Yudel Pan (1854-1937) was a Russian artist of Jewish origin, without whom we would probably never have known about Marc Chagall, El Lissitzky and many other painters. It was Peng who organized an art school in Vitebsk, albeit with some provincialism, but which gave its students the basics of painting, and the best and most talented of them a ticket to the "big world". There Jewish children could become real artists, and for this purpose it was not necessary to go to St. Petersburg, where, unless some exceptional talent was discovered, they were always looked down upon and tried not to be allowed to study at the Academy of Arts. Everything was easier in Vitebsk, so it is not surprising that Yudel Pan was a very respected man in that city.
Watchmaker
In addition to his work at his art school, Pan also painted remarkable portraits and genre scenes. He was called the father of the Jewish Renaissance, and his paintings were usually dedicated to ordinary Jews, of whom there were many in Vitebsk. By and large, this is a kind of ethnographic report, from which one can get a clear picture of how the inhabitants of the Jewish community in Vitebsk lived, worked and vacationed. Pan made no exceptions for anyone, did not think about social status, so he was equally diligent in writing both respected rabbis and beggars.
Blind musician
Perhaps it is an echo of a harsh childhood - Yehuda Movshevich Pan was left without parents very early in life. His father, who worked as a craftsman, died when the boy was four years old. His mother, with the help of representatives of the Jewish community, arranged for her son to attend a cheder religious school. But Pan was not destined to become a rabbi or at least a simple employee at the synagogue. From childhood he loved to draw, but the Torah forbade depicting living creatures, so he often got beaten by strict teachers. However, in spite of the rod, Peng did not give up what he wanted.
An old tailor
After the death of his mother, he dropped out of school and went to the town of Dvinsk in Latvia. There he became an apprentice painter, first painting fences and walls, and then painting signs like the famous primitivist Niko Pirosmani. At the same time he copies book illustrations and tries painting from life. It turns out very well - once he even got 25 rubles from the master - decent money for those times, because he very realistically drew the handrails to the stairs, which at first glance could not be distinguished from the real ones. Everyone liked the joke and the painter used to bring his friends to brag about his apprentice.
Divorce
Pan entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts from the second time, and studied in Chistyakov's class. After his studies he went to Riga, where he found a friend, a patron and a customer. Baron Korf offered to paint his estate. There was a lot of work and Pan stayed there for five years. Finally, Pan received permission to live in St. Petersburg, but he really wanted to open his own art school, so he returned to Vitebsk and began to realize his dream. Wealthy local Jews supported Pan's idea and in 1892 the school was opened.
Letter from America
However, it did not bring Pan much income - he selected his students according to their artistic abilities, and accepted the poorest, whose fees were paid by the local brewery owner. On Saturday Pan and his students did nothing, and on Sunday he painted pictures for himself and for the soul. Many people wondered why the artist did not sell them, but Pan replied that inspiration was not measured in money.
The girl with the book
Pan's personal life was complicated. He seemed to enjoy painting portraits of girls he liked more than maintaining relationships with them. He fell in love with the governor's daughter, wrote a dozen of her portraits, but that was the end of it - too unequal was a couple. Since then, Pan even more focused on painting. However, he sometimes posed and nude models for portraits in the genre of nude, and it was difficult to call Pan an ascetic, although he lived modestly, and in society more silent than talk and tried to avoid large drunken companies and reckless fun.
Nude Jane Doe
But in the city he was respected by everyone, Pan had personal boxes in the theater and in the cinema, however, they were paid not by the artist himself, but by the municipality for his services.
Pan was truly devoted to painting and as no one else was able to reveal the soul of the Jewish people, which is fundamentally different from the disparaging ideas about it.
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