproached the artist for an unjustified extravaganza of bright colors, with the help of which he conveyed the color of the picture, unusual moments of illumination, creating the effect of glowing colors. And unfortunately, a century later, many of Arkhip Kuindzhi's canvases lost their original appearance. The reason for this is all the same paints, the chemical composition of which did not stand the test of time. This affected not only the works of Kuindzhi, but also the works of other masters of painting.

Another destiny of the itinerant artist Nikolai Yaroshenko, friend of Arkhip Kuindzhi, is also worthy of respect. He managed to combine the seemingly incompatible - military service and painting and achieved world recognition.