Igor Grabar

description

Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar, who succeeded in very different spheres of creative and scientific activity, was a man of art, a unique landscape painter, illustrator, museum and restoration specialist.

For many years, he worked as a trustee and director of the Tretyakov Gallery, was a director of the Institute of Art History of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In each sphere, he showed his incredible love for work.

Key ideas:

– Igor Grabar called Impressionism “a turn from ideological Realism to artistic Realism.” In this concept, the artist put the desire for a fresh intense color, the search for more acute and even unusually contradictory compositional solutions.

– The peculiarity of the works of this artist is in the generalization of the forms, that is, in his interpretation, the image is often not detailed, but appears as the mass representing the whole.

– Grabar developed such techniques as a spectacular diagonal in a composition, a perspective that goes far. Such searches and experiments subsequently became the base of the special manner characteristic of I. Grabar.

– Painting still lifes, the artist not only depicted objects on a canvas, but also depicted shadow and light, which conveyed all the power of colors. Those were works, in which you can see the triumph of light, filled with a special sound. The artist called this kind of creativity “still life charging.”

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1871

1876 - 1880

1882 - 1895

1894

1896

1901

1906

1907 - 1913

1913 - 1918

1926 - 1930

1937

1944

1960

The birth of the artist

The artist was born into a family of an ethnic group of Ugric Russia – lawyer, member of the Austrian parliament and public figure Emanuel Grabar and his wife Olga, who led educational activities in Galicia. He was their second son.

The relocation of the family to Russia

Forced emigration of the father and the relocation of the family to Russia, to the Yegoryevsk of Ryazan province, where everyone lived under the conspiratorial name Khrabrov. Before graduation, Igor signed his work with this surname.

Studied at the Moscow Lyceum of Cesarevich Nicholas

Studied at the Moscow Lyceum of Cesarevich Nicholas (who was completed with a gold medal) and attended drawing classes at the Moscow Society of Art Lovers. Then he studied at the law and historical-philological faculties at St. Petersburg University and at the academic workshop of Professor Pavel Chistyakov.

Entered St. Petersburg Academy of Arts

Entered St. Petersburg Academy of Arts; from 1895, he studied at the workshop of I. Repin. He created successful paintings for the first time, worked on illustrations for Gogol’s stories.

Went to Europe

Went to Europe, where he entered the Munich private school of Anton Azbe.

Returned to Russia

Returned to Russia; participated in the work of such creative associations as the “World of Art” (since 1899), and later – in the Union of Russian Artists. His landscapes and still lifes were presented at exhibitions.

He was elected a member of the Paris Salon

He was elected a member of the Paris Salon. Later he participated in the most prominent exhibitions not only in Western Europe (Berlin Secession, Rome and Venice World Exhibitions), but also in New York.

"A day of frost"

Created a series of paintings “A day of frost”; his great work “The History of Russian Art” (1909) was published. He created the project and supervised the construction of the S. Zakharyin Memorial Hospital.

Headed the Tretyakov Gallery

Headed the Tretyakov Gallery (was its director until 1925), was elected a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He created the Central Restoration Workshop, saving icons and frescoes among other works of art.