KONSTANTIN KOROVIN, 1896 - Fishing in the Murman Sea / oil on canvas, 202.0 × 430.0 cm
КОНСТАНТИН КОРОВИН - Ловля рыбы на Мурманском море
☆
Location: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
Sources: my.tretyakov.ru/app/masterpiece/20516
www.tretyakovgallerymagazine.com/articles/norway%E2%80%93...
Panel for the 'Pavillion Of The Far North' at the 1896 Nizhny Novgorod Exhibition Of Industry And Art
Rus: Панно для Павильона Крайнего Севера на Всероссийской Промышленной Художественной Выставке 1896 года в Нижнем Новгороде
TEXT BY OLGA ATROSHCHENCO. The North in the Art of Russian Painters // The Tretyakov Gallery Magazine. Special issue. Norway-Russia: On the Crossroads of Cultures.
In 1894, entrepreneur and philanthropist Savva Ivanovich Mamontov submitted to the minister of finance Sergei Witte a memorandum in which he described the riches of the Russian North, and proposed to build a railway from Vologda to Arkhangelsk across the impassable swampland and forests. Witte, before replying, decided to see the region with his own eyes and proposed to Mamontov to join him and a special committee on a cruise around the North. As was usual with such expeditions, the team included a graphic artist, in this case the future famous painter, then a student at the Academy of Fine Arts, Alexander Borisov, and the writer Yevgeny Lvov (E.L. Kochetov), who published in 1895 a book "Out in the Cold Sea. A Journey to the North". The expedition lasted a little more than three weeks.
In the grip of powerful aesthetic emotion engendered by the sights seen in Arkhangelsk and eager to share his feelings with others, Mamontov in 1894 financed an expedition to the region consisting of his painter friends Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin, the latter recently returned from France, where he had lived for about 18 months. "What an awful mistake to chase French tones when you have such beauty here," Mamontov opined, alluding to Korovin.
But besides such pure emotion, this decision was also driven by sound common sense. When the patron of arts and industrialist received the authorisation to build the railway to Arkhangelsk - a project which was successfully completed in 1897 - he wanted to introduce this exotic locale to the Russian public in advance. The most convenient opportunity for this seemed to present itself at the Nizhny Novgorod Exhibition of Industry and Art in 1896, where a pavilion devoted to the Far North was erected. Mamontov decided to enlist the services of Korovin, whom he knew as a fine stage designer, to design the pavilion and the exhibition, and for the execution of ten large murals. The artists' journey was vital for the realisation of this ambitious undertaking because the goal set for Korovin was "to create in the vast Northern Pavilion the impression and to provoke in the viewers the feelings which... [he himself] experienced in the North ". This objective was fully achieved.
Korovin designed the composition and the basic colour scheme in sketches, and hired the painters Sergei Malyutin and Nikolai Dosekin to implement his design. Later the murals from the fair, which were Mamontov's property, graced the lobby of the Yaroslav railway station built in 1904 in Moscow, and contributed considerably to the popularisation of the North (D.I.: These panels adorned the railway station until the early 1960s; they fell into disrepair and were transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery).
Korovin and Serov followed practically the same route as Mamontov: over the Northern Dvina to Arkhangelsk, then, on the comfortable steamship "Lomonosov" owned by the Arkhangelsk-Murmansk line, they proceeded to Novaya Zemlya and the Murman coast, visiting the north of Norway and Swedish Lapland. Late in September the friends returned to Moscow with considerable numbers of northern sketches created during their travels, which were later used in the making of the murals.
That was not the end of Korovin's acquaintance with the North. In 1895 he repeated the journey, this time in the company of Nikolai Prakhov and the painter Nikolai Dosekin. Two years later he revisited Arkhangelsk with Valentin Serov, and in 1898, as part of preparation for a colossal project of creating a series of decorative murals for the 1900 World Fair in Paris, he travelled to the North with Nikolai Klodt.
As usual, his packing was brief: "There are open suitcases on the floor. I'm packing paints, brushes, the easel and a field glass, a fur jacket, underwear, big shooting boots, a flashlight and a fully stocked medicine chest. I'm not taking a gun; I'm going to the Far North, to the Arctic Ocean, to paint from nature, and if there is a gun, there's a hunt, sketching falling by the wayside. I take only several fishing hooks and a slim English string. The ocean is deep, so you need a long string and a sinker. The compass, I take it too...".
Decades later, living in exile in Paris, the painter would reminisce about his old times in Russia and write several interesting short stories about his stay in the wild North. Like many other painters, Korovin admired the inimitable northern architecture. "A tall wooden church, truly admirable," he wrote. "Many cupolas, they are covered with batten looking like fish scale. The dimensions of the church are a work of genius. The church is a vision of beauty. Its sides are decorated with strips of white, yellow and green paint, as if with a trim. How nicely it fits into the scenery!". Korovin, who had a special bond with nature, was stunned by the "pacific disposition" of local wild animals. The artist affectionately describes how he "gave a gentle stroke to the smooth head and kissed the cold wet nose" of a big seal as it looked on "with its marvellous round eyes that were like human eyes, only kinder". But most importantly, in this inclement country Korovin had an opportunity to apply his innate talent for colour differently than before. In the landscapes such as "A Quay by the Dvina in Arkhangelsk" (1894, Regional Art Museum, Tula), "A Mooring in Arkhangelsk" (second half of the 1890s, Russian Museum), and "Arkhangelsk" (1897, Tretyakov Gallery) the artist was still applying bright, saturated colour schemes depicting genre scenes from the life of a seaport town.
The northern sketches of Korovin and his friend Serov established in Russian painting of the 1900s a dominance of the exquisite palette of nacreous and grey ashen tones. Korovin himself said than nowhere had he seen such a great diversity of colour shades as in the supposedly monochrome North. Later, explaining his infatuation with the northern country, he said that one could never see such a rich palette in the South. This colour scheme typical for nature in the North attracted the young artists of the Moscow school who organised in 1903 the "Union of Russian Artists". Korovin's associates applied his colour design to create images of early spring, the last snow, and the first cold spells. The intricate greyish blue tones also allowed to fill compositions with light sadness, nostalgia, and poetic charm.
KONSTANTIN KOROVIN, 1896 - Fishing in the Murman Sea / oil on canvas, 202.0 × 430.0 cm
КОНСТАНТИН КОРОВИН - Ловля рыбы на Мурманском море
☆
Location: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
Sources: my.tretyakov.ru/app/masterpiece/20516
www.tretyakovgallerymagazine.com/articles/norway%E2%80%93...
Panel for the 'Pavillion Of The Far North' at the 1896 Nizhny Novgorod Exhibition Of Industry And Art
Rus: Панно для Павильона Крайнего Севера на Всероссийской Промышленной Художественной Выставке 1896 года в Нижнем Новгороде
TEXT BY OLGA ATROSHCHENCO. The North in the Art of Russian Painters // The Tretyakov Gallery Magazine. Special issue. Norway-Russia: On the Crossroads of Cultures.
In 1894, entrepreneur and philanthropist Savva Ivanovich Mamontov submitted to the minister of finance Sergei Witte a memorandum in which he described the riches of the Russian North, and proposed to build a railway from Vologda to Arkhangelsk across the impassable swampland and forests. Witte, before replying, decided to see the region with his own eyes and proposed to Mamontov to join him and a special committee on a cruise around the North. As was usual with such expeditions, the team included a graphic artist, in this case the future famous painter, then a student at the Academy of Fine Arts, Alexander Borisov, and the writer Yevgeny Lvov (E.L. Kochetov), who published in 1895 a book "Out in the Cold Sea. A Journey to the North". The expedition lasted a little more than three weeks.
In the grip of powerful aesthetic emotion engendered by the sights seen in Arkhangelsk and eager to share his feelings with others, Mamontov in 1894 financed an expedition to the region consisting of his painter friends Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin, the latter recently returned from France, where he had lived for about 18 months. "What an awful mistake to chase French tones when you have such beauty here," Mamontov opined, alluding to Korovin.
But besides such pure emotion, this decision was also driven by sound common sense. When the patron of arts and industrialist received the authorisation to build the railway to Arkhangelsk - a project which was successfully completed in 1897 - he wanted to introduce this exotic locale to the Russian public in advance. The most convenient opportunity for this seemed to present itself at the Nizhny Novgorod Exhibition of Industry and Art in 1896, where a pavilion devoted to the Far North was erected. Mamontov decided to enlist the services of Korovin, whom he knew as a fine stage designer, to design the pavilion and the exhibition, and for the execution of ten large murals. The artists' journey was vital for the realisation of this ambitious undertaking because the goal set for Korovin was "to create in the vast Northern Pavilion the impression and to provoke in the viewers the feelings which... [he himself] experienced in the North ". This objective was fully achieved.
Korovin designed the composition and the basic colour scheme in sketches, and hired the painters Sergei Malyutin and Nikolai Dosekin to implement his design. Later the murals from the fair, which were Mamontov's property, graced the lobby of the Yaroslav railway station built in 1904 in Moscow, and contributed considerably to the popularisation of the North (D.I.: These panels adorned the railway station until the early 1960s; they fell into disrepair and were transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery).
Korovin and Serov followed practically the same route as Mamontov: over the Northern Dvina to Arkhangelsk, then, on the comfortable steamship "Lomonosov" owned by the Arkhangelsk-Murmansk line, they proceeded to Novaya Zemlya and the Murman coast, visiting the north of Norway and Swedish Lapland. Late in September the friends returned to Moscow with considerable numbers of northern sketches created during their travels, which were later used in the making of the murals.
That was not the end of Korovin's acquaintance with the North. In 1895 he repeated the journey, this time in the company of Nikolai Prakhov and the painter Nikolai Dosekin. Two years later he revisited Arkhangelsk with Valentin Serov, and in 1898, as part of preparation for a colossal project of creating a series of decorative murals for the 1900 World Fair in Paris, he travelled to the North with Nikolai Klodt.
As usual, his packing was brief: "There are open suitcases on the floor. I'm packing paints, brushes, the easel and a field glass, a fur jacket, underwear, big shooting boots, a flashlight and a fully stocked medicine chest. I'm not taking a gun; I'm going to the Far North, to the Arctic Ocean, to paint from nature, and if there is a gun, there's a hunt, sketching falling by the wayside. I take only several fishing hooks and a slim English string. The ocean is deep, so you need a long string and a sinker. The compass, I take it too...".
Decades later, living in exile in Paris, the painter would reminisce about his old times in Russia and write several interesting short stories about his stay in the wild North. Like many other painters, Korovin admired the inimitable northern architecture. "A tall wooden church, truly admirable," he wrote. "Many cupolas, they are covered with batten looking like fish scale. The dimensions of the church are a work of genius. The church is a vision of beauty. Its sides are decorated with strips of white, yellow and green paint, as if with a trim. How nicely it fits into the scenery!". Korovin, who had a special bond with nature, was stunned by the "pacific disposition" of local wild animals. The artist affectionately describes how he "gave a gentle stroke to the smooth head and kissed the cold wet nose" of a big seal as it looked on "with its marvellous round eyes that were like human eyes, only kinder". But most importantly, in this inclement country Korovin had an opportunity to apply his innate talent for colour differently than before. In the landscapes such as "A Quay by the Dvina in Arkhangelsk" (1894, Regional Art Museum, Tula), "A Mooring in Arkhangelsk" (second half of the 1890s, Russian Museum), and "Arkhangelsk" (1897, Tretyakov Gallery) the artist was still applying bright, saturated colour schemes depicting genre scenes from the life of a seaport town.
The northern sketches of Korovin and his friend Serov established in Russian painting of the 1900s a dominance of the exquisite palette of nacreous and grey ashen tones. Korovin himself said than nowhere had he seen such a great diversity of colour shades as in the supposedly monochrome North. Later, explaining his infatuation with the northern country, he said that one could never see such a rich palette in the South. This colour scheme typical for nature in the North attracted the young artists of the Moscow school who organised in 1903 the "Union of Russian Artists". Korovin's associates applied his colour design to create images of early spring, the last snow, and the first cold spells. The intricate greyish blue tones also allowed to fill compositions with light sadness, nostalgia, and poetic charm.