What is the sketch of a fairy tale picture. Viktor mikhailovich vasnetsov

Lesson objectives:

Educational:

· To teach to give a genre description of the essay, to determine the topic, to highlight facts and information about the hero;

· To teach to compare a fiction story and an essay;

· Continue work to improve the communication and speech skills of students;

· Establish interdisciplinary connections with lessons in visual arts, the environment and computer science.

Developing:

· To develop techniques of mental activity: analysis and synthesis, classification, generalization in the process of analyzing the work;

· Develop predictive, ongoing, retrospective self-assessment and summary self-control;

· Contribute to the further formation of a personal relationship to what you read.

Educational:

· Help students realize the value of joint activities;

· To promote the upbringing in children of a sense of patriotism, love for Russian artists;

· Generate interest in the subject.

Equipment: Computer, projector, test, crossword puzzle, Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary, business cards of the centers: "Authors", "Researchers", "Editors", creative works of students, exhibition of books

Lesson type: student reading lesson.

During the classes:

1. Organization of the class

Teacher: What do literary reading lessons teach us?

Student: Chatting with a book.

Student: Express your attitude to what you read.

Student: Write reviews.

Student: To describe the heroes of the works, to characterize the heroes.

2. Actualization of the studied

Teacher: What genres of fiction do you know?

Student: Fairy tale, story, poem, fable, play, myth, story, sketch.

(On click slide 2 )

Teacher: Which genre has not been studied enough by us?

Student: Feature article.

Teacher: Today we will continue to get acquainted with the essay, but with which one - you will find out for yourself. The topic is encrypted. I will ask you questions. The one who answers the question correctly will receive a token with a letter.

Teacher: What is an essay? Describe this genre. (The student who gave the most complete answer is given a token with the letter "k")

Student: This is a work that accurately describes an event or incident from real life.

Teacher: What does the essay compare to? (For the correct answer, the letter “ a»)

Student: With a documentary.

Student: Essayist.

Teacher: What task should the essayist hold? (The letter "t" is given for the correct answer)

Student: Has no right to change facts.

Teacher: Why? (For the correct answer, the letter “ and»)

Students: If fiction appears in an essay, then it turns into a story, where the accuracy of the facts is not necessary.

Teacher: What essays do you know? (For the correctly named essayists, tokens with the letters “ n» « NS» « with» « To» « a» « s»)

Students: I. Sokolov - Mikitov "Homeland".

Students: M. Sholokhov "Beloved Mother - Motherland".

Students: "The Great Storyteller".

Students: "Memories of".

Students: "A Word about Krylov."

Students: "Pushkin". (1 click, slide 3, essayists)

Teacher: What two groups can the studied essays be divided into? (For the correct answer - the letters “ To», « and»)

Students: About the Motherland, about the people. (2 click, slide 3, division of essays into groups)

Teacher: There is also a group of essays - about nature, we will study them later. (From the letters received, the students make up the title of the essay "Pictures - fairy tales")

3. Topic message

Teacher: What work will we meet with?

Students:(lay out the name of the work from the letters) With the work "Pictures - fairy tales" (with lay 4 ).

Students: What is this piece about?

Students: Why is it called that?

Teacher: So what could a work with such a title be about?

Teacher: After reading the text, you can answer these questions and test our assumptions.

Teacher: What will we learn?

Teacher: Let's take the words "He who reads a lot, he knows a lot" as the motto of our work.

4. Primary perception of the work

Trained students, together with the teacher, read the text expressively, paragraph by paragraph. The rest of the guys have their books closed. (In the course of reading, slides 5-14, illustrating the text)

Slide 5. House Museum.

N. Sher Pictures - fairy tales

There is a side street in Moscow called Vasnetsov Lane. You enter this quiet side street, and it seems as if you are walking along the old - old Moscow. In summer, poplars bloom along small houses, in winter there are snowdrifts. Behind a wooden fence stands a house that is not like the other houses in the alley. This is a Russian tower darkened by time.

(1 click - portrait)

The remarkable Russian artist Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov lived in this house for many years, and the house was built according to his plan and drawings. After the artist's death, the family handed over the house to the state, and now it is a House-Museum.

Slide 5 - 2 click - Rooms of the House - Museum

Everything in this house is extraordinary: chopped log walls, huge stoves with colored tiles on top, simple benches, wide oak tables and around - heavy, sturdy chairs; only heroes would sit on such chairs, at such tables.

There are many drawings, paintings that Vasnetsov painted in different years of his life; many things decorated with carvings and paintings according to old Russian models, wall clocks - chimes with three weights, a chest with a figured back, samples of ancient weapons - all this was loved and collected by the artist for many years.

A large portrait of Vasnetsov hangs in the dining room. This portrait was painted by Vasnetsov's daughter, artist Tatyana Viktorovna. Next to the dining room is a large hall where the artist's friends often gathered - Repin, Surikov, Polenov, Serov, Chaliapin, Chekhov, Gorky. In the corner there is a very steep wooden spiral staircase. If you go up the stairs, you will enter a huge, light-flooded workshop - the most cherished room in the house. On the wall, by the door, Vasnetsov painted the head of a girl with charcoal; a finger is put to the lips. He called this drawing "Silence."

“Art is born in silence, it requires a long, lonely and difficult work,” said the artist. And here, in the workshop, he worked for whole days.

Slide 6

He finished the painting "Three Heroes", which you know well;

Slide 7 - Poem of Seven Tales - contains hyperlinks to slides 7-14

conceived and wrote "The Poem of Seven Tales" - seven large paintings: "The Sleeping Princess", "Baba - Yaga", "Princess - Frog", "Princess - Nesmeyana", "Kashchei the Immortal", "Sivka - Burka", "Carpet - airplane".

And now we quietly walk through his workshop from picture to picture, from fairy tale to fairy tale. And before us opens a mysterious, magical world sparkling with colors.

Here Baba Yaga is racing in a mortar, a sad princess Nesmeyana is sitting, a carpet - an airplane is racing across the sky ... But in the enchanted kingdom the princess is sleeping, the trees are sleeping. Herbs, birds, hay girls sleep, buffoons, guards sleep. Miracles lie in wait for us at every step in this “Poem of seven fairy tales, on which Vasnetsov joyfully and lovingly worked for many years.

Slide 15 - "Alyonushka"

But, in addition to these fairy tales, the artist created many other paintings - fairy tales. He wrote a touching and poetic picture about Alyonushka. The girl Alyonushka sits on a stone near a deep pool, sadly bowed her head, clasped her knees with her thin hands, and thought. About what? Maybe about his bitter lot or about brother Ivanushka ... Around a dark forest, thin aspen trees turn yellow, reeds stand motionless, golden autumn leaves are scattered along the whirlpool.

Slide 15 - click, go to the image of the Tretyakov Gallery

The painting "Alyonushka" is now hanging in Moscow in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Slide 15 - click, go to the painting "Ivan Tsarevich on the gray wolf"

And on the contrary - "Ivan - the prince on the gray wolf."

In fairy tales, Ivan Tsarevich is called differently - either Ivanushka is a fool, then Ivan is a peasant's son, or even just Ivan is a fool. And he is always the youngest son, his older brothers always laugh at him. But when trouble comes, he overcomes all obstacles, conquers all enemies. He manages to make Nesmeyana the princess laugh, wake up the sleeping beauty, get the Firebird ...

And always his kind and intelligent heart conquers evil, as the sun conquers darkness.

Vasnetsov liked this beloved hero of folk tales. I also liked The Tale of Ivan - Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf. He wrote it with enthusiasm. Excited, in a hurry to finish for the exhibition. He painted the wolf from nature - they brought him to the workshop of a living wolf. When the picture appeared at the exhibition, the audience stood in front of it for a long time. It seemed that they not only looked, but heard the deep, enchanted forest rustling dully, the pale pink bushes of a wild apple tree rustling softly, the leaves rustling under the feet of the gray wolf - here he is, a handsome, kind giant, out of breath; saves Ivan Tsarevich and Elena the Beautiful from pursuit. And on the branch curious birds are sitting and looking at him.

Slide 15 - click, go to the painting "Flying carpet"

But in order to see Ivan Tsarevich on a flying carpet with a magic Firebird's cage, you need to visit the Art Museum in the city of Gorky. A huge flying carpet bird flies high in the sky, its wings spread wide. On the flying carpet - Ivan Tsarevich. He firmly holds in his hands a cage with a Firebird, which brings happiness to people. Night owls fly away from the unknown bird in fear. Far below the forest, fields, rivers - the ancient, beautiful land, the Motherland, which Vasnetsov loved so much. But the Motherland is not only forests, fields and rivers. These are people who know how to dream, dare, win, like Ivanushka is a fool in a fairy tale.

When Vasnetsov conceived his picture, he remembered people who dreamed of flying into the sky.

So one after another Vasnetsov told Russian folk tales. He knew and loved these fairy tales from childhood, did not part with them all his life. They lived happily and restlessly in his soul, coloring everything around with bright colors.

Once he jokingly said to Alexei Maksimovich Gorky:

- After all, each of us at least once visited the flying carpet, and I also was there once.

“Definitely, Viktor Mikhailovich,” Gorky answered. - You can't live without a flying carpet. It opens horizons, makes the heart beat more enthusiastically ...

And, of course, each of us wanted to visit the flying carpet at least once. Not on a magic, but on a real plane, dreaming about flying to the moon, to the stars, thinking about how the old - old tale about the magic carpet became a real truth and how the brave human mind conquers everything in the world.

5. Analysis of the work

5.1 Verification of primary perception.

Teacher: P Did you like the work? Share your impressions.

Teacher: Did your prediction come true?

5.2 Vocabulary work

Teacher: What words were incomprehensible to you?

Teacher: Who wants to find their explanation in Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary?

Teacher: Add these words to the "Dictionary of our class"

5.3. Analytical reading of the text in groups.

Teacher: Let's read the text in groups. When reading we use the technique of "marking in the margins".

(Students in paragraphs "in a circle" read the text using the markings "+", "-", "?", "V", which require careful active reading)

5.4. Primary text analysis.

Teacher: What have we read? What genre is the work? Prove it.

Students: This is an essay. Here are facts from the biography of the writer. There is no fiction here.

Teacher: Where did Vasnetsov live?

Teacher: Has his house survived?

Teacher: What is extraordinary about him?

Teacher: What can you say about your daughter?

Teacher: Who was going to Vasnetsov's house? Who are they?

Teacher: What drawing expresses the thoughts of the author?

Teacher: Read his words. How do you understand them?

(Students answer questions using browsing, search reading)

Teacher: Ask your questions about the text.

Teacher: What pictures are included in the "Poem of Seven Tales"?

Teacher: With what feeling did the artist work on these paintings?

Teacher: What is the name of a touching and poetic picture about a girl?

Students: "Alyonushka"

Teacher: This is Vasnetsov's favorite painting. Where is she located?

Students: In the Tretyakov Gallery.

Teacher: I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Tretyakov Gallery was built according to Vasnetsov's projects and sketches. So, Vasnetsov was also fond of ...

Students: Architecture.

Teacher:"Heroes" wrote for 20 years, this picture is also in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Teacher: What picture hangs in front of "Alyonushka"?

Students: "Ivan is a prince on a gray wolf."

Teacher: How does Vasnetsov feel about Ivan the Tsarevich? Why?

Students: Ivan - Tsarevich likes Vasnetsov. The hero of the fairy tale overcomes all obstacles, his good heart conquers evil.

Teacher: How did he paint the picture? What feeling?

Students: With enthusiasm, excitement, in a hurry to finish for the exhibition.

Teacher: How did the audience perceive this picture?

Students: They stood in front of her for a long time, they not only looked, but also heard sounds.

Teacher: Name another painting depicting Ivan the Tsarevich.

Students: "Magic carpet".

Teacher: Where can you see this picture?

Students: In the city of Gorky, and now it is Nizhny Novgorod. At the Art Museum.

Teacher: Who was in this museum? If possible, try to go to the Art Museum to admire Vasnetsov's painting. The original is here, not a reproduction of the painting.

Teacher: What was Vasnetsov dreaming of? Why?

Students: To visit a carpet - an airplane. A dream inspires a person, encourages action.

Teacher:"He opens horizons, makes the heart beat with enthusiasm."

Teacher: Let's reflect. Why did Vasnetsov often remember people who dreamed of flying into the sky?

6. Relaxation

(slide 16 , navigation right arrow)

Teacher: Sit back in your chair. Let's take a virtual trip to the art gallery.

Teacher: Close your eyes. A minute of rest.

Teacher: What reproductions of Vasnetsov's paintings did we meet in the lessons of the "surrounding world"?

Students: "Bookstore", "Nestor".

Teacher: What can you say about Vasnetsov?

Teacher: Vasnetsov was not only an artist - storyteller, architect, he executed the wall paintings of the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev (10 years). He wrote on historical and religious topics. His range of interests was wide.

7. Secondary perception of the work (14 min)

7.1. Creative work in the centers

(slide 15 , exit center names on click)

2 center - RESEARCHERS - solve the crossword puzzle

3 center - EDITORS - answer the test questions (work at the computer - slides 19-27 ... Triggers are configured in the test. When choosing the correct answer, a short-term expansion of the figure occurs and applause sounds. When choosing the wrong answer, the figure rotates).

Checking work in the centers:

Slide 18 - crossword check

(Triggers are configured in the crossword puzzle. 1 click on the arrow - the task appears, 2 click on the arrow - the answer appears. Click on the book - the verbal assessment "Well done" appears!)

Slides 19-27 - test check

7.2 Checking Homework

Teacher: In the last lesson, we thought about what the Motherland is.

Teacher: Let's check the homework "Homeland for me is ...."

(Presentation of children's works. Students show drawings, read poetry, essays, syncwine.)

Teacher: How does he talk about Cher?

Students:“But the Motherland is not only forests, fields and rivers. These are people who know how to dream, dare, win ... "

Teacher: What can you say about Vasnetsov?

Students: He was just such a person.

Students: He glorified the Motherland with his paintings.

Teacher: Contemporaries spoke of Vasnetsov as follows: "Russia should be proud of such an artist as Viktor Mikhailovich", "our clear sun – ... A special string beats in him ", – so characterized the artist.

Many years have passed since the artist passed away, and his paintings continue to live - after all, in each of them he left his amazing skill, a piece of his soul, his great love for art and for the Motherland.

Teacher: Thanks to whom did we learn so much about the artist Vasnetsov?

Teacher: How does he relate to the hero of the essay?

7.3. An appeal to the exhibition.

(Information is given by a group of guys who worked in the library)

1. . Stories about Russian artists.

2.. Victor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov.

This collection includes letters, diaries, reports and memoirs of Vasnetsov.

3. The magazine "Art Gallery" No. 64, 2005 is fully dedicated to Vasnetsov, "the true hero of national painting."

4. Encyclopedia.

5. Vasnetsov “The world of masterpieces. 100 world names in art ”. Here are reproductions of the artist and information from his biography.

8. Homework (slide 28)

1. Find information about childhood.

2.Retelling the essay

3.Creative work "Meeting with the paintings of the great artist"

You can come up with a task yourself.

Students select homework based on their level of creativity.

9. Reflection

Teacher: What have you learned new?

Teacher: Make a syncwine for a lesson (in a group) (slide 29)

Teacher: Thanks to all!

according to teaching materials "Elementary school of the XXI century"

4th grade

Lesson topic. Essays on people. NS Sher "Pictures - fairy tales".
Goals. 1. To reveal the features of the essay genre based on the essay by NS Cher

"Pictures are fairy tales".

2. Improve reading skills.

3. To improve the skills of working with the text.

4. Develop a coherent speech of students, enrich their vocabulary.

5. To foster love for the subject, for the history of Russia.
Equipment: paintings by V.M. Vasnetsov "Alyonushka", "Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf", "Three Heroes", textbook part II, notebook part II.
I. Introductory conversation.
- Read it.

On the desk.

^ I. Sokolov - Mikitov "Homeland"

M. Sholokhov "Beloved Mother - Fatherland"

L. Tolstoy "Leap"

What literary genre have we met?

Can the word "sketch" be placed above the title of these works? Why?

How does an essay differ from a story?

The essay contains real events and heroes, while the story may contain fictional events and heroes.

What is an essay? Where can you find the answer to this question?

In the textbook - p. 122.

Read it.

I found another definition for the word sketch. Read it silently on the chalkboard. Compare it to the article in the tutorial. What new have you learned about the essay?
On the desk.

^ The essay is always documentary, written in artistic rather than scientific language and expresses the author's attitude to events.

Who saw the new information in the definition on the board?
Dictionary.

Documentary- based on documents, facts. (Documentary data. Documentary film.)
- The essay must comply with the following criteria:

1.) real facts, events, people;

2.) artistic language;

We will read N. Sher's essay "Pictures - Fairy Tales" and try to see what real facts, events, people the author is talking about, let us pay attention to the artistic language and the author's attitude.
- Textbooks were opened - p.124. Let's pay attention to the title.

What is the name of the essay?

By the title, you can determine who will be discussed?

About the artist.

What artist are we talking about? Who knows the artist's last name?
III. Working with the text of the essay.
- We read the entire essay to ourselves and mark the real facts in the margins.

(Task in a notebook for those who quickly coped with p.59 # 1)

What did you learn about V.M. Vasnetsov? Give only the facts.

Prepare a short story about the life of V.M. Vasnetsov, using only facts.

Who can tell what they learned about the artist's life.

^ Listening to student stories.

Now let's pay attention to the artistic figurative language of the essay.

What pictures did you imagine most vividly while reading the essay?

Let's turn to the description of the house. What language means did the author use?

Find a description of the house in the text.

What indicates that the house is old? (darkened with time)

What is the name of the house? (Russian tower)

What is the phrase that lends fabulousness to the description of the house?

Is it possible to say that the description of the house is figurative, beautiful, artistic?

Are all the words clear?
Dictionary.

Tiles- baked clay tiles for wall cladding, ovens.

Chest- a large wooden box with a lid for storing grain, flour.
- How does the author say about the workshop?

What is the old word? (cherished)

Why is there such a drawing in the workshop? (Art is born in silence)

How do you understand these words?

How did Vasnetsov write the tales? (paints)

What kind of pictures did he write?

Description of which paintings are given in detail in the sketch
Display of paintings. Children call pictures.
^ Assignment by options.

Prepare an expressive reading of the passage describing the picture.

Option 1. Painting "Alyonushka".

Option 2. Painting "Ivan - Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf".

^ Checking the work done.

Option 1.

Painting "Alyonushka".

Which sentence shows the attitude of the author of the essay to the picture? (He painted a touching and poetic picture.)

Take a look at the painting.

What is the main thing in the picture? (The girl and the nature around her.)

What impression does the painting make on you?

(Sad, there is a feeling of pity for the girl, a desire to help her.)

Option 2.

Painting "Ivan - Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf".

Find the description of the painting "Ivan - Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf". Read it. How does one description of a painting differ from another

What impression did the picture make on the viewer? (They not only looked, but heard the picture.)

What did the audience hear? Read it.

What can you say about the nature depicted in the picture?

How does this picture make you feel?

(Nature is inseparable from the fate of the heroes. In one picture, a dense forest became thoughtful, quieted down; and in the other, a dense, fabulous forest.)
IV. Homework.

1. Description of which picture is still in the sketch. Prepare yourself to read this description at home. Find the answer to the questions: “Why did the author create this painting? What kind of human dream did he express in this picture? "

2. Assignment of choice. Complete the task in the notebook. Anyone who wants can prepare a detailed story about the artist or about the artist's painting they like.
V. Summing up the lesson.

What genre of the work did we read in the lesson?

What have you learned about the essay?

Summary of the lesson on literary reading

according to teaching materials "Elementary school of the XXI century"

4th grade

Lesson topic. Essays on people. NS Sher "Pictures - fairy tales".
Goals. 1. To reveal the features of the essay genre based on the essay by NS Cher

"Pictures are fairy tales".

2. Improve reading skills.

3. To improve the skills of working with the text.

4. Develop a coherent speech of students, enrich their vocabulary.

5. To foster love for the subject, for the history of Russia.
Equipment: paintings by V.M. Vasnetsov "Alyonushka", "Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf", "Three Heroes", textbook part II, notebook part II.
I. Introductory conversation.
- Read it.

On the desk.

I. Sokolov - Mikitov "Homeland"

M. Sholokhov "Beloved Mother - Fatherland"

L. Tolstoy "Leap"

What literary genre have we met?

Can the word "sketch" be placed above the title of these works? Why?

How does an essay differ from a story?

The essay contains real events and heroes, while the story may contain fictional events and heroes.

What is an essay? Where can you find the answer to this question?

In the textbook - p. 122.

Read it.

I found another definition for the word sketch. Read it silently on the chalkboard. Compare it to the article in the tutorial. What new have you learned about the essay?
On the desk.

The essay is always documentary, written in artistic rather than scientific language and expresses the author's attitude to events.

Who saw the new information in the definition on the board?
Dictionary.

Documentary - based on documents, facts. (Documentary data. Documentary film.)
- The essay must comply with the following criteria:

1.) real facts, events, people;

2.) artistic language;

II. Setting the goal of the lesson.

We will read N. Sher's essay "Pictures - Fairy Tales" and try to see what real facts, events, people the author is talking about, let us pay attention to the artistic language and the author's attitude.
- Textbooks were opened - p.124. Let's pay attention to the title.

What is the name of the essay?

By the title, you can determine who will be discussed?

About the artist.

What artist are we talking about? Who knows the artist's last name?
III. Working with the text of the essay.
- We read the entire essay to ourselves and mark the real facts in the margins.

(Task in a notebook for those who quickly coped with p.59 # 1)

What did you learn about V.M. Vasnetsov? Give only the facts.

Prepare a short story about the life of V.M. Vasnetsov, using only facts.

Who can tell what they learned about the artist's life.

Listening to student stories.

Now let's pay attention to the artistic figurative language of the essay.

What pictures did you imagine most vividly while reading the essay?

Let's turn to the description of the house. What language means did the author use?

Find a description of the house in the text.

What indicates that the house is old? (darkened with time)

What is the name of the house? (Russian tower)

What is the phrase that lends fabulousness to the description of the house?

Is it possible to say that the description of the house is figurative, beautiful, artistic?

Are all the words clear?
Dictionary.

Tiles- baked clay tiles for wall cladding, ovens.

Chest- a large wooden box with a lid for storing grain, flour.
- How does the author say about the workshop?

What is the old word? (cherished)

Why is there such a drawing in the workshop? (Art is born in silence)

How do you understand these words?

How did Vasnetsov write the tales? (paints)

What kind of pictures did he write?

Description of which paintings are given in detail in the sketch
Display of paintings. Children call pictures.
Assignment by options.

Prepare an expressive reading of the passage describing the picture.

Option 1. Painting "Alyonushka".

Option 2. Painting "Ivan - Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf".

Checking the work done.

Option 1.

Painting "Alyonushka".

Can we say that the author loves Vasnetsov's paintings? Prove it.

Which sentence shows the attitude of the author of the essay to the picture? (He painted a touching and poetic picture.)

Take a look at the painting.

What is the main thing in the picture? (The girl and the nature around her.)

What impression does the painting make on you?

(Sad, there is a feeling of pity for the girl, a desire to help her.)

Option 2.

Painting "Ivan - Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf".

Find the description of the painting "Ivan - Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf". Read it. How does one description of a painting differ from another

What impression did the picture make on the viewer? (They not only looked, but heard the picture.)

What did the audience hear? Read it.

What can you say about the nature depicted in the picture?

How does this picture make you feel?

(Nature is inseparable from the fate of the heroes. In one picture, a dense forest became thoughtful, quieted down; and in the other, a dense, fabulous forest.)
IV. Homework.

1. Description of which picture is still in the sketch. Prepare yourself to read this description at home. Find the answer to the questions: “Why did the author create this painting? What kind of human dream did he express in this picture? "

2. Assignment of choice. Complete the task in the notebook. Anyone who wants can prepare a detailed story about the artist or about the artist's painting they like.
V. Summing up the lesson.

What genre of the work did we read in the lesson?

What have you learned about the essay?

In the distant Vyatka side, among forests, fields and rivers, the small village of Ryabovo is lost. At the very edge of the village, behind a long fence, stood a log house with a mezzanine with five windows facing the street. The Vasnetsov family lived in this house: a mother, a father and six children, all the boys are a strong, noisy, inquisitive people. The Vasnetsovs were native Vyatichi. Father, a village priest, was not like other priests: he did not drink wine, he read a lot, was fond of natural sciences, astronomy, and loved to draw. He himself taught his sons to read and write, and sometimes with them the village children. Like most Vyatichi, he had "golden hands", and in his free time he always made something.

Mother, a simple, kind woman, was busy with the housework, raised the boys; it was not easy for her to manage such a large family. But the Vasnetsovs' family was friendly, and their life was smooth and calm.

The seasons changed, and a new life seemed to enter the house with new joys, activities, and entertainment. For a long, long time, the blizzard, harsh winter lasted, with an icy mountain, sleds, snowballs, with cheerful friends and comrades. And at dusk, when on the other side of the snow-covered windows there was an ice mountain, a sled, and a prickly wind, it was good to go to the "work hut" - to the kitchen to the old cook. The floor is cleanly washed, it smells of smoke, baked bread, a torch is flashing, cracking, and in my soul there is an impatient feeling of a little alarming joy - now the old cook will speak, and everything around will sparkle, bloom with wonderful colors. Tsarevich Ivan with a firebird will arrive on a flying carpet, sad Alyonushka with a little goat brother will walk through the forests and fields, "an evil Baba Yaga with little Ivashechka will rush in a mortar, the Frog Princess will wave her hand, and suddenly a lake will appear, and white swans will swim to the lake ... But Ilya Muromets rides on his heroic horse "a little higher than a standing forest, a little lower than a walking cloud ..."

The old woman leads her fairy tales slowly, and sometimes she suddenly stops talking, listens: someone knocks on the window, at first quietly, then louder and louder. This is some kind of wanderer - must have got lost, come to the light. The Vasnetsovs were not asked who he was or where he was from, but they simply opened the door to the person, warmed him up, fed him, and left him to spend the night. And now this "passer-by" sits on a bench and tells no longer a fairy tale, but a story about ancient times, about strange, distant cities, about people.,.

Little Vitya was very fond of other winter evenings, when the whole family gathered around the table in a hotly heated room. The younger brothers are already asleep, the father is reading the newspaper, the elder brother Nikolai is leafing through old magazines, looking at pictures; in front of Victor there is a white sheet of paper, and on paper the blue sea is a sea of ​​fairy tales and songs. He has never seen it, but he knows: on the blue sea, ships are sailing in full sail, the waves are surging. And so I want to draw at least one such ship, and it's a shame to tears that he can't do anything. But it happened that the grandmother would sit down to him and open her cherished box of paints. "He's right," thinks Vitya, "a hundred years old, this box, he's old, like a grandmother." And the box is really old, all flaky, scratched. But when grandmother opened this box, took a brush and began to paint, and a real ship was sailing on the sea, a real captain was on the deck, and a hot sun was shining in the sky, Victor was delighted. My father said that my grandmother, when she was young, painted even better, but it seemed to Victor that it couldn't be “better”.

Spring crept imperceptibly. We put up frames, checked old birdhouses and put together new ones. Streams rustled along the ravines, streams ran along the ditches along the houses, in the corner by the fence a large spreading tree was pouring in buds, and under it the remnants of snow were blue, and the earth smelled so gloriously. Not painted, but wooden boats, which the boys were making together, sailed along the streams and ditches, and the boys came home wet, cold, and cheerful.

Best of all, it was more free to live in the summer. High hills and river valleys, ravines with forest-covered slopes turned green. Huge firs and spruces stood alone in the cemetery - the remnants of dense forests that once covered this area. The highest hill was called Karaulnaya Mountain, and it seemed to the boys that this Karaulnaya Mountain was guarding the Voyu River, which flows at its foot. And the boys ran to swim on their small winding and cold river Ryabovka. They will buy, nazyabutsya, run home to eat - and into the forest for mushrooms, for berries for the whole day. Sometimes their father went with them; he taught them to distinguish the voices of birds, helped to collect a herbarium, a collection of stones, talked about flowers, trees, grasses. "Eternal, heartfelt thanks to my father for the fact that he was able to develop in all of us a love for the surrounding nature ..." - said Vasnetsov when he became an adult.

Years passed ... The sons of the Vasnetsovs grew up, and more and more often they heard in the family conversations that it was time for them to study. There was no school in Ryabovo, and the father took first the eldest son Nikolai, and two years later the second, ten-year-old Victor, 85 miles away to the city of Vyatka. It was the spring of 1858; the days were fresh and sunny. We rode on our horses, in a cart; on the way we stopped to rest, burned fires, fed the horses, watched the fog rise over the river, the dawn breaking.

In Vyatka, Victor settled with his brother in a "free apartment", in a small room, and entered a religious school. There were all priests in the Vasnetsov family, and the father decided that Victor would also go from the theological school to the seminary, graduate from it and become a priest. Victor spent two years in the theological school, and studied in the seminary for seven years. Studying at the seminary was unbearably boring, more boring than at the theological school. Victor revived only at drawing lessons. Drawing was taught by the artist Nikolai Alexandrovich Chernyshev. In Vyatka he had his own icon-painting workshop, and he was more engaged in the workshop than teaching. He studied uninterestingly, but immediately drew attention to Victor, invited him to his place, looked at his drawings, took him to a small Vyatka museum, where a variety of "objects in all branches of knowledge" were collected. In the museum one could see an old Vyatka painted toy, embroidery, and woodcarving. And in the small corner room of the museum there were several photographs from paintings by famous artists, several watercolors, and some oil paintings. In the museum, Viktor for the first time saw photographs from the paintings of Alexander Ivanov "The Appearance of Christ to the People" and Karl Bryullov "The Death of Pompeii". And although these were old, faded photographs, they made an unforgettable impression on Victor.

All these years Victor read a lot, and almost always uninteresting books came to hand. Once he found out that in high school there is a teacher who has a lot of books at home, and he willingly gives them to students for reading. Victor was already fifteen years old, he was very awkward, shy, but nevertheless he made up his mind and went to Alexander Alexandrovich Krasovsky - that was the name of the teacher. Since then, he began to visit him often, re-read many books, learned and forever fell in love with Pushkin, Lermontov, Aksakov, Turgenev, Tolstoy ... In high school, Viktor already studied with Krasovsky. “His stories about Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky breathed such deep love and respect for these individuals that he conveyed this love and respect to us,” one of Viktor's comrades later recalled. - All the articles of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky in Sovremennik we read together with Alexander Alexandrovich and, in addition, we also read them in our numbers. This reading enlightened our minds and filled our hearts with high delight. " But Krasovsky did not teach long in Vyatka. For too bold and disagreeable to the government, he was arrested and exiled to hard labor.

Two years before Krasovsky's arrest, Chernyshev introduced Victor to the Polish artist Elviro Andriolli, or Mikhail Frantsevich, as he was called. Andriolli was exiled to Vyatka for taking part in the Polish uprising. Victor really liked the lively, cheerful, energetic artist, he liked how easily and beautifully he painted. Victor listened with interest to his stories about Petersburg, about the artists he met, about the Academy of Arts, and he was attentive to his advice. “You need to draw strongly and boldly, draw blacker and brighter, you need to be able to see and understand life,” he said to Victor. And Victor tried to look closely at the people, at the life around him: here he draws a retired soldier, a blind beggar with a boy, a grandfather with a grandson; paints with watercolors of a Tatar friend, orphans; tries to paint in oils, and everyone likes his paintings "The Reaper" and "The Milkmaid".

Of course, he understands that not everything is going well for him, as he would like, that he needs to study seriously and a lot, and in Vyatka, in fact, there is no one to learn from. Andriolli told him more than once that he should go to Petersburg, that only there he would go through a real school. Doesn't he himself dream about it? And yet he still cannot leave. His mother had died quite recently; it was a great grief for the whole family. Father somehow immediately grew old, weakened. The older brothers studied in Vyatka, the kids stayed at home, whom the aunts were now taking care of, and Victor felt that it was impossible to leave - the family needed him, his brother Apollinarius, who studied at the theological school, needed him. Apollinaris was eight years younger than Victor, as passionate as Victor, he loved to draw and was the most enthusiastic admirer of his drawings.

Victor was seventeen years old. After graduating from the last, "philosophical" class of the seminary, he nevertheless decided to go to St. Petersburg to the Academy of Arts. His father agreed to let him go, although he could not give money, even for the trip. Then Andriolli came to the rescue; he offered to arrange a lottery, to play two pictures - "The Reaper" and "The Milkmaid" - and go to St. Petersburg with the proceeds. The lottery was successful: Victor received sixty rubles - a whole wealth. Preparations for departure have begun ...

2

In the late summer of 1867, Victor left for St. Petersburg. Gathering, farewell to father, brothers - all this passed in a daze. On a small steamer, he first sails along a small river, then changes to a large Volga steamer. Here is Nizhny Novgorod. We must go to the railway station. Victor gets on a train for the first time in his life. Everything around rumbles, rattles, and this makes it a little scary. The third bell rings, the train starts to move. Tomorrow - Moscow. In Moscow, a cabman took him from the station to the station. Another day - and he is in St. Petersburg.

The day is gray, light rain is drizzling. And Victor has a jubilant joy in his soul. Not far from the station, he finds a cheap hotel, the address of which someone gave him in Vyatka, rents a little dirty room, leaves his things and first of all goes to look at the Hermitage - so he decided back in Vyatka. How long he spent on the day of his arrival at the Hermitage, he could not say, but he will forever remember the feeling of joyful excitement that gripped him when he walked through the magnificent halls of the Hermitage, saw genuine works of art for the first time.

Day after day Victor wandered around the city. Summer garden, granite embankment of the Neva. Here is the Academy of Arts ... For a long time I did not dare to enter ... But still I had to enter.

And he came to the exam, brought, as it should be to all the examiners, his work and made drawings on the proposed topics. Victor thought about the artists, about the Academy of Arts as enthusiastically as Kramskoy, who ten years ago entered the same front entrance of the Academy, as Repin, when he left his hometown, as Surikov, who arrived in St. Petersburg a year later.

Victor looked at the Academy of Arts as a temple, which he was not yet worthy to enter; was very worried about the exam. And when he was returning to his inferior hotel room, he suddenly decided that he had not passed the exam. A few days later, when the time came to find out about the result, he simply did not go to the academy. Day after day passed. The money brought from home was coming to an end, no work was foreseen, there were no acquaintances with whom one could talk or consult. He was alone in a huge, beautiful, but strange city.

Once, when without any purpose, without any thoughts, Viktor wandered through the streets of St. Petersburg, someone called out to him. This was the brother of the teacher Krasovsky, whom he met in Vyatka. Krasovsky did not ask Victor about anything - everything was clear to him even without words. A few days later, he got Victor a job in a cartographic institution, where maps, books, and magazines were printed. Victor set to work with interest. At first, his work consisted of translating the artists' drawings onto wooden boards - into "pieces of wood", as they were called.

Very soon, having looked closely at the work of the engraver, Victor began to work as a graver himself. He was glad that the grader in his hands was becoming more obedient, that he was mastering the skill more and more.

And the thought that it was necessary to study painting did not leave him. Even if he is not admitted to the academy, a year or two will pass, and he will still study there!

New acquaintances advised him to go to the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. Usually young people entered the school who either failed in the exam, or were preparing to enter the Academy of Arts. Victor also began to study at this school. He was nineteen years old.

Tall, light blond, with thoughtful blue-gray eyes, in which sparks of laughter often flashed, with awkward, angular and quick movements, he was still childishly shy, it was difficult to get along with people. And here, at school, I immediately felt at ease and simple. Pupils studied three times a week. On Sundays, the classes were led by the artist Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. Viktor had already heard a lot about Kramskoy, he knew that he studied at the academy, was the instigator of the “riot of fourteen,” and heard about the Artel of Free Artists, which he organized after the riot of Kramskoy. They said that on Thursdays artists, writers, musicians gather in the artel, they read, argue, and draw together.

Victor was looking forward to Sunday: he was sure that he would see the famous artist with an inspired face, curls up to his shoulders, in a velvet jacket, and was somewhat disappointed when a thin man of short stature entered the class, with a thin beard, in a black, tightly buttoned frock coat ... But when Kramskoy walked through the classroom, spoke and complete silence reigned in the classroom, it seemed to Viktor that this was the only way Kramskoy should be - an extraordinary, “born teacher,” as he was called. Kramskoy himself never corrected the drawings of the students, but tried to explain what their mistakes were, spoke simply, clearly, with conviction, was very demanding, but always fair, benevolent. Vasnetsov, he somehow immediately noted: a talented young man, modest, shy; I liked how concentrated he worked in the class, which he sometimes brought interesting home drawings.

Vasnetsov spent about a year at the Drawing School. In August 1868, he came to the academy to take the exam again and learned that he had passed it a year earlier. Then he was enrolled as a student of the Academy of Arts, but since he did not leave his address, there was nowhere to tell him about it. Was he upset? Not at all. The first thing he thought about was whether the past soda had disappeared for him? Of course not. After all, he acquired his first artistic skills under the leadership of Kramskoy, visited the Artel of Free Artists, met Ilya Repin, who had been studying at the academy for the third year already, and on Sundays came to school for Kramskoy's classes. Repin introduced him to the sculptor Mark Antokolsky, Konstantin Savitsky and other students of the Academy of Arts.

They all rented rooms in the same apartment, not far from the academy. Often after a working day, comrades gathered with them - students of the academy, students of the university. Most of them were young people who came from the provinces. They were poor, poorly dressed, often starving, but all were equally passionate about art, read a lot, loved and knew Russian literature. Not an evening went by without one of the guests bringing something interesting: a poem, an issue of the Sovremennik magazine, a topical newspaper article. Usually they read aloud, discussed what they had read, argued, drew, looked at and analyzed albums with drawings of their comrades. Once Repin showed a drawing that he made from Karakozov on the day of his execution, on Smolenskaya Square. Everyone was shocked by both the drawing and the story of Repin; they parted that evening early, without the usual noisy fun.

A university student Savenkov, a great lover of folk songs, epics, a talented storyteller and reader, often visited the young artists. He could tirelessly read the epics for the whole evening:

In a glorious city, in Murom,

There was Karacharovo in the village,

Ilya Muromets, a peasant son, was sitting in Sydney.

Sydnam was in prison for thirty years ...

Once Kramskoy invited Vasnetsov to the artel on Thursday. Vasnetsov was delighted at the invitation. Not without timidity, he accompanied Repin into the artel's apartment. But immediately, as in the Drawing School, I felt surprisingly simple and good here. Repin did not introduce him to anyone, and it was not supposed to be. There were about forty people in the huge hall; there was a large table heaped with paper, pencils, brushes, paints. Artists were sitting at the table - he had seen someone before at exhibitions, in the Hermitage, at the Academy of Arts ... Here is Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, a forest hero, talking loudly, cheerfully, and next to his student and friend is the wonderful artist Fyodor Vasiliev. And both are so different and both draw so amazingly! There is a crowd behind them. Vasnetsov squeezed forward, and Repin sat down at the table, seated someone nearby, sketching a portrait.

A piano was played in the next room, and a song was heard. Vasnetsov went to the door, listened: the song, the music always worried him especially.

And where is Kramskoy? .. Here he is on the sidelines, surrounded by guests, talking with enthusiasm, they are listening to him, an argument ensues, and Vasnetsov cannot resist, comes up and also listens. And how many more unfamiliar students of the academy are here, who, as Repin said, “everyone knew the way to the artel well”! Indeed, in the artel they not only had fun, but also worked very hard, took orders for paintings, drawings, arranged exhibitions, and, they say, wonderful. But Vasnetsov has not yet seen a single exhibition. All this is ahead!

Every time after "Thursday" in the artel, where everything seemed so unexpectedly new to him, Vasnetsov returned home and could not calm down for a long time - it was as if he was reliving everything, thinking it over, trying to understand. And then a day came full of new discoveries. I had to go to the Academy of Arts, listen to lectures. Never before had he thought about the history of art, never studied anatomy, which now forced him to look at nature differently. He diligently wrote down lectures, read the literature that the professors pointed out.

The first two classes, the class of antique plaster heads and the figure class, took place in one year. He patiently painted and shaded plaster heads, eyes, ears, noses. For his drawings, he often received the first numbers. Those who received the first numbers had the right to take places in front, more convenient when drawing from models.

When, a year later, he was transferred to the next, full-scale class, it became much more interesting to study. With trepidation, he entered the classroom, where the students were seated in a semicircle in front of the sitter. It was very crowded and stuffy. From time to time a professor in uniform walked along the rows, stopped beside someone, looked, straightened the drawing and slowly walked on.

Vasnetsov went all over to work; sometimes it seemed to him that he was not doing anything, that he was very weak in drawing, that he did not know how to find a form - to express how he sees and feels nature. Nevertheless, he was awarded two small silver medals for the drawing and sketch in oil paints, and a large silver medal for the sketch “Pilate Washes His Hands”. The theme of the sketch was a gospel legend: Pilate washes his hands in front of a crowd, giving Christ to her for execution.

Vasnetsov fought with the sketch for a long time, wrote it in his own way, but while he was writing, he thought more than once about what he was doing wrong. His new friends were right, who rebelled against "pure" and "sublime" art and paint pictures from real life.

Vasnetsov had not yet painted pictures, but he painted a lot, worked "for himself" - he sketched everything that stopped his attention, made him think about people, about life. He loved to watch life.

Here stands a rag-boy with a sack over his shoulders and a hook in his hand; night watchman in a sheepskin coat; the monk-collector - obese, cunning, greedy; a merchant in the hallway at the bailiff - he came to congratulate the authorities on the holiday, and, of course, not empty-handed: next to the floor is a head of sugar and a basket of wine; another merchant with his family at the theater ... And here is an old, chilled man; at first glance, he seems a little funny in his shabby greatcoat and awkward head, but if you look at the drawing a little longer, you will imagine his life, which is not at all funny. He was an official, went to office, did something, but now he is retired, a "supernumerary", useless, lonely old man ... And another wonderful drawing that Vasnetsov called "Winter": a dark sky, a blizzard, maybe be, this is some kind of outskirts of the city. No houses or passers-by are visible. The old woman is walking. One. She has several logs in her hands. The wind tears the shabby cloak; her face is tense, exhausted. It's hard to walk. Will it get there? Will she bring her logs home? ..

The publishers of magazines and newspapers, who visited the cartographic institution, gradually recognized the young talented and inexpensive artist, and began to order him drawings for their publications. Once they offered to make drawings for the fairy tale "The Little Humpbacked Horse". Working on the drawings for this fairy tale was joyful and at the same time a little sad - I recalled my childhood in Ryabovo, blizzard winter evenings, the tales of the old cook. Another time it was necessary to illustrate the children's book "The Adventures of the Goat Memeki and His Friends." Vasnetsov introduced into this mediocre fairy tale in verse so much funny and fresh that Stasov wrote in one of his articles: "Vasnetsov's illustrations are a true masterpiece ... All this is picturesque, picturesquely drawn, with great comic and skill."

With the same skill, Vasnetsov made drawings for three alphabets: "People's Alphabet", "Soldier" and somewhat later for "Russian Alphabet for Children". In total, these alphabets contained about 150 drawings: peasant life, children, pictures of native nature, the world of animals, heroes of Russian epics and fairy tales ... "What an amazing mass," said Stasov. Most of the drawings Vasnetsov himself prepared for printing - he drew on a board, on a "piece of wood", and often cut the drawings himself.

So, along with academic training, he had his own life, independent work. And he did it not only to earn money, which he constantly needed. In his sketches from nature, in illustrations, he always truthfully, with great sympathy for the "humiliated and insulted" people, talked about the life he knew in Vyatka, observed in St. Petersburg. Numerous drawings of the first years of Petersburg life were for him a great school of the artist - he learned to see sharper, draw more confidently, and relate more meaningfully to the life around him.

At the end of the summer of 1870, Pavel Petrovich Chistyakov arrived from abroad. He was a pensioner of the Academy of Arts, lived in Italy and has now returned home and brought back his Italian work. The work academy council approved and awarded him the title of academician of painting. Before his trip to Italy, Chistyakov taught at the Drawing School. They knew him, considered him a talented teacher, they hoped that he would be invited as a professor at the academy, but he received this appointment only two years later, but for now, as it was before his retirement, many young, novice artists and students of the academy came to his house, brought drawings, sketches of future paintings, consulted with him. Vasnetsov also came one day. Chistyakov looked at his drawings for a long time, attentively, and spoke to him in such a friendly manner that it seemed to Vasnetsov that he had known him for a very long time. After a while Vasnetsov came again. The acquaintance turned into a friendship, strong, long.

For Vasnetsov, Chistyakov was a teacher-friend.

The authorities of the Imperial Academy of Arts did not particularly favor Chistyakov and more than once tried to survive as an independent, courageous, fair teacher. And he fought, he could not abandon the students whom he loved, on whom he hoped. - after all, among them were such talented young men as Repin, Vasnetsov, Surikov, Polenov and many others. Like Kramskoy and Stasov, he could not help but recognize the Academy as a school of high professional skill, but he constantly said that it was necessary to study nature, Russian reality, and delve deeper into the meaning of the events depicted. “Without an idea,” he said, “there is no high art, so everything - paints, light, etc., should be subordinated to meaning ... Color in a picture should help the content, and not shine stupidly and boastfully.”

When Chistyakov spoke, it seemed to Vasnetsov that he was guessing his thoughts, the very thoughts that were chaotically crowded in his head and with which he could not cope with himself. He left Chistyakov always enlightened, joyful. “My conversations with Pavel Petrovich Chistyakov brought a lot of warmth and light into my life,” he recalled many years later.

3

Almost three years have passed since Vasnetsov arrived in St. Petersburg, and it seemed to him that an eternity had passed, that during these three years he had learned and understood much more than in all the previous years of his life. In Vyatka, he probably read more, but here, in St. Petersburg, every book he read, every article in the Sovremennik magazine, every new poem by Nekrasov was revealed to the end in conversations and disputes. The names of Belinsky, Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky, which the teacher Krasovsky pronounced with such reverence, have now become closer, dearer. In all that they wrote, he now more and more clearly felt the breath of modernity, learned to better understand what was happening around him, to more correctly relate to questions of art.

And how much communication with such people as Kramskoy, Stasov, Chistyakov gave him! How life blossomed with friendship with Repin, Polenov! Both friends treated him equally. There was in him something of his own, tender, which especially touched them. It seemed that somewhere in the depths of his soul he kept a precious treasure of childhood and adolescence, the secret of the Vyatka taiga forests, fairy tales and songs of his dear Ryabov.

In 1871, Repin and Polenov graduated from the Academy of Arts. Both wrote their competitive works - programs on the usual academic theme: "The Resurrection of Jairus's Daughter." It was compulsory work, and it was impossible not to do it before graduating from the academy. But along with her, Repin was fascinated by his first large painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga". In the summer he went to the Volga, made a lot of sketches, sketches of barge haulers, and in the fall he began to paint a picture. Polenov was going on a retirement business trip abroad - a gold medal was awaiting him, and he was confident of the trip.

And Vasnetsov was still far from graduation from the academy. He continued to work on his "pieces of wood", diligently completed academic assignments, visited Chistyakov and secretly dreamed of painting. Kramskoy said more than once that it was time for him to switch to oil paints, but Vasnetsov hesitated, hesitated, and most likely because he did not feel completely healthy. Affected, of course, and the first years of hunger, and backbreaking work for the sake of earnings, and the damp fog of St. Petersburg. There was not in him that vigor, that passionate desire to work, study, observe life, discovering something new in it every time. Friends tried to persuade him to leave, rest, receive medical treatment.

Vasnetsov made up his mind and in the spring of 1871 left Petersburg home, to Ryabovo. But that house, which had been so dear to him since childhood, was no longer there. There was no mother around whom all life went; father died recently; the younger brothers lived with their aunts. He was especially worried about the fate of his brother Apollinarius, who graduated from the theological school in Vyatka. When, in the year of his father's death, Victor came home for a short time, he was amazed and delighted by his brother's drawings - they had their own, serious, albeit very childish. Then he asked Andriolli to follow his brother's studies and now, having arrived in Vyatka, he was surprised at what progress Apollinaris had made.

And Apollinarius did not leave Victor all summer, he drew a lot, looked, studied. “I became an artist because I saw his drawings and works from childhood. Victor vigilantly followed the correct transmission of nature, followed the form, technique and choice of nature, and all the albums of that (Vyatka) time were painted under his leadership, ”he recalled when he had already become a great artist and a prominent scientist-archaeologist.

Victor's health was gradually recovering, he began to work, drew and painted sketches from nature, conceived to paint an oil painting - he dreamed of this back in St. Petersburg. True, a few years ago he painted two oil paintings - "The Reaper" and "The Milkmaid", which were played in the lottery. Both of these paintings were the first experience of a young man who had not studied anywhere yet, and now he is a graduate of the Academy of Arts, studies in St. Petersburg and will write in a completely different way.

The plot of the picture appeared somehow by itself. These were childhood memories of those beggar singers who usually crowded around the Ryabov church on holiday, sat on the ground. As a child, these beggars evoked in him a kind of aching, melancholy feeling. On this visit, he perceived everything in his native places in an adult way. The beggar-singers no longer aroused feelings of pity in him - he looked at them for a long time, attentively, tried to delve into the words, the meaning of their song. And the crowd around! .. I wanted to give it as simple and at the same time as difficult as he saw it, as it happens in life. What different people, how differently they stand, look, listen! And how picturesque it all is! He thought: he found a real theme for the picture, native, Russian.

The first joyful and at the same time painful "approaches" to the picture began. He drew, thought, did sketches. The first time he painted such a multi-figured picture, he painted in the air. Writing it was not easy. He had to work hard before he "put all the characters in the picture," as he later said. He forgot to even think about the teachings of academic professors, about conversations and disputes with comrades about how to build a picture correctly, what composition is, whether it is necessary to write sketches.

Work on the painting progressed slowly, but Vasnetsov's perseverance and ability to work were exceptional, and once he started the work he almost always brought it to an end. In Vyatka, where he sometimes visited to see old friends, and most importantly, his new acquaintance Sasha Ryazantseva, whom he really liked, everyone praised the picture, but he himself was already beginning to see its shortcomings. She seemed to him somewhat overloaded, and, perhaps, it was necessary to make her more collected, stricter. He called this picture "The Beggar-Singers".

4

While Victor lived in Ryabov and Vyatka, extraordinary events took place in the artistic life of St. Petersburg: the charter of the new Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions was approved - "mobile exhibitions", as they were then called. Among the artists, there was only talk about a new partnership, about the first exhibition. which was supposed to open in St. Petersburg at the end of 1871. Vasnetsov had already seen some, not yet completely finished paintings in the workshops of Kramskoy, Maksimov and other artists, but he was not at the exhibition. News about the exhibition reached Vyatka, and newspaper articles about it also reached. One of my friends sent an article to V.V. Stasov and Vasnetsov; after he read it, it seemed that he had visited the exhibition, saw Ge's painting - "Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich in Peterhof", and "May Night" by Kramskoy, and "Hunters at a Halt" by Perov, and the magnificent "Pine forest »Shishkin. I saw how "rooks flew in" in Savrasov's painting, how transparent the air is, thin birch trees stretch towards the sun, and behind the birch trees - houses, an old bell tower, darkened snow of fields ...

He read and reread this article by Stasov, and his heart was filled with joyful triumph: here, in Vyatka, far from Petersburg, from the friends of artists, he still felt himself "a representative of the Russian land from art." He is a Russian artist, and he is a fighter - albeit an inconspicuous one - of the army of artists that finally entered the battle with the "living dead" of the Academy of Arts. Each private of this army threw aside "trinkets and idle amusements of art." Everyone believes in the strength and vitality of art, that genuine art that always wins. And how well Stasov writes that “the artists are beginning to think not only about the buyers, but also about the people; not only about rubles, but also about those who cling to their hearts to their creations and begin to live by them. "

In September 1872, Vasnetsov, together with his brother Apollinaris, left for St. Petersburg. We rode on horseback to Kazan, on the way we stopped by our elder brother Nikolai, who was a teacher at the factory. Vasnetsov had not seen him for a long time; talked all night, remembered childhood, Ryabovo, relatives. In the morning we drove on.

We arrived in Petersburg on a damp, foggy day. And again a room in a cheap hotel, a search for a room using white tickets pasted on the windows, a small room with a samovar in the morning and in the evening, rented from the hostess. Victor found a job quickly - he again took up his "pieces of wood", carried out various small artistic orders, and Apollinaris tried to help him in this. He fiddled a lot with the painting "Beggar-Singers", which he did not manage to finish in Ryabov, and when he finished it, he put it on the exhibition of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. It passed somehow imperceptibly, but nevertheless, a review appeared in one of the magazines, in which it was noted that the artist had "a remarkable ability to grasp folk types."

In St. Petersburg, he found himself in the thick of things. The debate and talk about the first exhibition, which Perov and Myasoedov moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow, then to Kiev, Kharkov ... Everyone was worried, in a hurry to finish the pictures, everyone was in high spirits and tense. “The youth and strength of fresh Russian thought reigned everywhere, cheerfully, cheerfully walked forward and broke without regret everything that it found obsolete, unnecessary ... This was exactly the talented galaxy of Russian artists of the sixties ...” They “were eager for independent activity in art and dreamed about the impudent! - about the creation of a national Russian school of painting, ”Repin said.

Victor showed his brother Petersburg, took him to the Hermitage, went with him to the studios of artists he knew, and, of course, first of all to Repin. Apollinarius was shocked by everything he saw in St. Petersburg “The charge was strong enough to stun a young man like me ...” he later recalled. - In Vyatka, in a theological school, I did not even suspect that there is somewhere some kind of art life, embracing a person completely and selflessly. "

Apollinarius was already sixteen years old. From childhood he was greedy for everything: he was fond of geology, constantly carried out some kind of excavations on the Ryabovsky cliffs, compiled collections of fossils; studied astronomy with his father; read a lot, mainly historical works; sometimes he spent whole nights writing stories and novellas, but most of all he loved to draw and after the arrival of his brother Victor finally decided to become an artist.

He could not enter the Academy of Arts, he did not have a high school diploma - he graduated only from a theological school. I had to hurriedly prepare for the exams. Familiar Vyatichi students helped: they studied mathematics, geography and other subjects necessary to obtain a document with him. Drawing was taught by Victor. He was a demanding teacher, he was afraid to "dissolve his brother" - he was a little upset that Apollinaris had not yet settled down, he was scattered about. And Apollinarius spoke about him later: “Until the end of my life I will not forget what he was for me as an artist and how much he did to me as an artist. It was a teacher, friend, caring brother ... "

And Victor has been thinking about a new painting all the last time, but he couldn’t put anything on the second traveling exhibition yet. He prepared for a new picture for a long time, seriously, talked about it with Chistyakov, whom he often visited. It would seem that they had the most ordinary conversation about art, and quite unexpectedly for Vasnetsov, this conversation suddenly turned into a fascinating lesson. Chistyakov spoke sharply, figuratively, interspersed speech with his own, "Chistyakov's" words. He somehow knew how to guess what Vasnetsov needed for the picture, did not dictate anything to him, did not impose anything on him, but he would say that Vasnetsov would leave him enriched, dreaming only of getting down to the picture as soon as possible.

Just like in the film "The Beggar-Singers", he wanted to show in his new work some everyday scene that would make the audience think about the reality around them. A lot has been done over the years of pencil sketches, which could become a plot, a theme for a future picture, but it was difficult to dwell on one thing. In the first hungry months of St. Petersburg life, when he wandered around the city, looking for where he could eat cheaply and sit warm, he often went to a seedy tavern, to a teahouse. I watched and listened to the conversations of various visitors for a long time; perhaps he also did sketches - he always had paper and pencil with him. And now he decided to write such a teahouse.

The door to the tea room is open. To the right of the door, a group of peasants is sitting at a table, apparently, this is a cartels' artel, who came to St. Petersburg to earn money. They rest after work. There are two teapots on the table, as it was supposed then, one big - with boiling water, the other small, colorful - for tea. Tea is drunk slowly, sedately. A guy younger than the others has already sipped his tea, knocked over the cup, listens to what the artisan literate is reading, who has a newspaper in his hands. To the left of the door, an old man is sitting at a table; he is deep in thought, and his face is so exhausted that one can immediately say that he has lived a difficult life. A boy stood at the door — a tavern servant; he looks at the lonely old man, who is probably carrying a teapot and a saucer of sugar. And behind the boy's back is a new visitor, who looks like a tipsy artisan.

Chistyakov sometimes dropped in to see how Vasnetsov was working on the painting. Once I spoke to him about color and said: “The color in a composition is when you look at one figure and see that it answers to others, that is, when everything sings together.” Vasnetsov knew how to understand his teacher perfectly. Chistyakov spoke precisely about what tormented Vasnetsov himself, which was not given to him. Yes, in the picture "everything must sing together", but he has a variegation, the picture is not assembled in color. True, he is almost satisfied with the composition of the picture, almost satisfied with the way his plot is expressed, how each figure is worked out ... He seeks again and again, remakes and achieves perfection.

Chistyakov praised Vasnetsov's work on the painting and wrote about this in his letter to Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov.

And Vasnetsov's relationship with the academy did not go well. He began to attend classes less and less, and devoted less and less time to academic studies.

Along with his main work "Tea drinking in a tavern", he paints the picture "Worker with a wheelbarrow", makes drawings for children's stories, illustrates Gogol's story "Taras Bulba", dreams of new great works.

The third traveling exhibition opened on January 21, 1874. At this exhibition Vasnetsov performed for the first time with his painting "Tea drinking in a tavern". He was glad that from now on he was also a member of a large family of Itinerant artists, that his painting hung in the same halls where the canvases of Kramskoy, Perov, Savrasov, Myasoedov ... With some timidity he walked through the halls, not daring to approach his picture ... But she seemed to make a good impression, and after a while approving reviews appeared in the newspapers.

Kramskoy liked "Tea drinking in a tavern", and he wrote to Repin in Paris: "My dear Vasnetsov paints a very good picture, very much." And soon after the exhibition, in a letter to the same Repin, he wrote: “To whom should we turn our hopes? Of course, for the young, fresh, beginner. " And among young people, he especially singles out the "clear sun" - Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov. “I’m ready to vouch for him, if a guarantee is permissible at all. A special string beats in it; it is a pity that he is very gentle in character, requires care and watering ”.

And when Kramskoy painted a portrait of Vasnetsov around the same time, he saw his other features behind the "tenderness of character": inner composure, concentration, strength of mind ... "A man is harder than a stone, more tender than a flower" - an eastern proverb involuntarily comes to mind, although and we see a portrait of a young Vyatich, "a hare from head to toe," with attentive gray eyes, in which a light of concern burns.

Kramskoy, perhaps the first of the Russian artists - friends of Vasnetsov - understood all the originality of his character, felt that “a special string was beating in him,” that a “purebred artist,” as he said, was growing. But both he and Chistyakov believed that there was nothing more for Vasnetsov to do at the academy. Vasnetsov himself thought so, and at the beginning of 1875 he left the academy. He was given a certificate stating that he was one of the students of the academy and showed very good success in painting, was awarded two small and one large silver medals.

The Vasnetsov brothers still lived together. Apollinarius, under the guidance of Victor, painted a lot, studied and in the summer of 1875 left for Vyatka to take exams in order to receive a certificate of graduation from high school and enter the Academy of Arts.

In Vyatka, he immediately got into the society of his younger brothers and their comrades in the agricultural zemstvo institute. It was a time when people from St. Petersburg, Moscow, from different cities of Russia went to the village, “to the people,” in groups and alone. Having learned some kind of craft, they became propagandists - "propagators", as they were then called. Among them there were many rural teachers, doctors ... The tsarist government persecuted this "going to the people": arrests were going on everywhere, many young men and women were in prisons. The case "on revolutionary propaganda in the empire" was started, which lasted for about three years and ended with the "trial of the 193s".

Apollinarius “turned the steering wheel of life abruptly,” as he later wrote in his autobiography. He decided not to enter the Academy of Arts, passed the exam for a rural teacher and left to teach in the countryside. In a letter to his brother, he said: “I, you, we all ... are debtors ... of society, but not everything. I consider myself a debtor to someone who, in the autumn rain, in the wind that pierces to the bones, in the cold, when the blood freezes in the veins, brought in by snow in the steppes, carries his bread to others, obtained by sweat and blood; to one who lives in a cramped shack with air corroding the eyes; to one who, in the terrible heat, stupidly works in the field; to the one who plows, mows, harrows the whole summer, almost without resting ... ”Victor was in despair, dissuaded his brother, got angry. He firmly believed that the true path of Apollinarius was the path of the artist and that on this path he would bring much more benefit to the people. Apollinarius recalled many years later that then he "defended himself with the ardor of a carried away youth, headlong flying into the abyss."

Victor himself worked very hard, preparing for the upcoming exhibition, which opened in March 1876. At this exhibition, viewers saw two new paintings by Vasnetsov: "From apartment to apartment" and "Bookshop". Both paintings had "decisive success," as Kramskoy said. The picture "From apartment to apartment" touched everyone especially.

Gloomy St. Petersburg winter day. Grey sky. The Neva is frozen, and two people are walking along the dirty snow across the Neva - an old man and an old woman. They walk slowly, bent over, their faces are sad, submissive. In the hands of bundles with pitiful rags, a coffee pot. With them, the old dog is a faithful companion both in sorrow and in joy. It must not be the first time, in the middle of winter, that they move to a new cheaper apartment.

The picture is painted in grayish-brown tones, and this color scheme, which so well conveys the idea of ​​the picture, is perhaps the first time Vasnetsov has been able to find with such subtle sincerity. Vasnetsov said to one of his friends: "With my picture I tried not only to show people, but also to reveal the terrible order against which my heart constantly rebelled."

5

Several months after the exhibition, Vasnetsov decided to go abroad. For a long time he dreamed of a trip, and for a long time Repin called him to Paris and wrote to him: “Here is my advice to you, so as not to forget: save now as much money as you can, by May and in May come here ... Come directly to for us ... we take you out everywhere in Paris until you get bored, but as soon as you get bored - God bless you home. Thus, you will recognize everything overseas at once and go ten times more bold and stronger and will not indistinctly indulge in longing for the unknown. Needless to say about the benefits that such a trip brings: it opens your eyes to everything. And most importantly, you will be glad that you are a Russian person in many ways ... "

By May 1876, Vasnetsov finally managed to save up some money and escape from St. Petersburg. He decided to go to Paris, where the retirees of the Academy of Arts lived at that time - Repin, Polenov and other familiar artists. All of them happily greeted Vasnetsov - as if their native "clear sun" had actually glanced at them, as Viktor Vasnetsov was often called now with the light hand of Kramskoy. There was no end to conversations and questions.

Vasnetsov spent whole days in museums, art galleries, studied paintings by old masters, and many times was at the annual large exhibition at the Salon. In this magnificent Salon, where several thousand paintings were exhibited, he was most struck, as he wrote to Kramskoy, that "among the mass of canvases, huge and often funny ... there is almost nothing from ordinary French life." And Vasnetsov, when he went to Paris, wanted first of all to get to know the ordinary life of ordinary people. He settled in Meudon, a small village near Paris, in a peasant family. The owners were simple, kind people, they lived quietly, and no one interfered with his work, observing the life that interested him most of all. The pages of the albums were gradually filled with drawings, watercolors - there was a Meudon forest, and peasant children, and a shepherd, and a French worker in a straw hat ...

Once, on a holiday, a traveling circus came to the village. In the evening, people gathered in front of the booth. On the stage, Pierrot the clown in a white robe announced to the audience the beginning of the performance; drums were beating nearby, a trumpet was thundering. And behind the clown was a quiet circus horse, on which a little monkey was sitting. Against the backdrop of a dark sky, illuminated by the wavering light of oil lamps, this traveling circus was so picturesque that Vasnetsov caught fire. He decided to paint a big picture and show the circus just as he saw it the evening before the show. He had never painted such large pictures before - all the more he was carried away by this thought. But the picture, which he called either "Acrobats" or "Balagans in the vicinity of Paris", was not entirely successful for him. You watch it, and at first you really like it. I like the elegance with which it is written, fresh and unexpected colors for Vasnetsov, the great ease and breadth of the manner of writing. But the more you examine it, the clearer you see that the most important thing is not in it - that Vasnetsovian soulfulness, which permeated all his previous drawings, watercolors, paintings. France could not inspire him, although she taught him a lot. He enriched his technique, began to write "bolder and stronger", and most importantly, "was glad that he was a Russian" - in this Repin was right.

After living in Paris for about a year, Vasnetsov felt that he could no longer stay away from Russia, and especially after Repin and Polenov, without waiting for the end of their retirement period, left home. Vasnetsov, in order to leave, needed money, but he was always short of money. Rescued Kramskoy and thus, as Vasnetsov said, saved him from "unnecessary stay in Paris."

It was alarming in Petersburg. The Russian-Turkish war began about a month ago. All advanced Russian people sympathized with the sufferings of the fraternal Slavic peoples who were under the yoke of Turkey. They understood that the tsarist government was not prepared for war. Many writers, doctors, public figures and artists went to the front as volunteers. The seriously ill Nekrasov could not help but respond to the events taking place. Almost on the eve of his death, he wrote the poem "Autumn". And as if in response to these verses, the artist Vasnetsov created the painting "Military Telegram".

Early morning. A fine autumn rain is drizzling. On the wall of the house there is a front-line bulletin in front of which people have gathered. Here is an old retired military man, and some kind of apprentice in a cap, and several peasants who came to the city to work or in the hope of learning something about their loved ones at the front. Everyone's faces are serious, alert: everyone has anxiety in their hearts, and war brings sorrow to everyone.

It would seem that Vasnetsov found his true vocation and firmly followed the path of the artist of everyday scenes, the path followed by many Itinerants, advanced, democratically inclined genre painters. But Vasnetsov was dissatisfied with his work and himself in all recent years. "Every day I am convinced of my uselessness in its present form," he once wrote to Kramskoy and, as Repin said, "indulged in longing for the unknown." Was it just longing for the unknown?

Vasnetsov was confused. He went through sketches, drawings, watercolors, made over the years. What a multitude of them! Here are sketches of different people, and scenes from life, illustrations for alphabets, children's books, and thoughts about future paintings ... But fairy tales, epics - the firebird, the humpbacked horse, Mikula Selyaninovich, the first sketches of the heroes and more recently made watercolor drawing "A Knight at a Crossroads" ... He himself, perhaps, like his knight, stands at a crossroads. Vague, but constant dreams of new paintings for new, completely different than before, themes overwhelm him. Petersburg was tired, seemed cold, uncomfortable. Repin and Polenov, who had lived in Moscow for about a year, called him, wrote that only in Moscow can a real artist create. Vasnetsov himself was drawn to Moscow. He wrote: “I felt with all my being that only Moscow, its people, its history, its Kremlin can revive, resurrect my fantasy, exhausted by the Petersburg indifference and coldness! Only Moscow, this primordial center of all that is dear, from childhood so close and understandable, will be able to properly saturate my art longing for everything Russian, throughout folk poetry, direct me to a real, Russian artist's path and direction. "

Vasnetsov decided to move to Moscow. He was already married to Sasha Ryazantseva, who graduated from medical courses; her graduation was the first graduation of female doctors in Russia.

The Vasnetsovs arrived in Moscow in the early spring of 1878 and settled on Ostozhenka, in the quiet Ushakovsky lane. “When I arrived in Moscow,” Vasnetsov said, “I felt that I had come home and there was nowhere else to go - the Kremlin, Basil the Blessed, made me almost cry, to such an extent all this breathed into my soul, unforgettable”. Excited, he walked around Moscow, along narrow, crooked alleys, on high bridges; looked at the old walls and towers of the Kremlin. He happily greeted the first Moscow spring with golden sunsets, green birches and lindens on wide boulevards.

In the fall of 1878, Apollinarius arrived and settled with his brother. He broke with populism, gave up teaching and decided to devote his life to art. Viktor Mikhailovich was delighted with this decision. He could again help his brother in his studies, facilitate his first difficult steps on a new path.

Apollinarius, just like Viktor Mikhailovich, having arrived in Moscow, was delighted with the ancient monuments, the Kremlin and immersed himself in the study of the past. He tirelessly wandered around the neighborhoods, which in some way reminded him of Vyatka and Ryabov, painted landscapes. Gradually, he became friends with all of his brother's friends and watched their work with excitement. Surikov at this time began the painting "The Morning of the Strelets' Execution" and collected material for it; Repin worked on a painting from the same era - "Princess Sophia"; Polenov painted sketches of cathedrals and towers of the Moscow Kremlin, and when the sixth traveling exhibition moved to Moscow, he gave his wonderful Moscow Courtyard to the exhibition. Vasnetsov at this exhibition was represented by paintings: "Acrobats", "Military Telegram", "Victory" and a watercolor drawing "The Knight at the Crossroads".

The painting "Military Telegram" was bought by Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov for his gallery, Vasnetsov met Tretyakov in St. Petersburg, where Pavel Mikhailovich watched his genre paintings, and now in Moscow he got to know him better. Tretyakov's daughter very well tells about her first acquaintance with Vasnetsov in her memoirs about her father: “... In the summer, several familiar artists came to our dacha in Kuntsevo. They said that Vasnetsov was also going, but he was not there. We decided not to wait any longer and go for a walk. We walked along the path in a stretched group, children in front. Not far from the house, a slender figure flew towards us, which, despite a dark suit, seemed light from a fair face and hair. This was Vasnetsov. He was in a hurry, looking for us, accidentally hitting a neighboring dacha. From the joyful exclamations of his comrades who followed us, the atmosphere of sympathy that surrounded Vasnetsov immediately became clear. This appearance will be remembered forever. "

From then until the very death of Tretyakov, Vasnetsov was a welcome guest in his family. He always entered the Tretyakov Gallery with special trepidation and excitement, and later said that he really understood and saw many works of Russian painting only after he became a regular visitor to the gallery, and then to the Tretyakov family.

Tretyakov's wife was passionately fond of music, played the piano beautifully, and often organized musical evenings, which especially attracted Vasnetsov. He usually sat in the corner by the stove, between two tables, and "drank in the sounds that filled the room." Listening to music, he drew strength and inspiration from it for a new, his way in art.

6

In Vasnetsov's small room, occupying the entire wall, there was a painting he had begun, which now possessed all his thoughts. It was a painting inspired by the poetic legend of the Russian people "The Lay of Igor's Campaign", about the campaign of Prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the Polovtsi.

With the eyes of the soul, he had already seen this distant past, felt his connection with it. But that was not enough. It was still necessary to study this past. He began to avidly read historical works, collected material, made many preparatory drawings and sketches. And most importantly, he re-read The Lay again and again, each time discovering in it a new high truth, a new poetic charm. Most of all, he was excited and inspired by his lines, which spoke of the death of Igor's regiment:

From dawn to evening, the whole day,
Arrows fly from evening to light
Sharp sabers clatter against helmets,
With a crash of a spear breaks the damask ...
... The third day they are already beating;
The third day is already approaching noon;
Here and Igor's banners fell!
... Already the brave Russians are gone
There is bloody wine for a feast,
They got the matchmakers drunk, and themselves
We fell for our father's land.

And let arrows fly, spears break, a terrible battle is going on.

Vasnetsov will not tell about her in his picture; he will talk about how brave Russians know how to die defending their native land, and will name the picture "After the slaughter of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsy."

The battle is over; the moon rises slowly from behind the clouds. Quiet. The bodies of the killed Russian knights lie on the field, the Polovtsians lie. Here, spreading his arms wide, the Russian hero is asleep in eternal sleep. Next to him is a beautiful, fair-haired youth, struck by an arrow - he seems to be asleep. The flowers have not yet withered - blue bells, daisies, and vulture eagles are already hovering over the field, smelling their prey. Deep sadness is spread throughout the Russian land.

It would seem that the Russians have lost the battle and the picture should be gloomy and dull in color. But Vasnetsov thought differently. His picture will be a solemnly sad hymn to the Russian soldiers who died for their homeland. She should "sound like music, sing like an epic, and excite like a native song." Instead of the grayish-brown tones that were so characteristic of most of Vasnetsov's paintings, this picture of his shimmered with slightly muted yellow, blue, red, gray-brown tones and seemed almost festive.

When the painting "After the Battle of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsy" appeared in 1880 at the eighth traveling exhibition, it caused the most contradictory rumors. One after another negative reviews began to appear in the newspapers, and not even all the Wanderers understood what an amazing work it was; not everyone saw the new Vasnetsov.

Vasnetsov was depressed, confused. In this difficult time for him, his friends-artists Kramskoy, Repin, Chistyakov and many others supported him. Repin wrote: "For me, this is an unusually wonderful, new and deeply poetic thing, something like this has never happened in the Russian school." Chistyakov was delighted with the picture. “You, noblest Viktor Mikhailovich, are a poet-artist,” he wrote. - Such a distant, such a grandiose and in its own way original Russian spirit smelled of me that I was simply sad: I, the pre-Petrine eccentric, envied you ... All day I wandered around the city, and a string of familiar pictures stretched out, and I saw my native Russia, and quietly passed one after another and the rivers are wide, and the fields are endless, and the villages ... Thank you, sincere thanks to you from the Russian man ... "

Vasnetsov was deeply touched by the letter: “There are, Pavel Petrovich, in your letter there are such places that, although it’s ashamed, I cried ... You inspired me, elevated, strengthened me so much that the blues flew away and even though back into battle, the beast is not scary everything, especially newspaper. As if on purpose, they scold me more now than ever - I almost never read a kind word about my painting ... One thing torments me: my skill is weak, sometimes I feel like the greatest ignoramus and ignoramus. Of course, I will not despair, I know that if you constantly look after yourself, then at least with a sparrow step, you can move. "

But Vasnetsov walked forward not with passerine, but gigantic steps, and he should not despair. The circle of his admirers grew wider, they began to understand Vasnetsov, the artist-poet, selflessly in love with his native country, “the singer of the distant epic of our history, our people,” in the words of the artist Nesterov. Nesterov himself did not immediately discern the new Vasnetsov and how his eyes opened, he said: “Once I was wandering around the Tretyakov Gallery. There was a group of visitors at Vasnetsov's "Battle of Igor". Among them I noticed the then famous artist of the Maly Theater Maksheev; he warmly, enthusiastically explained to those around him the poetic charm of the picture. I involuntarily began to listen attentively to the enthusiastic narration of the artist, and I do not know how it happened, but as if the veil from my eyes fell off. I recovered my sight, saw in Vasnetsov's creation that which had been hidden from me for so long. I saw and passionately fell in love with the new Vasnetsov - Vasnetsov, a great poet, singer of a distant epic of our history, our people, our homeland. "

7

Once in winter, Repin introduced Vasnetsov to Savva Ivanovich Mamontov. A large industrialist, an exceptionally gifted person, he was a good sculptor, musician, and was passionately fond of theater. In his house, just like at the Tretyakovs, artists, actors, musicians gathered, home performances were often staged, literary readings were arranged. “On the very first evening, I, a very uncommunicative and shy person in those days, stood already on the home stage in the living picture“ The Vision of Margarita to Faust ”in the form of Mephistopheles ... And after all, no one forced me to do this, but my figure just seemed suitable ... and you're done! " - later recalled Vasnetsov. So began an acquaintance, and then friendship with the entire Mamontov family.

Life during these years was very difficult for Vasnetsov: the family grew, the pictures were paid poorly, there was always not enough money. More than once it happened to pawn the only valuable thing - a silver watch - or borrow from friends, although they themselves often sat without money. But Vasnetsov and his wife knew how to treat these everyday adversities.

Life became easier when Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov bought a painting "After Igor's Massacre" for his gallery, and Mamontov ordered several new paintings. Then he was finishing the construction of the Donetsk railway - the first railway line to the Donetsk basin - and dreamed of decorating the board of the Moscow railway station with pictures of good artists. “It is necessary to accustom the people's eyes to beauty at train stations, in churches, on the streets,” he said.

Decorate the board of a Moscow railway station with pictures? Which ones? Vasnetsov had a difficult task. From the very beginning, one thing was clear to him: each picture should tell the audience about the great love of the Russian people for their homeland, about their bold daring, dreams and hopes.

Here the rich Donetsk region is awakening to life, and Vasnetsov is presented with pictures of the distant past of this region: the wide Don steppes, nomads who several centuries ago attacked the Russian lands, robbed them, took people prisoner. And now the battle ... The horses are racing. A huge black horse rears up in front of the enemy's small, steppe horse. Now the enemy will throw a spear and deal a fatal blow, but the Russian warrior will reflect the blow. And on the field already from both sides warriors are jumping to the rescue ... This is the "Battle of the Slavs with the nomads." Everything in her is movement, a whirlwind, she is all colorful, bright, impetuous.

The second picture tells a fairy tale that Vasnetsov heard more than once in childhood. This is a tale about how three brothers were looking for a bride. The older one looked for - did not find, the middle one looked for - did not find, and the younger, whose name was Ivanushka the Fool, found the coveted stone, pushed it aside and ended up in the underworld, where three princesses lived - Gold, Precious stones and Princess Medi. This is how the fairy tale painting "Three princesses of the underworld" appeared. Three princesses are standing by a dark rock. The elders are in rich costumes, studded with precious stones; the youngest is in a black dress, and on her head, in her black hair, a coal is burning as a sign that the depths of the Donetsk region are inexhaustible. Vasnetsov here allowed some liberty and turned the princess Medi into princess Coal. According to the tale, the youngest princess marries Ivan the Fool.

The hero of Vasnetsov's next picture - "Flying Carpet" - will be this Ivanushka the fool - a wonderful prince. Older brothers always laugh at him. And he, when trouble comes, overcomes all obstacles, and his smart, kind heart conquers evil, as the sun conquers darkness. He manages to wake up the sleeping beauty, make Princess Nesmeyana laugh, get a firebird that brings people happiness.

A flying carpet flies high in the sky and Ivan Tsarevich firmly holds the firebird in a golden cage. Like a huge bird, the flying carpet spread its wings. In fear, night owls fly away from an unknown bird ...

When Vasnetsov painted this picture, he remembered that first Russian man, a lordly servant, who, on the wings he made himself, even during the time of Ivan the Terrible, tried to fly into the sky from a high tower. And even if he died, even if people ridiculed him for his daring attempt, but proud dreams of flying into the sky will never disappear, and always a magic carpet-flying will inspire people to exploits.

The fourth painting, commissioned by Mamontov, was The Knight at the Crossroads. Vasnetsov had been thinking about such a picture for a long time, back in St. Petersburg, when he listened to a student Savenkov read one of the epics about Ilya Muromets. From that time, pencil sketches have survived, later a pen drawing and watercolors were made on the same topic. And now the big picture has been painted.

At a roadside stone on a mighty white horse, a hero stopped - a knight in rich armor, in a helmet, with a spear in his hand. In the distance, the endless steppe with boulders scattered over it leaves. The evening dawn is burning out; on the horizon a reddish stripe brightens, and the last faint ray of the sun slightly gilded the knight's helmet. The field on which the soldiers once fought is overgrown with feather-grass, the bones of dead people and animals turn white, and over the field there are black crows. The knight reads the inscription on the stone:

“How straight forward -
I do not live:
There is no way for a passer-by
Neither a carriageway nor a flyover. "

“To the right of the ehati is to be married,
Naleva - to be rich. "

What path will the knight choose? Vasnetsov is sure that the audience will "finish reading" the picture themselves. The glorious Russian knight is not looking for easy ways; he will choose the difficult but direct path. All other ways have been ordered for him. Now he will shake off unnecessary thoughts, raise the reins, spur his horse, and carry his horse to the battles for the Russian land, for the truth ...

Vasnetsov worked on paintings for the Donetsk railway for about three years. New themes were suggested by new color solutions. Just as in the painting "After the Battle", the gloomy painting of most of the first paintings was replaced by beauty and richness of colors. Unfortunately, none of these paintings made it to the Moscow railway station. There were such "connoisseurs and art lovers" who rejected them. They simply did not understand the new Vasnetsov - an amazing artist who by this time was firmly on a new path. When Stasov asked him how it happened that he moved away from everyday painting, Vasnetsov said: “I have always lived only in Russia. How I became a historian from a genre painter, in a somewhat fantastic way, I can’t answer for sure. I only know that during the period of the brightest passion for the genre in academic times in St. Petersburg, vague historical and fabulous dreams did not leave me. "

Vasnetsov made friends with the Mamontov family, visited them more and more often, and each time, going up the grand staircase, he felt some kind of special high spirits. He was very fond of the literary readings that took place in the large office of Savva Ivanovich.

On a table covered with red cloth, candles were burning in sparkling gilded candelabra, guests sat around the table and took turns reading poems, stories, and stories. Sometimes individual evenings were dedicated to Lermontov, Pushkin, Nekrasov, Zhukovsky, Nikitin, Koltsov. They were especially fond of Nekrasov. We often read plays by Ostrovsky, Pushkin, Gogol, A.K. Tolstoy, Schiller; at the same time, the roles were distributed among the participants in the readings, and a kind of performance was obtained, only without costumes and decorations.

Savva Ivanovich Mamontov, his family, children, all the numerous nephews and nieces - all lived in art, stage, music. “Savva Ivanovich had a special talent to excite the creativity of others, there was a kind of electric jet in him that ignited the energy of those around him,” Vasnetsov said. He was inexhaustible in invention; then everyone, led by the owner, went on sketches and then arranged an exhibition in the dining room of a large house; then they heatedly discussed the buildings that were being started on the estate; then everyone - both home and guests - was involved in staging some kind of performance, and Vasnetsov invariably took part in it.

Once he had to portray an Englishman visiting the Tretyakov Gallery. They attached red tanks to him, and he, not knowing a single word of English, pronounced English sounds so amazingly that everyone was indescribable delight.

In Abramtsevo, they liked to make distant excursions to the villages, where they enthusiastically examined the old Russian architecture, made sketches of some peasant hut with an intricate ridge on the roof, with patterned frames on the windows. After almost every such trip, they brought with them a lot of interesting things that they bought from the peasants: embroidered towels, wooden caskets, salt shakers covered with fine carvings.

Once Repin and Polenov saw in a neighboring village a carved cornice that adorned a peasant hut. They managed to buy this board, decorated with such skill by a folk craftsman. When they brought her home, everyone was delighted.

Somehow, by itself, a decision arose to arrange a museum of folk art samples in Abramtsevo. Gradually, the museum grew, and the artists who lived in Abramtsevo, in their free hours, began to paint themselves various utensils and wooden furniture in the Old Russian style. So, Vasnetsov depicted a crow and a magpie on the kitchen table doors. Repin decorated several caskets with carvings ...

This hobby of the inhabitants of Abramtsevo led to the creation of a woodcarving workshop at the Abramtsevo school. Vasnetsov, of course, took the most ardent part in organizing the workshop. The workshop was supervised by Mamontov's wife and Polenova's sister, artist Elena Dmitrievna Polenova. Handicraftsmen-carvers were invited to study with the students, and Viktor Mikhailovich ordered his brother Arkady, an excellent carpenter, to work in the workshop. “Our goal,” wrote Elena Dmitrievna Polenova in one of her letters, “is to pick up ... folk art and give it the opportunity to develop. We are looking mainly for inspiration and models, walking around the huts and looking closely at what constitutes their household items ... This art has not yet positively died among the people. "

All the artists worked very hard. Repin painted sketches for the painting "The Cossacks", thought about the painting "They Didn't Expect". Apollinary Vasnetsov tirelessly painted landscapes of Akhtyrka, Abramtsev. In him one could already feel the master of an accurate, subtle, poetic landscape. “I studied in nature and from nature, and they helped me in this, eternal gratitude to them for this, and Victor's peers, headed by him, and my peers,” Apollinary Vasnetsov later recalled.

And Viktor Vasnetsov? He was literally obsessed with art, devoted himself entirely to creativity. Almost at the same time he worked on the paintings of the Mamontov order, dreamed of "Heroes", became carried away by the idea of ​​the painting "Alyonushka". “I don’t remember exactly when Alyonushka was first born to me. It was as if she had lived in my head for a long time, but in reality I saw her in Akhtyrka when I met one simple-haired girl who struck my imagination. How much melancholy, loneliness and purely Russian sadness were in her eyes that I gasped right out, ”he said later.

For a long time Vasnetsov wandered around the outskirts of Akhtyrka, painted sketches - the Vorya River, white slender birches, young aspen trees, the bank of a quiet pond, which he later called "Alenushkin Pond" - he was looking for such a landscape that would help the viewer understand his Alyonushka - a girl from a fairy tale ...

By the fall, he took to Moscow a lot of sketches, sketches, studies for "Alyonushka". And in the spring at the ninth traveling exhibition he showed the paintings "The Battle of the Russians with the Nomads", "Three Princess of the Underground Kingdom", "Alenushka".

A girl with such an affectionate Russian name - Alyonushka - is sitting on a stone near a deep pool. She bowed her head sadly, clasped her knees with her slender hands, thought, perhaps, about her bitter lot or about brother Ivanushka. And everything around is sad. Autumn day, gray. The forest is dark; Thin aspens turn yellow, the reeds stand motionless, golden leaves are scattered over the whirlpool.

Everything in this picture is so simple that it seems that the artist painted it in one sitting. But one has only to look through the preliminary sketches, sketches for it, and we will understand how much, how thoughtfully Vasnetsov worked, until his first sketch, Alyonushka, turned into a lyrical picture. And if you have to visit the Tretyakov Gallery, be sure to go to the Vasnetsov Hall, where you will see the first sketches for "Alenushka" and the painting "Alyonushka".

8

On a winter day in 1881, after a whole day of work on the painting Alyonushka, Vasnetsov climbed the wide staircase of the Mamontov's house. He was in a hurry. That evening it was appointed to read the roles of the play by Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky "The Snow Maiden", which Savva Ivanovich had long dreamed of staging on the home stage.

The red sun is ours!

You are not more beautiful in the world, -

everyone was silent for a long time, fascinated by this spring, light and at the same time sad fairy-tale play with its Russian songs, round dances, dances. Then they all started talking at once, decided to put it on as soon as possible - by the New Year.

There was little time left before the performance. It was necessary to hastily learn the roles, sew costumes, prepare the props. Everyone found work. Vasnetsov was instructed to paint the scenery, make drawings of the costumes.

At first he even felt intimidated - he had never been a theater artist in his life. And then you can play the role of Santa Claus! “Out of habit it was difficult ... - said Viktor Mikhailovich. - Savva Ivanovich cheerfully encourages, the energy grows. I painted four sets with my own hands - the Prologue, the Berendeev Posad, the Berendeev Chamber and the Yarili Valley ... Until one or two in the morning, you used to paint with a wide paintbrush on a canvas spread on the floor, and you didn’t know what would come of it. Raise the canvas, and Savva Ivanovich is already there, he will look with a clear falcon's eye, say cheerfully, animatedly: "Oh, good!" You look - and it really seems good. And you won’t understand how you did it ”.

And what magnificent costumes Vasnetsov made for Snegurochka, Lel, Tsar Berendey and for all the characters in the play! When asked where he got such wonderful colors from, he answered like this: “... From folk festivities in Vyatka, in Moscow, on Devichye Pole, from the iridescent play of pearls, beads, colored stones on kokoshniks, quilted jackets, fur coats and other women's clothes, which I saw in my homeland and with which Moscow was still overflowing in the eighties! "

The evening of the performance came. The curtain quietly parted, and the audience immediately found themselves in the fabulous land of the Berendeys. Moonlit winter night; the stars flicker a little; dark forest, birches, pines, small houses with snow-covered roofs and a real Leshy on a dry stump:

The roosters crowed the end of winter,
Spring-Red descends to the ground.
The midnight hour has come, the gatehouse
Goblin Fenced off - dive into the hollow and sleep!

And further, in the following actions, viewers see Berendey's settlement with a huge yellow sunflower near Bobyl's hut, and the chambers of Tsar Berendey, painted with marvelous flowers and birds with stars, the moon and the sun - with all the "beauty of the heavenly", and the Yarilina valley, where they make noise , carefree berendeys and berendeys are having fun.

Repin played the boyar Bermyatu, Mamontov played Tsar Berendey, and Vasnetsov played Ded Moroz. In a white shirt, here and there stitched with silver, in mittens, with a lush shock of white hair, with a large white beard, with his Vyatka accent on "o", he created, as Mamontov's son later recalled, "an unforgettable image of the master of the Russian winter." And Viktor Mikhailovich himself, according to his usual modesty, said this: “I have never played on any stage - the scenery and costumes are everywhere else. It was not supposed to deny. Yes, somehow it was a shame. Well, and played on January 1, 1882, Santa Claus, and played more than once. After Frost, since then, of course, not a foot on the stage. Then, I remember, I scribbled four lines about this:

Yes, I wrote poetry
Those were verses, not prose!
Ah sins, my sins -
I played Santa Claus! .. "

A few years later, not on the home stage, but in a real theater organized by Savva Ivanovich Mamontov, The Snow Maiden was again staged. This time it was the opera by Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov, the libretto of which was written by the composer himself based on the play by Ostrovsky. And Vasnetsov, having revised all his old sketches of scenery and costumes, did a lot anew. “It seems to me that it is impossible to imagine something more perfect, artistic and talented for illustrating this wonderful opera,” wrote Stasov when he saw these Vasnetsov sketches.

The performance was a huge success. The first performance of the opera was attended by the artist V.I. Surikov. He “was overjoyed. When a bob and a bob came out and with them a crowd of Berendeys with a wide Shrovetide, with a real old goat, when a babe danced in a white peasant army jacket, his broad Russian nature could not stand it, and he burst into frantic applause, picked up by the whole theater. "

But let's return to the winter in which Vasnetsov graduated from "Alenushka", made sketches of scenery and costumes for "The Snow Maiden". As always, he then worked on several paintings at the same time and along with "Alyonushka" and "Snow Maiden" he painted the picture "Heroes", conceived a long time ago. Then he made the first pencil sketch of the future painting, and somehow, already in Paris, dreaming about Russia, he wrote a small sketch with paints. The sketch was seen by the artist Polenov, and he really liked it. Vasnetsov immediately offered to present him with a sketch. Polenov thought for a moment and said:

No, give me your word that the sketch will be a sketch for a large painting, which you must certainly write. And when you write, give me this sketch.

The summer after the production of "The Snow Maiden" the Vasnetsovs spent in Abramtsevo, and the Repins gathered in St. Petersburg and while they settled not far from Abramtsevo. The painting "Heroes" did not fit in the small house where the Vasnetsovs lived, and the shed next to the house was hastily converted into a large workshop with an overhead light. “Bogatyrs” settled down comfortably in the workshop for the whole summer. One of Mamontov's sons, many years later, said: “I remember how in the mornings they took turns to drive to Yashkin's house either a working heavy stallion or his father's riding horse, Fox, from which Vasnetsov wrote horses for his“ Heroes ”. I remember how we envied my brother Andrey, whom Alyosha Popovich looked like in this picture. "

And in Abramtsevo, the "Abramtsevo summer" was in full swing. Familiar artists often came and went again every morning to sketches, again went hiking in the villages, and the Abramtsevo museum was replenished with new finds. Vasnetsov worked very diligently and was rarely seen in the big house, mainly in the evening. In the evenings, as usual, we read a lot aloud, argued, and painted.

Once Vasnetsov made a drawing of a hut on chicken legs with a carved ridge on the roof and a bat spreading its wings over the entrance. Everyone liked the drawing so much that soon they built a real "Hut on Chicken Legs" based on this drawing, which still stands in the Ambramtsevo park. Gray spruce trees rustle around her, and it seems that now an evil Baba Yaga will look out of the window.

Autumn has come. I had to move to Moscow, arrange "Bogatyrs" in a cramped Moscow apartment, think about how and what to live. The Vasnetsovs already had three children, and it became more and more difficult to make ends meet, but Alexandra Vladimirovna never complained; she was a kind, patient wife, she understood what a great artist Viktor Mikhailovich was, and she took care of him.

Vasnetsov wrote "Heroes", thought about fairy tales, was going to do illustrations for "Song of the merchant Kalashnikov" by Lermontov, which he loved very much ... There were a great many plans, and the work would be enough for tens of years.

And here, quite unexpectedly, Viktor Mikhailovich was offered a new job - to decorate the Round Hall of the Historical Museum in Moscow, allotted to the antiquities of the Stone Age. The Historical Museum has just been rebuilt, and now its halls are being finished. The round hall was supposed to open an exhibition and take visitors to the museum into the depths of centuries, to show the life of primitive people. At the first minute, Vasnetsov was even at a loss - the topic seemed to him alien, distant, but at the same time very tempting. He stood for a long time in the Round Hall, talked with the museum staff, examined some bones, clay shards, fragments, arrows already placed in the windows, and left home without giving final consent. And on the way home, he suddenly "saw" his future painting and, as he said to one of his friends a few years later, "I mastered its composition in the rough." At home, on the first piece of paper that came across, he hastily sketched it out and decided to accept the offer.

For a while, they were pushed aside "Bogatyrs" - their place was taken by the "Stone Age". It took many months to prepare for the painting. Vasnetsov made sketches, sketches, changed the original composition more than once, discarding unnecessary things without pity, inscribing a new one. He carefully studied essays on primitive culture, talked with scientists - historians and archaeologists, museum staff, - with his brother Apollinaris, who from childhood was interested in archeology. “I seem to have bothered everyone in the museum, demanding from them as many objects and samples as possible that would allow me to feel at least a little and see the way of life of that time,” he said.

Gradually the distant, distant past became clear and tangible for him - he saw him, it seemed, he lived in this past himself. "I am now so immersed in my" Stone Age "that it is no wonder to forget the modern world ..." - wrote Vasnetsov. In the summer in Abramtsevo, he spent whole days in his workshop, and unless in the evening he would hear that they were playing in the towns, would come running, brush off all the figures one by one - he played very well in the towns - and again in the workshop.

When four paintings were drawn in pencil, which were supposed to make up a frieze twenty-five meters long, Vasnetsov began to paint them in full size in oil on canvases.

The first canvas shows the entrance to the cave. At the entrance is a tribe of primitive people; some are resting, others are working. Women dress animal skins, children are near them. A huge man carries a bear killed in a hunt, another shoots a bow, someone drills a hole in a stone. Off to the side, an ancient old man is basking in the sun.

On the second canvas, in the center, the leader of the tribe stands with a spear and a sledgehammer thrown over his shoulders to his full gigantic height. There are different people around: they are burning pots, hammering a boat, making fire, making arrowheads ... Farther away, a girl, pulling out a huge fish, dances with joy.

The third canvas is a mammoth hunt. The mammoth was driven into the pit. Men, women, children - all participate in the hunt, finish off the beast with spears, arrows, throw stones at it. The last, fourth canvas is a feast. Prehistoric people eat a mammoth after a successful hunt.

The new theme, on which Vasnetsov was working, set before him new pictorial tasks, which he solved perfectly. He managed to withstand the coloring of paintings in harsh, muted tones, find new and bold combinations of colors - brown-red, black, gray-blue, greenish.

By the beginning of autumn, the order for the Historical Museum was basically completed. In a cold workshop, paints did not dry well, and the paintings had to be transported to a large house. Viktor Mikhailovich and his brother Apollinaris carried huge panels, impaled on long sticks. When the paints dried out, the canvases, rolled into tubes, were transported to the Historical Museum, where workers pasted all the paintings on the walls of the Round Hall. Vasnetsov had to close up the joints, and he had to re-register something, taking into account the new lighting conditions: it was darker in the Round Hall than in the Abramtsevo workshop. The paintings were glued so well that they completely merged with the wall and gave the impression that they were written on the wall.

But Vasnetsov was still dissatisfied with something, day after day he made new corrections, and several more months passed before the signature appeared in the left corner of the last painting - the frieze: “Viktor Vasnetsov. 1885 April 10 "- the date of the end of the frieze.

A feeling of some kind of emptiness gripped the artist when the scaffolding was removed, the workers left and he was left alone with his painting. Everything was behind - and the daily hard work, and hours of true inspiration, and the joy of unexpected discoveries, and the bitter consciousness of the insufficiency of his strength ... And now he is free. Again he returns to his "Heroes", again full of creative ideas, but, according to friends, "the Stone Age poisoned him so that he slept and saw the painting of large walls."

9

Summer, as usual, Vasnetsov spent with his family in Abramtsevo, often saw his brother Apollinaris, with whom he was more and more connected by his common passion for art. "... In matters of art, - said Apollinarius Mikhailovich, - in the understanding of the tasks and duties of the artist to the people, we had no differences." Apollinaris Mikhailovich by this time was already beginning to exhibit his wonderful landscapes in traveling exhibitions, and Tretyakov acquired them for the gallery.

The "heroes" from Moscow moved to their old place - to the Abramtsevo workshop, and Vasnetsov worked on them with enthusiasm. Once Professor Adrian Viktorovich Prakhov came to Abramtsevo. He lived in Kiev, supervised the interior decoration of the newly rebuilt large Vladimirsky cathedral and came specifically to invite Vasnetsov to take part in the painting of the cathedral. He had known Vasnetsov for a long time, loved him as an artist, and after the "Stone Age" he believed in his gift as a monumental artist.

I am now occupied with completely different topics - Russian epics and folk tales, - said Vasnetsov and flatly refused the order.

But when Prakhov left, Vasnetsov regretted his refusal and the next day telegraphed him that he was accepting the order.

At the very end of the summer of 1885, Vasnetsov was already in Kiev, and soon the grand opening of the archaeological hall - the Round Hall of the Historical Museum - took place in Moscow. The opening was attended by scientists, artists, Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov and Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov. Everyone was delighted with the magnificent "wall painting" Vasnetsov; everyone regretted that he was not at the opening. "An amazing, amazing picture! .." - Stasov said with an endless number of exclamation marks, literally choking with admiration. And Tretyakov on the same day wrote to Vasnetsov in Kiev: “I wanted ... to please you as soon as possible that the“ Stone Age ”is in place ... on all the“ comrades ”(that is, the Wanderers) made a huge good impression, it seems everyone, without exception, was delighted. "

And in Kiev, Vasnetsov had already begun work, the dimensions of which he had never dreamed of. Leaving Moscow, he expected to stay in Kiev for about three years, but stayed for almost ten years. Over the years, he painted four thousand square arshins in the cathedral, made fifteen huge compositions, thirty large individual figures and many magnificent ornaments. True, he had several assistants, but he did the main work himself.

The work on painting the cathedral was difficult, demanding a lot of stress and at the same time exciting, but no matter how carried away Vasnetsov was by this painting, he could not help but yearn for Moscow, for his Moscow friends, for Moscow music. “Do you often hear music? - he asked in a letter to the artist I.S. Ostroukhova. - And I rarely, very, very; I really need it: music can be cured! " But most of all, of course, he yearned for his "Bogatyrs" and could not resist - he sent the "Bogatyrs" to Kiev. And so the "Bogatyrs", who in general traveled a lot both in Moscow apartments and on the railways, now began to move from apartment to apartment in Kiev. In each apartment they were assigned the largest and lightest room, and many years later Vasnetsov's children recalled how, while playing, they loved to hide behind the "Heroes". Almost every day, before leaving for the cathedral, Viktor Mikhailovich sat in front of his "Heroes" for at least a short time, either with brushes and a palette, or even just looking at them, thinking.

In the same room there was another painting, begun in Moscow - "Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf." Her Viktor Mikhailovich was in a hurry to finish by the seventeenth traveling exhibition. “I have just sent my 'Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf' to the exhibition,” he wrote to Tretyakov, “I have forced myself to single out at least a little time from the work of the cathedral ... Of course, I would like the picture to be liked, but did I achieve this - see for yourself. "

When the picture appeared at the exhibition, the audience stood in front of it for a long time. They seemed to hear the deep forest rustling dully, the pale pink flowers of a wild apple tree rustling gently, the leaves rustling under the wolf's feet - here it is, a strong kind giant wolf, out of breath, saving Ivan Tsarevich and Elena the Beautiful from pursuit. And on the branch curious birds are sitting and looking at him.

“Now I have returned from a traveling exhibition and, under the first impression, I want to express to you what I feel,” Savva Ivanovich Mamontov wrote to Vasnetsov. - Your "Ivan Tsarevich on the Wolf" delighted me, I forgot everything around, I went into this forest, I breathed this air, sniffed these flowers. All this is my dear, good! I just came to life! Such is the irresistible effect of true and sincere creativity. "

The painting was bought by P.M. Tretyakov, and since then it has been hanging in the Tretyakov Gallery, in the Vasnetsov Hall, almost opposite Alenushka. Vasnetsov, upon learning of this, was very happy. “I am sincerely grateful to you for the joy brought to me by the acquisition of my“ Wolf ”in your gallery. Needless to say, how much we value the placement of our paintings to you, ”he wrote to Tretyakov.

The works on painting the cathedral were coming to an end. Vasnetsov was impatient to return home to Moscow as soon as possible. “We, one might say, are already on the move, everything is busy with preparations for departure ... On June 15 or so we are thinking of being in Abramtsevo. We would like to get on the train to Abramtsevo directly from the courier, ”wrote Vasnetsov to Mamontov. And at the end of June 1891, he and his family had already settled in Yashkin's house, in his beloved Abramtsevo near Moscow. A new period of life was beginning.

“I, Pavel Mikhailovich, have an old dream: to arrange a workshop for myself in Moscow ... You yourself know how an artist needs a workshop,” wrote Viktor Mikhailovich to Tretyakov. But there had never been money to build a workshop before, and only now, after returning from Kiev, when Tretyakov bought almost all the sketches for painting the cathedral for the gallery, he decided to fulfill his old dream. I looked for a place for a house for a long time, I wanted to be in silence, away from the main streets. Finally, a place was found - a small plot with a dilapidated house, a shady garden in one of the quiet side streets, almost on the outskirts of what was then Moscow. The old house had to be demolished, and soon a new one was built in its place, built according to the drawings and designs of Viktor Mikhailovich. Vasnetsov himself helped to build it and rejoiced at "every crown of growing walls, every floorboard, every window and door set up."

The house was built in a special way, unlike all other houses in the alley. Built of logs, with a high gable roof, decorated with a log tower, it seemed to come here from old Russian epics and fairy tales. And everything inside the house was extraordinary: chopped log walls, huge stoves with beautiful colored tiles on top, simple benches, wide oak tables and around heavy, strong chairs - if only the heroes could sit on such chairs, at such tables.

From the largest room, the hall, a narrow spiral staircase led upstairs directly to the workshop - a huge, high, all flooded with light, and next to the workshop there was a light, its own room. At that time, perhaps, none of the Moscow artists had such a workshop.

In the summer of 1894, the Vasnetsovs moved into a house that was not yet completely rebuilt. Viktor Mikhailovich always said that this was one of the happiest days of his life. Life gradually improved both below and above - in the workshop. The "Bogatyrs" arrived and occupied almost the entire right wall of the workshop. Now they were at home and no longer needed to wander around other people's apartments. “It was somehow internally free to work for me in the new workshop,” said Vasnetsov. - Nobody bothered me, I'll have some tea, eat, go up to my room, lock myself up and do what I want! Sometimes he even sang while working. The main thing is that it was very good to look at my "Heroes" - I will come, walk away, look from the side, and outside Moscow, as I think, my heart will beat with joy! "

On the wall of the workshop, at the very door, Viktor Mikhailovich drew a girl's head in charcoal: she has a finger to her lips, and under the picture there is a signature: "Silence." “Art is born in silence, it requires a long, lonely and difficult work,” said Vasnetsov.

In such a bright state, in the happy silence of his workshop, he then painted a wonderful picture - "The Snow Maiden". Here she is, dear, light Snow Maiden - a child of Frost and Spring - emerging from the dark forest alone, to the people, to the sunny land of the Berendei.

Hawthorn! is it alive? alive.
In a sheepskin coat, boots, mittens.

Next to The Snow Maiden, on the easel, there were several other paintings that had been started, among them The Guslyars and Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

Vasnetsov never stopped working on "Heroes". It seemed to friends that the picture was completely finished, that it was time to give it to a traveling exhibition - Vasnetsov had not exhibited anything for a long time. Before the opening of the twenty-fifth mobile anniversary exhibition, the artist Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin wrote to him: “I am proud of you, as a native Russian, a great artist, and I am sincerely happy for you, as a comrade in art ... Viktor Mikhailovich! Move your "Heroes" on it, because as far as I remember, they are almost over with you. "

But Vasnetsov did not give the "Bogatyrs" to the exhibition. It still seemed to him that the picture was not completely finished, somewhere it was necessary to correct it, somewhere to touch it a little with a brush. He sent another painting - "Tsar Ivan the Terrible".

In April 1898, work on the painting "Heroes" was completed. The painting was bought by Tretyakov and transported to his gallery. Parting with the painting was especially difficult and sad - after all, the artist lived with her for almost twenty-five years, she was his favorite child, “my heart was always drawn to it and my hand was reaching out!” - as he said. And he also knew that this picture was his "creative duty, an obligation to his native people," and now he was giving this debt to him.

Three heroes stand as a strong heroic outpost - Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. In the middle, on a black horse, is "the great chief Ilya Muromets, a peasant's son." His horse is huge, arched its neck with a wheel, sparkles with a red-hot eye. With such a horse you will not be lost: "He jumps from mountain to mountain, jumps from hill to hill." Ilya turned heavily in the saddle, took his leg out of the stirrup, put his hand in a patterned mitten to his eyes, and on his hand there was "a damask mace of forty poods." Vigilantly, sternly, he looks into the distance, looking closely to see if there is an enemy somewhere. On his right hand, on a white shaggy cop - the hero Dobrynya Nikitich, takes out his long, sharp sword-kladenets from its scabbard, and his shield is burning, shimmering with pearls, gems. To the left of Ilya - on a golden horse - the youngest hero, Alyosha Popovich. He looks slyly with beautiful, clear eyes, took an arrow out of a colored quiver, attached a taut bow to the ringing bowstring, and there are samogud psaltery hanging by the saddle.

The heroes are dressed in rich, beautiful clothes, they are clad in strong armor, they have helmets on their heads. Autumn day, gray - the sky is low, clouds are walking across the sky; the grass under the horses' feet is crushed, the fir trees are gently green. The free Russian steppe stretched wide in front of the heroes, and behind them dense forests, hills and mountains, cities and villages - the whole native country. Russia.

Do not gallop enemies on our land,
Do not trample the Russian land for their horses,
They cannot overshadow our red sun ...

When Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy saw the painting "Heroes", he said to Vasnetsov the words that were forever remembered and dear to him: land and no other, in the minds of the people, could not be. " And V.V. Stasov wrote in one of his articles that not a single painting by Vasnetsov “was so finished, so worked out, as this one. None, too, was painted with paints like the current one. Here he put all his knowledge and all his skill ... I believe that in the history of Russian painting Vasnetsov's “Heroes” occupy one of the very first places ”. And he wished Vasnetsov "to go even further and further unshakably, cheerfully and bravely with his Russian, real Russian paintings."

Many years have passed since then. People from all over the Soviet Union, from all sides of the earth, come to Moscow and, examining our ancient capital, they will certainly visit the Tretyakov Gallery. In Vasnetsov's hall, they will first of all approach the painting “Heroes”, and this picture is clear to everyone, because “the language of this picture-ballad is simple, dignified and mighty; every Russian will read it with pride, every foreigner with apprehension, if he is an enemy, with a sense of calm faith in such power - if he is a friend ”- this is how the Soviet artist Vasily Nikolayevich Yakovlev said very well.

10

At the end of 1898, in the year when the painting "Heroes" took its place in the gallery, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov died. His death was a great grief for Russian artists - a kind, caring friend, a wonderful person, selflessly devoted to Russian art, passed away. Together with everyone, Vasnetsov was grieving this grief. In recent years, he was less likely to visit the Tretyakov family - Vera Nikolaevna Tretyakova was seriously ill, their daughters got married and parted in different directions, and the musical evenings, which he loved so much, stopped.

The Mamontovs' circle also disintegrated. Friends gathered less and less often in Abramtsevo and in a Moscow house, there was no former young, noisy fun, there were no performances, no literary readings, no heated debates. And Vasnetsov was very sorry about this. But gratitude for the past remained forever in his soul. “I have never forgotten and certainly never. I will not forget that I, both as an artist and as a person, were given the families of the Tretyakovs and Mamontovs, ”he constantly said.

New people entered Vasnetsov's life: L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, A.M. Gorky, F.I. Chaliapin ... He became closer to the artists M.V. Nesterov, V.I. Surikov ... Repin had not been in Moscow for a long time, and only on his rare visits did he visit Vasnetsov. Polenov almost never lived in Moscow, to whom Viktor Mikhailovich did not forget to present the promised sketch of "Heroes".

Brother Apollinarius Mikhailovich was a famous artist, prominent scientist-historian, archeologist. The older he got, the more he was carried away by the history of Moscow in the 16th-17th centuries. He seemed to have seen this past: Moscow streets, squares, the Kremlin, bridges across the Moskva River, outposts at the wooden city - all the life of the old, forever gone and always dearly loved by him Moscow. From the depths of the gray centuries, he transferred this life to his poetic and reliable drawings and paintings. “What a fine fellow he is! What an imagination! " - Repin said about him. And when Viktor Mikhailovich saw the scenery for the opera "Khovanshchina", which was made by his brother, he was delighted and wrote to S.I. Mamontov: “Apollinaris distinguished himself, right, exactly, and most importantly, to the smallest detail is permeated with the spirit of the times! No wonder he is a scientist in our family. You can't find fault with anything! Documents, and, moreover, found by the soul and heart of the artist! "

The feeling of the past, love for the Russian, national, for everything beautiful that was created by the Russian people, were common to the Vasnetsov brothers and brought them closer together. Apollinaris Mikhailovich often visited the Vasnetsovs, still treasured his brother's advice. And life in the house-tower went on as usual. Downstairs Alexandra Vladimirovna hosted, as always, calm and caring. The children were growing up, and often now young people gathered in the large hall and the dining room, performances were staged. Viktor Mikhailovich, according to old memory, together with his brother Apollinaris, wrote the scenery, helped the actors, made up them. "What a restless people these Vasnetsovs are - sticking their noses everywhere!" - he said jokingly.

According to the recollections of friends, despite the fact that he was in his sixties, he was mobile and slender, walked easily, quickly, and the impression was created that he was not walking, but flying. Once upon a time, in the first years of their acquaintance, V.N. Tretyakova wrote about him: "A gentle, noble blond, deep nature, a man who worked a lot on himself, with a poetic gentle soul." And to this day he retained all these qualities and possessed some special gift to ennoble everything he touched.

He has long been a famous artist. They write books about him, they devote articles to him in magazines and they know him not only in Russia, but also abroad. But fame touched him little, he seemed not to notice it. And if someone began to praise him excessively. sometimes he said: “That's good. it is good, but the Puppeteer thought of himself that he was Pushkin, but he was mistaken, so he remained the Puppeteer. This must be remembered, ”sparks of laughter lit up in his eyes.

As always, along with his main work, Vasnetsov was busy with orders for painting, was carried away, as he said himself. "Various architectural undertakings" - the project of the Russian pavilion for the world exhibition in Paris, made plans for the reconstruction of the Kremlin buildings, developed a project for a new facade of the Tretyakov Gallery, and according to his project, the facade was redone and has survived to this day.

In the same years he painted portraits of his son, daughter, brother Arkady. But the main thing that he thought about, what worried him, was the begun new big picture. He had dreamed of it for a long time, perhaps when he was still painting the picture "After the Battle of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsy" or reading and rereading "The Lay of Igor's Campaign." He called this picture "Bayan".

About Bayan, about the prophetic songwriter.

A nightingale of times long past

Here he is, the "prophetic songwriter" Bayan, sitting on a high burial mound, among the field grasses and flowers, sorting out the psaltery, composing and singing songs. Around the princely squad and the prince himself with his little prince, and clouds swirl and float across the sky. This decorative, widely painted picture has caused many of the most controversial rumors. They also said that she was pretentious. But in this seemingly so simple and at the same time complex picture, Vasnetsov's inherent sense of proportion, an amazing ability not to cross the line beyond which begins bad taste, mannerism, was reflected.

When Gorky saw the painting Bayan, he wrote to Chekhov: “I love and respect this great poet more and more. His "Bayan" is a grandiose thing. And how many more lively, beautiful, powerful subjects for pictures he still have. I wish him immortality! "

The painting "Bayan" stood in Vasnetsov's studio for a long time, and he loved at dusk, after a hard day, to sit in front of her, sweeping his thoughts into the distant past, as if listening to Bayan's song.

Sometimes his friends visited, and Gorky often dropped in. “If you knew,” wrote Vasnetsov, “what conversations we had with Alexei Maksimovich, my head could spin! How many good words he said to me! With what enthusiasm he reacted to my undertaking to write "The Poem of Seven Tales", which was to include seven subjects: "The Sleeping Princess", "Baba Yaga", "The Frog Princess", "Princess Nesmeyana". "Koshchei the immortal", "Sivku-burku" and a new version of the "Carpet-plane".

These were all fairy tales of his childhood, which lived with him for many years. He began to write them at different times, and in the last years of his life and until his death he worked on them tirelessly, lovingly. He "told" these tales one after another, and his workshop gradually turned into the wonderful world of Russian fairy tales.

And now, many years after the artist's death, we enter his house, which began to be called the "House-Museum of Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov." We walk through the rooms, where every thing is associated with him, "the mighty hero of Russian painting", climb a steep staircase to his workshop and quietly walk from picture to picture, from fairy tale to fairy tale. Before us opens a mysterious, magical world sparkling with all colors, all shades. Miracles lie in wait for us at every turn. We are in the forest ... So Baba Yaga grabbed Ivashka, and "a terrible noise went through the forest: trees crackle, dry leaves crunch, Baba Yaga flies in a mortar, drives with a pestle, sweeps a trail with a broomstick ..." And then - the enchanted forest , trees, grasses, birds are sleeping, a princess has been sleeping in the palace for a long time, hay girls, buffoons are sleeping, the guards are sleeping; sleeping on the steps is a seven-year-old girl, a brown bear, a fox with a hare ... Somewhere in the distant kingdom, in the thirtieth state, the terrible Koschey the Immortal lives in an underground palace ... In a high mansion sits a sad princess Nesmeyana, and no one can her laugh ... A cheerful and intelligent Princess-frog is dancing in the royal chambers: "she waved her left hand - a lake became, waved her right, and white swans swam on the water ..." Beautiful. A clear month is shining, a cheerful, free wind is blowing, far below the forests, fields, seas and rivers - native land. Homeland, to which the artist Viktor Vasnetsov gave his whole life, all his beautiful art.

Notes (edit)

Basil the Blessed is an outstanding monument of ancient Russian architecture. Cathedral, built by order of Ivan the Terrible in memory of the capture of Kazan. Currently a museum.

Archeology is a science that studies the life and culture of ancient peoples based on preserved material monuments. An archaeologist is a specialist in archeology.

6
In Vasnetsov's small room, occupying the entire wall, there was a painting he had begun, which now possessed all his thoughts. It was a painting inspired by the poetic legend of the Russian people "The Lay of Igor's Campaign", about the campaign of Prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the Polovtsi.

With the eyes of the soul, he had already seen this distant past, felt his connection with it. But that was not enough. It was still necessary to study this past. He began to avidly read historical works, collected material, made many preparatory drawings and sketches. And most importantly, he re-read The Lay again and again, each time discovering in it a new high truth, a new poetic charm. Most of all, he was excited and inspired by his lines, which spoke of the death of Igor's regiment:

From dawn to evening, the whole day,
Arrows fly from evening to light
Sharp sabers clatter against helmets,
With a crash of a spear breaks the damask ...
... The third day they are already beating;
The third day is already approaching noon;
Here and Igor's banners fell!
... Already the brave Russians are gone
There is bloody wine for a feast,
They got the matchmakers drunk, and themselves
We fell for our father's land.
And let arrows fly, spears break, a terrible battle is going on.

Vasnetsov will not tell about her in his picture; he will talk about how brave Russians know how to die defending their native land, and will name the picture "After the slaughter of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsy."

The battle is over; the moon rises slowly from behind the clouds. Quiet. The bodies of the killed Russian knights lie on the field, the Polovtsians lie. Here, spreading his arms wide, the Russian hero is asleep in eternal sleep. Next to him is a beautiful, fair-haired youth, struck by an arrow - he seems to be asleep. The flowers have not yet withered - blue bells, daisies, and vulture eagles are already hovering over the field, smelling their prey. Deep sadness is spread throughout the Russian land.

It would seem that the Russians have lost the battle and the picture should be gloomy and dull in color. But Vasnetsov thought differently. His picture will be a solemnly sad hymn to the Russian soldiers who died for their homeland. She should "sound like music, sing like an epic, and excite like a native song." Instead of the grayish-brown tones that were so characteristic of most of Vasnetsov's paintings, this picture of his shimmered with slightly muted yellow, blue, red, gray-brown tones and seemed almost festive.

When the painting "After the Battle of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsy" appeared in 1880 at the eighth traveling exhibition, it caused the most contradictory rumors. One after another negative reviews began to appear in the newspapers, and not even all the Wanderers understood what an amazing work it was; not everyone saw the new Vasnetsov.

Vasnetsov was depressed, confused. In this difficult time for him, his friends-artists Kramskoy, Repin, Chistyakov and many others supported him. Repin wrote: "For me, this is an unusually wonderful, new and deeply poetic thing, something like this has never happened in the Russian school." Chistyakov was delighted with the picture. “You, noblest Viktor Mikhailovich, are a poet-artist,” he wrote. - Such a distant, such a grandiose and in its own way original Russian spirit smelled of me that I was simply sad: I, the pre-Petrine eccentric, envied you ... All day I wandered around the city, and a string of familiar pictures stretched out, and I saw my native Russia, and quietly passed one after another and the rivers are wide, and the fields are endless, and the villages ... Thank you, sincere thanks to you from the Russian man ... "

Vasnetsov was deeply touched by the letter: “There are, Pavel Petrovich, in your letter there are such places that, although it’s ashamed, I cried ... You inspired me, elevated, strengthened me so much that the blues flew away and even though back into battle, the beast is not scary everything, especially newspaper. As if on purpose, they scold me more now than ever - I almost never read a kind word about my painting ... One thing torments me: my skill is weak, sometimes I feel like the greatest ignoramus and ignoramus. Of course, I will not despair, I know that if you constantly look after yourself, then at least with a sparrow step, you can move. "

But Vasnetsov walked forward not with passerine, but gigantic steps, and he should not despair. The circle of his admirers grew wider, they began to understand Vasnetsov, the artist-poet, selflessly in love with his native country, “the singer of the distant epic of our history, our people,” in the words of the artist Nesterov. Nesterov himself did not immediately discern the new Vasnetsov and how his eyes opened, he said: “Once I was wandering around the Tretyakov Gallery. There was a group of visitors at Vasnetsov's "Battle of Igor". Among them I noticed the then famous artist of the Maly Theater Maksheev; he warmly, enthusiastically explained to those around him the poetic charm of the picture. I involuntarily began to listen attentively to the enthusiastic narration of the artist, and I do not know how it happened, but as if the veil from my eyes fell off. I recovered my sight, saw in Vasnetsov's creation that which had been hidden from me for so long. I saw and passionately fell in love with the new Vasnetsov - Vasnetsov, a great poet, singer of a distant epic of our history, our people, our homeland. "

7
Once in winter, Repin introduced Vasnetsov to Savva Ivanovich Mamontov. A large industrialist, an exceptionally gifted person, he was a good sculptor, musician, and was passionately fond of theater. In his house, just like at the Tretyakovs, artists, actors, musicians gathered, home performances were often staged, literary readings were arranged. “On the very first evening, I, a very uncommunicative and shy person in those days, stood already on the home stage in the living picture“ The Vision of Margarita to Faust ”in the form of Mephistopheles ... And after all, no one forced me to do this, but my figure just seemed suitable ... and you're done! " - later recalled Vasnetsov. So began an acquaintance, and then friendship with the entire Mamontov family.

Life during these years was very difficult for Vasnetsov: the family grew, the pictures were paid poorly, there was always not enough money. More than once it happened to pawn the only valuable thing - a silver watch - or borrow from friends, although they themselves often sat without money. But Vasnetsov and his wife knew how to treat these everyday adversities.

Life became easier when Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov bought a painting "After Igor's Massacre" for his gallery, and Mamontov ordered several new paintings. Then he was finishing the construction of the Donetsk railway - the first railway line to the Donetsk basin - and dreamed of decorating the board of the Moscow railway station with pictures of good artists. “It is necessary to accustom the people's eyes to beauty at train stations, in churches, on the streets,” he said.

Decorate the board of a Moscow railway station with pictures? Which ones? Vasnetsov had a difficult task. From the very beginning, one thing was clear to him: each picture should tell the audience about the great love of the Russian people for their homeland, about their bold daring, dreams and hopes.

Here the rich Donetsk region is awakening to life, and Vasnetsov is presented with pictures of the distant past of this region: the wide Don steppes, nomads who several centuries ago attacked the Russian lands, robbed them, took people prisoner. And now the battle ... The horses are racing. A huge black horse rears up in front of the enemy's small, steppe horse. Now the enemy will throw a spear and deal a fatal blow, but the Russian warrior will reflect the blow. And on the field already from both sides warriors are jumping to the rescue ... This is the "Battle of the Slavs with the nomads." Everything in her is movement, a whirlwind, she is all colorful, bright, impetuous.

The second picture tells a fairy tale that Vasnetsov heard more than once in childhood. This is a tale about how three brothers were looking for a bride. The older one looked for - did not find, the middle one looked for - did not find, and the younger, whose name was Ivanushka the Fool, found the coveted stone, pushed it aside and ended up in the underworld, where three princesses lived - Gold, Precious stones and Princess Medi. This is how the fairy tale painting "Three princesses of the underworld" appeared. Three princesses are standing by a dark rock. The elders are in rich costumes, studded with precious stones; the youngest is in a black dress, and on her head, in her black hair, a coal is burning as a sign that the depths of the Donetsk region are inexhaustible. Vasnetsov here allowed some liberty and turned the princess Medi into princess Coal. According to the tale, the youngest princess marries Ivan the Fool.

The hero of Vasnetsov's next picture - "Flying Carpet" - will be this Ivanushka the fool - a wonderful prince. Older brothers always laugh at him. And he, when trouble comes, overcomes all obstacles, and his smart, kind heart conquers evil, as the sun conquers darkness. He manages to wake up the sleeping beauty, make Princess Nesmeyana laugh, get a firebird that brings people happiness.

V.M. Vasnetsov. Magic carpet. 1880

A flying carpet flies high in the sky and Ivan Tsarevich firmly holds the firebird in a golden cage. Like a huge bird, the flying carpet spread its wings. In fear, night owls fly away from an unknown bird ...

When Vasnetsov painted this picture, he remembered that first Russian man, a lordly servant, who, on the wings he made himself, even during the time of Ivan the Terrible, tried to fly into the sky from a high tower. And even if he died, even if people ridiculed him for his daring attempt, but proud dreams of flying into the sky will never disappear, and always a magic carpet-flying will inspire people to exploits.

The fourth painting, commissioned by Mamontov, was painting "The Knight at the Crossroads"... Vasnetsov had been thinking about such a picture for a long time, back in St. Petersburg, when he listened to a student Savenkov read one of the epics about Ilya Muromets. From that time, pencil sketches have survived, later a pen drawing and watercolors were made on the same topic. And now the big picture has been painted.

At a roadside stone on a mighty white horse, a hero stopped - a knight in rich armor, in a helmet, with a spear in his hand. In the distance, the endless steppe with boulders scattered over it leaves. The evening dawn is burning out; on the horizon a reddish stripe brightens, and the last faint ray of the sun slightly gilded the knight's helmet. The field on which the soldiers once fought is overgrown with feather-grass, the bones of dead people and animals turn white, and over the field there are black crows. The knight reads the inscription on the stone:

“How straight forward -
I do not live:
There is no way for a passer-by
Neither a carriageway nor a flyover. "

“To the right of the ehati is to be married,
Naleva - to be rich. "

What path will the knight choose? Vasnetsov is sure that the audience will "finish reading" the picture themselves. The glorious Russian knight is not looking for easy ways; he will choose the difficult but direct path. All other ways have been ordered for him. Now he will shake off unnecessary thoughts, raise the reins, spur his horse, and carry his horse to the battles for the Russian land, for the truth ...

Vasnetsov worked on paintings for the Donetsk railway for about three years. New themes were suggested by new color solutions. Just as in the painting "After the Battle", the gloomy painting of most of the first paintings was replaced by beauty and richness of colors. Unfortunately, none of these paintings made it to the Moscow railway station. There were such "connoisseurs and art lovers" who rejected them. They simply did not understand the new Vasnetsov - an amazing artist who by this time was firmly on a new path. When Stasov asked him how it happened that he moved away from everyday painting, Vasnetsov said: “I have always lived only in Russia. How I became a historian from a genre painter, in a somewhat fantastic way, I can’t answer for sure. I only know that during the period of the brightest passion for the genre in academic times in St. Petersburg, vague historical and fabulous dreams did not leave me. "

Vasnetsov made friends with the Mamontov family, visited them more and more often, and each time, going up the grand staircase, he felt some kind of special high spirits. He was very fond of the literary readings that took place in the large office of Savva Ivanovich.

On a table covered with red cloth, candles were burning in sparkling gilded candelabra, guests sat around the table and took turns reading poems, stories, and stories. Sometimes individual evenings were dedicated to Lermontov, Pushkin, Nekrasov, Zhukovsky, Nikitin, Koltsov. They were especially fond of Nekrasov. We often read plays by Ostrovsky, Pushkin, Gogol, A.K. Tolstoy, Schiller; at the same time, the roles were distributed among the participants in the readings, and a kind of performance was obtained, only without costumes and decorations.

Savva Ivanovich Mamontov, his family, children, all the numerous nephews and nieces - all lived in art, stage, music. “Savva Ivanovich had a special talent to excite the creativity of others, there was a kind of electric jet in him that ignited the energy of those around him,” Vasnetsov said. He was inexhaustible in invention; then everyone, led by the owner, went on sketches and then arranged an exhibition in the dining room of a large house; then they heatedly discussed the buildings that were being started on the estate; then everyone - both home and guests - was involved in staging some kind of performance, and Vasnetsov invariably took part in it.

Once he had to portray an Englishman visiting the Tretyakov Gallery. They attached red tanks to him, and he, not knowing a single word of English, pronounced English sounds so amazingly that everyone was indescribable delight.

In Abramtsevo, they liked to make distant excursions to the villages, where they enthusiastically examined the old Russian architecture, made sketches of some peasant hut with an intricate ridge on the roof, with patterned frames on the windows. After almost every such trip, they brought with them a lot of interesting things that they bought from the peasants: embroidered towels, wooden caskets, salt shakers covered with fine carvings.

Once Repin and Polenov saw in a neighboring village a carved cornice that adorned a peasant hut. They managed to buy this board, decorated with such skill by a folk craftsman. When they brought her home, everyone was delighted.

Somehow, by itself, a decision arose to arrange a museum of folk art samples in Abramtsevo. Gradually, the museum grew, and the artists who lived in Abramtsevo, in their free hours, began to paint themselves various utensils and wooden furniture in the Old Russian style. So, Vasnetsov depicted a crow and a magpie on the kitchen table doors. Repin decorated several caskets with carvings ...

This hobby of the inhabitants of Abramtsevo led to the creation of a woodcarving workshop at the Abramtsevo school. Vasnetsov, of course, took the most ardent part in organizing the workshop. The workshop was supervised by Mamontov's wife and Polenova's sister, artist Elena Dmitrievna Polenova. Handicraftsmen-carvers were invited to study with the students, and Viktor Mikhailovich ordered his brother Arkady, an excellent carpenter, to work in the workshop. “Our goal,” wrote Elena Dmitrievna Polenova in one of her letters, “is to pick up ... folk art and give it the opportunity to develop. We are looking mainly for inspiration and models, walking around the huts and looking closely at what constitutes their household items ... This art has not yet positively died among the people. "

All the artists worked very hard. Repin painted sketches for the painting "The Cossacks", thought about the painting "They Didn't Expect". Apollinary Vasnetsov tirelessly painted landscapes of Akhtyrka, Abramtsev. In him one could already feel the master of an accurate, subtle, poetic landscape. “I studied in nature and from nature, and they helped me in this, eternal gratitude to them for this, and Victor's peers, headed by him, and my peers,” Apollinary Vasnetsov later recalled.

And Viktor Vasnetsov? He was literally obsessed with art, devoted himself entirely to creativity. Almost at the same time he worked on the paintings of the Mamontov order, dreamed of "Heroes", became carried away by the idea of ​​the painting "Alyonushka". “I don’t remember exactly when Alyonushka was first born to me. It was as if she had lived in my head for a long time, but in reality I saw her in Akhtyrka when I met one simple-haired girl who struck my imagination. How much melancholy, loneliness and purely Russian sadness were in her eyes that I gasped right out, ”he said later.

For a long time Vasnetsov wandered around the outskirts of Akhtyrka, painted sketches - the Vorya River, white slender birches, young aspen trees, the bank of a quiet pond, which he later called "Alenushkin Pond" - he was looking for such a landscape that would help the viewer understand his Alyonushka - a girl from a fairy tale ...

By the fall, he took to Moscow a lot of sketches, sketches, studies for "Alyonushka". And in the spring at the ninth traveling exhibition he showed the paintings "The Battle of the Russians with the Nomads", "Three Princess of the Underground Kingdom", "Alenushka".

V.M. Vasnetsov. Alyonushka. 1881

A girl with such an affectionate Russian name - Alyonushka - is sitting on a stone near a deep pool. She bowed her head sadly, clasped her knees with her slender hands, thought, perhaps, about her bitter lot or about brother Ivanushka. And everything around is sad. Autumn day, gray. The forest is dark; Thin aspens turn yellow, the reeds stand motionless, golden leaves are scattered over the whirlpool.

Everything in this picture is so simple that it seems that the artist painted it in one sitting. But one has only to look through the preliminary sketches, sketches for it, and we will understand how much, how thoughtfully Vasnetsov worked, until his first sketch, Alyonushka, turned into a lyrical picture. And if you have to visit the Tretyakov Gallery, be sure to go to the Vasnetsov Hall, where you will see the first sketches for "Alenushka" and the painting "Alyonushka".

8
On a winter day in 1881, after a whole day of work on the painting Alyonushka, Vasnetsov climbed the wide staircase of the Mamontov's house. He was in a hurry. That evening it was appointed to read the roles of the play by Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky "The Snow Maiden", which Savva Ivanovich had long dreamed of staging on the home stage.

The red sun is ours!
You are not more beautiful in the world, -

All were silent for a long time, fascinated by this spring, light and at the same time sad fairy-tale play with its Russian songs, round dances, dances. Then they all started talking at once, decided to put it on as soon as possible - by the New Year.

There was little time left before the performance. It was necessary to hastily learn the roles, sew costumes, prepare the props. Everyone found work. Vasnetsov was instructed to paint the scenery, make drawings of the costumes.

V.M. Vasnetsov. Berendeyevka village beyond the river.
Set design for N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov "Snow Maiden"
See the page "Sketches of scenery by V.M. Vasnetsov for the play by A.N. Ostrovsky" The Snow Maiden ".

At first he even felt intimidated - he had never been a theater artist in his life. And then you can play the role of Santa Claus! “Out of habit it was difficult ... - said Viktor Mikhailovich. - Savva Ivanovich cheerfully encourages, the energy grows. I painted four sets with my own hands - the Prologue, the Berendeev Posad, the Berendeev Chamber and the Yarili Valley ... Until one or two in the morning, you used to paint with a wide paintbrush on a canvas spread on the floor, and you didn’t know what would come of it. Raise the canvas, and Savva Ivanovich is already there, he will look with a clear falcon's eye, say cheerfully, animatedly: "Oh, good!" You look - and it really seems good. And you won’t understand how you did it ”.

And what magnificent costumes Vasnetsov made for Snegurochka, Lel, Tsar Berendey and for all the characters in the play! When asked where he got such wonderful colors from, he answered like this: “... From folk festivities in Vyatka, in Moscow, on Devichye Pole, from the iridescent play of pearls, beads, colored stones on kokoshniks, quilted jackets, fur coats and other women's clothes, which I saw in my homeland and with which Moscow was still overflowing in the eighties! "

The evening of the performance came. The curtain quietly parted, and the audience immediately found themselves in the fabulous land of the Berendeys. Moonlit winter night; the stars flicker a little; dark forest, birches, pines, small houses with snow-covered roofs and a real Leshy on a dry stump:

The roosters crowed the end of winter,
Spring-Red descends to the ground.
The midnight hour has come, the gatehouse
Goblin Fenced off - dive into the hollow and sleep!

And further, in the following actions, viewers see Berendey's settlement with a huge yellow sunflower near Bobyl's hut, and the chambers of Tsar Berendey, painted with marvelous flowers and birds with stars, the moon and the sun - with all the "beauty of the heavenly", and the Yarilina valley, where they make noise , carefree berendeys and berendeys are having fun.

V.M. Vasnetsov. Chambers of Tsar Berendey.
Set design for N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden.

Repin played the boyar Bermyatu, Mamontov played Tsar Berendey, and Vasnetsov played Ded Moroz. In a white shirt, here and there stitched with silver, in mittens, with a lush shock of white hair, with a large white beard, with his Vyatka accent on "o", he created, as Mamontov's son later recalled, "an unforgettable image of the master of the Russian winter." And Viktor Mikhailovich himself, according to his usual modesty, said this: “I have never played on any stage - the scenery and costumes are everywhere else. It was not supposed to deny. Yes, somehow it was a shame. Well, and played on January 1, 1882, Santa Claus, and played more than once. After Frost, since then, of course, not a foot on the stage. Then, I remember, I scribbled four lines about this:

Yes, I wrote poetry
Those were verses, not prose!
Ah sins, my sins -
I played Santa Claus! .. "

A few years later, not on the home stage, but in a real theater organized by Savva Ivanovich Mamontov, The Snow Maiden was again staged. This time it was the opera by Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov, the libretto of which was written by the composer himself based on the play by Ostrovsky. And Vasnetsov, having revised all his old sketches of scenery and costumes, did a lot anew. “It seems to me that it is impossible to imagine something more perfect, artistic and talented for illustrating this wonderful opera,” wrote Stasov when he saw these Vasnetsov sketches.

The performance was a huge success. The first performance of the opera was attended by the artist V.I. Surikov. He “was overjoyed. When a bob and a bob came out and with them a crowd of Berendeys with a wide Shrovetide, with a real old goat, when a babe danced in a white peasant army jacket, his broad Russian nature could not stand it, and he burst into frantic applause, picked up by the whole theater. "

But let's return to the winter in which Vasnetsov graduated from "Alenushka", made sketches of scenery and costumes for "The Snow Maiden". As always, he then worked on several paintings at the same time and along with "Alyonushka" and "Snow Maiden" he painted the picture "Heroes", conceived a long time ago. Then he made the first pencil sketch of the future painting, and somehow, already in Paris, dreaming about Russia, he wrote a small sketch with paints. The sketch was seen by the artist Polenov, and he really liked it. Vasnetsov immediately offered to present him with a sketch. Polenov thought for a moment and said:

No, give me your word that the sketch will be a sketch for a large painting, which you must certainly write. And when you write, give me this sketch.

The summer after the production of "The Snow Maiden" the Vasnetsovs spent in Abramtsevo, and the Repins gathered in St. Petersburg and while they settled not far from Abramtsevo. The painting "Heroes" did not fit in the small house where the Vasnetsovs lived, and the shed next to the house was hastily converted into a large workshop with an overhead light. “Bogatyrs” settled down comfortably in the workshop for the whole summer. One of Mamontov's sons, many years later, said: “I remember how in the mornings they took turns to drive to Yashkin's house either a working heavy stallion or his father's riding horse, Fox, from which Vasnetsov wrote horses for his“ Heroes ”. I remember how we envied my brother Andrey, whom Alyosha Popovich looked like in this picture. "

And in Abramtsevo, the "Abramtsevo summer" was in full swing. Familiar artists often came and went again every morning to sketches, again went hiking in the villages, and the Abramtsevo museum was replenished with new finds. Vasnetsov worked very diligently and was rarely seen in the big house, mainly in the evening. In the evenings, as usual, we read a lot aloud, argued, and painted.

Once Vasnetsov made a drawing of a hut on chicken legs with a carved ridge on the roof and a bat spreading its wings over the entrance. Everyone liked the drawing so much that soon they built a real "Hut on Chicken Legs" based on this drawing, which still stands in the Ambramtsevo park. Gray spruce trees rustle around her, and it seems that now an evil Baba Yaga will look out of the window.

Autumn has come. I had to move to Moscow, arrange "Bogatyrs" in a cramped Moscow apartment, think about how and what to live. The Vasnetsovs already had three children, and it became more and more difficult to make ends meet, but Alexandra Vladimirovna never complained; she was a kind, patient wife, she understood what a great artist Viktor Mikhailovich was, and she took care of him.

Vasnetsov wrote "Heroes", thought about fairy tales, was going to do illustrations for "Song of the merchant Kalashnikov" by Lermontov, which he loved very much ... There were a great many plans, and the work would be enough for tens of years.

And here, quite unexpectedly, Viktor Mikhailovich was offered a new job - to decorate the Round Hall of the Historical Museum in Moscow, allotted to the antiquities of the Stone Age. The Historical Museum has just been rebuilt, and now its halls are being finished. The round hall was supposed to open an exhibition and take visitors to the museum into the depths of centuries, to show the life of primitive people. At the first minute, Vasnetsov was even at a loss - the topic seemed to him alien, distant, but at the same time very tempting. He stood for a long time in the Round Hall, talked with the museum staff, examined some bones, clay shards, fragments, arrows already placed in the windows, and left home without giving final consent. And on the way home, he suddenly "saw" his future painting and, as he said to one of his friends a few years later, "I mastered its composition in the rough." At home, on the first piece of paper that came across, he hastily sketched it out and decided to accept the offer.

For a while, they were pushed aside "Bogatyrs" - their place was taken by the "Stone Age". It took many months to prepare for the painting. Vasnetsov made sketches, sketches, changed the original composition more than once, discarding unnecessary things without pity, inscribing a new one. He carefully studied essays on primitive culture, talked with scientists - historians and archaeologists, museum staff, - with his brother Apollinaris, who from childhood was interested in archeology. “I seem to have bothered everyone in the museum, demanding from them as many objects and samples as possible that would allow me to feel at least a little and see the way of life of that time,” he said.

Gradually the distant, distant past became clear and tangible for him - he saw him, it seemed, he lived in this past himself. "I am now so immersed in my" Stone Age "that it is no wonder to forget the modern world ..." - wrote Vasnetsov. In the summer in Abramtsevo, he spent whole days in his workshop, and unless in the evening he would hear that they were playing in the towns, would come running, brush off all the figures one by one - he played very well in the towns - and again in the workshop.

When four paintings were drawn in pencil, which were supposed to make up a frieze twenty-five meters long, Vasnetsov began to paint them in full size in oil on canvases.

The first canvas shows the entrance to the cave. At the entrance is a tribe of primitive people; some are resting, others are working. Women dress animal skins, children are near them. A huge man carries a bear killed in a hunt, another shoots a bow, someone drills a hole in a stone. Off to the side, an ancient old man is basking in the sun.

On the second canvas, in the center, the leader of the tribe stands with a spear and a sledgehammer thrown over his shoulders to his full gigantic height. There are different people around: they are burning pots, hammering a boat, making fire, making arrowheads ... Farther away, a girl, pulling out a huge fish, dances with joy.

The third canvas is a mammoth hunt. The mammoth was driven into the pit. Men, women, children - all participate in the hunt, finish off the beast with spears, arrows, throw stones at it. The last, fourth canvas is a feast. Prehistoric people eat a mammoth after a successful hunt.

The new theme, on which Vasnetsov was working, set before him new pictorial tasks, which he solved perfectly. He managed to withstand the coloring of paintings in harsh, muted tones, find new and bold combinations of colors - brown-red, black, gray-blue, greenish.

By the beginning of autumn, the order for the Historical Museum was basically completed. In a cold workshop, paints did not dry well, and the paintings had to be transported to a large house. Viktor Mikhailovich and his brother Apollinaris carried huge panels, impaled on long sticks. When the paints dried out, the canvases, rolled into tubes, were transported to the Historical Museum, where workers pasted all the paintings on the walls of the Round Hall. Vasnetsov had to close up the joints, and he had to re-register something, taking into account the new lighting conditions: it was darker in the Round Hall than in the Abramtsevo workshop. The paintings were glued so well that they completely merged with the wall and gave the impression that they were written on the wall.

But Vasnetsov was still dissatisfied with something, day after day he made new corrections, and several more months passed before the signature appeared in the left corner of the last painting - the frieze: “Viktor Vasnetsov. 1885 April 10 "- the date of the end of the frieze.

A feeling of some kind of emptiness gripped the artist when the scaffolding was removed, the workers left and he was left alone with his painting. Everything was behind - and the daily hard work, and hours of true inspiration, and the joy of unexpected discoveries, and the bitter consciousness of the insufficiency of his strength ... And now he is free. Again he returns to his "Heroes", again full of creative ideas, but, according to friends, "the Stone Age poisoned him so that he slept and saw the painting of large walls."

9
Summer, as usual, Vasnetsov spent with his family in Abramtsevo, often saw his brother Apollinaris, with whom he was more and more connected by his common passion for art. "... In matters of art, - said Apollinarius Mikhailovich, - in the understanding of the tasks and duties of the artist to the people, we had no differences." Apollinaris Mikhailovich by this time was already beginning to exhibit his wonderful landscapes in traveling exhibitions, and Tretyakov acquired them for the gallery.

The "heroes" from Moscow moved to their old place - to the Abramtsevo workshop, and Vasnetsov worked on them with enthusiasm. Once Professor Adrian Viktorovich Prakhov came to Abramtsevo. He lived in Kiev, supervised the interior decoration of the newly rebuilt large Vladimirsky cathedral and came specifically to invite Vasnetsov to take part in the painting of the cathedral. He had known Vasnetsov for a long time, loved him as an artist, and after the "Stone Age" he believed in his gift as a monumental artist.

I am now occupied with completely different topics - Russian epics and folk tales, - said Vasnetsov and flatly refused the order.

But when Prakhov left, Vasnetsov regretted his refusal and the next day telegraphed him that he was accepting the order.

At the very end of the summer of 1885, Vasnetsov was already in Kiev, and soon the grand opening of the archaeological hall - the Round Hall of the Historical Museum - took place in Moscow. The opening was attended by scientists, artists, Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov and Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov. Everyone was delighted with the magnificent "wall painting" Vasnetsov; everyone regretted that he was not at the opening. "An amazing, amazing picture! .." - Stasov said with an endless number of exclamation marks, literally choking with admiration. And Tretyakov on the same day wrote to Vasnetsov in Kiev: “I wanted ... to please you as soon as possible that the“ Stone Age ”is in place ... on all the“ comrades ”(that is, the Wanderers) made a huge good impression, it seems everyone, without exception, was delighted. "

And in Kiev, Vasnetsov had already begun work, the dimensions of which he had never dreamed of. Leaving Moscow, he expected to stay in Kiev for about three years, but stayed for almost ten years. Over the years, he painted four thousand square arshins in the cathedral, made fifteen huge compositions, thirty large individual figures and many magnificent ornaments. True, he had several assistants, but he did the main work himself.

The work on painting the cathedral was difficult, demanding a lot of stress and at the same time exciting, but no matter how carried away Vasnetsov was by this painting, he could not help but yearn for Moscow, for his Moscow friends, for Moscow music. “Do you often hear music? - he asked in a letter to the artist I.S. Ostroukhova. - And I rarely, very, very; I really need it: music can be cured! " But most of all, of course, he yearned for his "Bogatyrs" and could not resist - he sent the "Bogatyrs" to Kiev. And so the "Bogatyrs", who in general traveled a lot both in Moscow apartments and on the railways, now began to move from apartment to apartment in Kiev. In each apartment they were assigned the largest and lightest room, and many years later Vasnetsov's children recalled how, while playing, they loved to hide behind the "Heroes". Almost every day, before leaving for the cathedral, Viktor Mikhailovich sat in front of his "Heroes" for at least a short time, either with brushes and a palette, or even just looking at them, thinking.

In the same room there was another painting, begun in Moscow - "Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf." Her Viktor Mikhailovich was in a hurry to finish by the seventeenth traveling exhibition. “I have just sent my 'Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf' to the exhibition,” he wrote to Tretyakov, “I have forced myself to single out at least a little time from the work of the cathedral ... Of course, I would like the picture to be liked, but did I achieve this - see for yourself. "

V.M. Vasnetsov. Ivan Tsarevich riding the Gray Wolf. 1889

When the picture appeared at the exhibition, the audience stood in front of it for a long time. They seemed to hear the deep forest rustling dully, the pale pink flowers of a wild apple tree rustling gently, the leaves rustling under the wolf's feet - here it is, a strong kind giant wolf, out of breath, saving Ivan Tsarevich and Elena the Beautiful from pursuit. And on the branch curious birds are sitting and looking at him.

“Now I have returned from a traveling exhibition and, under the first impression, I want to express to you what I feel,” Savva Ivanovich Mamontov wrote to Vasnetsov. - Your "Ivan Tsarevich on the Wolf" delighted me, I forgot everything around, I went into this forest, I breathed this air, sniffed these flowers. All this is my dear, good! I just came to life! Such is the irresistible effect of true and sincere creativity. "

The painting was bought by P.M. Tretyakov, and since then it has been hanging in the Tretyakov Gallery, in the Vasnetsov Hall, almost opposite Alenushka. Vasnetsov, upon learning of this, was very happy. “I am sincerely grateful to you for the joy brought to me by the acquisition of my“ Wolf ”in your gallery. Needless to say, how much we value the placement of our paintings to you, ”he wrote to Tretyakov.

The works on painting the cathedral were coming to an end. Vasnetsov was impatient to return home to Moscow as soon as possible. “We, one might say, are already on the move, everything is busy with preparations for departure ... On June 15 or so we are thinking of being in Abramtsevo. We would like to get on the train to Abramtsevo directly from the courier, ”wrote Vasnetsov to Mamontov. And at the end of June 1891, he and his family had already settled in Yashkin's house, in his beloved Abramtsevo near Moscow. A new period of life was beginning.

“I, Pavel Mikhailovich, have an old dream: to arrange a workshop for myself in Moscow ... You yourself know how an artist needs a workshop,” wrote Viktor Mikhailovich to Tretyakov. But there had never been money to build a workshop before, and only now, after returning from Kiev, when Tretyakov bought almost all the sketches for painting the cathedral for the gallery, he decided to fulfill his old dream. I looked for a place for a house for a long time, I wanted to be in silence, away from the main streets. Finally, a place was found - a small plot with a dilapidated house, a shady garden in one of the quiet side streets, almost on the outskirts of what was then Moscow. The old house had to be demolished, and soon a new one was built in its place, built according to the drawings and designs of Viktor Mikhailovich. Vasnetsov himself helped to build it and rejoiced at "every crown of growing walls, every floorboard, every window and door set up."

The house was built in a special way, unlike all other houses in the alley. Built of logs, with a high gable roof, decorated with a log tower, it seemed to come here from old Russian epics and fairy tales. And everything inside the house was extraordinary: chopped log walls, huge stoves with beautiful colored tiles on top, simple benches, wide oak tables and around heavy, strong chairs - if only the heroes could sit on such chairs, at such tables.

From the largest room, the hall, a narrow spiral staircase led upstairs directly to the workshop - a huge, high, all flooded with light, and next to the workshop there was a light, its own room. At that time, perhaps, none of the Moscow artists had such a workshop.

In the summer of 1894, the Vasnetsovs moved into a house that was not yet completely rebuilt. Viktor Mikhailovich always said that this was one of the happiest days of his life. Life gradually improved both below and above - in the workshop. The "Bogatyrs" arrived and occupied almost the entire right wall of the workshop. Now they were at home and no longer needed to wander around other people's apartments. “It was somehow internally free to work for me in the new workshop,” said Vasnetsov. - Nobody bothered me, I'll have some tea, eat, go up to my room, lock myself up and do what I want! Sometimes he even sang while working. The main thing is that it was very good to look at my "Heroes" - I will come, walk away, look from the side, and outside Moscow, as I think, my heart will beat with joy! "

On the wall of the workshop, at the very door, Viktor Mikhailovich drew a girl's head in charcoal: she has a finger to her lips, and under the picture there is a signature: "Silence." “Art is born in silence, it requires a long, lonely and difficult work,” said Vasnetsov.

V.M. Vasnetsov. Snow Maiden. 1899

In such a bright state, in the happy silence of his workshop, he then painted a wonderful picture - "The Snow Maiden". Here she is, dear, light Snow Maiden - a child of Frost and Spring - emerging from the dark forest alone, to the people, to the sunny land of the Berendei.

Hawthorn! is it alive? alive.
In a sheepskin coat, boots, mittens.

Next to The Snow Maiden, on the easel, there were several other paintings that had been started, among them The Guslyars and Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

Vasnetsov never stopped working on "Heroes". It seemed to friends that the picture was completely finished, that it was time to give it to a traveling exhibition - Vasnetsov had not exhibited anything for a long time. Before the opening of the twenty-fifth mobile anniversary exhibition, the artist Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin wrote to him: “I am proud of you, as a native Russian, a great artist, and I am sincerely happy for you, as a comrade in art ... Viktor Mikhailovich! Move your "Heroes" on it, because as far as I remember, they are almost over with you. "

But Vasnetsov did not give the "Bogatyrs" to the exhibition. It still seemed to him that the picture was not completely finished, somewhere it was necessary to correct it, somewhere to touch it a little with a brush. He sent another painting - "Tsar Ivan the Terrible".

V.M. Vasnetsov. Heroes. 1881-1898