"Morning" by Tatyana Yablonskaya: How the artist prophesied the fate of her daughter

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

Probably, it is difficult to find a person in the post-Soviet space who would not be familiar with the reproduction of the famous painting "Morning" by the Ukrainian artist Tatiana Yablonskaya … Much less known is the fact what a fateful role this painting played in the life of its main character - the artist's daughter.

The amazing story of the fateful "Morning"

In 1954, Yablonskaya painted a stunning painting that became a symbol of the era. The main character is the 13-year-old daughter of the artist Lena. Who then could have guessed that the years would pass and this painting would mystically affect the girl's fate.

This work came out from under the artist's brush so light, energetically joyful and warm that after the first publication of the reproduction in the magazine "Ogonyok" it could be seen on the walls of apartments throughout the Soviet Union. And later in textbooks for tens of years it will remain unchanged among the illustrations used by schoolchildren to write essays.

In those early years in the capital of Kazakhstan, a boy named Arsen cut out this picture and attached it to the wall. Looking at this small reproduction, he childishly fell in love with a fragile girl with a pigtail, who with all her appearance brought inner light to his soul. It was at that time that he decided, by all means, to become an artist.

Years have passed. Arsen grew up, but did not part with his dream. He came to Moscow, entered the Stroganov School. There he met a girl named Lena Otroshchenko, with whom they had a serious relationship. And one summer he brought her to Kazakhstan to introduce her to her parents. Imagine the surprise of both when Lena saw on the wall a burnt-out reproduction of a painting with her image. After all, she never advertised her involvement in the famous artist Tatyana Yablonskaya. And how could a Kazakh guy know that it was Lena who was the girl he was in love with since childhood.

So unexpectedly, the picture of the mother predetermined the fate of her daughter. Elena and Arsen Beisembinov got married and left to live in Almaty. There she worked as an illustrator and animator, was engaged in tapestry. Their son Zangar followed in the footsteps of his parents - he became an artist.

Interesting facts about the life of Tatyana Yablonskaya

Last February, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Tatiana Yablonskaya, the famous Soviet and Ukrainian artist with a worldwide reputation, was widely celebrated. From the Yablonsky dynasty, only she got the greatest popularity and fame. And few people know that her younger sister Olga was also an artist, and her brother Dmitry was an architect. By the way, both her husbands - Sergey Otroshchenko and Armen Atayan were also artists. Her three daughters Elena, Olga and Gayane became artists. And now the grandson and granddaughter continued the Yablonsky dynasty.

The fate of the famous Ukrainian artist Tatyana Nilovna, who was born on February 24, 1917 in Smolensk into a very unusual family, is amazing. And as the artist herself loved to joke:.

The father of the family, Nil Yablonsky, was a descendant of the gentry of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Born into a family of a clergyman, in his youth he studied at the Theological Academy, from which he was expelled for participating in student strikes when the country was swept by the 1905 revolution. Then Neil Yablonsky, having, as it seemed to him, a talent for drawing, tried to enter the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. But he did not manage to pass the competition. As a result, he graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. But the craving for artistic creativity was so great that he still got the basics of painting at VKHUTEMAS.

In Smolensk, after the 1917 revolution, he had to teach literature, literature and drawing in gymnasiums, and also sometimes publish his drawings in the Rabochy Put newspaper. To all Nil Aleksandrovich had a chance to work as a curator of an art gallery in the Smolensk Museum. He remained an amateur artist for the rest of his life, dreaming of professional creativity. But his three children fulfilled their father's dream to the fullest, becoming artists in the future.

Neil Yablonsky was an excellent father and by all means developed visual memory in his children with the help of fascinating games, organized competitions for the best illustration, read books. A magazine called "Cricket" was "published" in their house, where children in turn "published" stories, fables, poems and riddles. Moreover, each "author" illustrated his own composition. And on Sundays, Neil Alexandrovich took his children to museums or on hikes around the city.

There was a page of life in the Yablonsky family, about which they were afraid not only to say, but also to remember for many years. Nil Yablonsky, being a descendant of the gentry, during the beginning of the repressions in the country, could at any time be declared an enemy of the people. And in order to avoid this fate, he takes his family to the South of Ukraine, where no one knew about his origin.

Not accepting the revolution and disillusioned with the new order, he tried several times in 1929 to take his family abroad. But attempts to escape through Odessa to Romania were unsuccessful and he had to transport the family to Lugansk, from where Tatyana went to Kiev to enter an art institute. And all family members were silent about the story of the unsuccessful escape and never remembered. And Nil Yablonsky himself was taken to Germany during the Patriotic War, and nothing is known about his fate to this day.

Who knows how the fate of the artist would have developed if she were then in a foreign land in those distant years. And in her homeland, by those standards, a brilliant future awaited her - three State Prizes, the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

All this will be … In the meantime, there were still happy student years at the art institute, which presented a meeting with her husband Sergei Otroshchenko, then the ominous years of the Patriotic War, which separated and destroyed their plans for the future. Then the birth of daughters and divorce after 11 years of marriage.

And again a gift of fate - acquaintance with Armen Atayan, a teacher at the Yerevan Art Institute. Re-marriage for 11 years and the birth of a daughter, Gayane. Yablonskaya has always been too self-sufficient a woman, so she often said:

Tatyana Nilovna always "gushed" with ideas. In addition to what she loves, she was an excellent swimmer, excellent skiing, doing yoga. She bought a car for a state prize in order to go on sketches.

It is worth noting that Tatiana was one of the first women in Kiev to wear an elegant trouser suit. From the memoirs of daughter Gayane:

But the happiest moments for Tatyana Nilovna's relatives were when the family got together:

The disease that chained Tatyana Nilovna to a wheelchair could not take away from her the most precious thing she had - her work. She painted, sitting at home by the window, capturing the changing nature outside the window. And sometimes she was inspired by the dishes placed after breakfast and painted still lifes. Due to a stroke, the artist has been painting with her left hand and only with pastels for the last six years.

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