Rusov, Lev Alexandrovich

Rusov Lev Alexandrovich was born on January 31, 1926 in Leningrad in a family of employees. His father Alexander Semenovich Rusov came from peasants of the Nizhny Novgorod province, his mother Iraida Semenovna Nemtsova was from Kostroma.

In 1939-1941 in parallel with his studies at the secondary school, Rusov studied in the art studio of the Vyborg district. In December 1941, together with his mother, he was evacuated from the besieged Leningrad to the Gorky region . In 1943, Rusov moved to Kostroma , where he entered the regional art school. In 1945, in connection with his return to Leningrad, Rusov was transferred to the Leningrad Art and Pedagogical College , which he graduated in 1947 ^[2] .

In 1948, Rusov entered the painting department of IZHSA im. I. E. Repin , studied with Yu. M. Neprintsev , G. V. Pavlovsky ^[3] . However, after studying for two years, for health reasons he left classes. In 1951-1955 he taught painting at schools in the Kirov region, while continuing to paint.

Since the mid-1950s, Rusov began to participate in exhibitions , exhibiting his works along with the works of leading masters of the fine arts of Leningrad . At the spring exhibitions of 1954 and 1955, he showed the work “Girl with a Bow” (1954) ^[4] , “By the Sea” and “Portrait of the Artist V.V. Kremer” (both 1955) ^[5] , drawing attention to himself as talented portrait painter. In 1955, Rusov was admitted to the Leningrad Union of Artists on the recommendation of famous painters P.D. Buchkin , Yu. M. Neprintsev and V.V. Kremer. In addition to portraits, Rusov during these years wrote genre compositions, still lifes, landscapes, works in the technique of oil painting, watercolors and woodcuts .

1955 was marked for Rusov by meetings with people who changed his personal and creative destiny. He meets Ekaterina Balebina (born December 29, 1933), the daughter of V. A. Balebin, the famous torpedo bomber, Hero of the Soviet Union , who will become his wife (the marriage will be officially registered on January 31, 1959), the mother of his son (Andrey Lvovich Rusov, born April 27, 1960) and the main muse. Charming and lively, full of self-sacrifice, she will pose for Rusova as a model for many paintings and portraits, create and protect the world in which the artist’s creative gift has manifested and sparkled with all its might. Rusov’s acquaintance with E. A. Mravinsky , which grew into their long-standing friendship, which we owe to several portraits of the outstanding conductor created during the years 1950-1980 ^[6] , belongs to the same year.

In 1954-1956 Rusov turns to the historical genre, creating a series of eight paintings based on the novel by Charles de Coster " The Legend of Thiel Uhlenshpigel ." The choice of theme and its figurative embodiment were consonant with the moods of the early Khrushchev “thaw” and the author’s personal freedom-loving aspirations. Shown at the end of 1956 at the autumn exhibition of Leningrad artists, the work “Birth” , “Torture” , “Death of the Father” , “On the Fields of the Motherland” , “Boarding” , “Til and Lamme” , “Death to the Traitors” , “Song of Til " (All 1956) brought fame to the author and declared him as a master of historical painting. ^[7]

The indicated works and, above all, the double portrait of Til and Lamme are also interesting because the artist endowed Thiel with features of external resemblance to himself. This makes him unique in the creative heritage of the artist, since the self-portraits of L. Rusov are unknown. Having lost his eyes in evacuation, he did not like to be photographed and did not pose for self-portraits.

In 1960-1980 Rusov’s creative life was divided between the Leningrad workshop, the house in Fonarny pereulok and the village of Pavshino on Oredezh, where on the high bank of the river the artist built a house with a workshop and spent many months each year.

Lev Aleksandrovich Rusov died on February 20, 1987 in Leningrad in the sixty-second year of his life from heart disease. His works are in museums and private collections in Russia, the USA, Norway, Great Britain, Sweden, France and other countries ^[8] . The widow of the artist Ekaterina Vasilievna Rusova outlived her husband by 15 years and died on June 20, 2002 in St. Petersburg at the sixty-ninth year of life.

In 1970, in Leningrad, the A. F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences hosted the only lifetime exhibition of Rusov's works ^[9] .

With the greatest power, the picturesque talent of Rusov was revealed in a series of portraits of contemporaries created in the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s. Among them are “Portrait of N. Orlova” (1956), “Portrait of E. Balebina” (1956), “Portrait of a young woman in red” (1956), “Zoya” (1957) ^[10] , “Portrait of the conductor Evgeny Mravinsky” ( 1957) ^[11] , “Natasha” (1958) ^[12] , “Portrait of the actor Vladislav Strzhelchik ” (1957) ^[13] , “Kira and Zoya” (1958), “Young Caster” (1961) ^[14] , “ Kira " (1962), " Portrait of a son " (1965) and others.

The works of this period fall at the time of the highest creative upsurge of Rusov, the painter, and constitute the most valuable part of his diverse artistic heritage. They are distinguished by extraordinary expressiveness of images, courage of compositional decisions, unmistakable artistic taste. The color scheme is dominated by pearl and purple tones. The manner of the artist is distinguished by a powerful pictorial language, wide writing, sharp composition, interest in complex angles. Rusov possessed a rare ability to capture the fleeting states of nature, to quickly embody a pictorial idea on canvas - immediately and unusually convincingly. The images created by him combine the expressiveness of individual characteristics with a vivid embodiment of the typical features of contemporaries.

In the work on the portrait, Rusov manages to catch the immediate state of nature, which, with prolonged posing, eludes most artists. He knows how to keep this first impression to the end and convey to the viewer. Therefore, in his works, nature is alive, and this feeling of a lively look of living people is almost the most exciting in the artist's portraits. ^[15]

Along with the expressiveness of the form, the portraits of Rusov are distinguished by the depth and psychology of the images, careful selection and study of nature. This was another important reason for the success of his works. Rusov wrote many of the best works of this period in the village of Pavshino on the Oredezh River near Leningrad, where in the late 1950s a group of young artists settled: G. Bagrov, E. Shram, K. Slavinim and N. Slavina, L. Kuzov, A. Yakovlev, G. Antonov. Here in Oredezh, first in the village of Nakol, then in Pavshino Rusov finds the heroines of her new portraits: Aunt Polya, the sisters Zoya and Kira, the village girl Natasha Savelyeva. It was her portrait, painted by Rusov in 1958, for the first time that was truly noticed and appreciated by critics.

In reviews of the fall exhibition of 1958, Leningrad newspapers gave her a prominent place. E. Kovtun, in his article “Notes on an art exhibition” in the issue of “Evening Leningrad” dated November 29, 1958, wrote about “the amazing spontaneity and freshness of feelings with which the work of L. Rusov bribes ”. ^[16] M. Shumova, in the article “Do not Conquer the Conquered Frontiers!” In the “Leningrad Truth” of December 2, 1958, wrote about this work:

“ Portrait of L. Rusov“ Natasha ”pleases with the sincere interest of the artist in the inner world of man. The background of the picture, the dress of the girl are painted with sweeping, strong strokes. But they do not catch the eye, do not lead away from the shaded face, which was also written fluently, but at the same time carefully, subtly, thoughtfully. The inquisitive eyes of the girl, her inspired face attract attention . ” ^[17]

And subsequently, L. Rusov repeatedly wrote to Natasha Savelyev. So, she served as a model for two famous works dated 1960: “Natasha” and “Bows” .

Characterizing the work of Rusov, art historians A. Dmitrenko and R. Bakhtiyarov note:

“ In the Leningrad pictorial portrait of the turn of the 1950-1960s, a certain contradiction between the tasks of typifying the image and at the same time the artist’s desire to touch the“ hidden movements of the soul ”remained. It is no coincidence that L. A. Rusov, who unambiguously gave his preference to such a “touch”, seemed to remove the model’s inner world from the external, “typical” task that distinguished many works of the portrait genre of that time. In his works, a connection with the work of Valentin Serov, with the manner of Osip Braz and Andreas Zorn is traced. Organically linking the figure and the background, which Rusov successfully uses as a means of enhancing the expressiveness of the image, he at the same time leaves for each of his models the right to "personal space", as, for example, in the portraits of Ekaterina Balebina, Natalya Orlova, or the village girl Natasha Savelyeva . ” ^[18]

The works of the 1950-1960s nominated Lev Rusov among the leading masters of portraiture. However, for the general public and even for many colleagues in the Leningrad Union of Artists, he remained virtually unknown. The explanation for this must be sought primarily in the character traits of the artist. A man of independent views, talented, direct, sometimes ruthless in assessments and judgments, astonishing those who knew him closely with his monstrous capacity for work, he eschewed the “public life” of the Union, was intolerant of any manifestations of mediocrity and frank hack. In fact, during the Brezhnev years of “stagnation” and “developed socialism” he remained a man of the Khrushchev's “thaw”. In 1970-1980 Rusov rarely showed his work at exhibitions. His life was divided between a city workshop, a house in Pavshino on Oredezh and communication with a narrow circle of old friends. In fairness, we must admit that the existing system did not reject such artists, allowing them to have almost free materials and a workshop for creative work in exchange for minimal loyalty.

In the mid-1960s, Rusov became interested in wooden sculpture and the Russian folk epic. From now until the end of his life, this will become the main theme of his work, displacing painting. Many excellent sculptures came out of his hands, from small figures to large forms such as “ Russian Icarus ” and reliefs on the epic theme “Outpost” , “Bylina Sing” ^[19] . However, the artist did not stop painting. Moreover, the range of his interests becomes wider. In addition to the portrait, in these years he turns to the genre and historical painting, still life, landscape. Among them are “Portrait of Zoe” (1973), “Buffoons” (1976), “Leningrad Symphony. Conducted by E. A. Mravinsky ” (1980) ^[20] , “ Kitchen. Still Life ” (1979) ^[21] , “ Portrait of the Artist I. Skorobogatov ” (1982) ^[22] , several portraits of the wife of E.V. Rusova and other works.

• Central State Archive of literature and art. SPb . F.78. Op. 8. D.141.
• E. Kovtun. Notes on the art exhibition // Evening Leningrad. 1958, November 29.
• M. Shumova. Do not give in to conquered milestones! // Leningrad truth. 1958, December 2.
• Exhibition of works by Leningrad artists of 1960. Catalog. L., Artist of the RSFSR, 1961. P.35.
• Exhibition of works by Leningrad artists of 1961. Catalog. L., Artist of the RSFSR, 1964. P.34.
• V. Boykov. And the theme and image . Neva. 1972. No. 1. S. 202-205.
• Zonal exhibition of works by Leningrad artists of 1980. Catalog. L., Artist of the RSFSR, 1983. P. 22.
• Leningrad artists. Painting 1950-1980 years. Catalog. St. Petersburg, 1994. S. 6.
• Study in the works of Leningrad artists. Exhibition of works. Catalog. St. Petersburg, 1994. S. 6.
• Rusov L. A. “Zoya” // Ivanov S.V. Etude in crimson tones // St. Petersburg Vedomosti. 1994, December 9th.
• The lyrics in the works of artists of the military generation. Painting. Graphics. Catalog. St. Petersburg, 1995. P.6.
• Painting of 1940-1990. Leningrad school. Exhibition of works. St. Petersburg, 1996.S. 4.
• Leningrad school // "Poster". Weekly supplement to the newspaper St. Petersburg Vedomosti. 1996, March 2.
• Viziryakina T. Epoch. Time. Artist // Nevsky Mirror. 1996, No. 7.
• Sablin V. “Leningrad School” in St. Petersburg // Evening Petersburg. 1996 March 21
• Still life in the painting of 1940-1990. Leningrad school. Exhibition catalog . SPb., 1997. P. 4.
• Slavin K., Slavina N. We were young . SPb., RID, 2000. ISBN 978-5-89132-016-1 , ISBN 5-89132-016-9 , ISBN 58913201690 (erroneous) .
• Ivanov S. Unknown Socialist Realism. Leningrad school. St. Petersburg, NP-Print, 2007. S.9, 20-22, 24, 368, 390–394, 401, 404–406. ISBN 5-901724-21-6 , ISBN 978-5-901724-21-7 .
• Danilova A. Formation of the Leningrad school of painting and its artistic traditions // Petersburg art notebooks. Vol. 21. St. Petersburg, 2011. S.94-105.
• Ivanov S. About the early portraits of Lev Rusov // Petersburg art notebooks. Vol. 23. St. Petersburg, 2012.S. 7-15.
• Rusov L. A. Portrait of E. A. Mravinsky // 80 years of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists. Anniversary exhibition. St. Petersburg, "Colorprint", 2012. P.208.
• Leningrad school of painting. Essays on the story. St. Petersburg: Gallery ARKA, 2019.

• Portrait of E. A. Mravinsky

• Exhibition of Lev Rusov's works in the Museum of Art
• Ivanov S.V. Riddles of early portraits of Lev Rusov
• Artist Lev Rusov. Portraiture 1950-1980 Part 1 (VIDEO)
• Artist Lev Rusov. Portraiture 1950-1980 Part 2 (VIDEO)
• Exhibition of works by artist Lev Rusov in the St. Petersburg gallery ARKA