Savrasov Alexei Kondratievich
Russian Russian landscape painter Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov, academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts (since 1854), one of the founders of the lyrical landscape in Russian realistic painting. He played a key role in shaping the national Russian landscape and educated an entire school of artists.
Years of life: May 12 (24), 1830 — September 26 (October 8), 1897
Biography
He was born in Moscow in the family of a merchant of the third guild. From the age of 12, he was engaged in painting on his own, painting landscapes in watercolor on romantic subjects popular at that time. In 1844, he entered the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, but due to his mother's serious illness and financial difficulties, he interrupted his studies. He returned to college in 1848 and joined the class of the landscape painter Karl Rabus.
In 1850, he graduated from college, receiving the title of a non-class artist for the painting "View of the Moscow Kremlin by moonlight." His work "View of the Kremlin from the Crimean Bridge in inclement Weather" (1851) brought him fame. In 1854, for the paintings "View in the vicinity of Oranienbaum" and "Seashore in the vicinity of Oranienbaum" he received the title of academician.
In 1857, after Rabus' death, he headed a landscape class at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he taught until 1882. In 1862, he visited a number of European countries and attended the World Art Exhibition in London. In 1869, together with Vasily Pukirev, he published a drawing textbook, The Drawing Course, which included detailed images of huts and villages, essential elements for studying the Russian landscape.
In 1870, he became one of the founders of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. In the 1870s, he worked extensively on the Volga River, in Yaroslavl, near Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, and Yurievets.
By the end of the 1870s, there was a decline in the artist's work, and dark motifs appeared. His health deteriorated, and his family broke up. After the death of his close friend Vasily Perov in 1882, Savrasov was dismissed from college, lost his official apartment, and found himself in a difficult financial situation. In recent years, he continued to write, but often sold his work for a song to dealers.
He died in 1897 in Moscow in a hospital for the poor, and was buried at the Vagankovo cemetery.
Creation
Savrasov overcame the limitations of the late Romantic trend in landscape painting, which prevailed in the early 1850s. He developed the legacy of A. G. Venetsianov, who portrayed Russian rural nature in all its simplicity and modesty, and used the realistic and romantic aspirations of M. I. Lebedev. The artist managed to establish a direct connection between human feelings and experiences with the natural world, which became the basis of the emotional content of his works.
Savrasov wrote ordinary views for the middle part of Russia, filling them with subtle lyrics. His landscapes are an image of nature without the pomposity typical of academic painting, but in an everyday way: with puddles, pathetic bushes and a gray heavy sky.
Among the famous works are:
"The Rooks have Arrived" (1871, Tretyakov Gallery) is the artist's most famous painting. It depicts birch trees on a small hill, the ground is still covered with snow, but the thawed and dark shade indicate a rapid melting. Rooks are circling in the sky, and in the background you can see village houses and an ancient church with a tent-roofed bell tower.
"The Pechersk Monastery near Nizhny Novgorod" (1871, NGHM). From the top of the hill you can see the wooden houses of a small Volga city, the sandy riverbank and monastic buildings in the distance.
"The flood of the Volga near Yaroslavl" (1871, Russian Museum of Fine Arts).
"The Lane" (1873, Tretyakov Gallery).
"Rainbow" (1875, Russian Academy of Fine Arts).
Teaching activities
Savrasov raised a whole generation of outstanding artists. Among his students are Isaac Levitan, Konstantin Korovin, Mikhail Nesterov, Lev Kamenev. He sought not to give students abstract knowledge, but to involve them in the creative process of learning about nature and translating life observations into artistic images.
Savrasov taught young artists not only to see nature, but also to feel its vital manifestations. He focused on the "little things" in the life of nature, which are not always noticed by people far from it. He took the students to Sokolniki so that they could watch the spring, the growth of herbs, the flowering of trees.
His workshop, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, was "the freest of the whole school."
Later years and legacy
By the end of his life, Savrasov's health deteriorated and he developed vision problems. He continued to paint, but often sold them for next to nothing to dealers. Today Alexey Kondratievich Savrasov is included in the rating of the top 100 most expensive Russian artists. At world auctions, the prices of his paintings have twice exceeded the million dollar mark.