Video: Russian popular print of the 19th century from the tsarist libraries, sold to foreigners by the Bolsheviks for a pittance
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
More recently, the New York Public Library has digitized 19th century popular prints. They came to the United States during the mass sale of the collections of the imperial libraries by the Bolsheviks in 1930-1935. Thanks to the surviving copies, today you can see a whole layer of Russian folk art.
Handmade folk pictures are called popular prints. The images on them are deliberately simplified, and the plots are intended for mass distribution. Often not only pictures were shown on the popular print, but also explanations to them in the form of jokes, jokes or poems. It is from the popular prints that you can find out what people lived and were interested in in past centuries.
Some researchers still argue where the word "splint" came from. Some believe that this was the name of the pictures that were carved on linden wood planks ("bast"). Others insist that not planks were made of linden, but containers (bast boxes), into which these very pictures were carried and sold.
It is generally accepted that the popular print appeared in Russia in the 16th century. Initially, the pictures were called "fryazhsky sheets" or "amusing sheets", then "simple people". The first images were dominated by religious subjects, but due to their inexpensive cost, they soon began to be used for propaganda purposes. People liked wooden planks with moralizing stories or fairy-tale characters.
In the lubok there was also a place for political satire. So, Peter I at his funeral is presented as a cat, carried by mice.
A fairly large layer of popular prints ended up in the New York Public Library in 1930-1935. At that time, the Bolsheviks were mercilessly selling the treasures of the imperial palace libraries. In addition to popular prints, the New York library got priceless collections of books that once belonged to 30 members of the Romanov dynasty. Second-hand bookseller Hans Kraus wrote:
Lubok was popular not only in Russia, but also in Ukraine. In the 1910s. a series of Vasil Gulak's postcards has been printed with humorous "10 commandments for the unmarried".
Recommended:
Crime against the nation: How the Bolsheviks sold tsarist treasures to the West in bulk and in bulk
The jewelry fund of pre-revolutionary Russia was famous throughout Europe. And not only by its scale, but also by the high artistic value of the products. Therefore, the sale of masterpieces of art, undertaken by the Bolsheviks who came to power in 1917, became a real tragedy for the state. It was a real blasphemy to sell national treasures by weight, at a price per kilogram. And this was not the worst thing in the situation
Why ladies lined up to see the most popular portrait painter of the 19th century: Franz the Magnificent
Franz the Magnificent, as the high society ladies of the German portraitist Franz Xaver Winterhalter were called, and lined up to be immortalized in picturesque portraits. And it should be noted that these works of art were truly magnificent and inimitable, as you can see for yourself by looking at the gallery of immortal images
Why in the 19th century everyone wanted to become hussars, and before that time only foreigners were taken there
The legendary Kozma Prutkov, whose image was given the status of a retired hussar, advised everyone to become a hussar if they want to be beautiful. The officer's uniform in this branch of the army was dazzling. By the beginning of the 19th century, everyone was striving for hussars. Another question, not everyone could afford this role: in itself, caring for an exquisite form provided for substantial costs. The hussar regiment was considered an elite military unit. And the best were selected there
Paintings by Russian artists of the 20th century, sold at world auctions for millions
Almost all art divas of the first half of the 20th century, who were originally from Russia, chose Paris as their haven for life and creation. Some of them painted their pictures literally for food, others - from an excess of energy, there were also those who worked tirelessly to drown out the pain that tormented body and soul. But all these women left an indelible mark on the history of painting not only with their artistic heritage, but also with the vicissitudes of fate
Moscow in 19th century photographs: even the Bolsheviks never saw such a capital
Photos taken in Moscow at the turn of the 1850s-1880s are very interesting to compare with the modern architecture of the capital and even with the architecture of the last century, when the city was undergoing radical changes. These pictures are a unique opportunity to see what famous Moscow places were like about 150 years ago