Life after Pushkin: how was the fate of Natalia Goncharova after the death of the poet
Life after Pushkin: how was the fate of Natalia Goncharova after the death of the poet

Video: Life after Pushkin: how was the fate of Natalia Goncharova after the death of the poet

Video: Life after Pushkin: how was the fate of Natalia Goncharova after the death of the poet
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V. Hau. Portrait of Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina, nee Goncharova, 1843. Fragment
V. Hau. Portrait of Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina, nee Goncharova, 1843. Fragment

On August 27 (September 8), 1812, a woman was born who played a fatal role in the life of A. S. Pushkin - Natalia Goncharova … Her personality, both among her contemporaries and in our time, has always caused extremely contradictory assessments: she was called both an evil genius who killed the great poet, and a slandered victim. She was judged by the 6 years that she spent in marriage with Pushkin, but the next 27 years of her life make it possible to get a much more complete and accurate idea of what one of the first beauties of the high society of the early 19th century really was.

V. Gau Portrait of Natalia Nikolaevna Lanskoy, 1844. Fragment
V. Gau Portrait of Natalia Nikolaevna Lanskoy, 1844. Fragment

Before his death, Alexander Sergeevich asked her: “Go to the village. Wear mourning for me for two years, and then marry, but only for a decent person. She complied with his request, but got married not after two years, but seven years later. At the age of 25, Natalia Pushkina was left a widow with 4 children. Many considered her to be guilty of the poet's death and called her a frivolous and empty secular beauty.

Left - A. P. Bryullov. Portrait of N. N. Pushkina, 1831-1832. On the right is V. Hau. N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya, 1849
Left - A. P. Bryullov. Portrait of N. N. Pushkina, 1831-1832. On the right is V. Hau. N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya, 1849
Cathedral of Christ the Savior at the Goncharovs' estate. Linen factory, 1900
Cathedral of Christ the Savior at the Goncharovs' estate. Linen factory, 1900

Two weeks after the death of Pushkin, Natalya and her children went to her brother Dmitry, to their family estate Polotnyany Zavod. There she led a reclusive lifestyle and received almost no one except relatives. Of course, after the glamor of the capital, high-society balls and receptions, this life seemed boring and monotonous to her, but it brought inner balance: “Sometimes such melancholy grips me that I feel the need for prayer,” she confessed. - These minutes of concentration in front of the icon, in the most secluded corner of the house, bring me relief. Then I regain the peace of mind, which was often mistaken for coldness and I was accused of it”.

V. Hau. Left - N. N. Pushkin, 1842. Right - Portrait of Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina, 1841
V. Hau. Left - N. N. Pushkin, 1842. Right - Portrait of Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina, 1841

Rich and titled suitors repeatedly wooed her, but they all received a refusal: none of them was ready to accept her four children. She was offered to arrange them in prestigious educational institutions away from home, but she answered: "Whoever is a burden to my children, that is not my husband." After 2 years, Natalia Pushkina again comes to St. Petersburg, but she rarely appears in the world and is engaged in raising children.

Left - Portrait of N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya. Attributed to the artist I. Makarov (previously attributed to T. Neff), c. 1849. On the right - K. P. Maser. N. N. Pushkin in a widow's dress, 1839
Left - Portrait of N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya. Attributed to the artist I. Makarov (previously attributed to T. Neff), c. 1849. On the right - K. P. Maser. N. N. Pushkin in a widow's dress, 1839
V. Hau. Left - N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya. Watercolor, 1849. Right - P. P. Lanskoy, 1847
V. Hau. Left - N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya. Watercolor, 1849. Right - P. P. Lanskoy, 1847

Natalya got married 7 years after the death of Pushkin, in 1844. Petr Lanskoy, a poor but sincerely loving her, became her chosen one - Lieutenant General, a colleague of her brother. At that time she was 32 years old, he was 45. The wedding ceremony was quiet and modest, only close relatives were invited to the wedding. He accepted her children as his own. In this marriage, three more daughters were born. In addition to her seven, Natalya nursed 4 more children of relatives. “My vocation is to be the headmistress of an orphanage,” she writes to Lansky. “God sends me children from all sides …”.

I. K. Makarov Natalia Nikolaevna Lanskaya, 1849. Fragment
I. K. Makarov Natalia Nikolaevna Lanskaya, 1849. Fragment
Left - I. K. Makarov Portrait of Natalia Nikolaevna Lanskoy (Pushkina), 1863. Right - K. Lash. Portrait of N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya. 1856
Left - I. K. Makarov Portrait of Natalia Nikolaevna Lanskoy (Pushkina), 1863. Right - K. Lash. Portrait of N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya. 1856

In the last years of her life, Natalya Nikolaevna was often ill. She stopped going out and often went abroad for treatment. She died at the age of 52 from pneumonia. Peter Lanskoy outlived his wife by 14 years.

Natalya Nikolaevna Pushkina-Lanskaya, nee Goncharova. Photo of the late 1850s - early 1860s
Natalya Nikolaevna Pushkina-Lanskaya, nee Goncharova. Photo of the late 1850s - early 1860s
N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya. Photo of the early 1860s
N. N. Pushkina-Lanskaya. Photo of the early 1860s

Destiny deserves no less attention Ekaterina Goncharova (Dantes): life in the shadow of a beautiful sister, with the stigma of the wife of Pushkin's killer

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