Chestnyakov, Efim Vasilievich

• December 19 (31), 1874 - born in the village of Shablovo, Kologrivsky district, Kostroma province, in the peasant family of the Samoilovs. He was, apart from two sisters, the only breadwinner. Such children, who over time laid down the maintenance of the family, were called honesty. From here came the surname Yefima.

“I had a passion for drawing in my very early childhood, from the age of 4, I don’t know for sure” ^[1]

“In early childhood, my grandmother had a strong influence. She told a lot of tales about antiquity ... Grandfather was a master in telling about his adventures ... He told stories and I won’t forget how wonderful he told me. From my mother I listened to fairy tales and mournful motives. Before the holidays, the father read the Gospel aloud. The poetry of grandmother cradled, mothers - grabbed the heart, grandfathers - lifted the spirit, fathers - pacified ... " ^[2]

• He studied literacy first privately, then at the Zemstvo Public School in the village of Krutets.

“According to the village views of that time, I requested early literacy. In the village, Uncle Frol taught in a literal way ... He began to study so nicely that Uncle Frol even wrote a commendation sheet. The following year, a zemstvo school opened in a mile and a half from the village, and I entered there ” ^[2]

• 1889 - graduated from the Kologriv district school.
• The school was taught by drawing and sketching artist Ivan Borisovich Perfiliev - the first professional teacher Chestnyakova, he also staged amateur performances in Kologriv. In 1908, he was exiled to Siberia. In protest of Alexander, the elder sister of Yefim, a graduate of the Kologrivsky female gymnasium, refused a gold medal.
• 1889 - June 3 (15), 1894 - studied at the Novinsky Teacher Seminary (in the village of Novinsky, Yaroslavl Province ). He received a scholarship to K. A. Popov, a Moscow merchant of the first guild, a native of the Kostroma village of Bolshoye Soli .

“As for the seminary, I don’t remember it without hatred. Will I ever forgive the mentors and the society that has entrusted them with the criminal role of performing inhuman calculations that kill young forces? But no matter how hard they tried to clog their heads and prevent thoughts from working, it was in vain ... Books and even educational subjects provided material for generalizations, and my mind, accustomed to reflect on its own, albeit with a sin in half ... but developed its own worldview. I got the foundation, the construction of the building began at the end of the seminary, when the last phase in my development came - a critical attitude to life in all its complexity. ” ^[2]

• 1894-1895 - works as a national teacher in the village of Zdemirovo, Kostroma district, Kostroma province.
• 1895 - July 1896 - works as a teacher in Kostroma in an elementary school at a shelter for juvenile delinquents.
• September 1896 - November 1899 works as a teacher in the Zemstvo public school in the village of Uglets Kineshma district of the Kostroma province.

“Four years spent in Uglets is an important stage in the biography of E.V. Chestnyakov. It was here that the views on society that were later reflected in the artist’s work were finally established in him ” ^[3]

• In the 1898-1899 school year, the primary education of Alexander, the eldest sister of Chestnyakova, graduated from the Ugletsky Folk School.

Efim Chestnyakov came to be a teacher in the Vichug region , one of the largest industrial regions of the Russian Empire. A diverse life was seething here and a real passionary center was born, giving a whole galaxy of outstanding personalities (among which Yefim Chestnyakov rightfully entered). The young teacher immediately fell into the spotlight of the local intelligentsia. He met many progressively-minded people, he got the opportunity to read a variety of fiction, socio-political and scientific literature (some copies of which he kept in Shablovo until the end of his life).

The artistic talents of Chestnyakov were immediately highly appreciated by the local intelligentsia, she saw a great future in Yefim and began to make every effort to ensure that Chestnyakov developed his talent. The very opportunity to study in the capital arose due to the efforts and St. Petersburg relations of Kinesham's acquaintances Efim Chestnyakov. “My drawings, when I was a teacher, accidentally traveled to Repin for me” (Chestnyakov, 1924).

In the fall of 1899, an answer came from Petersburg with Repin's opinion: “Undoubted abilities! Well, if there were people who could support him! For my part, I agree to take him to my studio on Galernaya ... "

After a positive response from Repin, the collection of folk remedies began, and E. Chestnyakov was fired from teachers.

For more than seven years, he received a professional art education Efim Chestnyakov before finally settling in his native Shablovo in 1914. This would not have been possible had it not been for the financial support of talent from the residents of the Vichug region and Kineshma .

“In Chestnyakov’s archives there are many tear-off coupons - mail orders that were sent to him from different places of Kinesham County. A significant part of this money was sent to their relatives in Shablovo ” ^[4]

Before going to study in St. Petersburg in the autumn of 1899, a rather large amount was collected - more than 300 rubles. ^[5] It is enough to say that E. Chestnyakov, being a teacher of the Zemstvo school, received about 20 rubles a month. In the future, the charitable foundation for the study of Efim Chestnyakov was constantly replenished with funds, during the holidays Chestnyakov came to Vichuga to make his creative reports, as well as to realize part of the paintings in the charity lottery. ^[6] On the other hand, in St. Petersburg, I. E. Repin and his assistant Shcherbinovsky wrote reviews intended for philanthropists. ^[7]

In November 1903, substantial assistance (in the amount of one hundred rubles) was rendered by the Kinesham Zemstvo "as a one-time allowance to Chestnyakov as a student of the Higher Art School at the Imperial Academy of Arts."

In the fall of the revolutionary year of 1905, E. Chestnyakov dropped out of school and returned to Shablovo. He promised the Vichug benefactors to return to Petersburg, but he could only do this in 1913. Nevertheless, monthly money was sent from Vichuga until July 1908. ^[eight]

• January 1900 - May 1902 - classes in the workshop of painting and drawing, book. M.K. Tenisheva (under the supervision of I.E. Repin, then D.A. Shcherbinovsky).
• Summer 1900 - was at home, in Shablovo.
• December 18 (31), 1901 - Chestnyakov’s letter to Repin, in which he told the story of his life.
• September 1902 - January 1903 - volunteer at the Higher Art School at the Imperial Academy of Arts (professors Savinsky, Tsionglinsky, Myasoedov, Curdsmen).
• May-September 1903 - lived in Vichuga, "wrote several genre works accepted for a lottery arranged by local philanthropists." ^[9]
• October 1903 - May 1904 - volunteer in the full-scale class of the Kazan Art School (teachers Skornyakov, Feshin).
• Autumn 1904 - January 1905 - study at the Kardovsky workshop at the Academy of Arts. ^[ten]
• After January 1905 - the Academy of Arts stopped classes until September, E. Chestnyakov leaves for Shablovo.

• The first retreat in Shablovo was very fruitful in creative terms. New ideas, necessary materials for work, a native atmosphere, financial support from Vichuga until mid-1908 all contributed to creativity, despite the fact that peasant labor was time-consuming (“From spring to autumn, until the snow fell on the ground, and for my scientist’s work, I sat down only in winter ” ). Portraits of fellow countrymen were written, new fairy-tale fantasy paintings, the clay “cordon” (clay sculptures united by a single plan) began to be born, poems and fairy tales were written, a great novel in verses about Marco Beschastny.
• But the populist idealism of Chestnyakov in Shablovo came across the crude realism of his fellow villagers. “In the valley I am alone ... I am lonely completely and surrounded by dark power, I dare not stand up to my full height. And the poor and orphans, they do not suspect how my spiritual work is going on ... And as a stranger in my native environment ... Sometimes it seems that I no longer understand them ... And what to do with my life? I don’t know where to go. And they don’t give me a hand from below and there is no connection with the people from above ... ” (words of Marco Beschastny, whose prototype is Efim himself).
• Loneliness and misunderstanding, the expenditure of materials for creativity, information hunger and a thirst to show their creations in the capital contributed to the decision of Efim Chestnyakov to go to Petersburg again. The immediate impetus for this could be information about the first All-Russian Congress of Artists, held in late 1911 - early 1912 in St. Petersburg.

• For financial support, Yefim again contacted the Vichug patrons in the person of Natalya Alexandrovna Abramova and her brother, a large industrialist Sergei Alexandrovich Razorenov, although Chestnyakov was not sure of support because of the “notorious unsaleability of his paintings” and because he had not returned to St. Petersburg to study earlier. But the necessary funds for the trip came from Vichuga to Shablovo in May 1912. Circumstances (the period of summer peasant labor) delayed the trip; Yefim appeared in Petersburg only in March 1913.
• In St. Petersburg, Yefim began to study in the academic workshop of Professor Kardovsky as a private student. Yefim had big plans: “I would like to get acquainted with all kinds of affairs in the city, if possible: painting, sculpture, music, architecture, mechanical engineering, agronomy, linguistics, astronomy, occult sciences, theaters and kinema, etc.”
• Several times he visited the house of I. Repin "Penates", where he showed his work, read literary works. Here he met K. Chukovsky, who brought Chestnyakov to the publishers.
• At the beginning of 1914, the fairy tale “A Wonderful Apple” was published in the magazine “Sun”, and in the publishing house “Teddy Bear” three tales of Chestnyakov “A Wonderful Apple”, “Ivanushko”, “Sergiyushko” were published as a separate book with illustrations of the author.
• In the summer of 1914, he illustrated the fairy tale "The Seven Orphans from Frostmo", which was supposed to be a separate book, but the outbreak of war crossed out these plans.

After the outbreak of World War I, Yefim Chestnyakov began to gather home in Shablovo. Before leaving, Chestnyakov had the opportunity to acquire the necessary materials for work and safely bring large luggage to Shablovo, in addition, he had a camera (he may have received a fee for illustrations for an unpublished fairy tale and / or support from A. I. Konovalov ^{[11 ]} ).

• 1914 - for health reasons, released from military duty.
• 1914-1915 - becomes the first photographer in Shablovo, photographing relatives and countrymen on photographic plates (apparently, Chestnyakov had only one set of photographic plates, after which Yefim was forever deprived of the opportunity to take photographs).
• 1917 - Yefim enthusiastically accepted the advent of the new government. “Let them give a room, material: I will paint a new Russia ...”
• 1918-1920 - Member of the Kologriv branch of the Society for the Study of the Local Territory.
• Since November 1919 - took part in the work of the Palace of the Proletcult, where he taught at art and theater studios.
• 1920 - February 1925 - people's assessor of the volost court.
• December 1, 1920-1925 - Efim Chestnyakov supervised the kindergarten he created in Shablovo, where he organized a children's theater.

“Children’s activities: watched illustrated books, magazines and during the break - tales, proverbs. Reading and stories, painted from a pencil and paints on paper. Their works (leaflets and notebooks) are all stored. They sculpted from clay, sang, played performances in the children's theater: “The Wonderful Pipe”, “Civilyushka”, “Yagaya Baba” and various minor improvisations. They like to dress up in costumes and masks. Adult villagers came to performances. ”

• March 24, 1924 - an exhibition of sketch-paintings and art products made of clay in the Kologriv Museum of Local Lore.

“It can be said that most of the works at the exhibition - the genre of the village, originally conveyed by the artist, with a touch of ethnographic - which gives particular interest to the exhibition. The same can be said about painted clay products (up to 200 copies, which, when explained by the artist, come to life as they are accompanied by a folk tune, lyrics of folk songs, etc. Not only the life of the village, but the fairy-tale world found its expression in clay and colors ” ^[12]

• July 4, 1928 - "Literary and concert evening of original works by E. Chesnenkov-Samoilov" in the city theater of Kologriv.

From the end of the 1920s, Chestnyakov began a creative crisis ( “my business is crying,” “my boat is aground” ), caused primarily by the lack of the most necessary for creativity, bitter need, as well as lack of understanding and lack of any support from authorities (besides, there was an accusation of “bourgeois formalism”).

At that time, Chestnyakov used mostly cheap watercolors for schoolchildren, which he bought in Kologriv, painting portraits of compatriots on handy material (album sheets, letterheads). It is known that Korney Chukovsky also sent paints from Moscow. In a letter to IM Kasatkin, he reported on literature in the 1920s that it was "almost all written before."

From the beginning of the 20th century until his death, Yefim Chestnyakov worried about preserving his creative heritage. Refusing to sell his best works in St. Petersburg and Vichug, refusing to give sculpture to the Hermitage, even refusing to print his literary works, he kept all his creative heritage in his house in Shablovo in unsuitable conditions for this. Paintings, sculptures, records were ruined by time.

Since the 1920s, concern about the fate of his work has become the main problem of the artist. “My years are passing away, I began to worry about the fate of my verbal and graphic works ...” ^[13] “Old age is drawing near. And I’m more and more worried about my arts, what my life has been spent on. ” ^[14] "All of mine without a prize lies in a heap." ^[15] Only after the war, in the very last years of his life, Yefim managed to adapt the old hut, in which his relatives once lived under the “workshop”, for storing paintings, the hut is brighter and more spacious than his own “hut”.

To solve the problem of how to “contemplate his children-paintings” in his last winter, Yefim twice called his faithful comrade A. G. Gromov from Leningrad to Shablovo. “I have great concern that my art will remain an orphan ...” (from a letter dated November 16, 1960). But all the efforts of Gromov, a simple teacher, "rested on the indifference of the responsible cultural workers." ^[sixteen]

The artist died on June 27, 1961 in his hut. He was buried in a cemetery near the village of Ileshevo.

After Chestnyakov’s death, much was dismantled by his fellow villagers “as a keepsake,” and the main painting, City of General Welfare, was even divided into pieces. From the clay “cordon”, which consisted of more than 800 figures, an insignificant amount has reached the present time - about forty works; something was stolen by the children from the empty house of Yefim.

• Summer 1968 - the annual scientific and research expedition of employees of the Kostroma Museum of Fine Arts ^[17] , while visiting the Kologrivsky district, randomly received information about Yefim and his paintings and arrived in Shablovo. A significant part of the paintings was obtained from fellow villagers and taken to the museum. Participants of the expedition: the chief curator of the museum Vladimir Makarov, senior researcher Vera Lebedeva, restoration artist Gennady Korf and driver Alexei Saburov.
• October 1971 - employees of the Kostroma Museum, headed by director V. Ya. Ignatiev, arrived in Kologriv to collect new information about Yefim Chestnyakov. Galina Alexandrovna Smirnova, the artist’s niece, handed over to the museum workers her manuscripts and documents from Chestnyakov collected in his hut after the artist’s death.
• Summer 1975 is the third scientific expedition of the Kostroma Museum to the Kologrivsky district, dedicated to the search for new materials related to the life and work of E.V. Chestnyakov. New testimonies of the artist’s life, part of his library, and new manuscript materials were obtained.

Restoration of paintings

The paintings, which since the 1970s began to be restored by a group of restorers led by Savva Yamshchikov , "came to us in serious condition." ^[18]

“In almost all the paintings there were screes of soil and a paint layer; their strengthening was required. Many noted numerous losses of author's painting, which had to be restored. All the works were without stretchers ... This caused the canvas to deform ... All the paintings were very dirty, covered with soot and dust, ingrained in the paint layer ... The canvas “The City of General Welfare” was cut into five parts ... According to the complexity of the restoration processes, the first place should be put composition "Kolyada". It is written on a very thin canvas ... Due to the lack of a stretcher, the canvas shrunk, shrank, folds formed along with the paint layer ... Under the weight of the thick paint layer, the canvas was torn into pieces of various sizes ... ” ^[19]

Despite the complexity of the restoration processes, none of the paintings found by Efim Chestnyakov was lost.

Unknown and unknown paintings by E. Chestnyakov

• A painting donated in 1900 to the manufacturers Abramov (Devils). ^[20]
• "Landowner" - purchased for 45 rubles. in 1901, the son of a Vichug factory owner Gennady Aleksandrovich Razorenov (Vichuga). ^[21]
• “I am waiting for an answer” - acquired in 1901 for 93 rubles by the Zemstvo doctor Peter Alekseevich Ratkov (Vichuga). ^[2]
• “By the Mass” - in 1901 it was put up for sale in Vichug. ^[2]
• Paintings sold in Kinesham County in 1903 and 1904 ^[22]
• “Pictures for acquaintances, portraits” (1913-1914, St. Petersburg). ^[23]
• Illustrations for the tales “Seven Orphans from Frostmo”, which were being prepared for publication in 1914 in St. Petersburg.

• 1900-1904 - Personal accounting exhibitions and sales exhibitions. Vichuga. Zemsky public school. Kineshma.

"There is evidence of an exhibition of works by Chestnyakov in Vichug, the purpose of which was primarily to sell them." ^[24] “Before leaving [to Shablovo in May 1900] Yefim arranged an exhibition of his St. Petersburg works at the Vichug school (it was necessary to“ report “to those who believed in him, who helped him!).” ^[25] After returning from Shablovo, "Yefim arranged another exhibition at the Vichug school." [in August 1900, before a charity gathering] ^[26] “Even in the second year of study at the Tenishevskaya workshop, Yefim first tried to paint pictures for earnings, which were sold or raffled off in the Kinesham County.” ^[27] In 1903, money was received “from paintings distributed in the Kineshma lottery”. ^[22] In 1904, Chestnyakov "with the help of patrons from Kineshma sells part of the paintings." ^[22]

• 1913 - "Exhibition" at Repin in Penates.

“It took a lot of time to look at the works - paintings and stucco that I had with me ... At the exhibition from the public, it seems, they wanted to get something” (from a letter from Chestnyakov to Abramova) ^[28]

• 1914 - Walking Exhibitions in St. Petersburg.

“I carry around the city with loads, up to seven every day. Watch is not stingy, but to no avail. Only time passes ... ". ^[29]

• 1924 - Personal exhibition. Kologriv. Museum of Local Lore.
• 1928 - Personal exhibition. Kologriv. City Theater.
• 1975 - Personal exhibition. Kostroma. Museum of Fine Arts.
• 1977 - Personal exhibition. Moscow. Exhibition Hall in Kadashi.
• 1977 - Personal exhibition. Kostroma. Art Museum.
• 1978 - “New discoveries of Soviet restorers”: the fourth section of the exhibition “Efim Chestnyakov”. Paris. House of society "France - USSR".
• 1978 - Personal exhibition. Yaroslavl Art Museum.
• 1978 - Personal exhibition. Bitter. Art Museum.
• 1978 - Personal exhibition. Moscow. House of scientists of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
• 1979 - "New discoveries of Soviet restorers": the fourth section of the exhibition "Efim Chestnyakov." Moscow. Exhibition Hall of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments of History and Culture.
• 1979 - "New discoveries of Soviet restorers": the fourth section of the exhibition "Efim Chestnyakov." Leningrad. Central Exhibition Hall.

1979 - Personal exhibition. Moscow. Central House of Artists.

• 1981 - Traveling solo exhibition. Florence. Turin.
• 1981 - Participation in the exhibition "Moscow - Paris". Moscow. State Museum of Fine Arts A.S. Pushkin.
• 1981 - Personal exhibition. Kostroma. Cinema "Eaglet".
• 1982 - Traveling solo exhibition. Le Havre, Saint, Bras.
• 1982 — Персональная выставка. Кологрив. Краеведческий музей.
• 1983 — Персональная выставка. Moscow. Центральный выставочный зал.
• 1983 — Персональная выставка. Leningrad. Центральный выставочный зал.
• 1984 — Персональная выставка, посвящённая 110-летию со дня рождения. Кострома. Музей изобразительных искусств.
• 1985 — Персональная выставка. Вологда. Художественный музей.
• 1985 — Персональная выставка. Петрозаводск. Музей изобразительных искусств.
• 1987 — Персональная выставка (графика). Куйбышев. Художественный музей.
• 1987 — «Искусство Костромского края XVI—XX веков». Leningrad. Центральный выставочный зал.
• 2008 — Персональная выставка (графика). СПб, Константиновский дворец (Государственный комплекс «Дворец конгрессов»)
• 2014 — «Сказка о чуде» , галерея Открытый клуб , Москва

• Дом-музей Ефима Честнякова в д. Шаблово (открыт в 2004).
• Детская социальная деревня — проект Александра Гордона по созданию инфраструктуры для многодетных семей в д. Шаблово.
• «Щедрое яблоко» — ежегодный фестиваль в Костромской области.
• Честняковские чтения.

• «Чудесное яблоко. Иванушко. Сергеюшко» (сказки и рисунки Ефима Честнякова). СПб, 1914. (репринт в книге Ямщиков С. В., «Ефим Честняков. Новые открытия советских реставраторов», М., 1985).
• Чесняков Е. Лирика. Comp. and auth. коммент В.Г.Поваров. Кострома, 2001.
• Честняков Е. Поэзия.,Сост., и авт. коммент. Р. Е. Обухов, — М., 1999
• Честняков Е. В. «Сказание о Стафии — Короле Тетеревином» (роман-сказка). Сост., и авт. коммент. Р. Е. Обухов, М., 2007.
• Шапошников В. И., «Ефимов кордон» (роман), М., 1979
• Ямщиков С. В., «Ефим Честняков. Новые открытия советских реставраторов», М., 1985
• Игнатьев В., Трофимов Е., «Мир Ефима Честнякова», М., 1988
• Игнатьев В. Я., «Ефим Васильевич Честняков», Кострома, 1995
• Ганцовская Н. С. «Живое поунженское слово. Словарь народно-разговорного языка Е. В. Честнякова», Кострома, 2007.
• «Пути в избах. Трикнижие о шабловском праведнике, художнике Ефиме Честнякове». Сост., авт. foreword и коммент. Р. Е. Обухов, М., 2008.
• Кузьмин Л. И. Чудесное яблоко. Рассказ о художнике Честнякове. Оформление В. Дмитрюка. (В книге помещены репродукции с картин художника Е. Честнякова) М.: Детская литература. 1981