Church Parade of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment

In the autumn of 1906, Kustodiyev received an unexpected order from the command of the Finnish Life Guards regiment on the upcoming celebration of the 100th anniversary of this part of the Imperial Guard . The artist was commissioned to paint large portraits of the founder of the regiment Alexander I and the current emperor Nicholas II , as well as a picture with a scene of the and the first performance of the regiment of his chief , Tsarevich Alexei , held on December 12, 1905 in Tsarskoye Selo ^{[1] [2]} . The czarevich Alexey was appointed the chief of the “Finns” a year after his birth, on July 30, 1904, which was noted in the regiment by a number of festive events ^[2] . In their number, as Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich recorded in his diary, “last year’s church parade entered the regiment in Tsarskoye Selo manege , when the Sovereign, passing around the formation, carried the Tsesarevich on his hands, entered the regiment. I was also in the crowd with the State ” ^[3] . Nikolai Voronovich , who was a pupil of the Page Corps at that time, the celebration of the establishment of which was marked by the “highest review” and fell for one day with the Finnish regiment, wrote that “after 1905 these parades were moved to Tsarskoye Selo, in the arena of the Life Guards Gusarsky shelf. The public was not allowed in them, these parades were not distinguished by great solemnity and did not leave any special memories of themselves ” ^[4] .

As noted in the multivolume and luxuriously designed “History of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment. 1806–1906 ” ^[5] , on that day the Finnish regiment lined up in the arena, having on its right flank the Page Corps, and on the left - the Volynsky regiment together with veterans from the Chesme almshouse . While the commander-in-chief of the troops of the guard and Petersburg military district, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich was inspecting the regiment, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Tsarevich Alexei proceeded to the royal box, and Nikolai II went out to the arena together with the grand dukes Mikhail Alexandrovich and Dmitry Pavlovich . After the report of the commander of the regiment, Major General Samgin, and the emperor bypassing the ranks of the units, a prayer service was held with the "proclamation of the Tsar's many years, the eternal memory of Orthodox soldiers and the long-term Russian warriors." Then, “The Emperor deigned to take into the hands of His Most August Son, the Chief of the Finlands, which he carried before the front of the units participating in the parade, preceded by a protopresbyter, sprinkled with holy water, banners and troops. This procession was solemnly: in the hands of the tsar-father, the heir to the cesarevich followed the lines of His L.-Gv. The Finnish regiment, all the members of which, with heartfelt tenderness and delight, gazed upon His Most August Chief, who had waited so long before the ranks of the regiment. In white clothes, trimmed with an ermine - the usual decoration of the royal mantle, like a bright ray, the baby heir looked tenderly and calmly at His regiment, enthusiastically met by His Finnishmen ^[6] . Giving the heir to the Empress, Nicholas II accepted the ceremonial parade, after which he thanked the Page Corps and proceeded to the Finnish regiment ^[6] , where he “brought happiness” to the audience with the words that “For almost a hundred years, the Life Guards served the Finnish regiment to their Kings and Motherland. [...] Today you saw your boss. I am confident that future Finnish people will serve Him as faithfully as you have served and now serve Me. ” ^[7] Then the emperor proceeded to the box, where for the second time he took the Tsarevich in his arms and raised him above the balustrade, said: “Here is your Chief!”, Which caused “indescribable Finnish delight”, which was expressed in shouts of “Hurray” and continued until the royal family departed playpen ^[6] .

Kustodiyev was asked to inform about his decision about the order, the adoption of which could help him as an artist, who this year failed to sell anything except two small female portraits, move closer to the royal court and get acquainted with well-known customers following the example of Valentin Serov or Ilya Repin ^{[8 ]} . It is noteworthy that during the recent revolution of 1905, Kustodiev took part in the work of the satirical magazines “ Bugbear ” and “ Hell-mail ”, which were soon closed by censorship due to the anti-government attitude ^{[9] [1]} . They were published mocking and grotesque portraits of Tsarist ministers Witte , Goremykin , Ignatieff , Pobedonostsev , Kokovtsov and Dubasov , depicted in unipolished uniforms and orders, which made up the satirical cycle "Olympus" ^{[9] [10] [11]} . He found heroes for his caricatures in the Mariinsky Palace while working on the painting “ Solemn meeting of the State Council ... ” together with Repin. In the same year of 1905, it was exhibited at the “Exhibition of Historical Portraits” organized by Sergey Dyagilev in the Tauride Palace , where the name of the young artist may have become famous to Nikolai II himself. Meanwhile, Kustodiev’s attitude towards dignitaries from critical positions, without piety and with a fair amount of irony, was hardly noticed by the royal entourage, although he did not draw cartoons of the emperor ^{[9] [1]} . By that time, Kustodiyev was a promising artist, fame and recognition came before the others, but he constantly needed money due to the ever-increasing family expenses and the birth of his third child, and after long deliberation he undoubtedly agreed to the offer of “Finns” ^{[12] [8 ] [13]} .

The portrait of Alexander I in full growth Kustodiev performed easily, using the famous portrait of the work of George Dow for the gallery of the heroes of the war of 1812 and only slightly changing the details. When writing the same size portrait of Nicholas II, he followed the romantic manner of Dow, using also photos of the emperor and vivid impressions of observing him during the November and December parades of the Guards of Moscow , Semenovskiy and shooters of the Imperial Surname in Tsarskoye Selo on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Finnish and the Volyn Regiment, scheduled for December 12, 1906 ^[14] . Participation in military parades was the favorite occupation of Nicholas II, comparable only with the hunt . In 1906, judging by the emperor’s diary , about 40 such parades were held, which may have been due to the intention to strengthen ties with the army during the revolutionary unrest ^[15] . It is noteworthy that the Finnish regiment distinguished itself in the war of 1812 and in other campaigns ^[1] , including the defeat of the Polish uprisings in 1831 and 1863 ^[16] , as well as the Volyn regiment created in 1817 from the 1st battalion “Finns " ^[17] . Meanwhile, the guardsmen did not take part in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905, thus avoiding national shame, but already in 1906 they were sent to the capital, where they suppressed the sailor insurgency in Kronstadt and became famous as “stranglers of the people” ^[2] .

Unlike the imperial portraits, Kustodiyev had to work on the “church parade”. During several trips to Tsarskoye Selo, the artist wrote several preparatory sketches depicting Tsarevich Alexei, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, Archpriest Zhelobovsky , Major General Yepanchin , Prince Vasilchikov ^[5] . Having told about receiving the order and working on the picture in the message to her mother Ekaterina Prokhorovna, Kustodiyev soon received a reply letter in which she said that “reading about how you were in the palace, spoke with the empress and saw the heir, I was touched to tears and envied you After all, I lived in St. Petersburg for 2 years and 9 months and during that time I did not see anyone from the royal family. But I, you know, are not indifferent to her, and especially to the little heir ... Can you not take a picture from a picture and send it to me? I’ll take that for offense ” ^[18] . Some preliminary studies can be considered the achievement of Kustodiev ^[19] . So, from an etude of Prince Vasilchikov, who later exhibited at the exhibition “ World of Art ”, an anonymous art critic of Stock Exchange , who described it as “a small pictorial masterpiece, simply delighted, could have put his name under it - is it a joke? the late Serov or Repin ” ^[20] . The portraits and paintings ordered by Kustodiyev were completed on time and exhibited in the hall of the Petersburg officers' meeting on the day of the banquet during the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Finnish regiment ^[5] . As noted in the “History of the Life Guards Finnish Regiment. 1806–1906 ”,“ portraits of Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas II perfectly executed to their full height by the artist Kustodiev adorned both sides of the hall ”, the general appearance of which“ elegant and brilliant, was in harmony with the mood of the Finnish people celebrating their centenary holiday ” ^[21] . Having enlisted ties with the royal court and received good money for the fulfillment of the order, Kustodiyev completed the revolutionary year of 1906 as an almost court painter ^[19] .

The painting is 80.5 × 169 cm in size painted in oil on canvas , on the bottom left: “B. Kustodiyev 1906 " ^{[13] [22]} . The canvas depicts the moment of the church parade in Tsarskoye Selo Manege, when Nicholas II, holding his son, a two-year-old Tsarevich, with his retinue, followed by a retinue past the building of the stretched Finns, which the priest leading the procession sprinkles with holy water ^{[5] [2]} . The composition seems to be in continuous motion, everything is moving - from the crowd occupying the entire right side of the canvas to individual figures to the arena ceiling, written in the form of rays spreading towards the viewer. The huge space of the picture is reinforced by a narrow canvas; portrait characteristics consist of an underlined and at the same time rigid silhouette of the figures, as well as due to a multitude of details ^[13] . At the same time, the appearance of the heroes of the canvas is sealed without embellishment and is not distinguished by the pomp ^[2] . Among the emotions of the “Finns” one can only distinguish tension, but no feelings of “tenderness and delight”, about which the official historian of the regiment wrote ^[5] . According to the historian of the Finnish Regiment Vladimir Ushakov, the emperor himself has a stupid look, and among the retinue there are completely vile faces, and therefore the picture seems odious and expressing hatred for the king and his entourage, widely spread during the revolution and penetrated even into the ranks of the guard ^{[ 2]} . As Kustodiev’s biographer Arkady Kudrya notes, the order of the Finnish regiment, including the “Church Parade”, can be generally described as a setback for the artist’s work ^[19] . In this regard, art historian Mark Etkind wrote that this picture is characterized by lethargy and boredom, created by a man who suddenly lost all artistic taste ^[12] . According to Curls, the “Finns” didn’t need any pictorial delights - it was important for them that it was written “decent and decent” for this high topic ^[19] .

According to the wishes of the customers, the picture was magnificently called “The Highest Parade of the Life Guards to the Finnish Regiment on December 12, 1905 in Tsarskoye Selo” ^[5] , but the more famous name is the “Church Parade of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment” ^[23] . After the celebration of the anniversary, the painting was exhibited in the museum of the Finnish regiment ^[5] . A reproduction of it was placed in the fourth volume of the History of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment. 1806–1906 ” ^{[2] [24]} . In 1946, the painting was transferred from the Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR to the State Hermitage Museum ^[23] . Sketch for the painting titled “Emperor Nicholas II with the Cesarevitch. 1905 ”is stored in the treasury stores of the Tretyakov Gallery ^{[25] [26]} . The portrait of Alexander I is in the Russian Museum ^[27] . The location of the portrait of Nicholas II is unknown.

• "Church Parade of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment". Kustodiyev (Neopr.) . State Hermitage .