Biography of the artist Vrubel briefly
Mikhail Vrubel. Creating portraits, miniatures and other works, he invariably returned to the topic of demons. In the fate of the artist Modern Mikhail Vrubel, tragedy and mysticism were no less than in his demonic paintings. Evil rock pursued the Creator everywhere: he knew unhappy love, suffered the death of his only son, became a hostage to his own insanity of reason and eventually remained blind.
Today, genius canvases are part of the Golden Fund of the Tretyakov Gallery and other museums around the world. Childhood and youth hometown of Vrubel - Omsk. After the birth of a fourth child, the mother of the future artist died, and two years later the father re -married Elizabeth Wessel. The second wife was a talented pianist and a good soul woman. Thanks to her, Michael, who remained at the age of three, was surrounded by care and affection.
Elizaveta Christianovna instilled in the boy a love of music and other types of art, which predetermined his creative biography. Vrubel Sr. worked as a military lawyer, and in connection with his frequent business trips, the family had to periodically change their place of residence. The move to Saratov took place in the year: there Alexander Mikhailovich headed the Volga provincial garrison.
Once, a copy of the “Last Judgment” of the great Italian Michelangelo was brought to the city gallery. Young Vrubbel was so impressed by the canvas that he decided to reproduce it. To the amazement of his parents, he did it with amazing accuracy. The portrait of Mikhail Vrubel in childhood undoubtedly, the talent of his son pleased the father. However, this did not affect his plans for the future offspring: from childhood, Alexander Mikhailovich forgave Mikhail a brilliant career of a lawyer.
Such a prospect did not please the young man himself, but he did not dare to argue with his parent and entered the University of St. Petersburg in the legal branch in the year. Young Vrubel literally fell in love with St. Petersburg, where each building seemed to him the subject of art, a monument of history. During his studies, he lived with relatives, whose house was in the neighborhood with an apartment, where the great Pushkin once lived.
Free life away from the strict father came to Mikhail to the taste: he could walk with his friends, discussing the topics of music and painting. During this period, his acquaintance with Moddest Mussorgsky took place, which had a very noticeable influence on the formation of his views and beliefs. Watching the expressive game of Modest on the piano, the young man thought about the images of Faust and Mephistopheles, which will subsequently come to life on one of his paintings.
More and more insistently, Vrubel was knocking on the idea that he was wasting his best year, mastering the discipline deeply indifferent to him. The connoisseur of painting did not seduce the career of a lawyer, even if brilliant. He nevertheless graduated from the university, but in parallel, secretly from his parents, he attended fine art courses in the workshop of Pavel Chistyakov.
Having received a lawyer diploma, Mikhail entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Upon learning that his son went against his will, his father was terribly upset. Relations with the trampled family traditions of the offspring were hopelessly spoiled. Once in Chistyakov’s workshop, the young artist revised his conviction that teachers are able to teach only by a manual, instilling students with dry stamps and generally accepted canons.
Thanks to Pavel Petrovich in Vrubel, the faces hidden so far opened, which subsequently influenced the style of the Creator and made him a famous artist. Chistyakov, who raised Repin, Vasnetsov and Surikov, could rightfully be proud of another talented ward. Michael's paintings created in the student years are considered an academic standard and are still carefully stored in the archive of the St.
Petersburg Academy. The first award - a small silver medal - the student - received for the painstakingly completed work "Boiling Mary with Joseph." To illuminate the picture, the author used the effect of Sepia, which allowed to convey the subtlest gradation of light and shadow. The picture radiated a special atmosphere of spirituality of biblical characters.
Later, the “feasting Romans” drawing was also highly appreciated, the heroes of which were young guels, who made fun of the wines of the patrician. Once in the city with many ancient churches, Vrubel plunged into an independent creative life. After a year of work with the assistance of Adrian Prakhov, a hardworking artist went to Venice. The city itself did not impress a young man: instead of walking along his picturesque streets, Michael visited museums and cathedrals, where he studied the work of masters of the Renaissance for hours.
After six months spent in Venice, Vrubel returned to Ukraine. Impressed by the canvases of the great creators, he began work on four icons: “Christ the Savior”, “The Mother of God with the baby”, “St. Cyril” and “Holy Athanasius”. In these paintings, mysticism and Byzantine abstraction were connected with bright, living images of the Renaissance era. An interesting fact: to depict the faces of the saints, the artist used the images of his friends, preserved in his memory.The artist realized that restoration work in the Kirillovsky temple is very important from a spiritual point of view.
However, the framework of clearly set tasks caused him discomfort: the soul of the Creator demanded a splash of creative energy. In the year, Vrubel presented the canvases "Eastern Tale" and "Girl against the background of the Persian carpet." These paintings radiated life itself: in them the creator finally was able to express all his love for the game of color and the exact transmission of each detail.
A year later, Adrian Viktorovich invited Mikhail to take part in the project to create frescoes in the Vladimir Cathedral. The author proposed several options for the painting “Tombstone”, of which four have survived to this day. There is no this plot in the Gospel, and Orthodox icon painting has not yet used it, but in the creations of the Renaissance era it is quite common.
None of the independent works of Vrubel with the image of the demon was accepted. In addition, the bold experiments of a young artist caused a conflict with Prakhov, who in M ceased with Mikhail all cooperation. Working in the capital, Vrubel created portraits of the collector Konstantin Artsybushev and the philanthropist Savva Mamontov, a number of decorative panels. In addition, the artist became the author of the illustrations for Lermontov’s poem “Demon”, painting the paintings “Date of Tamara and Demon”, “The Head of the Prophet”, “Tamara and the Demon”, “Demon at the Gate of the Monastery”.
Mikhail Vrubel also joined this work, which soon made him a painted painter in Europe. Late masterpieces of the Creator entered the treasury of world fine art. The last creation of the author was the unfinished portrait of the master of Perus Valery Bryusov. They may be familiar.