Mamontov

"Minutiae of Life" FROM PHOTOGRAPH TO 3D

Yelena Mitrofanova

Article: 
“GRANY” FOUNDATION PRESENTS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2021 (72)

There are certain quintessential artistic phenomena associated with the name Savva Mamontov that, to a great extent, defined cultural life in Russia in the 1880s and 1890s. These include the Abramtsevo (Mamontov) Artistic Circle, which made significant advances in set design, architecture, painting and decorative and applied art; the Russian Private Opera, the birthplace of the leading school of national set design and home to brilliant performers headed by Feodor Chaliapin; and the carpentry and ceramics workshops linked to Yelena Polenova and Mikhail Vrubel, which, in many ways, set the tone for Russian Art Nouveau.

"Minutiae of Life" FROM PHOTOGRAPH TO 3D

Virtual tour “Abramtsevo: Travel to the Past. 19th-20th centuries”

“I am in Abramtsevo Once More..."[1]

Eleonora Paston

Article: 
MUSEUMS OF RUSSIA
Magazine issue: 
#3 2021 (72)

Mikhail Vrubel’s creative fascination with ceramics began in 1890, soon after his arrival in Moscow in autumn 1889. There, thanks to his old friends Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin, he became close with Savva Mamontov, a vivid and multifaceted character, someone who was possessed of a special sensitivity to new trends in art along with an ability to recognise talented people and understand the essence of their gift. A major entrepreneur and patron of the arts, in the 1870s and 1890s, he collected a circle of artists, later known as the Abramtsevo Circle, which spanned the generations: Ilya Repin, Vasily Polenov, Viktor Vasnetsov and the sculptor Mark Antokolsky from the older generation; Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Yelena Polenova, Apollinary Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, Mikhail Nesterov and Ilya Ostroukhov, among others, from the younger generation.

“I am in Abramtsevo Once More..."

“Everything that Vrubel tried his hand at was classically good. I worked with him in Mamontov's studio at Abramtsevo and I would look at something he was working on, be it a sketch or some pitcher or vase, or a head of an African woman or a tiger, and I would think 'everything here is where it should be', that there is nothing which could be re-done. That, I think, is the mark of classicism. He had the ability to express something of 'himself' in even an insignificant ornament.”[2]

Vrubel: an Artist for the Ages

Irina Shumanova

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2021 (72)

Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910) holds a unique place in the history of Russian art. On the one hand, he belonged to the legendary cohort of Russian Art Nouveau artists. According to his contemporaries, it was in his oeuvre that “we find the saddest and most beautiful artistic expression of the time” In a newspaper article on the occasion of Vrubel’s funeral, the celebrated Russian artist and art historian Alexandre Benois predicted: “Future generations, should true enlightenment shine upon the Russian public, will look back at the last decades of the 19th century as ‘the era of Vrubel’.” Nevertheless, there is clearly a great gap between Vrubel and his artistic milieu: he seems to be much more in touch with the future than with the world around him. “Here is what I do know: I can only stand in awe of the mysteries that Vrubel and others like him begin to reveal to mankind once in 100 years. We are unable to see the worlds that were open to them, and so all we can do is utter this feeble, indifferent word: ‘genius’.

Vrubel: an Artist for the Ages

The Almighty gave us Pushkin to reveal what a poet is.
We could say the same about Vrubel - he is the embodiment of an artist.
Nikolai Ge[1]

Nikolai Mamontov “The Pilgrim’s Dreams”

Olga Sharina

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#1 2008 (18)

Omsk, 1920s: Without a shade of hesitation, three young men—Viktor Ufimtsev, Boris Shabl-Tabulevich, and Nikolai Mamontov, established the first avant-garde art association in Siberia called “The Three of Hearts”, in allusion to “The Knave of Diamonds”.

Nikolai Mamontov “The Pilgrim’s Dreams”
Nikolai Mamontov. Rome, 1927
Nikolai Mamontov. Rome, 1927

Isaac Levitan and His Contemporaries

Olga Atroshchenko

Article: 
HERITAGE
Magazine issue: 
#3 2010 (28)

The life story of Isaac Levitan as an artist is in many respects similar to the life stories of other graduates of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Most of them offspring of peasants or bankrupt merchants, and very few from noble families, they usually came to Moscow from the remote provinces practically penniless, and often, after the loss of parents, like Levitan.

Isaac Levitan and His Contemporaries

The life story of Isaac Levitan as an artist is in many respects similar to the life stories of other graduates of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Most of them offspring of peasants or bankrupt merchants, and very few from noble families, they usually came to Moscow from the remote provinces practically penniless, and often, after the loss of parents, like Levitan.

The "Girl with Peaches": who is she?

Sergei Chernyshev

Article: 
EXCLUSIVE PUBLICATIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2015 (48)

Serov’s famous painting “Girl with Peaches” depicts my grandmother Vera Mamontova in her childhood. I never met her. She died when her daughter, my mother, was only just two. During her short life she managed to accomplish everything that was expected from a woman of her milieu at that time. She was an obedient daughter, a loving sister, a bride who suffered separation from her bridegroom, a caring mother... Her surviving letters, as well as the reminiscences of those who knew her, reveal much about her life.

The "Girl with Peaches": who is she?

Serov’s famous painting “Girl with Peaches” depicts my grandmother Vera Mamontova in her childhood. I never met her. She died when her daughter, my mother, was only just two. During her short life she managed to accomplish everything that was expected from a woman of her milieu at that time. She was an obedient daughter, a loving sister, a bride who suffered separation from her bridegroom, a caring mother... Her surviving letters, as well as the reminiscences of those who knew her, reveal much about her life.

Konstantin Korovin: His Paintings and Theatre Work at the Tretyakov Gallery

Lydia Iovleva

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#1 2012 (34)

November 23 (December 5, in the "New Style") 2011 was the 150th anniversary of the outstanding Russian painter of the late 19th-early 20th centuries Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin (1861-1939). In anticipation of this momentous anniversary, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg agreed to team up for a project in which each party organised a Korovin exhibition so that the two shows would share essential elements but vary in details: the two museums, the main keepers of the great artist's legacy, exchange his best works but each presents its own version of the exhibition and prepares its own publications to accompany it.

Konstantin Korovin: His Paintings and Theatre Work at the Tretyakov Gallery

November 23 (December 5, in the "New Style") 2011 was the 150th anniversary of the outstanding Russian painter of the late 19th-early 20th centuries Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin (1861-1939). In anticipation of this momentous anniversary, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum in St.

Isaac Levitan and His Contemporaries

Olga Atroshchenko

Article: 
HERITAGE
Magazine issue: 
Special issue. ISAAC LEVITAN

The life story of Isaac Levitan as an artist is in many respects similar to the life stories of other graduates of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Most of them offspring of peasants or bankrupt merchants, and very few from noble families, they usually came to Moscow from the remote provinces practically penniless, and often, after the loss of parents, like Levitan.

Isaac Levitan and His Contemporaries

The life story of Isaac Levitan as an artist is in many respects similar to the life stories of other graduates of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Most of them offspring of peasants or bankrupt merchants, and very few from noble families, they usually came to Moscow from the remote provinces practically penniless, and often, after the loss of parents, like Levitan.

THE NORTH IN THE ART OF RUSSIAN PAINTERS

Olga Atroshchenko

Article: 
INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA
Magazine issue: 
Special issue. NORWAY–RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

Over the centuries the northern borderlands of the Russian Empire remained underexplored and inaccessible for development. Although followers of St. Sergius of Radonezh, who built monasteries and educated locals, had settled there in the 15th century, the area did not engage public interest before the mid-19th century. The change was partly due to the discovery of unique artefacts of vernacular culture, especially in the field of folklore. Groups of scholars began to visit the regions near Lake Onega, the Pechora river and the White Sea regularly to hear and write down fairy tales, sagas and proverbs orally passed down through generations.

THE NORTH IN THE ART OF RUSSIAN PAINTERS

Over the centuries the northern borderlands of the Russian Empire remained underexplored and inaccessible for development. Although followers of St. Sergius of Radonezh, who built monasteries and educated locals, had settled there in the 15th century, the area did not engage public interest before the mid-19th century. The change was partly due to the discovery of unique artefacts of vernacular culture, especially in the field of folklore.

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