Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov (1900-1973) - Russian Soviet artist; painter, graphic artist, theater artist, illustrator. Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1971).
Born on March 22 (April 4), 1900 (old style) in the family of a priest in Vyatka (now Kirov region). His father served in the Vyatka Cathedral. A distant relative of the artists A. M. Vasnetsov and V. M. Vasnetsov and the folklorist A. M. Vasnetsov. From his youth, and throughout his life, he was friendly with the artists Evgeny Charushin, who were born in Vyatka and later lived in St. Petersburg.
In 1919 he graduated from the Second Level Unified School (formerly the Vyatka First Men's Gymnasium).
In 1921 he moved to Petrograd. He entered the painting department of Vkhutein, then PGSKHUM, where he studied for five years, with teachers A.E. Karev, A.I. Savinov. Vasnetsov wanted to be a painter, and sought to acquire all the skills necessary to work in painting. From the experience of his teachers, Vasnetsov did not adopt anything that would influence him as a painter - with the exception of the influence of M. V. Matyushin, with whom he did not directly study, but was familiar with him through his artist friends N. I. Kostrov , V. I. Kurdova, O. P. Vaulina. Through them, he gained an understanding of Matyushin’s theory and became acquainted with the “organic” trend in Russian art, which was closest to his natural talent.
In 1926, at VKHUTEIN, the course in which the artist studied was graduated without defending a diploma. In 1926-27 For some time he taught fine arts at Leningrad school No. 33.
In 1926-1927 together with the artist V.I. Kurdov, he continued his studies in painting at GINKHUK under K.S. Malevich. He was accepted into the Department of Painting Culture, headed by Malevich. He studied the plasticity of cubism, the properties of various pictorial textures, and created “material selections” - “counter-reliefs”. The artist spoke about the time of his work at GINKHUK: “All the time the eye was developing, form, construction. I liked to achieve materiality, texture of objects, color. See the color! Vasnetsov’s work and training with K. S. Malevich at GINKHUK lasted about two years; During this time, the artist studied the meaning of pictorial textures, the role of contrast in the construction of form, and the laws of plastic space.
Paintings made by Vasnetsov during this period: counter-relief “Still Life with a Chessboard”, 1926-1927; “Cubist composition”, 1926-28, “Composition with a trumpet” 1926-1928; "Still life. In Malevich's workshop" 1927-1928; “Composition with a violin” 1929, and others.
In 1928, the art editor of the Detgiz publishing house, V.V. Lebedev, invited Vasnetsov to work on a children's book. The first books illustrated by Vasnetsov were “Karabash” (1929) and “Swamp” by V. V. Bianchi (1930)
Vasnetsov’s design was used repeatedly in mass editions of many books for children - “Confusion” (1934) and “The Stolen Sun” (1958) by K. I. Chukovsky, “Three Bears” by L. N. Tolstoy (1935), “Teremok” (1941) and “Cat's House” (1947) by S. Ya. Marshak, “English folk songs” translated by S. Ya. Marshak (1945), “Cat, Rooster and Fox. Russian fairy tale" (1947) and many others. Illustrated “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by P. P. Ershov, books for children by D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak, A. A. Prokofiev and other publications. Vasnetsov's children's books have become classics of Soviet book art.
In the summer of 1931, together with his Vyatka relative, artist N.I. Kostrov, he made a creative trip to the White Sea, to the village of Soroki. Created a series of paintings and graphic works “Karelia”.
In 1932 he became a member of the Leningrad branch of the Union of Soviet Artists.
In 1934 he married the artist Galina Mikhailovna Pinaeva, and in 1937 and 1939 his two daughters, Elizaveta and Natalya, were born.
In 1932, he entered graduate school at the painting department of the All-Russian Academy of Arts, where he studied for three years. In the thirties, Vasnetsov's painting achieved high skill and acquired an original, unique character, not similar to the work of artists close to him. His painting of this time is compared with the works of V. M. Ermolaeva and P. I. Sokolov - in the strength and quality of painting, in the organic element of color: “Vasnetsov preserved and increased the achievements of the original national pictorial culture.”
In 1932-1935. Vasnetsov painted the canvases “Still Life with a Hat and a Bottle”, “Miracle Yudo Fish Whale” and other works. In some of these works - “Lady with a Mouse”, “Church Warden” - an image of merchant-philistine Russia, well known to the artist, appears, comparable to the images of merchants’ women in A. Ostrovsky and B. Kustodiev. Some researchers (E. D. Kuznetsov, E. F. Kovtun) consider these works to be the peak achievements in the artist’s work
In 1936, he designed costumes and sets for the play based on M. Gorky’s play “The Bourgeois” for the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Leningrad. In 1938-40. worked in the experimental lithographic workshop at the Leningrad Union of Artists. Author of greeting cards (1941-1945).
Vasnetsov's pre- and post-war style in book graphics was created under the pressure of ideological circumstances.
“Having survived the persistent pressure of socialist realism, Vasnetsov replaced it with a style associated with Russian folk art, or so it was believed, although there was a lot of market sample in it. Some stylization turned out to be acceptable. Understandable and not related to formalism, it was not perceived conventionally .. Folk, market embroidery. All this, together with a real landscape, gradually freed him from the nickname of a formalist.
In 1941 he was a member of the group of artists and poets “Combat Pencil”. At the end of 1941 he was evacuated to Perm (Molotov). In 1943 he moved from Perm to Zagorsk. He worked as the chief artist of the Toy Research Institute. Created a series of landscapes of Zagorsk. At the end of 1945 he returned to Leningrad.
In 1946 he received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
In the summer of 1946 he created a number of landscapes of Sosnovo, in 1947-1948. - Melnichny Ruchey, in 1949-1950. Siverskaya, in 1955 - Mereva (near Luga), in 1952 he painted a number of Crimean landscapes, in 1953-54. paints Estonian landscapes. Since 1959, he travels annually to his dacha in Roshchino and writes views of the surrounding area.
From 1961 until the end of his life he lived in house No. 16 on Pesochnaya Embankment in St. Petersburg.
In 1966 he received the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR.
In 1971, Vasnetsov was awarded the USSR State Prize for two collections of Russian folk tales, songs, and riddles, Ladushki and Rainbow-Duga. In the same year, the cartoon “Terem-Teremok” was filmed based on his drawings.
Paintings from the 1960s and 70s. - mainly landscapes and still lifes (“Still life with willow”, “Blossoming meadow”, “Roshchino. Cinema “Smena”). Throughout his life, Vasnetsov worked in painting, but due to accusations of formalism, he did not exhibit his works. They were presented at exhibitions only after his death.
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND YOUTH AFFAIRS OF THE RF
PETROZAVODSK PEDAGOGICAL COLLEGE
Preschool department
Abstract
Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov
Completed:
Irina Vladimirovna Bogomolova
Alena Nikolaevna Gurkova
Anna Valerievna Skrynnik
Natalya Vladimirovna Popova
students of group 431
Checked:
Dranevich L.V.
PPC teacher
Petrozavodsk 2005
CHAPTER 1 Biography of Yu.A. Vasnetsova……………………………………..3-5
CHAPTER 2 Features of the image of Vasnetsov’s illustrations……………6-7
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………8
APPENDIX………………………………………………………………9-12
LIST OF REFERENCES……………………………13
CHAPTER 1 Biography of Yu.A. Vasnetsova
Yu.A. Vasnetsov was born (1900 - 1973) in Vyatka, in the family of a Vyatka priest, and was distantly related to Victor and Apollinary Vasnetsov. Mother knitted, embroidered, and wove lace. The combination of cream, marsh greens, and pale blue in lacework could serve as a lesson to the young painter. Father's influence is different: character - perseverance, to go to the end in any matter, to be devoted, true to the word. Sisters - from them kindness, sacrifice, love. All roads are for Yurochka. But he also gave gifts and loved passionately. Kolya Kostrov and Zhenya Charushin are artist-friends for life in Vyatka and Leningrad. With Arkady Rylov, an academician (a student of Kuindzhi), Yuri wrote sketches as a boy, and then studied in his workshop at the Academy.
Obsessed with the desire to become an artist, he came to Petrograd in 1921 and entered the painting department of the State Art Museum (later VKHUTEMAS), studying with A.E. Kareeva, M.V. Matyushkina, K.S. Malevich and N.A. Tyrsa; He successfully completed his studies in 1926. The most interesting thing about Matyushin is color. You paint a Christmas tree in the sunset sky, so you need to find a beautiful third color and place it between the object and the environment so that all three colors sparkle. And although Yuri studied materiality, objectivity, playing with form, with pictorial texture in graduate school from Malevich, he never forgot Matyushin’s color-cohesion. In the best children's illustrations and paintings, of course, he used the principles of the Matyushin school.
In search of income, the young artist began to collaborate with the department of children's and youth literature of the State Publishing House, where, under the artistic direction of V.V. Lebedev, he happily found himself in the interpretation of themes and images of Russian folklore - fairy tales and mainly nursery rhymes, in which his natural cravings were best satisfied to humor, grotesque and good irony.
In the 1930s He became famous for his illustrations for the books “Swamp”, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” (see appendix) by P. P. Ershov, “Fifty Little Pigs”, “The Stolen Sun” by K. I. Chukovsky, “Three Bears” by L. I. Tolstoy. At the same time, he made excellent - elegant and fascinating - lithographic prints for children, based on the same plot motifs.
During the war years, spent first in Molotov (Perm), then in Zagorsk (Sergiev Posad), where he was the chief artist of the Institute of Toys, Vasnetsov performed poetic illustrations for “English folk songs” by S. Ya. Marshak (1943), and then for his book "Cat's House" (1947). New success was brought to him by illustrations for the folklore collections “The Miracle Ring” (1947) and “Fables in Faces” (1948). Vasnetsov worked unusually intensively, many times varying the themes and images dear to him. The well-known collections “Ladushki” (1964) and “Rainbow-Arc” 1969 (see appendix) became a unique result of his many years of activity. In Vasnetsov’s bright, entertaining and witty drawings, Russian folklore found perhaps the most organic embodiment; more than one generation of young readers grew up on them, and during his lifetime he himself was recognized as a classic in the field of children’s books.
Meanwhile, book graphics constituted only one side of his work. The main goal of Vasnetsov’s life was always painting, and he pursued this goal with fanatical tenacity: he worked independently, studied under the guidance of K. S. Malevich in Ginkhuk, and studied graduate school at the All-Russian Academy of Arts.
In 1932-34. he finally created several works (“Lady with a Mouse”, “Still Life with a Chessboard” (see appendix), etc.), in which he showed himself to be a very great master who successfully combined the refined pictorial culture of his time with the tradition of folk art "market" art, which he appreciated and loved. But this late self-discovery coincided with the campaign against formalism that began then. Fearing ideological persecution (which had already affected his book graphics), Vasnetsov made painting a secret activity and showed it only to close people.
CHAPTER 2 Features of the image of Vasnetsov’s illustrations
Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov created a bright, unique miter of fairy-tale images, close and understandable to every child.
The pensive forest region where the artist was born and raised, his childhood impressions of the “Whistlers” toy fair with elegant Dymkovo lady dolls, brightly painted roosters, and horses had a noticeable influence on his work. Many characters in Yu.A.’s drawings Vasnetsov are similar to images born of folk fantasy. For example, the horses in the illustrations for the nursery rhymes “Ivanushka” and “The Horse” are very similar to the Dymkovo horse.
The closer you get to know Vasnetsov’s works, the more you admire the richness of his creative imagination: the artist painted so many animals and they are all very different. Everyone has their own character, their own manner of behavior, their own style of clothing. In the illustration for the nursery rhyme “Mice,” Yuri Alekseevich depicted a round dance of nineteen little mice: the mouse girls have bright skirts decorated with stripes, and the boys have colorful shirts with buttons.
The artist introduced a lot of fun inventions and games into the illustrations for the nursery rhyme “Kitsonka”. The fairy mill is very decorative. It is decorated with arcs, dots, wavy and broken lines. The wings of the mill are woven from old light shingles. There lives a cute little mouse at the mill. He climbed onto the windowsill and looks out the window with interest. Around the mill there are amazing magical flowers that are so beautifully illuminated by the sun. Kisonka put the gingerbread cookies in a large wicker basket. The gingerbread cookies are white, with beautiful patterns and very tasty! Despite the fact that the nursery rhyme says nothing about who Kisonka met on the way, the artist himself came up with and depicted this meeting.
Yu.A. bears a very large burden in his works. Vasnetsova color. He often exudes joy. And in the illustrations for the nursery rhymes “Jump-Jump” and “Horse”, the bright yellow background not only conveys the picture of a warm sunny day, but also enhances the perception of the images created by the artist. The dark brown figures of baby squirrels are clearly visible against the yellow background, walking importantly along the bridge. Thanks to the light background, we see their fluffy fur and admire the tufts on their ears.
Although in the drawings of Yu.A. Vasnetsov's birds and animals look like toys, but at the same time they are very original and expressive. Fairy-tale images born of the artist’s imagination are close and understandable to children, because he found an artistic form that most accurately corresponds to the characteristics of children’s perception.
A born artist appears to the world with his own language and theme. When Yuri Vasnetsov was asked what his favorite colors were, he answered unexpectedly: “I love black paint, it helps with contrast. Ocher is like gold. I like English red because of the materiality of the color.” That’s right, these are colors that in ancient Russian icons denote divine energy. The concept of the power and materiality of the energy flow entered the artist’s subconscious in the temple while contemplating icons: his father served in the Vyatka Cathedral. Yuri Vasnetsov did not like to theorize, but taking painting seriously and thoughtfully, he intuitively and experimentally moved towards the concept of “color tone” (tone - tension), achieving lighting effects not plein airistically or impressionistically, but making the very flesh of the painting, texture, material glow - colored pencil, watercolor, gouache, oil. Its color spot is consistent in light intensity with its neighbors and a dull, velvety, restrained, open, bright, contrasting, different, but always harmonious coloring is born.
CONCLUSION.
Yu.A. Vasnetsov is a wonderful artist and storyteller. Kindness, calmness, and humor are characteristic of his work. His drawings are always a holiday for young and old. This is a master who is closely and organically connected with the traditions of Russian folk art and at the same time enriched with the experience of modern visual culture. Vasnetsov’s originality lies in the fact that the themes of his paintings and drawings are deeply rooted in national folklore.
In his drawings for children, Yu.A. Vasnetsov talentedly combined fairy tales and reality. And no matter what happens in these illustrations, it is always something good and bright that neither children nor adults want to part with. In Vasnetsov’s illustrations, as in the soul of a child, there lives a simple-minded perception of the world, brightness and spontaneity, so for children they seem to be taken for granted, their own, familiar. For an adult, these drawings are a long-forgotten happiness to immerse yourself in a joyful, naive, benevolent world, where the round-eyed bunny dances so selflessly, the lights in the huts burn so comfortably, the magpie manages homely, where the mice are not afraid of the cat, and the cat is not going to eat them, where such a round and elegant sun, such a blue sky, clouds like fluffy pancakes.
In his landscapes and still lifes, emphatically unpretentious in their motives and extremely sophisticated in their pictorial form, he achieved impressive results, uniquely reviving the traditions of Russian primitivism. But these works were practically unknown to anyone. Only a few years after the artist’s death, his paintings were shown to viewers at an exhibition at the State Russian Museum (1979), and it became clear that Vasnetsov was not only an excellent book graphic artist, but also one of the outstanding Russian painters of the 20th century. Everything in Vasnetsov’s illustrations and paintings is chosen and taken from life. Life is a fairy tale. When Vasnetsov was asked about the most expensive gift he received, he answered: “Life, the life given to me.” Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov died in 1973 in Leningrad.
APPLICATION:
Illustration for the fairy tale by P. P. Ershov "The Little Humpbacked Horse". 1935
Illustration for the book "Rainbow-arc. Russian folk songs, nursery rhymes, jokes." 1969
Still life with a chessboard. 1926-28. Oil
Lady with a mouse. 1932-34. Oil
Teremok. 1947. F., m
Illustration for "The Stolen Sun" by K. Chukovsky. 1958
Illustration for "Rainbow Arc", a collection of Russian folk songs, nursery rhymes, and jokes. 1969
LIST OF REFERENCES USED:
1. Doronova T.N. for preschoolers about children's book artists M.: Prosveshchenie, 1991. – 126 p.
2. Kurochkina N.A. Children about book graphics. St. Petersburg: Aktsident, 1997. – 190 p.
Paintings made by Vasnetsov during this period: counter-relief “Still Life with a Chessboard”, 1926-1927; “Cubist composition”, 1926-28, “Composition with a trumpet” 1926-1928; "Still life. In Malevich's workshop" 1927-1928; “Composition with a violin” 1929, and others.
In 1928, the art editor of the Detgiz publishing house attracted Vasnetsov to work on a children's book. The first books illustrated by Vasnetsov were “Karabash” (1929) and “Swamp” by V. V. Bianchi (1930).
Vasnetsov’s design was used repeatedly in mass editions of many books for children - “Confusion” (1934) and “The Stolen Sun” (1958) by K. I. Chukovsky, “Three Bears” by L. N. Tolstoy (1935), “Teremok” (1941) and “Cat's House” (1947) by S. Ya. Marshak, “English folk songs” translated by S. Ya. Marshak (1945), “Cat, Rooster and Fox. Russian fairy tale" (1947) and many others. Illustrated “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by P. P. Ershov, books for children by D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak, A. A. Prokofiev and other publications. Vasnetsov's children's books have become classics of Soviet book art.
In the summer of 1931, together with his Vyatka relative, artist N.I. Kostrov, he made a creative trip to the White Sea, to the village of Soroki. Created a series of paintings and graphic works “Karelia”.
In 1932 he became a member of the Leningrad branch of the Union of Soviet Artists.
In 1934 he married the artist Galina Mikhailovna Pinaeva, and in 1937 and 1939 his two daughters, Elizaveta and Natalya, were born.
In 1932, he entered graduate school at the painting department of the All-Russian Academy of Arts, where he studied for three years. In the thirties, Vasnetsov's painting achieved high skill and acquired an original, unique character, not similar to the work of artists close to him.
In 1932-1935. Vasnetsov painted the canvases “Still Life with a Hat and a Bottle”, “Miracle Yudo Fish Whale” and other works. In some of these works - “Lady with a Mouse”, “Church Warden” - the image of merchant-philistine Russia, well known to the artist, appears. Some researchers (E. D. Kuznetsov, E. F. Kovtun) consider these works to be the peak achievements in the artist’s work.
In 1936, he designed costumes and sets for the play based on M. Gorky’s play “The Bourgeois” for the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Leningrad. In 1938-40. worked in the experimental lithographic workshop at the Leningrad Union of Artists. Author of greeting cards (1941-1945).
In 1941 he was a member of the group of artists and poets “Combat Pencil”. At the end of 1941 he was evacuated to Perm (Molotov). In 1943 he moved from Perm to Zagorsk. He worked as the chief artist of the Toy Research Institute. Created a series of landscapes of Zagorsk. At the end of 1945 he returned to Leningrad.
In 1946 he received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
In the summer of 1946 he created a number of landscapes of Sosnovo, in 1947-1948. - Melnichny Ruchey, in 1949-1950. Siverskaya, in 1955 - Mereva (near Luga), in 1952 he painted a number of Crimean landscapes, in 1953-54. paints Estonian landscapes. Since 1959, he travels annually to his dacha in Roshchino and writes views of the surrounding area.
In 1966 he received the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR.
In 1971, Vasnetsov was awarded the USSR State Prize for two collections of Russian folk tales, songs, and riddles, Ladushki and Rainbow-Duga. In the same year, the cartoon “Terem-Teremok” was filmed based on his drawings.
Paintings from the 1960s and 70s. - mainly landscapes and still lifes (“Still life with willow”, “Blossoming meadow”, “Roshchino. Cinema “Smena”). Throughout his life, Vasnetsov worked in painting, but due to accusations of formalism, he did not exhibit his works. They were presented at exhibitions only after his death.
Website dedicated to the work of Vasnetsov Yu. A.
“I really like to remember my childhood. When I write, draw, I live everything that I remember and saw in childhood.” Yuri Vasnetsov
Outstanding Russian artist: painter, graphic artist, set designer, children's illustrator, master of color lithography. In 1921-1926. Studied at GSHM (VKHUTEMAS). He was a student of V.V. Lebedev and K.S. Malevich, like the first, he applied his gift of an ironic, inventive artist to the art of children's books. Like the second, he showed a penchant for the avant-garde and experimentation in his work. Y. Vasnetsov is distinguished by his unique and easily recognizable style, familiar to several generations from children’s books: “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” “The Three Bears,” “Ladushki,” “Cat’s House,” “Rainbow-Arc,” etc.
Like many book illustrators from the pre-offset era, Vasnetsov was fluent in the lithography technique. Thanks to this, he left behind not only books, original drawings and paintings, but also beautiful color lithographic prints.
Books with illustrations by the artist
This artist has proven his skill by creating paintings, designing performances in theaters, and as a graphic artist. But still, it was the illustrations for Yuri Vasnetsov’s fairy tales that gained special love and recognition from young readers. This became the main business of his life. We, former children, readers of books, remember this now, in which looking at the illustrations created by this artist was no less exciting than sorting out our first texts back then.
What do we know about the biography of Yuri Vasnetsov?
The artist's youth
The future artist was born in 1900 in the Russian town of Vyatki, in the family of a priest who served in the local cathedral. Distant family ties connected this family with other Vasnetsovs - artists Victor and Apollinaris, as well as Alexander Vasnetsov, a famous folklorist and collector of folk songs. Of course, such a family legacy could not but affect the artist’s future work.
Yuri Vasnetsov spent his entire childhood in Vyatka. A large number of handicraft workshops and artels operated in this provincial town. The crafts were very different - furniture, chests, toys. And Yuri’s mother herself was known in the area as an excellent embroiderer and lacemaker. Childhood impressions are the most vivid and they influence the formation of our ideas about the world, the memories that remain with us until the end of our days. Towels with embroidered roosters, boxes and chests painted in the Russian folk spirit, bright wooden and clay toys - rams, bears, horses, dolls... All these images made their way onto the pages of books with Vasnetsov’s famous “fairy-tale” illustrations for a reason.
Young Yuri really wanted to become an artist - so in 1921 he entered the Petrograd State Free Art Workshops (abbreviated as GSAM) in the painting department. Among Vasnetsov's teachers are Osip Braz, Alexander Savinov and even Russian avant-garde artists Kazimir Malevich and Mikhail Matyushin.
Working in a publishing house
After training, the artist began to collaborate with the famous Detgiz, where, under the supervision of the painter and, by all accounts, an outstanding poster master, Vladimir Lebedev, he created his first masterpieces. Illustrations for the children's books “Swamp” and “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” as they say now, “made his name.” Following them, “Three Bears” by Leo Tolstoy, “Fables in the Faces”, “Ladushki”, “Rainbow-Arc”, designed by Yuri Vasnetsov, were published. At the same time, he created a series of paintings created using the so-called “flat printing technique” - children's lithographic prints on traditional folklore themes.
After a trip to the North in 1931, the artist Yuri Vasnetsov finally became firmly established in his chosen path. Already possessing all the skills of a master painter, he approached the study of folk origins even more carefully.
The phenomenon of painting by Yuri Vasnetsov
Having traveled to the Russian northern regions, the artist began to master new subtleties of craftsmanship. Then they started talking about the “phenomenon of Vasnetsov’s painting.” Here, for example, is one of the still lifes, with a large fish depicted on it: on an oblong, red tray lies a large fish with silver scales. The painting is stylistically executed in such a way that it is unclear whether it is a heraldic sign, or just a rug from the wall of a peasant hut. Red, black and silver-gray tones are contrasted, but at the same time balance each other in the overall artistic plane of the still life.
Highly appreciating both folk “bazaar” art and the canons of refined painting, by 1934 Yuri Vasnetsov created such paintings as “Lady with a Mouse”, “Still Life with a Hat and a Bottle”, etc. However, fearing the persecution that affected the creative workers of that time In connection with the campaign against formalism that had begun, Vasnetsov painted what is called “on the table,” making this part of his painting a secret and showing the paintings only to close people.
Only after his death at exhibitions did the works of Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov fully gain their fans. Then it became clear how great this man’s gift was - being an outstanding “children’s” artist, he was also a remarkable master of painting of the 20th century.
Illustration images
It is no coincidence that the artist later wrote that he always lived by what he remembered from childhood.
And so, almost in the same way as Vyatka toys, the artist “dresses” his heroes in an elegant and festive manner. Cats and goats, mothers of numerous families, wear skirts decorated with frills and lace in his illustrations. That's how they manage things. But the Bunny, offended by the Fox, the artist, probably out of compassion, put on a warm blouse for him. Bears and wolves, according to a logic completely understandable to all children, were most often not supposed to have clothes, because they were dangerous and predatory enemies to all other animals.
And here is an unusually kind cat:
The cat bought a pie
The cat went to the street,
The cat bought a bun.
Do you have it yourself?
Or demolish Borenka?
I'll bite myself
Yes, I’ll demolish Borenka too.
In winter, the cat wears good-quality painted felt boots, a pink bow is tied around his neck, and the woman next to the walking cat noisily rejoices at his appearance, and the dog is in no hurry to bark. And even further away there are houses with snow-covered roofs, with burning windows, and smoke from the chimneys in a column straight into the sky - which means the weather is calm, windless, and clear.
How stupid it is to live in enmity! Here are two crows sitting, turned away from each other, ruffled, looking in different directions:
On the edge, on the barn
Two crows are sitting
Both look apart:
Because of a dead bug
We quarreled.
And the landscape surrounding these stingy crows is not at all the same as in the other pictures. He is much more stingy with colors and there is clearly a lack of joy in him.
In the illustrations of Yuri Vasnetsov, a special world comes to life - cozy, kind, calm. And incredibly colorful. In such a world, any child, and maybe sometimes an adult, will want to linger longer, peering at its heroes, being charged with their spiritual generosity, living with them their albeit “gingerbread”, but such touching stories. At the same time, the animals drawn by Vasnetsov are not cloying, but mysterious. Some critics even believed that the artist painted “scary” pictures, scaring children.
And this is also very Russian: if you are scared, then you will tremble, if you are sad, then you will cry, and if you are happy, then it will certainly be a feast for the whole world.
Stylistics and color
The emotionality of Vasnetsov’s drawings is dictated primarily by color, which plays a decisive role in the perception of images. It is both decorative, which is generally characteristic of folk art, and poetic, which, in turn, distinguishes all the artist’s work.
Vasnetsov's illustrations are a color alphabet for a child. Everything is simple, like in a fairy tale: the wolf is gray, the bunny is white, the fox is red, etc. The artist actively uses the principle of what art critics call this technique, the “magic lantern.” The action takes place on a certain, necessarily festive, bright background color (red, yellow, blue, etc.). This environment in which the characters communicate is compositional in itself, and at the same time it is that new bright spot that is so necessary for children who turn the next page in anticipation of new impressions.
In conclusion
A book, especially in children's hands, is a cheap and perishable commodity. Who among us in childhood did not have “The Boat Sails and Sails”, illustrated by Konashevich? Or the famous "Baggage" with drawings by Lebedev? And Vasnetsov’s “Rainbow Arc” with wonderful animals is completely impossible to forget. But who has “survived” these books to this day? Probably only a very few. But these were well-made, beautifully designed, executed in a convenient large format for children's books. And those who still have them know perfectly well how today’s children perceive them. Yes, just like adults did many years ago - with joy and admiration.
Several generations of young readers have already grown up on Vasnetsov’s bright, witty and entertaining illustrations, and the artist himself was called a classic of children’s book illustrations during his lifetime.