Essay on the painting of the vision of the youth Bartholomew. Nesterov
Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov is a famous religious artist. He is called religious both because he was born in such a family, and because it was thanks to paintings on religious themes that he became famous. One of the most significant paintings of the author is the canvas "Vision to the youth Bartholomew." The artist dedicated it to St. Sergius of Radonezh. This picture opened a whole cycle of works dedicated to the Russian religious ideal.
Mikhail Nesterov was very interested in the life of St. Sergius. He was very revered in his family and not only. St. Sergius was Rus''s hope for the spiritual rebirth of monastic life. Many followed him. Temples were erected in monasteries, icons were created, chronicles were copied. The author, while working on the work, lived within the Trinity-Sergius Lavra to visit the places of activity of St. Sergius.
The plot of the picture is an episode from the life of a saint. At the request of his father, he was looking for the missing herd, and there he had a vision. An unfamiliar and mysterious elder gave him the gift of comprehending the meaning of the Holy Scriptures and wisdom.
But in order to admire the picture, it is not necessary to know the history, because the work itself is wonderfully done. Mikhail Nesterov paid a lot of attention to details. How beautifully he depicted the hills and plains, how he painted every blade of grass and leaves on the trees, how wonderfully the clothes of the boy and the old man are presented. In all these details you can see the meaning of the work. It is very kind, bright, pure and emotional. In addition to the most important moment of the picture - this is a boy and an old man, there is something else to admire and look at. Perhaps that is why the picture gained immortality, which the author did not even hope for.
1889-90 211 x 160 cm. Oil on canvas.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Description of the painting by Nesterov M.V. "Vision to the youth Bartholomew"
An important role in the picture of Nesterov M.V. plays a landscape that is quite emotional, corresponds to the mood of the characters. In the background we see a pale white-yellow sky. The main color in the picture is yellow, so it can be assumed that this is early autumn.
A wooden church is depicted in the distance, the two blue domes of which look like cornflowers growing on a green meadow. Behind it you can see a small village, and beyond the village - an endless expanse. Gardens are located near the church. Dark green crops are somewhat reminiscent of cabbage. Dense forests are depicted on the sides, they seem to frame the picture, give it depth. To the left, a small river flows.
In the foreground, the author depicted the youth Bartholomew and the elder. The boy looks at the abbot with admiration and great attention. The thinness of the boy is visible: an emaciated face, bruises under his eyes. His light brown hair blends harmoniously with the colors of the trees and the field. The child prayerfully folded his skinny and thin hands. His back and knees are slightly bent, as if he intends to bow before the old man. The boy is wearing simple white peasant clothes. The author wanted to show the purity of the child's soul.
An old man is standing in front of the youth. The hood hides his face, as well as his entire head, only part of the old man's gray beard is visible. She says that the old sage is standing in front of the boy. Around his head is a halo, which has practically disappeared into the yellow color of the trees. In his hands, the elder holds a chest with prosphora. He wears a black cloak and a cape with red crosses.
The landscape in the picture is realistic, but the motif of fabulousness is visible in the depicted figures. The work evokes a feeling of sadness and calmness. The author showed the purity and beauty of Russian nature.
Composition based on the painting by M. V. Nesterov “Vision to the youth Bartholomew”
Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov was born in 1862, in Ufa, into a merchant family. First, the boy studied at the Ufa gymnasium, and then, when he was 12 years old, his father took him to Moscow to enter a technical school. However, Nesterov did not pass the exam and was assigned to the Real School of K.P. Voskresensky. Here he awakened an interest in drawing, more and more attracted the dream of becoming an artist. Finally, in 1877, V. I. Nesterov, on the advice of K. P. Voskresensky, who took a great part in the boy, and K. M. Trutov, then an inspector of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, agreed to connect the fate of his son with the profession of an artist.
Within the walls of the school, starting in 1872, exhibitions of the Wanderers were organized, whose paintings were very attractive to the novice artist. At traveling exhibitions organized at the School, a special hall was always assigned to student work. However, V. G. Perov and A. K. Savrasov insisted on organizing special exhibitions of students. The first one opened in December 1878. Already a year later, on ?? In the student exhibition, along with S. A. Korovin, K. A. Korovin, A. P. Ryabushkin, I. I. Levitan, K. V. Lebedev, and others, Nesterov’s works were also exhibited.
Despite the approval of his comrades and Perov, Nesterov did not find satisfaction in his work. In the early 80s, Nesterov did a lot of portrait work.
In search of his own path, Nesterov makes the subject of art the area of the spiritual life of the Russian people, associated mainly with moral religious quests.
The first work of this cycle was the painting “Vision to the youth Bartholomew”, which appeared in XV ??? at a traveling exhibition. Nesterov began working on it in 1889.
When working on his painting, the artist attached paramount importance to the landscape.
Nature is depicted by Nesterov with deep attention and love. He subtly conveyed her tender beauty and amazing harmony. She is freed from everyday fuss, peaceful, beautiful in her purity. This landscape, as it were, is the embodiment of cleanliness and goodwill.
Delicate tones of early autumn accurately paint the picture with pale golden colors. The lines are smooth, round, fluid, everything froze in anticipation of a miracle.
To the left are wooded hills, a blue river flows under them (there they turn pink somewhere, they give, smoke curls), and closer are malachite gardens. To the right is a golden grove, a wooden church with blue domes.
Having found a convincing landscape, having already painted the figure of a boy and some landscape details of the picture, the artist could not find the boy's head in any way.
But one day, walking through the village, he noticed a girl of about ten, with a short haircut, with large, wide-open, surprised eyes, sickly, with a corded, feverishly breathing mouth. Finally he found what he was looking for.
And so, in the foreground, on a hill, are a shepherd boy, and a monk. The thin figure of a boy, placed almost in the center of the picture, merges with the landscape and seems to be an integral part of the fields, green copses, quivering trees, this purely Russian landscape with its wooden church and winding river.
Bartholomew's large, almost round eyes are fixed on the saint, thin hands are prayerfully folded in front of his chest. He froze in anticipation of a miracle. Even without looking closely at the picture, one can understand that between the shepherd boy and the monk there is a conversation not on everyday, but on sublime topics.
The youth is dressed in a white shirt, bordered with red braid, blue ports and red boots. All this symbolizes youth, the purity of the boy's soul.
In front of the boy, next to a tall, ancient oak, stands a monk in a black cloak. Because of his dark attire, a feeling (impression) of the massiveness of the figure of an old man is created.
A white shirt, a blue hood, a halo around his head speak of the divine purity of his thoughts and deeds. And the beard speaks of wisdom, but at the same time, the red crosses on the hood show the youth of his soul. There is a contrast between the images of the youth and the elder.
Despite the fabulousness of the plot, there is no feeling of its falsity, far-fetchedness.
The landscape in the picture collects all the beauties of Russian nature, and Bartholomew and the monk are the young and the older generation.
In preparing this work, materials from the site were used.
"The Vision of the Youth Bartholomew" (the future of St. Sergius of Radonezh) is one of the most mysteriously poetic and charming paintings of the last decade of the 19th century. Here, which rarely happens with Nesterov, he also succeeded in the type of a young saint, his figure frozen in sacred awe, his face absorbed in concentrated delight with wide-open, staring eyes. The bewitching horror of the supernatural has rarely been conveyed in painting with such simplicity of means and with such persuasiveness. There is something very subtly guessed, very correctly found in the slender figure of the black man, who, as if in fatigue, leaned against a tree and completely covered himself with his gloomy schema. But the most wonderful thing in this picture is the landscape, utterly simple, gray, even dull, and yet solemnly festive. It seems as if the air is clouded with a thick Sunday bell, as if marvelous Easter singing is streaming over this valley ... "(A.N. Benois)
The image of St. Sergius of Radonezh was dear to Nesterov from childhood. Mikhail Vasilievich wrote in his memoirs: Sergius of Radonezh "... enjoyed special love and reverence in our family." In childhood, this saint "was close to us, entered ... into the everyday life of our spiritual life." And in the creative life of the artist, the Radonezh abbot occupied a special place. The first of a series of works dedicated to the life and deeds of St. Sergius of Radonezh was the painting "The Vision of the Child Bartholomew", painted in 1890.
The first sketch of the future picture was preserved in the album of sketches created during a trip abroad. The history of the creation of "Vision" is described by Mikhail Vasilyevich himself in the book of memoirs "Old Days", published by him in 1942 shortly before his death:
“I went straight to Moscow. I saw some of my friends and left for the Khotkov Monastery. I hired a hut in the village of Komyakino, near the monastery, and set about sketches for Bartholomew.
The surroundings of Komyakino are very picturesque: all around there are forests, spruce, birch, everywhere in a perfect combination. Wandered all day long. Abramtsevo was also three versts away, where I now looked more and more often.
A number of landscapes and landscape details were made near Komyakino. I found a suitable oak for the foreground, painted the very first plan, and one day from the terrace of the Abramtsevo house, quite unexpectedly, such a Russian, Russian autumn beauty presented itself to my eyes. There are hills on the left, a river winds under them (Aksakovskaya Vorya). Somewhere there are pinkish autumn distances, smoke rises, closer - cabbage malachite gardens, on the right - a golden grove. Something to change, something to add, and the background for my "Bartholomew" is such that it's better not to invent it.
And I set to work. It was a success, and most importantly, looking at this landscape, admiring it and working on my sketch, I was imbued with some special sense of “authenticity”, its historicity: it began to seem to me that the landscape should be like this, and not another. I believed so strongly in what I saw that I did not want to look for anything else.
Landscape in Abramtsevo. Etude.
In the process of working on the picture, Nesterov made many different sketches.
The study of the oak, near which the schemnik stands, was worked out to the most precise details. Already in the study, the power of an age-old tree was perfectly conveyed, the mighty trunk of which could not be broken by any storms and thunderstorms. From time to time, its bark only darkened and looked like a reliable armor of a giant tree. And on the same trunk - tender green leaves, and at the foot of the oak - a young mountain ash with reddening leaves, next to it - bent grasses and blades of grass.
According to the original idea, Bartholomew stood in front of the elder with his back to the viewer. His face was not visible, and the whole figure with a fair-haired head and smart clothes rather resembled the image of a fabulous shepherdess Lelya, and not a future ascetic. The emphasis here falls on the figure of the schemnik.
In the future, the figure of a boy became the semantic center of the whole picture. Let's return to Nesterov's memoirs:
“It remained to find a head for the lad, as convincing as the landscape. I looked everywhere at the children and for the time being painted the figure of a boy, painted the figure of an old man ... Time passed, it was the beginning of September. I began to worry, because I still had to write a sketch. was at hand...
And then one day, walking through the village, I noticed a girl of ten years old, with a short haircut, with large, wide-open surprised blue eyes, sickly. Her mouth was somehow mournful, feverishly breathing.
I froze as before a vision. I really found what I was dreaming of: this was the "document", the "original" of my dreams. Without thinking for a moment, I stopped the girl, asked where she lived, and found out that she was from Komyakinskaya, that she was Marya’s daughter, that their hut was the second from the edge, that her, the girl, was called so-and-so, that she had chest pains for a long time, that she had recently got up and was going there. Pretty good for the first time. I knew what had to be done.
Artists in Komyakino were not a wonder, they were not afraid, they were not shy, sometimes the Komyakinsky guys earned money from them for nuts and so on. I went straight to Aunt Marya, explained everything to her, agreed on the “fee”, and the next day, if it didn’t rain, I scheduled the first session.
Fortunately for me, the next day was just what I needed: gray, clear, warm, and I, taking paints, a Roman lemon tablet, went in for my sick woman and, having settled down more quietly, began to work.
Things went well. I needed not so much a colorful study as a delicate, precise drawing of a fragile, nervous girl. I worked hard, trying to see more of what, perhaps, my model gave me. Her pale, haggard, blue-veined little face was beautiful for moments. I completely identified this face with my future lad Bartholomew. My girl not only had a good face, but also her hands, so thin, with nervously clenched fingers. Thus, I found not only the face of Bartholomew, but also his hands.
Girl's head. Etude.
Bartholomew. Etude.
In mid-September 1889, not far from Abramtsevo, Mikhail Vasilievich rented a dacha and started painting. Here is what the artist wrote about his life at that time: “I lived well in those days. I was full of my painting. In it, in its atmosphere, in the atmosphere of a vision, a miracle that was to take place, I lived then.
It began to rain, it was unpleasant to leave the house, before my eyes were dark, wet brick sheds. It was impossible even to get into Abramtsevo, the dirt was so great. And only in my soul then it was light and joyful. I ate sparingly. My old cook could cook only two dishes - sour cabbage soup and porridge.
So I lived until mid-October. I drew a picture with charcoal and during this time I managed to make sure that in such an environment, alone, with poor nutrition, I would not last long - and decided to escape to my Ufa residents. stood on a small bench), fell and damaged the canvas. "A sister came running to the noise, and then her mother. I got up, and we all saw that the picture was broken - a big hole gaped in the sky. Mother and sister, seeing me so embarrassed, and even more - a broken picture, did not know how to help the cause, how to approach me. However, the first minutes passed. It was useless to gasp, it was necessary to act. I immediately wrote to Datsiaro's shop in Moscow, asking me to hastily send me the best foreign canvas of a known width, so much. I wrote and began to wait impatiently for the parcel. Time passed unusually slowly. I moped, with me, not knowing what to do, they were not happy that they invited me. However, a week and a half later, a summons came, and on the same day I received a beautiful canvas, much better than broken through. I came to life, and all mine around me came to life.
Soon I redrawn the picture anew and took up the paints. As if in retribution for the experienced unrest, it was more pleasant to write on the new canvas. I liked him very much, and things moved forward quickly."
The first, unfinished version of the painting remained in Ufa and after 50 years became the property of the Bashkir Art Museum. Only the upper, landscape part is written in it, everything else is a charcoal drawing, but it is this rest that is especially valuable for us, because it allows us to understand, to feel the creative "kitchen" of the artist: we see that Nesterov works without underpainting, immediately according to the drawing, with utmost attention to detail and concern for the unity of the whole.
And now the work is finished. Against the backdrop of forests and fields in the foreground of the picture are two figures - a boy and a saint who appeared to him under a tree in the clothes of a schemnik. The young lad froze all over in quivering delight, his wide-open eyes staring at the vision without stopping. The gold and crimson of early autumn clearly show through on the canvas. But summer is not yet giving up its positions, it still pleases with greenery, it still embroiders the golden decoration of the meadow with small blue and yellow flowers. A wide ocher rectangle lies in the background of the field. Along the restless snake of the silvery river, repeating its intricate bends, the road stretches. Nature froze in anticipation of a miracle ... and this miracle happens in front of the viewer.
Nesterov was preparing his painting for the XVIII Traveling Exhibition. Works by artists who were not members of the Association were selected for traveling exhibitions and accepted by members of the Association at a general meeting by secret ballot. “Levitan came. He looked for a long time, walked away, approached, got up, sat down, got up again. He announced that the picture was good, he liked it very much and that it would be a success. The tone of praise was sincere, lively, encouraging ... Every day there was one of the artists, and the rumor about the picture among our brethren grew and grew, until one morning Pavel Mikhailovich himself came ... We were gathering and going in a big company to St. Petersburg. We, the youth of that time, still exhibitors, subject to court, and strict, members of the Association.Many of us will be in a few days, perhaps, rejected, and who will remain here in this hall - only God knows.
This day has come. Court in the evening. We, the exhibitors, are languishing in expectation somewhere in the apartment of a young St. Petersburg friend, this time at Dalkevich's, in his attic. I am nervous, although the general opinion is that I will definitely be accepted. However, there are also bad signs: certain influential members - Messrs. Myasoedov, Lemokh, Makovsky, Volkov and someone else - are dissatisfied with my picture, find it unreal, absurd, even worse, “mystical”.
Finally, at one o'clock in the first night, two people fly in: Apollinary Vasnetsov and Dubovsky, young members of the Association, and proclaim the names of those who have been accepted. All those present were among them, and so was I. General joy."
The painting was exhibited and caused much controversy. The critic of that time, Dedlov, wrote then: “The picture was an icon, it depicted a vision, and even with a radiance around the head, the general opinion rejected the picture for its “unnaturalness.” Of course, visions do not walk the streets, but it does not follow that no one has ever seen them. The whole question is whether the boy painted in the picture can see him.
G.G. Myasoedov took M.V. Nesterov aside and tried in every possible way to convince him to paint over the golden halo: “Understand, this is absurdity, nonsense, even from the point of view of a simple perspective. Let’s assume for a moment that a golden circle shines around the saint’s head. But you see it around the face turned towards you en face? .And you draw it around the profile in the same circle as around the face."
On the other hand, M.P. Solovyov in his article “Russian Art in 1889” wrote: “Nesterov’s manner is quite original. In it there is no imitation of either the Pre-Raphaelites, or the Romantics, or Mr. Vasnetsov. He does not renew our old icon painters either. Nevertheless, his picture is imbued with a national, Russian spirit... The young Moscow artist is inspired by other ideas rooted in the depths of the people's religious feeling.”
Although there were few laudatory reviews, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired the painting for his collection and now it is in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
"Vision of the lad Bartholomew" is the highest take-off of Nesterov's work. Then there will be wonderful works, but there will be no such pure, sincere, poetry-filled work.
Nesterov M. V. "Old Days"
Gromova E.V. "Great masters of painting. Mikhail Nesterov".
Fedorov-Davydov "Nature and man in the work of Nesterov."
Vision to the youth Bartholomew
Nesterov Mikhail Vasilyevich is one of the most famous religious artists of that time. Thanks to his family and the upbringing in which he grew up and received, he managed to create many masterpieces on religious themes. Thanks to his work, he gained wide popularity.
One of the most famous paintings dedicated to religion is the painting "Vision to the youth Bartholomew." He devoted all his works to the artist to people. This work was dedicated to St. Sergius of Radonezh. This excellent canvas is like a pioneer, like a new page in painting. After it came a wave of paintings on this subject.
The artist studied the life of the saint with great interest. Saint Sergius of Radonezh carried the hope that the spirit of monastic life would soon be reborn in Rus'. Everyone tried to take an example from the saint. In large monasteries, the construction of a temple began, icons were painted. The artist, when he painted the canvas, lived near the saint himself. And I could, in more detail, get acquainted with his life and work.
The picture shows two people. This is one of the days of the saint's life in early childhood. He, on the orders of his father, was in search of cattle that had disappeared somewhere. The guy wandered through the valley and met a strange old man. He stopped to ask him if he had seen any sheep. He stood mysteriously under a tree, his face is not visible, only a gray beard is visible. And an unfamiliar elder gave him the gift of comprehending the meaning of the Holy Scriptures and wisdom.
We see how a young boy, dressed in Russian national clothes, a white belted shirt, blue trousers, red boots, with a whip on his belt, is facing an old man who is dressed in a black hoodie, his head glows like a halo. We do not see faces. You can only see how he is holding something in his hands. Meanwhile, the guy, crossing his arms, listens carefully. They stand under a mighty tree, tall green grass at their feet. Just the height of summer. Behind high green hills. Small thatched houses with vegetable gardens, and a tall temple behind the houses. You can see a small blue river that stretches along the entire ravine. The light blue sky is calm.
There is some mystery and mystery in the canvas. Since at this moment the gift of comprehending the meaning of the Holy Scriptures and wisdom is transmitted.
Option 2
One of my favorite Russian artists is Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov, visiting exhibitions where his paintings are located, I always had a huge amount of vivid emotions and an inspired feeling. This man really deserved the title of artist of the RSFSR (1942). The artist was born on May 19, 1862 in the city of Ufa, he was lucky to become the son of intelligent parents who gave the child a good upbringing, education and surrounded him with love.
From a very young age, Mikhail Vasilyevich began to admire nature, and landscapes were the main genre of his paintings. So in the painting “Visions of the youth Volfolomew”, the acting figures appear in the foreground, which are the focus of the work, but as soon as you look behind the backs of the main characters, a landscape of extraordinary beauty rises in front of you. Only a truly talented master could paint such a nature, but not only a masterfully executed work can leave an impression, but the plot itself, because this is the first painting dedicated to Sergei Radonezhsky.
Looking at the picture, one feels all the purity, holiness of the protagonist, and personally, after getting to know this canvas, I want to believe in something truly bright, kind and disinterested.
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