Mukhina Vera Ignatievna - great love stories. Biography and work of the Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina Soviet sculptor Miklashevskaya student of Mukhina
Soviet sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1943). Author of works: “Flame of the Revolution” (1922-1923), “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” (1937), “Bread” (1939); monuments to A.M. Gorky (1938-1939), P.I. Tchaikovsky (1954).
Vera Ignatievna Mukhina
There weren’t too many of them - artists who survived Stalin’s terror, and each of these “lucky” ones is judged and dressed up a lot today, “grateful” descendants strive to give “earrings” to each one. Vera Mukhina, the official sculptor of the “Great Communist Era”, who worked gloriously to create a special mythology of socialism, apparently is still awaiting her fate. In the meantime...
Nesterov M.V. - Portrait Faith Ignatyevna Mukhina.
In Moscow, the colossus of the sculptural group “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” rises above the Avenue of the World, clogged with cars, roaring with tension and choking with smoke. The symbol rose into the sky former country- a sickle and a hammer, a scarf floats, tying the figures of “captive” sculptures, and below, near the pavilions former Exhibition achievements National economy, buyers of televisions, tape recorders are scurrying around, washing machines, mostly foreign “achievements”. But the madness of this sculptural “dinosaur” does not seem to be today's life something out of date. For some reason, Mukhina’s creation flowed extremely organically from the absurdity of “that” time into the absurdity of “this”
Our heroine was incredibly lucky with her grandfather, Kuzma Ignatievich Mukhin. He was an excellent merchant and left his relatives a huge fortune, which made it possible to brighten up not too much happy childhood Verochka's granddaughters. The girl lost her parents early, and only her grandfather’s wealth and the decency of her uncles allowed Vera and her older sister Maria not to experience the material hardships of orphanhood.
Vera Mukhina grew up meek, well-behaved, sat quietly in class, and studied at the gymnasium approximately. She didn’t show any special talents, maybe she just sang well, occasionally wrote poetry, and enjoyed drawing. And which of the lovely provincial (Vera grew up in Kursk) young ladies with the right upbringing did not show such talents before marriage? When the time came, the Mukhina sisters became enviable brides - they did not shine with beauty, but they were cheerful, simple, and most importantly, with a dowry. They flirted with pleasure at balls, seducing artillery officers who were going crazy with boredom in a small town.
The sisters made the decision to move to Moscow almost by accident. They had often visited relatives in the capital before, but as they grew older, they were finally able to appreciate that in Moscow there was more entertainment, better seamstresses, and more decent balls at the Ryabushinskys. Fortunately, the Mukhin sisters had plenty of money, so why not change the provincial Kursk to a second capital?
It was in Moscow that the maturation of the personality and talent of the future sculptor began. It was wrong to think that, without receiving the proper upbringing and education, Vera changed as if by magic magic wand. Our heroine has always been distinguished by amazing self-discipline, ability to work, diligence and passion for reading, and for the most part she chose serious books, not girlish ones. This previously deeply hidden desire for self-improvement gradually began to manifest itself in the girl in Moscow. With such an ordinary appearance, she should be looking for a decent party, but she is suddenly looking for a decent art studio. She should be concerned about her personal future, but she is concerned about the creative impulses of Surikov or Polenov, who were still actively working at that time.
Vera entered the studio of Konstantin Yuon, a famous landscape painter and a serious teacher, easily: there was no need to pass exams - pay and study - but studying was not easy. Her amateur, childish drawings in the studio of a real painter did not stand up to any criticism, and ambition drove Mukhina, the desire to excel daily chained her to a sheet of paper. She literally worked like a convict. Here, in Yuon's studio, Vera acquired her first artistic skills, but most importantly, she had the first glimpses of her own creative individuality and first passions.
She was not interested in working on color; she devoted almost all her time to drawing, graphics of lines and proportions, trying to reveal almost primitive beauty human body. In her student works, the theme of admiration for strength, health, youth, and simple clarity of mental health sounded more and more clearly. For the beginning of the 20th century, such an artist’s thinking, against the backdrop of the experiments of the surrealists and cubists, seemed too primitive.
One day the master set a composition on the theme “dream”. Mukhina drew a picture of a janitor falling asleep at the gate. Yuon winced with displeasure: “There is no fantasy in dreams.” Perhaps the reserved Vera did not have enough imagination, but she had in abundance youthful enthusiasm, admiration for strength and courage, and the desire to unravel the mystery of the plasticity of the living body.
Without leaving Yuon's classes, Mukhina began working in the workshop of the sculptor Sinitsina. Vera felt an almost childlike delight when she touched the clay, which made it possible to fully experience the mobility of human joints, the magnificent flight of movement, and the harmony of volume.
Sinitsyna withdrew from studying, and sometimes understanding the truths had to be achieved at the cost of great effort. Even the tools were taken at random. Mukhina felt professionally helpless: “Something huge is planned, but my hands can’t do it.” In such cases, the Russian artist of the beginning of the century went to Paris. Mukhina was no exception. However, her guardians were afraid to let the girl go abroad alone.
Everything happened as in the banal Russian proverb: “There would be no happiness, but misfortune would help.”
At the beginning of 1912, during the joyful Christmas holidays, while riding on a sleigh, Vera seriously injured her face. Nine plastic surgery she suffered, and when six months later she saw herself in the mirror, she fell into despair. I wanted to run, hide from people. Mukhina changed apartments, and only great inner courage helped the girl tell herself: she must live, they live worse. But the guardians considered that Vera had been cruelly offended by fate and, wanting to make up for the injustice of fate, they released the girl to Paris.
In Bourdelle's workshop, Mukhina learned the secrets of sculpture. In the huge, hotly heated halls, the master moved from machine to machine, mercilessly criticizing his students. Vera got it the most; the teacher did not spare anyone’s pride, including women’s. Once Bourdelle, having seen Mukhina’s sketch, sarcastically remarked that Russians sculpt “illusively rather than constructively.” The girl broke the sketch in despair. How many more times will she have to destroy own works, numb from his own inadequacy.
During her stay in Paris, Vera lived in a boarding house on Rue Raspail, where Russians predominated. In the colony of fellow countrymen, Mukhina met her first love - Alexander Vertepov, a man of an unusual, romantic destiny. A terrorist who killed one of the generals, he was forced to flee Russia. In Bourdelle's workshop, this young man, who had never picked up a pencil in his life, became the most talented student. The relationship between Vera and Vertepov was probably friendly and warm, but the aged Mukhina never dared to admit that she had more than friendly sympathy for Vertepov, although she never parted with his letters all her life, often thought about him and never spoke about anyone like that. with hidden sadness, as about a friend of his Parisian youth. Alexander Vertepov died in the First World War.
The last chord Mukhina's studies abroad included a trip to the cities of Italy. The three of them with their friends crossed this fertile country, neglecting comfort, but how much happiness Neapolitan songs, the shimmering stone of classical sculpture and feasts in roadside taverns brought them. One day, the travelers got so drunk that they fell asleep right on the side of the road. In the morning, Mukhina woke up and saw the gallant Englishman, raising his cap, stepping over her legs.
The return to Russia was overshadowed by the outbreak of war. Vera, having mastered the qualifications of a nurse, went to work in an evacuation hospital. Out of habit, it seemed not only difficult, but unbearable. “The wounded arrived there straight from the front. You tear off the dirty, dried bandages - blood, pus. Rinse with peroxide. Lice,” and many years later she recalled with horror. In a regular hospital, where she soon asked to go, it was much easier. But despite new profession, which, by the way, she did for free (fortunately, her grandfather’s millions gave her this opportunity), Mukhina continued to devote her free time sculpture.
There is even a legend that once upon a time a young soldier was buried in the cemetery next to the hospital. And every morning near tombstone, made by a village craftsman, the mother of the murdered man appeared, grieving for her son. One evening, after artillery shelling, they saw that the statue was broken. They said that Mukhina listened to this message in silence, sadly. And the next morning he appeared at the grave new monument, more beautiful than before, and Vera Ignatievna’s hands were covered in bruises. Of course, this is only a legend, but how much mercy, how much kindness is invested in the image of our heroine.
In the hospital, Mukhina met her betrothed funny last name Castles. Subsequently, when Vera Ignatievna was asked what attracted her to her future husband, she answered in detail: “He has a very strong creativity. Internal monumentality. And at the same time a lot from the man. Internal rudeness with great spiritual subtlety. Besides, he was very handsome."
Alexey Andreevich Zamkov was indeed a very talented doctor, he treated unconventionally, tried traditional methods. Unlike his wife Vera Ignatievna, he was a sociable, cheerful, sociable person, but at the same time very responsible, with a heightened sense of duty. They say about such husbands: “With him she’s like a stone wall" Vera Ignatievna was lucky in this sense. Alexey Andreevich invariably took part in all of Mukhina’s problems.
Our heroine’s creativity flourished in the 1920s and 1930s. The works “Flame of the Revolution”, “Julia”, “Peasant Woman” brought fame to Vera Ignatievna not only in her homeland, but also in Europe.
One can argue about the degree of Mukhina’s artistic talent, but it cannot be denied that she became a real “muse” of an entire era. Usually they lament about this or that artist: they say, he was born at the wrong time, but in our case one can only marvel at how successfully Vera Ignatievna’s creative aspirations coincided with the needs and tastes of her contemporaries. The cult of physical strength and health in Mukhina’s sculptures perfectly reproduced and contributed greatly to the creation of the mythology of Stalin’s “falcons”, “beautiful girls”, “Stakhanovites” and “Pasha Angelins”.
Mukhina said about her famous “Peasant Woman” that she was “the goddess of fertility, the Russian Pomona.” Indeed, the legs of a column, above them a tightly built torso rises ponderously and at the same time lightly. “This one will give birth standing up and won’t grunt,” said one of the spectators. Powerful shoulders adequately complete the bulk of the back, and above everything is an unexpectedly small, graceful head for this powerful body. Well, why not the ideal builder of socialism - an uncomplaining but healthy slave?
Europe in the 1920s was already infected with the bacillus of fascism, the bacillus of mass cult hysteria, so Mukhina’s images were viewed with interest and understanding there too. After XIX International the exhibition in Venice “The Peasant Woman” was bought by the Trieste Museum.
But Vera Ignatyevna brought even greater fame famous composition, which became a symbol of the USSR - “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”. And it was also created in a symbolic year - 1937 - for the pavilion Soviet Union at an exhibition in Paris. Architect Iofan developed a project where the building was supposed to resemble a speeding ship, the bow of which, according to classical custom, was supposed to be crowned with a statue. Or rather, a sculptural group.
Competition in which four people took part famous masters, our heroine won for the best monument project. The sketches of the drawings show how painfully the idea itself was born. Here is a running naked figure (initially Mukhina sculpted a man naked - a mighty ancient god walked next to a modern woman - but, according to instructions from above, the “god” had to be dressed up), in her hands she is holding something like an Olympic torch. Then another appears next to her, the movement slows down, it becomes calmer... The third option is a man and a woman holding hands: both they themselves and the hammer and sickle they raised are solemnly calm. Finally, the artist settled on an impulse of movement, enhanced by a rhythmic and clear gesture.
Mukhina’s decision has no precedent in world sculpture most launch sculptural volumes through the air, flying horizontally. With such a scale, Vera Ignatievna had to check every curve of the scarf for a long time, calculating every fold. It was decided to make the sculpture from steel, a material that before Mukhina had been used only once in world practice by Eiffel, who made the Statue of Liberty in America. But the Statue of Liberty has a very simple outline: it is a female figure in a wide toga, the folds of which lie on a pedestal. Mukhina had to create a complex, hitherto unprecedented structure.
They worked, as was customary under socialism, in rush hours, storming, seven days a week, in record short time. Mukhina later said that one of the engineers fell asleep at the drawing table due to overwork, and in his sleep threw his hand back onto the steam heating and received a burn, but the poor guy never woke up. When the welders fell off their feet, Mukhina and her two assistants began to cook themselves.
Finally, the sculpture was assembled. And they immediately began to take it apart. 28 carriages of “The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman” went to Paris, and the composition was cut into 65 pieces. Eleven days later in the Soviet pavilion at International exhibition a gigantic sculptural group rose above the Seine with a hammer and sickle. Was it possible not to notice this colossus? There was a lot of noise in the press. Instantly, the image created by Mukhina became a symbol of the socialist myth of the 20th century.
On the way back from Paris, the composition was damaged, and - just think - Moscow did not skimp on recreating a new copy. Vera Ignatievna dreamed that “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” would fly into the sky on Lenin Mountains, among wide open spaces. But no one listened to her anymore. The group was installed in front of the entrance to the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, which opened in 1939 (as it was then called). But the main problem was that the sculpture was placed on a relatively low, ten-meter pedestal. And it, designed for great heights, began to “crawl along the ground,” as Mukhina wrote. Vera Ignatievna wrote letters to higher authorities, demanded, appealed to the Union of Artists, but everything turned out to be in vain. So this giant still stands not in its place, not at the level of its greatness, living its own life, contrary to the will of its creator.
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Vera Ignatievna Mukhina is one of the most famous Soviet sculptors. The biography of Vera Mukhina is in many ways typical of talented youth of the early 20th century. Their formative years as individuals and choices life path fell on the turning point, seething, harsh and hungry years of several revolutions and wars.
Vera Mukhina was born July 1, 1889 in a wealthy Russian family who lived in Riga since 1812. IN early childhood the girl lost her mother, who died of tuberculosis. The father, fearing for his daughter’s health, took her to Feodosia. Happy childhood years passed in Crimea. The gymnasium teacher gave her drawing and painting lessons. In the art gallery she copied paintings by the great marine painter I. Aivazovsky and painted landscapes of Taurida.
After the death of her father, the guardians took the girl to, where she successfully graduated from high school and went to Moscow to study painting. From 1909 to 1911 she studied in the private studio of K. Yuon, and at the same time began to visit the workshop of the sculptor N. Sinitsina. In the workshop you could try yourself as a sculptor. To do this, it was enough to pay a small amount and get a machine and clay at your disposal.
There was no special training in the studio; rather, it resembled practice for private students art schools and students of the Stroganov Art School. The workshop was often visited by the famous sculptor N. Andreev, who taught in Stroganovka and was interested in the works of his students. He was the first professional sculptor to note the unique artistic style of Vera Mukhina.
After Yuon Mukhin's studio whole year visits the workshop talented artist Ilya Mashkov, founder and participant of the art association “Jack of Diamonds”. In 1912, she went to Paris and entered the Grand Chaumiere Academy, where she studied sculpting with Bourdelle, who was an assistant to the sculptor Rodin. Mukhina is very captivated by Rodin’s irrepressible temperament; she is also attracted to him by the monumentality of his works. As additional education Vera studies anatomy, visits museums, exhibitions, and theaters.
In the summer of 1914, she returns to Russia, full of grandiose plans, but Vera Mukhina begins and graduates from nursing courses. Until 1917 she worked in the hospital. After the revolution, which she perceives very loyally, the artist begins to engage in the art of monumental propaganda. First an independent project The novice sculptor for the young republic of workers and peasants was to create a monument to I. Novikov, a Russian publisher and public figure of the 18th century. Unfortunately, during the harsh winter of 1918-19, versions of the monument perished in an unheated workshop.
Mukhina’s distinctive style is the monumentality of forms with an emphasis on architectonics, presented as an artistic generalization of strength and inflexibility Soviet man. Regardless of the material - bronze, marble, wood, steel, she embodies the image of a man of the heroic era with the strength and courage of her talent with the help of a chisel. She owns works that are in many ways significant for the history of our country. The monument, created by Vera Mukhina, is a symbol of a free and happy life for several generations of Soviet people.
With all the accusations that the author worked on orders from the authorities, even ardent ill-wishers cannot blame Vera Mukhina for the lack of talent, coupled with an extraordinary capacity for work. The famous sculptor died in 1953, having lived only 64 years.
Vera Ignatievna Mukhina
Vera Ignatievna Mukhina- famous Soviet sculptor, winner of five Stalin Prizes, member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Arts.
Biography
IN AND. Mukhina was born on June 19/07/1, 1889 in Riga, in the family of a wealthy merchant. After the death of her mother, Vera, with her father and older sister Maria, moved to the Crimea, to Feodosia in 1892. Vera's mother died at the age of thirty from tuberculosis in Nice, where she was undergoing treatment. In Feodosia, unexpectedly for the Mukhin family, Vera developed a passion for painting. Father dreamed that youngest daughter will continue his work, the character - stubborn, persistent - the girl took after him. God did not give him a son, but eldest daughter he didn’t count on it - only balls and entertainment were important to Maria. But Vera inherited a passion for art from her mother. Nadezhda Vilhelmovna Mukhina, whose maiden name was Mude (she had French roots), could sing a little, write poetry and drew her beloved daughters in her album.
Vera received her first drawing and painting lessons from an art teacher at the gymnasium where she entered to study. Under his guidance, she went to the local art gallery copied Aivazovsky's paintings. The girl did it with complete dedication, receiving great pleasure from the work. But a happy childhood, where everything was predetermined and clear, suddenly ended. In 1904, Mukhina’s father died, and at the insistence of her guardians, her father’s brothers, she and her sister moved to Kursk. There Vera continued her studies at the gymnasium and graduated in 1906. The next year, Mukhina, her sister and uncles went to live in Moscow.
In the capital, Vera did everything possible to continue her study of painting. To begin with, she entered a private painting studio with Yuon Konstantin Fedorovich and took lessons from Dudin. Very soon Vera realized that she was also interested in sculpture. This was facilitated by a visit to the studio of the self-taught sculptor N. A. Sinitsyna. Unfortunately, there were no teachers in the studio; everyone sculpted as best they could. It was visited by students of private art schools and students of the Stroganov School. In 1911, Mukhina became a student of the painter Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov. But most of all she wanted to go to Paris - the capital-legislator of new artistic tastes. There she could continue her education in sculpture, which she lacked. Vera had no doubt that she had the ability to do this. After all, the sculptor N.A. Andreev himself, who often visited Sinitsina’s studio, repeatedly noted her work. He was known as the author of the monument to Gogol. Therefore, the girl listened to Andreev’s opinion. Only the guardian uncles were against the niece’s departure. An accident helped: Vera was visiting relatives on an estate near Smolensk, when she slid down the mountain and broke her nose. Local doctors provided assistance. Vera's uncles sent her to Paris for further treatment. So, the dream came true, even at such a high price. In the capital of France, Mukhina underwent several nose jobs. Throughout her treatment, she took lessons at the Grande Chaumiere Academy from the famous French muralist sculptor E. A. Bourdelle, Rodin's former assistant, whose work she admired. The very atmosphere of the city – the architecture, sculptural monuments – also helped her complete her artistic education. In her free time, Vera visited theaters, museums, art galleries. After treatment, Mukhina went on a trip to France and Italy, visiting Nice, Menton, Genoa, Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice, etc.
Vera Mukhina in her Parisian workshop
In the summer of 1914, Mukhina returned to Moscow for the wedding of her sister, who was marrying a foreigner and leaving for Budapest. Vera could have gone to Paris again and continued her studies, but the First World War began World War, and she chose to enroll in nursing courses. From 1915 to 1917 she worked in the hospital together with the Grand Duchesses of the Romanovs.
It was during this period that she met the love of her life. And again the accident became decisive in the fate of Vera. Mukhina, full of energy and desire to help the wounded, suddenly became seriously ill in 1915. Doctors discovered a blood disease in her, unfortunately, they were powerless, they claimed that the patient was not curable. Only the chief surgeon of the Southwestern (“Brusilovsky”) Front, Alexey Zamkov, undertook to treat Mukhina and put her back on her feet. Vera fell in love with him in return. The love turned out to be mutual. One day Mukhina will say: “Alexey has a very strong creative streak. Internal monumentality. And at the same time a lot from the man. External rudeness with great spiritual subtlety. Besides, he was very handsome." They lived in a civil marriage for almost two years, getting married in 1918 on August 11, when the civil war was raging in the country. Despite her illness and busyness at the hospital, Vera found time for creative work. She participated in the design of the play “Famira Kifared” by I.F. Annensky and director A.Ya. Tairova at the Moscow Chamber Theater, made sketches of scenery and costumes for the productions of “Nal and Damayanti”, “Dinner of Jokes” by S. Benelli and “Rose and Cross” by A. Blok (not realized) of the same theater.
The young family settled in Moscow, in a small apartment in the Mukhins’ apartment building, which already belonged to the state. The family lived poorly, from hand to mouth, since Vera also lost all her money. But she was happy with life and devoted herself entirely to work. Mukhina actively participated in Lenin's plan for monumental propaganda. Her work was a monument to I.N. Novikov, a Russian public figure of the 18th century, publicist and publisher. She made it in two versions, one of them was approved by the People's Commissariat for Education. Unfortunately, none of the monuments have survived.
Although Mukhina accepted the revolution, her family did not escape trouble from the policies of the new state. One day, when Alexey went to Petrograd on business, he was arrested by the Cheka. He was lucky that Uritsky was the head of the Cheka, otherwise Vera Mukhina could have remained a widow. Before the revolution, Zamkov hid Uritsky from the secret police at home, now the time has come for an old acquaintance to help him out. As a result, Alexey was released and, on the advice of Uritsky, changed his documents; now his origin was peasant. But Zamkov became disillusioned with the new government and decided to emigrate. Vera did not support him - she had work. A sculpture competition was announced in the country, and she was going to participate in it. On the instructions of the competition, Vera worked on projects for the monuments “Revolution” for Klin and “Liberated Labor” for Moscow.
In the first post-revolutionary years, sculpture competitions were often held in the country, Vera Mukhina actively participated in them. Alexey had to come to terms with his wife’s wishes and stay in Russia. By that time, Vera had already become a happy mother; her son Seva, born on May 9, 1920, was growing up. And again misfortune came to the Mukhina family: in 1924, their son became very ill, and doctors discovered tuberculosis in him. The boy was examined by the best pediatricians in Moscow, but everyone just shrugged hopelessly. However, Alexey Zamkov could not come to terms with such a verdict. Just like Vera once did, he begins to treat his son himself. He takes a risk and performs the operation at home on the dining room table. The operation was successful, after which Seva spent a year and a half in a cast and walked on crutches for a year. He eventually recovered.
All this time Vera was torn between home and work. In 1925 she proposed new project monument to Ya. M. Sverdlov. Mukhina's next competition work was the two-meter "Peasant Woman" for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. And again trouble came to the Mukhina family. In 1927, her husband was expelled from the party and exiled to Voronezh. Vera could not follow him; she worked - she taught at an art school. Mukhina lived at a frantic pace - she worked fruitfully in Moscow and often went to visit her husband in Voronezh. But it couldn’t go on like this for long; Vera couldn’t stand it and moved to live with her husband. Only such an act did not pass without a trace for Mukhina; in 1930 she was arrested, but was soon released, as Gorky stood up for her. During the two years that Vera spent in Voronezh, she decorated the Palace of Culture.
Two years later, Zamkov was pardoned and allowed to return to Moscow.
Mukhina's fame came in 1937, during the World Exhibition in Paris. The Soviet pavilion, which stood on the banks of the Seine, was crowned with Mukhina’s sculpture “Worker and Collective Farm Woman.” She made a splash. The idea of the sculpture belonged to the architect B.M. Iofanu. Mukhina worked on this project together with other sculptors, but her plaster sketch turned out to be the best. In 1938, this monument was installed at the entrance to VDNH. In the thirties, Mukhina also worked on a memorial sculpture. She especially succeeded in the tombstone of M.A. Peshkov (1934) Along with monumental sculpture Mukhina worked on easel portraits. The heroes of her portrait gallery of sculptures were doctor A.A. Zamkov, architect S.A. Zamkov, ballerina M.T. Semenova and director A.P. Dovzhenko.
At the beginning of World War II, Mukhina and her family were evacuated to Sverdlovsk, but in 1942 they returned to Moscow. And then misfortune befell her again - her husband died of a heart attack. This misfortune happened on the very day when she was awarded the title of Honored Artist. During the war, Mukhina worked on the design of the play "Electra" by Sophocles at the Theater. Evgeniy Vakhtangov and on the project of the monument to the “Defenders of Sevastopol”. Unfortunately, it was not implemented.
Vera Mukhina with her husband Alexei Zamkov
Sculpturography
1915-1916- sculptural works: “Portrait of a Sister”, “Portrait of V.A. Shamshina”, monumental composition “Pieta”.
1918– monument to N.I. Novikov for Moscow according to Lenin’s plan for monumental propaganda (the monument was not realized).
1919- monuments “Revolution” for Klin, “Liberated Labor”, V.M. Zagorsky and Ya.M. Sverdlov (“Flame of the Revolution”) for Moscow (not implemented).
1924- monument to A.N. Ostrovsky for Moscow.
1926-1927- sculptures “Wind”, “Female Torso” (wood).
1927– statue “Peasant Woman” for the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution.
1930- sculptures “Portrait of a Grandfather”, “Portrait of A.A. Zamkov”. Project of the monument to T.G. Shevchenko for Kharkov,
1933– project of the monument “Fountain of Nationalities” for Moscow.
1934- “Portrait of S.A. Zamkov”, “Portrait of a son”, “Portrait of Matryona Levina” (marble), tombstones of M.A. Peshkov and L.V. Sobinov.
1936- a project for the sculptural design of the USSR pavilion at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1937.
Sculpture by Mukhina “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”
1937- Installation of the sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" in Paris.
1938- monument to the “Salvation of the Chelyuskinites” (not realized), sketches of monumental and decorative compositions for the new Moskvoretsky Bridge.
1938- monuments to A.M. Gorky for Moscow and Gorky, (installed in 1952 on the First of May Square in Gorky, architects P.P. Steller, V.I. Lebedev). Sculptural design Soviet pavilion at the 1939 International Exhibition in New York.
Late 30's- Based on Mukhina’s sketches and with her participation, the “Kremlin Service” (crystal), vases “Lotus”, “Bell”, “Aster”, “Turnip” (crystal and glass) were made in Leningrad. Project of the monument to F.E. Dzerzhinsky for Moscow. 1942 - “Portrait of B.A. Yusupov”, “Portrait of I.L. Khizhnyak”, sculptural head “Partisan”.
1945- project of a monument to P.I. Tchaikovsky for Moscow (installed in 1954 in front of the building of the Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky). Portraits of A.N. Krylova, E.A. Mravinsky, F.M. Ermler and H. Johnson.
1948- project of a monument to Yuri Dolgoruky for Moscow, glass portrait of N.N. Kachalov, from porcelain composition "Yuri Dolgoruky" and "S.G. Koren in the role of Mercutio"
1949-1951- together with N.G. Zelenskaya and Z.G. Ivanova, monument to A.M. Gorky in Moscow according to the project of I.D. Shadra (architect 3.M. Rosenfeld). In 1951 it was installed on the square of the Belorussky Station.
1953- project sculptural composition"Peace" for the planetarium in Stalingrad (installed in 1953, sculptors S.V. Kruglov, A.M. Sergeev and I.S. Efimov).
STEEL WINGS
Vera Mukhina, the most famous female sculptor in the world, became famous for just one masterpiece - giant statue"The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman." This was enough to declare her the singer of communist paradise, a die-hard Soviet fanatic. In reality, everything was much more complicated.
Be in love Soviet power Vera Mukhina was hampered by her genes. Her ancestors, merchants of the first guild, back in early XIX centuries moved from the Kursk region to Riga and began to supply native Russian goods to Europe - hemp, flax and bread. With the money he earned, the sculptor's grandfather Kuzma Ignatievich built a stone mansion in Riga, a gymnasium in Smolensk, a hospital and a secondary school in Roslavl. “The Latins have Cosma the Medici, but we have - I’m for him!” - he joked, donating money to young artists and musicians. His children were also keen on philanthropy, but they did not forget about the cause. So was the eldest, Ignatius. One thing saddened Kuzma - until the age of thirty, his heir was single, refusing the most profitable marriages. The old merchant did not wait for his grandchildren. And a year after his death, Ignatius met the daughter of a Roslavl pharmacist, Nadezhda Myude, and fell in love for life. Her father was either German or French; According to family legend, he came to Russia with Bonaparte’s army, and remained here.
In 1885, the young couple got married, a year later their daughter Maria was born, and in June 1889 Vera was born. After her second birth, Nadezhda Vilhelmovna was often sick. Until the end of his life, Ignatius Kuzmich reproached himself for not immediately seeing a doctor: the diagnosis was terrible - tuberculosis. Leaving his daughters in the care of Nadina’s friend Anastasia Sobolevskaya, Mukhin took his wife abroad, to best resorts. All in vain - in 1891 in Nice, Nadezhda died before reaching twenty-five years of age. Having abandoned his business and forgotten about his children, Ignatiy Kuzmich locked himself in the workshop, tried to lose himself in invention, and built new machines for processing flax. He was distracted from this activity by Verochka’s illness: the cold seemed to have gone away, but the girl continued to cough dully, hysterically. The mother's tuberculosis could be hereditary, and Ignatius immediately took his daughters from cloudy Riga to warm Feodosia. There, by the sea, he soon quietly faded away, unable to forget about his loss.
The orphaned children - Vera was fourteen years old - were taken to relatives in Kursk, and in 1907 they were sent to Moscow to study. Vera became seriously interested in drawing back in Crimea and entered the studio famous artist Konstantin Yuon. Fellow practitioners were surprised at how greedily this short girl with gray eyes and with a steep, stubborn forehead comprehends the secrets of mastery. The order was the same for everyone: first drawing, then painting, still lifes, sketches, nudes. At some point, Vera got bored with Yuon, she moved to Ilya Mashkov, but then she realized that painting no longer attracted her. It’s a different matter with sculpture, where elastic, almost living flesh is born under the master’s hand. In the sculpture workshop, touching clay for the first time, Mukhina experienced an unprecedented surge of happiness. She quickly mastered the techniques that the humble master Egorov, who made tombstones, could teach her. She wanted to go further, and she asked her Kursk guardians to send her to study in Paris. The merchants refused - stop doing nonsense, it’s time to get married.
Trying to unwind, Vera left for Christmas 1912 to her father’s estate Kochany near Roslavl. It was as if she had returned to her childhood - the Christmas tree, forfeits, sledding down the hill. One day the fun ended badly: her sleigh ran into a tree at full speed, a sharp branch tore her cheek and cut off part of her nose like a razor. The girl was urgently taken to Smolensk, where doctors performed nine operations on her. The nose was reattached, but deep scars remained on the face. When the bandages were removed, Vera looked at herself in the mirror for a long time, then waved her hand: “Life is worse.” She remained in Kochani for six months, then again approached her guardians with a request for Paris. They decided to please Vera after the incident and agreed.
In France, Vera’s teacher was Emile Antoine Bourdelle, a stormy master whose statues seemed to have a frozen flame. And again, her studio comrades marveled at the young sculptor’s tenacity: if the teacher pointed out her mistakes, she would break up the work and start all over again.
Bohemians were rioting around, but Vera did not notice it. “There was very little entertainment in my life,” she later recalled. - There was no time. We sculpted it in the morning. In the evening, sketches...” She divided her time between the studio and Madame Jean’s boarding house on Boulevard Raspail, where mostly Russian students lived. There she met Alexander Vertepov, a terrorist Socialist Revolutionary who, during the 1905 revolution, shot a gendarmerie general in the center of Pyatigorsk, escaped pursuit and fled abroad on a fishing boat. When he accidentally showed up at Bourdelle’s studio, he discovered his talent as a sculptor and even began to teach the young man for free. She and Vera became friends: or rather, she considered this feeling friendship, because she thought that it was impossible to love her, who was disfigured, one could only feel sorry for her, and she did not want pity. He also didn’t confess his love to her until last day in the spring of 1914, when Vera and her friends were leaving for Italy. The penniless lover Vertepov could not go with them, and on the eve of departure they walked all night along the boulevards of the city that never sleeps and talked about what would happen in the fall when they met again...
But the meeting did not take place. From magical Italy, from the masterpieces of Michelangelo that amazed her, Mukhina returned to Moscow and there she learned about the beginning of the World War. She immediately went to nursing courses and two months later was already working in a hospital. “The wounded arrived straight from the front,” she recalled. - Dirty, dry bandages, blood, pus. Rinse with peroxide, lice. They worked for free and didn’t want to take money. All my life I have not liked paid positions. I love freedom." Vertepov volunteered for the French army, they corresponded across borders, letters arrived months later. One day an envelope arrived with someone else’s handwriting - Sasha’s comrades informed him that a shell had hit his trench, and everyone who was there was buried in a common grave. Many years later, having arrived in France, Vera tried to find this grave, but could not. Her monument to Vertepov was “Pieta,” where a girl in a nurse’s headscarf mourns a soldier. This clay statue sank into oblivion - Mukhina was never able to translate it into marble. She abandoned sculpture for a while and began designing performances at the Tairov Chamber Theater.
One day, an acquaintance, a young doctor, Alexei Zamkov, was brought to her hospital. He was dying of typhus, she took care of him. And I fell in love, not hoping for reciprocity. In October 1917, when a shell hit the hospital building, Vera was thrown against the wall by the blast wave. When she woke up, she saw Zamkov, white with fear - by that time he had become the chief physician of the hospital. "God bless! - he whispered. “If you died, I wouldn’t be able to live either.” They soon began to live together, and in the summer of 1918 they got married.
Vera's relatives were not at the wedding. Some remained in German-occupied Riga, many fled abroad. My beloved sister Masha married a Frenchman and left with him. She also invited Vera with her, but she refused, although famine had begun in the country - she could only work, and therefore live, in her homeland. When the ration for the intelligentsia was reduced to 300 grams of bread per day, Zamkov began to travel to his native village of Borisovo near Klin. There he treated the peasants, took payment from them in potatoes and milk, and took the precious products home, where the hungry Vera was waiting.
When the new government decided to erect monuments to fighters against autocracy, Mukhina proposed her project. It was approved, but in the unheated workshop the statue fell into pieces. Other projects did not materialize either. During the NEP years, she almost gave up sculpture and began creating dresses for the people from cheap material. Unexpectedly, her cheerful “rooster pattern” received recognition in Europe - the Netherlands ordered two thousand dresses, and at the World Exhibition in Paris, Mukhina’s outfits received a fan prize.
But then she was much more interested in the health of her only son, Vsevolod, born in the spring of 1920. At the age of four, doctors diagnosed him with bone tuberculosis. They refused to treat him, and then Zamkov himself performed the operation on his son at home, on the dining table. The boy survived, but did not get up for another five years. wheelchair. Mukhina took him to a Crimean sanatorium, then to Borisovo, to Fresh air. There, in order to escape from gloomy thoughts, she returned to sculpture. She carved her first work, “Julia,” from the trunk of a linden tree. A fragile ballerina posed for her, but Mukhina enlarged and weighted her features, which embodied vitality. The second statue, “Wind,” depicted the desperate struggle of a man - her son - with the blind elements of illness. The third statue, “Peasant Woman,” which Vera herself called “the folk goddess of fertility,” received first prize at the exhibition for the 10th anniversary of October. Former teacher Mashkov, seeing her, admired: “Well done, Mukhina! Such a woman will give birth standing up and won’t grunt.”
Composition "Bread"
Vera Ignatievna taught modeling classes at the Handicraft and Art College. She tried to convey to students both skill and passion: “If the fire of feelings burns brightly, you need to support it; if it burns weakly, you need to kindle it, so that until the end of your life the soul will be forever young and passionate, like Michelangelo’s, and always wise, stern and searching , like Leonardo, so as not to allow your spirit to acquire a stale crust of well-being and complacency.” At that time, these inspired calls sounded quite common, but soon they were seen as a threat by those who, hiding behind the armor of Marxism-Leninism, the “only true method,” established their own rules in art.
What saved Vera Mukhina from persecution was that Doctor Zamkov went to great lengths - he invented the miracle drug “Gravidan”, obtained from the urine of women at different stages of pregnancy. The world's first hormonal medicine was a success; many people recovered from it and even seemed to become younger. Important people became the doctor's patients - Molotov, Kalinin, Gorky. Then some of them got worse after treatment, and immediately a devastating article about the charlatan doctor appeared in Izvestia. In the spring of 1930, Zamkov was exiled to Voronezh. Mukhina left with him. Two years later, the doctor was returned, appointed head of the instantly created research institute for the study of gravidan - one of the very high-ranking party members stood up for him. According to rumors, it was Vera Mukhina’s husband who became the prototype for the hero of Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog,” although the story was written in 1925, when no one knew about Zamkov’s miracle drug.
The new status of her husband allowed Mukhina to participate in the competition for a monument for the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris. According to the author of the project, Boris Iofan, the 35-meter pavilion was to be crowned with “a young man and a girl, personifying the owners of the Soviet land - the working class and the collective farm peasantry. They raise high the emblem of the Land of the Soviets - the hammer and sickle." Mukhina easily won the competition, presenting a one and a half meter plaster model; two powerful figures seemed to be bursting from the pedestal into flight, entwined in a fluttering scarf. True, the commission did not like the sculptor’s intention to make the statues naked - they decided to abandon this. Another thing was also confusing: Mukhina was going to make a huge sculpture from steel sheets, which no one had ever done before, including herself. With an artist's intuition, she realized that sparkling, reflective steel looks completely different from the patina-covered copper or bronze of the past. This is truly the material of new life, new art.
The statue was made for two months at the pilot plant of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. Then they dismantled it and sent it to Paris in 28 carriages. The heaviest was a 60-ton iron frame, and the thinnest half-millimeter steel sheets weighed only 12 tons. When the “object” was handed over, there was a scandal - someone wrote a denunciation that the face of the disgraced Trotsky could be seen in the folds of the girl’s skirt. Molotov and Voroshilov personally came to check, found nothing and said: “Okay, let him go.”
Worker and collective farmer
In Paris, “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” received an enthusiastic reception. Romain Rolland wrote in a guest book: “On the banks of the Seine, two young Soviet giants in an indomitable impulse raise the hammer and sickle, and we hear the heroic anthem pouring from their chests, which calls the peoples to freedom, to unity.” The famous graphic artist France Maserel said: “Your sculpture hit us, French artists, like a blow to the head.” Later, much was said about the relationship of the statue with the works of sculptors of the Third Reich, also presented at the exhibition; they recalled that Mukhina, like them, adored Wagner’s music, and she herself was more than once compared to a Valkyrie, a stern northern maiden. There are indeed similarities between the sculptures, but if the Nazi “supermen” invariably have a sword clutched in their hands, then Mukhina’s heroes raise peaceful tools above their heads. The difference seems small, but important.
In Moscow, the statue was damaged during unloading, it took a long time to repair, and in 1939 it was erected at the entrance to VDNKh. For her, Mukhina was awarded the first of her five Stalin Prizes. But she was not happy -
contrary to her plan, “The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman,” whose height was about 25 meters, was installed on a low ten-meter pedestal, which completely killed the feeling of flight (only in 2009, after a long renovation, the monument was erected on a pedestal 34 meters high, like in Paris). However, then the sculptor had more important problems. In an atmosphere of “great terror”, clouds gathered again over the head of Alexei Zamkov. In 1938, his institute was closed, the reserves of gravidan were destroyed (according to another version, they were confiscated for especially important patients). Coming home from another work-up, the doctor came down with a heart attack. Mukhina treated him for a whole year, spoon-fed him, and talked about trifles. She abandoned her work, although there were enough orders: a monument to the Chelyuskinites, a monument to Gorky, allegories for the Moskvoretsky Bridge... Well-wishers conveyed an urgent request - to sculpt a portrait of “himself”. She calmly replied: “Let Comrade Stalin come to my workshop. We need sessions from nature.” There were no more requests. And Mukhina’s projects, as if on cue, were frozen.
At that time, Vera Ignatievna again became interested in a new material - art glass. She worked for a long time at a pilot plant at the Glass Institute in Leningrad, making decanters, glasses, even glass statues. It was then that she allegedly developed the design of the faceted glass familiar to everyone. It’s hard to say whether this is true or not - the glass was introduced into production back in the 1920s, but changes were made to its GOST more than once. Perhaps Mukhina really had a hand in them. But the half-liter beer mug, also familiar to everyone, was indeed made according to her sketch. Another legend - she allegedly started creating the glass out of a special love for alcohol. This is complete nonsense: it was not alcohol that always saved her from melancholy, but her favorite job.
The beginning of the war caused Mukhina to work hard. Many people experienced this feeling then: the people again had a common misfortune and a common goal that united everyone. However, the first heroes of her wartime sculptures were not front-line soldiers, but cultural figures, including ballerina Galina Ulanova. She recalled that “it was impossible to talk about trifles with Mukhina, but it was possible to remain silent about the main things. The silence was filled with meaning and became dense, like clay in the hands of a sculptor.” “Outwardly, she reminded me of a Valkyrie,” Ulanova wrote. And State Security General Prokofiev once confessed to her: “You know, Vera Ignatievna, in my life there were only two people whom I was afraid of - Felix Edmundovich and you. When you look with your bright bird eyes, I have the complete feeling that you see right through everything, right down to the back of the head.”
When the Germans approached Moscow, Mukhina was evacuated to distant Kamensk-Uralsky. As soon as she could, she returned to Moscow. She was met by her husband, who worked at the clinic. She didn’t recognize him: during the six months of separation, he had turned into a withered old man. In the morning, he slowly, staggeringly, went from home to work, saying: “I still have time to save someone’s life,” and the next day he died from a second heart attack. On Novodevichy Cemetery Vera Ignatievna chose two places - for Alexei and for herself: “Soon I’ll lie down here too.” Instead of a tombstone, she put up an old bust of her still young husband with the inscription: “I did everything I could for people.”
A real monument to her husband, and at the same time to all the victims of the war, was the unfinished sculpture “Return” - a woman frozen in a sorrowful stupor, to whose feet a legless disabled person clung. Mukhina worked on this statue for three days without rest, and then broke the plaster into small pieces, saving only the wax sketch. She said that the statue was a failure, but most likely it was something else. Post-war art was dominated by major, invigorating notes, and the tragic “Return” simply had no chance of coming true. In addition, it could seriously complicate the fate of the sculptor - she was already removed from the Presidium of the Academy of Arts several times for her seditious conviction that allegory and symbolism do not contradict socialist realism. True, each time she was included in the presidium again - either by someone’s high order, or simply realizing how much higher she was than the official mongrels who persecuted her.
Mikhail Nesterov
Sculptor Vera Mukhina
In the post-war years, Mukhina made a lot - portraits of generals and ordinary soldiers, monuments to Tchaikovsky at the Conservatory and Gorky at the Belorussky Station. And the last female figure - “Peace” - for the dome of the planetarium in Stalingrad, restored from the ruins. This woman has outgrown the impulses of youth, she is calm, dignified and a little sad. In one of her hands there is a sheaf of ears of grain, in the other - Earth, from which a light dove of peace flies up, a strip of wings folded from a steel sheet. This was Vera Mukhina's last steel flight.
Like many of her works, this one was remade in the spirit of “understandability to the people.” The receiving committee demanded that the dove be made larger, and it crushed the fragile globe with its mass. Mukhina no longer had the strength to argue - she was dying of angina pectoris - a disease of stonemasons and sculptors. She spent the last months of her life in the Kremlin hospital, which was assigned to her according to her status. folk artist THE USSR. During this time, Stalin died, and she did not know whether to grieve with all the people or rejoice with those who had recently been called “enemies of the people” and among whom were many of her friends. The doctors categorically forbade her to work, but secretly from them she made her last masterpiece - a small glass flying Cupid. On October 6, 1953, Vera Ignatievna died.
She was buried according to the highest Soviet rank, giving her name to streets, ships and the Leningrad Higher School of Arts and Industry, the famous “Mukha”. Art historians called it creative biography"a graveyard of unrealized possibilities." But with her creations, which she nevertheless managed to implement, she was able to do the main thing - to instill in the hearts of people that dream of flight that accompanied her all her life.
Vadim Erlikhman,
Gala Biography, No. 12, 2011
Vera Mukhina is a famous sculptor of the Soviet era, whose work is still remembered today. She greatly influenced Russian culture. Her most famous work is the monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” and she also became famous for creating a cut glass.
Personal life
Vera Ignatievna Mukhina was born in 1889 in Riga. Her family belonged to a famous merchant family. Father, Ignatius Mukhin, was a major merchant and patron of the sciences and arts. Parents' house The outstanding artist can still be seen today.
In 1891, at the age of two, the girl lost her mother - the woman died of tuberculosis. The father begins to worry about his daughter and her health, so he transports her to Feodosia, where they live together until 1904 - that year her father dies. After this, Vera sister moves to Kursk to live with his relatives.
Already in childhood, Vera Mukhina began to enthusiastically draw and understand that art inspires her. She enters the gymnasium and graduates with honors. Afterwards Vera moves to Moscow. The girl devotes all her time to her hobby: she becomes a student of such famous sculptors as Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon, Ivan Osipovich Dudin and Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov.
Since 1912, Vera has been actively studying painting, studying in France and Italy. She is most interested in the direction of the Renaissance. The girl goes through schools such as the Colarossi studio and the Grand Chaumiere Academy.
Vera returns home two years later, and Moscow does not welcome her at all: the First World War begins. The girl is not afraid of hard times, quickly masters the profession of a nurse and works in a military hospital. It was at this tragic time in Vera’s life that happy event– she meets her future husband Alexei Zamkov, a military doctor. By the way, it was he who became for Bulgakov the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky in the story “ dog's heart" Afterwards, the family will have a son, Vsevolod, who will become a famous physicist.
In the future, until her death, Vera Ignatievna was engaged in sculpture and the discovery of young talents. On October 6, 1953, Vera Mukhina died of angina, which is most often the result of hard physical work and great emotional stress. There were many firsts and seconds in the sculptor’s life. This is short biography famous Soviet woman.
Creativity and work
At the same time, Vera Ignatievna Mukhina creates sketches of the following monuments:
- Vladimir Mikhailovich Zagorsky (revolutionary).
- Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov (political and statesman).
- Monument "Liberated Labor".
- Monument "Revolution".
In 1923, Vera Mukhina and Alexandra Aleksandrovna Ekster were invited to decorate the hall for the Izvestia newspaper at the Agricultural Exhibition. Women make a splash with their work: they amaze the public with their creativity and rich imagination.
Since 1926, sculptor Vera Mukhina began to contribute not only to the development of art, but also to education, working as a teacher. The woman taught at the Art College and the Higher Art and Technical Institute. Vera Mukhina gave impetus creative destiny many Russian sculptors.
In 1927, the world-famous sculpture “Peasant Woman” was created. After receiving first place at the exhibition dedicated to October, the monument’s journey around the world begins: first the sculpture goes to the Trieste Museum, and after World War II it “moves” to the Vatican.
We can probably say that this was the time when the sculptor’s creativity flourished. Many people have a direct association: “Vera Mukhina – “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” - and this is not accidental. This is the most famous monument not only to Mukhina, but also in principle in Russia. The French wrote that he is greatest work world sculpture of the 20th century.
In 1945, Vera Mukhina saved the Freedom Monument in Riga from demolition - her opinion was one of the decisive experts in the commission. In the post-war years, Vera became interested in creating portraits from clay and stone. She creates a whole gallery, which includes sculptures of military men, scientists, doctors, writers, ballerinas and composers. From 1947 until the end of her life, Vera Mukhina was a member of the presidium and academician of the USSR Academy of Arts. Author: Ekaterina Lipatova
