Mikhail Nesterov
«The divine world is good! My native land is good! And as to me was not to grow fond of it so, and it is a pity that it was not possible to it to give more attention, forces, to represent its all beauty, thereby to help to grow fond and another of my native land …
I love Russian landscape, on its background somehow feel both sense of Russian life and Russian soul better, more clearly»
(Mikhail Nesterov).
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About creativity the Mikhail Vasilevich Nesterov.
« National - here that, first of all, involves search of the most thin movements of soul in Nesterov. Over it are not imperious neither every possible fashions, nor various currents, it all in eternity. And one more important moment. The inexplicable youth is embodied by Nesterov. I look at its cloths and behind semitones of the found paints I see strong wings, secret force of eternally young Russia. Nesterov submits me the exact, any simply spiritualised portraits. Its dark blue background, merging with bluish colour, on many portraits … breathe warmth and eternal pleasure of a life...» (Ahmat Lutfullin).
« To artists as Nesterov, involuntarily you forgive imperfections of drawing and a brush because you love poetry of their creativity. It too - poetry something big and vague, leaving for sides of the person. Not poetry of individual inspiration, but the poetry speaking about distances and inspirations of the people. Such artists ordinary feel is better, than express. It is necessary to peer steadfastly into their pictures, it is necessary to forget about much external, disturbing, casual, to be given to delusion - and then then paints suddenly will differently be lighted, both shades will revive, and someone will smile, mysterious, "on other coast". From Nesterov's creativity blows as this smile … In it - far and at the same time close, national, mysterious, real: and Christian, hermetical affection "the Divine garden", and another, not Christian, but leaving in depth of ancient paganism religiousness of comprehension of the world and secret... Unless not so the ancient, far and close soul of the people feels the nature. Christian, church, historical it was weaved in it with primitive пантеизмом into one search, in one joyful and suffering expectation …» (Sergey Makovsky).
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The alphabetic index and the chronological index
Biography
Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov was born into the family of a merchant on May 1862 in the city of Ufa in the Urals, Russia. In 1874, his parents brought him to Moscow to study in a technical college, where he caught the attention of K. Trutovsky, an artist and inspector of the Moscow School of Art. This was an important meeting, the turning point in his life. In 1876 on the recommendation of K. Trutovsky he entered the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture; he studied in the classes of Perov, Savrasov and Pryanishnikov. In 1881, he entered St. Petersburg Academy of Art, studio of professor Pavel Tchistyakov (1881-84), actively participated in the
Itinerants’ Society of Traveling Exhibitions (Peredvizhniki - the society organized the traveling exhibitions through all Russia).
First he tried himself in the genres of historic and everyday scenes, but later, in the 1890s, he became interested in religious themes. In technique his religious pictures are much influenced by style modern. In the 1890s-1900s, he fulfilled paintings in the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev, mosaics in the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in St. Petersburg (1894-96), paintings in the Church of Alexander Nevsky in Abastuman, Georgia (1899-1904), frescoes in Marfo-Mariinsky Cloister in Moscow (1907-11). His other works of the period are also connected with religion: (Hermit (1889), Vision to Youth Bartholomew (1889-1890), ‘Youth of Saint Sergey Radonezhsky’ (1892-1897), Tzarevich Dmitry (1899), Philosophers (Portrait of Pavel Florenskiy and Sergey Bulgakov) (1917), ‘Archbishop (Portrait of Antoniy Volynskiy)’ (1917) and many others.
In 1885, he married Maria Ivanovna Martynovskaya. Unfortunately, she died next year after giving birth to their daughter, Olga. “The death of Masha made me an artist”, Nesterov wrote later. His paintings, which according to his own judgment had lacked feelings, now obtained them. From now on he depicted moods, not events. One of his most lyrical works is Portrait of Olga Nesterova, known as Woman in a Riding Habit (1906), which personifies a typical Russian girl from an upper-middle class family.
In the ‘Soviet’ period of his creative work Nesterov paints portraits, mostly of his colleagues, ‘Portrait of Ivan Shadr’ (1934), Portrait of Vera Mukhina (1940) etc. There are several interesting portraits of outstanding people of his time: ‘Portrait of Sergey Yudin’ (1935), Portrait of Ivan Pavlov (1935), etc.
Last decades lives Nesterov with enthusiasm worked over memoirs which left the separate book (under the name "Old days") in a year of its death.
"The nature of my soul was sympathetic on all phenomena of a human life, but only art was and is my unique calling. Out of it I do not think of myself. Creativity many times rescued me from errors... I avoided to represent strong passions, preferring them a modest landscape, the person, leading an internal spiritual life in embraces of our mother-nature. And in portraits my, written last years, I was attracted to themselves with those people which noble life was reflexion of thoughts, feelings, their acts..." - Michael Nesterov's these words as well as possible reflect an essence of its long creative way lasting more of sixty years.
Nesterov in Moscow 1942 has died on October, 18th.
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