The ups and downs of the fate of the artist Nikolai Feshin - the genius of the portrait genre, who was saved from death by a miraculous icon

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

Russian-American painter, the most talented student of Ilya Repin - Nikolay Feshin (1881-1955) in Russia is on a par with the outstanding masters of the Silver Age. And in the history of European and American art, the artistic heritage of the unique Russian master is included in the direction represented by the famous impressionists of Sweden, Holland and the USA. The forgotten name of the genius painter sounded all over the world again after in 2010 his painting "Little Cowboy" was sold at auction in London for more than $ 10 million - almost ten times higher than the declared value.

His works are striking in originality, skill of execution, liveliness of colors and amazing energy. Nikolai Feshin is in many ways paradoxical, but individual and unique. His pictorial language combines a variety of styles. In his creations, one can see the foundations of academicism, and the traditions of realism of the Itinerants, and impressionism, and expressionism, transformed under the impression from nature into an integral system - the style of modernism, which is a transitional style of transitional time in the art of painting.

In 1881, the future artist was born into the family of the iconostasis carver Ivan Feshin. My father owned his own workshop, which in those years was awarded silver awards "for the high quality of work and a variety of drawings."

At the age of 4, the boy had the first test: he fell ill with meningitis, and the disease was about to end his life. For two weeks the doctors fought for the baby's life, but in the end they gave up, and desperate parents asked for the miraculous Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God from the Annunciation Cathedral. And as soon as the holy image touched the child, the boy stirred, and from that moment his recovery began.

After his illness, Kolya became withdrawn, he was no longer interested in playing with his peers. Now he began to observe more with interest what was happening in his father's workshop. And later he himself began to participate in the painting and carving of iconostases. Already the first steps in the work of a 6-year-old boy were seen in his album, where he painted fanciful ornaments. And at the age of 9, Nikolai began to work in his father's workshop, taking part in the execution of orders.

Drawing became for Kolya a passion and the meaning of life. As a boy, he wandered around the neighborhood and loved to sketch the landscapes he liked. And he especially liked horses.

Nikolai's father, possessing a great talent as a carver, but lacking enterprise, quickly went bankrupt. And for the debts he was forced to give up all his property, including the workshop. And he had to travel to the villages to earn money, and the family, remaining in the city, was in great need. The mother, who could not bear the hard lot, leaves her husband and son, whom his own aunt took into the care of.

But be that as it may, Nikolai received his primary education in a public school. And at the age of 13, the boy earned the first ten rubles for drawing the iconostasis. It was on them that his school suit was sewn. In the same year, at the insistence of his father, the teenager entered the art school that had just opened in Kazan.

At the age of 14, Nikolai Feshin was left without a father and, living from hand to mouth and constantly thinking about his daily bread, he completely devoted himself to painting, which was often praised by teachers. The educational work "Homeless" almost completely reflected his life at that time.

Then there was the St. Petersburg School at the Academy of Arts, which laid the foundation for the unique work of the young artist, then the Academy itself, where he was a student of Ilya Repin. And life, as before, constantly forced me to think about my daily bread, which greatly tempered the artist's character.

Even then, at the Academy, the young artist's signature style was born - the “non-finita” style, which, through constant experiments with primers and paints and using a palette knife along with brushes, led to a more textured and free style of writing.

"Feshinskaya" individuality was in his unique manner, where a semi-abstract background made with a palette knife complicated with an unusual color scheme and the faces of the heroes, painted with photographic precision, were used.

For the program canvas "Lady in Lilac", painted in the "Feshin" manner, the painter received a small gold medal at the international exhibition in Munich. And Ilya Repin called him "the most talented among contemporary painters."

Nikolay Feshin, having graduated from the Academy with honors, got the opportunity to visit many European cities, which were centers of art and culture, at public expense in 1910. And then he returned to Kazan and became a teacher of that art school, which he was a native of thirteen years ago.

At the heart of his teaching activities, Nikolai Ivanovich used the Repin system:, - from the memoirs of GA Melent'ev.

He himself, in addition to teaching, Feshin fruitfully worked on numerous portraits, which he painted from friends, school students, and having married from his wife and daughter.

Family album in the colors of the Feshin family

Nikolai's wife was 21-year-old Alexandra Nikolaevna Belkovich (1892-1983), his student and daughter of the first director of an art school. Feshin was at that time 32 years old. And a year later, in 1914, their only daughter was born - Iya.

The revolution of 1917 made adjustments to the life and work of the artist, who began to order portraits of political leaders. At the same time, they were not very successful for him and the master began to experience a mental and creative crisis., - wrote Nikolai Ivanovich in those years. The thought of emigration does not leave Feshin, and in 1923, using all his connections, he and his family left for the United States, where in 1931 he received citizenship.

And the first model to pose for Feshina for a portrait was a black woman. Subsequently, African Americans and Indians, whom the artist had never seen before, inspired him enormously.

About the later life in emigration and the creative fate of the brilliant master of portrait and unique painting technique - Nikolai Feshin, forgotten for a long time in his historical homeland, can be read in the second part.