The lives of creative people can resemble sonatas and suites, thoughtless plays and songs, or even simple exercises. Experts compare the life of Mikhail Vrubel to a wondrous pathetic symphony. She was filled with creativity to the brim. It is not excluded that future generations of artists in tens of years will regard the last years of the 19th century as the "era of Vrubel".
From the biography of Mikhail Vrubel
The future artist was born on March 17, 1856. Omsk became the place of his birth. Mikhail's father was an officer, he went through the Crimean War. He subsequently made a career as a military lawyer. Mikhail Vrubel's ancestors from his father's side moved to Russia from Poland. When the boy was only three years old, his mother died. Four years later, my father married again.
Father's service involved constant travel. As a result, Vrubel had a chance to live in Omsk, Astrakhan, Saratov, Petersburg, Odessa.
In 1874 Vrubel successfully graduated from the gymnasium and became a student of the law faculty of the University in St. Petersburg. In the same years, Mikhail attended the Academy of Arts, evening classes.
Graduated from Vrubel University with honors. This was in 1879. After that, the future artist had to serve military service. He rose to the rank of bombardier and went into the reserve.
Vrubel's career
Towards the end of 1880, Vrubel became a volunteer at the Academy of Arts. The artist's academic drawings "The Betrothal of Mary to Joseph" (1881) and "A Model in a Renaissance Setting" (1883), made in watercolor technique, stand out from the works of other listeners.
In 1884, Mikhail left the Academy and moved to Kiev, where he learned to restore church murals.
In 1884 Vrubel made a pilgrimage to Venice. He needs a trip to paint the iconostasis. He had no practical experience in this genre, but a year later he wrote several compositions for the Church of St. Cyril. Some of his sketches remained only in projects.
In 1889 Vrubel came to Moscow. Here he made acquaintance with the famous philanthropist Savva Mamontov and became a member of the Abramtsevo art circle.
During this fruitful period of his work, Mikhail Aleksandrovich creates easel works, among which Spain and The Fortune Teller, created in 1894-1895, stand out.
Vrubel took part in the design of the operas by Rimsky-Korsakov "The Tsar's Bride", "Sadko", "The Tale of Tsar Saltan". He also made a number of sketches of architectural elements for the Abramtsevo ceramic workshop and even acted as an architect in the implementation of the project for the facade of the Savva Mamontov house in Moscow.
Demon Skin Creator
One of Vrubel's favorite themes was the image of the Demon. The series began with The Seated Demon, created in 1890; then she found a continuation in illustrations to the work of the same name by Lermontov. The theme ended with "Demon defeated" in 1902.
Vrubel is known as an illustrator of the works of Pushkin, Shakespeare, Goethe, Anatole France, Edmond Rostand. His works also reflect the motives of ancient mythology and epic epics.
In 1902, the artist was diagnosed with a mental illness. He happened to undergo treatment in psychiatric clinics. During periods when the disease receded, he creates a series of drawings and a series of portraits of famous personalities.
Vrubel was married. The singer Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela, who had a great soprano, became his wife. In 1901, a son, Savva, was born into the artist's family, who died of pneumonia in 1903.
By 1906, the artist was almost completely blind. Vrubel spent the last years of his life in a clinic on the Vasilievsky Island of St. Petersburg. He left this world in April 1910.
