The lives of creative people can resemble sonatas and suites, thoughtless plays and songs, or even simple exercises. Experts of his work compare the life of Mikhail Vrubel with a wonderful pathetic symphony. She was filled with creativity to the brim. It is possible that future generations of artists, after decades, will consider the last years of the 19th century "the era of Vrubel."
From the biography of Mikhail Vrubel
The future artist was born on March 17, 1856. His birthplace was Omsk. Michael's father was an officer, went through the Crimean War. Subsequently, he made a career as a military lawyer. The ancestors of Mikhail Vrubel from his father moved to Russia from Poland. When the boy was only three years old, his mother died. Four years later, my father got married again.
Father’s service involved constant relocation. As a result, Vrubel happened to live in Omsk, Astrakhan, Saratov, Petersburg, Odessa.
In 1874, Vrubel successfully graduated from high school and became a student in the law faculty of the University in St. Petersburg. In those same years, Michael attended the Academy of Arts, evening classes.
Vrubel University graduated with honors. That was in 1879. After that, the future artist had to serve military service. He rose to the rank of scorer and went to the reserve.
The creative way of Vrubel
Toward the end of 1880, Vrubel became a volunteer at the Academy of Arts. The artist’s academic drawings The Betrothal of Mary with Joseph (1881) and The Model in the Renaissance (1883), made in the watercolor technique, stand out against the background of other listeners.
In 1884, Mikhail left the Academy and moved to Kiev, where he was learning to restore church paintings.
In 1884, Vrubel makes a pilgrimage to Venice. He needs a trip to write the iconostasis. He did not have practical experience in this genre, but a year later he wrote several compositions for the Cyril Church. 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.
In this fruitful period of his work, Mikhail Alexandrovich creates easel works, among which “Spain” and “Fortune Teller”, created in 1894-1895, stand out.
Vrubel took part in the design of Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas The Tsar’s Bride, Sadko, and 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 design of the facade of the house of Savva Mamontov in Moscow.
