Years of life in a few years. The belated love of the “knight of beauty” Vasily Polenov: Unknown pages of the personal life of the Russian genius. Half-timbered barn - exhibition hall

Vasily Polenov is one of the main Russian landscape painters of the 19th century. The artist was remembered by society as a sensitive naturalist and a zealous follower of Christianity. His painting “Christ and the Sinner,” which was not accepted by society, became part of the emperor’s personal collection, and his painting “Moscow Courtyard” served as the founder of the “intimate landscape” genre.

Childhood and youth

Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov was born on May 20 (June 1, new style) 1844 in St. Petersburg. The boy and his twin sister Vera became the firstborns of the famous archaeologist Dmitry Vasilyevich and artist, children's writer Maria Alekseevna Voeikova. The family raised three more children: Konstantin (b. 1848), Alexey (b. 1849), Elena (b. 1850). Brother Alexander died in infancy.

Maria Alekseevna, who studied painting under the guidance, loved to draw portraits. Thanks to this, contemporaries know what Vasily Polenov looked like as a child.

The children were raised in a creative family. Grandmother Vera Nikolaevna Voeykova knew Russian history very well and loved folk poetry and fairy tales. Her grandchildren often came to her estate in the Tambov region. In their home, competitions awaited them in the art of drawing, composing, etc. For the best works, the grandmother gave homemade medals.

Parents also supported the creative impulses of their children and hired eminent teachers from the Academy of Arts, for example, Pavel Chistyakov. Subsequently, Vasily Dmitrievich succeeded in the landscape genre, and his sister Elena became one of the first female illustrators of children's books.

Polenov early felt a craving for canvas and was going to enter the Academy of Arts, but his parents insisted on receiving a “serious” education. In 1861-1863, the young man received general knowledge at the Olonets provincial male gymnasium in Petrozavodsk, then, together with his brother Alexei, mastered the exact sciences at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg Imperial University.

In his free time from classes, Polenov attended courses at the Academy of Arts, studying not only painting, but also anatomy, descriptive geometry, and biology. Here the future artist also revealed his musical talent: he sang in the choir, composed compositions on the piano, and was a regular at the opera. Much later, in 1906, the premiere of Polenov’s opera “Ghosts of Hellas” took place at the Moscow Conservatory.

Having completed his student course in 1867 with silver medals for his paintings, Polenov did not leave his alma mater, but entered the Faculty of Law. After 5 years, he successfully defended his dissertation on the topic “On the meaning of art in its application to crafts.”

Painting

In 1867, Polenov captured his beloved grandmother Vera Nikolaevna on canvas, and this portrait became the author’s debut work.

Interesting fact: a number of sources indicate that in 1869 the artist received a small gold medal for the painting “Job and His Friends.” In fact, the work belongs to Polenov’s classmate, a famous painter. Vasily Dmitrievich received his first creative award - a large gold medal - in 1871 for the canvas “Christ Raises the Daughter of Jairus.”

For their demonstrated talent, Polenov and Repin were sent for an internship in Europe. Despite his conscious age - 27 years old, Vasily Dmitrievich could not decide which genre to devote himself to. For inspiration, he went to museums, turning to the masters of the pen: Karl Piloty, Gabriel Max, Arnold Böcklin, Hans Makart.

During the 6-year internship, the landscapes “White Horse” were born. Normandy" (1874), "Italian landscape with a peasant" (1874), "Abbey in Redon" (1876), portrait "Arrest of the Huguenot Jacobine de Montebel, Countess d'Etremont" (1875), which in 1876 secured Polenov the title of academician arts

Having visited Vienna, Munich, the oldest cities of Italy and France, in 1876 the artist returned to Russia with a clear vision of his future creative path.

“I tried and tried all kinds of painting: historical, landscape, marina, portrait of a head, images of animals, nature morte, etc. and came to the conclusion that my talent is closest to the landscape, everyday genre, which is what I will do,” - Polenov wrote in his diary.

Vasily Dmitrievich did not have time to engage in creativity immediately upon arrival - the Russian-Turkish War began. However, the sovereigns, having heard a lot about the graduate of the Academy of Arts, invited Polenov to take the place of the official artist under Alexander III.

The master of the pen transferred the horrors of war not to monumental canvases, but to paper - his front-line sketches were published in the magazine “Bee”. Polenov paid more attention to peaceful landscapes. During the years of confrontation between the Russian and Ottoman empires, “Granny’s Garden” and “Moscow Courtyard” (1878) were created, and immediately after the war, “Overgrown Pond” (1879).

The painting “Moscow Courtyard” is considered one of the most famous in Polenov’s work. She captured the life of the townspeople at the height of a summer day: a woman drags a yoke, children play in the grass, and a harnessed horse grazes nearby. In the background - blocked by houses, but the mighty Savior on the Sands. Polenov’s colleagues in the craft classified the canvas as a distinctive genre - “intimate landscape”.

In the early 1880s, oriental landscapes and biblical motifs appeared in the work of Vasily Dmitrievich. During that period of his biography, the artist toured the cradles of Christianity: Constantinople, Palestine, Syria. On the road, the paintings “Bethlehem”, “Olive in the Garden of Gethsemane”, “The Source of the Virgin Mary in Nazareth” (1882) were born.

At the same time, Polenov began to paint the epoch-making canvas “Christ and the Sinner”. The idea for the painting “Christ and the Sinner” (another title is “Who is Without Sin?”) appeared to Polenov under the impression of the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People” by Alexander Ivanov. I wanted to show the artist who not only appears, but exists among the laity.

Work on the work took a long time, and if it weren’t for Vasily Dmitrievich’s twin sister, it would hardly have been completed - while dying, Vera made her brother promise that he would finish the painting and make it in a large format. The first sketches of the life story of Christ appeared in the 1870s, and the final work - in 1888.

“Christ and the Sinner” was received with doubt; censors even refused to allow the painting to be exhibited. Alexander III purchased the painting for his own collection, and the emperor’s disposition towards the artist immediately changed the opinion of society.

With the proceeds, Polenov bought a plot in the Tula province, on the banks of the Oka River. Later the Borok estate was built here. The view from the windows of the estate formed the basis for the paintings “Golden Autumn”, “It’s Getting Cold. Autumn on the Oka near Tarusa", "Chapel on the banks of the Oka" (1893).

In the 1900s, the artist collected material for the first and only series of paintings, “From the Life of Christ.” The exhibition, held in 1909, was a resounding success and forever placed Polenov’s name on the list of the best painters of our time.

The final painting by Vasily Dmitrievich “Oka. The steamship “Vladimir”, converted into a tugboat, dates back to 1920.

Personal life

In Vasily Polenov’s personal life there was only one woman - Natalya Vasilievna Yakunchikova, the daughter of a Moscow merchant. She became the artist's wife in 1882.

The marriage produced 6 children. The first-born Fedor, born in 1884, did not live even two years. Then Dmitry (b. 1886), Ekaterina (b. 1887), Maria (b. 1891), Olga (b. 1894) and Natalya (b. 1898) were born.

Death

Death overtook Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov at the 83rd year of his life, on July 18, 1927, in the Borok estate. He was buried in a rural cemetery on the banks of the Oka River. According to the last will of the deceased, an Olonets cross was installed on the grave.

After his death, Polenov’s legacy continued to live on. Now the State Memorial Historical, Artistic and Natural Museum-Reserve of V. D. Polenov is located in the Borok estate. The directors of the institution at all times were the artist’s relatives.

Paintings

• 1867 – “Portrait of Vera Nikolaevna Voyekova”
• 1873 – “Birches and Ferns”
• 1874 – “White Horse. Normandy"
• 1874 – “Mill in Woehl. Normandy"
• 1875 – “Arrest of the Huguenot Jacobine de Montebel, Countess d'Etremont”
• 1877 – “Moscow courtyard”
• 1878 – “Grandma’s Garden”
• 1879 – “Overgrown Pond”
• 1882 – “Bethlehem”
• 1888 – “Christ and the Sinner”
• 1891 – “Early Snow”
• 1896-1909 – “Filled with wisdom”
• 1908 – “Which of you is without sin?”

The famous landscape painter, Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov, reflects his inner world in his works. He is an unsurpassed landscape painter. In his canvases, the nature of our amazing region - central Russia - is depicted in such a way that it seems that it continues to live there and delight his admirers. All admirers of Polenov’s talent know the love for his family’s village estate, dear to his heart, which he founded in central Russia, in the Tula region. There, around the house, Vasily Polenov laid out and founded a stunning park, located on the picturesque banks of the Oka River, which has come down to us completely unchanged.

Friends and associates nicknamed him the Great Knight of Beauty or the Poet of Painting - for his unsurpassed understanding and transmission of the natural beauties of the Central Russian strip. Of all the four seasons of the year, V.D. Polenov loved autumn very much. Only in autumn do colors play in central Russia.

He said that the riot of colors and shades in nature just begs to be put on canvas. In winter, white predominates, and in spring and summer - all imaginable and inconceivable shades of green. And only every autumn the artist is reborn. Every year during his life, V.D. Polenov with his children or alone from the first to the tenth of October, abandoned all his affairs and went on hikes along the banks of his beloved Oka River to paint his stunning landscapes, watch and admire the Golden Autumn, when Beauty and Inspiration reign supreme. After all, it is during this period of the year that the peak of autumn harmony in multicolor occurs. Here he found for himself a holistic generalization of the image of Russian nature. Here he painted his most famous landscape works.

The canvases that made him famous throughout the world are “Early Snow,” painted by him in 1891, and painted in 1893. canvases “Summer on the Oka”, “Autumn on the Oka near Tarusa”, “Golden Autumn”. The famous paintings “It’s getting cold” of 1892 and “Spill on the Oka” of 1918. It is in these works that you can see and feel how boundlessly V.D. Polenov loved his small homeland. In these works one can see the soul of the Master, which he so diligently, sensitively and joyfully spent on his landscapes, which, like nowhere else, convey the state and grandeur of nature.

The works of Vasily Polenov, for all their simplicity of perception, are multifaceted, complex, and sometimes even very contradictory. Like the artist himself, with his talent multifaceted, complex, and sometimes, just like his paintings, contradictory.

In addition to his constant painting, Polenov was engaged, and it should be noted quite successfully, in architecture, music, theater and applied art, where he also reached great heights. He is one of those rare people who are gifted with a rare quality - versatile talents.

Polenov had a talent passed on to him from his parents at birth; this is an extraordinary gift, both as an architect and as a musician: performer and composer. He played excellent keyboard instruments, violin and accordion. He tried himself on stage as an artist and director. He was a well-known talented theater teacher and art teacher of his time. He had an integral civic position, which he promoted and defended everywhere. He was quite famous and an active fighter for fair treatment of the lower strata of society in his time. It was he who was the first of the Russian painters to become interested in such areas of art that had not previously attracted the attention of famous master painters. This includes book illustration, stage design, and applied art. He believed that art is happiness and the joy of being, otherwise it cannot be worth anything in life. He was convinced that the manifestation of art in all its forms can transform the world according to the law of beauty.

Polenov himself believed that he could not live without art. He loved all types of art. Architectural studies brought income and pleasure. And practicing poetry and sculpture is pleasure and joy. And without painting and music he simply would not exist in life. And this is understandable, because in Polenov, in his desire to embrace different areas of art, a new type of artist was born, who is subject to any direction of art. This phenomenon is V.D. Polenov, the first universal artist in Russia.

Ilya Repin. Portrait of the artist V.D. Polenova, 1877, oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm. State Tretyakov Gallery.

The State Tretyakov Gallery continues its series of blockbusters. After Repin, in the fall of 2019, queues will line up for Vasily Polenov (1844–1927), a commemorative exhibition dedicated to the 175th anniversary of the artist’s birth. For the first time, Polenov’s largest work, “Christ and the Sinner,” from the collection of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, will be in Moscow.

150 works from 14 public and private collections (landscapes, portraits, set designs) will decorate the halls of the New Tretyakov Gallery. Art “should give happiness and joy, otherwise it is worth nothing,” because “life is hard, there is a lot of vulgarity and dirt,” said Vasily Polenov, who was called the “knight of beauty” for his personal and professional qualities.

Vasily Polenov. Portrait of the artist Ilya Repin, 1879.

Petersburger Vasily Polenov was born into a large noble family of a historian, secretary of the Russian Archaeological Society. The artist’s mother took lessons from Karl Bryullov, and Vasily studied painting from Pavel Chistyakov from the age of 14. “He’s a colorist, he composes tones in a way that I couldn’t compose,” noted Chistyakov. After graduating from the Academy of Arts with a gold medal, Polenov simultaneously studied mathematics and received a law degree, defending a dissertation on the topic “On the meaning of art in its application to crafts.” Together with the same excellent student, fellow student at the Academy Ilya Repin, the young painter received the right to a six-year foreign internship, which was fully paid for by the treasury.

Vasily Polenov. Portrait of N.V. Yakunchikova (Polenova) behind a sketch, 1882.

From Naples to Normandy At 27 years old, Polenov had not yet decided what to draw. During his overseas internship, he often visited museums. In Germany, Polenov studied the art of Piloty, Max, Arnold Böcklin, and Hans Makart. Afterwards he went to Naples, Venice and Florence. In Paris, he became acquainted with the Barbizons and the landscapes of Camille Caro. Following Repin, he went to Normandy, where he painted many landscapes: “White Horse”, “Normandy”, “Old Gate. Veul”... His Parisian works were especially liked in his homeland. For the paintings “The Right of the Master”, “The Arrest of the Huguenot Woman” and 50 Parisian sketches, Vasily Polenov very soon, at 32, received the title of academician.

Landscape painter and master of genre painting The artist returned to Russia ahead of schedule, two years before the official end of the internship. “It has brought me benefits in many ways, the main thing is that everything that I have done so far is wrong; I need to give up all this and start again - great. Here I tried and tried all kinds of painting: historical, genre, landscape, marina, portrait of a head, images of animals, nature morte, etc. and came to the conclusion that my talent is closest to the landscape, everyday genre, which is what I will do "

Volunteer Academician Immediately upon returning to Russia, Vasily Polenov volunteered for the Serbian-Turkish front. His illustrations from the battlefield were generously published by the Bee magazine. But he sent everyday, not battle sketches. “I still feel some kind of shortcoming in myself, I can’t get what is in reality, it’s so terrible and so simple.”

Wanderer In 1877, Vasily Polenov moved to Moscow. The sketch he created at the Church of the Savior on the Sands from the window of his apartment on the corner of Durnovsky and Trubnikovsky lanes formed the basis for the painting “Moscow Courtyard,” which debuted at the exhibition of the Partnership of the Wanderers (TPV) in 1878, along with the works “Grandmother’s Garden” and "Overgrown Pond" Critics immediately fell in love with the Moscow courtyard with the summer sun, a rickety fence, playing children, a woman and a horse. So Polenov became a lyrical artist, the founder of “intimate painting”. Polenov’s relationship with TPV was not the easiest. He was against naturalistic depictions of the “suffering of the Russian people.” “What is this for? Isn’t this philistinism enough, these philistines wandering through the backyards to their miserable lairs? Where do they pull the viewer? What saturates his heart and thoughts? We are quite stuck in our Russian swamp, we are swarming in our musty kennels and are afraid of the sun and fresh air.”

Christ and the Sinner The idea for the future epoch-making 325 × 611 cm canvas “Christ and the Sinner” was influenced by the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People” by Alexander Ivanov and the book “The Life of Jesus” by the French humanist philosopher Ernest Renan. The implementation of the plan, which began in 1868, lasted for twenty years and required a lot of effort and many trips abroad.

Vasily Polenov. Study of the figure of Christ for the painting “Christ and the Sinner,” 1888. Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts

Russian painter Vasily Polenov added the Middle East to his list of trips abroad: Constantinople, Alexandria, Cairo, Aswan, Palestine and Syria. Later, again for the sake of the painting and collecting material for it, teacher Polenov took a year’s leave from the school and went to Rome, Vienna, Venice and Florence.

In the summer of 1885, the artist finally created a full-length sketch of the painting, and its final version a year later, in the office of Savva Mamontov on Sadovaya-Spasskaya Street in Moscow. In addition to Savva’s family and close friend, Polenov consulted with his student, artist Konstantin Korovin, and physiologist Pyotr Spiro. The main premiere for the general public of the canvas “Christ and the Sinner (Who is Without Sin?)” was supposed to take place on February 25, 1887 at the 15th TPV exhibition.

Vasily Polenov. “Sketch for the painting Christ and the Sinner (Who is without sin?).” 1888

A few days before the opening, it was shown to the censor, who did not give permission for the film to participate and reported this to management. As a result, “Who is without sin?” first saw the St. Petersburg mayor Pyotr Gresser, Chief Prosecutor Konstantin Pobedonostsev and the President of the Academy of Arts, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. The fate of the work was decided by the emperor. Alexander III bought the canvas for 30,00 rubles, beating the price from his “competitor” - Moscow collector Pavel Tretyakov. Using the royal fee (translated into today's money - about 23 million rubles), Polenov, dreaming of “a house on the banks of the Oka River... where there will be a museum, gallery and library,” bought a plot of land and built a family estate according to his design.

Polenov in his workshop in the Borok estate (now Polenovo), 1908.

Which one of you is without sin?“I called the painting “Which of you is without sin,” Polenov wrote much later. This was its meaning... In the museum they later called her “The Prodigal Wife”...” The plot of the picture is connected with the story of Christ and the sinner: a woman caught in adultery was brought to Christ. According to the laws of Moses, she was to be stoned. As a result, Christ found himself in a dilemma - either to break the laws of Moses, or to act in contradiction with his preaching. According to Mikhail Chekhov, Polenov painted the face of Christ from the artist Isaac Levitan. “In general, Polenov remained the graceful, elegant painter that we have known him for a long time, from the very beginning of his career in 1871,” commented critic Stasov.

Dmitrievich Polenov, especially in that part where the artist is the creator of a lyrical, “intimate” landscape, had a strong influence on the entire subsequent development of Russian art.

Such great masters of painting as I. Levitan, K. Korovin, I. Ostroukhov, A. Golovin, S. Ivanov, A. Arkhipov, and many other Russian artists studied with Polenov.

V. D. Polenov was born on June 1, 1844. In 1863, after graduating from high school, Polenov entered the Academy of Arts, first as a free student, and then, in 1866, he was enrolled as a student in the workshop of one of the best academic professors, Chistyakov. While studying at the academy, Polenov simultaneously studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. In 1871 he graduated from the university, and in 1872 from the academy, receiving the highest awards and a foreign business trip for the paintings “Job and His Friends” and “The Resurrection of Jairus’s Daughter.” Abroad, he visited Munich, Venice, Florence, Naples, Rome and Paris.

IN In Paris, where Polenov came from Italy, he lived until 1876. Other pensioners lived there at the same time as him.
Academy of Arts: I. Repin, K. Savitsky, P. Kovalevsky, who together made up a friendly family. Here, under the influence of Munich historical painters and partly such French artists as Delaroche and Regnault, Polenov painted his first paintings on historical subjects taken from European history.

These were the paintings “The Right of the Master” (1874) and “The Arrest of the Huguenot” (1875); for the latter he received the title of academician. Both of these works were written in the spirit of contemporary examples of historical writing. Under the elegant scenery and theatrical props, one does not feel either genuine drama or genuine insight into the historical spirit of the depicted era. These works are still so academic that without any reservations they were approved and accepted by the then academy.

But at the same time, Polenov’s desire for color, brightness and purity of tones awakened. Of the artists, the Spaniard Fortuny especially strongly influenced Polenov. In a letter to I. N. Kramskoy, Polenov writes: “But I was personally captured and absorbed by one artist [Fortuny], whose works constitute, in my understanding, the highest point in the development of our art; he, it seems to me, is the last word of artistry in painting at the present time... He connects with the strictest, but not conventionally dead academic, but life drawing, with an elusively subtle real, albeit personal sense of color (his paintings, if I may say so to put it, silver-pearl) the most truthful comparison of objects, as it only happens in living reality, and therefore amazingly new and original...”

The influence of Fortuny can undoubtedly be traced in Polenov’s coloring, but our artist was not exclusively looking at it at that time. From his Norman sketches, for example “Fishing Boat at Etretat” (1874), from the coloring of the sketch “The Prodigal Son” (1874), one can definitely judge his acquaintance with the Impressionists, although in his statements there is no mention of either them or Barbizonians, whom he also met. Polenov's Norman sketches speak of his fascination with landscapes, his desire to saturate them with color, and his coloristic search for a silvery-pearl tone.

With such dual baggage - a realistic, picturesque sense of nature and historical paintings full of theatricality - Polenov returns to Russia.

Returning to Russia in 1876, Polenov thought here too of continuing to work on historical paintings, but at this time his attitude towards the tasks of art changed greatly. In a letter to Kramskoy, he writes: “I started working in the village, photographed [as Polenov calls work from life] a peasant and something else; Repin approved, said that another person wrote that Parisian things, in comparison with these photographs, were painted without life.” Judging by this letter, we can conclude that the artist has awakened an interest in the life around him, and therefore a move away from theatrical historicism, an interest in national motifs and, finally, a realistic approach to reality.

At this time, Polenov was conceiving a series of paintings from Russian history. He moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow and, setting the task of a realistic interpretation of the historical plot, wrote a series of brilliantly colored studies of the Kremlin towers. But that's where the work stops. The Serbian-Turkish war began, and then the Russian-Turkish one, and Polenov went to the front as an artist. Only after returning from the front, in 1879, did the artist join the Association of Traveling Exhibitions, with the main members of which - Repin, Kramskoy, Savitsky - he had been on very close terms long before that. Polenov, in essence, never belonged to the main core of the “Itinerants”. He slowly, with the greatest caution, approached the question of becoming a member of the partnership. At the same time, he was not very willing to break with the academy. In one of his letters to Kramskoy, he writes: “There is no need to completely break up with her - there will be little benefit from this, and you will harm yourself; The situation, as you can see, is not very pleasant. Of course, it would be possible to go ahead, but I feel like I don’t have enough strength for that; What should I do? I’m weak, I admit it myself.” Polenov definitely felt that further academic influences would be felt in his work, that his academic “Christ and the Sinner” should appear.

But the power and significance of Polenov’s creativity lies not in this picture or in others from the cycle dedicated to Christian legends. Yes, at the traveling exhibition of 1879 he was presented with the paintings “Grandma’s Garden”, “Moscow Courtyard” and “Summer”, which constituted an entire era in the development of Russian landscape and marked a turn in his own artistic activity. With these paintings Polenov created a new type of landscape - a landscape of intimate and lyrical. In these landscapes of his, the artist breaks with convention, he goes out into the sun, the shadows acquire a richness of shades and softness of relationships, the air permeates the space of the picture. These Polenov landscapes, of course, are still far from the picturesque understanding of plein air by the impressionists, but at that time they were so new that they were a revelation for many artists.

Light relations generally fascinated Polenov. This is evidenced by the painting “The Sick Woman”, created in 1886, where the task of conveying the early, still very blue morning light with artificial lighting - the yellow light of a lamp under a green lampshade - is successfully resolved.

In the early 80s, Polenov conceived a series of paintings based on biblical and gospel legends. Just as he began by studying the setting for unrealized paintings from Russian history, so now he began by studying the nature and environment in which the action took place. To accomplish this task, from November 1881 to April 1882, Polenov traveled around the East (Palestine, Syria), Greece and Egypt and brought from there many sketches of a landscape and ethnographic nature. These sketches made a stunning impression on the artistic community of that time. Never before had there been such an invasion of sun and air, the play of light in illuminated colorful shadows, such subtlety of relationships, the richness of countless shades of different tones. The sketches solved the problem of aerial perspective, that is, conveying the impression of greater or lesser distance of objects using these shades.

In Polenov’s oriental sketches one can feel the artist’s further movement on the path to mastering the plein air, to enriching painting with shades of color. And it is quite clear that only under the leadership of Polenov could a brilliant artist, the first Russian impressionist K. A. Korovin, develop.

The result of the trip to the East was the large painting “Christ and the Sinner” (1887). Despite its realism, expressed in the study of types and terrain, in the composition of the picture, which strives to convey the verisimilitude of the entire scene, it still retains many connections with the traditional academic style. What is new in it in comparison with academic paintings is the landscape. Polenov’s landscape is not only an additional background against which the scene is played out; the landscape plays an independent role here. If in “The Sinner” this is not yet so clear, although here too we see a group of cypress trees and hills stretching into the distance on the right, then in other paintings from the cycle of biblical legends the landscape plays an even more significant role, and often prevails over the main action of the picture - a psychological drama fades into the background. In this cycle of paintings, Polenov aims to show man among nature, his merging with it.

Upon completion of the cycle of biblical paintings in 1909, Polenov finally turned to landscape. From his repeated trips abroad (1887-1896) and to the Crimea, he brought back many sketches in which he pursued the same objectives. His Oka landscapes, painted on his estate Bekhovo on the Oka, near Tarusa, where he created a museum after the revolution and where he died, deserve great attention.

If Polenov’s role as an innovator who enriched Russian painting with new light and color relationships is significant, then his social services as a promoter of theatrical art among the working masses long before the revolution are no less significant.

Polenov’s original love for the colorful elements of painting attracted the artist to the theater in his youth. His activity as a theater decorator began in Abramtsevo, in a circle of young artists (Repin, the Vasnetsov brothers, Serov, K. Korovin, Nesterov, Vrubel, etc.), (grouped around the family of the philanthropist S., I. Mamontov. In Abramtsevo, Polenov painted a number of landscapes and theatrical scenery for both the Abramtsevo theater and the Mamontov theater in Moscow. Subsequently, Mamontov’s large opera enterprise grew out of this theater, which had well-deserved fame in those years. Polenov was invited as a decorator to the Mamoitov opera and contributed a lot of new and interesting things.
according to plans and colors in the field of theatrical and decorative creativity. |

His love for the theater led him to the promotion of theatrical art among the broad working masses of old Russia. In 1912, a folk theater section was organized under the Union of Stage Workers. After the collapse of the union, as a democratic organization, the folk theater section found shelter in the Russian Technical Society, from where it moved to the Moscow Society of People's Universities. By this time, V.D. Polenov was elected its chairman, who retained this post until 1920, the time of his illness and final relocation to Bekhovo. Using his own funds, Polenov built a house in which the section was to work. Subsequently (1927-1928) another, much broader organization grew from here - the Central House of Folk Art named after. Krupskaya.

For his artistic and social services, Polenov was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Republic in 1926.

As we have already said, the significance of Polenov as the creator of the lyrical landscape, as the predecessor and teacher of Levitan, K. Korovin and many other Russian artists is enormous. In all his works, be it a pure landscape or a genre based on the theme of a biblical legend, one main character always comes to the fore - the sun, sunlight with all its infinitely diverse shades. Polenov’s paintings are imbued with cheerfulness and cheerfulness, they invite us to admire nature and the world, showing us examples of fresh realism, and therefore their significance is great.

The future talented master of landscape, genre and historical painting was born in 1844 into a large and enlightened noble family. It was Vasily’s environment in his childhood that had a huge influence on him, making him receptive to various manifestations of life and giving him the opportunity to reflect his feelings on canvas.

The artist’s amazing talent was formed under the influence of his grandmother, who raised her children, instilling in them a love of art and Russian nature. She encouraged her grandchildren's artistic abilities and their love of drawing. As a child, Vasily was greatly influenced by the northern Olonets region with its rich nature, practically untouched by human influence.

After high school, the future artist went to study at the university's physics and mathematics department, but he did not forget his love for painting. After classes, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, attending a wide variety of classes and classes in various disciplines in this field. Vasily was a versatile and richly gifted person. In addition to drawing, he was interested in opera, sang well and wrote musical creations.

To obtain an art education, the master had to interrupt his studies at the university and graduate from the Academy (with a silver medal). At this time, he was already successfully exhibiting and receiving recognition and awards in the form of gold medals for his outstanding works. But all this did not turn the young man’s head, and he successfully completed his university studies at the Faculty of Law. With the help of an academic scholarship, the artist travels abroad, visiting countries that have now become . He lived a lot of time in, in, where he created the famous painting “The Arrest of the Countess d'Etremont,” which brought him the title of academician.

The artist's life was stormy and very interesting. In 1874, he lived and worked in French Normandy, where he painted numerous landscapes reflecting the beauty of the local nature. Two years later he returns to Russia, and when the Russian-Turkish war begins, he becomes an official artist at the headquarters of the future Emperor Alexander III.

The next years of the artist’s life are closely connected with teaching and working with theatrical scenery. Teaching at the famous School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture is associated with the names of future famous artists such as Korovin and many others.

At the exhibition of the Itinerant artists in 1877, Polenov’s painting “Moscow Courtyard” became famous and very popular, and the master himself acquired the status of the founder of a new genre called “intimate landscape”.

Having become a member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, the artist is interested in landscape painting and travels a lot to places associated with ancient history and the birth of Christianity. His love for nature and large open spaces leads him to purchase an estate above the Oka River, which is now well known to everyone as Polenovo. There the master arranged everything to his liking, building a house and art workshops according to his design. On his estate, he worked a lot and productively on canvases, and also educated rural children, including teaching them painting.

In subsequent years, the artist repeatedly travels abroad to obtain the necessary information and artistic material for his paintings. He spent many years creating a series of paintings on gospel themes and visited Italy and Germany.

During the First World War, his paintings participated in charity exhibitions held to raise funds for the wounded and those affected by the war. After the revolution, the artist lived on his estate and continued to work on works of art, reflecting in them the beauty and boundless power of Russian nature.

The master lived a long, fruitful and eventful creative life. He died at the age of 83 and was buried in Polenovo, his favorite place where he often painted from life. The artist left behind many paintings and his house, which became a museum.