In the Soviet Union, everyone knew whoIgor Grabar. The painting "March Snow" was familiar from textbooks. A remarkable Russian artist, a famous restorer, a talented art historian, awarded for a two-volume monograph on Ilya Repin of the Stalin Prize, Igor Emmanuovich was loved by many for his unique and very beautiful landscapes of Russian nature.
Russian artist, born abroad
His father was a member of the Austrian Parliament,therefore, the future brilliant singer of Russian nature, Grabar (the picture “February Azure” - the clearest confirmation of this) was born in Budapest. He was baptized in Orthodoxy, and his uncle became the uncle of the famous Russian artist Kustodiev, who would later write the famous portrait of Igor Emmanuilovich. In 1880, Olga Grabar brings her son to Russia. Gymnasium, he attended in Yegorievsk Ryazan province. Next was a gold medal for studying at the Moscow Lyceum of Tsarevich Nicholas (1889), the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, which he graduated in 1893, and the choice of the main business of his life. I.E. Grabar, whose picture “Balustrade” (1901) declared him as a talented and unique master, becomes an artist. During the time of Petersburg life he attended the workshop of Ilya Repin, who became his idol for the rest of his life, along with Andrey Rublev. With him at the same time in the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts studied Malyavin, Bilibin, Somov.
Becoming
В 1895 году художник уезжает в Италию и дальше по Europe. Grabar returns to Russia in 1901, and the beauty of Russian nature opens up in a new perspective. The artist tried to convey the power of his shock with several canvases - “White Winter”, “March Snow”.
"February Azure"
The event was the canvas, which in 1904wrote Igor Grabar, - "February Azure". The picture is full of special poetry, the one that sounds in the verses of B. Pasternak “February. Get ink and cry! To write about February for nothing. ” And Grabar painted his picture, too, sobbingly. This is one of his most recognizable paintings, she is one of those canvases that the author creates by his own name. The artist himself was very fond of this work, which depicts a sunny, still winter day in the Moscow region. In the joy that fills the picture, there is already a slight whiff of spring.
Painted his masterpiece artist in Dugino.In order to convey both the distance of the grove on the horizon and the huge air masses against the background of the azure sky, Grabar chose a view from a little below, for which he dug a deep trench in the snow and fit it with an easel. The artist felt that if he was able to convey at least some of the beauty that he sees, it will turn out a beautiful canvas.
The charm of the picture is unique.The trees seem to dance around the central birch, the artist's favorite tree. The size of the painting is 104 cm in height and 80 cm in width. She was so good that she was immediately acquired by the Council of the Tretyakov Gallery. This work to this day is one of its main masterpieces. You can add that the canvas is in the hundred best paintings in the world.
Winter, sun, birch, frost ...
Another masterpiece that created Grabar -"Frost", picture of 1905. If he had written her alone, he would still have remained in the memory of his descendants, and in textbooks on painting. This is one of those rare canvases that leaves no one indifferent. It glorifies the beauty and uniqueness of the unique nature of Russia and in itself demonstrates what great Russian painting is.
Most of all, Grabar liked to draw winter,especially snow. He believed that with the departure of winter, the landscape loses much. At the sight of trees covered with hoarfrost, almost always and everyone has a comparison with the fairy tale: “All the trees are in hoarfrost, exactly in silver, like a fairy tale marvelous now in the yard ...” And everyone knows the verses of S. Yesenin about birch in silver. All the beauty of this phenomenon of nature, sung by dozens of beautiful poets, is reflected in this unique work. Grabar, a picture of which is devoted to winter, painted a frost that "shines with a wonderful life." He believed that there are very few such polyphonic moments in nature, like frost on a sunny day, and they are unusually transient. The lighting changes all the time, giving birth to new unique color ranges.
He himself called the branches covered with frost,diamond laces sparkling with all colors on the “turquoise sky enamel”. On the canvas of size 122.4 x 160.3, all of the above is conveyed with tremendous force. I must say that I. Grabar’s winter landscapes are the best in Russian painting, especially “Frost”. Winter, sunny day, beautiful birch, a symbol of Russia and Russian nature, tall, with a lush crown, silvered and seemingly ringing. Their branches cast blue, blue and purple shadows on the snow. Beauties are jubilant and proud of their beauty. Everything in this work is extraordinary, it surprises and shocks the viewer. Painted in oil, in small fractional strokes (divisionism), the picture forced us to speak of the author as the founder of Russian impressionism. The canvas is stored in the Yaroslavl Art Museum.
Grabar has several different pictures with this.name, and they are all very good, but the work of 1905 is better than others. As soon as the Grabar was called birch, it was not compared with anything. Most of all, the definition of a “supernatural tree” obviously suits her.
"... Yesenin's plot, almost biblical ..."
Еще одна картина этого художника создана с учетом all canons of impressionism. This is the 1904 March Snow mentioned above. Here, as in the two previous canvases, the snow under the sun is glorified forever in the artist's soul. It reflects the shadows of the surrounding nature, which can be conveyed by all shades of blue, violet, lilac. The deceptive March of Russia is transmitted surprisingly precisely: it is already spring, but the snow does not even think of melting. At the same time, the change of seasons is physically felt, despite the frost.
The canvas depicts a young woman carryingbuckets with water on the yoke. It would seem that the usual rural landscape - buildings, already snowless trees, on which buds will soon appear, a hurried peasant woman, who is encouraged by a frost. But the main character of the canvas is snow. It is not sparkling as in winter, no longer snow-white, but it is still a lot. He in the foreground of the picture, on which many bright spots are scattered. The canvas is full of charm. The picture is less described above - only 80 x 62 cm. It is stored in the Tretyakov Gallery.
Every resident of our country knows the magnificentlandscapes of Russian nature brush such geniuses as Savrasov, Vasiliev, Shishkin, Levitan. Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar, People's Artist of Russia, who was the first Soviet painter to be awarded the honorary title “Honored Artist of the Arts”, continued this honorable series with dignity. His pre-revolutionary landscapes are very good, but the canvases painted during the Soviet period are no worse. The singer of a frosty sunny winter and early spring, Grabar and under the new polity remained a great painter.
