Many representatives of the bohemian world were characterized by their peculiar character and views of the world, and therefore they were known as real eccentrics. True, they usually talked about it only behind their backs in private conversations; few dared to directly mock Arkhip Kuindzhi, Alexander Benois, Sergei Diaghilev, and other prominent and respected people with considerable money and influence. But there was one cartoonist who was not afraid of anyone and ridiculed many artists in his drawings. We will talk about him and his works in this article.
"Vernissage of the St. Petersburg Society of Artists"
Pavel Shcherbov (1866-1938) came from a wealthy aristocratic family. His father held a prominent position in St. Petersburg, received a good salary, and tried to give his son a good education. Pavel studied at the private Videmann Gymnasium and then entered the Academy of Arts, but studied for only two years. The freedom-loving artist was alien to the conservative academic rules, and he saw painting more as entertainment and a way to express his views. And caricatures were ideal for that, so Shcherbov decided to focus on them. He collaborated with many popular magazines of those years: Shut, Lukomorye, Zritel, etc.
St. Petersburg art critics
Shcherbov's means allowed him to travel widely: he visited the Caucasus, Turkey, China, and then went to Africa with his artist friend Alexander Chikin. From there he brought back a considerable collection of local exhibits, which he presented to representatives of the Russian Geographical Society. Already on his honeymoon, after marrying the priest's daughter Anastasia Darmostuk, Shcherbov and his young wife went to Japan.
They settled in Gatchina, where Shcherbov had a house built according to his own ideas of a "proper" home. The result was a large house made of cobblestones collected by Shcherbov himself, reminiscent of a medieval castle with a German-style tiled roof. This house has survived to this day and now houses the artist's museum.
Caricature of Archippa Kuindza
Representatives of the local intelligentsia and even bohemians from St. Petersburg often visited Shcherbov, including the singer Fyodor Chaliapin, the artist Nesterov and many others.
After the revolution he stayed in Russia and worked in the Gatchina Palace, trying to preserve as much as possible of its treasures.
"The Bazaar of the 20th Century". 1908
Wealth allowed Shcherbov to be bold in his views, not to curry favor with either critics or patrons, as less well-off artists often had to do.
An intimate conversation about aesthetics between Vavila Barabanov and Nikola Krichenko. (Jester, No. 10, March 7/19, 1898)
That is why his cartoons were always interesting for the readers, they bitingly ridiculed many figures of art, for example, the critic Stasov, who was an ardent opponent of the magazine "World of Art" and the art association of the same name. Kravchenko, a member of World of Art, fights with him, and behind him stands the fallen Diaghilev. So for most readers, the bickering and showdowns of the critics were just entertainment, much like the showdowns between stars on TV shows are for us.
Russian-Finnish Exhibition in Salzburg. Caricature. 1898
This cartoon is dedicated to the 1898 Exhibition of Artists of the World. Diaghilev plays the role of the seller who says to the customer, Princess Maria Tenisheva, in the guise of a village woman: "Stop haggling, grandma, I said: the blanket is one ruble. After all, I didn't pick it up from the garbage, I fished it out of Frey's hospital." Some clarification is needed here. Tenisheva was a well-known art patron who sympathized with the World of Art artists, bought their paintings, and provided money for the magazine. A ruble is a reference to Vrubel, whose paintings usually sold like hot cakes, although the artist's extreme impracticality meant that the money usually never stayed with him. And "in Frey's hospital" means that even then Vrubel was considered by bohemians to be out of touch, with mental problems. In general, here Shcherbov's cartoon became almost prophetic.
"Idyll (A Cow Milked by Various Scoundrels)", published in the magazine "Jester". 1899. No. 13
Well, this is practically a mockery of the members of Mir Iskusstva, the embodiment of Shcherbov's causticity and fearlessness. The cash cow is Tenisheva, the appropriate mammoth in the background is Savva Mamontov, the rooster staring at the dung heap is the theater artist Lev Bakst, and the milkmaid is Sergei Diaghilev. Shcherbov, of course, knew about his non-standard orientation, and Diaghilev did not particularly hide it. Even Repin got it - he kneels with a tray in front of a cow representing Tenisheva, with laurel branches on it. In general, the rich princess Tenisheva is "milked" by everyone, regardless of their affiliation with this or that creative association, since Repin, as is known, was a member of the Wanderers.
And even now these caricatures look quite bold, and if you know the whole background, then relatively witty. And sometimes it seems that there was more of that notorious glasnost back then.
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