Count Vladimir Komarovsky ( October 8 ( 20 ), 1883 , St. Petersburg , Russian Empire - November 5, 1937 , Butovo training ground , Moscow region ) - Russian icon painter, restorer.
| Vladimir Alekseevich Komarovsky | |
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| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | |
| Date of death | |
| A place of death | |
| Citizenship |  Russian Empire →  the USSR |
| Study | |
Biography
He came from the noble family of Komarovsky : his father, real state adviser Alexei Yegorovich Komarovsky (1841-1897) was the mastermaster of the Imperial Court, the keeper of the Moscow Armory . His older brother, Vasily Alekseevich Komarovsky, is a famous Russian poet of the Silver Age. Mother, Alexandra Vasilievna (nee Bezobrazova), suffered from a severe form of epilepsy (the last 20 years of her life, until her death in 1904, she spent in a psychiatric hospital). After the death of the father, the guardian of three sons, Vasily, Yuri and Vladimir, became their grandfather - Vasily Grigorievich Bezobrazov [1] .
Vladimir Komarovsky first studied at the Moscow Lyceum of Tsarevich Nikolai , then graduated from the Yalta Gymnasium . Until the 4th year, he studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University , from where he transferred to the Academy of Arts , but soon left it and went abroad with his cousin Yury Alexandrovich Olsufyev , where he studied the art of the early Middle Ages.
In 1905, V. A. Komarovsky participated with ornamental works at the exhibition "The New Society of Artists " ("HOX"). In 1909, Komarovsky studied in the Paris workshops of Julian and Colarossi , as well as under the guidance of V. A. Serov , who lived in Paris during these years. Returning to St. Petersburg at the beginning of 1910, V. A. Komarovsky exhibited his works at the 7th exhibition of HOX, and they were noticed by critics.
In 1910, the Department of Old Russian Art was opened in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. At the source of the restoration of ancient Russian icons stood P. I. Neradovsky , a friend of Vladimir Komarovsky. This was the time of the opening of old Russian icon painting: the icons, cleared of later craft records, were striking in their pristine beauty and made, according to P. I. Neradovsky, “an amazing impression”. Thanks to Neradovsky, Komarovsky began to work with icons in the museum: he made copies from old models, studied the technology of icon painting.
In 1911, the then-famous artist D. S. Stelletsky invited Komarovsky to work on the iconostasis of the church on the estate of Count A.O. Medem , on the Alexandria farm, not far from Khvalynsk . To write the icons, Komarovsky invited Stelletsky to his grandfather's estate - Raksha estate, where a workshop was set up on the 2nd floor of the left wing (Komarovsky lived with his wife, Varvara Fedorovna Samarina, granddaughter of Nikolai Petrovich Trubetskoy , whom he married in 1912 year). When creating icons, Stelletsky, as a more experienced one, designated “outline” on the icon board, and Komarovsky wrote according to the outline with paints. The artists were helped by the young A. D. Korin .
The iconostasis was completed in 1913, but while still working on it, Yu. A. Olsufiev proposed a new work - on the iconostasis for the memorial church under construction in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh on the Kulikovo field . The artists completed this iconostasis by the spring of 1914 [2] .
In the summer of 1914, the Komarovskys left for Moscow, where in September their first-born, Alexey, was born [3] .
At the beginning of 1915 the Komarovskys left for Tiflis, where the Caucasian branch of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union for the organization of infirmaries for the wounded was headed by Yu. A. Olsufiev. Here he worked with his cousin S.P. Mansurov . In the summer of 1915, living in Mtskheta, the Olsufievs restored a small ancient church in the Russian Olgin monastery. The sketch of the stone iconostasis was made by the wife of Olsufiev - Sofia Vladimirovna; two large icons for the church — the Savior and the Mother of God — were written by V. A. Komarovsky. In 1916, a daughter, Antonina, was born to the Komarovsky.
In the summer of 1917, the Komarovsky family settled in his wife’s estate near Moscow - the Izmalkovo estate . For a wooden chapel located near the estate, in a village cemetery, Komarovsky painted an icon of the Our Lady of the Don [4] . In one of the wings of the former estate, a rural school was located, in which Komarovsky worked as a drawing teacher. In addition, he painted wooden products for the Handicraft Museum in Moscow and was engaged in agriculture.
In 1922 he was arrested in the house of Count V. A. Mikhalkov (father of the famous poet S. V. Mikhalkov ), whom he was visiting. "For insufficient evidence" was released after 2 months.
In 1923, a children's colony was organized in the Izmalkov estate. The Komarovskys, who were left homeless, were sheltered by Yu. A. Olsufyev, who immediately after the February Revolution fled from his estate with his wife and son and, with the blessing of his confessor, Optina Elder Anatoly (Potapov) , settled in Sergiev Posad, buying a two-story house near the Lavra on Valovaya Street - with a large garden, at the end of which was located an overgrown pond, a bathhouse and stone outbuildings [5] . This year, the second daughter was born, Sophia. Komarovsky began working in the Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquity of the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra, later in the museum: for the art museum he made watercolor copies of ancient miniatures, fabrics, embroideries - monuments of ancient sewing of the 15th century; for the architectural department he wrote the museum views of the Lavra. He continued, on the orders of acquaintances, to write icons. He made several portraits in oil, including a portrait of Yu. A. Olsufiev and two portraits of Pavel Florensky , who wrote in one of his letters: “He is a great artist, taking a step forward with every step.”
In early 1925, V. A. Komarovsky was again arrested - in the village of Karabanovo . He was charged: "belonging to the monarchist group of the former aristocracy." For three years he served a link in Ishim . He continued to paint - tempera on plywood. He painted a number of paintings "in the icon-painting style"; in 1927 he sent several of his works to Sergiev Posad, including a self-portrait [6] and a second portrait of Olsufiev, both against a red background. In one of his letters to his wife, he wrote: “By the way, the red background in the portrait of Yu [rii Olsufiev], of course, is random in relation to Yu [rii], but it is not random for me ...” [7]
After exile, in 1928, Komarovsky and his family settled near familiar Izmalkovo peasants - first in the village of Fedosino , then in the village of Rasskazovka. Soon, the fourth child was born to the Komarovskys - Fedor. At the end of the year, Komarovsky was attracted by the priest Alexander Andreev to repair and restoration work in the church of Sofia in the Middle Gardens [8] . At the same time, in the church of the village of Akhtyrka, he painted another icon of the Don Mother of God.
In 1929 and in 1930 he was again, for a short time, arrested. In 1931, the Komarovsky family moved to Zhavoronki , where they settled in the same house as the Obolensky family. During this period, until the next arrest in 1934, Komarovsky painted the ceiling of the restaurant at the Kazan station , following the sketches of E. E. Lansere ; He made a panorama of Moscow for the Geological Museum , a series of decorative panels for the Yarolets children's sanatorium, Pushkin's Tales paintings for the pavilion in Izmailovsky Park , and mural sketches for the assembly hall of Moscow State University on Mokhovaya. At the same time, in 1933, 18-year-old son of V. A. Komarovsky Alexei was arrested "for anti-Soviet agitation" and was sentenced to three years in concentration camps. On January 16, 1934, Vladimir Alekseevich himself was arrested (for “belonging to a church-monarchist counter-revolutionary organization, refusal to denounce Prince M.F. Obolensky”); after 2 months of imprisonment he was released.
In August 1937 he was arrested with the charge: “counter-revolutionary activity, belonging to the CPI” and sentenced to death. The priest Vladimir Ambartsumov and S. M. Ilyin, who were passing with him in the same case (P-63970), were also sentenced to death. At this time, Komarovsky's eldest son was in the Gulag, his wife was completely paralyzed (spinal cord injury), and the youngest children were 21, 14 and 8 years old. November 5, 1937 V.A. Komarovsky was shot at the Butovo training ground
V. A. Komarovsky was also one of the founders of the Russian Icon Society and a member of the editorial board of the collection of the same name.
Notes
- ↑ V. G. Bezobrazov - the son of the Moscow civil governor Grigory Mikhailovich Bezobrazov
- ↑ The temple was completely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War ; only a small watercolor sketch of the iconostasis was preserved, which, apparently, died earlier - immediately after 1917 (see Solzhenitsyn A. Zakhar-Kalita.
- ↑ That fall, Vladimir Alekseevich buried both brothers; Yuri was a military man, and Vasily was a poet and artist.
- ↑ In the late 1920s, the chapel was destroyed, but in 1970 the image was found by the daughter of V.A. Komarovsky Antonina Vladimirovna Komarovskaya (it was used as a countertop), who bought the icon and took it to Moscow. After a long restoration by this miraculously preserved icon, it was placed in the lower Pokrovsky church of the St. Danilov Monastery , where it is still located.
- ↑ Researchers believe that here, from the spring of 1920 to March 1928, was seized, with the blessing of Patriarch Tikhon (to avoid desecration or loss), the head of St. Sergius of Radonezh.
- ↑ The self-portrait is in Nukus , in the Karakalpak Museum of Art named after I.V.Savitsky .
- ↑ "Unusually bright stars here ...". Letters of V.A. Komarovsky to V.F. Komarovskaya 1925-1928 // Korkina settlement. Local history almanac. - Ishim, 2001. - Vol. 3 .-- S. 95.
- ↑ In 1930, the temple was closed, and the murals were covered with layers of whitewash, but in the early 2000s, restorers managed to clear out part of the arch and several fragments on the walls.
Sources
- Komarovskaya A.V.V.A. Komarovsky // Banner. Digest of articles. - M.: Publishing. Church of the Savior of the Miraculous Image in the Andronikov monastery. - 1993. - Vol. 1. - S. 39–55; About the first icon-painting works of my father // Banner. Digest of articles. - M.: Publishing. Church of the Savior of the Miraculous Image in the Andronikov monastery. - 1996. - Vol. 3.
- Zelenskaya G. M. Artist Vladimir Komarovsky // Danilovsky Evangelist. - 1992. - No. 4. - S. 73—84.