Benoit, Alexander Nikolaevich

Born on April 21 ( May 3 ), 1870 in St. Petersburg , in the family of the architect Nikolai Leontyevich Benoit and his wife Camilla, daughter of the architect A.K. Kavos . He received his primary education at the gymnasium of the Human-Loving Society . In 1885-1890 he studied at the private gymnasium of K. I. May ^[7] , where he met future colleagues in the "World of Art" Dmitry Filosofov , Walter Nouvel and Konstantin Somov ^[8] .

He studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts for some time, but did not finish it, believing that you can become an artist only by continuously working ^[8] . He also studied fine art independently and under the guidance of his older brother Albert . In 1894 he graduated from the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg University ^[9] .

He first presented his work at the exhibition and attracted the attention of specialists in 1893. In 1894, he began his career as a theorist and art historian, writing a chapter on Russian artists for the German collection History of Painting of the 19th Century. At the end of 1896, he first came to France with friends, where he wrote the Versailles Series - the paintings depicted the parks and walks of the “King Sun” by Louis XIV . In 1897, he gained fame with the series of watercolors “The Last Walks of Louis XIV”, written under the impression of being in Paris and Versailles . Three paintings from this exhibition were acquired by P. M. Tretyakov . In 1896–1898 and 1905–1907 he worked in France ^[8] .

He became one of the organizers and ideologists of the art association " World of Art ", founded the magazine of the same name . Together with S. P. Diaghilev , K. A. Somov and other "Miruskusniks" he did not accept the bias of the Wanderers and propagandized new Russian and Western European art. The association drew attention to applied art, architecture, folk crafts, raised the authority of book illustrations, graphics, and decorative art. Promoting old Russian art and Western European artists, in 1901 he began to publish the magazines " Old Years " and "Art Treasures of Russia" ^[8] . Benoit - one of the most significant art critics of the beginning of the XX century, introduced avant-garde and Russian Cezannism into circulation ^[10] .

In 1903, Benoit created one of the masterpieces of Russian book graphics - a series of illustrations for the poem by A. S. Pushkin “The Bronze Horseman” . However, they were rejected as "decadent." The illustrations were acquired by S. P. Diaghilev and printed them together with a poem in the journal “World of Art” (1904. No. 1). Benoit's drawings “made a splash and were recognized by all book connoisseurs as an ideal graphic work” ^[11] . In 1905, the artist continued to work on illustrations for the publication issued in 1912 by the St. Petersburg Literacy Society, and then in 1916 for the Community of St. Eugenia. In 1917, the book was typed in the printing house of R. R. Golike and A. I. Vilborg, but this enterprise was nationalized, and the book was published only in 1923 - under the guise of the Committee for the Promotion of Art Publications. It was printed at the State Printing House. Ivan Fedorov under the supervision of its director V.I. Anisimov and with the assistance of the Petrograd branch of the State Publishing House. The book includes 37 drawings by Benoit. ^[12] .

In 1904, the ABC in Pictures was published (1904) ^[13] , almost his only major work for children. The artist worked on it for about a year, but it seems that all the illustrations were made “in one sitting” and that the drawing process was accompanied by games and conversations with his young son Kolya, later a famous theater artist. Looking at a book causes a lot of associations, and when performing a traditional “story by picture” task for children, the imagination of young readers and their parents or mentors can be simply limitless.

The ABC received censorship permission on October 24, 1904, the production cycle for its publication took about six months. According to some reports, 34 chromolithographs with gold and silver were printed in collaboration with the printing house of I. Kadushin. A high retail price of 3 rubles was set for the book. The circulation amounted to 2500 copies.

In 1908-1911, he was the artistic director of Russian Seasons, Sergei Diaghilev , who glorified Russian ballet art abroad.

In 1911, perhaps the best pre-revolutionary edition of the famous story by A. Pushkin “The Queen of Spades” with illustrations by A. N. Benoit ^{[14] was} published . The basis of the design idea are 6 page illustrations, where the main line of the graphic story goes: the card prize of a young Russian countess; the evening dress of the countess, already old and decrepit; Hermann's swift passage through the dead countess' bedroom; ghost night visit; fatal loss at Chekalinsky; symbolic image of Death. Superbly composed, sonorous, these illustrations resemble completed paintings.

The artist in detail, thoughtfully, lovingly reproduces urban architecture, costumes, life of Pushkin’s time. In the illustrations, the influence of the theater is also noticeable: the theatrical Damn and Fortune fly over the gambling table in the sixth chapter, and the final sheet illustration - Death pulls the theater curtain and extinguishes the candles, the last musician leaves the orchestra pit - gives rise to a direct analogy to the end of the play.

Although later critics repeatedly noted the shortcomings of the illustrations for The Queen of Spades, whose “graphic outfit” seemed to them too magnificent, picturesque and somewhat heavy for the “naked charms of the Pushkin text” ^[15] , nevertheless, the publication of the book became a significant event for the Russian artistic life of the early XX century, and contemporaries of Benoit saw in it a living embodiment of the spirit of artistry.

In 1919, Benoit headed the Hermitage Art Gallery, published its new catalog. He continued his work as a book and theater artist and director, in particular, he worked on the production and design of the performances of the Petrograd Bolshoi Drama Theater . The last work of Benoit in the USSR was the design of the performance “The Wedding of Figaro” in the BDT ^[8] .

In 1922, Benois published the largest graphic work of the years of the revolution - the Versailles album ^[16] , where the artist’s watercolors are accompanied by his own text. The publication includes 26 watercolors of the artist; In addition, introductory article and a list of drawings are accompanied by screensavers and endings - they are printed in the technique of zincography. Benoit also designed the title page with an allegorical splash screen and the motto of Louis XIV “Nec pluribus impar” (“Not inferior to the multitude”) and the illustrated cover.

Versailles was one of the artist's favorite topics. The basis of this work is numerous field observations: back in October 1896, Benoit made his first trip to Paris, where he painted the views of Versailles that laid the foundation for his famous Versailles series.

Versailles for Benoit is the personification of the harmonious unity of man, nature and art. In the article preceding the album, he formulates this important thought for him: “... Versailles is not an ode to royal power, but a poem of life, a poem of mankind in love with nature, dominating this very nature ... a monumental hymn to courageous power, inspiring female charms, united by human efforts for common purposes ” ^[17] .

In 1925 he took part in the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris ^[18] .

In 1926, A.N. Benois left the USSR . He lived in Paris , where he worked on sketches of theatrical scenery and costumes. He participated in the ballet entreprise of Sergey Diaghilev “ Ballets Russes ” as an artist and production designer. In exile, he worked a lot in Milan at the La Scala opera house ^[8] .

During this period, he created a series of views of St. Petersburg and its suburbs under the general name "Memories." He illustrated the books of Russian and French authors - “The Suffering of Young Werther” (“Les souffrances du jeune Werther”) by A. Morois (1926) ^[19] </ref>, “Lessons of Love in the Park” (“La leçon d'amour dans un un parc ”), 1927)“ Grigory Orlov ”by A. Popov (1946) ^[20] . In 1927, he worked a lot on the watercolor cycle for the novel by A. de Rainier, “Sinner” (“La pécheresse”). In 1945, he created a suite of forty-four watercolors for the story of A. S. Pushkin, "The Captain's Daughter." Unfortunately, these last books have never been published - the originals of the first drawings are kept by Rene Guerra, several watercolors for both books have been preserved in the collections of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art. On the whole, Benoit has not so many book works of the Paris period and they are not as bright as in the pre-revolutionary years ^[21] .

In the last years of his life, the artist worked on the memoirs “My Memories”, on the pages of which he recreated the atmosphere of spiritual and creative searches of the Silver Age. No less significant was the publication "Alexandre Benois thinks ... Articles and letters of 1917-1960." He died on February 9, 1960 in Paris. He was buried in the Batignolles cemetery in Paris.

He came from the Benois artistic dynasty: son of N. L. Benois , brother of L. N. Benois and A.N. Benois and cousin of Yu. Yu. Benois .

He married in 1894 ^[22] to the daughter of musician and bandmaster Karl Ivanovich Kind, Anna Karlovna (1869-1952), whom he had known since 1876 (since the marriage of Alexander’s elder brother, Albert Benoit, to Anna’s elder sister, Maria Kind). They had children:

• Anna-Camilla-Elizabeth (08/13/1895 ^[23] —1984). Her husband (since 1919) - Yu. Yu. Cherkesov (1900-1943)
• Elena (03/31/1898, Paris - 07/16/1972, Paris) Her husbands: B.P. Popov (since 1919), I.A. Vyshnegradsky (since 1923), A. Ya. Braslavsky (since 1929), Remy Clement ( since 1939) ^[24]
• Nikolai (04/19/1901 - 03/31/1988)

• Paintings on Russian History - Illustration

• The history of Russian painting in the XIX century. 1902.
• Alphabet in pictures. A.N. Benoit. St. Petersburg. 1904;
• Russian School of Painting, St. Petersburg, 1904;
• Contemporary art (Benois, A. Die moderne Kunst. In: Melnik, J. (1906): Russen über Russland . Frankfurt a. M., Rütten & Loening, S. 517-538).
• Fiction, newspaper Rech, November 1908 - February 1917;
• Tsarist village during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, St. Petersburg, 1910;
• The history of painting of all times and peoples, t. 1-4, St. Petersburg, 1912-17 (not finished);
• The emergence of the "World of Art", L., 1928;
• The life of an artist. Memoirs, vols. 1-2, New York, 1955;
• Alexander Benois reflects ... (articles and letters 1917-1960), M., 1968;
• Memoirs, v. 1-2, L., 1960-1964. (eng.)
• My memories. In five books. t. 1 and t. 2 . Ed. second, add. M., ed. "Science" 1990.
  • Benoit A. N. My Memoirs (in two volumes) . - M .: Zakharov, 2005 .-- 912 + 640 s. - ISBN 5-8159-0506-2 .
• Benoit A. N. Diary of 1916–1918 . - M .: Zakharov, 2010 .-- 768 p. - ISBN 978-5-8159-1032-4 .
• Benoit A.N. Diary of 1918-1924 . - M .: Zakharov, 2010 .-- 816 p. - ISBN 978-5-8159-1031-7 .

• Benoit // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1905. - T. add. I. - S. 248.
• Benoit Alexander Nikolaevich / V.M. Petyushenko // Bari - Bracelet. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1970. - ( Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. Ed. A. M. Prokhorov ; 1969-1978, vol. 3).
• Burliuk D. D. The cunning "Benois" and the New Russian National Art (Talk of Burliuk, Benoit and Repin about art) ; N. D. B. [Burliuk N. D.] On the parody and imitation. SPb .: Book printing Schmidt, 1913.22 p.
• Zavyalova A.E. Alexander Benois and Konstantin Somov. Artists among the books. - M .: Theatralis, 2012 .-- 208 p. - 300 copies. - ISBN 978-5-902492-25-2 .
• Seslavinsky, M.V. , Tarakanova O. L. Gourmet Books: Bibliophile Publications of the Late 19th - Early 20th Century: Album. - M .: White City, 2010 .-- 310 p. - ISBN 978-5-7793-1696-5 .
• Seslavinsky, M.V. Rendezvous: Russian artists in French book publishing in the first half of the twentieth century: catalog album. - Moscow: Astrel, 2009 .-- 504 p. - ISBN 978-5-94829-036-2 .
• Seslavinsky, M.V. French bibliophile publications in the design of Russian emigrant artists (1920-1940s): monograph. - Moscow: Publishing House "University Book", 2012. - 254, [6] p. - ISBN 978-5-454-00003-5 .
• Ernst S.A. Benoit. - P. , 1921.
• Etkind M.G. Alexander Nikolaevich Benois. 1870-1960 / [Entry. article of correspondent Acad. sciences of the USSR des. artist of the RSFSR prof. Dr. A.A. Sidorova]. - L.—M. : Art, 1965. - 215 p.

• Alexander Nikolaevich Benois. Artist's site
• Alexandre Benois on the Project website1917
• The site of “Alexandre Benois’s Legacy” - biography, correspondence, articles, memoirs
• “Benoit - Lansere - Serebryakov. Art dynasty. From private collections »
• Benoit Alexander Nikolaevich. Artist Biography and Creativity
• A. N. Benoit "The Alphabet", 1904, pdf
• K. Chukovsky. Repin and Benoit on the site “Giving art a life without surrender”
• Benoit, Alexander Nikolaevich in the library "Prospector"
• Records of Alexander Nikolaevich Benois in the diary of 1921
• Records of Alexander Nikolaevich. Diary of 1906 (Versailles. Paris)
• Records of Alexander Nikolaevich. 1905 diary
• "History of Art", A. N. Benois, 1912-1917, electronic version of the old pre-revolutionary publication
• A.N. Benoit. "The history of Russian painting in the XIX century"
• Biography, a selection of works and books about Benoit