The tragedy of the author of the most famous portrait of Chekhov: How he lost his family and paintings, and why he got to Solovki Osip Braz
Over several centuries of development, Russian culture has presented the world with a galaxy of brilliant painters, whose works are included in the world treasury of fine art. Among them…

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Beloved woman of Boris Kustodiev, in whose name he overcame hellish pain and created his best works
“Dear Yulik” - that’s what Boris Kustodiev called Yulia Proshinskaya, which was everything for the artist: a faithful and selfless wife, and the greatest love, and a devoted friend, and…

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Ciphers, signs and self-portraits: How artists of the past signed their paintings
Not every masterpiece of painting contains the signature of the artist. There were reasons for this, both at the dawn of the Renaissance and in the modern era; they are…

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How Peter Konchalovsky managed to avoid repression and why the artist was called the Soviet Cezanne

Not many painters who disobeyed the socialist regime in times of bloody repression managed to escape punishment. Today I would like to recall the name of one of them – Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky. In those terrible years, the artist managed to remain a “pure” painter who avoided the embodiment of socialist reality and portraits of its leaders in his creations. Moreover, to take as a basis for his work the direction of the hostile Western art, which is why he was named in his time – the Soviet Cezanne.

It should be noted that the great merit of Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first People’s Commissar of Education of the RSFSR, was that Pyotr Petrovich was allowed to create freely, despite the attacks of critics who longed for the proletarian coup and the ecstasy of socialist work in the artist’s works. Anatoly Vasilievich convinced the guardians of the dogmas of socialist realism that Konchalovsky in his modern day “sings the poetry of our everyday life” and, apparently, the People’s Commissar did quite well. Continue reading

What is encrypted in the paintings of the most mysterious artist of the Golden Age: Alphabet of painting by Jan Vermeer

One of the most famous artists of the Golden Age of Holland. His refined painting technique, experiments with optics and perspective, the unique way of transmitting light and the poetic nature of his images remain unsurpassed in their originality and power of influence on the viewer. This is the talented gifted Jan Vermeer (1632–1675).

In the 1600s, many people could not read or write. In this regard, the work of artists was very helpful: they told their stories through the characters in the paintings. Especially relevant were these picturesque stories during the time of religious persecution and the Inquisition.

Libra is a symbol of weighing the soul, its actions, a metaphor for the choice between good and evil. (“Woman Holding the Scale”). Continue reading

What riddles Claude Monet left in his painting “Poppies”

Claude Monet is an artist whose name is inseparable from impressionism. He painted landscapes, water lilies, poplars, ladies in the garden, women with umbrellas, the London parliament, boats, the Normandy coast and … poppies. He captured these delightful red meadow treasures with a single brush stroke of bright red against a background of endless green fields. The painting Poppy Field was painted in the vicinity of Argenteuil (northwestern suburb of Paris), where Monet lived between 1871 and 1878. A beautifully depicted summer day is captured in all its glory with bright poppies complementing thin clouds in a clear blue sky.

Shapes and objects Continue reading

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Two brides for one groom: The riddle of a picturesque plot about the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine
Among the works of Renaissance masters and later periods in the history of painting, there are often those that depict "the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine." At the same time,…

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Was there a boy, or what they argue about for many years, looking at Chardin’s picture “Prayer before dinner”
He was called the "artist of animals and fruits." He had a significant influence on Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne. In art, this artist sought naturalness and humanity as opposed…

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As in the Sistine Chapel, the shame was also painted over other cases of strange censorship in the history of art
Censorship is sometimes unpredictable. For example, Facebook has been seen more than once in censorship scandals ... naked antique sculptures, once during an advertising campaign for an international exhibition of…

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