Osipov, Sergey Ivanovich

Sergey Osipov was born in a peasant family in the village of Stepankovo ​​in the Bezhetsky district of the Tver province. Since the pre-revolutionary years, the artist’s father worked on construction in Petrograd. Osipov began to study at a school in the village of Porechye. In 1927 he came to his father in Leningrad. Here he graduated from seven classes and enrolled as a student at the Elektropribor factory. Then he worked with his father in construction.

At the same time, Osipov attends an evening art school on Tavricheskaya Street, where he studies with famous teachers Vladimir Sukov and Semyon Abugov ^[3] .

In 1932, Osipov entered preparatory classes at the All-Russian Academy of Arts , and in 1935 he became a student in the painting department of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture . He studied with S. L. Abugov , M. D. Bernshtein . ^[four]

After the second year, A. A. Osmerkin invited the young artist to continue his studies in his workshop. About four years spent in the workshop of A. A. Osmerkin, Osipov left memories. ^[5]

“Alexander Alexandrovich was, in my opinion, a born teacher who knew how to explain difficulties encountered in his work like no one else, while finding surprisingly accurate, sometimes not direct, but giving food for thought words. They wrote a model. I fought over the canvas, trying to put together the whole production, and applied thousands of fractional strokes with small brushes. Osmerkin said: “Osipov, it would be nice for you to have a little Feshin ...” And somehow everything became clear.

Personal artistic experience allowed Alexander Alexandrovich to discover difficult and subtle connections in the painting of Russian and Western European masters. So, revealing to us the method of Cezanne, he compared it with the picturesque experience of Alexander Ivanov, and then “Mount St. Victoria ”with its transitions of clearly defined color plans - from warm pink and orange to blue and blue - was getting somewhere very close to the Italian canvases of our great Ivanov.

Remembering the student years, I get the idea that if during the years of training with Osmerkin, in a daily, stubborn comprehension of nature, we were able to make small successes, move forward, then this was also a consolidation of the beginnings of that understanding of great art that was revealed to us our teacher, persistently sending us to the museum, striving to strengthen our study of nature in the workshop and in nature by studying the works of great masters. ” ^[6]

Subsequently, Osipov will use these observations and experience in his many years of pedagogical practice while working at the Department of General Painting at V. I. Mukhina LVHPU .

The war found Osipov on his graduation course in the workshop of A. Osmerkin . Having left his studies, he volunteered for the militia. Participated in battles near Leningrad. In December 1941, when clearing passages for the advancing sailor battalion from Kronstadt in the area of ​​Old Peterhof, he was seriously injured and lost his leg. He spent more than a year in hospitals for treatment. Demobilized in 1943 as a disabled person of the Great Patriotic War . He was awarded the Order of Glory of the III degree , medals " For the Defense of Leningrad " and " For the Victory over Germany " ^[7] .

After almost half a century, the circumstances of the wound and treatment of S. Osipov were described in the memoirs of the head of the surgical department of a military hospital.

“In the most difficult time of our hospital’s life at the end of 1941, in the cold and darkness, we had to make the first amputation of the lower leg. The wounded Osipov was admitted to the seventh surgical department. Young, exhausted, with a reddish head of hair and a beard. Artist. As I found out 50 years later, he was in his last year at the Academy of Arts, a militia. Osipov was shot in the thigh. The wound is small, but a large blood vessel was damaged and gangrene of the foot began. To save the life of the wounded one had to sacrifice a foot. The operation was carried out in purely front-line conditions: in the small cold tent, in the evening, with obligatory darkening of the window, on the bed instead of the operating table, under the light of two flashlights “bat” and only at the most crucial moment the emergency lamp was turned on. Surgeons, including myself, in quilted jackets under dressing gowns, exhausted, sawed bones with difficulty.

The wounded man slowly recovered, his life was saved. After improving his condition, Osipov was evacuated by a plane to the rear for aftercare. Unfortunately, his further fate was unknown to me. And suddenly, accidentally turned on the radio on September 19, 1991 brought me the answer to a question half a century ago. The art critic N. B. Neshataeva spoke about the life of the artist Osipov Sergey Ivanovich in connection with a personal exhibition of his paintings. The coincidence of the name of the artist, the wound near Leningrad, the amputation of the leg in the Leningrad hospital gave me reason to believe that this is our wounded Osipov, who was operated on in blockaded Leningrad by me and another surgeon, who took care of the ward with success was treated at the rear hospital in Sverdlovsk. The coincidence of the data left almost no doubt that this is the hero of our department and my notes. But still I tried to test myself. Having received information through many inquiries, I phoned the widow of Sergei Ivanovich, Antonina Ivanovna. She confirmed that Sergei Ivanovich was operated on in 1941 in our hospital. She said that he met her at the hospital in Sverdlovsk. Osipov completed his art education in Samarkand, where the Academy of Arts was evacuated from Leningrad.

For me, my friends, employees of our surgical department of the hospital, such a belated report about the fate of our seriously injured was not only a great joy, but also a reward for our selfless work in the besieged city. ” ^[8]

In 1943, Osipov was demobilized due to disability and left for Samarkand to continue his studies at the institute and in December of that year he graduated from the workshop of A. A. Osmerkin with the qualification of an artist. His thesis was the painting "Partisans . " ^[9]

In 1944, after the complete lifting of the blockade, Osipov returned to Leningrad, modest earnings are given by work under contracts with Lenizo . In April 1945 he was admitted to the Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists . Since 1945, Osipov has been a constant participant in exhibitions of Leningrad artists, he tries himself in portraiture, writes genre compositions, still lifes, but the lyrical landscape becomes the leading one in his work.

In 1945, Osipov began many years of pedagogical work, first at LHPU , then in 1946-1949. in the art studio at the Palace of Culture named after M. Gorky , and from 1949 until the end of the 1970s at the Department of General Painting at the Art School named after V. I. Mukhina ^[10] .

About Sergey Osipov - a teacher interesting memories were left by his student artist A. A. Naumov .

“The recollections of Sergey Ivanovich Osipov take me to the distant 1960s, when, having returned from the army, I entered the V. I. Mukhina school for the department of metal, having no idea either about design or about painting. My first teachers were the wonderful Leningrad artists S. I. Osipov, Y. I. Krestovsky , A. N. Semenov . Osipov taught us not to limit ourselves to writing off individual parts of the production, but to see the whole composition whole, to try to imagine the still life already written. “Sasha,” said Sergey Ivanovich, “immediately paint over the plane and the background, try to take these relationships and, based on them, build the entire color scheme.” Sergey Ivanovich tried to convey the traditions of the workshop of A. A. Osmerkin to his students in discussions, in tactful ability to prompt the student without interfering in the painting process. But if he saw that someone “swam the wrong way”, he delicately nudged him with his famous cane, sat down at an easel and began “education”.

Pedagogical work took a lot of time without leaving it for creativity, therefore, in June, when the rounds at the institute ended, S. I. Osipov began to prepare for the next trip. Once he invited me to accompany him to Izborsk. And then there were Suzdal, Ferapontovo, Kirillo-Belozersky monastery and others. Spending a lot of time in joint trips with Osipov, I was, as it were, under the hypnosis of this very peculiar artist and began to look at the world through his eyes. I always wanted to immediately “load” the canvas, to sensually convey the state of the landscape. S. I. Osipov smiled, did not say anything ... Looking at how he works, you understand a lot better than whole lectures on art. Watercolor technique, rhythmic organization of the canvas, color, unusual musicality - all this makes the paintings of S. I. Osipov surprisingly attractive, “Osipovskie”. On sketches we were often surrounded by curious children. With interest looking at the corners and planes on Osipov’s canvas, they seriously asked: “Uncle, are you a draftsman?” Sergey Ivanovich smiled and sent them to me. After seeing my work, they returned to Osipov: "Uncle, he has better!" Sergei Ivanovich laughed ... ". ^[eleven]

As researchers of creativity of S. Osipov will later note, it was inextricably linked with the theme of the Motherland - the Tver land, its nature, ancient Russian cities, and the peasant way of life. From the end of the 1940s, he will annually, and often several times, travel to Staraya Ladoga , Izborsk , Staritsa , Torzhok , Pskov , bringing from these trips numerous studies, sketches and paintings. Then the work continued in the workshop. And so, year after year for forty years.

The works of the 1960-1970s nominated Osipov as one of the leading Leningrad painters with his original and original manner. In 1983, with the support of E. E. Moiseenko , a large exhibition of Sergey Osipov's works was shown at the Central House of Artists in Moscow. ^[12]

Sergey Ivanovich Osipov died on October 12, 1985 in Leningrad in the seventy-first year of his life. In 1990, a posthumous exhibition of the master’s works was shown at LOSH , allowing for the first time to present his artistic heritage. ^[13]

In the work of S. Osipov, which began with work on a diploma picture, which developed progressively, without visible zigzags and jumps, researchers distinguish several periods.

1945 - 1958

S. Osipov acquired his recognizable individual style of painting gradually. Trips from the late 1940s to Staraya Ladoga, Izborsk, Pskov, and Staritsa helped the artist restore his creative skills and establish himself in a circle of related topics. By the mid-1950s, technically, he had quite developed as a master. This is evidenced by the works of those years, including those shown at Leningrad exhibitions: “Boy” (1950), “Harvesting” (1950) ^[14] , “Pskov. Street ” (1951), “ On the Volga ” (1951) ^[15] , “ The Last Snow ” (1954) ^[16] , “ Compressed Field ” (1954) ^[17] , “ On the Volkhov ” (1955), “ Trickle ” (1956) ^[18] and others.

“My creative life began with work on the landscape,” Osipov wrote in 1968. - The landscape has always interested and excited me as an artist. Working on it, I sought to express my feelings and love for my native nature. ” ^[19]

The painting style of this period can be judged by the painting “Street. Pskov ” (1951). The artist himself considered it to be very characteristic of his early work, including work among the few works of the early 1950s in the exposition of the 1983 Moscow exhibition. ^[20] She is distinguished by a certain conventionality of form, timid attempts to escape from illusory naturalism to a more generalized manner of painting. In the future, Osipov will practically abandon the presence of figures of people in the landscapes and the detailed reproduction of panoramic architectural views.

Just following nature no longer satisfied the artist; he felt the need to move on. But how, in what way? A new 1958 creative business trip to Pskov and its environs gave Osipov, in his own words, “some impetus.” ^{[21] The} landscapes painted as a result of this trip were welcomed by critics. ^{[22] [23]}

1959 - 1969

A real turn in the artist’s work was indicated in the works of the very end of the 1950s - beginning of the 1960s. Trusting his own plan, striving to achieve harmony and enhance expressiveness, Osipov is now less and less likely to follow the path of nature, and composes the composition, inhabiting it previously observed in life and nature. At the same time, he boldly uses artistic generalization, sacrificing secondary details and details in order to enhance the integrity of the image. One of the first works in which Osipov manages to most fully embody new ideas was the painting "Houses on the Volga" ^[24] (1959). To evaluate the turn in the artist’s work, it’s enough to compare this picture with the 1951 work “Street. Pskov . "

Among the works that open a new period in the artist’s work are “Boats” , “Bridge” (both 1960), ^[25] “Outskirts of the Village” (1960) ^[26] , “Still Life with a Violin” (1960) ^[27] , “ In Staraya Ladoga " (1961), " Pskov " , " Pskov. Street " (1962) ^[28] , " Truvorovo hillfort " (1962), " Fortress tower " , " Stozhok. Autumn ” , “ Fortress. Old Izborsk ” (all 1963) ^[29] , “ The Watchman Donkey ” (1963), “ Haymaking ” (1964) ^[30] , “ Still Life with a Balalaika ” (1965) and others.

According to G.F. Golenky, a Leningrad art historian and first researcher of creativity S. Osipov, new trips to Pskov , Izborsk , Suzdal , work on the creative base of Leningrad artists in Staraya Ladoga enriched the artist with invaluable lessons from the ancient builders of cathedrals and fortresses, helped to understand that ravines, hills, riverbeds, trees, huts should be written as elements of a single spatial environment, as small values ​​of the whole, actively participating in the formation of its features. And then Russian soft melody, clear rhythm and that unique proportionality, by which the national character of the landscape is unmistakably recognized, appeared in Osipov’s landscapes. And in his still lifes there appeared a strong “knockdown”, a good alignment, “grinding”, the fit of all the elements to each other, as in a grandfather log cabin. ^[31]

Simplifying, and sometimes somewhat deforming objects, Osipov emphasized their three-dimensional construction and those internal forces, the tension with which nature or man created them. “We must remind the viewer of the hidden energy that filled every thing. For me, it is here that the spring of poetry, and not in stories about an action or an event, ”the artist admitted. ^[32]

Other notable features of Osipov’s painting are the great conventionality of the form and the whole composition of the picture, a noticeable desire for generalizations, allegory, a desire to get away from contemplative naturalism to philosophical depth and some symbolism, but not crossing the line beyond which painting breaks with the real world. The style of the work of this period resembles a light “semi-cubism”, the form is formed by planes and faces. The most common color is lilac, Osipov writes in lilac tones the sky, water, neutral background, the wall of the house, surprisingly subtly conveying the mood of the landscape.

1970 - 1985

The peak of Osipov's work falls on the 1970s - early 1980s. During this period he created a number of the best works, mainly in the genre of landscape and still life, which now occupies no less place in the artist's work. Among them are "The Town of Staritsa" ^[33] (1967), "It's Haymaking Time" ^[34] (1967), "Izborsk. 17th Century Tower ” (1967), “ Crossing the River ” , “ In Izborsk ” , “ In Suzdal ” (all 1968), “ Silvery Willows ” , “ Wild Flowers ” , “ Senost Pogost ” , “ Still Life with Balalaika ” ^{[35 ]} , “Still life with a balalaika and a shelf” (all 1970), “House with an arch” (1972) ^[36] , “Snowy courtyard” , “Landscape with a fortress. Old Izborsk ” ^[37] , “ Autumn Branch ” (all 1974) ^[38] , “ The Town of Staritsa. Winter ” (1974) ^[39] , “ Still Life with a White Jug ” (1972), “ Still Life with Cornflowers ” (1976) ^{[40] [41] [42]} , “ Northern River ” (1976), “ The Pink House ” ( 1977), Izborsk Slopes (1978), Stozhok. Rainy Day ” (1980), “ Early Greens ” (1982), “ Dandelions ” (1985) ^[43] and others.

The theme of spiritual sources, traditional for S. Osipov, was also mentioned earlier in his still lifes, in Cornflowers (1976), Still Life with a White Jug (1972), Autumn Branch (1974), Dandelions (1985) and some others incarnate with great grace and artistic taste. Having escaped from some overload of the composition, which was encountered in earlier works, Osipov achieves in still life a great depth of image and associative subtext.

The works of S. I. Osipov contributed to the Leningrad painting of the 1970s, their originality and significance ^[44] . In his paintings, much resembles the art of ancient Russian masters: the laconicism of the artistic language, the conventions of form and the accuracy of composition, resourcefulness in detail, the integrity and expressiveness of the image built on unpretentious peasant material.

According to S. T. Makhlina, “Osipov’s small landscapes are endowed with extraordinary power of influence on the audience. And the point here is not only that the painter, using the image of nature in its many manifestations, creates landscapes that are consonant with the mental state of man. In all his works, the theme of the Motherland is revealed, praised by the artist with great filial love. And this is quite difficult, because raising a big topic and making it close and understandable in the landscape genre is very, very difficult. ” ^[45]

Through all the work of Osipov, the thought of continuity, of spiritual and cultural inheritance passes. In his works, the national past is not inseparable from the present. With his works, the author, as it were, confirms the idea that the beauty created by the ancestors does not lose its significance over time. It retains the ability to beneficially influence people and should be included in the spiritual routine of contemporaries. “Sincerity, wise simplicity, a clear harmony of forms and colors allow us to experience the ancient traditions of Russian art, perceived by the author not as a thoughtless use of the technique, but understood in all their essence by our contemporaries,” wrote critics A. Gubarev and A. in 1971 about Osipov . Dmitrenko . ^[46]

The works of S. I. Osipov are in the State Russian Museum , in museums and private collections in Russia, Italy, Great Britain, the USA ^[47] , Austria, Finland ^[48] and other countries.

In 2017, S.I. Osipov's “Autumn Branch” (1974) appeared in the popular 20-series psychological thriller CHANCE (in the Russian box office “Doctor CHANCE” ), shot by 20 Century Fox Film Corporation based on the novel by the same name by Kem Nunn, commissioned by American video streaming service Hulu with popular English actor Hugh Laurie in the title role. In the two final series of the thriller, the painting by S. I. Osipov “Autumn Branch” is shown in the interior of the protagonist’s house. Against the background of the picture, which plays a plot-forming role in these scenes, key dramatic dialogues unfold with the participation of the main characters of the film.

• Landscape painting in the fine arts of Leningrad
• List of painters of the Leningrad Union of Artists
• House of Artists "Staraya Ladoga"

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