“Demon and Tamara” , or “Love me!” , Is an illustration of the Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel to M. Yu. Lermontov 's poem “ Demon ”. The illustration was created in 1891 and is currently stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery.
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| M. A. Vrubel | ||
| Tamara and the Demon . 1891 | ||
| Black watercolor on paper, white . 66.8 × 50 cm | ||
| Tretyakov Gallery , Moscow | ||
Description
The illustration was done on beige paper measuring 66.8 x 50 cm in a very unusual technique - only using black watercolor and white .
The figure illustrates the scene of one of the fateful dates of the Demon and Tamara in the monastery cell:
I will sink to the bottom of the sea
I'll fly for the clouds
I will give you everything, everything earthly -
Love me!..
Creation History
In 1891, Mikhail Vrubel completed dozens of illustrations for the jubilee edition of the works of M. Yu. Lermontov , edited by P.P. Konchalovsky .
Of the 36 drawings that Vrubel performed as part of this order, 20 were included in the publication of the printing house of I. N. Kushnarev, of which 11 drawings illustrated " Demon ." The publishing house declared the goal - “to make this edition as characteristic and independent as possible in an artistic sense ... We searched in the drawings for non-template illustrations by order, for the most part dry, monotonous and boring, but searched for in them the character, life, in a word, any kind of artwork " [1] .
The fame of discovering the talent of an illustrator at Vrubel belongs to P.P. Konchalovsky, who was responsible for illustrating the publication. Among the venerable illustrators involved in the work, there were only four young artists - Serov V. A. , Korovin K. A. , Pasternak L. O. and Vrubel. According to the recollections of the son of Konchalovsky, the first of the young artists, his father invited Pasternak. Pasternak advised Konchalovsky to bring V. A. Serov to the Demon for illustrations. Serov agreed to do the work, but advised Konchalovsky to involve Vrubel in his work on the Demon, since he had been working on the image of the Demon for a long time and Serov knew about it [2] .
Vrubel brought his drawing of the Demon against the backdrop of Kazbek - Konchalovsky liked the drawing so much that he rented a room for Vrubel under his apartment and the artist visited Konchalovsky every day for a year working on illustrations. Most critics did not like Vrubel’s drawings, Konchalovsky had to fiercely uphold them before the publishers [3] .
This drawing was preceded by two other drawings - Vrubel was so dissatisfied with the first drawing that he cut off and destroyed the right half with Demon, and Konchalovsky managed to take and save the left half (with Tamara) [4] . Vrubel began to develop the theme in the second figure, - removed the wall to the left of Tamara, removed the chonguri and the icon, but retained the window with the starry sky almost unchanged.
“Tamara and the Demon”, watercolor, 1890, Private collection, Moscow. Demon figure cut off by Vrubel
“Tamara and the Demon”, watercolor, 1890, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Vrubel again was dissatisfied and tore up the drawing, but Konchalovsky’s son picked up the drawing and glued it, seeing this Vrubel inscribed the drawing in the right corner - “To Pete Konchalovsky.” Someone later tried to erase the inscription.
And finally, Vrubel created the third version of this scene, which actually was included in the publication of Kushnerev.
Notes
- ↑ Lermontov M. Works. Drawings by artists: I. K. Aivazovsky, V. M. Vasnetsov, A. M. Vasnetsov, M. A. Vrubel, E. E. Volkov, N. N. Dubovsky, S. V. Ivanov, K. A. Korovin , V. K. Menka, V. E. Makovsky, V. D. Polenov, L. O. Pasternak, I. E. Repin, K. A. Savitsky, V. A. Serov, K. A. Trutovsky, I I. Shishkina, T. I. Art edition of I. N. Kushnerev and Co. ° and the bookstore of P. K. Pryanishnikov, M., 1891,
- ↑ V. Serov, Correspondence, 1884-1911. Notes N. Sokolova. - “Art”, L. - M., 1937, 192-193.
- ↑ Jaremic C. Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel. Life and Creativity, ed. I. Knebel, M., 1911, p. 116-118.
- ↑ Message from the Honored Art Worker P.P. Konchalovsky (recordings of 1941). Manuscript.