Alexandre Benois 10 most famous paintings. Literary and historical notes of a young technician
- (1870 1960), artist, art historian and art critic. Son of N. L. Benois, brother of A. N. Benois. One of the organizers and ideological leaders of the World of Art association, creator of the magazine of the same name. In painting, graphics, theatrical works… … encyclopedic Dictionary
Son of Prof. architecture Nikolai Leontievich B., b. in 1870 After completing a course at the Faculty of Law in St. Petersburg. University devoted himself entirely to art. He lived in Paris for a long time, from where he made trips with artistic purpose to Brittany, Normandy,... ... Large biographical encyclopedia
Benois, Alexander Nikolaevich- Alexander Nikolaevich Benois. BENOIS Alexander Nikolaevich (1870 1960), Russian artist, art historian and art critic. Since 1926 in France. Ideologist of the World of Art. In painting, graphics, theatrical works (Versailles series, 1905... ... Illustrated encyclopedic Dictionary
- (1870 1960), Russian artist, art historian, art critic. Son of N. L. Benois. I studied on my own. In 1896-98 and 1905-1907 he worked in France. One of the organizers and ideological leader of the association and the magazine World of Art.... ... Art encyclopedia
Benois Alexander Nikolaevich- (18701960), painter and graphic artist, art historian, art critic. Son of N. L. Benois, brother of L. N. Benois. Born in St. Petersburg. He studied at the Faculty of Law of the University (189094), studied painting and drawing independently under... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"
- (1870 1960) Russian artist, art historian and art critic. Son of N. L. Benois. Ideologist of the World of Art. In painting, graphics, theatrical works (Versailles series; illustrations for To the Bronze Horseman A. S. Pushkina, 1903 22) subtly... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Russian artist, art historian, art critic. Son of the architect N. L. Benois. He studied art on his own. Lived in St. Petersburg. In 1896-98 and 1905-07 he worked in France. One of… … Big Soviet encyclopedia
- (1870 1960), painter and graphic artist, art historian, art critic. Son of N. L. Benois, brother of L. N. Benois. Born in St. Petersburg. He studied at the Faculty of Law of the University (1890 94), studied painting and drawing independently under... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)
See the article by Benoit (L.N., A.N.) ... Biographical Dictionary
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Books
- History of painting of all times and peoples. In 4 volumes, Benois Alexander Nikolaevich. The personality of Alexander Nikolaevich Benois is striking in its scale. For the first time in the history of Russian aesthetic thought, he substantiated the national identity and international connections of the Russian...
- Diary 1918-1924, Benois Alexander Nikolaevich. The diaries of Alexander Nikolaevich Benois (1870 - 1960), covering the years 1918-1924, have never been published before. Famous and fashionable painter, authoritative critic and art historian, respected...
Born on April 21 (May 3), 1870 in St. Petersburg, in the family of architect Nikolai Leontyevich Benois and his wife Camilla, daughter of architect A. K. Kavos. Elementary education received at the gymnasium of the Humane Society, graduated from the May gymnasium. He studied for some time at the Academy of Arts, also studied fine arts independently and under the guidance of his older brother Albert. In 1894 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. In 1894 he began his career as a theorist and art historian, writing a chapter on Russian artists for the German collection “History of 19th Century Painting.” In 1896-1898 and 1905-1907 he worked in France. He became one of the organizers and ideologists of the art association “World of Art”, founded the magazine of the same name. In 1916-1918, the artist created illustrations for the poem “The Bronze Horseman” by A. S. Pushkin . In 1918, Benois headed the Hermitage Art Gallery and published its new catalogue. He continued to work as a book and theater artist and director, in particular, he worked on staging and designing performances at the Petrograd Bolshoi Drama Theater. In 1925, he took part in the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. In 1926, A. N. Benois left the USSR. He lived in Paris, where he worked on sketches of theatrical scenery and costumes. Participated in S. Diaghilev’s ballet enterprise “Ballets Russes” as an artist and director of performances. Died on February 9, 1960 in Paris. IN last years worked on a detailed memoir.
Born on April 21 (May 3), 1870 in St. Petersburg, in the family of architect Nikolai Leontyevich Benois and his wife Camilla, daughter of architect A. K. Kavos. He received his primary education at the gymnasium of the Humane Society, graduated from the Maya gymnasium. He studied for some time at the Academy of Arts, and also studied fine arts independently and under the guidance of his older brother Albert. In 1894 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. In 1894 he began his career as a theorist and art historian, writing a chapter on Russian artists for the German collection “History of 19th Century Painting.” In 1896-1898 and 1905-1907 he worked in France. He became one of the organizers and ideologists of the art association “World of Art”, founded the magazine of the same name. In 1916-1918, the artist created illustrations for the poem “The Bronze Horseman” by A. S. Pushkin . In 1918, Benois headed the Hermitage Art Gallery and published its new catalogue. He continued to work as a book and theater artist and director, in particular, he worked on staging and designing performances at the Petrograd Bolshoi Drama Theater. In 1925, he took part in the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. In 1926, A. N. Benois left the USSR. He lived in Paris, where he worked on sketches of theatrical scenery and costumes. Participated in S. Diaghilev’s ballet enterprise “Ballets Russes” as an artist and director of performances. Died on February 9, 1960 in Paris. In recent years, he has been working on detailed memoirs. Save
Alexander Nikolaevich Benois (French Alexandre Benois; April 21, 1870, St. Petersburg - February 9, 1960, Paris) - Russian artist, art historian, art critic, founder and chief ideologist of the World of Art association.
Born on April 21 (May 3), 1870 in St. Petersburg, in the family of architect Nikolai Leontyevich Benois and his wife Camilla, daughter of architect A. K. Kavos. He received his primary education at the gymnasium of the Humane Society. From 1885 to 1890 he studied at the private gymnasium of K. I. May, where he met his future colleagues in the “World of Art” Dmitry Filosofov, Walter Nouvel and Konstantin Somov.
He studied at the Academy of Arts for some time, but did not graduate, believing that one can become an artist only by continuously working. He also studied fine arts independently and under the guidance of his older brother Albert. In 1894 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University.
He first presented his works at an 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 19th Century Painting.” At the end of 1896, together with friends, he came to France for the first time, where he painted the “Versailles Series” - paintings depicting parks and walks of the “Sun King” Louis XIV. In 1897, he gained fame with a series of watercolors “The Last Walks of Louis XIV,” painted under the impression of his stay 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.
He became one of the organizers and ideologists of the art association “World of Art” and founded the magazine of the same name. Together with S.P. Diaghilev, K.A. Somov and other “World of Art” artists, he did not accept the tendentiousness of the Wanderers and promoted new Russian and Western European art. The association attracted attention to applied arts, architecture, folk crafts, and raised the authority of book illustrations, graphics, design art. Promoting old Russian art and Western European masters of painting, in 1901 he began publishing the magazines “Old Years” and “ Artistic treasures Russia." Benoit, one of the most significant art critics of the early 20th century, introduced the expressions avant-garde and Russian Cézanne into circulation.
In 1903, Benoit created a series of illustrations for A. S. Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman” - one of the masterpieces of Russian book graphics. Subsequently, the artist repeatedly returned to this plot; in total, his work with illustrations for Pushkin’s last poem lasted 19 years - from 1903 to 1922. During this period, Benoit worked a lot for the theater, creating scenery and directing. In 1908-1911 - artistic director“Russian Seasons” by Sergei Diaghilev, which glorified Russian ballet art abroad.
In 1919, Benois headed the Hermitage Art Gallery and published its new catalogue. He continued to work as a book and theater artist and director, in particular, he worked on staging and designing performances at the Petrograd Bolshoi Drama Theater. Benoit’s last work in the USSR was the design of the play “The Marriage of Figaro” at the Bolshoi Drama Theater. In 1925 he took part in the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris.
In 1926, A. N. Benois left the USSR. He lived in Paris, where he worked on sketches of theatrical scenery and costumes. Participated in S. Diaghilev’s ballet enterprise “Ballets Russes” as an artist and director of performances. In exile he worked a lot in Milan in opera house La Scala.
In recent years, he has been working on detailed memoirs. 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 the daughter of the musician and bandmaster Karl Ivanovich Kind, Anna Karlovna (1869-1952), whom he had known since 1876 (since the marriage of Alexander’s older brother, Albert Benois, to older sister Anna - Maria Kind). They had children:
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Benois Alexander Nikolaevich (1870-1960)
Alexander Nikolaevich Benois was born on April 21 (May 3), 1870 in St. Petersburg in the family of professor of architecture and architect of the highest court Nikolai Leontyevich Benois, who was the son of Louis-Jules Benois, a native of France. Alexander Nikolaevich’s maternal grandfather Albert Katarinovich Kavos, a Venetian by birth, was a builder Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Alexander Benois grew up in an atmosphere of exceptional artistry; he attended classes at the Academy of Arts, but considered himself an autodidact (self-taught). In his memoirs, he wrote: “My interest in works of art, which naturally led me to “connoisseurship,” began to manifest itself from a very early age. They will say that born and raised in artistic family, I simply could not avoid such a “family infection” that I could not help but be interested in art - since there were so many people around me, starting with my father, who knew a lot about it and had artistic talents. However, environment is environment (it is not for me to deny its significance), but still, undoubtedly, there was something inherent in me that was not in others who were brought up in the same environment, and this forced me to absorb all sorts of things differently and with greater intensity. impression."
From 1885 to 1890, Alexander Nikolaevich studied at the “May Gymnasium” in St. Petersburg, in which he became close with D.V. Filosofov, K. Andreevich S. and V.F. Nouvel. In 1890, they were joined by S.P. Diaghilev, Filosofov’s cousin, musicologist A.P. Nurok and artist Lev Bakst. A few years later the circle was transformed into the editorial office of the art magazine “World of Art” (1898 - 1904).
In 1887, Alexander Benois attended evening classes at the Academy of Arts.
In 1893, Benoit became interested in copying ancient Dutch paintings in the Hermitage.
After graduating from the university in 1894, Alexander Benois married Anna Karlovna Kind.
In 1893, Benois declared himself as a talented art critic by writing an art historical article on Russian art for the third volume of “Die Geschichte der Malerel im XIX Jahrhundert” (“The History of Painting of the 19th Century” by R. Muter), published in 1894. Behind this followed by “History of Russian Painting” (1901 - 1902), “Russian School of Painting” (1904), “Russian Museum of the Emperor Alexandra III” (1906), “Tsarskoye Selo during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna” (1911), “Guide to the Hermitage Art Gallery” (1910), “History of painting of all times and peoples” (1912 - 1917, remained unfinished).
From 1895 to 1899, Benoit was the custodian of the collection donated by Prince. M.K. Tenisheva to the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
In 1897, having returned from France, he created a series of watercolors “The Last Walks of Louis XIV,” which brought him fame as an artist.
His name is associated with the emergence in 1898 of the “World of Art” association, of which he was one of the founders and ideological leader. Alexander Nikolaevich becomes, together with S. Diaghilev, the editor of the magazine “World of Art” and takes direct part in exhibitions of the society he created.
In 1900, he taught the history of styles for several months at the School of Baron Stieglitz.
Benois was both an artist and an art theorist; he authored many books on the history of painting and culture in general. In his first book, “The History of Russian Painting in the 19th Century” (1900 - 1902) and in articles of the early 1900s. The art critic criticized academic art, the aesthetics of N. G. Chernyshevsky and the civic nature of the painting of the Wanderers. Benoit considered the main criterion for evaluating works of art to be their “artistry.” He was a passionate promoter of the classical heritage and the initiator of the creation of a number of art publications and museums. From 1901 - 1903 Alexander Benois wrote many articles on painting, architecture, music, theater, etc., published in the artistic and historical collection “Artistic Treasures of Russia”, which he founded in 1901. in the magazines “World of Art”, “Moscow Weekly”, “Old Years”, “Golden Fleece”. Since 1904 it has been published in the newspapers “Slovo”, “Rus” and “Rech”.
In 1911, his “Guide to the Hermitage Art Gallery” was published; from 1910 to 1917 - serial publication “History of painting of all times and peoples”.
The major works of A. Benois are “Russian School of Painting”, “Tsarskoe Selo” and “ General history painting”, which were published in 1904, 1910 and 1911. The last edition remained unfinished due to the changing living conditions as a result of the war and revolution.
Alexander Benois took an immediate part in the organization largest exhibitions: “Russian Portrait” in St. Petersburg in 1902 and 1905, “Russian Art” in Paris in 1906, historical architecture in St. Petersburg in 1911, “Old Years” in St. Petersburg in 1908, the large “Russian Exhibition” in Brussels in 1928, etc.
Alexander Benois presented his works at exhibitions of the Watercolor Society (since 1891), “World of Art” (since 1897), “Modern Art” (1903), “Salon” of S. Makovsky, International in Rome (1911), “ Russian Art” in Belgrade (1930) and Prague (1935), etc. Exhibitions, dedicated to creativity Alexandre Benois, took place in Paris in 1926 and in Como in 1955.
The artist’s first performance in the theater was the set for A. Taneyev’s opera “Cupid’s Revenge” at the Court Theater of the Hermitage in 1900.
From 1896 to 1899 and from 1905 to 1907, Benoit lived in Paris and Versailles (in the summer in Brittany and Normandy); from 1908 to 1913 - in the vicinity of Lugano. Summer 1900, 1901, 1902 devotes himself to studying the surrounding areas of St. Petersburg. Alexander Benois travels around France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, etc.
The work of Benoit the artist was mainly devoted to two topics: “France in the era of the Sun King” and “Petersburg in the 18th – early 19th centuries.”, being fascinated by which Benoit created a special type of historical painting, typical of the “World of Art”. He addressed these topics as in his historical paintings, as well as in landscape works made from life in St. Petersburg and surrounding palaces and in France, in Versailles, where he often visited for a long time (series “The Last Walks of Louis XIV”, 1897 - 98; “Versailles Series”, 1905 - 06) . The artist paid a lot of attention to these same topics in his theatrical and book works.
His first illustrated book was Pushkin’s “The Bronze Horseman,” which appeared in the “World of Art” in 1904 and was published again in 1923, distinguished by the graphic elegance of the illustrations, consonant with Pushkin’s lines.
In 1905, the artist published the book “The ABC in the Paintings of Alexandre Benois. In 1899, 1911 Benoit’s illustrations for “The Queen of Spades” were released. Since 1906, Alexandre Benois has been a full member of the Paris Autumn Salon.
Alexander Benois is a reformer of Russian theatrical and decorative painting. As a theater decorator and director, Alexandre Benois works for many theaters. His first production was R. Wagner’s opera “Twilight of the Gods” at the Mariinsky Theater in 1903. His first ballet (libretto, scenery and costumes) “Pavilion of Armida” by N.N. Tcherepnin, created in 1907, was given in Paris in 1909 ., in Rome in 1911
The artist’s passion for ballet led to the organization of a private ballet troupe S. Diaghilev’s “Russian Seasons”, which began its performances in Paris in 1909. Benois took the post of artistic director in the troupe and designed several performances in 1908, 1910, 1911, 1924. Benois wrote the libretto for I. Stravinsky’s ballet “Petrushka” (1911), and his scenery for this performance became one of the artist’s highest achievements.
In 1913 - 15 A. Benois, together with K. Stanislavsky and V. Nemirovich-Danchenko, directed the Moscow Art Theater and was its director artistic part and director (“Molière’s performance”, “Locandier"y” [“Hotelkeeper” (Italian).] Goldoni and “Pushkin’s performance”).
Since 1919, Benois was a director and artist Academic Theater opera and ballet ("The Queen of Spades" by P.I. Tchaikovsky, 1921) and the Bolshoi Drama Theater ("The Servant of Two Masters" by C. Goldoni, 1921) in Petrograd. The works of Benois the decorator are distinguished by a subtle sense of style, artistic integrity, and carefully thought-out sets and costumes.
From 1912 to 1917, Alexander Benois was vice-chairman of the “Society for the Protection of Monuments of Art”, and from 1918 - a member of the Collegium for Museum Affairs under the People's Commissariat; in 1918 - 1926 - head of the art gallery in State Hermitage, in which he carried out a complete and more rational regrouping of museum values; took a direct part in the reorganization and preservation of palaces and the Russian Museum.
In 1923, Benois worked at the Alexandrinsky Theater, from 1919 to 1926 at the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Petrograd.
In 1926, the artist emigrated to France, to Paris, where he worked mainly on sketches of scenery and costumes for performances in theaters in France, Italy and other countries: he collaborated with the Grand Opera (1924, 1927, 1928 - 1934), with the French Comedy Theater, with the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires (1932) and with London's Covent Garden (1957). Alexander Benois created especially many opera and ballet productions for the Milan Scala Theater (from 1930 to 1956).
In 1934, Benoit wrote a book of memoirs, “My Memories.” In 1955 - “Alexandre Benois reflects...” (articles and letters 1917-1960).
The largest number of his works are in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and in Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
For his artistic merits he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor (in 1906 a cavalier, in 1916 an officer), the officer's cross Corona d'Italia (1911) and the Order of St. Vladimir.
Artist's paintings
“The Gardens of Armida” for the ballet by N.N. Cherepnin
Variant of the frontispiece to A.S. Pushkin’s poem “The Bronze Horseman”.
Versailles. Alley.
Versailles. Louis XIV feeding the fish
Benois Alexander Nikolaevich, Russian artist, theater figure, art historian, art critic; founder of the World of Art association.
A painter and graphic artist, an illustrator and book designer, a master of theatrical scenery, a director, and the author of ballet librettos, Benois was at the same time an outstanding historian of Russian and Western European art, a theorist and keen publicist, an insightful critic, a major museum figure, and an incomparable connoisseur of theater, music and choreography. . The main feature his character should be called an all-consuming love of art; the versatility of knowledge served only as an expression of this love. In all his activities, in science, artistic criticism, in every movement of his thought, Benoit always remained an artist. Contemporaries saw in him the living embodiment of the spirit of artistry.
Alexandre Benois is the most famous representative Russified French family. In 1794, confectioner Louis-Jules Benois (1770-1822) arrived in Russia from France. The son of a pastry chef, Nicolas, or Nikolai Leontievich, the father of Alexander Benois, became a famous architect.
By birth and upbringing, Benois belonged to the St. Petersburg artistic intelligentsia. For a number of generations, art was a hereditary profession in his family. Benoit's maternal great-grandfather K. A. Kavos was a composer and conductor, his grandfather was an architect who built a lot in St. Petersburg and Moscow; the artist's father was also a major architect, his elder brother was famous as a watercolor painter. The consciousness of young Benoit developed in an atmosphere of impressions of art and artistic interests.
The artistic tastes and views of the young Benoit were formed in opposition to his family, which adhered to conservative “academic” views. The decision to become an artist matured in him very early; but after a short stay at the Academy of Arts, which brought only disappointment, Benois chose to receive a law education at St. Petersburg University (1890-94), and undergo professional artistic training independently, according to his own program.
His studies in painting (mainly watercolors) were not in vain, and in 1893 Benois made his first appearance as a landscape painter at the exhibition of the Russian Society of Watercolor Painters.” His older brother Albert Benois taught him the technique of watercolor painting.
A year later, he made his debut as an art critic, publishing an essay on Russian art in German in Muter’s book “The History of Painting in the 19th Century,” published in Munich. (Russian translations of Benoit’s essay were published the same year in the magazines “Artist” and “Russian Art Archive”.) They immediately started talking about him as a talented art critic who upended established ideas about the development of Russian art.
Immediately declaring himself as a practitioner and theoretician of art at the same time, Benoit maintained this duality in subsequent years, his talent and energy were enough for everything.
Daily hard work, constant training in drawing from life, the exercise of imagination in working on compositions, combined with an in-depth study of art history, gave the artist confident skill, not inferior to the skill of his peers who studied at the Academy. With the same persistence Benois prepared for the work of an art historian, studying the Hermitage, studying specialized literature, traveling around historical cities and museums in Germany, Italy and France.
In 1895-99. Alexander Benois was the custodian of the collection of modern European and Russian paintings and graphics of Princess M. K. Tenisheva; in 1896 he organized a small Russian department for the Secession exhibition in Munich; in the same year he made his first trip to Paris; painted views of Versailles, laying the foundation for his series on Versailles themes, so beloved by him throughout his life.
The series of watercolors “The Last Walks of Louis XIV” (1897-98, Russian Museum and other collections), created based on impressions from trips to France, was his first serious work in painting, in which he showed himself to be an original artist. This series for a long time established his fame as the “singer of Versailles and Louis.”
During his gymnasium and university years, Alexander Benois met and became close to Dmitry Filosofov, Walter Nouvel and Konstantin Somov, and later with Sergei Diaghilev, Leon Bakst, Alfred Nurok. The circle of like-minded people transformed in the late 1890s into the World of Art society and the editorial office of the magazine of the same name. It was in the “World of Art” that artists Leon Bakst, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, and Evgeniy Lanceray began their varied activities.
Motivating the emergence of the “World of Art,” Benois wrote: “We were guided not so much by considerations of an “ideological” order, but by considerations of practical necessity. A whole number of young artists had nowhere to go. They were either not accepted at all into large exhibitions - academic, traveling and watercolor, or accepted only with the rejection of everything in which the artists themselves saw the most clear expression of their quest... And that’s why Vrubel ended up next to Bakst, and Somov next to Malyavin. The “unrecognized” were joined by those of the “recognized” who were not at ease in the established groups. Mainly, Levitan, Korovin and, to our greatest joy, Serov came to us. Again, ideologically and with their entire culture they belonged to a different circle, these were the last offspring of realism, not devoid of a “peredvizhniki” coloring "But they were connected with us by hatred of everything musty, established, dead."
The history of the "World of Art" began with arranged by Sergei Diaghilev exhibitions of Russian and Finnish artists in January 1898 at the Baron Stieglitz School in St. Petersburg. It was there that the works of a number of strong representatives of the new movement in Russia were exhibited for the first time. The 1898 exposition became the prototype for future exhibitions of the World of Art magazine; their structure and composition of participants were outlined here.
After the successful Russian-Finnish exhibition at the end of 1898, the magazine “World of Art” was created, which became the herald of neo-romanticism. In the future, annual exhibitions of the association are held.
Alexander Benois actively participated in artistic life - primarily in the activities of the World of Art association, being its ideologist and theoretician, as well as in the publication of the World of Art magazine, which became the basis of this association; often appeared in print and published his “Artistic Letters” (1908-16) every week in the newspaper “Rech”. He worked no less fruitfully as an art historian: he published the widely known book “Russian Painting in the 19th Century” in two editions (1901, 1902), having significantly revised his early sketch; began publishing serial publications "Russian School of Painting" and "History of Painting of All Times and Peoples" (1910-17; publication was interrupted with the beginning of the revolution) and the magazine "Artistic Treasures of Russia"; created the wonderful “Guide to the Hermitage Art Gallery” (1911).
Benoit began his creative activity as a landscape painter and throughout his life he painted landscapes, mainly watercolors. They make up almost half of his legacy. Benoit's very turn to landscape was dictated by his interest in history. Two topics invariably attracted his attention: “Petersburg XVIII - early XIX centuries.” and "France of Louis XIV".
Later, in his memoirs written in old age, Benoit admitted: ““Passeism” began to manifest itself in me as something completely natural back in early childhood and it has remained throughout my life “the language in which it is easier and more convenient for me to express myself”... Much in the past seems to me to be well and long ago familiar, perhaps even more familiar than the present. It is easier for me, easier for me, to draw, without resorting to documents, some contemporary of Louis XV than to draw, without resorting to nature, my own contemporary. My attitude towards the past is more tender, more loving than towards the present. I better understand the thoughts of that time, the ideals of that time, dreams, passions and even the grimaces and quirks than I understand all this in the “plan of modernity”..." (A. Benois. The Life of an Artist, vol. I.)
The earliest retrospective works by Benois associated with his work at Versailles. The series dates back to 1897-1898 small paintings, made in watercolor and gouache and united by a common theme - “The Last Walks of Louis XIV”. This is a typical example of Benoit’s work, an example of a historical reconstruction of the past by an artist inspired by living impressions of the Versailles parks with their sculpture and architecture; but at the same time the results of a scrupulous study of the old French art, especially engravings of the 17th-18th centuries. The famous "Notes" of Duke Louis de Saint-Simon were given to the artist plot outline"The Last Walks of Louis XIV" and, together with other memoirs and literary sources, introduced Benoit into the atmosphere of the era. Landscape graphics French classicism suggested him artistic solutions. It is from the examples of architectural and landscape engravings that the main features of Benoit’s Versailles watercolors come: their clear, almost drawing layout, clear spatiality, the predominance of simple, always balanced horizontals and verticals, the grandeur and coldish severity of compositional rhythms, and finally, the emphasized opposition of grandiose statues and sculptural groups of Versailles - small, almost staffed figures of the king and courtiers, acting out simple genre-historical scenes. In Benoit's watercolors there is no dramatic plot, no active action and no psychological characteristics of the characters. The artist is not interested in people, but only in the atmosphere of antiquity and the spirit of theatrical court etiquette ("At the Pool of Ceres", 1897, State Tretyakov Gallery).
Benoit gave a lot mental strength and time to work in easel painting and graphics, but by the very nature of his talent and disposition creative thinking he was not an easel painter, much less a master of a painting that could embody all aspects of his plan in a single, as if synthesizing, image. No wonder he best creatures belong to the art of books and theater painting. Benoit thought and approached his themes precisely as an illustrator or as a theater artist and director, consistently revealing in a cycle of sketches and compositions various aspects of the image he had conceived, creating a series of successive architectural and landscape settings and carefully designed mise-en-scenes. The artist’s thoughts about Louis XIV’s Versailles become fully understandable to the viewer only when he perceives the entire set of Versailles paintings and sketches written by Benoit.
Having shown himself in many genres - in literature, painting, art history, criticism, directing - Alexander Benois is remembered primarily as a theater artist and theorist of theatrical and decorative art. His numerous sets and costumes demonstrate an exceptional ability to recreate the most different eras, national characteristics and moods - an ability that can be traced from his first steps. From his mother, Benoit inherited a true cult of the theater, and his childhood dream was to become a theater artist. A true child of St. Petersburg in the 1870-80s, Benoit was deeply captured by the then passion for drama, opera and ballet , and even before his trip to Germany in 1890, he saw The Sleeping Beauty, The Queen of Spades and many other performances. There is no doubt that it was these early impressions that prepared Benoit to work on one-act ballet Delibes "Sylvia" in 1901, when Prince S. M. Volkonsky, director of the Imperial Theaters, succumbing to the persuasion of S. P. Diaghilev, decided to prepare a special production under his leadership. Benois was invited as the chief designer and worked on the performance together with K. A. Korovin, L. S. Bakst, E. E. Lanceray and V. A. Serov, however, due to Diaghilev’s quarrel with Volkonsky, the ballet was never staged
In 1900, Benois made his debut as a theater artist, designing the one-act opera "Cupid's Revenge" at the Hermitage Theater in St. Petersburg.
But Benois’s real debut as a theater artist took place in 1902, when he was commissioned to design the production of R. Wagner’s opera “Twilight of the Gods” on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater. Following this, he completed sketches of the scenery for N. V. Tcherepnin’s ballet “Armida’s Pavilion” (1903), the libretto of which he composed himself.
The passion for ballet turned out to be so strong that on Benoit’s initiative and with his direct participation, a private ballet troupe was organized, which began triumphant performances in Paris in 1909 - “Russian Seasons”. Benois, who took the post of artistic director in the troupe, performed designs for several more ballet performances - “La Sylphides”, “Pavilion of Armida” (both 1909), “Giselle” (1910), “The Nightingale” (1914).
One of his highest achievements was the scenery for I. F. Stravinsky’s ballet “Petrushka” (1911); This ballet was created based on the idea of Benois himself and the libretto he wrote. Soon after, the artist’s collaboration with the Moscow Art Theater began, where he successfully designed two performances based on the plays of J.-B. Moliere (1913) and for some time even participated in the management of the theater along with K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Sketch of an illustration for Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman" 1905-1916.
Together with other masters of the World of Art, Benois was one of the most active figures in the artistic movement that revived the art of book graphics in Russia.
Benoit's early works for the book include an illustration for "The Queen of Spades" (1898), published in the three-volume collected works of Pushkin (1899), illustrated by many Russian artists, including masters of the "World of Art". This first experience was followed by four watercolors - illustrations for “The Golden Pot” by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1899, State Russian Museum), which remained unpublished, and two page illustrations for P. I. Kutepov’s book “The Tsar’s and Imperial Hunt for Rus", vol. III (1902), created in collaboration with E. E. Lanseray (in the same publication Benoit completed a number of headpieces and endings). Already in these early works, the specific features of Benoit’s illustrative talent clearly appear: the power of his imagination, plot ingenuity, the ability to convey the spirit and style of the depicted era. But the illustrations are still “easel” in nature; These are historical compositions embedded in the book, but do not organically merge with it.
A more mature phase in the development of Benoit’s book graphics is reflected in his “ABC in Pictures” (1904) - the first book in which the artist acted as the sole author, creator of the concept, illustrator and designer. For the first time here he had to solve issues of artistic design of a book. Each of the drawings for "The ABC" is a detailed narrative scene, imbued with gentle humor, sometimes genre, more often - fairy-tale or theatrical, always inexhaustibly inventive in plot motives. The story of the children's book "World of Art" begins with Benoit's "ABC".
In the hands of Benoit, book graphics became not so much a decorative art as a narrative one; purely design tasks, which so occupied Somov, Dobuzhinsky and the young Lanceray, play a clearly secondary role in Benoit’s work. True, he tries to observe the principles of consistent rhythm in the design of the book and the stylistic unity of all elements of its design; but the plane of the book page is by no means an independent erotic value for Benoit, which must be preserved and emphasized at all costs, as Somov did. Benoit's compositions are always spatial precisely because they are, first of all, narrative. He does not overload the book with ornamental and decorative embellishments, sacrificing them for the sake of the story.
The main place among Benoit's graphic works is occupied by illustrations to Pushkin. The artist worked on them throughout his life. As already mentioned, he began with drawings for “The Queen of Spades” (1898) and then twice returned to illustrating this story (1905; 1910). He also completed two series of illustrations for “The Captain’s Daughter” and for a number of years prepared his main work - drawings for “The Bronze Horseman” (1903, 1905, 1916, 1922).
This predilection, of course, was not accidental. The peculiar cult of Pushkin in general was extremely characteristic of the figures of the “World of Art”, primarily for Benoit. They all saw in Pushkin a living “embodiment of the Europeanism of the new Russian culture.”
In pre-revolutionary times, bookstores Benoit's works had little success with publishers. The drawings for The Captain's Daughter (1904) remained unpublished. The first version of the illustrations for “The Bronze Horseman” (1903) was not published as a separate book, but only in the magazine “World of Art” (1904), in violation of the design layout planned by the artist. The second version, first published in volume III works of A.S. Pushkin, and then, however, published as a separate book, but with completely unsatisfactory reproductions. Only after October revolution"The Bronze Horseman" with drawings by Benoit finally came out in an excellent edition.
Much more significant is another, undoubtedly the best of the artist’s book works, his masterpiece - the drawings for The Bronze Horseman. The cycle of the first version consists of 32 drawings in ink and watercolor, imitating color wood engraving. The publication of the illustrations in the World of Art was immediately greeted by the artistic community as a major event in Russian graphics. I. Grabar noted in the illustrations Benoit thin understanding of Pushkin and his era and at the same time a heightened sense of modernity, and L. Bakst called the cycle of illustrations for “The Bronze Horseman” “a real pearl in Russian art.”
Benois's activity as an art critic and art historian is inextricably linked with everything that Benois did in painting, easel and book graphics, in the theatre. Benoit's critical essays and historical and artistic studies represent, as it were, a commentary on the ideological and creative quest and everyday practical work of the artist. But him literary works have a completely independent significance, characterizing a complex, large and fruitful stage in the development of Russian criticism and the science of art
Together with Grabar, Benois led a movement that updated the method, techniques and themes of Russian art history late XIX- beginning of the 20th century.
One of the most important missions of this movement, which arose in line with the "World of Art", was a systematic revision of all material, critical assessments and main problems of the history of Russian painting, architecture, plastic arts and decorative arts. art XVIII and XIX centuries. The point was to shed new light on the processes of development of Russian artistic culture over the last two centuries, using materials that were not only previously unstudied, but also almost untouched.
It is difficult to overestimate the scale of this work, which could only be collective. Almost all the figures from the World of Art took part in it. Artists and critics became historians, collectors, discoverers and interpreters of forgotten or obscure artistic values. The significance of such “discoveries” as the Russian portrait painting 18th century and the architecture of old St. Petersburg. Many similar discoveries were made by the figures of the World of Art in a wide variety of spheres of artistic culture. Benoit was the initiator and inspirer of this work. The most difficult and responsible part of it fell to his share - the analysis and generalization of the history of Russian painting of the 18th-19th centuries.
Art is interpreted by Benoit as a completely autonomous sphere, independent of social reality and barely connected with other cultural phenomena. Thus, the topic of research becomes not the process of historical development of national painting with its hidden patterns that must be discovered, but only the history of the artists who took part in this process.
Simultaneously with these major works, Benois published in the magazine "World of Art" (1899-1904) and the monthly collection "Artistic Treasures of Russia" (1901-1903), and later in the magazine "Old Years" (1907-1913) and some other publications articles and notes on certain issues in the history of Russian and Western European art. The topics of these publications are very diverse. We are talking about artistic and historical ensembles of palaces, public and private collections, great masters of the past and individual works painting, graphics, sculpture, architecture and decorative arts. The most significant articles concern mainly the architecture of old St. Petersburg and its suburbs; one of these articles, “Picturesque Petersburg” (1902), has already been mentioned above. In 1910, Benoit’s extensive study “Tsarskoe Selo during the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna” was published - a thoroughly documented work devoted to the history of everyday life and artistic life in Russia in the first half of the 18th century.
Western European art attracted Benoit's attention no less than Russian art. He owns a monograph on Goya (1908), a guide to the Hermitage art gallery (1911), a large article on Lyotard (1912) and a number of other works popularizing the classical heritage European painting. The original study is the grandiose “History of Painting of All Times and Peoples,” which remained unfinished: between 1912 and 1917, 22 issues of the first part of the book were published, covering the development landscape painting from ancient times to mid-18th century century. Here, as in the history of Russian painting, the general historical concept is the most vulnerable side of Benoit's work. Already his contemporaries correctly noted that the most valuable thing in his work lies outside the circle of evolutionary conclusions and cultural-historical generalizations.
The earliest of Benoit's art-critical series - "Conversations of the Artist", published in the magazine "World of Art" for 1899, characterizes the first steps of Benoit as a critic. It contains mainly reviews of Parisian art exhibitions and notes on some minor French painters like Forin and Latouche, who at that time still seemed to critics more significant than the Impressionists and Cezanne.
The second series of his articles, published in the Moscow Weekly for 1907-1908 under the heading “An Artist’s Diary,” is devoted primarily to issues of theater and music.
The heyday of Benoit's artistic and critical activity fell during the creation of the third series of his articles - under the general title "Artistic Letters", which were published weekly in the newspaper Rech from November 1908 to 1917.
This series includes about 250 articles, unusually diverse in content and, in general, reflecting with great completeness artistic life those years. Not a single significant event in art remained without a response from Benoit. He wrote about modern painting, sculpture and graphics, about architecture, theater, about artistic antiquities, folk art, about new books and exhibitions, about creative groups and about individual masters, analyzing and evaluating every major art phenomenon with passionate interest. According to Benoit, only freedom and inspiration create and determine value work of art. But Benoit emphasizes that the freedom of art is not limitless, and inspiration should not escape the control of consciousness. There is no place for arbitrariness in art, and the most important quality of an artist is a sense of professional responsibility.
After the February Revolution, Benoit stopped publishing in the cadet "Rech" and moved to the newspaper " New life", headed by Gorky.
In the first post-revolutionary years, Alexander Benois took an active part in the reorganization and preservation of the suburban palaces and parks of Petrograd and the Russian Museum. In 1917-1926 he was the head of the Hermitage Art Gallery, and collaborated with the Petrograd theaters: Mariinsky, Alexandrinsky, Bolshoi Drama (1919-1926).
In 1926, Benoit, having made a forced choice between the difficulties of an emigrant existence and the increasingly frightening prospect of life in Soviet country, went to France. The departure, as before, took place to stage a play at the Grand Opera and participate in exhibitions, but from there he did not return to Russia. There he worked mainly in theaters: first at the Grand Opera in Paris from 1924 with a break until 1934 (the famous "The Fairy's Kiss" by I. Stravinsky), and in the 1930-1950s - at La Scala in Milan, where his son Nikolai was in charge of the production. Working at the same professional level, nothing fundamentally new and interesting Benoit I was no longer able to create, often contenting myself with varying the old (at least eight versions of the now legendary ballet “Petrushka” were performed).
The main work of his last years (since 1934) was his memoirs, on the pages of which he recalled in detail and fascinatingly the years of his childhood and youth. In his memoirs “My Memories,” Benoit soulfully recreated the atmosphere of spiritual and creative quest.” silver age"in Russia at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.
Throughout his long career as an artist, critic and art historian, Benois remained faithful to the high understanding of the classical tradition and aesthetic criteria in art, defended the intrinsic value artistic creativity and visual culture based on strong traditions. It is also important that all of Benoit’s multifaceted activities were, in fact, devoted to one goal: the glorification of Russian art.
