A relative of Mikhail Vrubel inherited his rebellious spirit, talent and mental illness. In times that required iron nerves and unbending character, she was doomed.
Our heroine is one of the artists who created new art in a new country. An impressionable nature could convey the world around her in unusual images and colors. She perceived all the tragedies just as closely and, unable to bear them, lost her mind.
Childhood
This girl had great people in her family. These were not aristocrats, generals or politicians, they were the most famous painters and actors of the Russian Empire. The child's mother, Natalya Radlova-Kazanskaya, played for a long time on stage, and then taught and wrote textbooks on theatrical art. She was related to Mikhail Vrubel. Father Boris studied philology.
Masha's date of birth is shrouded in mystery. According to some sources, she was born in 1912, according to others, it happened in 1914. In 1916, she had a sister, Tanya. Children at an early age got acquainted with art, but Maria surprised everyone. Already at the age of 3, she painted beautifully and declared that when she grows up, she will become an artist. The girl studied well at school, and when she finished 9th grade, she began to make her dreams come true.
Youth
The first master to whom the schoolgirl decided to show her works was Vladimir Lebedev. He noted the author's non-standard style, advised Kazanskaya to go to study with the avant-garde artist Vera Ermolaeva. Maria began to visit the workshop of this rebel from art in 1929. The mentor introduced her to Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Sterligov and Konstantin Rozhdestvensky. In 1931, the girl entered the Academy of Arts in her hometown.
In the circle of people who linked their lives with creativity, Maria Kazanskaya met her future husband. His name was Nikolai Smirnov and he was almost 20 years older than his beloved. During the turbulent years of the Civil War, he drew propaganda posters and was engaged in design activities in theaters, later published in the press as the author of political cartoons. At the time of his acquaintance with his future wife, he was known as an organizer of exhibitions. The wedding took place in 1933.
Confession
The spouses strictly observed the boundary between personal life and professional self-realization. Maria Kazanskaya held the first exhibition of her canvases in 1934 thanks to the support of her comrades. Her teacher Vera Ermolaeva listened to the advice of Vladimir Sterligov and turned her apartment into a gallery for several days, where paintings of talented youth were presented. Machine canvases stood out among others and attracted the attention of the public.
The young artist was promised a brilliant career. She herself claimed that she adheres to the direction of pictorial-plastic realism. This direction in painting united a group of artists. They viewed the manipulation of canvas and paints as an attempt to find a balance between their own personality and the surrounding reality.
Tragedy
After the death of Sergei Kirov, arrests began in the country. The ministers of the muses were also subjected to repression. In December 1934, our heroine and her comrades were arrested. The artists were accused of anti-communist propaganda. The case was far-fetched, none of the detainees was an enemy of the state. The biography of Maria Kazanskaya was so pure and uncomplicated that it was clear even to the most biased judges that this person was imprisoned by accident. She was released the following March. The interrogations and stay in the cell for the sensitive soul did not go unnoticed.
Kazimir Malevich died in May 1935. At his funeral, Maria Kazanskaya looked crushed by misfortune. People who knew her well noted that the young woman had mental problems. Her grandmother, who was Mikhail Vrubel's cousin, lost her mind in her old age. But Masha was still so young, she had recently received an education, everyone hoped that she would recover from the shock and return to normal life. No miracle happened.
Effects
While our heroine was under investigation, her relatives saved the creative heritage of the artists who ended up in prisons. Boris Kazansky showed courage by appearing at the apartment of the arrested Vera Ermolaeva and taking out the canvases of his daughter and her mentor. He was convinced of the innocence of Masha and her friends and made a contribution to saving the works of Russian avant-garde artists from destruction. When Maria Borisovna was released, her father became her guardian. She herself was mentally ill and could not take care of herself.
Now even stranger images emerged from under Maria's brush. She lost touch with reality, rarely turned to her previously favorite themes of urban landscapes. Often the illness prevented the woman from working, and her relatives would take her to the hospital. After 1937, our heroine's condition worsened. She no longer went to the easel, hospitalizations became more frequent.
When Hitler's troops took Leningrad into the ring, Boris Kazansky with his sick daughter in his arms could not leave the city. They were poor, starving. In the spring of 1942, the unhappy woman became so bad that her parent sent her to the hospital. In medical institutions, in addition to treatment, patients received food. The latter was too scarce, and the environment was not conducive to recovery in any way. Maria Kazanskaya died of exhaustion in a hospital bed.
