Antonov, Sergey Nikolaevich (artist)

Origin

Sergei Antonov's father, Nikolai Romanov, moved to the Livonia province from central Russia in the second half of the 19th century .

In Riga, he filed a petition to change the surname “Romanov” (due to the complete coincidence with the name of the emperor ) to “Antonov” and his request was granted.

The immigrant got a job with the Kamarin family of merchants, which flourished then in Riga, whose products ( household products , cosmetics, fertilizers, etc.) were successful even outside the region .

In Riga, Nikolai Antonov had a son Sergei and two daughters.

Thanks to his efficiency and determination, Nikolai Antonov made a small fortune. He put the money into circulation by opening the Hotel Commercial, located in the immediate vicinity of the railway station . Later, in 1925 , the family business was divided with the Keller family, after which the hotel was renamed the Metropol .

From childhood, Sergei Antonov was true to his main hobby - drawing. For him, a well-known master of landscape painting, academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts, professor Julius Yulievich Clover (formerly also a Riga citizen), who repeatedly stayed at the Metropol Hotel, became his mentor in fine art.

Imperial Academy of Arts

In 1909, Sergey Antonov graduated from the Riga Polytechnic Institute with a degree in civil engineering, after which he moved to St. Petersburg and continued his studies at the architecture faculty of the Higher Art School at the Imperial Academy of Arts . At this time, young academics taught here - V. A. Schuko , Riga citizen I. A. Fomin and a recent graduate - Ernest Shtalberg (later a famous Latvian architect). One of Antonov’s teachers was L.N. Benois .

During this period, Antonov experienced a noticeable influence of the ideas of the “ World of Art ” association. Subsequently, this was manifested in his works, especially in drawings and watercolors of the Italian cycle (1920s), works on the theme of Russian history and folklore.

At the Antonov Academy, he is working on projects for structures that were relevant for that time. The teaching council approved his memorial project “Fallen in the First World War ”.

For the graduation project of the building of the State Council of the Russian Empire , May 24, 1914 Antonov received the title of artist-architect. ^[four]

Having successfully defended his diploma, Antonov was honored with the opportunity to undergo creative practice abroad. For two years, the Russian architect goes on a business trip (or, as it was called then, retirement) to France , Germany and Italy , where he performed a large number of landscape sketches.

Upon his return to Russia in 1916 , Sergei Antonov was sent to Pskov to teach technique and composition in the art school of N.F. Fan der Flit . Here he worked until 1920, while simultaneously engaged in independent creative activities.

Creative work in Latvia

Architectural Design

Since 1920, S. N. Antonov lived and worked in Riga.

In 1924 he became a member of the newly created Association of Architects of Latvia. At that time, its chairman was Eugene Laube , and from 1928 to 1929 the Partnership was headed by Ernest Shtalberg , a former teacher of Antonov at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, who arrived in Riga in 1922 .

Antonov is participating in the development of a plan for the reconstruction of the historical center of the Latvian capital - the Old Town .

On the Brivibas street in the late 1920s there was the famous Alhambra cabaret restaurant, owned by Georg Berzins. In 1929, Sergey Antonov designed the interior of the Alhambra in the Art Deco style . The Alhambra restaurant lasted until 1940 . Its wooden building has not survived to the present day; in its place, the Rigas Modez enterprise was later located (Brivibas St. 25).

The following were built by the architect:

• The building of the restaurant "Lido" in Jurmala ( 1930 ).
• The Gaisma Cinema on Tallinn (Revelskaya) Street and the Renaissance Cinema on 44 Nometnyu Street ( 1938 ).
• The exposition pavilion of Latvia at the World Exhibition in Brussels (1935). For this work, the Riga architect was awarded the Belgian royal order of Leopold the Second and two gold medals.
• Next to the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1896–1897, architect R. Pflug) at the Pokrovsky cemetery in 1936, the architect S.N. Antonov erected the tomb of Archbishop John (Pommer).
• Crematorium building project (1938, co-authored with O. Tilmanis )
• In 1939, an unusually tall (48 meters) building of the ROTA publishing house was built on the project of architects Antonov and Alfred Birghan on 57 Dzirnavu Street .

In 1935 , on behalf of President Karlis Ulmanis , Antonov was developing a project for the building of the National City Council, which was to be located in the place where the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia is today, next to the House of the Blackheads . The purpose of the construction of the residence was the idea of ​​arranging numerous municipal government organizations in one building. The construction was to be carried out in the monumental forms of "sovereign" neoclassicism , to which Ulmanis gravitated.

From the side of the Daugava embankment the building was supposed to reach a height of 12 floors, from the side of Town Hall Square - seven. When the construction project was already ready, Ulmanis advised the architect to supplement his project with a dominant tower - the traditional architectural component of the town hall of a large European city. However, the practical implementation of this grandiose project was prevented by the Second World War, although it is reliably known that Antonov continued to work on sketches for the restoration of the Town Hall Square and the construction of a new building of the Council, at least until mid-1944. In his sketches, the influence of the classical Palladian tradition is clearly felt.

Theater, Painting, Graphics

From 1925 to 1940, Sergey Antonov worked as a decorator at the Riga Russian Theater . He created the scenery for the comedy of Griboedov - “Woe from Wit”, to the plays: A. K. Tolstoy - “Tsar Fedor Ioannovich”, Lope de Vega - “The Dog in the Hay”, E. Zamyatin - “Flea”, R. Blaumanis “The Prodigal Son,” and others. For more than five years, Sergey Antonov served as the chief decorator for this theater.

Antonov was invited to stage performances in other theaters. As the designer of Antonov’s dramatic performances in the 30s of the 20th century, he was as fashionable and popular as the artist Ludolf Liberts on the stage of the Riga Opera House .

S. N. Antonov worked on the design of productions in the "Worker Theater", "Wandering Opera", in the "National Theater". In 1922, he created the scenery for D. Merezhkovsky ’s play “Tsarevich Aleksey” staged at the Reinhardt Theater in Berlin .

In painting, the architect-artist remained faithful to the urban direction in the landscape: Antonov's favorite view was a view of Old Riga. In addition to an objective reflection of urban reality, the master came up with his own plot lines, supplemented the panorama of the Old City with new images and forms. It turned out colorful and organic - Antonov perfectly mastered the technique of drawing. The artist did not always sign his works, but this was not necessary either: Antonov's Riga art lovers recognized Antonov’s works without a signature.

Teaching

Since 1921, Sergey Nikolaevich Antonov taught future builders, architects and planners at the University of Latvia . He took an active part in the work of the architectural workshop, led by the eminent architect Eugen Laube , who built more than 200 buildings in Riga.

Architect's Last Project

For the design of the Riga Hotel (22 Aspazijas Boulevard ), which began in the first post-war years, two groups of authors were invited: under the leadership of Ernest Stalberg and under the leadership of Arvid Miesis (1902-1950). Preference was given to the project of the second group - an asymmetric composition, reminiscent of the letter “E” in plan. Antonov worked in this team, which also included architect Yuri Arkhipov and engineer A. Lisovsky. The interiors were created by A. Aivars, V. Dambran and A. Krastins. Since 1950, S. N. Antonov became the head of this project.

The design of the hotel clearly revealed contradictions in the architecture of that time. In the first versions, when solving facades, forms of classical orders were used . In the final version, it was decided to decorate the entire structure using stylized elements of folk architecture. After the construction was completed in 1954, the artistic image of the Riga Hotel became a target for criticism by adherents of rational architecture. ^[5]

When working on the Riga Hotel, a lot was done contrary to the opinion of the project manager ^[6] . In protest, S. N. Antonov refused the prize, which was awarded to the entire team of authors. Experiences during this period seriously affected the health of S. N. Antonov, he suffered a stroke and soon died.

In the year of the death of Sergei Nikolaevich Antonov, a memorable exhibition was held, at which more than 600 works by the artist of different years were presented. The organizer of the exhibition was A. F. Eglitis, a former Antonov student at the Pskov School of Art and Industry, director of the State Museum of Russian and Latvian Art (now the Latvian National Museum of Art ). ^[7]

The artist-architect Sergey Nikolaevich Antonov is a recognized master of Latvian architecture in the middle of the 20th century, an artist who made his contribution to the process of architectural development of the Latvian capital. His paintings are stored in museums and private collections in Moscow , Tallinn , Riga and other cities. ^[2]

The architect Sergei Antonov lived in Riga on Alberta Street , 2 - in a house built by Mikhail Eisenstein .

• Jānis Lejnieks. Riga, kuras nav. - Riga: Zinātne, 1998 .-- S. 399. - ISBN 5-7966-1191-7 . (Latvian.)
• Riga: Encyclopedia = Enciklopēdija "Riga" / Ch. ed. P.P. Eran. - 1st ed .. - Riga: Main Edition of Encyclopedias, 1989. - 880 p. - S. 606. Shtalberg Ernest Jekabovich. - 60,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89960-002-0 .
• I. Strautmanis, O. Buka, J. Krastins, G. Asaris . Architecture of Soviet Latvia. - M .: "Stroyizdat", 1987. - 320 p. - Page 123.
• S. N. Kondakov. Anniversary Directory of the Imperial Academy of Arts. 1764-1914. - St. Petersburg: Partnership R. Golike and A. Vilborg, 1915. - T. 2. - P. 288. - 454 p.

• Pictures of Sergey Nikolaevich Antonov on artsait.ru
• Antonov Sergey Nikolaevich (1884-1956)
• Restaurant "Lido" in Dzintari (Jurmala)