Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanishvili (Pirosmanashvili), or Niko Pirosmani, was born in Kakheti in the city of Mirzaani. When asked about his age, Niko answered with a timid smile: “How should I know?” Time passed in its own way for him and did not correspond at all with the boring numbers on the calendar.
Nikolai's father was a gardener, the family lived poorly, Niko tended sheep, helped his parents, he had a brother and two sisters. Country life often appears in his paintings.
Little Niko was only 8 years old when he was orphaned. His parents, older brother and sister died one after another. He and sister Peputsa were left alone in the whole wide world. The girl was taken to the village by distant relatives, and Nikolai ended up in a rich and friendly family of landowners, the Kalantarovs. For many years he lived in the strange position of half-service, half-relative. The Kalantarovs fell in love with the “unrequited” Niko, they proudly showed his drawings to the guests, taught the boy Georgian and Russian literacy and honestly tried to attach him to some craft, but the “unrequited” Niko did not want to grow up...
In the early 1890s, Niko realized that it was time for him to leave his hospitable home and become an adult. He managed to get a real position on the railroad. He became a brakeman.Only the service was not a joy for him. Standing on the step, arguing with stowaways, being distracted from contemplation and pressing the brake, not sleeping and listening carefully to signals is not the best thing for an artist. But no one knew that Niko was an artist. Taking advantage of everyone opportunity, Niko doesn't go to work. At this time, Pirosmani also discovers the dangerous charm of oblivion that wine gives... After three years of impeccable service, Piromanishvili quits his job. railway.
And Niko makes another attempt to become a good citizen. He opens a dairy shop. There is a cute cow on the sign, the milk is always fresh, the sour cream is undiluted - things are going quite well. Pirosmanishvili is building a house for his sister in his native Mirzaani and even covering it with an iron roof. He could hardly have imagined that his museum would one day be in this house.Trading is a completely unsuitable occupation for an artist... Dimitra, Pirosmanishvili’s partner, was mainly involved in the affairs of the shop.
In March 1909, a poster appeared on the stands in the Ortachal Garden: “News! Belle Vue Theater. Only 7 tours of the beautiful Margarita de Sevres in Tiflis. A unique gift to sing chansons and dance the kek-walk at the same time!”The Frenchwoman struck Nicholas on the spot. “Not a woman, a pearl from a precious casket!” - he exclaimed.In Tiflis they loved to tell the story of Niko’s unhappy love, and everyone told it in their own way.
“Niko was feasting with friends and did not go to the actress’s hotel, although she invited him,” the drunkards said. “Margarita spent the night with poor Nikolai, and then she was afraid of too strong a feeling and left!” - the poets asserted. “He loved one actress, but they lived separately,” the realists shrugged. “Pirosmani never saw Margarita, but drew the portrait from a poster,” skeptics smash the legend to dust. WITH light hand Alla Pugacheva Soviet Union sang a song about “a million Red roses”, into which the artist turned his life for the sake of his beloved woman.
The romantic story is:
This summer morning was no different at first. The sun rose from Kakheti just as inexorably, setting everything on fire, and the donkeys tied to telegraph poles cried in the same way. The morning was still dozing in one of the alleys in Sololaki, the shadow lay on the wooden low houses gray with age. In one of these houses, small windows were open on the second floor, and Margarita was sleeping behind them, covering her eyes with reddish eyelashes.In general, the morning would really be the most ordinary, if you did not know that it was the morning of Niko Pirosmanishvili’s birthday and if it were not for that very morning that carts with a rare and light load had not appeared in a narrow alley in Sololaki.The carts were loaded to the brim with cut flowers sprinkled with water. This made it seem as if the flowers were covered with hundreds of tiny rainbows. The carts stopped near Margarita's house. The growers, talking in low voices, began to remove armfuls of flowers and dump them on the sidewalk and pavement at the threshold.It seemed that the carts brought flowers here not only from all over Tiflis, but also from all over Georgia. The laughter of the children and the cries of the housewives woke Margarita. She sat up in bed and sighed. Whole lakes of smells - refreshing, affectionate, bright and tender, joyful and sad - filled the air.Excited Margarita, still not understanding anything, quickly got dressed. She put on her best, richest dress and heavy bracelets, tidied up her bronze hair and, while dressing, smiled, she didn’t know why. She guessed that this holiday was arranged for her. But by whom? And on what occasion?
At this time, the only person, thin and pale, decided to cross the border of flowers and slowly walked through the flowers to Margarita’s house. The crowd recognized him and fell silent. It was a poor artist Niko Pirosmanishvili. Where did he get so much money to buy these snowdrifts of flowers? So much money!He walked towards Margarita's house, touching the walls with his hand. Everyone saw how Margarita ran out of the house to meet him - no one had ever seen her in such a blaze of beauty, hugged Pirosmani by her thin, sore shoulders and pressed herself against his old checkman and for the first time kissed Niko firmly on the lips. Kissed in the face of the sun, the sky and ordinary people.
Some people turned away to hide their tears. People thought that great love would always find its way to a loved one, even if it was a cold heart.Niko's love did not conquer Margarita. That's what everyone thought, at least. But it was still impossible to understand whether this was really so? Nico couldn't say it himself. Soon Margarita found herself a rich lover and ran away with him from Tiflis.
The portrait of actress Margarita is a witness to beautiful love. White face White dress, touchingly outstretched arms, a bouquet of white flowers - and white words laid at the actress’s feet... “I forgive white people,” said Pirosmani.
Nikolai finally broke with the shop and became a wandering painter. His last name was increasingly pronounced short - Pirosmani. Dimitra assigned his companion a pension - a ruble a day, but Niko did not always come for money.More than once he was offered shelter and a permanent job, but Niko always refused. Finally, Pirosmani came up with what he thought was a successful solution. He began to paint bright signs for the dukhans over several wine lunches and several dinners. He took part of his earnings in cash to buy paints and pay for lodging. He worked unusually quickly - it took Niko several hours to complete ordinary paintings and two or three days to complete great work. Now his paintings are worth millions, but during his lifetime the artist received ridiculously little for his work.
More often they paid him with wine and bread. “Life is short, like a donkey’s tail,” the artist liked to repeat, and he worked, worked, worked... He painted about 2,000 paintings, of which no more than 300 survived. Some were thrown away by the ungrateful owners, some burned in the fire of the revolution, some... then the paintings were simply painted over.
Pirosmani took on any job. “If we don’t work on the lower, how will we be able to do the higher? - he spoke with dignity about his craft, and with equal inspiration he painted signs and portraits, posters and still lifes, patiently fulfilling the wishes of his customers. “They tell me - draw a hare. I wonder why there’s a hare here, but I draw it out of respect.”
Pirosmani never spared money on paints - he bought only the best, English ones, although he used no more than four colors in his paintings. Pirosmani painted on canvas, cardboard, and tin, but he preferred black oilcloth over everything. He painted on it not out of poverty, as is commonly believed, but because the artist really liked this material for its texture and the unexpected possibilities that the color black opened up for him. He covered the “black background of black life” with his brush - and men, women, children and animals stood up as if alive. The giraffe looks at us piercingly.
A majestic lion, redrawn from a matchbox, with a fiery gaze.
Roe deer and deer look tenderly and defenselessly over the spectators.
In Tiflis there was a society of Georgian artists, there were art connoisseurs, but for them Pirosmani did not exist. He lived in parallel world spirits, drinking establishments and pleasure gardens, and perhaps the world would not have known anything about him if not for a happy accident.
This happened in 1912. Pirosmani was already 50 years old. The French artist Michel de Lantu and the Zdanevich brothers - the poet Kirill and the artist Ilya - came to Tiflis in search of new impressions. They were young and waiting for a miracle. Tiflis captivated and stunned the young people. One day they saw a sign for the Varyag tavern: a proud cruiser was cutting through sea waves. The friends went inside and froze, stunned.Shocked, the students began to look for the author of the masterpieces.For several days the Zdanevichs and de Lantu followed Pirosmani's trail. “He was there, but he was gone, but who knows where,” they were told. And finally - long-awaited meeting. Pirosmani stood on the street carefully writing out the sign “Dairy”. He bowed to the strangers with restraint and continued his work. Only after finishing the order, Niko accepted the invitation of the capital's guests to dine at the nearest tavern.
The Zdanevichs took 13 paintings by Pirosmani to St. Petersburg, organized an exhibition, and they gradually began to talk about him in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and even Paris. Recognition also came “in his own country”: Niko was invited to a meeting of a society of artists, given some money and taken to take photographs. The artist was very proud of his fame, carried a newspaper sheet with him everywhere and showed it to friends and acquaintances with simple-minded joy.
But fame turned to Niko dark side... An evil caricature of Pirosmani appeared in the same newspaper. He was depicted in a shirt, with bare legs, he was offered to study and in 20 years take part in an exhibition of aspiring artists.It is unlikely that the author of the caricature imagined what effect it would have on the poor artist. Niko was terribly offended, became even more withdrawn, shunned the company of people, saw mockery in every word and gesture - and drank more and more. “This world is not friendly with you, you are not needed in this world,” the artist composed bitter poems.
Many today know that the song “A Million Scarlet Roses” retells the love story of the famous Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani. Seeing the singer and dancer Margarita de Sèvres, who arrived in Tiflis in March 1909, shopkeeper Nikolai Pirosmanishvili exclaimed: “Not a woman, a pearl from a precious casket!” He sold his shop and bought roses with all the money, strewing the pavement in front of the hotel with a flower carpet. his goddess lived.
What happened next? Some say that Margarita was shocked: “You sold your shop to give me flowers? I will never forget this, my beautiful knight! But a few days later she accepted the advances of another, richer admirer and left with him. And Nikolai, left without a shop, became an artist.
Others say that, having sent Margarita flowers, Niko did not stand “barely breathing” under the beautiful lady’s balcony, but went to feast at the dukhan with his last money. Touched by Margarita, she sent her admirer a note with an invitation, but he could not tear himself away from the friendly feast, and when he came to his senses, it was too late, the actress left the city.
Alas, this whole story is just a beautiful fairy tale. Researchers of Pirosmani’s work are sure that in his life there was neither this unrequited love, nor the sale of the shop, but famous portrait“Actress Margarita” was written not from life, but from a poster. And the story was written by Konstantin Paustovsky, who visited Tbilisi a few years after Pirosmani’s death.
Niko Pirosmani. "Actress Margarita"
In the real life of the artist fatal role a completely different drama played out.
Like a bird
Nikolai was born into a peasant family in 1862, the youngest of four children. His father died when Niko was 8 years old, his mother and older brother soon died, and the boy was raised by the widow of a Baku manufacturer Kalantarov. The family loved Niko like one of their own, but he was obviously burdened by the idea that he was a stranger here and was not living in a rich house by right. This painful suspiciousness and the excessive touchiness associated with it remained with him throughout his life and became more and more noticeable, increasingly alienating him from other people.
Despite the fact that the Kalantarov family was educated, Nikolai himself could not adapt to either science or any craft. I studied at a printing house for several months. Little by little he learned painting from traveling artists. He tried to work as a brake conductor for freight cars on the railway - so almost his entire salary was “eaten up” by fines either for being late or for not showing up for work. They said about Niko that he lives “like a bird,” not caring about the past or the future. And what was especially strange about him was that he claimed to see saints, and after these phenomena his hand itself reached out to draw.
Niko Pirosmani. "Street cleaner"
In the end, when Nikolai decided to quit his job as a conductor, the railway authorities were happy to give him such a big severance pay that he was able to start a dairy shop. But he didn’t stay in trade for long either; he abandoned his shop and decided that he would make a living as an artist. This happened several years before Margarita de Sevres arrived in Tiflis - that is, Niko could no longer sell the shop for her sake.
Niko Pirosmani. "Still life"
He drew everything: paintings, signs, he could even paint a wall or write the name of the street and house number on it. I never bargained about payment either. One paid 30 rubles for his painting, and for another he could paint a sign for lunch and a glass of vodka. Sometimes, instead of money, he asked to buy him paint or oilcloth - after all, as you know, Pirosmani painted his paintings not on canvas, but on oilcloth. Some claim that these were ordinary oilcloths taken from tables in dukhans, others - that the oilcloths were special, produced for some technical purposes. Be that as it may, they turned out to be an excellent material for paintings: the images on them did not become covered with cracks over time, as happens with canvases.
Outcast
But suddenly in Niko’s life there was a chance to enter the circle of people among whom he had always felt like a stranger. In 1912, brother-artists Ilya and Kirill Zdanevich learned about his paintings. Kirill’s friend, writer Konstantin Paustovsky, recalled: “Kirill had acquaintances with peasants, dukhan players, wandering musicians, and rural teachers. He instructed all of them to look for Pirosman’s paintings and signs for him. At first, dukhan workers sold signs for pennies. But soon a rumor spread throughout Georgia that some artist from Tiflis was buying them, supposedly for abroad, and the dukhan sellers began to raise the price. Both the old Zdanevichs and Kirill were very poor at that time. There was a case in my life when the purchase of a Pirosman painting put a family on bread and water...”
Niko Pirosmani. "Portrait of Ilya Zdanevich"
The Zdanevichs convinced Niko that his paintings would be a success with the educated public. Kirill purchased from Pirosmani a large number of paintings, many of which were made to order by the artist. In February 1913, Ilya published an article in the Transcaucasian Rech newspaper about Pirosmanashvili’s work under the title “The Nugget Artist.” Already in March, several of his paintings appeared at an exhibition in Moscow. Other collectors became interested in Pirosmanishvili’s work. The illustrated edition “Sakhalkho Purtseli” included a photo of Pirosmani and a reproduction of his “Wedding in Kakheti”.
“An artist whose work could glorify the nation and give it the right to participate in the current struggle for art,” the article said. “Understanding color and using it place Pirosmanishvili among the great painters.”
Oddly enough, his fame had virtually no effect on the artist’s well-being. And when in 1914 after the outbreak of war in Russian Empire Prohibition was introduced, the situation of Pirosmani, a significant part of whose income was the production of signs for drinking establishments, worsened.
And his pride did not last long. The spirit workers and other acquaintances for whom he painted, having learned that Niko “had become a great artist,” began to make contemptuous jokes about him. He never received full recognition from critics and art critics. In the same “Sakhalho Purtseli” a caricature appeared: Niko stands in one long shirt with bare legs, and next to him an art critic says: “You need to study, brother. In 20 years you may be out good artist, then we will send you to the exhibition of young people.” But Niko was already over fifty by that time.
Feeling like a stranger - this time not only among the rich, but also in the familiar world of dukhans, Pirosmanishvili stopped drawing, sank and turned into a complete tramp. He did not say hello to his acquaintances, wandered aimlessly through the streets, muttering something under his breath. In the spring of 1918, he was found in the basement of a house, lying directly on broken bricks. He no longer recognized anyone; at the hospital where he was taken, they wrote down: “A man of about 60, poor, origin and religion unknown.” A couple of days later he died, and he was buried without a funeral service, in a common grave for the poor.
He was a primitivist. One of those artists about whom people far from art and its understanding say, “I could have drawn just as well myself.” But only a blind person can fail to see all the poignancy of the artist’s painting.
Behind the seeming naivety of animals drawn on oilcloth and festive feasts, deep feelings are hidden, pain through joy and joy through pain. And all this becomes more than obvious if you know at least a little about the life of Niko Pirosmani.
Bulat Okudzhava reads his poem "Pirosmani"
Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanishvili (Pirosmanashvili), or Niko Pirosmani, was born in Kakheti in the city of Mirzaani. When asked about his age, Niko answered with a timid smile: “How should I know?” Time passed in its own way for him and did not correspond at all with the boring numbers on the calendar.
Nikolai's father was a gardener, the family lived poorly, Niko tended sheep, helped his parents, he had a brother and two sisters. Village life often appears in his paintings.
Little Niko was only 8 years old when he was orphaned. His parents, older brother and sister died one after another. He and sister Peputsa were left alone in the whole wide world. The girl was taken to the village by distant relatives, and Nikolai ended up in a rich and friendly family of landowners, the Kalantarovs. For many years he lived in the strange position of half-service, half-relative. The Kalantarovs fell in love with the “unrequited” Niko, they proudly showed his drawings to the guests, taught the boy Georgian and Russian literacy and honestly tried to attach him to some craft, but the “unrequited” Niko did not want to grow up...
In the early 1890s, Niko realized that it was time for him to leave his hospitable home and become an adult. He managed to get a real position on the railroad. He became a brakeman. Only the service was not a joy for him. Standing on the step, arguing with stowaways, being distracted from contemplation and pressing the brake, not sleeping and listening carefully to signals is not the best thing for an artist. But no one knew that Niko was an artist. Taking advantage of every opportunity, Niko does not go to work. At this time, Pirosmani also discovers the dangerous charm of oblivion that wine gives... After three years of impeccable service, Piromanishvili quits the railway.
And Niko makes another attempt to become a good citizen. He opens a dairy shop. There is a cute cow on the sign, the milk is always fresh, the sour cream is undiluted - things are going quite well. Pirosmanishvili is building a house for his sister in his native Mirzaani and even covering it with an iron roof. He could hardly have imagined that his museum would one day be in this house. Trading is a completely unsuitable occupation for an artist... Dimitra, Pirosmanishvili’s partner, was mainly involved in the affairs of the shop.
In March 1909, a poster appeared on the stands in the Ortachal Garden: “News! Belle Vue Theater. Only 7 tours of the beautiful Margarita de Sevres in Tiflis. A unique gift to sing chansons and dance the kek-walk at the same time!” The Frenchwoman struck Nicholas on the spot. “Not a woman, a pearl from a precious casket!” - he exclaimed.
The love of the poor artist was a burden to her. And although Niko was loved no less than her, she could not get over herself and respond with favor. He tried to win her with the help of a painting, which he called “Margarita”, then he lay in wait for her at the house. Sometimes she didn't even give him a glance. This drove him into a frenzy - sometimes he would fall onto the dusty path along which the legs of the charming Margarita had just passed and, watering her footprints with tears, he would fall to them with lips cracked from the heat of love...
This pushed the beauty away from him even more. As a true Christian, she could not understand how this elderly man, undoubtedly a talented man, had made an idol out of her. What could she become for him? Wife? Hardly. She would first have to become his mother, constantly wiping his tears and supporting him in everything. Mistress? But could this proud and slightly crazy man agree to this?
In Tiflis they loved to tell the story of Niko’s unhappy love, and everyone told it in their own way:
“Niko was feasting with friends and did not go to the actress’s hotel, although she invited him,” said the drunkards.
“Margarita spent the night with poor Nikolai, and then she was afraid of too strong a feeling and left!” - the poets asserted.
“He loved one actress, but they lived separately,” the realists shrugged.
“Pirosmani never saw Margarita, but drew the portrait from a poster,” skeptics smash the legend to dust.
With the light hand of Alla Pugacheva, the entire Soviet Union sang a song about “a million scarlet roses” into which the artist turned his life for the sake of the woman he loved.
The romantic version of the story is this:
This summer morning was no different at first. The sun rose from Kakheti just as inexorably, setting everything on fire, and the donkeys tied to telegraph poles cried in the same way. The morning was still dozing in one of the alleys in Sololaki, the shadow lay on the wooden low houses gray with age.
In one of these houses, small windows were open on the second floor, and Margarita was sleeping behind them, covering her eyes with reddish eyelashes. In general, the morning would really be the most ordinary, if you did not know that it was the morning of Niko Pirosmanishvili’s birthday and if it were not for that very morning that carts with a rare and light load had not appeared in a narrow alley in Sololaki.
The carts were loaded to the brim with cut flowers sprinkled with water. This made it seem as if the flowers were covered with hundreds of tiny rainbows. The carts stopped near Margarita's house. The growers, talking in low voices, began to remove armfuls of flowers and dump them on the sidewalk and pavement at the threshold. It seemed that the carts brought flowers here not only from all over Tiflis, but also from all over Georgia.
The laughter of the children and the cries of the housewives woke Margarita. She sat up in bed and sighed. Whole lakes of smells - refreshing, affectionate, bright and tender, joyful and sad - filled the air. Excited Margarita, still not understanding anything, quickly got dressed. She put on her best, richest dress and heavy bracelets, tidied up her bronze hair and, while dressing, smiled, she didn’t know why. She guessed that this holiday was arranged for her. But by whom? And on what occasion?
At this time, the only person, thin and pale, decided to cross the border of flowers and slowly walked through the flowers to Margarita’s house. The crowd recognized him and fell silent. It was a poor artist Niko Pirosmanishvili. Where did he get so much money to buy these snowdrifts of flowers? So much money! He walked towards Margarita's house, touching the walls with his hand. Everyone saw how Margarita ran out of the house to meet him - no one had ever seen her in such a blaze of beauty, hugged Pirosmani by her thin, sore shoulders and pressed herself against his old checkman and for the first time kissed Niko firmly on the lips. Kissed in the face of the sun, the sky and ordinary people.
Some people turned away to hide their tears. People thought that great love would always find its way to a loved one, even if it was a cold heart. Niko's love did not conquer Margarita. That's what everyone thought, at least. But it was still impossible to understand whether this was really so? Nico couldn't say it himself. Soon Margarita found herself a rich lover and ran away with him from Tiflis.
The portrait of actress Margarita is a witness to beautiful love. A white face, a white dress, touchingly outstretched arms, a bouquet of white flowers - and white words laid at the actress’s feet... “I forgive white people,” said Pirosmani.
Nikolai finally broke with the shop and became a wandering painter. His last name was increasingly pronounced short - Pirosmani. Dimitra assigned his companion a pension - a ruble a day, but Niko did not always come for money. More than once he was offered shelter and a permanent job, but Niko always refused.
Finally, Pirosmani came up with what he thought was a successful solution. He began to paint bright signs for the dukhans over several wine lunches and several dinners. He took part of his earnings in cash to buy paints and pay for lodging. He worked unusually quickly - it took Niko several hours for ordinary paintings and two or three days for large works. Now his paintings are worth millions, but during his lifetime the artist received ridiculously little for his work.
More often they paid him with wine and bread. “Life is short, like a donkey’s tail,” the artist liked to repeat, and he worked, worked, worked... He painted about 2,000 paintings, of which no more than 300 survived. Some were thrown away by the ungrateful owners, some burned in the fire of the revolution, some... then the paintings were simply painted over.
Several tried to help Pirosmani Russian artists, in particular, the Zdanevich brothers. But in Moscow, not everyone understood the painting of the poor Georgian artist. In addition, such pictures could well be created by students art school. In a word, happy lottery ticket and remained unpresented to the harsh Fate.
Pirosmani took on any job.
If we don't work on the lower, then how can we achieve the highest?
And with equal inspiration he painted signs and portraits, posters and still lifes, patiently fulfilling the wishes of his customers.
They tell me - draw a hare. I wonder why there is a hare here, but I draw it out of respect.
For the last year and a half, the artist was constantly ill, all the dukhans went bankrupt, revolutionary unrest began in the city, and he was left without a livelihood. The Society of Georgian Artists decided to help Pirosmani, but no trace of him could be found.
On May 5, 1918, 96 years ago, a poor artist was dying in one of the hospitals for the poor in Tbilisi. The day before, his neighbors, realizing that Niko had not appeared in public for a week now, got together and opened the door to the closet where he lived. The 56-year-old “painter,” as his friends called him, lay in a deep, hungry faint. He didn't even have the strength to open his eyes.
Why didn't you contact us? Didn't call someone? - grabbed their gray heads good people. “We wouldn’t let you die in such a cruel way!”
Oh, this is our Niko! - explained one of my closest friends. “He would never admit to anyone that there wasn’t even a crumb of bread in his house...
The dying man was taken to the hospital, hoping for a miracle. But miracles are extremely rare. The next day Pirosmani died. He had no documents, and in the hospital register he was recorded as an unknown poor man; he was not buried in the cemetery. It is unknown where Pirosmani’s grave is located. Just before his death, he came to his senses for a few seconds and opened his eyes. But there was not enough strength for words, and only a stingy man’s tear quietly slid down onto his sunken, unshaven cheek...
The Zdanevich brothers piece by piece collected and wrote a biography and books dedicated to Pirosmani, their names are included in all encyclopedias. They collected almost all of Pirosmani's works, made on oilcloths and tin signs. The Tbilisi Museum houses most of the artist's works.
In 1969, an exhibition of his works took place in Paris, at the Louvre. Special attention Parisians enjoyed the painting “Actress Margarita.” An elderly woman approached this picture every day. This continued until the Georgian artists noticed that there was something in common - in the shape of the eyes, in the expression of the face, in the manner of deporting oneself - between this constant viewer and the actress depicted in the picture. So Margarita de Sèvres, alive but aged, saw her Pirosmani again, regretting the unforgettable years of her youth, about great love... She only said with hidden pride to the assembled reporters: “Don’t think that Pirosmani treated the actress Margarita lightly, no, no, he loved her like a true knight!”
There are bright and bitter moments in life, I got more bitter...
Lion and Sun In 1912, the French artist Michel Le-Dantu came to Georgia at the invitation of the Zdanevich brothers. On a summer evening, “when the sunset was fading and the silhouettes of blue and purple mountains in the yellow sky were losing their color,” the three of them found themselves on the station square and went into the Varyag tavern. Inside they found many paintings of Pirosmania, which surprised them: Zdanevich recalled that Le Dantu compared Pirosmani with Italian artist Giotto. At that time, there was a myth about Giotto, according to which he was a shepherd, tending sheep, and using coal in a cave he painted pictures, which were later noticed and appreciated. This comparison is rooted in cultural studies. (The scene with the visit to “Varyag” was included in the film “Pirosmani”, where it appears almost at the very beginning) Le Dantu acquired several paintings by the artist and took them to France, where their trace was lost. Kirill Zdanevich (1892 - 1969) became a researcher of Pirosmani’s work and the first collector. Subsequently, his collection was transferred to the Tbilisi Museum, moved to the Museum of Art, and it seems that it is now on display (temporarily) in the Blue Gallery on Rustaveli. Zdanevich ordered his portrait from Pirosmani, which also survived: Pirosmani died, and his paintings were still scattered throughout the dukhans of Tbilisi and the Zdanevich brothers continued to collect them, despite their difficult financial situation. If you believe Paustovsky, then back in 1922 he lived in a hotel, the walls of which were hung with Pirosmani’s “oilcloths”. Paustovsky wrote about his first meeting with these paintings: I must have woken up very early. The harsh and dry sun lay slantingly on the opposite wall. I looked at this wall and jumped up. My heart began to beat hard and fast. From the wall he looked straight into my eyes - anxiously, questioningly and clearly suffering, but unable to talk about this suffering - some strange beast - tense as a string. It was a giraffe. A simple giraffe, which Pirosman apparently saw in the old Tiflis menagerie. I turned away. But I felt, I knew that the giraffe was looking at me intently and knew everything that was going on in my soul. The whole house was deathly quiet. Everyone was still sleeping. I took my eyes off the giraffe, and it immediately seemed to me that he had come out of a simple wooden frame, was standing next to me and was waiting for me to say something very simple and important that should disenchant him, revive him and free him from many years of attachment to this dry , dusty oilcloth. How to perceive Pirosmani Pirosmani's works cause admiration for some, and misunderstanding for others. He really didn’t know how to draw, didn’t know anatomy, didn’t study painting techniques. His style is called “primitivism”, and here it is useful to know what it is. IN late XIX century, Europe was experiencing a scientific and technological revolution and at the same time a rejection of technological progress was developing. An ancient myth from ancient times has come to life that in the past people lived in natural simplicity and were happy. Europe became acquainted with the culture of Asia and Africa and suddenly decided that this primitive creativity was ideal natural simplicity. In 1892 French artist Gauguin leaves Paris and escapes from civilization in Tahiti to live in nature, among simplicity and free love. In 1893, France drew attention to the artist Henri Rousseau, who also called for learning only from nature. Everything is clear here - Paris was the center of civilization and the weariness of it began there. But in those same years - around 1894 - Pirosmani began to paint. It is difficult to imagine that he was tired of civilization, or that he closely followed cultural life Paris. Pirosmani, in principle, was not an enemy of civilization (and his customers, the perfumers, even more so). He could easily go to the mountains and live agriculture- like the poet Vazha Pshavela - but he fundamentally did not want to be a peasant and with all his behavior made it clear that he was a city man. He did not learn to draw, but at the same time he wanted to draw - and he painted. His painting did not have an ideological message, like Gauguin and Rousseau. It turns out that he did not copy Gauguin, but simply painted - and it turned out like Gauguin’s. His genre was not borrowed from someone, but was created by itself, naturally. Thus, he became not a follower of primitivism, but its founder, and the birth of a new genre in such a remote corner as Georgia is strange and almost incredible. Against his will, Pirosmani seemed to prove the correctness of the logic of the primitivists - they believed that true art is born outside of civilization, and so it was born in Transcaucasia. Maybe this is why Pirosmani became so popular among artists of the 20th century. The band Asea soul decided to create a video accompanied by paintings by the great primitivist artist Niko Pirosmani. ----
(Nikolai Pirosmanishvili) - the most famous Georgian self-taught artist of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, who worked in the style of primitivism. A man who was almost unnoticed during his life and who was noticed only three years before his death, who created almost 2,000 paintings, murals and signs, working for virtually nothing and died in obscurity, and who half a century later was exhibited from Paris to New York . His life is a sad and partly tragic story, which in Russia is known mainly from the song “A Million Scarlet Roses,” although not everyone knows that the “Georgian artist” from the song is precisely Pirosmani.
There are a lot of things associated with this name in Georgia, so it is useful to have an idea about the life of this person. This is why I am writing this short text.
Pirosmani watches Margarita's performance. ("Pirosmani", film 1969)
early years
Niko Pirosmani was born in the village of Mirzaani, near Sighnaghi. His father was gardener Aslan Pirosmanishvili, and his mother was Tekle Toklikashvili from the neighboring village of Zemo-Machkhaani. The surname Pirosmanishvili was famous and numerous in those days, and they say that even now there are many of them in Mirzaani. Subsequently, it will become something like a pseudonym for the artist. He will be called Pirosman, Pirosmani, Pirosmana, and sometimes by his first name - Nikala. He will go down in history as “Pirosmani”.
His birthday is not known. The year of birth is conventionally considered to be 1862. He had an older brother, George, and two sisters. His father died in 1870, his brother even earlier. Pirosmani lived in Mirzaani for the first 8 years of his life until his father’s death, after which he was sent to Tbilisi. Since then he appeared in Mirzaani only occasionally. Almost nothing has survived in the village from those times, except that the Mirzaan temple clearly stood in its place in those years.
From 1870 to 1890 there is a huge gap in Pirosmani’s biography. According to Paustovsky, during these years Pirosmani lived in Tbilisi and worked as a servant for a good family. This version explains a lot - for example, a general acquaintance with painting, and the snobbery that Pirosmani was distinguished by in middle age. Somewhere during these years he stopped wearing peasant clothes and switched to European.
We know that he lived in Tbilisi, occasionally visiting his village, but we don’t know any details. 20 years of obscurity. In 1890 he became a brakeman on the railroad. A receipt dated April 1, 1890 for receipt has been preserved. job description. Pirosmani worked as a conductor for about four years, during which time he visited several cities in Georgia and Azerbaijan. He never made a good conductor, and on December 30, 1893, Pirosmani was fired with a severance pay of 45 rubles. It is believed that it was these years that gave him the idea of creating the painting “Train”, which is sometimes called “Kakheti Train”.
Konstantin Paustovsky gives another version of those events: Pirosmani, according to him, painted his first picture - a portrait of the head of the railway and his wife. The portrait was somewhat strange, the boss got angry and kicked Pirosmani out of service. But this is apparently a myth.
There is one strange coincidence. While Pirosmani was serving on the railway, the Russian tramp Peshkov came to work there in 1891. From 1891 to 1892 he worked in Tbilisi in railway repair shops. Here Egnate Ninoshvili told him: “Write what you tell so well.” Peshkov began to write and the story “Makar Chudra” appeared, and Peshkov became Maxim Gorky. No director has ever thought of filming a scene where Gorky tightens the nuts on a steam locomotive in the presence of Pirosmani.
Somewhere in the same years - probably in the 1880s, Pirosmani saved up money and built a big house, which has survived to this day.
Pirosmani's house in Mirzaani
First paintings
After the railway, Pirosmani sold milk for several years. At first he didn’t have his own store, but just a table. It is not known exactly where he traded - either on Vereisky Spusk (where the Radisson Hotel is now) or on the Maidan. Or maybe he changed places. This moment is important for his biography - it was then that he began to paint. The first of these were, apparently, the drawings on the wall of his shop. The memories of his companion Dimitar Alugishvili and his wife remain. One of the first portraits was precisely that of Alugishvili (“I was black and looked scary. The children were scared, I had to burn it.”). Alugishvili’s wife later recalled that he often painted naked women. It is interesting that this theme was later completely abandoned by Pirosmani and in his later paintings eroticism is completely absent.
Piromani's milk trade did not work out. Apparently, already at this time his snobbery and asociality were evident. He did not respect his work, he did not get along well with people, avoided groups, and already in those years he behaved so strangely that people were even afraid of him. Once, when invited to dinner, he replied: “Why are you inviting me if you don’t harbor some kind of cunning in your heart?”
Gradually, Pirosmani abandoned work and switched to a vagabond lifestyle.
Heyday
Pirosmani's best years were the decade from approximately 1895 to 1905. He quit his job and switched to the lifestyle of a free artist. Artists often live off patrons of the arts - in Tbilisi these were the dukhan workers. They fed musicians, singers and artists. It was for them that Pirosmani began to paint pictures. He drew quickly and sold them cheap. Best works they went for 30 rubles, and those that were simpler - for a glass of vodka.
One of his main customers was Bego Yaxiev, who kept a dukhan somewhere near the modern monument to Baratashvili. Pirosmanishvili lived in this dukhan for several years and subsequently painted the painting “Bego’s Campaign.” There is a version that the man in the hat and with a fish in his hands is Pirosmani himself.
"The Bego Company", 1907.
Pirosmani spent a lot of time with Titichev in the Eldorado dukhan in the Ortachal Gardens. It wasn't even a dukhan, but big park entertainment. Here Pirosmani created his best paintings- “Giraffe”, “Beauties of Ortachal”, “Janitor” and “Black Lion”. The latter was written for the son of a perfume maker. The main part of the paintings from that period later became part of Zdanevich’s collection, and is now in the Blue Gallery on Rustaveli.
At one time he lived in the "Racha" dukhan - but it is not known whether it was in the same "Racha" that is now located on Lermontov Street.
The earnings were enough for food and paint. Housing was provided by the dukhan worker. It was enough to occasionally travel to his native village of Mirzaani or to other cities. Many years later, several of his paintings were found in Gori and several more in Zestafoni. Has Pirosmani been to Sighnaghi? Controversial issue. No paintings of him seem to have been found there, although this is the largest populated area next to his village.
But there wasn’t enough for anything else.
He did not live anywhere for long, although he was offered good conditions. He moved from place to place, mainly in the area of the Tbilisi station - in the Didube, Chugureti and Kukia quarters. For some time he will live on Molokanskaya Street near the station (now Pirosmani Street).
Pirosmani wrote mainly with paints good quality- European or Russian. As a base he used walls, boards, tin sheets, and most often black tavern oilcloths. Therefore, the black background in Pirosmani’s paintings is not paint, but the own color of the oilcloth. For example, the famous “Black Lion” was painted with one white paint on black oilcloth. The strange choice of material led to the fact that Pirosmani’s paintings were well preserved - better than the paintings of those artists who painted on canvas.
The story of Margarita
There was a turning point in Pirosmani’s fate, and it happened in 1905. This moment is a beautiful and sad story known as "a million red roses." That year, the French actress Margarita de Sèvres came to Tbilisi on tour. She sang in entertainment venues in the Verei Gardens, although there are alternative versions: Ortachal Gardens and Mushtaid Park. Paustovsky describes in detail and artistically how Pirosmani fell in love with the actress - a widely known and, apparently, historical fact. The actress herself is the same historical character, posters of her performances and even a photograph of an unknown year have been preserved.
In addition, there was a portrait by Pirosmani and a photograph from 1969. And according to the classic version of events, Pirosmani incomprehensibly buys a million scarlet roses and gives them to Margarita one early morning. In 2010, journalists calculated that a million roses is the cost of 12 one-room apartments in Moscow. In Paustovsky’s detailed version, it is not roses that are mentioned, but all sorts of different flowers in general.
The broad gesture did little to help the artist: the actress left Tbilisi with someone else. It is believed that it was after the departure of the actress that Pirosmani painted her portrait. Some elements of this portrait suggest that it is partly a caricature and was painted in the form of revenge, although not all art historians agree with this.
This is how one of the most famous works Pirosmani. The story itself became known thanks to Paustovsky, and later the song “A Million Scarlet Roses” was written on this plot (to the tune of the Latvian song “Marinya gave life to the girl”), which Pugacheva sang for the first time in 1983, and the song immediately gained wild popularity. Few people knew about the origin of the plot at that time.
The story of Margarita last years became a kind of cultural brand and was included as a separate short story in the film “Love with an Accent” produced in 2011.
Degradation
There is an opinion that the story with Margarita ruined Pirosmani’s life. He switches to a completely vagabond lifestyle, spending the night in basements and huts, drinking vodka or a piece of bread for a glass. Very often during that period (1905 - 1910) he lives with Bego Yaksiev, but sometimes he disappears somewhere unknown. He was already known in Tbilisi, all the dukhans were hung with his paintings, but the artist himself practically turned into a beggar.
Confession
In 1912, the French artist Michel Le-Dantu came to Georgia at the invitation of the Zdanevich brothers. On a summer evening, “when the sunset was fading and the silhouettes of blue and purple mountains in the yellow sky were losing their color,” the three of them found themselves on the station square and went into the Varyag tavern. Inside they found many paintings by Pirosmani, which surprised them: Zdanevich recalled that Le Dantu compared Pirosmani with the Italian artist Giotto. At that time, there was a myth about Giotto, according to which he was a shepherd, tending sheep, and using coal in a cave he painted pictures, which were later noticed and appreciated. This comparison is rooted in cultural studies.
(The scene with the visit to “Varyag” was included in the film “Pirosmani”, where it is located almost at the very beginning)
Le Dantu acquired several paintings by the artist and took them to France, where their trace was lost. Kirill Zdanevich (1892 - 1969) became a researcher of Pirosmani’s work and the first collector. Subsequently, his collection was transferred to the Tbilisi Museum, moved to the Museum of Art, and it seems that it is now on display (temporarily) in the Blue Gallery on Rustaveli. Zdanevich ordered his portrait from Pirosmani, which has also been preserved:
As a result, Zdanevich will publish the book “Niko Pirosmanishvili”. On February 10, 1913, his brother Ilya published an article “The Nugget Artist” in the newspaper “Transcaucasian Speech”, where a list of Pirosmani’s works was given and it was indicated which one was in which dukhan. It was also stated there that Pirosmani lives at the address: Cellar Kardanakh, Molokanskaya Street, building 23. After this article, several more appeared.
The Zdanevichs organized the first small exhibition of Pirosmani’s works in their apartment in May 1916. Pirosmani was noticed by the “Society of Georgian Artists”, which was founded by Dmitry Shevardnadze - the same one who would be shot in 1937 for disagreeing with Beria regarding the Metekhi temple. Then, in May 1916, Pirosmani was invited to a meeting of the society, where he sat silently the entire time, looking at one point, and at the end he said:
So, brothers, you know what, we definitely have to build a big one wooden house in the heart of the city, so that everyone can be close, we will build a big house to gather in a place, we will buy a large samovar, we will drink tea and talk about art. But you don’t want that, you’re talking about something completely different.
This phrase characterizes not only Pirosmani himself, but also the tea drinking culture, which subsequently died out in Georgia.
After that meeting, Shevardnadze decided to take Pirosmani to a photographer, and so a photograph of the artist appeared, which for a long time was considered the only one.
The confession did not change anything in Pirosmani’s life. His escapism progressed - he did not want anyone's help. The "Society of Georgian Artists" managed to collect 200 rubles and transfer them to him through Lado Gudiashvili. Then they collected another 300, but they could no longer find Pirosmani.
In those later years - 1916, 1917 - Pirosmani lived mainly on Molokanskaya Street (now Pirosmani Street). His room has been preserved and is now part of the museum. This is the same room where Gudiashvili gave him 200 rubles.
Death
Pirosmani died in 1918, when he was just under 60 years old. The circumstances of this event are somewhat vague. There is a version that he was found dead of starvation in the basement of house No. 29 on Molokanskaya Street. However, Titian Tabidze managed to question the shoemaker Archil Maisuradze, who witnessed the last days of Pirosmani. According to him, Pirosmani last days I painted pictures in Abashidze's dukhan near the station. One day, going into his basement (house 29), Maisuradze saw that Pirosmani was lying on the floor and moaning. “I feel sick. I’ve been lying here for three days and can’t get up...” Maisuradze called a phaeton, and the artist was taken to the Aramyants hospital.
What happens next is unknown. Pirosmani disappeared, and his burial place is unknown. In the Pantheon on Mtatsminda you can see a board with the date of death, but it lies on its own, without a grave. There are no things left from Pirosmani - not even paints left. According to rumors, he died on the night of Palm Sunday 1918 is the only existing date.
Consequences
He died at the moment when his fame was just being born. A year later, in 1919, Galaktion Tabidze will mention him in one verse as someone famous.
Pirosmani died, and his paintings were still scattered throughout the dukhans of Tbilisi and the Zdanevich brothers continued to collect them, despite their difficult financial situation. If you believe Paustovsky, then back in 1922 he lived in a hotel, the walls of which were hung with Pirosmani’s “oilcloths”. Paustovsky wrote about his first meeting with these paintings:
I must have woken up very early. The harsh and dry sun lay slantingly on the opposite wall. I looked at this wall and jumped up. My heart began to beat hard and fast. From the wall he looked straight into my eyes - anxiously, questioningly and clearly suffering, but unable to talk about this suffering - some strange beast - tense as a string. It was a giraffe. A simple giraffe, which Pirosman apparently saw in the old Tiflis menagerie. I turned away. But I felt, I knew that the giraffe was looking at me intently and knew everything that was going on in my soul. The whole house was deathly quiet. Everyone was still sleeping. I took my eyes off the giraffe, and it immediately seemed to me that he had come out of a simple wooden frame, was standing next to me and was waiting for me to say something very simple and important that should disenchant him, revive him and free him from many years of attachment to this dry , dusty oilcloth.
(The paragraph is very strange - the famous “Giraffe” was created and kept in the Eldorado pleasure garden in Ortachala, where Paustovsky could hardly spend the night.)
In 1960, the Pirosmani Museum opened in the village of Mirzaani and at the same time its branch in Tbilisi - the Pirosmani Museum on Molokanskaya Street, in the house where he died.
The year of his glory was 1969. This year, the Pirosmani exhibition was opened at the Louvre - and it was personally opened by the French Minister of Culture. They write that the same Margarita came to that exhibition, and they even managed to photograph her for history.
In the same year, the film studio "Georgia-Film" shot the film "Niko Pirosmani". The film turned out well, although somewhat meditative. And the actor is not very similar to Pirosmani, especially in his youth.
After that there were many more exhibitions in all countries of the world, including Japan. Numerous posters of these exhibitions can now be seen in the Pirosmani Museum in Mirzaani.
At the end of the 19th century, Europe was experiencing a scientific and technological revolution and, at the same time, a rejection of technological progress was developing. An ancient myth from ancient times has come to life that in the past people lived in natural simplicity and were happy. Europe became acquainted with the culture of Asia and Africa and suddenly decided that this primitive creativity was ideal natural simplicity. In 1892, the French artist Gauguin left Paris and escaped from civilization in Tahiti to live in nature, among simplicity and free love. In 1893, France drew attention to the artist Henri Rousseau, who also called for learning only from nature.
Everything is clear here - Paris was the center of civilization and the weariness of it began there. But in those same years - around 1894 - Pirosmani began to paint. It is difficult to imagine that he was tired of civilization, or that he closely followed the cultural life of Paris. Pirosmani, in principle, was not an enemy of civilization (and his customers, the perfumers, even more so). He could well have gone to the mountains and lived by agriculture - like the poet Vazha Pshavela - but he fundamentally did not want to be a peasant and with all his behavior made it clear that he was a city man. He did not learn to draw, but at the same time he wanted to draw - and he painted. His painting did not have an ideological message, like Gauguin and Rousseau. It turns out that he did not copy Gauguin, but simply painted - and it turned out like Gauguin’s. His genre was not borrowed from someone, but was created by itself, naturally. Thus, he became not a follower of primitivism, but its founder, and the birth of a new genre in such a remote corner as Georgia is strange and almost incredible.
Against his will, Pirosmani seemed to prove the correctness of the logic of the primitivists - they believed that true art is born outside of civilization, and so it was born in Transcaucasia. Maybe this is why Pirosmani became so popular among artists of the 20th century.