Boris Kustodiev (1878-1923) was a Russian artist famous for his bright, colorful paintings, somewhat reminiscent of a lubok. He particularly excelled in the genre of portrait paintings, which reveal the character, outlook, and lifestyle of his characters through various additional details, a landscape or interior in the background, or even a genre scene in general.
Merchant with a mirror
His paintings are extremely decorative, festive, creating a feeling of endless joy. Perhaps he wanted to compensate for his life troubles, to find oblivion in artwork, to create on canvas his own world, which he would like to see. However, not everything is so simple and unambiguous, and through the longing for a hopelessly bygone time, there is also irony. We will talk about Kustodiev's most iconic paintings and why many of his characters are so thorough and complete in this article.
Merchant's wife at tea
His one of the most famous paintings “Kupchikha at Tea” Kustodiev wrote in a very difficult time for himself - 1918. Admiration for the revolution and new transformations has long gone, but the needs had to bread more than enough. There were no basic necessities: food and firewood. His wife Julia Kustodieva went to work as a day laborer sawing wood, which she received as payment instead of money.
Yulia Kustodiev's wife Yevstafievna Kustodiev with her first-born son Kirill in the morning
And Kustodiev himself wrote various paintings to exhaustion: there were enough orders, but they paid for them pennies. In his letter to a friend, he complained: “I see nothing but artwork, long ago got used to be in decent society, all conversations are only about food and firewood, I forgot when I visited the theater or listened to live good music”.
A merchant woman on a walk
Contemporaries of the artist perceived the painting as a satire on the merchant class. Here she sits, drinking already ...nadtsatoe, saucer of tea, in the eyes of emptiness and a complete lack of lofty thoughts, on the table - muffin abundance, so it is not worth being surprised at such a “diet” so lush forms. In general, the merchants and merchants should be wiped out at the root, so as not to interfere with the construction of a happy revolutionary future.
The baker
However, there is a little more personal in this painting for Kustodiev than meets the eye. It is a kind of portrait of an “imaginary friend”, a pictorial embodiment of longing for a different Russia, which after the revolution has hopelessly fallen into oblivion. In this case, the fullness of merchants and merchants is an indicator of thoroughness and solidity, evidence of wealth and weight in society, albeit understood so literally.
A merchant in a winter coat
Many merchants still remembered how, as peasants, they had lived in poverty and were desperate for food. Now they wanted to stand out from the masses, to testify their wealth and new status. And the thickness became a kind of symbol of wealth, and along with rich clothes left no doubt: here comes a new master of life, before whom all doors are now open. No one thought that excessive appetite could be detrimental to one's health, and the merchants probably did not listen to the doctors who told them about it.
Russian Venus
Of course, there is in these images some exaggeration and generalization of the usual ideas about the “merchant fat-tailed”, and in the 1920s, when the painting “Merchant in a fur coat” was created, it was only possible to portray merchants in this way, without fear of being considered a painter sympathetic to hostile elements.
Bolshevik
But there is more longing for the bygone Russia in Kustodiev's paintings than irony; it seems that time has stopped on them, and nothing will ever change. The volleys of the Aurora will not break the midday calm, a thorough tea party will not be interrupted, and satiety, contentment and stability will forever remain the norm of life.
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