Konstantin Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov Konstantin Pavlovich Kuznetsov Konstantin Vasilyevich artist

Kuznetsov Konstantin Vasilyevich (1886 -1943) - graphic artist. Attended classes at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. In 1913 he made his debut as an illustrator in the New Satyricon magazine. Collaborated in the magazines Apollo and Russian Icon. He placed caricatures of artists in theatrical programs. In the same years he became interested in folk art; made sketches of handicraft toys (ladies, Cossacks, generals, horses), which, with the assistance of L. F. Ovsyannikov, showed at exhibitions of the Independents Association in Paris (1910-1913). In 1913 he lived in Moscow and in the Crimea, then moved to Pyatigorsk. Served at the telegraph station. He became close to the artist P. A. Alyakrinsky. After the October Revolution, he headed the department of glass printing at the Windows of KavROST. In 1922 he moved to Moscow. In 1923 he participated in a polar expedition to the coast of the Arctic Ocean and Novaya Zemlya. In the first half of the 1930s, he headed the children's art circle in the Children's Book Propaganda Department of the Museum of Public Education of the RSFSR. He was engaged in easel, book, magazine graphics. He worked in the techniques of xylography, glass printing, lithography, linocut, monotype; developed a method of engraving with a drypoint on cardboard with a touch of watercolor or pastel. As an illustrator, he collaborated in the magazines Krasnaya Niva, Funny Pictures, and Murzilka. Designed books for the publishing houses "GIZ", "Detgiz", "Young Guard", "Peasant Newspaper", "Pravda", "Soviet Writer" and others. Completed illustrations for many books by Ya. P. Meksin: “Mosquito-mosquito” (1924), “Cat-voorot” (1925), “Construction”, “How Daddy Wore Tanya” (both - 1926), “Gray Duck” ( 1927), "Trouble", "Who dared, then ate", "Kartaus" (all - 1928), "Hold on, keep up" (1929), "Homemade", "Potatoes", "Zinkin's pictures" (all - 1930); A. L. Barto: Pioneers (1926), Toys, Stars in the Forest (both - 1936), Two Notebooks (1941), Flashlight (1944). ~ Designed books: Mokhnach V. Bianchi (1927), Leo Tolstoy's "Philippok" (1929), A. I. Vvedensky's "Volodya Ermakov" (1935), G.-Kh. Andersen (1936), "Taman" by M. Yu. Lermontov (1937), "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel" (1937), "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (1939), "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1943) by A. S. Pushkin , "The Scarlet Flower" by S. T. Aksakov (1938), "The Tale of the Stupid Mouse" by S. Ya. Marshak (1938), "Sasha" by N. A. Nekrasov (1938), "Stories" (1938), "Lisichkin bread" (1941) by M. M. Prishvin, "The Fate of the Drummer" by A. P. Gaidar (1938, 1939), "Summer Days" (1937), "Old House Residents" (1941) by G. K. Paustovsky, "Malachite box" P. P. Bazhova (1944) and others. In total, he designed more than 200 books; many of them underwent numerous reprints both during the life of the artist and after his death. ~ Author of a series of easel lithographs "Dolls", "Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf", "Ivan the Cow's Son", "On Rejuvenating Apples and Living Water" , "Sivka-burka"; anti-fascist engravings and drawings on the subject of the Spanish Civil War, the cycle of drawings "Ancient Rus'" (1933), the humorous series of drawings "Brem inside out" (1939-1940), "The Adventures of Babai" (1942-1943). He was engaged in the design of the animated films "Aibolit" (1938), "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (1939), "The Beater" (1940). ~ Since 1910 - a participant in exhibitions. Exhibited at exhibitions: the 1st state free exhibition of works of art (1919), “Russian woodcut for 10 years. 1917-1927" (1927) in Petrograd - Leningrad; the United Art group (OBIS, 1925), the Association of Graphic Artists (1926), Soviet Color Printing (1937), the All-Union Exhibition of Children's Literature and Illustrations of Children's Books (1938) in Moscow; the international exhibition "The Art of the Book" in Leipzig (1927); Soviet graphics in Helsinki, Tallinn, Stockholm, Gothenburg (1934), London (1938), New York (1940) and others. Experimental methods of Kuznetsov's work in engraving were devoted to the exhibition "New methods of manual printing in printing industry", which was organized by the art historian A. V. Bakushinsky in the halls of the State Tretyakov Gallery (1933). A memorial exhibition of works was held in Moscow (1949). The monograph by M. Z. Kholodovskaya: "Konstantin Vasilyevich Kuznetsov" (M.-L., 1950; in the series "Masters of Soviet Art") is dedicated to the artist's work. The works are in many museum collections, including the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin.

August 10/22, 1863 (village of Zhelnino, Nizhny Novgorod province) - December 30, 1936 (Paris). Painter, graphic artist, book artist.

The son of the merchant Pavel Ignatievich Kuznetsov, who had trade in Nizhny Novgorod and Astrakhan. He was educated at home, played the piano well, and began painting on his own. Presumably attended the open drawing studio of A. O. Karelin in Nizhny Novgorod and classes in the studio of the Saratov Society of Fine Arts. He was acquainted with V. E. Borisov-Musatov, with whom he corresponded from 1900 to 1905. In the early 1890s he repeatedly visited Moscow.

In 1896 he made a long trip to Europe, visited Paris, London, Rome and Florence. In 1896-1899 he worked intermittently in the workshop of F. Cormon in Paris. In 1900 he married Muscovite Alexandra Samodurova and finally moved with her to Paris. The couple lived in Montmartre, since 1907 - in Montparnasse; in 1913 they visited their homeland for the last time.

For some time Kuznetsov studied at the Academy of Fernand Humbert (Ferdinand Humbert), and his wife - at the Academy of R. Julien (Alexandra Kuznetsova participated several times in the salon of the Independent, but after 1911 she stopped doing art, devoting herself to her family). He was fond of impressionism, especially the work of C. Monet and C. Pizarro, he also experienced great interest in the works of P. S. Puvis de Chavannes and the artists of the Nabis group.

He painted mostly landscapes in a post-impressionist manner. For the summer he went to the provinces - from 1911 to the town of Val André in Brittany (in 1914‒1918 he was there almost without a break), to Normandy (1910, 1924), Savoy (1919). After 1927 he did not leave Paris and painted mainly on the banks of the Seine. In winter, he worked in a Parisian workshop on decorative canvases and family portraits. In 1909, he performed sketches of scenery for an unrealized production of C. Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande (Pelléas and Melisande) for the Opéra Comique.

Exhibited in the Parisian salons: National Society of Fine Arts (1902-1936, member of the salon in 1936), Autumn (1903-1936; member of the salon from 1909), Independents (1905-1932), Spring (1937); and also in Brussels (1902), Munich (1903), London (1904), Pittsburgh (1907–1909, Carnegie Institution). Participated in the MTX Exhibitions in Moscow and St. Petersburg (1903-1909; from 1909 - a member of the Association), in an exhibition of Russian artists in London (Whitechapel, 1921). Several works were acquired by the French State Collection (1902, 1910 and 1924). His work was noted in reviews of art exhibitions by A. N. Benois, Guillaume Apollinaire, French critics Roger Marx and especially Francois Thiebault-Sisson.

In the late 1920s, he became interested in book illustration. His most famous work in this area was the book “Viy” (“Viy”) by N. V. Gogol (translated into French by E. K. Vivier-Kuznetsova), published in 1930 in an edition of 525 numbered copies by the Parisian publishing house “René Kieffer” . His unpublished illustrations for the drama "Mermaid" and "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" by A. S. Pushkin and "Sorochinsky Fair" by N. V. Gogol have also been preserved.

He was buried in the Montparnasse cemetery. In 1937, a posthumous exhibition was held as part of the Salon d'Automne in Paris.

Had four children: Elena, Olga, Alexander and Mikhail. Daughter Elena Vivier-Kuznetsova (1902‒1978) - literary translator, writer, active participant in the Resistance movement during the Second World War, French public figure. In the 1950s, she maintained a workshop for the production of theatrical scenery.

In 1964, E. Vivier-Kuznetsova organized a memorial exhibition on a ship cruising along the Seine. Retrospective exhibitions were held at the Salon d'Automne (1967, 1972), Salon des Indépendants (1968–1970, 1973), K. Granoff Gallery (1965, 1968), City Hall of the IX arrondissement of Paris (1966; organized by the France-USSR Society), Musée Carnavalet (1984), city halls of the 16th arrondissement (1986, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death) and the 6th arrondissement of Paris (1992).

Presented in the museums of France - Orsay, Carnival, modern art in the city of Paris, E. Boudin in Honfleur, art museums in the cities of Quimper, Morlaix, Pont-Aven; as well as in the Municipal Museum of The Hague. The State Tretyakov Gallery has five graphic works (donated in 1964 by the artist's youngest daughter Olga), the State Russian Museum has the painting Place de la Concorde (donated in 2003 by her granddaughter Monique Vivier-Brant, author of a book about the artist). In 2017 in Russia, collector Andrey Shcherbinin established the Konstantin Kuznetsov Foundation, whose activities are aimed at studying and popularizing the artist's heritage.

Bibliography:

* Unknown Russia, 27; RZF; Russian Paris; Seslavinsky.

Belov E. Parisian Salon. Exhibition of the Society of French Artists // Sparks. 1903. No. 17. C. 131–135.

Rostislavov A. Ultra-decadence // Theater and Art. 1905. No. 7. S. 108–109.

Scales. 1908. No. 11. S. 87.

Zamoshkin A. Konstantin Kuznetsov in France // Artist. 1968. No. 3. S. 44–48.

Usova E. Konstantin Kuznetsov. Russian, who is one of us. M., 2018.

Marx R. Le Salon d'Automne // Revue Universelle. 1904. No. 123. Decembre. P. 643–646.

Apollinaire G. Le vingtième Salon de la Nationale // L'intransigeant. 1910. 19 avril. P.2.

Thiébault-Sisson F. Le Salon de la Société Nationale // Le Temps. 1920. 27 April. P. 3.

Thiébault-Sisson F. Les salons de 1921. Société National des Beaux-Arts // Le Temps. 1921. 20 April. P. 3.

Thiébault-Sisson F. Le Salon de la Société Nationale // Le Temps. 1931. May 13. P.4.

Biography

Konstantin Vasilievich Kuznetsov(1886-1943) - painter, engraver and illustrator.

Born into a peasant family. In his youth, he served as a clerk in the forest trades. He was engaged in drawing and engraving on his own, he did not receive an artistic special education. For some time he attended classes at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. He studied in St. Petersburg at the Psychoneurological Institute.

In 1913, his first illustrations were published in the New Satyricon magazine. Collaborated with the magazines Apollo and Russian Icon. Kuznetsov was also fond of folk art, made sketches of handicraft toys. After the revolution, he became the head of the glass printing department at the Windows of KavROST.

In 1923 he took part in a polar expedition to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. In the 1930s, he was in charge of a children's fine art circle in the Children's Book Propaganda Department of the Museum of Public Education of the Russian Federation.

He was engaged in easel, book, magazine graphics. He worked in the techniques of xylography, glass printing, lithography, linocut, monotype; developed a method of engraving with a drypoint on cardboard with a touch of watercolor or pastel. He painted in watercolor, gouache, ink.

Collaborated with the magazines Krasnaya Niva, Funny Pictures, Murzilka; publishing houses "GIZ", "Detgiz", "Young Guard", "Peasant Newspaper", "Pravda", "Soviet Writer", etc. In total, he designed more than 200 books.

“A life-affirming sense of the world, a broad and beneficial appeal to reality, gave the children's book not only solid ground, but also great spirituality. Of course, it did not appear in all books, but we feel a joyful creative excitement in a very wide range of illustration cycles of that time, and it really was wide, covering the most diverse genres, up to a fairy tale. The renewal of the fabulous images of the illustration is the merit of Konstantin Vasilyevich Kuznetsov. It is striking that the exceptional talent of Kuznetsov the storyteller was revealed to everyone, and to some extent to himself, when the artist was already almost 50 years old. If the editor was very successful in guessing the hidden possibilities of young artists, the Moscow editorial staff showed amazing sensitivity to the deep personal aspects of the talent of already established masters. So it was with Rodionov and Rylov, but the example of Kuznetsov is especially interesting. After all, for him, work in a children's book has long been the main profession. His profile, range of works, love for pioneering, geographical, historical subjects were very reminiscent. Among his illustrations are many of the most interesting books of the 20s and 30s: "Pioneers" by A. Barto (1926), "Berko-cantonist" by S. Grigoriev (1929), "Tales of my life" by A. Yakovlev (1927), "The Wandering School" by L. Kassil (1932). He illustrated Paustovsky, and Gaidar, and Prishvin, and an animalistic book, and books for children (“Toys” by Barto, 1936), even made homemade toys; he had such artistic successes as a story about the most powerful, courageous and dexterous pioneer (“Volodya Ermakov” by A. Vvedensky, 1935). But until 1935, he did not illustrate fairy tales. Meanwhile, it would seem that everything was preparing him for this.

Kuznetsov was born into a family of a peasant - a hereditary timber rafter - in a remote Trans-Volga village; In 1935 he illustrated a collection of Russian fairy tales edited by Bulatov, and then a collection of fairy tales collected and edited by A. N. Tolstoy. The writer followed the work of the artist with great interest and, apparently, helped him a lot. The style of Kuznetsov, the illustrator of the fairy tale, took shape almost immediately. He was already an experienced landscape and animal painter, knew well the age-old way of the Russian village, perfectly felt and understood Russian wooden architecture. It cost him nothing to reproduce in his fairy-tale paintings the poetry of a mysterious deaf forest or the harmony of wooden churches and towers merrily piled up next to each other with the surrounding landscape, to convey the habits of a fox or a wolf, to make them living participants in the action of a fairy tale without emphasized "humanization", without dressing in peasant clothes. suits. illustrated folklore for kids, and his interpretation of fairy tales, songs, nursery rhymes, proverbs in the spirit of fine folklore was natural in this case. Most of the fairy tales illustrated by Kuznetsov were designed for children of primary school age or older preschoolers, hence the completely different thematic and figurative range of his drawings.

Practiced in the 30s, the combination in one book of drawings by Kuznetsov and Vasnetsov was, as many have already written about it, nonsense that harmed both artists. Meanwhile, they have a lot in common. Both had an organic understanding of the fairy tale as a special world, a fantastic reality with a special fairy-tale atmosphere. Kuznetsov is no less decorative in his quick, light and patterned stroke, in a combination of few, but very sonorous color spots. Its lines and color have no less emotional expression. And yet, both artists illustrate different fairy tales and different things in a fairy tale, appeal to different readers. Vasnetsov has very vivid life observations, from which he proceeds, fit into a conditional fantasy world, where everything lives according to conditional fantasy laws. Kuznetsov's fairy-tale world lives and is built according to the laws of life. The illustrations of both correspond to different levels of the child's thinking. The kid is more happy with a chock wrapped in bright shreds than with the most natural, fashionably dressed doll: a chock excites his imagination more. A child of 6-8 years old already enters into a different relationship with the world. Everything worries him, he wants to see and feel everything, he experiences everything together with the heroes of the fairy tale - he is ready to dance with Ivanushka, scream with Masha when the bear takes her away; he enjoys feeling like a resident of a fabulous city. And Kuznetsov does not deceive his reader. And the city, and the villages, and the forest live with him an extraordinary, exciting, and yet very understandable life; even the most fantastic detail looks natural, for example, the radiance emanating from a jumping hot horse bursting with heat.

Kuznetsov is just as national in spirit as Vasnetsov, but in a completely different way.

He illustrates the Russian fairy tale as a page of ancient national history, folk life. And in this sense, he continues the best traditions of Polenova and Malyutin. But as a man of the thirties, who did not know the historical limitations of artistic thought, he does not need stylization; he accepts the fairy-tale world as his folk world without the slightest alienation and exoticism. For Kuznetsov, a folk tale is a part of his soul; he brings true poetry of feelings, a bold romance of nature, combined with realistic authenticity of everyday details and human relationships, into the illustration for it. Kuznetsov thinks in terms of wide spatial compositions that accommodate a large natural and architectural background. In its fabulous cities, life is in full swing, the streets are filled with people, carts pulled by brisk horses carry hay, stoves are heated in the houses. Even the weathervanes on the hipped towers are spinning in the wind, and it seems that people have just moved away from the boats tied to the shore (illustration for the fairy tale "The Man and the Bear"). This lively and very dynamic feeling of a fairy tale as a page of the people's past was new in the art of children's illustration and was very close to the art of cinema. It is no coincidence that Kuznetsov subsequently made excellent drawings for the animated film The Tale of Tsar Saltan (published as illustrations in 1946). Here, the colors are especially sunny and joyful, the heroes are especially lifelike, the buildings are real and fantastically festive. Aspects and angles are chosen in such a way that the viewer's involvement in the fairy-tale world increases: we seem to be looking from the gallery at the throne room of Saltan and go up the steep stairs with Guidon to the white-stone palace sparkling in the sun.

(c) Ella Zinovievna Gankina "Russian artists of the children's book" (1963)

Kuznetsov Konstantin Konstantinovich born April 16, 1895 in St. Petersburg (according to other sources, Voronezh) - Graphic artist, painter.

From the family of a teacher and teacher of the gymnasium. Member of the First World War. In 1920, after the execution of his father by the Bolsheviks (according to some reports, the murder was of a criminal nature), he fled to the south of Russia, where he joined the Volunteer Army. At the end of 1920 he was evacuated along with her units from the Crimea to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

For some time he lived in the city of Pancevo near Belgrade; attended courses in painting and drawing. Created posters for Matic's department store in Belgrade. He was engaged in book graphics, created cartoons and posters.

Gained wide European fame as an author of comics: in 1937-1941 he made 26 comics for the Belgrade magazine "Mika Mish" ("Mickey Mouse") A. Ivkovic; among them are comics of the mystical-adventure genre: Countess Margo, Vampire Baron (both 1939), Three Lives (1940), Death Stamp (1941); based on Russian literature: "Hadji Murad" by L. N. Tolstoy (1937–1938), "The Night Before Christmas" by N. V. Gogol, "The Queen of Spades" by A. S. Pushkin (both - 1940) and other. In 1940–1941, he published in the Politikin Zabavnik magazine the comic book Peter the Great and comics based on the tales of A. S. Pushkin, The Tale of Tsar Saltan and The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, in which the influence of I. Ya. Bilibin. Author of the comics "Sinbad the Sailor", "The Descendant of Genghis Khan", "Orient Express", "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" and others, which were published not only in Serbia, but also in the French magazines "Gavroche", "Jumbo" , "Aventures", "Le journal de Toto", "Les grandes aventures". Used pseudonyms Steav Doop, K. Kulig, Kistochkin, Kuzya, K.

During the period of the fascist occupation of Belgrade (1941–1944), he created anti-Semitic and anti-communist posters for the Yugo-Vostok publishing house. Collaborated in the propaganda department "S"; illustrated propaganda pamphlets. He released a political comic "The Story of the Unfortunate King", the main characters of which were the kings of Yugoslavia Alexander I Karageorgievich (Old King) and Peter II Karageorgievich (Young King), W. Churchill (Nobleman of the Evil Lord), I. Broz Tito (Robber), I. Stalin (Northern bloody lord). As a cartoonist, he collaborated in the humorous magazine "Bodljikavo prase" ("Porcupine"), "Mali the Funny".

In the autumn of 1944 he fled from Yugoslavia; ended up in a displaced persons camp in Austria. In 1946 he ended up in a camp on the outskirts of Munich, where he designed the cover for the Ogni magazine (1946, No. 1). He drew cartoons for the humorous magazine "Petrushka". Compiled and illustrated the publication "The Ice Campaign", dedicated to the 1st campaign of the Volunteer Army of General L. G. Kornilov to the Kuban (1949).

Around 1950 he left for the USA. He continued to work as an illustrator, painted easel paintings, icons. He painted watercolors on Russian themes for Christmas cards and calendars for the New York publisher Martyanov. In 1970, the Baptism of Rus' edition with his illustrations was published in Canada (reissue - M., 1988).

Creativity is presented in the Historical Archive of Belgrade, the Russian Cultural Center in San Francisco.