In the name Nadia Rusheva a minor planet and a pass in the Caucasus are named, and its drawings are stored in many Russian museums. Nadya drew illustrations for Pushkin and Bulgakov and Tolstoy, Greek myths and Russian fairy tales. Subtle, without drafts, in an adult way. “I see them in advance... They appear on paper like watermarks, and all I have to do is outline them with something,” she explained young artist.
Nadya was a classic Soviet prodigy - she was praised for extraordinary abilities, intuition, a sense of history, psychologism and fragile purity. The girl’s exhibitions were held in Japan, Germany, the USA, India, Mongolia, Poland and other countries - more than 160 exhibitions in total. But despite her popularity during her lifetime, the artist had no snobbery, no star fever, no love of publicity.
"I work for future people"
“People need this kind of art like they need a throat fresh air. The brilliant girl had an amazing gift of penetration into the field human spirit...,” the academician said about Nadya.
Nadya (her real name is Naidan) was born in Ulaanbaatar in 1952. Almost immediately after the girl’s birth, her parents—the artist Nikolai Rushev and the first Tuvan ballerina Natalya Azhikmaa-Rusheva—moved to Moscow.
Nadya began drawing at the age of five - on her own, no one taught her.
In addition, the parents did not teach the girl to read or write until she was seven years old - they believed that the child should not be rushed. But the family always read a lot. Thus, the artist’s father recalled how in one evening, while he was reading “The Tale of Tsar Saltan Pushkin” to his daughter, she drew 36 illustrations.
Later, Nadya, not like a child, will consciously say: “I work for future people... In my images I reflect what I imagine while reading... It seems to me that to the young artist you need to paint the way the impressionists did - based on impressions.”
"The Little Princes" and other books
In May 1964, the first exhibition of Nadya’s drawings was held - the exhibition of the Moscow fifth-grader was organized by the magazine “Youth”. The drawings were published for the first time that same year. And over the next five years, 15 exhibitions by Rushina were shown in Moscow, Warsaw, Leningrad, Poland, as well as in Czechoslovakia, Romania and India.
Nadya, meanwhile, dreamed of becoming a cartoonist and enrolling in VGIK or the Printing Institute.
“Nadya read the novel for the first time in the summer of 1965, when she was 13 years old, and gave all her sympathy and empathy to Natasha and Petya Rostov and their loved ones. Now, three years later, her folders contained over 400 drawings and compositions. Among them are four full-scale sketches memorable places on the Borodino field, where we were last fall. Her impressions of the Hall are indelible Patriotic War 1812 in Historical Museum on Red Square, from the “Gallery of 1812” in, from the Borodino Panorama and the Kutuzov Izba in Fili, from the “War and Peace” hall - in the Museum on Kropotkinskaya Street. Recently she saw three episodes of four of the grandiose wide-screen film (she didn’t like everything) and the two-part color Italian-American film “War and Peace” (she was under the spell of the actors: Henry Fonda, Mel Ferer). Yesterday at Bolshoi Theater I was at the opera. And now March-April - “War and Peace” in 9th grade" ( from the diaries of Nikolai Rushev).
“Nadyusha suddenly transformed and matured!.. She put aside all other dreams and series of drawings, bombarded me with requests to get everything she could, and somehow immediately and enthusiastically began to create her swan song “The Master and Margarita.” ...Her plan seemed grandiose to me, and I doubted that she could fulfill it. It seemed to me too much for her and premature. After all, she was 15 years old at that time... And although Nadya wrote in letters to friends that “there was absolutely no time to draw”... she worked hard and with inspiration. The four-layer nature of the novel also suggested four graphic techniques: pen on colored backgrounds, watercolor fills, felt-tip pen, pastel and monotype. The integrity of the solution was preserved. She prepared for this work carefully. I also read the collection of Mikhail Bulgakov that I brought from the library" ( from the diaries of Nikolai Rushev).
After the girl’s death, Bulgakov’s widow, Elena Sergeevna, invited her parents to visit and carefully looked at Nadya’s drawings for “The Master and Margarita.”
“Only a week ago I found out that Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova is “Margarita,” and here we are with her, and the drawings are on the table. “Both we and Chudakova, who was present there, all understood that now had come a decisive moment in the fate of Nadya’s drawings,” Nadya’s father recalled. — By the will of fate, the first was a large vertical portrait, a drawing with a felt-tip pen on pink paper, the image of Margarita during her first meeting with the master: “You don’t like yellow flowers?. A minute of secret silence... Everyone looks at her and is surprised to see that the clairvoyant Nadya intuitively conveyed a complete resemblance to her. Slowly and quietly Elena Sergeevna said: “This is amazing!”
“From her first drawings, attention was drawn to her: old man Gessen, a former cadet publicist, ordered her illustrations for his Pushkin studies, and there was a powerful symbol in the fact that the books of a ninety-year-old writer were illustrated by a twelve-year-old girl. The mischief and romanticism of her works were surprising for the time. And at the same time she was a quiet, bespectacled person - the more striking was the triumph of her gift: short, thin, dark-haired, not attracting any attention in the crowd of classmates. It’s a different matter if you look closely... ...We will never love anyone the way we loved Nadya Rusheva,” the writer later wrote in one of his articles.
Malchish-Kibalchish and space
“January 31 is Nadya Rusheva’s birthday. I kept this in mind during the flight. And he marked this day on the calendar with the letter “M” - Malchish. And now the time has come for a communication session with the earth. I showed “The Boy” and spoke in a few words about Nadya. This report from the orbital station was published on the Vremya program, which was watched by the whole country. We saw “The Boy” abroad too. They said that this was the first space vernissage in history,” the cosmonaut recalled in his book “From a Splinter to Space.” “And it was important to me that we, the cosmonauts, stirred up the memory of a talented person in people.”
During the whole month of flight they (the drawing and the photograph) were our companions.
I consider it a great success that I came up with the idea of taking Nadya Rusheva’s drawing on the flight. Widely open eyes The boy has humanity and fragility, but he also has strength and resilience. He's alive. Drawing not only helped us work in space, it lived next to us. Malchish-Kibalchish shared the flight altitude with us, he also shared the difficulties. The landing was difficult. While we were rushing around the virgin soil, unfastening the parachute, the drawing became wrinkled.”
Nadya Rusheva School Memorial Museum
On March 5, 1969, Nadya returned from a trip to Leningrad, overflowing with impressions and plans. She dreamed of drawing Lermontov, Nekrasov, Blok, Yesenin, Green and Shakespeare.
“On the morning of March 6, while putting on her school uniform, Nadenka suddenly lost consciousness... Doctors gave her injections for 5 hours and took her to the hospital... There, without regaining consciousness, she died from a cerebral hemorrhage...” (from the diaries of Nikolai Rushev) .
The artist was diagnosed with a congenital defect of a cerebral vessel - doctors could not help her. Nadya Rusheva passed away at the age of 17, remaining forever in the 60s.
Nadya started drawing at the age of three years- despite the fact that her father was an artist, no one taught her how to draw. One day Nikolai Konstantinovich read aloud “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” and when he finished, Nadya showed him 36 illustrations that she managed to make during this time. And so it happened - the girl listened or read interesting stories and instantly sketched her impressions, creating entire worlds with the help fountain pens, felt-tip pens and colored crayons. The drawings were born without sketches; she always drew in blank and never used an eraser. “I see them in advance... They appear on paper like watermarks, and all I have to do is outline them with something,” said Nadya.
In 1963, her drawings were published in " Pioneer Truth", and a year later the first exhibitions took place - in the editorial office of the magazine "Youth" and in the "Arts Club" of Moscow State University. The girl's mentor was the sculptor and animal painter Vasily Vatagin. In subsequent years, 15 more personal exhibitions of Rusheva took place in Moscow, Warsaw, Leningrad, Poland , Czechoslovakia, Romania and India. “Bravo, Nadya, bravo!”, the Italian poet and storyteller wrote on one of her works. “I don’t know of another similar example in the history of fine arts. Among poets and musicians there were rarely, but unusually early, creative explosions, but among artists - never. Their entire youth is spent in the studio and mastering their craft,” wrote doctor of art history Alexey Sidorov about her.
Nadina's illustrations for "War and Peace", "The Master and Margarita", the works of Pushkin and myths became widely known. Ancient Greece. They predicted her fate book graphics, although the artist herself dreamed of becoming a cartoonist - after graduating from school, she was going to enter VGIK. On March 5, 1969, Nadya was getting ready for school as usual, but suddenly lost consciousness. She was taken to the First City Hospital, but they could not save her - on March 6 she died. Doctors said that it was a miracle to survive to the age of 17 with a congenital cerebral aneurysm. Typically, children with this disease do not live long... Nadya left behind more than 10 thousand drawings, but their exact number is difficult to count - many of them were given to her during her lifetime.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Likhachev wrote about her: “People need such art as a breath of fresh air. The brilliant girl had an amazing gift of insight into the realm of the human spirit. She worked almost with desperation, trying to tell people as much as possible. The latest drawings are especially amazing. Where did 16- "A year-old girl has such knowledge of people, eras? This is a mystery that will never be solved."
"Evening Moscow" brings to your attention a selection of famous drawings Nadia Rusheva.
Artek. Children sunbathing on the beach (1967)
Nadya left behind more than 10 thousand drawings
Resting Ballerina (1967)
Annunciation Monastery, Gorky
Self-portrait
Centaur with a wreath
This drawing became the logo of the Autonomous non-profit organization"International Center for Non-Fiction Cinema and Television "Centaur", which prepares and conducts the film festival "Message to Man". In 2003, a monument to the Centaur was unveiled on the stairs of the St. Petersburg House of Cinema.
Pushkin and Anna Kern (from the series "Pushkiniana")
The artist dedicated about 300 drawings to Pushkin, whom Nadya called “her dearest poet.”
Natasha and Petya Rostov help the wounded (from the series "War and Peace")
Natasha's Mourning (from the series "War and Peace")
Bela (from the series "Hero of Our Time")
In 1968, Nadya read the semi-disgraced novel “The Master and Margarita” and soon literally littered her desk with drawings with portraits of characters and scenes from the novel. After she died, the cycle was shown to the widow
Older Muscovites still remember the queues at Pushkin Museum to an exhibition of graphics by a 17-year-old Moscow schoolgirl, whom the entire Union knew as the brilliant young artist Nadya Rusheva. She was the author of thousands of delightful drawings, including illustrations for “The Master and Margarita” - the best of all, according to the authoritative opinion of Bulgakov’s widow. She would have turned 65 on January 31, 2017. Unfortunately, she died when she was only 17. On Nadya Rusheva’s birthday, “Favorites” decided to chronicle the life and work of an incredibly talented girl.
1. Nadya Rusheva’s mother was the first Tuvan ballerina
Nadya Rusheva was born on January 31, 1952 in Ulaanbaatar. Her father was Soviet artist Nikolai Konstantinovich Rushev, and his mother was the first Tuvan ballerina Natalya Doydalovna Azhikmaa- Rusheva.
Nadya's parents met in August 1945. Nikolai Rushev lived in Moscow and came to Tuva on a business trip. He was always interested in the East, but from this trip he brought not only impressions and books, but also an exotic oriental beauty. In old photographs, Natalya Doydalovna, a purebred Tuvan, looks like the Chinese women from Wong Kar-Wai's films. In the fall of 1946 they got married.
2. Nadya started drawing at the age of five
Nobody taught her this, she just picked up a pencil and paper and never parted with them in her life. One day she I drew 36 illustrations for Pushkin’s “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” while my father was reading this tale aloud. Nadya says:
“At first there were drawings for Pushkin’s fairy tales. Dad was reading, and I was drawing at this time - I was drawing what was in at the moment feel<...>Then, when I learned to read myself, I did it to “ To the Bronze Horseman", "Belkin's Tales", to "Eugene Onegin" ...»
Little Nadya Rusheva with her parents
3. Nadya has never used an eraser
The peculiarity of Nadya Rusheva’s style was that the girl never made sketches or used a pencil eraser. There are also practically no shadings or corrected lines in the drawings. She always drew on the first try, as if she was tracing contours on a piece of paper that were visible only to her. This is exactly how she herself described the drawing process:
“I see them in advance... They appear on paper like watermarks, and all I have to do is outline them with something.”
There is not a single superfluous feature in her drawings, but in each work the artist masterfully conveys emotions - often with just a few lines.
Natalya Goncharova, Pushkin's wife - perhaps the most famous drawing by Nadya Rusheva
4. The father decided not to send the girl to art school
Nadya almost never drew from life; she did not like it and did not know how to do it. The father was afraid to destroy the girl’s gift with drill and accepted major decision- don’t teach her how to draw. He believed that the main thing about Nadya’s talent was her amazing imagination, which cannot be taught.
Lyceum students-freethinkers: Kuchelbecker, Pushchin, Pushkin, Delvig. From the series “Pushkiniana”
5. Nadya’s first exhibition took place when she was only 12 years old.
In 1963, her drawings were published in “Pionerskaya Pravda”, and a year later the first exhibitions took place - in the editorial office of the magazine “Youth” and in the “Arts Club” of Moscow State University.
Over the next five years, 15 more personal exhibitions were held - in Moscow, Warsaw, Leningrad, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and India.
Pushkin is reading. From the series “Pushkiniana”
6. “Bravo, Nadya, bravo!”, wrote the Italian storyteller Gianni Rodari on one of her works
In assessing her work, ordinary viewers and art critics were unanimous - pure magic. How can you, with the help of paper and pencil or even a felt-tip pen, convey the subtlest movements of the soul, the expression of the eyes, plasticity?.. There was only one explanation: the girl is a genius.
“The fact that this was created by a girl of genius becomes clear from the first drawing,” wrote Irakli Luarsabovich Andronikov, discussing the “Pushkiniana” cycle.
“I don’t know of another example like this in the history of fine arts. Among poets and musicians there were rarely, but unusually early, creative explosions, but among artists - never. Their entire youth is spent in the studio and mastering their craft,” Alexey Sidorov, a doctor of art history, admired Nadya.
"Apollo and Daphne", 1969.
The nymph Daphne took a vow of chastity. Fleeing from Apollo, who was inflamed with passion, she asked the gods for help. The gods turned her into a laurel tree as soon as the loving Apollo touched her.
7. There are more than 300 drawings in the “Pushkiniana” series alone
Among Nadya Rusheva’s works are illustrations to myths Ancient Hellas, works by Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Bulgakov. In total, the girl illustrated the works of 50 authors. The most famous drawings Nadi is a series of illustrations for the fairy tale “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, for the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” by Pushkin and for “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov.
The artist dedicated about 300 drawings to Pushkin, whom Nadya called “her dearest poet.”
She was destined for a career as an illustrator, but she herself wanted to become an animator and was preparing to enter VGIK.
Pushkin and Anna Kern (from the “Pushkiniana” series)
Other famous cycles of Nadya Rusheva are “Self-Portraits”, “Ballet”, “War and Peace”, etc.
8. Nadya’s drawings were highly appreciated by the writer’s widow Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova
Nadya read the semi-banned novel “The Master and Margarita” in the USSR in one sitting. The book completely captivated her. She put aside all other projects and for some time literally lived in the world created by Bulgakov. Together with their father, they walked around the places where the action of the novel took place, and the result of these walks was a stunning series of drawings, in which Nadya Rusheva emerged as a practically accomplished artist.
Incredibly, these drawings, created half a century ago, remain to this day, perhaps the most famous illustrations to Bulgakov's novel - and the most successful, in many ways prophetic. Having never seen Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova, the writer’s widow and the prototype of Margarita, Nadya gave her Margarita a resemblance to this woman - amazing insight, the quality of a genius. And the Master turned out to look like Mikhail Afanasyevich himself.
It is not surprising that Elena Sergeevna was fascinated by Nadya’s works:
“How free!.. Mature!.. Poetic understatement: the more you look, the more addictive... What an amplitude of feelings!.. A girl of 16 understood everything perfectly. And not only did she understand, but she also portrayed it convincingly and superbly.”
The Master and Margarita
The first meeting of the Master and Margarita
Margarita snatches the manuscript from the fire
Poet Homeless
9. Literally on the eve of her death, Nadya went to Leningrad, where a documentary was filmed about her
At the end of February 1969, the Lenfilm film studio invited the 17-year-old artist to take part in the filming of a biographical film about herself. Unfortunately, it remained unfinished. Nadya returned home literally the day before her death.
One of the most striking episodes of the ten-minute unfinished film is those few seconds when Nadya draws Pushkin’s profile in the snow with a branch.
Nadezhda Rusheva. Self-portrait
10. She died unexpectedly
On March 5, 1969, Nadya was getting ready for school as usual and suddenly lost consciousness. She was taken to the First City Hospital, where she died without regaining consciousness. It turned out that she lived with a congenital cerebral aneurysm. Back then they couldn’t treat it. Moreover, doctors said that it was a miracle to live to 17 years with such a diagnosis.
Nobody knew that Nadya had an aneurysm - she never complained about her health, was cheerful and happy child. Death occurred from a cerebral hemorrhage.
The merciless cruelty of fate snatched from life the newly blossoming talent of the brilliant Moscow girl Nadya Rusheva. Yes, a genius - now there is nothing to fear from premature assessment.- from the posthumous article of Academician V.A. Vatagina in the magazine "Youth"
Nadya left behind a huge artistic heritage- about 12,000 drawings. Their exact number is impossible to calculate - a significant proportion were distributed in letters, the artist gave hundreds of sheets to friends and acquaintances, a considerable number of works on various reasons did not return from the first exhibitions. Many of her drawings are kept in the Leo Tolstoy Museum in Moscow, in the branch museum named after Nadya Rusheva in the city of Kyzyl, in Pushkin House Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, the National Cultural Foundation and State Museum A.S. Pushkin in Moscow.
Journalist and writer Dmitry Shevarov, in his article about Nadya Rusheva, says that the work of the Soviet artist turned out to be extremely close to Japanese classical aesthetics.
“The Japanese still remember Nadya and publish her drawings on postcards,” writes Shevarov. - When they come to us, they are surprised that there is no Rushev museum center in Russia, that Nadya’s works are in storage rooms, and that our youth, for the most part, have not heard anything about Rusheva. “This is your Mozart in fine arts!“ - say the Japanese and shrug their shoulders in bewilderment: they say, how rich in talent are these Russians that they can afford to forget even about their geniuses.”
But how? Where? Why, instead of jump ropes and classics, there are books, biographies and hours of painstaking work without rest or break. A job that no one forced her to do. And why did an ancient Hellas, Pushkin’s biography and Byron’s “Bride of Abydos” interest a 12-year-old child more than games and chatting with friends? Alas, no one will answer these questions anymore. The girl seemed to be in a hurry to fulfill a mission known only to her and, having completed it, passed away.
Uploaded by joseeash, date: 01/28/2010
Music by Sergei Prokofiev, drawings by A.S. Pushkin and Nadezhda Rusheva
To us through the fog of disbelief and doubt,
Ariadne's thread from the tip of a pen.
Talking about the lives of people like Nadya Rusheva, a ring of steel chokes my throat... This girl was a genius, everything about her spoke of this, and the fact that she began to draw early from the age of three, not yet knowing how to read, and her wounding death, unexpected departure….
She was called the Mozart of painting. Everyone admired her talent famous people Russian culture, its contemporaries….
Many people know the note Irakli Andronikov left on one of Nadya’s drawings by the writer: “The fact that this was created by a girl of genius becomes clear from the first drawing.
They do not require proof of their originality."
Girl-planet... Girl-Universe....
"Nadya Rusheva, young brilliant artist.
She was born on January 30, 1952 in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) into a creative theater family sent to Mongolia to help develop the national Mongolian ballet.
Her mother is the first Tuvan ballerina Natalya Azhikmaa-Rusheva, her father is theater artist and teacher Nikolai Konstantinovich Rushev. In the summer of 1952 the family moved to Moscow.
The girl started drawing at the age of three, much earlier than reading.
Drawing became like another language for her - mysterious, impetuous, light. Like breathing. She herself was light, active, cheerful, loved dancing, laughter, jokes, and harmless mischief.
Nadya Rusheva "Pushkiniana"
Used works by Nadya Rusheva,
Song "The yellow light of a candle is melting" - Poems: Leonid Filatov, Music: Vladimir Kachan
But over the drawing it always calmed down, froze. Over the drawing, she seemed to be immersed in another world, unknown to the others. She dominated the drawing. She lived in it. She herself has said more than once: “I live the life of those I paint.”
Fame came to Rusheva at the age of twelve, in 1964, when writers Lev Kassil and Boris Polevoy became interested in her drawings, and the schoolgirl’s first personal exhibitions were held at the Moscow State University “Arts Club” and at the editorial office of the magazine “Youth”.
The uniqueness of her drawings is that the heroes of the vast majority of them are heroes of the world and Russian classical literature, history, culture. With pen in hand she read ancient myths, Shakespeare, Pushkin,
Lermontov, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Exupery, Bulgakov, Blok, Hugo, Green, Dickens, Byron, Rabelais and many others.
She drew from her imagination, boldly entering the gold-bearing layers human culture and sensitively guessing through the thickness of centuries that most laconic image that corresponds to the character of the hero, the atmosphere of place and time, which will then be unmistakably recognized by those who look at her drawings: this, without a doubt, is Natasha Rostova, this is Bulgakov’s Master, this is the young Pushkin, this is Ophelia, this is Little Prince...
She was called the “Mozart of drawing,” and academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev said about the artist’s creations like this:
“This is the crystallization of the purity of spirit. People need such art as a breath of fresh air. The essence is not in technical virtuosity, but in the talent of its personality.
The brilliant girl had an amazing gift of insight into the realm of the human spirit. She worked almost with despair, trying to tell people as much as possible: about ballet, about antiquity, about Shakespeare, Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Exupery and, finally, about “The Master and Margarita”
Bulgakov. The last drawings are especially striking. Where does a 16-year-old girl get knowledge of people and eras? It's a mystery that will never be solved."
She drew everywhere, for example, while walking on the street she drew in the snow... She was predicted to have a future as a book graphic artist, and the young artist herself dreamed of becoming a cartoonist.
In the mid-70s, cosmonaut Georgy Grechko took Nadya’s drawing with him into low-Earth orbit and showed it to the world during a television session with the Earth. Rusheva became the first artist whose vernissage took place on a global scale.
Her drawings were loved in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and India. Many of them were inspired by Pushkin's poetry. In 1969, Lenfilm began filming the documentary film “You, Like First Love...”, dedicated to the Pushkin theme in Nadya’s work. However, the film could not be completed.
While getting ready for school on the morning of March 6, 1969, Nadya suddenly lost consciousness and died several hours later in the hospital due to a ruptured cerebral aneurysm and subsequent cerebral hemorrhage. She was 17. Doctors could not help.
When the widow of Mikhail Bulgakov, Elena Sergeevna, was shown a series of drawings for the novel “The Master and Margarita,” she was shocked by what she saw no less than they were, and went through the drawings for a long time, peering at the thin contours drawn with a pen, faces, figures, silhouettes, themes...
It turned out that the ring on the Master’s finger is an exact copy of the family ring of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, and woman portrait And old photo The writer's wives are one person. Nadya, of course, physically could not see either the ring or the photograph! But she created a unique series of drawings, and they all really showed that the young artist had complete mastery of the material and understood it thoroughly. Each drawing evoked an exclamation and surprise from Elena Sergeevna: “What an amplitude of feelings... Margarita is good!... Azazello is magnificent... This is amazing... A girl of 16 understood everything perfectly...” Such reviews from Elena Sergeevna (Margarita) was the highest praise, it’s a pity that Nadya didn’t get to hear these words.
Among her works are illustrations to the myths of Ancient Hellas, works of Pushkin, L.N. Tolstoy, M.A. Bulgakov. In total, the works of about 50 authors were illustrated. There are also several sketches depicting the ballet Anna Karenina. Such a ballet was actually staged - after the death of the artist. Anna was played by Maya Plisetskaya.
Nadya left behind a huge artistic legacy - about 12 thousand drawings. Many of them are kept in the Leo Tolstoy Museum in Moscow, in the branch museum named after Nadya Rusheva in the city of Kyzyl, in the Pushkin House of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, the National Cultural Foundation and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
And one of them – a baby centaur – is reproduced on the monument that stands on Nadya’s grave at the Pokrovskoye cemetery.
Dedications
In memory of Nadya Rusheva.
Like a short but bright flashlight,
Like a breath of warmth in winter,
This girl is a sad bespectacled girl -
Once passed between us.
Every stroke is like a swallow of childhood,
Everything is in Pushkin's style - immediately clearer...
And then with a broken heart
I watched film footage of her.
...Here is a smile... Familiar verses...
But I can’t forget the twig,
Displayed curly profile
On the cheerful lyceum snow.
(Max Dahie, Yunost magazine No. 1-2, 1973)
The nineteenth century is alarmed
Such attention to yourself.
His poetry may be
In another, fate will respond.
His story is torn apart
In its beauty and ugly,
And the resurrected lionfish
Cracking on the runway.
And a girl, still a child,
Nadezhda Rusheva is in a hurry
In a drawing that is both white and thin,
To the hopes of Pushkin's soul.
(Alexander Bogucharov, Yunost magazine No. 6, 1972)
Childish handwriting of a child's drawing.
The flight of a feather is like the flapping of a wing.
Singing lines, thin strings
They ring, falling from the tip of the pen.
Waltzes freely on the parquet floor
Leaf hand. Gift given to the soul by God
Foresee. Silhouettes appear
Through the dense white Whatman paper fog.
And outlines wonderful moment
Rising from the ashes, proclaiming again,
That the deity and inspiration are alive...
And life, and tears, and love are eternal...
To us through the fog of disbelief and doubt,
From the hiding places of the immortal yesterday,
The eternally young genius reaches out
Ariadne's thread from the tip of a pen...
(02’2005) edel
Figure skating feather
circles the Image of Purity.
The soul trembles in jubilation,
seeing the faces of beauty.
Easy and simple as breathing
a line falls on the sheet,
showing charm to the eyes
movements of bodies, and souls, and faces...
Impromptu pattern, where tree branches
hide feminine features...
Oh, how much would be lost
in the basements of Eternal Blackness,
But - the Lord had a moment! -
put the heat of love into her hands,
and pure angle of refraction
The dormant one implanted it into the crystal.
How playful and developed is Rusheva’s stylus!..
The pen of Pushkin’s torment came true.
How the snow swirls in the early morning
Sheets fly off the table.
Figure skating feather
glides along the lines of a dream.
She was there, she moved
the host of our souls into a different composition!
So why mourn or envy,
didn’t catch her during her lifetime?...
(Andrey Zyryanov)
Series of messages "Illustrations":
Part 1 - Illustrated|Andrew LoomisPart 2 - Old Magazines...Part 24 - Wedding|Vintage PrintsQUOTE]
I quote with gratitude
January 31, 2008 would have been the 55th anniversary of Nadya Rusheva, a wonderful artist, the author of many beautiful drawings - including for the novel “The Master and Margarita”, according to Bulgakov’s widow, the best illustrations for this work...
There were four hours of waiting time for her exhibition.
In history, she remained an adult child. Just like her favorite character, the Little Prince. Nadya died very early - at 17. The day before, the girl returned from St. Petersburg, where she was filming documentary film about Pushkin.
“That day my daughter met me animated and joyful,” recalls Natalya Doydalovna, Nadya’s mother. “In her hand she held a burning red candle with white wax flowing down it. “Mom, look how beautiful it is!”
And the next morning she burned herself out. Sudden cerebral hemorrhage...
That candle, with frozen wax tears, still stands on the artist’s desk. Only now it has turned from scarlet to pale yellow. Over time, everything loses color - the drawings made with felt-tip pens fade, no matter how hard Natalya Doydalovna hides them from the light, the pages of the books that her daughter leafed through turn yellow - only memories do not fade.
As cynical as it may be, early death only fueled the public's interest in the young artist. There were hours-long queues for her exhibition at the Pushkin Museum. Art critics spoke with aspiration about Rusheva’s graphics. Exhibitions were held in more than two hundred cities - not only in the Union, but also in the USA and Japan. Bulgakov’s widow, Elena Sergeevna, who met the Rushevs after the tragedy, claimed that Nadina’s illustrations for “The Master and Margarita” were the best, and that the artist’s gift was on the verge of clairvoyance. Her Master's ring is an exact copy of the ring that Bulgakov himself wore, while Margarita is the spitting image of the writer's widow... Elena Sergeevna was going to help publish the novel with Nadya's illustrations, but did not have time - shortly after meeting the parents of the artist Bulgakova died.
The 15-year-old girl’s drawings on the theme of the cult novel still look fresh and exciting - it’s even strange that “The Masters” with Rusheva’s illustrations was never published (except for the Barnaul edition of the early 90s, the quality of printing of which left much to be desired). The artist's graphics were rarely printed in the USSR due to poor printing - this was done in Japan and Germany. They are in no hurry to release albums even now, although technical capabilities have improved. “If I were rich, I would at least publish a calendar,” laments Natalya Doydalovna. The parents earned sheer tears from their daughter’s drawings: in 1976, the only album “Graphics by Nadya Rusheva” was released, father and mother were paid 990 rubles for it. But Natalya Doydalovna doesn’t even think about money: “When they make an exhibition, it’s an honor for us. In 1980, Nadina had an exhibition in Japan. The organizers printed drawings from Pushkiniana and gave me several copies.” Now the gift in a beautiful gilded frame decorates Natalya Doydalovna’s living room.
Could have become a ballerina
The artist’s mother lives in a cold Khrushchev building without an elevator, four stops from the metro. A petite woman with a neat hairstyle, despite her advanced years, opened the door. Showed my daughter's room. On the wall are black and white photographs of Dean Reed and Maya Plisetskaya, idols of the 60s.
And here is Artek, where Rusheva spent more than one summer: a group in swimsuits, with Nadya on the edge - cheerful, long-legged, with straight dark hair. She was not an introverted and reserved prodigy at all. On the contrary, I was drawn to people, new faces. She moved beautifully - she famously danced the Charleston, enjoyed skiing and skating. She could have become a ballerina, like her mother - she had grace and a high, “ballet-like” lift of her feet. But Natalya Doydalovna did not want such a fate for her daughter: “Standing in the crowd is nothing to do, and being the first is very difficult.”
...Nadya’s parents met in Tuva, where Muscovite Nikolai Rushev, a theater artist, was sent on a business trip. young man was attracted by the East - from this trip he brought not only impressions, but also his wife - a ballerina, a girl of exotic beauty (in old photographs Natalya Doydalovna, a purebred Tuvan, looks like Chinese women from Wong Kar-Wai's films - N.K.). At that time - a rare union.
After Nadyusha was born, I took up housekeeping. In 1953, Nikolai Konstantinovich worked at the Bolshoi, and I wanted to watch all the performances - I put Nadyusha in bed, asked my neighbor to look after her, and ran to watch the production. My daughter was very calm; wherever you put her, you’ll find her. I wasn’t capricious...
I gave birth to her at the age of 25, in Ulaanbaatar: my husband was sent there on a business trip. I suffered from toxicosis throughout my pregnancy. Newborn Nadyusha weighed only 2500. Fortunately, there was a lot of milk, and she quickly grew stronger. At the age of three, already in Moscow, she was sent to kindergarten. I remember that my daughter plays with the guys all day, but as soon as I appear, she comes running, buries herself in her lap and cries - quietly, quietly... But she doesn’t complain. I cried for a whole month until I got used to it. In general, she had an easy-going, easy-going character.
I drew while my father read fairy tales out loud.
For half a century now, Natalya Rusheva has been asked how she managed to raise a child prodigy. And in all these years she never gave a ready-made recipe. Simply because he doesn't exist. The Rushevs raised their only daughter without going to extremes.
– Nadyusha learned to read only at school, at seven and a half. We didn’t teach it specifically at home, we decided we’d teach it early - my daughter would be bored in class. We have never put pressure on her yet. Is it possible to force a child, because he will do the opposite! She started drawing, like all children, as soon as she learned to hold a pencil. My husband designs the book, hangs the drawing on the wall for a better look, and Nadya comes up and sticks hers next to it. What always surprised me about her is that she’s not childish. careful attitude to things. She never tore books or broke toys.
Dad came home from work every day, lay down on the sofa and read fairy tales to her with expression - and Nadyusha sat next to her and drew. This is how many of her drawings appeared, including the famous cycle for “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” which experts still admire to this day. She was already an adult, at the age of 14–15, and often asked: “Dad, read to me!” All children draw, but Nadyusha did it in an unusual way. Her husband showed her drawings to colleagues and art critics. Her daughter’s very first exhibition took place in the editorial office of the Yunost magazine, when she was only 12. After school, she wanted to enter VGIK and become an animator.
They promised to take her without exams...
On March 6, 1969, on a gray, chilly morning, Natalya Doydalovna prepared breakfast, ordered her daughter to dress warmly, and ran off to work. She never saw Nadya alive again. The girl bent down to lace her shoes and suddenly fell. Nikolai Konstantinovich ran to call a doctor. The Rushevs did not have a telephone. It was not possible to save Nadya. She died from a congenital cerebral vascular defect.
“In February, my daughter suffered from the Hong Kong flu that was then spreading around Moscow. She was burning all over, could neither write nor read, and complained of a headache. I was lying at home alone - it was impossible to be late for my work even by five minutes. They called a doctor - he prescribed pills, now I don’t remember which ones. Having barely recovered, my daughter left for filming. If only I knew then how dangerous that flu was...
I found out about Nadya’s death only in the evening, when I returned home, my husband and colleagues simply did not dare to immediately talk about the tragedy. I open the door and the house is full of people... It was difficult to bear it.
Nadya was buried at the Pokrovsky cemetery, where Nikolai Konstantinovich now lies - the father outlived his daughter by only six years. And the mother never ceases to ask herself why her child was taken away by death so early. For what sins?