Viktor Alekseevich Bobrov (1842-1918) - Russian artist-academician and graphic artist, who at first gave very high hopes, but then his attitude to the case became for critics a reason for ridicule. About why this happened and what is the originality of the artist's work we will talk in this article.
Boyarina with beads
Victor Bobrov came from a well-to-do merchant family. His father was a peasant, got rich in trade and tried to compensate for his own lack of education by wanting to give it to his children. Therefore, Victor studied in the best private boarding houses and gymnasiums in St. Petersburg, and then, against his father's will, entered the Academy of Arts.
Bobrov was characterized by rare diligence, and was generally well regarded, he was even awarded a couple of silver medals for sketches, which he painted a lot. He worked willingly and skillfully with pencil, chalk and whitewash, and among the best of his artwork, created in the 1860s, we can single out the portrait of V.M.Maksimov.
Portrait of V.M. Maximov
However, Bobrov could also paint oil paintings, such as the self-portrait of 1861. Bobrov managed to convey the peasant persistence and perseverance in achieving the goal, inherent in his character, very convincingly, although this is more the face of a hard worker than an outstanding creator. As Bobrov's life path showed, the self-portrait was almost prophetic in this respect.
Viktor Bobrov. Self-portrait 1861.
Bobrov was quite a versatile man, interested in music and literature. He was friends with the historian Kostomarov, painted his portrait, where he sits in the evening at the stove next to his sister and reads a book. Thanks to the difficult to execute, but well written lighting creates a feeling of coziness and peace, and at that time Bobrov had not even graduated from the Academy of Arts.
Evening scene
The heyday of Bobrov's creativity came at the end of 1860-early 1870s. He works a lot, annually presents at exhibitions of his paintings, . Critics write laudatory reviews, and for the painting depicting in his studio of the famous violin maker Antonio Stradivarius Bobrov was awarded the title of academician of painting.
Antonio Stradivarius
Gradually, the work routine increasingly affected Bobrov's work. He painted mostly portraits of wealthy customers, reasoning that “Savrasov is a master, but he lives in poverty, and a portrait is a reliable thing, especially when painted for a specific customer. In general, Bobrov's peasant and merchant approach to painting began to prevail over a purely creative one.
Boyarina
In addition to portraits, Bobrov well studied the technique of etching, which at that time was very much in demand, as there were many magazines that were ready to pay for good etchings a lot of money. In this case, he was a real master, he was able to perfectly draw faces, to create the illusion of volume through the application of fine strokes.
Portrait of I.S. Turgenev
Bobrov contributed to the popularization of painting when he received an order for a series of etchings of paintings by Russian artists, such as Repin's famous “Burlaks on the Volga”. Thanks to his artwork, ordinary people could imagine what this painting looked like, as not everyone could come to the museum and see it in person.
Anton Grigirievich Rubinshtein
In the 1880s Bobrov worked on a series of engravings depicting famous artists, writers and other art figures. Some of them, according to art historians, were good, but most of them were overly academic, executed without soul and creative zeal, as a tired master craftsman who works only for the sake of earning money, according to ready-made schemes, without trying to invent something new.
Longing for a lover
Bobrov easily caught the interest of periodicals in frivolous drawings of girls and nudes and began to stamp such drawings by the dozens from the same model, only slightly changing the entourage, pose and title.
Oriental concubine
Critics resented: Bobrov tireless, but writes and draws always the same with minimal changes, not even thinking about changing the sitter. Friends wrote: “Bobrov went completely crazy at the end, in the pursuit of a penny forgot about art”.
Naked on a tiger's skin
The revolution of 1917 was a turning point for Bobrov. Unable to withstand the upheavals and half-starved existence in St. Petersburg, the 76-year-old artist died.
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