Nilus, Peter Alexandrovich

Born in the Bushena parental estate in the Podolsk province . His grandfather was a general - a participant in the war of 1812 ^[4] . Gregor Schwarz-Bostunich, a researcher of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion , SS Obersturmbanführer, claimed the relationship between the two Nilus with the same patronymic - Sergei Alexandrovich and Peter Alexandrovich ^[5] . However, one, anti-Semitic, origin is associated with the Mtsensk district of the Oryol province; another, who took part in the literary and art collection "In favor of Jewish children orphaned during the October pogrom in Odessa" and married to a Jewess Berta Solomonovna, is associated with the southernmost outskirts of Russia - the Baltic district of Podolsk province.

Since 1876, Peter Nilus lived in Odessa , studied at the Real School of St. Paul. In the 6th grade, at the suggestion of his teacher G. Ladyzhensky , who had just graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Nilus entered the Odessa Drawing School : during the years 1883–1889, his teacher was K. Kostandi , and the other was Evgeny Bukovetsky ^[6] . Since 1889, he continued his studies at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts with Ilya Repin , who recommended that the young artist quickly start exhibition activities and return to his hometown ^[7] , where the Association of South Russian Artists made a strong statement.

In Odessa, Nilus became one of the central figures of the local art community; since 1890 he took part in the exhibitions of the Partnership, since the mid-1890s he was his secretary, together with Bukovetsky in 1894 he drew up the charter of the Partnership. Nilus did not lose touch with the exhibition life of the capital: since 1891 he was an exhibitor, and since 1899 - a member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. In the summer of 1898 in Odessa, Nilus met I.A. Bunin ^[8] .

In the 1890s, he painted mainly genre paintings on socially significant topics. About this time, P. A. Nilus recalled: “He was an orthodox wanderer for 13 years. Then evolution began from extreme realism to individualism. ” In the first decade of the 20th century, after traveling abroad and exploring new modern art, the artist moved away from the everyday genre and social issues, giving preference to landscape and impressionistic painting style. The next period in the work of Nilus is “symbolic-romantic” or “retrospective”: the artist painted gallant gentlemen and ladies strolling in parks or meeting the dawn ^[4] .

Nilus K. Chukovsky knew well: he followed the development of this outstanding talent, admired him. But in 1904, in Odessa News, he spoke very sharply: "... we have two P. A. Nilus - one real, the other false." “Real” for the critic was that artist who has “excellent mastery of drawing”, “clear colors”, “finished manner”; The author was “fake”, which allowed him to introduce “fashionable” tunes and moods into his own works. Nilus’s shortcomings indicated by Chukovsky contain recognizable signs of “ decadence ” at that time - these are “thin, fragile trees, plaintively stretching for stylized clouds,” this is “constructed (that is, artificially created, not related to reality) mood,” this is “symbolic women's poses ”and“ modernized ”folds of their clothes ^[7]

In 1915, his personal exhibition was held in Odessa. I. E. Repin wrote to I. A. Bunin:

... Nilus, our artist is beautiful - oh, if I could paint him!

P. A. Nilus accepted the revolution of 1917 favorably, but soon this attitude changed. With the advent of the detachments of the Volunteer Army A.I. Denikin, he supported them with a series of anti- Bolshevik posters. In 1919 he was forced to leave the country ^[9] . Since 1923 he lived in Paris - in the same house with I. A. Bunin , who called his friend, Peter Nilus, a poet of painting and dedicated to him one of his most poetic poems, “Loneliness” ^[10] . During the period of emigration, 11 of his exhibitions took place - in Sofia, Belgrade, Zagreb, Vienna, Paris.

In the 1930s, Nilus moved away from the symbolic-romantic plots that appealed to the French public. The main in his work were the views of cities, landscapes of the French province, still lifes, which he created in a kind of series. The so-called “white series” gained particular fame, and among the painters the expression “white Nilus” became a household word.

The first solo exhibitions of P. A. Nilus in Paris took place in 1925 ^[11] in the prestigious galleries of J. Petit and J. Charpentier. Great success was the last lifetime exhibition of Nilus in the Zak Gallery (1934) ^[4] .

By the mid-1930s, Nilus began to give preference to a psychological portrait ^[12] .

Died in occupied Paris; buried in the Bagnes cemetery .

The artist’s works are stored in the Tretyakov Gallery , in the Odessa Art Museum , Odessa Literary Museum ^[13] , in the State Literary Museum ( Moscow ), in the Regional Art Museum named after I.N. Kramskoy (Voronezh), in the Dnipropetrovsk Art Museum, in private collections.

In 1995, a significant part of the creative heritage of the artist of the Paris period - 73 paintings, graphics, as well as personal items, photographs, letters, exhibition catalogs - by decision of the painter’s stepdaughter, V.L. Golubovskaya, were transferred from Paris to Voronezh for the Art Museum . I. N. Kramskoy and the literary museum (for the future museum of I. A. Bunin) ^[14] .

• “The seamstress workshop” (1890)
• The Footman (1892)
• “Acquaintances” (1892) (XX Traveling Exhibition)

• Autumn (1893)
• "In the tavern" (1894)
• The Tramp (1895)
• “On the Boulevard” (1895)
• “On the Bridges (Summer)” (1898)

• The Baths (1899)
• “On the Stairs” (1901)
• "Before the evening" (1902)
• The Messenger (1902)
• “In the artist’s workshop” (1903)
• "Country gentleman"
• "At the cemetery"
• The pink cloud
• "In the old years"
• “Portrait of I. A. Bunin” (1918) ^[15]
• "Concert" (1920?)
• The Lady in Red (1925)
• "Blue Still Life with Oranges" (1929)
• "Daffodils at the Mirror" (1931)
• Large Still Life (1932) (White Series)
• "In the cafe"
• "Street of Paris" (1934)
• “Port Corner” (1936)
• "Street of Paris after the rain" (1939)
• “Portrait of the opera singer Anton Nikolaevich Nikolaev” ^[16]

Works:

• Stories. M., 1910.
• On the seashore: Stories. M., 1918.
• Sasha [Stories]. Odessa, 1918.
• Dunya [And other stories]. Odessa, 1919.
• Moon. Odessa, 1919.

• Odessa exhibition (1910)

• Eremin L.A. Peter Nilus. 1869-1943. Life and art. - Kiev, 2007.
• Abramov V. “Cursed days” by Peter Nilus. Chronicle of 1919 // "Deribasovskaya-Rishelievskaya": Odessa almanac. - Prince 32. - Odessa: "Printing House", 2008. - S. 18-43.
• Peter Nilus - poet of painting // Odessa Magazine. - 1996. - No. 3.
• Trifonov V. "WHO DOESN'T KNOW PETER ALEXANDROVICH NILUS!" // News.

• New book - letters from exile
• Sotheby`s
• Peter Alexandrovich Nilus
• Gallery of work .