Apollo                                                         November - December 1916 No. 9 - 10

 

 

P.A.  Fedotov

Vsevolod Dmitriev

OUR  Objective

 

     Sad.  Fedotov's fate line stretches  far away of our days. The least we think about right now is  new triumphal arches for this master, on the contrary – will it be possible to preserve all his old, legitimized by time?  Laurels?  When you look at the creations of Fedotov, you try to suppress the persistent  Worrying: who is this artist, is it not a mistake of history, is it not a relic that we honor by habit and imitating our fathers?  We are.  They were persistently and annoyingly persuaded to appreciate Fedotov for   his   and so on.  role  "forerunners." We were told that this is the eternal merit of Fedotov.  before the native art. But then let us be told at least by Kramsky, or Perov, or Repin, in these beginnings, incarnations, and conclusions.  "movements" -  a clear echo of Fedotian achievements, a certain trace of the fact that Fedotian inspiration was prophetic  new  talent. In addition, now it is impossible to believe that Fedotov opened the eyes of society.  painters  previously unknown  The area is modern life.   But, they will argue, why  It was not Tropinin or the Venetians who caused public delight, but  Fedotov?  That's understandable. At home, already.  existing  genre  Fedotov was the first to introduce a joke, if, however,  not count Bryullov from his   tableau  de  genresort of  "Grandmother and Granddaughter's Dreams," which are  also  hugely  They were liked by the public (but only, as they were not taken from the life of our middle class, they could not so delight the whole mass of Russian spectators as they pleased it).  "Major" and "Major's Matrimony".  I think everyone will agree that success  Contemporary masters are by no means an unconditional proof of his artistic value and significance, especially since in this case the success was caused by  "anecdotalism"  Fedotian paintings, that is,  not the worst, but for the modern  Our taste is the least important.

     So, if the common  Opinions on the historical significance of Fedotov  Today, they have become empty places, what will we replace them with? Until now, these judgments have been immutable, and the interpretations of Fedotov’s craftsmanship, the assessment of its artistic appearance, have constantly changed as a particular, as something secondary. But now... Now,  When, I repeat, a disturbing question arises against our will:    with    Fedotov, how and for what do we value this master now? The answer is our task.

 

History  Fedotov's assessment

Let us now confirm with historical reference the truth of our words that the interpretations of Fedotov’s meaning that we have confirmed have in fact completely weathered and do not stand up to criticism. We will.  A review of the most important work, i.e.  They have contributed to the construction of a historical scheme or modified it. The first attempt at Fedotov’s assertion is  "Memories"  A.V.Druzhinina, left  The same year after the artist’s death. The named author did not play  He was also not a theorist of art and did not seek historical justification for his opinions.  We'll listen to his voice like a voice.  profanum  vulgusthat  “the people of the uninitiated,” who, with their ingenious delight, gave the first confirmation to Fedotov’s experiments. Drugin, first of all,  It distinguishes what the artist has already created from what he could give in the future: Fate was pleased to cease the existence of the artist.  on   eh   No, no.   and    Recognition and Recognition; Only the Nearest  Some of Pavel Andrevvitch's friends can say how weak, insignificant were his excellent beginnings.  before those inexhaustible treasures which have matured in his mind.” Secondly, referring to this future, the author categorically states: “Only they (i.e., only they).  closest friends  It was clear that the future work of our compatriot might surpass that of Sir David Wilkie and Hogarth himself.

The future of the artist, according to one  from  His closest friends, it was outlined with complete clarity: he had to outdo it.  "Gogarth himself." Let us remember this assessment of Fedotov by a contemporary and move on to the next one.

     The second important supporter of Fedotov’s merits was  A.I. Somov, and the same author gave the first attempt to theoretically substantiate the meaning of the master in Russian painting. For a quarter-century period, the  "Memories"  The john from the monograph  Somova (1878)  The point of view on the meaning of the progressive movement of our art has changed drastically. If the contemporaries of Fedotov seemed a huge and precious goal - to dress Gogart in Russian uniforms and zipoons, now, after 25 years, such a goal has significantly dimmed. Fedotov is already perceived from the point of view  «post hoc, across the galaxy  There are many and growing, the Wanderers. The homogeneity of public delight before the works of Fedotov and before the creations of Perov or V. Makovsky was striking, as well as the homogeneity or almost homogeneity of both here and there; hence the conclusion that Somov made, without hesitation:  "matchmaking major" and "Fresh Cavalier", etc., the columnist of the Russian phalanx  painters who are working today to develop real, national, deeply meaningful subjects. However, Somov, as a subtle observer, could not help but see, and even pointed out to us himself that “Fedotov had neither disciples nor immediate followers,” but still he did not have any students.   eh   I don't know.   tie  Fedotova  with the Wanderers, because otherwise  Fedotov threatened to find himself in the history of Russian  art in strange solitude. Not amongst  "academicians"  This meant being in the camp of the Wanderers; of a different position, outside these two camps, the then artistic  The thought did not represent, and since chronologically Fedotov was ahead of the movement by a dozen years, then, consequently, he  "colonial counselor" who  “discovered a new, untouched vein of nationality and satire. Without Fedotov for a long time, perhaps, our art school would not be proud of such works as works of art.  Perova, Pryanishnikov, Trutovsky, Chernyshev, Zhuravlev, V. Makovsky and others  other  genreists. (See A.I. Somov “Pavel Andreevich Fedotov” SPB, 11878 Page 26)

     So, the hypothesis was built, built very logically and, of course, was  on  It was welcomed by the “movement”, as well as  It's profitable and flattering. Indeed, the Wanderers wanted at least one thing.  bloodline. They could refer neither to Ivanov, who was too wise and complex for them, nor to Bryullov, who was too brilliant and ceremonial for them, nor to Venetsianov, who was too ingenious and inglorious at that time, while Fedotov was a very convenient banner. He covered with his shadow too naked.   I don't know.   origination  and ideas  "Hands."  Wanderers. However, it is precisely because Fedotov, considered nominally the ancestor, was in fact alien to the Wanderers and   no    I don't know.    And they did not know what they were doing, but what they were doing.  The rest was discarded as if  Bad. “Real ones  creative  and  Fedotov's talents were   That's right.    e in    "Fresh Cavalier" and "matchmaking major", - writes V.V. Stasov. Other paintings by Fedotov are either sentimental (for example, The Widow), or  insignificant and uninteresting, and  It has not been widely distributed in the public.”  But  At the same time, Stasov remains perplexed by a very simple solution to the issue: It is marvelous and unimaginable that this  The strange artist was destined to become the ancestor of the whole department of Russian painting.  Meanwhile  It is more wonderful that, according to the assurance of this authority, Fedotov had absolutely no data for his fate. ? This one  Strange artist very soap saw and read, had no idea about it. What is happening in Europe, the Dutch did not know, Gogarth ignored and even very much  "Didn't love"  When he came to know him, he wrote in gray, unskillful colors. In a word,  "Father."  The Wanderers were   from which it is a part of the  The children themselves, having looked more calmly and attentively, began in the late period of their activity to almost renounce, but which was strongly imposed on them by historians. Why?

     Turning to the following figures of Russian artistic life -  to the artisan world,  we'll meet  Interesting answer to our question. The new movement had to be alien in Fedotov and that  It was in him from Bryullov, which turned away the Wanderers from him, and that which was from  "anecdote" (than)  love  He was the doers.  1970s and 1980s). And  Indeed, A.N. Benois, keeping intact  Somov-Stasov hypothesis, only  It complements it in the most characteristic way. "All further Russian art," he says.  The just named historian,  It has been almost up to our time.  in Fedotov's footsteps.  Everything here is old except  “Almost” – which, however, is the whole point.  Fedotovskaya  "paternity"  now  It is limited to a certain period, and the new generation does not write this master in his own name.

 

 

   Genealogy. And since the period associated with Fedotov, theorists  new  The generation was almost entirely rejected, as a painful deviation of Russian artistic life, the same fate threatened Fedotov, especially since Fedotov's kinship with the Russian artist.  "academists"  denied  now  This is even more obvious than Stasov did. To break the impasse, it took a decisive  a revaluation of Fedotov’s works, an assessment almost inverse to that given to us by Somov and Stasov.  All the work of Fedotov, with few exceptions,  is now accepted as   "accidental and unspecified" as  “first samples  pens, far from expressing the personality of the artist, but the main value of this  The master is transferred... In the future, the reception has already been tried once - by Druzhinin. Buddy.  In the unsolved future, Fedotov's sepia seemed clear, and Benoit -  "Officer in the Country" and equal  confidently   paint  on n   I'm sorry.   painter However, while studying the master,  We have the right to go further.  his death?

     So, we see that if Somov at one time tied together  Fedotova   on  By this he wanted to glorify and adorn both, while Benoit, insisting on the same connection, sought the opposite, wanted to belittle and weaken.  "movement", deriving him from "random samples of Fedotov's pen", almost do not express the personality of the artist.

     After the hypothesis built by the World of Art,  (c) and (c)   provisions  Fedotova has increased to a high degree. What an absurdity.  "the father of the father" who is confused  And they were afraid.  "children," and  His grandparents believed that he was the father of his father and his son.  Wanderers. Isn't that a rare genius who has looked far ahead? We have no good reason to name Fedotov.  Such a genius, but then who is he?  This question  He had to become an annoying hindrance to everyone who again took up research on Fedotov. And indeed, in a new and highly remarkable experience.  "allegations"   Fedotova, made relatively recently (1907)  N.I. Romanov, we observe persistent attempts to eliminate the accumulated contradictions by any means.   round  "Fedotova" and  The approach to the topic has changed significantly  on  Compared to previous studies. Conclusions now, almost without interruption, follow the careful observation of the    f a a, i.e.  The theory now consists almost exclusively of the results of observation, and now another hypothesis is born. She says something.  The opposite of what Somov (and then Stasov and Benoit) said: The colors, images and character of Fedotov’s satire connect him more with Russian life and art.    No, no.   We're not.    XIX    more than a century of further development  after the reforms. Fedotov  painter The work of the Russian realists of the first half of the century.  However, despite the fact that Romanov manages to justify the above provision.  In a few examples, this conclusion seems to him.  too much  A sharp, too steep break with the traditional hypothesis  historical  Fedotov's place, and he  He tries to soften his observation with this additional explanation: Fedotov cannot be considered the head and the basis of this.  real  direction  painting which  So magnificently blossomed in the work of the Wanderers ... but, completing with his creativity the old stratifications, he thereby created the soil that was necessary.  for   formation  layer.  I mean,  more than  Fedotov completed the old stratifications of the Brulls or Venetians, and we will not argue that Bryullov is the direct cause of the appearance of Kramsky, the Venetians - the appearance of Repin, and the same number of people.  We have little reason.  say  Fedotovless  There would be no Makovsky.

     Let's finish on  This hypothesis is our reference; it shows us how much in the modern concept  "Fedotov"  Unfaithful, contradictory, repeated only by habit.  Without a doubt, this confusion is due to the absence of any  fixed  results. When the last of the authors we quoted, N.I. Romanov,  attempted  Some of these objectively observed  The conclusions, he immediately had to break.  conventional  frequent  repetition  It is almost the truth, the interpretation. This is a good sign for us. If now, trying to forget  loophole    and   faith  only   If we are going to get to even more extraordinary results, does that mean that we have lost our way? Where is this solid and obligatory path? He's still being sought...

 

 

The life of Fedotov  (1815 – 1852)

     In the years since his death  Fedotova,  It's been evaluated and overrated.  not once, as we have just seen; but  This did not in any way advance the study of materials about Fedotov. Stock of sources collected in  Somov's time has come down to our days, almost no longer replenished by anyone.  and  Untested by anyone. And yet this material  Little reliable as composed of random memories and anecdotes  about various incidents and incidents in the life of the artist. And so, each of the researchers took from one them  everybody, stock.  scattered  and  biased considerations and sentences left to posterity  Fedotov's friends, that  according  most emphasized  necessary for his theory of the image of the artist, and  Of course, because they all came from  They were equally unproved, and all were  equally right. The same way, but necessary, we will go, but we wanted to   if possible,  without explanation   "helpful friends"  and  to refer only to the true words of the artist himself, and we find them almost exclusively in a few poems.  experience  Fedotova.  Of course, using  It is impossible to think of a complete and evident restoration of the artist’s life. Our essay  will be the same worker  It is only a more concise and frank hypothesis, like previous biographies, since we do not claim that the artist’s appearance is exactly what we will build him, but we maintain that this is a work of art.  we are  He was the key to our master’s work. Wishing.  We give the same key...that's the whole thing.  meaning  "biographies."

     The whole life of Fedotov can be defined as a continually and inevitably increasing series of contradictions between the ugly conditions of fate.  and  It's a beautiful requirement of the brain. In this  The struggle was the main life experience of the artist;   The experience, drop by drop, day by day, was hammered into the memory and was finally perceived by the masekra as something inevitable, even as a self-understood condition.  life. Similar  convinced Fedotov and expressed in the quatrain (in the album of M.A.Polovtsov):

All plan after plan in my head...

But  The lot ruins these plans...

Oh, no.  One life for us and two.

And condemned.  and given

This is the main explanation of the whole fate of the artist; following it, we will perceive  Fedotov’s works are not accidental, but distorted, d o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Fedotov’s childhood was spent in Moscow; about this time the artist points out that “the strength of childhood impressions, the reserve of observations made by me at the very beginning of my life, make up the following:  It will be allowed to say so, the main fund of my talents (from the autobiographical record). Of course, there is nothing surprising in this – as well.  The power of most people’s childhood impressions. But it's common.  phenomenon  Fedotov emphasizes how something remarkable, very insists on it.  and  He repeatedly mentions that during the hours of creativity he is transferred to childhood and to Moscow. And the artist was right in emphasizing this, because these instructions explain to us such wonderful things that we can do in the world.  essence,  in the power and rapidity of its origin, the first three famous paintings of its oil; we now guess,  They are the embodiment of plans that have long been carried out,  Observations that have long been accumulated, just waiting for their implementation.

An even stronger stamp on the personality itself  Fedotova, on the slope of his creativity  years of youth (cadet corps) and years of maturity (military service), those years when  man  He is looking for himself and must find himself and when the artist first felt that   no    n   Well, well,   e in e

We won't.  guess  came out  Fedotov. Get him in a new position, get him, like Ivanov.  or Bryullov, with  young years in academic study. It's  It is as fruitless as guessing about the future.  works of the artist.  Same thing.  history  The life of the master only indicates that almost up to 30 years he was engaged in art.  or not at all engaged, i.e.  That at that time, when the skeleton of the artistic appearance is formed, Fedotov  It must have been at the level of original amateurism. Of course, one can cite more than one example from the history of art, when artists who took up the brush just as late managed to develop their talent.  high  degree, but it must be remembered that the  They managed to absorb artistic culture before; Fedotov did not have this, in the years of maturity he was not only an amateur, but also ... a savage. Yeah, that's the artist himself.  He shows us the environment in which he was destined to bear his creative observations:

No, we don't have time to dream;

Soldier for a century.  tummy

story  Fedotov in his vershes. To my readers, verses to my strict examiners.

No, in our shoes.

Try singing hymns in nature:

Sleep.  The streams then,

Like the water in your boots.

il  frostcoat

Simple, bosses waiting,

Then  Like fingers, fading,

I can't.  I'll hold the sabers.

Come on.   into  hands  Take the lira.

Yes.  pop  solemn

Midnight nature.

No, honey, you can't open your mouth.

And  You'll sing a wolf song.

    

And as a general conclusion to the era that stole from Fedotov the precious time of his maturation:

Our brother.  blind, deaf,

Our bliss: Chark in the cold,

A bucket of water in the heat, but in hunger

Hot bowl, yes, sleep,

Preference, and Apollo.

And with the muses out.

 

     However, during the same war years, he insisted on his approval.   r   life  Fedotova is a subordinate  “Museum”; hence the extreme, the  "movable"  The shade that distinguishes the last period of Fedotov's life, given to art. In the period of military service, muses – as we have just seen from the words of the artist himself  - were totally cool.  "get out." From here to Fedotov, already.  lengthy  He had listened secretly and passionately to the muses.  A natural and equally extreme reaction. The artist wanted  to root out the cause of the painful doubleness of his life, but in it were already etched with a long torment the forces that would allow him to reconcile these  "two lives," yes.   besides  There were no external conditions that would facilitate such reconciliation. And Fedotov planned to destroy the burdensome  internal discord, "getting out"  Everything in your life, except for the arts. This explains the sharp difference that  I found out at some point.  5-6 years  and so sadly amazed  The artist's closest friends, the difference  between the Fedotov officer and  Fedotov-painter. In fact,  At the beginning of this heroic attempt, something happened that decided fate.  The artist, which caused his life to burn with convulsive speed. True, the role of fate in the life of Fedotov fell to the share of the person who had and  a useful, even guiding role in development  The artist's work,  me  speaking  Bryullova. But Bryullov uttered a word that then sounded relentlessly in the artist’s brain, even, as it seems to me, it sounded louder, with a force increasingly frightening, until it brought to the limit – to madness. Bryullov pointed out to Fedotov that in his years  It is difficult, if not impossible, to master the technique of painting. However, the ruthless teacher left  A light of hope for the student, saying that  hard work can be attempted  catch up  lost years And Fedotov.  He grabbed that straw with hurried passion. At first.  painter  He believed that he could overcome all obstacles. This confidence was facilitated, firstly, by the fact that the artist had already matured long-term plans, waiting for the embodiment of only free time, and secondly,  -   An extremely simple look at the technique of art. Fedotov in the first years of his performance in the art field simply did not understand  the full meaning of the words spoken  All their immutability grew before him only later, at the same time as it deepened, expanded and became more and more unattainable.   into  In the eyes of Fedotov, the term is “painting skill”. That's it.  primal unconsciousness  And he helped the artist with such wonderful speed.  Such a naive joy to create your own  "Fresh Cavalier", "Selective Bride", "Major's Matchmaking".  But it was just that.  sample  The pen, only the first performance, is the place that  He cleansed himself of the master,   Oh, yeah.   create. Named  The three paintings were like a facet that sharply broke the life of the artist in two parts - behind the shadow and heavy.  dusk  years when  muse  "Out of the way," and in front,  possibility  sunshine.

 

                                                         Sweetheart, look!

                                          Against the wall!  and  me  whole  life  in the shadows.

                                          In the shade!  Meanwhile, sometimes grace begins

                                          In the shower about something sweet.  I was whispering...

                                  

                                                         (From the Fedotov fable)  "Bee and Flower"

 

     Of course, in order to understand clearly.  The heaviness and strength of the shadow in which the artist had to vegetate the best part of his life, he needed to be able to do so.  At least for a short time to step on a strip of land flooded with sun. Such a sunshine, the honeymoon of his fate.  Fedotov became few years of glory caused by the works I have just mentioned:

 

                                           When the word is wide

                                           Souls are vague words

                                           Come with me.  explained;

                                            I  I realized what nature has given me.

                                           What?  brilliant gave me a lot...

 

                                                           (Same fable)

      But   It was given to understand.  Fedotov, as if in order to soon and with all force realize the hopelessness of his  provisions. The artist took his fame as a life-giving force; this fame unspeakably facilitated growth.  His artistic sense, but he made it easier.  sort of  that  draw near  end A few years of convulsive work of the brain and hands was enough for the Fedotov  much  past  And they have a lot of trouble, and they have a lot of pain.  mutual perplexity. Recent connoisseurs and admirers of the artist wondered how he could after the instructive and amusing in its complexity sepia, after which he was not able to do so.  full  life   and fun genres go to simple, boring in its simplicity and ordinary in its design.  "The Widow." And the artist wondered how  Next to strict endurance, calm charm   and clarity of writing  "The Widows."  friend  could have looked back  naively  extraction and compositional accident  his original pictures.  The result of the confusion was  That the noise of fame around Fedotov fell as fast as it arose. And the artist again felt in the shadows:

 

The soul sought only the means of development.  

But in them, alas! fate refused me at all!

I thirst for the sun, but it

I don't like my window!

    

For further development of Fedotov     I've missed it.  No self-belief, no public sympathy. Introduced into their first work  All long cherished, the artist suddenly felt emptiness, realized himself a helpless student who needs years.  and  hard years  study. Giant leap  forward, which made  Fedotov asked Fedotov far away from his recent ideals, which he found in Russian society.  many like-minded people...

      Everyone told us, beginning with Druzhinin, that Fedotov passed from the Dutch to Gogarth and from Gogarth to the Dutch. However, recently  published  drawings  painter  (according to M.K. Azadovskiy), we come across quite definite evidence that  The master’s weight was not so great.  Narrowly defined. For example, Fedotov    I don't know what I'm doing, and    about  you  intently  In M and in f and in f. He sketches individual figures from the Last Judgment, copies some of the statues, finally  single-leaf  It says, “You should have a compass in your eye, not your hand.”  Michelangelo...  He did not like to imitate nature if it did not represent perfection.”  Here's the detail.  Artistic research by Fedotov, who  suddenly  It changes the accepted scheme of his understanding; it turns out that  "weird"   The artist, having just written “Major”, began to reflect on the degree of imitation of nature, began to look for a compass not in the hand, but in the eye.

     But think about it. It meant for Fedotov to decisively lose ground under his feet.  In fact, before.  It was so simple: to think about the story, to find  model, copy nature as carefully as possible  -  here  A recipe, as if simple, which Fedotov once successfully used and in which the Wanderers then so inviolably believed. The artist rejected him, but how could he replace him? In what ways and when would he be able to arm his spiritual hand with a compass?  eye? Where is the environment, those accomplices, finally, the time that would help him in such a way?  the hardest task?  Peering.  In the frame where fate has squeezed the artist,  We really don't find it.  A different way than the one Fedotov himself found.  We do.   It is said that the cause of everything was his cramped financial circumstances, that his already broken forces were burdened with the care of his father, mother, and sister.  He could easily, if he wanted, help his fate.  marriage  He loved and loved a rich girl. But Fedotov will bypass this peaceful path. It seems unacceptable to him that any other   Except for a hard fight with fate. He's consistent.   suspend  Everything that would be a hindrance to this martial art, just deliberately hasten.  To bring the end near, which was not far off.  Repeatedly  The friend of Fedotov mentioned by us, Druzhinin, in vain called him to his village.  to rest, offered him all comforts, promising  even build a workshop.  Fedotov  He refused flatly, referring to the fact that fame is smoke: “It is necessary more often.”  let out  This smoke, or it will spread through the air.  On the possibility of a successful marriage, he replied with the words: “My life will not be enough to give both art and the woman I love.”

     As I said, the extreme of the first half of Fedotov’s life  should  It was inevitable to create a new extreme. Service  Muses, after all these years  "Putting them out" should have been  bruise  The artist, as a severe asceticism. Memory.  For the years gone by, he languished like an insatiable thirst, and made it    Yeah, yeah.   toward  every minute. Like a miser, no longer possessing  his  He was arrogant, and he was arrogant.  artless  every hour, every movement of the mind  and every thrill of the heart. That's when he meets.   A love that could give him both a rest and a new source.  strength, he runs.  It's like a fatal temptation.

Don't talk about love,

Don't muddy your blood,

Your feelings,

Save the heat for art.

(Poems.)  Fedotova  "Ola"

So sharp, lifting  duty  before the law of asceticism, Fedotov understood his  "second"  A life devoted to art. And yet, even in this way,  not  succeeded  extinguish  (e) and I... When we look back on  whereupon  Fedotov, where the artist fascinated by his rapidly increased  The art of understanding when we try to reconcile  its original  Ideals with ideas that filled his last years - we see that there could be no reconciliation, a breakthrough was formed that would fill the gap.  There was no single human will. Before him, the wall became his recent fame as a satirist-genrist, and the interests of the then society, and each of them.   trifle of life. And then we  make sense  autobiographical  authenticity, all the sad truth of the following description  last   conscious moments of his struggle with   (e)    life.

Desire is hot.  "wishing"  From hopelessness their rays have shrunk to the center, and the stale heat in me like poison now burns and my whole composition is ashes.

("Bee and Flower")

Then, as we know, Fedotov went mad. It's his.  The state has been described more than once; we do not need to compose a new one, but for the conclusion of this chapter we shall give one such description, in our opinion.  In the summer of 1852 Fedotov had the first signs of mental suffering. In the shower.  his  A painful thirst for some other, unexplored life brightly awoke, and poured into enthusiastic nonsense about a charming, loving bride waiting for him. He bought gifts for her, soaked them up.  money, then fell into a violent seizure and was taken to the hospital, where, after suffering for several months, he died.  38 years of life. Sergei  Verb. Why should I know, maybe this one?  "The bride in love" was the same Olga, from  which the artist had previously jealously guarded.  "Warm" and then he decided to give this precious  "warmth" - in a moment of despair, having lost hope to calm  "his burning heat"  art.

So, taking all the creatures.  Fedotova not as free manifestations of his gift, but as distorted and intermittent reflections of unequal and agonizing combat.  An artist with destiny, we  We shall have to look with great care at his legacy, we shall have to accept it as a covenant, as a method of study.  His works, and as a measure of their evaluation, are the final words of his fable, repeatedly cited here.  "Bee and flower":

Don't be surprised, bee, that I'm so sluggish,

And do not scold me without disassembling me for laziness.

The insignificance of my beginning 

Shadow.      

 

Primary  PRESIDENTS

 

The beginning of systematic art education Fedotov refers to the middle  The 30s, when the artist, having moved to serve in the regiment in St. Petersburg, began to attend the evening classes of the Academy and the Hermitage. However, there is no doubt that even before, at least in pieces, were deposited in the soul of the master.  artistic impressions. What were and where did these impressions come from?  Study of these questions in Russian art science  They did not even begin; rather, they were rounded, and a very simple reception, calling Fedotov  "Well, we'd be fine."  Really, Fedotov.  self-taught, but that doesn't mean he came to  artwork with a distinct taste, with  in a unique way of development...  To agree  With me, just look at the caricatures and pencils attached here.  sketches by the artist. Nana  same-leaf  We'll see three different manners.  3, three different languages in which he tries to speak, and the same  timid, novice master.  Zjas, in my opinion, is only a naive and greedy student who learns from everyone who meets and crosses.  If in the upper watercolor on the right we see an awkward attempt to adopt the watercolor techniques of the Brullovsky school, then on the left a thin and sharp sketch of the figures makes us recall the engraved scarves from the paintings that were attached to the then  national magazines and publications; finally, in the drawing  (cf. Sir.2) is again new.  reception, line angular and broken, giving the drawing the character of speed and confidence, character,  uncomplicated with the timid thoroughness and smoothness of the two above  manner.  It's not hard again.  indicate the source of this new artist's technique; it is worth taking the illustrated  magazines, French or English, of the time  time, and  We will quickly select samples for this picture, and for the whole series.  Fedotova - Life  genius  The painter, made of the same angular, as if hasty strokes.

All right.  He was a scholar, especially in his original  A feeling of surprise, which is sometimes born  when looking at  His other job.  Often  signature  forces us to acknowledge authorship  Fedotova, and that's because, of course,  what  master  happened at the same time  It's very different. First  job  Fedotov forced  It is not to recognize its identity, but  extraordinary   I don't think so.    toward    That's why I don't know.    pupil  very scattered and far from any closure in the circle of favorite images, only  collector  necessary  her  grains  on  flower  from the fields, near and far.

The sources of Fedotov's initial inspiration I have mentioned -  only a small part of the vast and complex  "bloodline." A very important search in this area was done by N.I. Romanov, and I consider it useful to  It's here to map out.  At least in the most important features the whole string of artistic ancestors of Fedotov. So, about one of the  "unexpected"  work  Fedotova  In the Market Square, 1847, the named researcher says that  “the connection of this watercolour with the endless stream of template lithographs and drawings in which  Foreign artists who came to Russia from the end  XVII  century  typical  scenes of Russian life”. Further, in our opinion, another remark of the same author on watercolours is correct.  portraits of Patsevich and Rodivonova  1836-37  years that they  “reminiscent of a pale matte, yellowish tone of faces, cold  brownish and bluish background strokes watercolor miniature portraits”.

     Now we know where Fedotov came from.   p    for their early watercolor portraits, these sad watercolors that  We would gladly ascribe to anyone but  Fedotov; they have extremely numerous relatives, those quadrangular, oval or round miniaturks of various home-grown  forgotten  masters who are symmetrical  hung  over the sofas and tables of Fedotov's acquaintances

     And here are just the first steps to clarify the early impressions of the master, and immediately opened before us.  massive  complexity  and  fancy  It is a series of influences so different, accidental and unbelievers that, indeed,  Fedotov could not, despite the strength of the  into  him  gift, be  other than the one who has no compass,  copycat. How untrue and blind were the original searches of Fedotov, confirms also  The story of Professor Sauerweid's brief apprenticeship.  This  history  warning  not  make hasty conclusions about the very essence of the talent of the artist. He who  For many years he painted only military scenes.  camp, which dreamed of devoting itself to battle  painting and early days  welcome  He gave this genre, it seemed,  sauerweid  only  for  To emphasize how bad he is then.  figured out  into  slope  talent.  We see that in the same  The Days When an Artist With Such Vision  and  greed  drew  missing  he had experience  casual engravings and  miniatures, then  into  polytypes  then  foreign and Russian  magazines, then in creations  Russian painting  from Orlovsky  and  kirensky  down-to-work  Venetian school, in the same   most  time  he was  decisively  impatient  sauerweid  (for example,  Timm.  could  to develop and strengthen under the leadership of this  Professor.

     Let us complete our sketch of the initial influences.  reference n  on  crucial  role  play  painter  Fedotova  and his associates in the Academy, and above all  name  A. Agina.  Agin's general drawing course  graduated in 1834, and  Academy  into  1839. Thus,  peer  Fedotov by the year n  (born in 1816),  only  on  slightly  He was ahead of him in academic terms.  education.  And  when  wet  We look at and evaluate the drawings of Fedotov, it does not interfere  reminisce  "Grandfather Krylov" (1845), to  The Old Testament (1846) and  finally  They are dead souls (the same years).  This one  painter  designed  equally  themes  proceeded from the same  form  which   principally    p.  Fedotov.  crossover  Bryullov and overseas  painters, in  peculiarities  Gavarni.  Next, Agin.  labor  previously Fedotov  common  them  both  stories;  Besides, they knew each other.  (which proves, for example, Fedotov's carcature of Agin), and  staring  theirs  drawings,  wet  find  Intimacy, sometimes almost identity.  From here.   wet  rightful  name  predecessor  Fedotova, the master who   Fedotov  He learned much more than his own.  First, officially,  teacher  Sauerweida.

     So, looking at the  primeval  experimentation  Fedotova, we're not at all  recognize   I don't think so.   master;  on the contrary, in the first steps  artwork  Fedotov revealed  self-giving  scattered  receptive  his  path and strength  loosely  self-deepening, and in  spike  very  different, sometimes  peculiarly  randomness  even  sad  into  culture and taste.

 

BRULLOV

     Indicating, at least in the main features, a circle  original  impression  Fedotova, we are  approach  clarification  generalism  then  Russian  society.  Fedotov ate and perceived everything.  similarly   enjoyed  modern  He is an art lover and...  the same confused dark tangle of concepts that was then in the brain of the artist, we can safely  It was all about society at the time. And here,  The more clearly we conceive of all scarcity, confusion, even absurdity.  The art of understanding then, the  will become  for    I'd rather not.  delight, almost  The madness that engulfed society and artists  40s at the sight of grandiosely conceived and slenderly executed   Pompeii.  A dream. Russian  "European," everyone.  the time before and after Europe, in turn,   p p o o o o t   This dream was found in Bryullov.   dignified  embodiment  and  wet  we observe  A number of notable artists are changing and breaking their usual path to  Join the enchanted and weak-willed imitators of the brilliant and capricious new god. Not knowing even the further activities of Fedotov, remember  only  on  female  soil  volume  airborne  His initial vague thoughts about art grew, and he also remembered them.  sharply  revealed  on  first  step  extraordinary  The sensitivity of the artist, we can say,  what Bryullov's work  ought  It was to blind him, to capture completely and for a long time both the brain and the soul.   In fact,  bruhlov  He played an exceptionally important role in the life of the artist, directing his activities.  until the last piece. What is it, I  I will confirm a few references from the biography.  Fedotova. In chapter  "The Life of Fedotov" I pointed out the fatal influence on the whole  The future of the artist is too much  Bryullov's cruel words that he should learn   well    No, no, no, no.  He who spoke them, more than anyone else,  To help Fedotov overcome their painful meaning. Bryullov fell in love with this strange  painter  art with all the power and passion  mature husband and  helpless as a boy, and  watch  move n  his brushes with that  scrupulously  What kind of love does the teacher have?  He looks after his dearest student. And above all, Bryullov tries to restore faith in himself to the student, for to whom, how  not  writer   "Pskov sieges,"  knew  The torment of self-doubt and disbelief. Okay, he's encouraging.  Fedotov, who brought  few  their own  original  In other words: “Central”  line  Everything is true and the rest will come.” Next  Fedotov.  already  not  He needed that kind of approval.   I'm sorry.   (a) in which he is purified.  painter  And they were getting more and more confused.  Hasty and disembodied. What was needed here was no longer praise, but cleverness.  A true reproach, and Bryullov makes it, advising  painter  “Do not get carried away by the complexity of Gogartov.” Fedotov  how  seemingly  only  waited  Reproach; the student needed only    No, no, no, no.   The thought that was already growing in him, and now we see that the artist begins to work hard.  freeing   "complexity"   passes  from   "Fidels"  toward  Breakfast  nobleman   this picture is completely  simple  "The Widow," and further, to  "Officer in the Village"  and  design  "Institutes"

     Then Bryullov gave another one.  advice which  again  He fell on very grateful ground and immediately  It affected the works of Fedotov. It's  advice to write  Wide, wide, without getting into miniature.  However, to  I had to believe that Fedotov was capable of a wide range of  The letter should have been deep.   No and no    sweep   of the Fedotians, and indeed  Fedotov soon justified the trust of his mentor. Already in the girl's portrait.  behind the clavichords appeared Fedotov's flair  beauty    I'm sorry.  Although this work is still thoroughly saturated with watercolor techniques. But in the portrait.  Fluga  hard work  painter  It is about learning new techniques for him.  Fedotov seeks  forget  volume  in the fine, fine, and delicate writing which he at least wrote.  "Major's Matrimony," and tries to master  and   use  everything  advantages    I'm sorry.    before the watercolor and the pencil.  Okay, thick. n  and with a broad stroke  here's a candle, a leaf  paper, hand, but make the same experience  face  appears  too responsible, and Fedotov turns here to the more familiar  him  liquid  watercolor writing, a little bit.  rub  grain-paint  canvas.

     But then, for example,  into  "Officer with batman,"  We're watching all the time.  letter-writing   I don't know. So.  Fedotov  trustingly  swiftly  paths indicated  Bryullov to him. Precious and become  pressing  habit  counsel  Fedotov sought and waited.  even  After the death of the teacher...

As you know,  Fedotov  survived  Bryullov only for a few months  Bryullov.  He died on June 11, 1852, and Fedotov 14.  November  then  equally  year  ).  To the day of death  bryullova  Fedotov  I just finished.  "The Widow," all imbued with  dreamlike  about Bryullov, and begin a new sketch  "An officer in the village."  And here's this thing.  how  We know the days. when he started  Fedotov acquires  important biographical significance; it seems to be a clot of that  of the extreme grief that Fedotov endured (but)  It is because it is written.  in the painfully excited, unusual  for  restrained  artist's condition,  her  difficult  consider  general  lines  creativity  Fedotova.  Fedotov lost his adviser, he seemed to be at once  He went astray, and there he was.  behind  Unfulfilled hope (that is,  I just emphasized.  force  Begins to believe that a great teacher  keeps moving  hand and coffin...  He boasts to his friends that Bryullov and now  continues  let him  differential  picturesque  task  The arguments of friends that this is inconceivable, responds: “All of you, gentlemen.”  amateurs, ready to smile  count  It is the dream of the imagination, and sometimes of the imagination of the disturbed; but we artists,  we can  go down  spirit, when  The conversation with those who are out of date is more than  Possible.

We're used to thinking about Bryullov right away.  see  "Pompeii."  remember the name of Fedotov  "Major's Matchmaking." But let's try for a little while.  forget it  "Brullova" and that.  "Fedotové"; let him  in the name of Bryullov in our  memory  pale  drawings, a number of his sensitive and sensual  storytelling  or  from  life of chivalry, and, finally, as clearly and annoyingly as before  "Pompey," let it be.  We will remember a little touched by ink, slightly marked by the slight pressure of a pencil, beautiful captives, with huge eyes and sleepy movements, preparatory work.  sketches  toward  Bakhchisarai  The fountain, and then this capricious  and  fancy composition, like   cm   such  "new"  Bryullova, like    (e)    Bryullova, with all her  sentimental  and as the highest  display of its sophistication and brilliance on  mind.  And then  then  check out  Fedotova; note the pose of the bride in  "matchmaking," notice.  "At the bedside," his gentle and  love-painting  girls and girls, the fine and pale press of his pencil, finally  His idea of the painting "Institutions", -  similar   "Bakhchisarai fountain", "harem"  string  girls, and perhaps the line of succession.   From Bryullov to Fedotov it will seem not only impossible, but    I'd rather not.

Hermitage

    Majority  walker  ideas about Fedotov and the ways of his creativity at the first attempt to analyze them disintegrates easier than a house of cards. And yet, despite the inglorious ease of such victories, they are necessary, because, without blowing away these card pyramids, we will not see the line of art.  Fedotov's way. One  such  "Pyramid" seems to me the usual scheme of the role of the Hermitage  in the work of Fedotov. It is as follows: Fedotov experienced the strongest fascination with the Hermitage at the beginning of his artistic career, i.e.  eventually  30s and early 40s  Every year he moves away from the old masters for the sake of modern life.  Ours.  researcher  definitely  These are the European masters who are most interested in  artist:  it  "little"  Flemish and Dutch.  Prix  that's what they say.  notable variants: Somov claims that such were Ostade, Teniers and Brover; Stasov  He says that  Although Fedotov needed to know the Dutch, he did.    no     I'm sorry.  further  Benoit, repeating Somov, only  throw away  Brower; finally, the Romanovs, seeing, apparently, in  There is something wrong with this scheme.  Somov-Benoit  two  Names. And then full.  The list of Hermitage masters who influenced Fedotov will be as follows: Teniers, Ostade, Brower, Terborch and Peter de Hoogh.  And,  for  historical justice,  should  It is said that the successful founder of these made from frequent repetitions.  The almost unconditional statements are none other.   Like Druzhinin. To understand the degree and peculiarities of the influence of the Hermitage Assembly on Fedotov is, in my opinion, by no means unimportant.

     So complex and scattered, so  "unexpected"  The artist, like Fedotov, with the greatest  objectivity  It can only be achieved through  study   in and I n and y   on  him.  That way we can understand his taste, moreover, his.    c you are    Ideals and finally get closer to your inner image. Of course I would.  It would be great if the teachers at the Hermitage  for Fedotov  were  Stan and Brover, one of  My favorite geniuses, like  made   pleasure  Somov and Benoit, assigning  Fedotov.   Our tastes, but the question is how close we get.  upon  such  method  To study the goal, to Fedotov himself. Druzhinin  We are told that Fedotova is everything.  more charming  Teniers' tavern scenes. This  It's not hard to believe.  Especially since in those years  The Dutch, and Teniers and Ostade in particular, were in great esteem in our artistic circles. We must remember how poor and what luxury were then.  artistic  publication; printed  only  then  what  He could have expected a clear sale, and now, according to the announcement, n   then  newspapers and magazines, almost the largest number of publications fell on  prints and lithochromia  picture  Teniers and Ostade. “Picturesque review”, the magazine of the late 30s, will  First of all, let us draw from these  equally  artists; finally forgotten, or rather,  unexplored   landmark   Fedotov's senior contemporary, Ignaty Shchedrovsky  began  artistic  copying  on  Flemish  festival  David Teniers. Consequently,  then  existed  whole    m   on  Teniers, and if Fedotov, when asked  about the Hermitage impressions, pointed primarily to Teniers, then there is nothing complicated in this: the artist  hardly  first   equally  pore   figure out  floating  on  He is impressed and he calls those who  famous  before the Hermitage. So wrong.  definition  Your impressions are all about  and  nearby. Go to some provincial town.  to the artist who first entered the Hermitage,  He'll tell you how  most  His seductive, loud  now  names, though  would  velazquez  Poussin; however, if you check  words  real  echoes  hermitage  new  works  this  provincial,  piece  It is very possible that you will see instead of  Velasqueza is Murillo, and instead of Poussin, Grese. I knew.  The artist, who categorically claimed that in the Hermitage he looked exclusively  Rembrandt was actually under  hypnotism  Snyders paintings.  Same thing.  I think it happened to Fedotov, too.  pronounce  fashionable    That's it.   I didn’t remember him at all, but something else.  building  They seduced our artist.

     First of all, we point out that, starting with the penetrated through not yet Hermitage, but domestic.  influence  "Major's Matches," with each new work, up to  "Bedside" and "The Widow", artist    brighter  and  Undoubtedly imbued with Hermitage trends.   Strengthening and deepening of Fedotov’s vital vigilance went  without prejudice  infiltration  dignified  hermitage  masters   by them; on the contrary, one  perfectly complemented and facilitated  different. Further, the Hermitage influences were not at Fedotov  random and random;  he  not  perceive  lovingly  among  and  along  technique  spiritual order, as  at least Terborkha and Ostade or (as one of Fedotov’s biographers, Diderichs, thought)  Brower and Doe; no, well.  instinctively  Fedotova   were  They were sincere and answered everything.  substance  his  internal  building it  choice  Contradictions, and a number of loved ones  masters  Quite consistent. From  most imprinted in the brain  painter  We will call the Hermitage Masters  especially those who  It is not only reflected in painting.  his  works, but even in their compositions. And  such  One of the first, clearly reflected  In the plans of Fedotov, it will not even be Dutch, but    I don't know.   Fragonard. The very essence  charming   his  works    In the beginning, he is not able to borrow Fedotov; he takes  It's just a splash, just a composition.  beloved masters, and here in sepia  "Poor Artist"   We see  sing-over  “The kiss  stealthily. Pose.   merchant  and  The girl he seduces is an exact copy of a successful composition.  Fragonara. Same example.  We should  Notice how ridiculous, almost inappropriate, at any rate,  with different intentions and for other purposes,  employed  Fedotov  memorable  He has compositions. Then  We won't see it.  casual  coincidence  compositions  "Morning."  Franz  mierisa  and  “Officer  dayman   Fedotova.  ? This picture in the caption under the picture is mistakenly attributed to Metshu, but we will use   with this blunder to save  Metsu is on our list.  hermitage  teacher  Fedotova, like   certainly  much more   Influenced by our artist than by accident  Franz Mieris.  This is a new example.  singular  painter  He loved the Hermitage painting. Just as close.  related  type and design  We'll find  "Nymph."  Dow.  " By the bedside  Fedotova.  Finally, determined  so close that the whole posture is repeated.  whole, bending and sad bowing of the head, helplessly reclined  right hand and left hand, carefully covering  belly  The pregnant woman should  name  "The Widow"  Fedotova  and  her  model  "Bench"  Lancre.

 

     So, listing  hermitage  masters who influenced the very composition of Fedotov  We will have to name the works: from the Dutch - Metshu and Dow, and from the French -  Lancre and Fragonara.  However,   "Breakfast of the Aristocrat," with his  with a clean and thorough dressing,  picturesque  centre  everywhere  compositions  compelling  remember  on  Terborche, give.  We have another name,  which  emphasize  the whole logical sequence characteristic of  certainty  selection  Fedotov  favorite  Masters.  It's soulful, at first glance.  Inconspicuous and quiet, Dutch  Master,  found  sufficient  picture-wise  any  piece  dear matter, any  favorite  A woman's head.  It's  precisely  those  craftsmen  I borrowed a lot, changing to a new way,  Lancre, thickened  sensitive  grevity  gradient  Fragonare, these  new features  gained more  strength, even  excessiveness. Shy and clumsy.  sensuality  Daw  here in Fragonard,  ignited  fun and frank. Fedotov, though.  He looked more closely at the original source.  "Girl by Bed"  echoes  indirect and timid, but especially, perhaps, spicy and even sharp, sensual  Dow's dream, which  It turned out to be an intimate dream n  Fedotova.  There's no trace of Fedotov.  Ostade, but therefore no watto, absolutely.  There's no quirky, nightmarish Teniers, but I almost said no.   Hogartha, but I'd run ahead.

     So in my view,  closer to the truth  Stasov was when he said that   Fedotov Dutch    no    I'm sorry.  Sure, Fedotov.  I didn't know or like the Dutch, the chanters.  of the village, the vagrants and the knives of which  We think first of all when we talk about this.  school;  He loved and studied.    In the end, there are several  artisan, monotonous and short-sighted domestic singers  Cozy. Fedotov studied    at    n and x; this Hermitage pedigree  painter  for  reliable  feature of artistic taste and internal appearance of the studied  you  Master, let this one  shape  less  I would like to see him and others, let him be more modest.  After all, we agreed to do research.  possible  We've got limits, no.    I'm with you.    I don't know.    You're in the d-d-d-d-d, and you didn't commit.  set up  It is definitely a new triumphal arch.

 

                                           From Hogarth.  DOO   HAVARNIE

 

     Stasov claimed that  Fedotov  Hogartha ignored and even       He did not like it very much, but his contemporaries tell us that  print  Hogartha  always  lying on Fedotov's desk  (submitted to him, according to L.M. Zhemchuzhnikov, the writer GR E.P. Rastopchina), and all researchers, based on  closeness  Fedotian  sepia  English-themed  satirics, according to us, told about excessive and destructive influence  Hogarth on his Russian imitator. So,  beforehand  we know and  a weary mosaic of opinions, opinions which we have almost confirmed, but which  cannot  neither  disprove, or prove, because they were pronounced on a whim, "just so." But  What if Stasov is right, that if Fedotov's trouble is not that  He was fond of Hogarth.  that he could neither understand nor love it.  superb  Master?

     We will.  beforehand  everything  Hogarth is by no means a choice.  It was the personal taste of Fedotov, but it was dictated by   I don't know.    Even more so than pointing to Teniers as his Hermitage pet. Attempts to make Hogarth   possession n  wide  The circles of Russian society began very early; for example, in 1808.  Herald of Europe  gave  Hogartov  engraving, together with comments translated  on  German Zhukovsky. “Picturesque review”, started in 1838, promised as  one of the most tempting parts  of its program, that  "The evil mocker Hogarth will make us laugh with a cartoon."

     And we understand what  this  "evil mockery"  Impressively attracted the audience then. Here.  before  «Cockpitone of  The first one I gave as the best  his  prize  Russian reader  "Picturesque Review." “Look at the mixture of persons, titles, passions, positions! In  centerpiece  and a rich man, a contemporary of Hogarth, who was blind, but did not lag behind his favorite amusement ... a deaf old man listens as they shout at his throat in the ear horn. He sees almost nothing, hears nothing, barely moves, and his passion is invincible and has brought him here... the artisan puts his last shilling; his neighbor laughs with a stupid laugh; the longing and sorrow on the face of the third; the fourth hastens.  Two crooks, one steals tickets from a blind man's hat, the other climbs into his pocket; behind them a figure in silent amazement, the other  into  somehow  It’s a sweet delight. (from the comment)  "Picturesque view."  So, all this bizarre, entangled in its movement, in its bursts of arms and its variegation.  Persons on the scene could have  into  precision  deciphered  only  He was an expert interpreter, but it only stopped him.  The audience made him think even more. Viewer.  scene  It seemed like a chip from his life, and an exciting story, and edifying instruction, and a joke; in a word, Hogarth succeeded.  in the best way to satisfy that eternal thirst   I don't know.  which  Now it satisfies cinema.

     However, in Hogarth he found a source of pleasure not only ingenious.  a spectator, but also a sophisticated artist, and for him Hogarth  should have  to be an abundant treasure. Indeed, this English master has appeared.  the life-giving nerve, which,  Having absorbed the beautiful achievements of Flanders and Holland, in turn fertilized countless European artists.   XIX  century, and then our  The Wanderers. Just mentioned.  “Petushin combat” as if received its further development that bizarre  "cutter"  The composition that Teniers loved so much; the guy with a hat strapped on his forehead, who climbed over the fence and grabbed the blind shoulder with his right hand.  The player seems to have come down from a Flemish  "Perfections"; however, an evil grimace, the convulsive compression of some faces and postures suddenly make you remember... Goya. And we will remember Goya more than once; the madman in the final scene  "Lives of the Cool"  stubbornly  It leads us to the idea of the Spanish master, that one wants to ask: did Goya not go through Hogartov engravings before taking up the work?  for theirCapriccios? From Flanders, Hogarth borrowed a passion for eccentricities, a love for a motley heap of often unsuitable details; and from there she came out, but became even more acute and irrepressible, as if returning to her distant ancestors, Hieronymus Bosch and Schonhauer, the manner  Weave good morals with wild fantasy. The interweaving is so simple, direct and strong that the line between truth and fiction seems finally erased.  Especially characteristic is the series “Electoral campaign”, where in the monstrous turmoil  feast  Some cheer furiously, others throw and kill with bricks, others treat a fractured skull by pouring ink into it. Morality is more of a thing.  signage, but not   and   Hogarth; he moralized with such passionate fiction that he made us  Remember Bosch, and with a brush so nervous and sharp that it made us remember Hals.  However,  Fedotov saw only morality in the English master; he did not delve deeper into it than the average then Russian connoisseur Hogarth.

     But at home, Hogarth attracted  hearts and minds  cinematic  It is the beginning of the skill that has been revealed.  Reynolds and Gainsborough; Eowonian, Beardsley's chosen theme, chort curling in front of a mirror girl, is  curious development   IV  scenery  "Fashionable marriage," where the weird, damn weird hairdresser is pale and sharp. poignantly  Sorcerers over the booklets of a woman's weary boredom. Sure,  So to understand and reflect Hogarth, "Russian Hogarth"  It came out much more softened, sentimental and monotonous. Hard and straight.  realistically  novella  "Life"  prostitutes  Russian  It turned into a dull and ordinary story of beautiful but poor.  seamstresses. Wicked.  satire  for a beggar poet changed in condolences to the artist entangled in debt, and in the artist  Fedotov is playing himself. Inventiveness  Fedotova compared to Hogarth  Very scanty; he notices, but does not scold; he regrets, but is not angry. Through  voluptuousness  And the darkness of the drawing.  imitation  engraving  Hogarth - suddenly we catch the sound of adorable  "A kiss by stealth"; suddenly we see that  painter  I was not thinking about my main topic.  borrowed  at Hogarth, and in  "The Death of Fidelka"  gives us an excellent self-portrait or that it is too loving, contrary to the careless schematics of the rest of the composition, writes out the folds of the female  On top of the tired Hogarth, he suddenly remembered the magnificent folds in the Hermitage.  "Letters."  Terborha.

     Yes, Hogartha.  Fedotov  “Ignored,” but it couldn’t have been otherwise. Surely.  from Hogarth  Fedotov crossed over  toward  Gavarni; meanwhile, had he been infected with the devilishness and fiction of an English moralist, he could then have gone over to anyone but the clear, cheerful, exquisite Gavarni, above all to Daumier. Could Shmelkov, a contemporary of Fedotov  (born 1819)  draw on  "mastery"  at  This is the most beautiful French  artist;  He was already well known in Russia at the time.  not far    Like Gavarni.  Many  From the early works of Daumier it is clear that he studied under the same masters under which Hogarth studied, under the same Brouwer, Ostade, and Teniers; but neither Daumier nor Hogarth.  in this part of his gift  completely untouched  Fedotov ... and after  We are told that in the Hermitage Fedotov  I studied with Ostade and Teniers!

     The historical explanation of why Fedotov passed from Hogarth to Gavarni is very simple:  The same thing that explained his transition from Sauerweid to Hogarth,  m  ah  "Picturesque Review"  In 1838 he took an English magazine as a model.  «Penny  Magazine»  and  planter  into  Russia Hogarth; just in these years Fedotov's thought  become  "Russian Hogarth." In 1845, it appears.  "Illustration", which is strongly  imitate a French magazine  «Charivariand drawings  or  Gavarni's drawings occupy all the numbers. Gavarni's fascination as a disaster,  It ruined the way of our best painters. Achin forgets all the previously obtained experience and dreams of giving  needle  "chick"  Parisian virtuoso. Such a serious master as Timm, irretrievably dies in meaningless copies from Gavarni. And these same  years  Fedotov  torture  A new fate – “Russian Gavarni”. To  There was a time when Fedotov forgot  on  confused  sepia  (where)  he    There you go.   imitate  sharp and black engravings of the English master, gives a number of finely drawn sketches (imitations)     (c) and (c)     I don't know.    exquisite and clear strokes of the needle of the French master, compositions  extremely uncomplicated  two or three figures, but with long signatures,  just  reverse  Hogartov, but being  It's a slavish copy of Gavarni's manner.

Only Gavarni explains  on n  fedotian  "Carrier and Quarter,"  where  exquisitely delicate drawing, languid, even feminine pose of a guy so  loose  on  our idea of  "Russian cab driver"; here is a funny experience of transplanting to the domestic  grassland  Gavarni. It should be noted that the type of quarterly definitely inspired  archaeological  "Dead Souls"; this suggests that Fedotov borrowed his new style not only directly from the barn, through the then French and Russian magazines, but also indirectly, through displays.  Gavariani in the drawings at least Agina, as well  Timma.

     However, was it  "learning"  voluntary  Responding to the artist’s inner desire?  The example of Sauerweid, the example of Hogarth has already taught us to be careful with the hobbies of Fedotov. And, perhaps,  There is only one sequencing that we can observe in  These inconsistencies of Fedotov: he is like a true provincial   into  art, sincerely and constantly trembled before the requirements  before  "fashion," transgress  which seemed to him almost a mortal sin.  Thus, interpreting Fedotov, we will feel the inner truth and strength of the artist’s objections to the requests and advice of his friends to rest. The light gets angry when you move away from it, and I do not intend to quarrel with the light.  But attention.  "light"  jump from one artist to another; look for his sequences! Fedotov wasn't looking for her, either.  "jumped." But under this  "jumping," fear.  poor man that  "light"  strip  his  He grew and grew whole and living master; it is an inner artistic development.  It had to be put together in a sequence.  "jumping"  Fedotova, and,  of course  Don't look for a live connection  It means not looking and not seeing.  "Fedotova."  However, the question of the general connection of the artist’s work is still ahead, here we are  Pay attention to what you have learned in particular.  at  gavarni  Fedotov;  Such an observation will probably give us a new feature of art.  The appearance of Fedotov, because, studying in what and how   and with  gavarni  Fedotov, we're getting closer to  "undistorted"  Fedotov.

     Let's compare for that.  "The Careless Bride"  Fedotova with  "Portrait"  lender  Gavarni and pay attention, the main image,  on the back line and  dresses of girls in both compositions.  We will see at Gavarni an almost solid line.  from  the left shoulder to the hem, with a smooth and soft curve; of course, in  her  key  gracefully  The whole composition, it amazes us at the same time and simplicity and beauty. In  Fedotov's drawing this line is repeated again, and  curve  backs  lineage  cushions and dress lines; specified bending  Fedotov tries, as it were, to raise a whole topic, he looks at it.  constantly  persistently  repeat  more than once in other drawings, as if it was in this fine and singing line that I finally found  Fedotov’s true taste and real task. Indeed, Gavarni  This line is not intrusive, it seems.  It's just a natural glow.  taste, artist as if and  He did not see her and did not follow her, although she did.  Gavarni’s works are constantly the same shade of attractive softness. And  Fedotova  The same line seems to be a discovery, accidental and confusing.  move  The artist's thoughts: he grasped  It's like a magic thread that   lead  He repeats it timidly and insistently everywhere now, as if it were a talisman which  must save him.  from all delusions and misfortunes. But, really, why could not it happen as Fedotov imagined? Why isn't he?  They may have been caught in a timid way.  imitation of fashion, on the true attraction of his  gift, suddenly  find    (c) In addition, which  would justify  His previous mistakes and experiments, and around whom would the new search for the artist now rally?

 

"Double"

     We should not be surprised at what suddenly appeared.  to the obstinate attention of Fedotov.  toward   l and n    drawing  Gavarni, because  here   It was well prepared and well prepared. Pay attention to the pencil sketches.  Bryullov, at least for the drawing.    reindeer  (Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander Sh, No. 5275)  Like a line in them tender and precise together, bend it  Slim and smooth!  In  turkish  (to the Bakhchisarai Fountain)   line steady-bending  It begins with the head and ends only on the fingers of a full female hand. It is the same or almost the same line as that drawn by  with such sensual sophistication and skillfulness  Gavarni in her maiden busts and naked  hands. Notice, by the way,  creatively  Hogartha  This fascinating fluidity of the line was completely alien;  For example, in the scene  "Before," where and  Bryullov and Fedotov and Gavarni  Hogarth denotes the bust, hands, and turn of a woman’s neck with sharp and torn lines (is not this one of the main reasons why Hogarth Fedotov   "Ignored"?  Meanwhile, as in the works of Metshu, Ter-Borja, Fragonard, and especially Lancre, we see the enchantment of the same.  singing  neckline  and  and, finally, this line is the first task over which    long  thought  and  Fedotov worked in his first significant works.

     That is so, prove the versions of the Russian and Rumyantsev Museums  "Major's Matchmaking." It should be noted that  Fedotov, copying, very freely changed the details, so that it turned out rather than copies, and close to each other options.  Moreover, in later versions, the most expensive for the artist was processed and emphasized, and the unimportant was omitted. So, the Russian version.  The entire museum has been changed.  "Matchmaking major"; she became much more modest; removed from the ceiling lush  chandelier, plafond painting is almost eliminated, parquet drawing is simplified;  But the cat, foreground, became more lush and written  More boldly, but added a very good detail.  "Flemish" exaggerated profile of a servant's face with protruding lips and bulging eyes at the door on the left  (optionally)  Rumyantsevsky  museum  Hidden behind the head of a maid inviting to the table  And finally, that  We are particularly interested in  in this case, slightly modified bending  bare shoulders and sprout  persons  "bride."  With undoubted admiration n   painter  The slender head is even more intense,  cooler, it kind of sharpens every feature of the face, neck and raised  As if he had forgotten his shoulders,  Makes the profile line too thin and charming, previously  simple and stupid, too much  slender and fragile neck, previously swollen and  sturdy, full bust.  It's kind of shackled, it's getting too sophisticated, and it's probably  (a) (b) (c) (c) (c) (c) (c)    for the theme of the painting.  Of course, the artist got carried away here, he carelessly thought about the especially dear and cherished, to the detriment of the general idea.  "Matchmaking."

     However, this  "damage"  years  He became more and more persistent in order to fill the artist’s thought completely; he became more and more determined.  made  One who is consumed by the persistent dream of  something particularly slender, pretentiously sharp and beautiful to abstraction  Women's head lines. Okay, he's thinking.   “The return of the schoolgirl to her native home” is a very successful topic from a mobile point of view; it would be an excellent pandan to Perovsk.  “The arrival of the governess”; no wonder Somov, telling about his plan, exclaimed:  “Isn’t this a story that can capture you?”  every  painter?  However, Fedotov soon  It changes the story for a different, almost storyless one.  "Institutions", but in which he could completely surrender to his exclusive addiction.  "Institutions"  steel  favorite subject  artist who  And he kept it to himself, and he kept it to himself.  these   materials, in fact, for a very long time he accumulated; it is enough to review his sketches, his small portraits in oil.  either  watercolor; let us remember it.  a schoolgirl at the harpsichord, written with exceptional awe, or this girl in chairs  )see page 6,  on  Rainbow, bold glares of light on the face, rare for Fedotov's power, or,  Finally, this girl with radiant eyes.  (See page 5) - all these were crumbs, greedily selected  Fedotov everywhere and always, all these were individual features, of which the artist  I dreamed of building my cherished work – “Institutions”. But  timidly  toward  him,  He had to test himself in detail:  "breakdown"  It seems to us that  "The Widow."  And again, how  bride   “Matrimony  Major,  two-way  "The Widows."  They give us a solid idea.  on  The path and the inner meaning of this work. Face.  "The Widows."   variant  The museum, just like the museum.  person  into  first   "Bride," still very much.    I don't know.  everyday and mobile small:  weak with an ugly bend of the neck corresponds to a soft and incorrect profile. While in the version of the Russian Museum  We see a strong neck, strangely white and slenderly elongated, a head, almost improbably reduced, almost incorrect in proportion, with an extraordinarily clear outline of a too beautiful face; rather, one of those   Archangels who  He created the faith of the ancient iconographer than the earthly   woman. Yeah.  isn't it?  most  "bride" whom he ordered  for the last penny of Fedotov's gift in the last hours  conscious life?  Something.  This face is too abstract and beautiful somehow “untrue”, too dazzling and fantastic spot it burns in the green dusk of the background ...  And why is that?  A dramatic joke, in a portrait.  Do we recognize the deceased Hussar husband Fedotov?  And here's the thing: let's go.  somewhat  pale-head  Widows, we'll sell her.  More life, fleshly colors, and we get...   No, no, no.   into  "matchmaking major"  version of the Russian Museum.

    Note, in addition, another curious feature; on the changes introduced by Fedotov and in “Major’s Matchmaking” and “The Widow”  clear-cut  preliminary   The Hermitage Museum. Okay, in  "Matchmaking."  innovation was  "Flemish"  person  servants, so in The Widow  posture  completely variable, and in the  Russian.  They lie almost as they lie in the painting of Lancre.  "Bench."     It is no coincidence, in my opinion, that the changes  Two of Fedotov's most complete works  They went the same way, it is no coincidence that the recycled  feminine  The central figure of both works was  almost identical

    We look. n   "t in r h e c t in a"  Fedotova, that is, nature, has already been reworked by the spirit of the artist, and it seems to us that we find it when,   Forgetting the story, the unnecessary  and  sticky  In the circles, we will look at one structure, slender to the fantastic, head.  widows. He's definitely here.   I don't think so.     nature,  No, no, no.    hers, and isn't she here?     with you   The artist we're looking for? Strange fate and path  Fedotova; he sketched Michelangelo (however, we can guess why).  imitate  Bryullov, who thought himself a rival of the great Florentine, and therefore more than once, probably pointed out  Fedotova on Michelangelo, as a sample  and  I studied with Hogarth. He pretended to be an evil mocker and angry.  moralist, but at the same time he was attracted to  With all my heart to the quiet and clear Terborch. He wanted to leave us as his best.  "Institute," but left  “Officer in the village”, as a clot and the result of a convulsive struggle, where it seemed as if on purpose he crushed, distorted absolutely all approaches to that song and harmony.  line that  I loved it so much.  life.

 

     

SMELKOV

     Fedotov for the first time opened   eyes of society  field of art; Fedotov direct and sole forerunner  We need to forget these two, we have long since sealed fables,  And so,  how   thoroughly  theirs  We were told. Indeed, there are enough trivial historical references to show that  It was just the opposite; that society itself, at least the newspapers and magazines of that time, had persistently and long ago talked about the values of Russian life, greedily and enthusiastically.  They made every attempt at the image. It is true that  painter  "real," that is,  Those who graduated from the Academy were alienated.  n   genre  high  historical themes, but they left a completely free field of action  "small"  Self-taught artists like Fedotov, or still too timid and young to dare  on  "history." True.  It will be noted that the special interests  At that time, the society was such that  "small"  painter  (and like that)   "real"  painter  certainly  was Fedotov  the only sure way to succeed  It was specifically the case that  everyday stories.  Pay attention.  At least how happy the first performances were.    Shchedrovsky  "Art newspaper": "Mr. Shchedrovsky showed us his beautiful attempts in the common Russian kind; very cute pictures;  We are confident that his further efforts will be crowned with more important successes and    dl    I'm not the only one.    schoolwork  We would like to see his new experiences rather.”  And it was written in 1838.  flatly    No, I'm not.    years  “Matrimony  Major. (NOTE:  By the way, Fedotov.  I tried to borrow from this master, a really peculiar power and very definite, but he decisively failed. Experiences like sketching  "In the Shoemaker's Shop," show us how unusual it is.  Fedotov was a few.  clumsy, but strong and as if minted drawing Shchedrovsky.

     Or remember that enthusiastic hum of newspapers and magazines, which were met by the first  speech  Sternberg with his Little Russian  "thorns" and  "the consecration of the pacifiers." And again,  That was for  a few years before   Fedotova with his  "household." So, it is impossible to say that Fedotov pointed out  society at that time  "household"; with the public  I already had my favorite in this one.  region – Sternberg, and the album of lithographs of Shchedrovsky  " Here.  ours!  by 1846  I've already done it.  disperse   x    and I'm x. Where can we talk about something?  "revelation"  Fedotova!

     Nowe  We will discuss the role of Fedotov in the mobile  Fate. One thing is certain, I think.  It is now evident to everyone that form,  herself  No one from the Wanderers learned from Fedotov, except for anything else.  “Hands”, in addition to craft, perhaps you need to learn in art? However, in the absence of another  "forerunners"  Fedotov could be left with this title, although it would greatly interfere with it.  our correct understanding  painter.  But we have to give up.  Fedotova of this  name, if there is another, valid forerunner, and    Eh? Let me.  finally  "colonial counselor of the Wanderer"  The one whose drawings were the precious cell from which all wealth was born will be rightly named.  and the diversity of the Moscow painting school  eh  though  exclude  single  Kramsky, we will not be very mistaken in identifying the Wanderers with Muscovites.  I say  forward  Shmelkova. First of all, he   wanderer  actually.  For a long and tireless love of art  Shmelkov's life with his advice  They used and learned from such masters. Like Perov, Pukirev, V. Makovsky, Pryanishnikov, Nevrev, Savrasov. If we  If we take the albums of his drawings, we will be amazed.  Yeah.  Here's all the hints, here's how  precious ore,  everything that was then chosen  faithful disciples, cleansed, began to burn a peculiar  glare   It's not like that.  (Speaking of the Wanderers, the word should be used)  "skills" because  The “movement” is quite definite.    She has a wonderful ancestor and a number of prominent I will not talk about people like Pukirev.  Or Peres, they are the same.   We're here.   sons  Shmelkova, like Van Dyke.  Rubensa or Tyranov  Venetsianova. But looking at other sketches of Shmelkov, we will sometimes find obvious  hints that he has something  learned, and sometimes very important, and  Novosiltsev, and V. Vasnetsov, and finally – Repin. Extremely much.  giving others,  He learned a lot of things; he learned a lot.  And he and his wife are in some sort of mutual relationship.   a very specific connection, finally  The possibility of influencing him is not excluded.  Fedotova  (Shmelkov was born in 1819, and  He died in 1890, but then we will find this influence precisely in those works that are sharply different from others.  somewhat  "drying," unfreedom.  and poverty; beautifully harmonious, but somewhat abstract  l and n   Fedotova  He didn't like it (see "Weepers")  But here's his other drawing, "Washing," really.  First of all, you should indicate a direct sample of this technique - Domier; head  I think we could easily have done the old stuff.  ascribed to the great Frenchman, but the handmaid's technique, and especially the sketch of the deceived wife in the next room.  They tell us about other principles, peculiar and extremely important in that they contain the first grains.  simultaneously and extremely   soft and passionate,  sharp-eyed  "skills" which  They gave a great result, up to Repin.

     If Shchedrovsky’s drawings only make us dream and regret that he failed to conceive.    I don't know.  where  already   Everything was prepared in his simple and strong skill, then studying Shmelkov, one has to regret the same thing.  It was a very large school, and it covered almost everything.   For he, Shmelkov, was a grain, perhaps even the first incarnation. n    yo    The school in Moscow, which was soon to be  Such masters as Surikov or Ryabushkin...

     So, it is absolutely necessary to take away the name of the forerunner from Fedotov.  "movements," that's the name.  only  It was very difficult and confusing for us to study Fedotov and, moreover,  unjustly  crownless  The real head of the Wanderers.

     How Agin will take his name from Fedotov  "Gogol in painting," so Shmelkov  pass away  columnist  "Traveling," and this    n    bl bl g    studied  We are an artist, maybe finally.  Fedotov will wait for his true recognition and will cease, like a ghost, to loom before our eyes, constantly changing his ways.  His face is strange and not close to anyone.

 

                                                       GENERAL EFFECT 

 

     I warned at the beginning of the essay that my explanation of the internal connection and   creativity  Fedotov is only a hypothesis; it is built on too ghostly  grounds for  To be anything but a guess. Anyway,  I dare say that this hypothesis is no more shaky than all the other explanations known to us.  Fedotian creativity. Differences and, if you will,  The advantages of our guess are as follows:  It allows us to link the entire artistic path of Fedotov in one consecutive and continuously ascending chain, without any sudden peak in this chain, rather without any peak, since the chain has broken.  if  And there is a vertex, which is at the end of the broken chain.  "Breakfast of the Aristocrat" and "The Widow." Then, the same hypothesis allows us to remove, at last, from the artist a ghostly and so unsuitable neither to the warehouse nor to the spirit of creativity.  Fedotov's cloak, thrown over him by the random play of history, makes it simple and understandable to us.

     We are able to find out how the dreamy and timid brush agreed.  Fedotova with a magnificent and virtuoso-spanning brush of the author  Pompeii.  frantic  Brullian  genre, through subtle-simple And a precise drawing. This picture, thanks to the exceptional  At first glance, it seemed almost timid. And it was from him that the captivating and cautious  beautiful  in its restraint, the Fedotov line. We understand from here it becomes, therefore, in the Hermitage Fedotov in particular imprinted Metsu and  Terborch; they, these masters   closed   into  herself  "quiet"  compositions  Slowly thought out and love-transferred posture, one turn  Beautiful neck, gloss of satin dress, Fedotov  could find  precious  Instructions to your cherished aspiration.

     It seemed  fascinated  The beautiful line was forgotten; it got tangled and crumpled in runaway nightmares.    "evil Hogarth," but no, and here she gleamed suddenly, with sudden breakthroughs, then in the form of a quiet pose of mournful  The artist sketching the dead Fidelka, then in the form of  The echo of Fragonard's graceful composition...

     We're figuring out which ones  thread  Fedotov  hogarth   on  and both of them with their constant mentor, Bryullov, and  why  so  The artist persistently and passionately dreamed of his unwritten painting “Institutes”. Then he would finally be able to put his trust in him.  the thought of the magic line,   No, no, no.   composition, without a plot, with only one task, which  himself  painter  I defined it this way.  I want to to the viewer these girls  They seemed familiar and seen somewhere.  Is this theme of any of the Wanderers?  Who else, other than Fedotov, asked her?  The strange and captivating sense of familiarity that comes from seeing another  beautiful  person, the artist dreamed of embodying in a visible image; captivated by the mysterious power of other curves, other images, such as  As if they were simple and simple, the artist wanted them.  trap  and us. What?  Wonderful dream!  only   n   Bryullov, she could.  To fall into the soul of the Russian artist...

     Finally, it becomes clear why this artist  has played such a special role in history.  Russian painting. He is.    I don't know.    on  exceptionally  Russian painting  the strength of each researcher, but all their attempts to explain  captivating  grandiose  Fedotov in history was a stretch. On the contrary,  With each new generation, isolation  Fedotova  descendent  emphasized. But it won't show.  strange to us  and exceptional, such as  This is not the fate of one.   Fedotova. It's just him.  The most beautiful of the few,  Bryullov, the most persistent of those like him, intoxicated by the common dream of a beautifully light and magically simple form, such as  Mokritsky, Tyranov, Mikhailov, Krylov... the beginnings of all of them are irrevocably extinguished, like unnecessary glimpses of an unnecessary sun. As a result.  generational work as a result of  culture, cultivated by the Academy as the best  hope arose  Greenhouse groundless, but also fabulously rainbow Bryullov.

        With this joy and this    I don't know.      Bryullov forever  magician  It's just Fedotova, but isn't it?  Could this greenhouse have moved into    I'm sorry.    then  Russian  life?  These are  "Brullows" and the first  Among them, Fedotov had to give way and be trampled by his formidable multitude and strength.  simplicity and urgency  Your travel requests. This   c and l    struggle  crushing the few  "Charmed" in order to later glorify Fedotov, who was distorted beyond recognition, as a banner and symbol of a new life, of that life by which Fedotov did not live and did not seek to live. Then in history there is a fragile ghost, "Fedotov", the first fighter for the ideals of the movement, but all his life.  He loved Bryullov, who did not love him very much.  Hogarth, who shunned the strip of European artistic life that nurtured the movement; most importantly, every year.  plainly  (to the annoyance of the Wanderers, led by Stasov) went further and further from  "teachings"  into  quiet  It's all about looking for beautiful shapes.  This shaky ghost has overshadowed us.  The appearance of Fedotov, we could not understand what flesh and her in this historical obsession. Really to get there.  Before this flesh, in order to closely see, understand and love Fedotov, we had to significantly cut the stilts on which history has lifted him by chance play.  But what and who needs tinsel apotheosis now?  The attention of Russian society to the native art has already become so strong and established that we, without fear of disappointing, can now risk introducing separate art forms.  The phenomena of our art school in the framework  Perhaps clearer and more sober.