Born in a small village in the Poltava province, Maria Bashkirtseva managed to achieve success even in France. The talented artist was one of the first women to be educated at the Julian Academy in Paris, and her talent was noticed at the Paris Salon - the most important art exhibition of those years. Bashkirtseva's works have been exhibited in the world's best museums, and the diary she kept from the age of twelve is still admired by critics.
Spring. April.
To British Prime Minister William Gladstone, the Diary seemed one of the best literary works of the 19th century. Even Tsvetaeva's first collection of poems was written by the great poetess under the impression of that read manuscript. During her short life, the artist managed to create 200 drawings and more than one and a half hundred paintings. Unfortunately, many artworks did not survive the Second World War.
Bashkirtseva developed a unique style, based on the techniques of the masters of the Renaissance and realists, and she had no time to study these paintings long and thoughtfully and gradually build up her artistic skills - she lived only twenty-five years. However, she did not waste it - she spent a lot of time in European museums, studying masterpieces of painting, received many valuable lessons from Tony Robert-Fleury and borrowed the ideas of Jules Bastien-Lepage.
Umbrella
The future artist was only three years old when her parents fell out and her mother took her and her brother away from their father. The angry woman forbade her children to see her ex-husband.
Little Masha was adored by the family, who were willing to put up with all her whims. The education of the girl was engaged in Russian governess and Frenchwoman, who taught foreign languages, drawing and playing musical instruments. Bashkirtseva wrote that from the age of three she aspired to greatness and high things. Even a fortune-teller told the artist's mother that her daughter would become a star.
The girl was twelve when her parents decided to separate for good. Her mother took the future artist to Europe, while her brother stayed with their father in Russia. It would be ten years before Maria saw her father again.
Vienna, Baden-Baden, Nice, all in the space of a year. Young Maria was busy learning languages, reading, drawing and music. She studied nine hours a day, choosing her own teachers. Her wealthy parents could afford this and did not interfere with her desire for beauty. The girl completed the three-year lyceum programme in five months. It was in Nice that she made her first diary entries in French.
Reading
In the end, it was almost a hundred notebooks, which recorded the thoughts and emotions of the girl, her first feelings for the Duke of Hamilton, the desire to become famous. She was even ready to become a great singer to win the heart of the chosen one. Manuscripts were translated into several languages and were published for the first time on the initiative of the artist's mother.
Young Maria marvelling at life in Paris. 1873. European trips, a spa in a Belgian town and the first symptoms of dangerous consumption. The girl attends receptions and balls despite fainting. Having travelled to London, the family buys a villa in the French capital. The interior is made according to the young artist's drawings.
Maria Bashkirtseva. Self-portrait in a hat
It took the girl just five months to learn Latin, take singing lessons, read and write. But her singing career never took off - she lost her voice to laryngitis.
The family found themselves in Florence during the four hundredth anniversary of Michelangelo's birth. Maria is prepared to spend a lot of time in galleries, studying the works of Titian, Michelangelo and Raphael.
In Rome, the girl began to take painting lessons. In just an hour and a half she painted a realistic portrait, when before she would have taken a long time and the result would have been depressing. Maria was a very capable girl, so painting came easily to her.
But the young and pretty girl from high society was not only interested in painting. She won the heart of Count Vincenzo Brusetti and fell in love with Pietro, the nephew of Cardinal Antonelli. However, she was in no hurry to marry, even with such advantageous parties.
Then the artist went with her mother to Russia to see her father, and when they met she invited him to Paris, the city of artists and bohemians. But they couldn't agree, the parents didn't make peace, and Maria was very upset.
Self-portrait with palette
By 1877, Bashkirtseva burns with the desire to study painting seriously and enters the private Julian Academy. The young lady studies together with Amelia Bori-Sorel, Louise-Catherine Breslau, Anna Nordgren, who live painting. Not only Rodolphe Julian teaches, but also Tony Robert-Fleury and other stars of the Paris Salon. Giving eight hours of artwork, the girl feels her consumption getting harder and harder to bear.
The artist goes through the compulsory stages of training, already in the third month of painting from life, and in just six months painted paintings at the same level as the best student. The girl is praised for her ‘masculine hand’ and the female students envy her.
In the studio. Julian's workshop
Two years later, Maria was awarded a medal by her mentors in a competition held at the workshop. She believed she would soon become famous.
The work "Young Woman Reading the Divorce Question by Alexandre Dumas" appeared at the Paris Salon, an unprecedented success for a woman in those years.
A young woman reads the question about Alexandre Dumas' divorce
A single mention in the newspapers was enough to place her among the recognised artists and to sell works that were happily acquired by collectors and art lovers. A woman artist was something out of the ordinary at that time, many simply did not believe that women could paint pictures no worse than men, and when they finally saw Bashkirtseva's paintings, they simply did not believe that she had painted them, and not some talented artist who wished to remain anonymous and ceded authorship to a lady.
Everything would be fine, but Maria feels worse and worse - she is in pain, she is losing her hearing, and even rehabilitation at a resort does not help. She has a premonition of a quick and inevitable end, and this inevitably leaves its mark on her life and further actions. Something similar happened to the English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, who also knew of his imminent death and therefore tried to do as much as possible - he made drawings and lived to the full, rightly reasoning that since fate had given him little, these years should be spent with maximum benefit. However, as a cultured girl and young lady, Maria could not indulge in all the hard things, but joined the ranks of the suffragettes, where she spoke out about the injustice and oppression of women artists.
Jean and Jacques
One day Julian challenged Marie and Amélie Borie-Sorel. He proposed subjects and promised to exhibit the best artwork at the Salon. A partition appears in the studio and Bashkirtseva's artwork is locked up for the night. The artwork was signed ‘Mademoiselle Andrei’ and took a place in the exhibition. However, after a while, Maria's rival, Amélie Borie-Sorel, would take charge of the female part of the studio and become Julian's wife. Perhaps, this artistic dispute Borie-Sorel lost, but her fate was much luckier and happier.
Parisian (Irma)
In Spain, Maria Bashkirtseva received an audience with the royal family. She managed to visit the Prado Museum, copy the works of Velazquez, but felt worse and worse.
Returning to Paris, Bashkirtseva continued to work, but was already exhausted. Jules Bastien-Lepage praised the artist, and she painted pictures on the Gospel theme.
Three of Maria's works were accepted by the salon at once: "Jean and Jacques", a portrait of Irma, and "Portrait of Dina". Newspapers began to write about her work, including in Russia, which flattered her vanity.
However, creative failures soon followed. Bashkirtseva's last work, "Meeting", was created for the salon. However, the place where the painting was hung disappointed Maria.
Encounter
Bashkirtseva enters into correspondence with Guy de Maupassant - at first she wanted to know how the classicist assessed her writing skills, but decided to remain incognito and sent her essay under a fictitious pseudonym. Guy de Maupassant was not delighted, but when she revealed herself, he gladly entered into correspondence with her. It was a contest of wits in barbs, witticisms, sarcastic remarks, but both were very respectful of each other.
At the table
Time passed. Jules Bastien-Lepage was suffering from stomach cancer and the artist herself was very weak. She no longer had the strength to work and even found it difficult to walk. In the autumn of 1884, the young artist died, having outlived her friend by five weeks. A year later, Bashkirtseva's personal exhibition was held in the French capital. Maria's mother took most of the works to the family home. Many of the paintings were burned during the First World War, and some were lost in the bombings during the Great Patriotic War. Maria's diary was published, as she wished, foreshadowing her early death.
Buy handmade goods or modern art you can on artAlebrio - is an international marketplace for people who want to create, sell, buy and collect unique items and art - buy the best with us artAlebrio.com.
By confirming your order you unconditionally accept these General Conditions of Sale
