Portrait of Chaliapin

Last updated July 17, 2023

The Portrait of Chaliapin is a painting by Boris Kustodiev, created in 1921 in Petrograd (modern day Saint Petersburg).^[1]^[2]^[3] At this time the opera singer Feodor Chaliapin was preparing to perform in Alexander Serov's opera The Power of the Fiend in the former Mariinsky Theatre. He invited Boris Kustodiev to create artwork for the performance.

The upheaval caused by the February and October Revolutions and the Russian Civil War led to desperate conditions in the cities. The currency was devalued and there was no money for the theatre to pay Chaliapin for his performance. Instead the theatre offered Chaliapin a rich fur coat, taken from a Soviet warehouse containing items confiscated from rich people during the revolution.^[4] Chaliapin wore the coat on a visit to Kustodiev to invite him to design artworks for the performance. Kustodiev was ill at the time and was unable to walk. When Kustodiev learned of the coat's history, confiscated from its previous owner, he announced his intention to paint a portrait of Chaliapin in this coat. Thus began a double work: Feodor Chaliapin brought Kustodiev to the theatre to work on the stage scenery, and Kustodiev painted Chaliapin's portrait at home. The Soviet government had allocated only a small room to Kustodiev, and there was not enough space to work on a single canvas. Instead Kustodiev painted it in parts. Chaliapin talked about himself as he posed, and at times they sang together.

The Portrait of Chaliapin is typical of Kustodiev's style, and is set against a background of festivity, specifically the Russian traditions of Maslenitsa . Kustodiev titled the picture New City, depicting a city where Chaliapin had arrived for the first time while on tour. But the name did not stick, and the picture became known as the Portrait of Chaliapin.^[3] The picture is full of symbolism. Chaliapin rises over the people, from which he had emerged. He is dressed in a smart suit, holding a cane, as was fashionable at the time. Kustodiev included in the scene Chaliapin's favourite dog.^[3] In the lower left corner of the portrait Kustodiev painted Chaliapin's daughters Mary and Martha, strolling on the festive square, accompanied by a close friend, the secretary of singer I. Dvorictchin. They are shown near a theatre poster promoting Chaliapin's concert.^[1]^[2]

In 1922 Chaliapin emigrated from Russia, taking the portrait with him.^[5] That same year Kustodiev made a miniature copy of the portrait, which is now displayed in the Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg.^[6] The original is now in the Saint Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music [ ru ].

Related Research Articles

Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.

Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev was a Russian and later Soviet painter and stage designer.

Boris Grigoriev was a painter, graphic artist, and writer.

Boris Sokolov, is a historian and a Russian literature researcher. In 1979 he graduated from the department of geography of the Moscow State University, specialising in economic geography. His works have been translated into Japanese, Polish, Latvian and Estonian. He has also translated literary works from various languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private Opera</span>

The Private Opera, also known as:

Boris Chaliapin was an artist for Time magazine, for which he illustrated more than 400 covers, from 1942 to Richard Nixon).

Ivan Vasiliyevitch Yershov or Ershov, PAU, was a Soviet and Russian opera singer. He earned renown for his brilliant performances at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, performing some of the most demanding roles written for the dramatic tenor voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Korneev (painter)</span> Russian painter

Boris Vasilievich Korneev was a Soviet Russian painter and art teacher, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, professor of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after Ilya Repin, lived and worked in Leningrad, regarded as one of the major representatives of the Leningrad school of painting, most famous for his genre painting and portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Shamanov</span> Russian painter

Boris Ivanovich Shamanov was a Soviet Russian realist painter, graphic artist, and art teacher, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, who lived and worked in Saint Petersburg. He was a member of the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists, and regarded as one of the representatives of the Leningrad school of painting.

Alexey Tsereteli was a Georgian prince and he was a Russian opera entrepreneur.

The year 1976 was marked by many events that left an imprint on the history of Soviet and Russian Fine Arts.

Boris Markov was a Soviet, Chuvash actor and theater director, People's Artist of the RSFSR, People Artist of the Chuvash ASSR, the founder and first director of the Chuvash State Ballet&Opera Theatre.

The year 1927 was marked by many events that left an imprint on the history of Soviet and Russian Fine Arts.

The Fine Arts of Leningrad retrospective exhibition became the largest showing of Leningrad artists in the Soviet History outside the city, as well as in total one of the most important art exhibitions in USSR of the 1970s. The exhibition took place in the Moscow Manezh.

<i>Portrait of Contemporary</i> (Leningrad, 1976)

"Portrait of Contemporary" The Fifth Exhibition of Leningrad artists of 1976 became one of the notable event in Art of the USSR of 1976. The Exhibition took place in the State Russian Museum. Exhibition continued a series of art exhibitions of the 1970s, dedicated to image of our contemporary and opened in 1971.

The Beauty is an oil-on-canvas painting executed in 1915 by the Russian artist Boris Kustodiev.

Elena Nikandrovna Klokacheva, was a painter mainly known by one of the few existing portraits of Rasputín, now at the Hermitage. In 1942 and 1943, during the Siege of Leningrad, she draw some portraits of Spanish military physicians belonging to the Wehrmacht Blue Division.

Boris Fedorovich Borzin was born in Ukraine on 29 December 1923 and died in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1991. He was a Soviet realism painter, graphic artist, conservator, art historian, author, and a tenured professor of fine art for 30 years at the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. Borzin was also a veteran of the Great Patriotic War.

A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum is a museum in Moscow dedicated to the theatre. It was founded in 1894 by the Russian merchant, and philanthropist Alexey Alexandrovich Bakhrushin.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[vk-1] 1 2 ru: Борис Кустодиев. «Портрет Ф. И. Шаляпина», 1921 г.

[webstarco-2] 1 2 ru: Кустодиев Борис Михайлович. Портрет Федора Шаляпина.

[nearyou-3] 1 2 3 Кустодиев Б. «Портрет Федора Шаляпина»

[4] ru: В мемориальном музее Шаляпина впервые в Москве выставлена работа Кустодиева — портрет Шаляпина в бобровой шубе

[5] ru: Б. М. Кустодиев

[6] "Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin". rusmuseumvrm.ru.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]