NATIVE PETERSBURG PAINTERS ON THE CITY AT THE EVE OF THE 20TH CENTURY

As the Russian Empire's new capital was under construction, it attracted the cream of Russian artists vying for imprinting it on history. But the moment the grandiose project came to a close with all ensembles in place and prospects wide open, the city became dull. Surprisingly, Petersburg seldom caught an artist's eye in the middle of the 19th century. The new generation of artists enchanted by Petersburg arrived all at once, at the turn of the 20th century.

The city's magnificent buildings, ensembles and views are one side to it only. Each city has a heart of its own. And as it turned out, you have to be a native to understand it. Alexander Benois, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Yevgeny Y. Lancere, Konstantin Somov, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva - all had a lot in common. They were all peers, all were born in the late 1860s - early 70s in Petersburg and many of them were born in families directly involved in the construction of the city. Somov was the son of a curator at the Hermitage. Lancere's father - Y.A. Lancere - was a famous sculptor and his great-grandfather and Benois's grandfather was Albert Cavos, the architect of Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theatres. Alexander Benois's father, an architect, created on the outskirts of Petersburg.

The future artists developed an exclusively personal attitude to Petersburg architecture from their early days. Later on their pictures, etchings and sketches imprinted the city's landmarks, known to every tourist. These are Peter and Paul Fortress with its bastions, the Stock Exchange with rostral columns, the embankments, the Admiralty, the Statue of Peter, the sphinxes, the Academy of Fine Arts. ;

Lancere Y. Senate Square. 1901

Ostroumova-Lebedeva A. Lion and Fortress. 1901

Benois A. Peter and Paul Fortress. Illustration to A.Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman".1916

Ostroumova-Lebedeva A. Rostral Column

Ostroumova-Lebedeva A. The Bronze Horseman 1913

Ostroumova-Lebedeva A. Peterburg. The Neva perspective. 1908

The artists knew to the minute detail every single corner of the city. Petersburg had been their home from childhood and memories of the younger days would later become the motifs of their works.

The impressions of early days never leave you and you get your first glimpse of the world around you out of your nursery.

Benois A. Illustration to "The Bronze Horseman" by A.Pushkin, 1916

The family house of Alexander Benois and Yevgeny Lancere - the so-called Benois House on Bolshaya Morskaya - stood next to excellent samples of architecture. Right out of the window one could see the Bolshoi Theatre rebuilt by their famous ancestor A.Cavos. In the eyes of a kid the theatre was full of magic. It was studied from every angle: the impressive portico with thick Ionian columns under which coaches arrived, a number of round windows running the entire length of the roof, and even the thick clumsy iron pipe its hood upwards that somewhat asymmetrically towered the building and served ventilation purposes. Later on Benois would easily imagine what the Bolshoi Theatre looked before his grandfather rebuilt it, that was, in the days of the Petersburg flood described by Pushkin in his poem "The Bronze Horseman".

The other "wonders" of the neighbourhood were Nikolsky market with its boisterous crowd and Lithuanian Castle, whose round windows gaped at you like gawky eyes. The castle, for all its outwardly friendly look, was a gaol. Benois would confess that for him the Lithuanian Castle was both unnerving and enticing. Behind the walls of it he portrayed the most gruesome of robbers, murderers and plunderers. He sometimes saw the prisoners being taken to Semenovsky Square.

Benois A. Lithuanian Castle and New Holland. Water-colours. 1922

Lancere Y. Nikolsky market in Petersburg. 1901.

The sight of troops marching in orderly file past Benois's house to their summer accommodation was far more glamorous to look at. The daily route of the Winter Palace's guards went past the Benois house too. But the real holidays were the days of imperial military parades on Tsarytsyn Lug in May. Benois remembers watching breathlessly thousands and thousands soldiers as they advanced in all directions, keeping abreast but without any noticeable effort, remarkably fast, reacting to the officers' commands only. He remembered the high copper shakos with a red back and the golden uniforms of the Pavlovsky regiment. The exultation Benois remembered of the military parades of his younger days gave birth to the historical canvas "A Parade under Paul I". The action unfolds in front of Mikhailovsky Castle.

Benois A. A Parade under Paul I. Gouache. 1907

Mistislav Dobuzhinsky began his acquaintance with Petersburg from Vyborg, a provincial quiet area. The windows of his home revealed the facades of Petersburg, including the Smolny Palace, glimmering in the horizon. Clearly visible, however, was the typically narrow well-like courtyard with a wood-store and a low brick outhouse. From there came the voices of newsboys and women peddlers and the monotonous sounds of street-organ. Benois's acquaintance with the city, hiding behind the glamorous facade, continued on the inner grounds of the Mikhailovsky Artillery School and in the gardens of Medical Academy. Dobuzhinsky came to know what the life of a Petersburg courtyard was like from an early childhood.

Dobuzhinsky M. The Art Palace's courtyard. 1920		Dobuzhinsky M. Peterburg. 1914
Dobuzhinsky M. Winter in Companies. 1904		Dobuzhinsky M. Petersburg. Roofs in Snow.1916

Dobuzhinsky received the full picture of Petersburg courtyard with its blind windows and walls and fences

Dobuzhinsky M. Illustration to F.Dostoevski novel "White Nights". 1911.

made of planks from his uncle's flat near St.Vladimir Cathedral. Later on he would learn that Fedor Dostoevsky had died in the next flat just several years earlier. That meant that he, Dobuzhinsky, had been a witness to the same sad landscape as the great writer had. The encounter with Dostoevsky's Petersburg brought fruit. Many years after Dobuzhinsky began to draw illustrations to Dostoevsky's works.

Just several steps away the festive Petersburg lived a different life. The sounds that came from Petersburg streets! The sound of a bell on a horse-drawn tram, church bells ringing, the sounds of a military orchestra and news vendors chanting discordantly. The glittering shop signs were luring too - the golden grape clusters adorning wine shops, the golden jackboots with spurs hanging over the cobbler's, the golden bagels under a crown above the German bakeries and bulls against the golden background - a signature sign of the butcher's.

Strolls of Petersburg in the company of a nanny are always long and diversified, each route promising the joys of its own. The cannons near the district court in Vyborg have been explored to the finest detail. Dobuzhinsky recalled the excitement of gazing at protruding ornaments on the muzzles, wheels and gun-carriages, the coat of arms, the dolphin-shaped handles and the unintelligible scripts in ligature. If he was heading in the direction of Liteiny Prospect, he would walk across Liteiny Bridge with its elegant railings and green mermaids with a fish's tails holding the Petersburg coat of arms in their hands. Liteiny Prospect was full of mysteriously looking mansions and one of them, unoccupied, made of gray marble, took his breath away - they said it was home to the Queen of Spades.

On Nevsky Prospekt the strollers dived into the never-ending ceremonial stream of festive horse-cars, coaches, droshky, sleigh, troikas with bells and their own carriages. Rushing past were court carriages with golden crowns on the lanterns. And sometimes, disrupting the serenity of Nevsky, a post coach whirled past at dazzling speed. In the crowd one could easily spot sophisticated dandies and country folk. Nevsky's Gostiny Dvor was the dream of all children attracted by its toyshop.

Dobuzhinsky. Alexandrinsky Theater. 1902

- Dobuzhinsky M. Fontanka by the Summer Gardens. 1902

Summer Gardens was a favourite venue for Petersburg's kids. A.P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva recalls that the kids' gathering ground was near the statue of fabulist Krylov. Days on end passed in games. In spring and summer the Gardens, so shady and sparkling with lavish parterres of bright flowers, was particularly popular. Besides kids and their nannies, it served a refuge for all Petersburgers weary of the noise and heat of the city. The Gardens' regulars - children, nannies and old men and women - were more than often joined by couples of lovers. And in winter, according to Ostroumova-Lebedeva's recollections, the Gardens was like a drowsy kingdom, its statues draped in gray covers and most of the benches put away. Visitors were few at that time. Children, and Ostroumova-Lebedeva was among them, wandered around the wooden bridges never stopping for a sit-down. It must be a scene from her early childhood that the artist conveyed in one of her most lyrical etchings.

- Ostroumova A.P. Summer Gardens in Winter. 1901

Dobuzhinsky M.V. Summer Gardens in Winter. 1922

The glamour of the full-flowing Neva comes from childhood also. River cruises were a special treat. She preserved the most tender memories of a riverboat a skiff motley as a cockerel gliding on the sunlit Neva on a summer day past palaces, the fortress, the Stock Exchange, ducking under all four bridges - Liteiny, Troitsky, Dvortsovy and Nikolaevsky, past barges, vessels, ships and towboats. Finally, the passengers sailed onto the vast stretching expanse between the many-column Stock Exchange, granite walls of the fortress and masses of palaces to dive then into narrow canals cutting through the city in various directions. As you sailed through the canals you could watch tirelessly the buildings double or triple in the reflection. City canals and bridges are the painters' much-loved scenes. In Petersburg of their childhood there were still canals surrounding Mikhailovsky Castle and the Biron Palace and there was Tsepnoi suspension bridge, which was later dismantled, leading to the Summer Gardens.

Ostroumova-Lebedeva. Biron Palace and Barges. 1912

Ostroumova-Lebedeva A.P. Petersburg. Kryukov Canal. 1910

Ostroumova-Lebedeva A.P. Petersburg. Tsepnoi Bridge. 1903

Ostroumova-Lebedeva A.P. Chernyshov Bridge.

As seasons rushed by the artists witnessed the city change its look. The first touch of winter came with autumn rains, chilly and dank.

Benois A. Illustration to "The Bronze Horseman" by A.Pushkin, 1916

Then came winter. According to A.Benois, the chilly and snowy Petersburg was shrouded in something ghastly, hideous, grim. The city darkened as if groaning. But there were occasional good winter days too, when everything was dressed in a fluffy, glittering in the sun snow. Such winters brought joy.

Dobuzhinsky M. Petersburg in 1921. St.Isaac's in a Snowstorm. 1922.

Dobuzhinsky M. The English embankment in winter. 1922

All of a sudden, it got warm after a long winter. Benois recalled: "Oh, how I adored a Petersburg spring, the unexpected warmth and the quick sunshine. What a rapture and what a gnawing sadness in a Petersburg winter". The snow on the Neva grew thicker, grayer, billowed, cracked and finally moved. Ice-floes were floating along the river rubbing against the embankments. Pavement cleaners were getting down to work and the joke was that it was those street cleaners that made the spring in Petersburg. Pancake Week was setting in, when Marsovo Pole hosted all sorts of public events and shows were opening citywide. The square drowned in the excited buzz of people's voices and a sea of sounds - hooters, whistles, the monotonous street-organ, the accordion, the shouts.

Benois A. Illustration to A. Pushkin poem "The Bronze Horseman" 1916.

Late spring is the time of white nights. Benois thought that Peter the Great, as he founded Petersburg in May, was mesmerized by such phenomenon unknown in Central Russia. At that time Petersburg became a city devoid of colour and people on the streets seemed incorporeal creatures. The usual lifestyle was disrupted, especially for artists. Ostroumova-Lebedeva remembers staying at Benois's for hours talking and breaking up at the dawn only. Enchanted by the white night and the morning star coming into full glow in the skies they wandered about the city drawing instead of heading home. The city was asleep, the streets - silent. And an occasional passer-by turned out to be a brother-in-trade to their astonishment and delight.

Ostroumova-Lebedeva A.P. A View on Tuchkov Bridge. White Nights in Petersburg. 1910.

Benois A. "The Bronze Horseman". 1916.

The white night season is fairly short. Around July 20th Petersburg streets were lit again and it grew dark early. And the common feeling was that the summer was over.

Despite the cult of Petersburg in the artists' midst, few lived in the city all their lives. A rare exception is Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva. She lived one life with Petersburg and as an old timer took in the faintest of changes in the city's spots she loved the most. Seasons went past and so did the scenes of her life. She knew that the Stock Exchange changed the look several times during the year. On rainy days its columns grew slimmer and on snowy days they seemed bigger, thicker. Modern buildings that sprang up across the city rarely hit her etchings.

Ostroumova-Lebedeva A.P. Petersburg. Neva's perspective through the columns of the Stock Exchange. 1908.

Ostroumova-Lebedeva. The Columns of Stock Exchange and Peter and Paul Fortress

For Ostroumova-Lebedeva, as for Benois, Dobuzhinsky and Lancere Petersburg remained a city of the past. Their grandfathers were so close to the time when it was laid and when the architects Rastrelli, Rinaldi, Zakharov, Voronikhin, Kwarengi resounded in fame. In the days of their fathers Petersburg was the city of Gogol and Dostoevski. Pushkin's characters lived on its streets. And it was the city of their cloudless childhood. For those who found themselves abroad after the October Revolution Petersburg went on living through their pictures and memoirs.

Illustrations from:

Petersburg-Leningrad through the eyes of artists. Leningrad, 1972.

Russian art of the first half of the 19th century. Moscow, 1978.

Chugunov G. Mstislav Dobuzhinskii. 1875 - 1957. Leningrad, 1988.

Ostroumova-Lebedeva A.P. My autobiography. Moscow, 1974.

Gusarova A.P. The World of Art. Moscow, 1977.

Benois A.N. My memoirs. Moscow, 1980.

Pushkin A.S. Poem "The Bronze Horseman". Moscow, 1980.