The biography of Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel is a tangle of ingenious talent, outstanding works of various types of fine art, non-recognition, blows of fate, loss, moments of hope and happiness, originality of an individual, instantly flared up love, a terrible family tragedy, a catastrophic illness and death. And life after life: the eternal memory of him and admiration for his masterpieces.
Self portrait. 1905
The ancestors of Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel abroad and in the Russian Empire
The distant roots of Vrubel lie outside of Russia. The first of Vrubel to become a citizen of the Russian Empire was Mikhail's great-grandfather - Anton Antonovich. He served as a judge in Bialystok, a Polish city that was part of East Prussia. In 1807, in the Tilsit world, Bialystok was transferred to Russia and became the center of the Bialystok district of the Grodno region.
His son Mikhail Antonovich, the namesake and grandfather of the artist, became the first Russian nobleman of this kind. He was a military man and, on duty, ended up in the Astrakhan province. Here one of his sons - Alexander Mikhailovich, also an officer, married Anna Grigoryevna Basargina, daughter of the Astrakhan governor. The bride was from a more aristocratic and noble family, whose origins go back to the Horde and Danish ancestors.
Vrubel’s childhood
The future parents of the artist Alexander Mikhailovich and Anna Grigoryevna got married in Astrakhan. But Mikhail was born in Siberia at the place of his father's new service in the city of Omsk on March 17, 1856. He was the second child of four whom Anna gave birth to over 6 years. Misha was only 3 years old when his mother died. Father was transferred again to Astrakhan, closer to relatives who could help in caring for young children.
Such a bitter start to Vrubel’s life seemed to set the tone for the rest. Moreover, from birth he was in poor health, and by nature a quiet, taciturn, and thoughtful child. At the age of seven he received the home nickname "Silence and Philosopher." He loved looking at book illustrations. Fortunately, a part of the German library of Bialystok's great-grandfather was preserved for a long time.
Due to the movements of his father in the service, the family repeatedly changed his place of residence. Astrakhan, Omsk, Saratov, Petersburg, Kharkov, Odessa - moving to some cities was repeated. Vrubel's biography is replete with geographical names from childhood. In 1863, in Kharkov, children had a stepmother Elizabeth Khristianovna Wessel. According to the recollections of Anna's sister, seven-year-old Mikhail was fascinated to listen to the sounds of music during the play of Elizabeth Khristianovna, who was a good pianist.
Education and place of painting in children's and youthful biography of Mikhail Vrubel
At first, drawing attracted Mikhail at the same level as other forms of art. The abilities were manifested, but there was no especially ardent desire to do only painting in the child.
Since 1864, in Saratov, the boy received elementary education lessons from political exile Nikolai Peskov. He led Misha to study the natural sciences in the vicinity of the city. And Andrey Sergeevich Godin gave him private drawing lessons from nature.
Elder sister Anna recalled her brother: "He sketched scenes from family life with great liveliness." In 1865, an amazing event happened to him:
With the Vrubel family moving to St. Petersburg in 1867, Misha began his studies at the Fifth Grammar School and the Drawing School of the Society for the Promotion of Artists.
In 1870, another move to the place of his father's new appointment. This time to southern Odessa. Michael continued his general education at the Richelieu Lyceum. And art in Odessa drawing school. He studied everywhere successfully, was fond of theater, reading Latin classics, and music.
1874 - Graduation year with a gold medal. Then the family moved from Odessa to Vilna. And Mikhail entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. Engaged in the evenings in the classes of the Academy of Arts. Graduates from the university in January 1880.
Finally, the future brilliant painter at the age of 24 from amateur painting goes to professional training: in the fall of 1880, Mikhail Vrubel enters the Academy of Arts. He gets to Pavel Chistyakov, who has his own method of creating volume on a canvas, just like architects do. On Sundays, Vrubel takes watercolor lessons from Ilya Repin.
Kiev-Italian stage in the biography of Vrubel
The art critic Professor Adrian Prakhov needed a specialist for artwork to restore the Cyril Church. Pavel Chistyakov offers Vrubel. And he went to Kiev in 1884, where an important stage begins not only in his biography as an artist, but also in his personal life. According to some contemporaries, he was in love with his customer’s wife Emilia Lvovna Prakhova.
It is believed that she became the prototype of the icon "Our Lady with the Baby" for the altar of the Cyril Church. And when Vrubel leaves for Italy to study medieval mosaics and paintings of the early Renaissance, an active correspondence is conducted between them, which at the request of Emilia was destroyed by her daughter Olga, as evidenced by the granddaughter of Prahova.
1. The Virgin and Child, 1885 2. Emilia Prahova.
In Venice, Vrubel painted three icons - "St. Cyril", "St. Athanasius" and "Christ the Savior".
In April 1885, Vrubel returned from Italy, and in May he left for Odessa. However, at the end of the year he returns to Kiev. He works actively, but lives in poverty, largely due to his inability to manage money sensibly.
Creativity and Demons of Vrubel
In 1889, Mikhail Vrubel came to Moscow. Here he meets an industrialist and a generous philanthropist Savva Mamontov and becomes a member of his circle of artists in Abramtsevo.
He creates panels, draws up operas, engages in majolica, paints, illustrates works of literature. Participates in illustrating Lermontov’s jubilee two-volume, incl. makes drawings for the poem "Demon". Reviewers mercilessly criticized Vrubel's illustrations.
Date Tamara and the Demon. Illustration for the poem by Mikhail Lermontov "Demon". 1890s.
But in the end, the Demon becomes the main theme in his work. In 1890, he creates the "Demon of the Seated", and in 1902 the "Demon of the Downcast". "Flying Demon" the artist did not complete.
A demon in the usual sense is some kind of supernatural and evil force. But Vrubel saw in him a suffering human spirit, overwhelmed by thoughts and torn by passions, existing between heaven and earth.
In 1896, at the request of Savva Mamontov, Mikhail Vrubel performed two panels for the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod: "Mikula Selyaninovich" and "Princess Daydream". But they were severely criticized by the professors of the Academy of Arts and both panels were removed from the exhibition, and the artist was persecuted. The enterprising Mamontov built his own pavilion and exhibited in them huge paintings by Vrubel. They enjoyed great public interest, and the name of Vrubel became widely known.
Love and family drama by Mikhail Vrubel
Vrubel was almost 40 years old when he was visited by deep and instant love. At first, an unfamiliar beautiful voice conquered him. He rushed to his sound when he heard at the rehearsal of the opera at the Panaevsky Theater in St. Petersburg. So he met his future wife, opera singer Nadezhda Zabela. This love was mutual. July 28, 1896 they were married in Geneva. The wife became his ideal, muse, the heroine of his works and a devoted companion until the end of his days.
On September 1, 1901, their son Savva was born, and Nadezhda Zabela left the stage. The material well-being of the family fell heavily on Vrubel's shoulders. It was difficult for him to get his daily bread. He was nervous, worried, afraid that he could not provide for his family, suffered from neurosis and insomnia. But the main suffering was from the fact that the boy was born with a facial defect. Savvushka had a "cleft lip" and Vrubel believed that it was his fault. Punishment for his sins. This unsettled him and drove him crazy. Increasingly, he behaved inappropriately.
The extinction and death of Vrubel
He was obsessively working on Demon Downed. He graduated in 1902. And in the same year he got to a psychiatric hospital. Psychiatrist Vladimir Bekhterov made a disappointing diagnosis for Vrubel.
Vrubel’s friend Vladimir von Meck invited them to rest and gain strength on his estate in the Kiev province for the whole summer. With a young son, they went on a trip. There they lost their only son. May 3, 1903, the beloved Savvushka quickly dies of croupous pneumonia.
The mental extinction of Mikhail Vrubel is accelerating. He spends a lot of time in hospitals. Lives in a world of delirium and hallucinations. And in moments of enlightenment he is trying to write. During this difficult period, he was able to create his masterpiece “Rose in a Glass”, wrote “Six-winged Seraph”, “Pearl”. But he could not finish the portrait of the poet Valery Bryusov. By the end of 1905, the artist began to quickly go blind.
He spent the last few years of his life in a psychiatric hospital. His wife Nadezhda and older sister Anna took care of him until the end.
Mikhail Alexandrovich died on April 14, 1910.
On July 4, 1913, Nadezhda Vrubel-Zabela passed away.
They rest nearby at the Novodevichy cemetery in St. Petersburg.
