Nikolai Pirosmanishvili artist. A million scarlet roses, or who was the woman because of whom the artist Niko Pirosmani went bankrupt. Niko Pirosmani is an honest and poor artist who painted piercing masterpieces on cheap oilcloth for food

Niko Pirosmani (real name Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanashvili (Pirosmanishvili), 1862 - May 5, 1918, Tbilisi) is a famous Georgian artist of the 20th century, self-taught, representative of primitivism.

Biography of Niko Pirosmani

Pirosmani was born presumably in 1862 in the village of Mirzaani (Kakheti) into a peasant family, the fourth and last child (brother George, sisters Mariam and Peputsa). In 1870, his father died, followed shortly thereafter by his mother and older brother.

Niko Pirosmani, the only one of the family, remained to live in the village of Shulaveri with his father’s last employer, the widow of a Baku manufacturer Eprosine Kalantarova. He spent about fifteen years intermittently in the Kalantarov family, first in Shulaveri, then together with his son Eprosine Georgy Kalantarov in the mid-1870s he moved to Tiflis. He learned to read Georgian and Russian, but did not receive any formal education. For several months he studied the craft at a printing house, then left there and lived in the house of Elizabed Khankalamova (Kalantarov’s sister), then with her brother. Presumably in 1876 he returned to Mirzaani for a short time to visit his sister and worked as a shepherd.

Little by little he learned painting from traveling artists who painted signs for shops and houses. In the mid-1880s, together with the artist Gigo Zaziashvili, also self-taught, he opened a decorative painting workshop in Tiflis.

Pirosmani's creativity

A significant part of Pirosmani’s works, both preserved and probably lost, are signs. In Tiflis at the beginning of the 20th century it was an extremely popular genre. The signs usually contain inscriptions in Russian and Georgian, and the Russian ones are often misspelled; obviously, the artist did not attach much importance to this. Very often they are made on a black background.

The black background is also typical for other works of Pirosmani, primarily for portraits. In order not to create too strong a contrast between the white face and the black background, he mixed pigment into the white paint.

He often made portraits from photographs. This is how the portrait of Ilya Zdanevich (1913) and the portrait of Alexander Garanov (1906) were painted. It is known that Zdanevich’s portrait was painted in three days from start to finish. Pirosmani worked quickly and did not try to somehow improve or correct his work.

Animalistic images occupy a large place in the artist’s work. The animals painted by the artist are not so much similar to their real prototypes as to each other. As Lado Gudiashvili noted, the animals in the paintings have the eyes of the artist himself. As a rule, all animals are depicted in a three-quarter turn.

A constantly recurring plot of Pirosmani's work is scenes of a holiday or feast. They can be part of the landscape, or they can be the subject of an independent work. These scenes provide a striking contrast with the half-starved existence of the artist himself.

The most famous works are “The Janitor” (1904); "Firewood seller"; "Fisherman Among the Rocks" (1906); "Bear on a Moonlit Night" (1905); "The Barn" (1915); "Doe" (1916); “Revelry of the Three Princes”, “Margarita (1909)”, “Giraffe”.

Ideas about Pirosmani are dominated by legends and stereotypes. Stereotypes helpfully turn up at every step: the stereotype of an orphan given into service, the stereotype of a poor artist who does not have money for paints, the stereotype of a sufferer ruined by his enemies. Legends arose already during his lifetime, and they still appear now. In Pirosmanashvili’s seemingly ingenuous and simple existence there was too much that was inexplicable and incomprehensible, and his amazing art casts a bizarre light on him. With the unusualness of his fate, the uniqueness of his personality, and the mystery of everyday life, he seemed to be made for a legend.

He seemed mysterious in his own way to each of the two worlds that knew him: the world of dukhans, wine cellars and barrel organs - and the world of artists, writers, and journalists. And both of these worlds - each in their own way - created legends about him and sincerely combined fiction with facts.

We really know very little about Pirosmanashvili, but much more than is commonly believed. Back in the late 1910s, enthusiasts - poets, artists, journalists - began to look for people familiar with Pirosmanashvili and write down their stories. Many entries were published at the same time or slightly later. The collection has not stopped yet, and from time to time, next to undoubted apocrypha, clumsy forgeries, shameless compilations, something new and interesting is found, although it comes to us most often from second or even third hand.

True, these materials are very specific. A recording of an oral history is generally not the most reliable source, much less the stories of those spicy people who surrounded Pirosmanashvili. Their stories are at times extremely fascinating in themselves; they also tell a lot of interesting things about the artist. But they suffer from incompleteness and incoherence: much of what interests us did not bother the narrators at all, much is distorted by their own perception; events separated from each other by years turn out to be connected; events that are closely interconnected are spoken of as if they had no relation to each other.

The thread broke, most of the fact beads were lost, and the rest were mixed up - this is how his biography appears before us.

Pirosmanashvili did not tell us anything about himself. He corresponded with his sister who lived in the village; these letters would have had no value, but they died in an absurd way - they were destroyed by the sister herself, suddenly frightened by something, perhaps by the ever-increasing questions about her brother.

He carried a thick notebook with him and often made some notes in it; The notebook disappeared during his lifetime. But the companions of his everyday life were of little interest and inaccessible to his inner motivations, and from their memories one can only extract scattered hints that are difficult to interpret. Only towards the end of his life did Pirosmanashvili begin to meet educated people, but even they, who seemed to understand the significance of his work, or at least showed interest in it, turned out to be extremely inattentive: they did not write down, did not remember.

During his lifetime he painted for a piece of bread, and after his death his works were sold for millions. He lived a life full of hardships, died in poverty, and world fame came to him only after his death. He was never able to get rich, but one day, for the sake of love, he sacrificed everything he had.

Niko Pirosmani is the same artist whose life story inspired the authors of the song about a million scarlet roses.

Niko in his youth

So little is known about the life of the great master that some have a question: did Pirosmani exist? However, his works do not allow us to doubt the existence of the artist. The original paintings are made in the style of primitivism. Someone will say that anyone can draw like this. But not everyone will be able to discern the poignancy of the painting of the Georgian master and the tragic fate of the artist himself, which we learn about through his creations.

Niko did not study at prestigious art schools, he did not graduate from college. He was a self-taught artist from the small Georgian village of Mirzaani, located in Kakheti. He grew up in such poverty that already as a child he worked as a servant in a wealthy Tiflis family, where he was a servant until he was 20 years old.

Afterwards, Niko ended up on the railway, where he got a job as a conductor. And it was at this time that Pirosmani began to take his first steps in painting. He painted a portrait of the boss and his wife. It is not known whether they liked the work of the novice artist. But soon Niko was fired from this place.

After an unsuccessful experience as a conductor, Niko Pirosmani and a friend opened a dairy shop. The income was small, but the artist loved his shop - he painted it with lush flowers. However, the master’s commercial streak never showed. As a result, Pirosmani decides to leave the shop and make a living exclusively by what he loved - painting. He was not a typical poor Georgian of that time. An honest and quiet intellectual from a peasant family, he dreamed only of drawing.

Niko Pirosmani’s main income was creating signs for various types of retail establishments. Rich, appetizing, attractive, and sometimes whimsical still lifes for shops and spirit shops. Pirosmani prepared paints for painting himself, since buying them was an unaffordable luxury. The artist also did not have money for canvases and boards, so he took what was always at hand - oilcloths from the tables. Most of them were black, which largely determined how Pirosmani’s paintings began to look. And, despite the black color of the “canvas,” the colors of his paintings were always pure and strong.

One cannot help but admire the talent and inner strength of the self-taught artist from a small Georgian village. He created and enjoyed his little world, in which he could create whimsical paintings. Still lifes, scenes of peasant life, cheerful feasts and more - these are the themes that inspired Pirosmani. He could never be satisfied with just one thing. When he got tired of writing for dukhans, he began to write people.

Artist Nikoloz Pirosmanashvili

One of the artist’s most famous works is a portrait of the French actress Marguerite de Sèvres. The same one for which poor Niko bought that million red roses. The author of the poems, Voznesensky, gave the story his own artistic coloring, but he conveyed the essence of the story reliably. In fact, it took place in Tbilisi at the beginning of the 20th century.

French actress and dancer Margarita de Sèvres came to Tbilisi on tour. Niko saw her and fell in love. To win Margarita, he sold his property and bought all the flowers in the city with the proceeds. It was spring and, in fact, there were no roses yet. Therefore, Pirosmani bought different flowers and strewed them with a colorful carpet on the street in front of her house. Lilacs, acacias, anemones, begonias, lilies, poppies, and peonies were unloaded in armfuls directly onto the pavement. Whether there were really a million or fewer of them, history is silent. But they say that on that day all the flower shops in Tbilisi were empty.

Seeing such a huge number of flowers, Margarita decided that she had won the heart of a local rich man. Accustomed to the attention and courtship of completely different gentlemen, the actress did not even think that the poor artist was yearning for her. She was not interested in Nico, exhausted and with nothing to his name. Margarita's heart never softened towards the artist. Even millions of the most beautiful flowers could not win the love of the actress.

As you know, the story did not end very well. Margarita returned to Paris. According to rumors, she ran away with a visiting military man. Niko and his muse never saw each other again.

After the artist's death, his paintings were exhibited in the Louvre. They say that an old woman approached the portrait of Margarita and declared that it was she who was depicted on the canvas.

History does not know how the life of Margarita Sevres turned out. But Pirosmani’s fate was difficult. Apparently, the artist was not born for happiness. However, a small ray of happiness still flashed in the artist’s difficult life. The first exhibition of Niko Pirosmani's works was held in Tiflis, just a few years before his death. This happened thanks to the brothers Konstantin and Ilya Zdanevich. They became the discoverers of Pirosmani. And the exhibition itself took place in their Tiflis apartment. Niko Pirosmani was noticed by the “Society of Georgian Artists”. But the confession did not change anything in Niko’s life. His alienation progressed - he did not want anyone's help. At the end of his life, the master became almost a hermit. The “Society of Georgian Artists” managed to collect 300 rubles for Pirosmani’s help, but they could no longer find him.

Table in the artist's closet

He died of hunger and cold in complete poverty on May 5, 1918. After the introduction of Prohibition, many Tbilisi dukhans stopped working, and the artist had no way to earn a living. The previously proud Niko now agreed to eat a bowl of soup and a piece of bread, which were given to him out of mercy. He lived in a room under the stairs in the entrance of an old Tiflis house, trying to remain unnoticed. The deep cough did not leave him; his legs, arms, back, and chest ached. It was in this room that Niko’s neighbors found him after he had lain unconscious for three days and were taken to the hospital. There Pirosmani died without regaining consciousness. Now the street where he lived and died bears his name, and in that very closet under the stairs there is a small museum.

The great artist died in poverty and unrecognized. However, today the paintings of the Georgian master are known throughout the world. They touch hearts and make you smile. More than a hundred years ago, a poor artist created his masterpieces, not knowing that the time would come when they would become priceless.

In contact with

Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanishvili (Pirosmanashvili), or Niko Pirosmani, was born in Kakheti in the city of Mirzaani. When asked about his age, Niko answered with a timid smile: “How should I know?” Time passed in its own way for him and did not correlate at all with the boring numbers on the calendar.

What's happening to us
when do we dream?
Artist Pirosmani
comes out of the wall

From the primitive framework,
out of all the fuss
and sells paintings
per serving of food...
Bulat Okudzhava/Song about the artist Pirosmani

Nikolai's father was a gardener, the family lived poorly, Niko tended sheep, helped his parents, he had a brother and two sisters. Village life often appears in his paintings.

Little Niko was only 8 years old when he was orphaned. His parents, older brother and sister died one after another. He and sister Peputsa were left alone in the whole wide world. The girl was taken to the village by distant relatives, and Nikolai ended up in a rich and friendly family of landowners, the Kalantarovs. For many years he lived in the strange position of half-service, half-relative. The Kalantarovs fell in love with the “unrequited” Niko, they proudly showed his drawings to the guests, taught the boy Georgian and Russian literacy and honestly tried to attach him to some craft, but the “unrequited” Niko did not want to grow up...

Continuation:

In the early 1890s, Niko realized that it was time for him to leave his hospitable home and become an adult. He managed to get a real position on the railroad. He became a brakeman. Only the service was not a joy for him. Standing on the step, arguing with stowaways, being distracted from contemplation and pressing the brake, not sleeping and listening carefully to signals is not the best thing for an artist. But no one knew that Niko was an artist. Taking advantage of every opportunity, Niko does not go to work. At this time, Pirosmani also discovers the dangerous charm of oblivion that wine gives... After three years of impeccable service, Piromanishvili quits the railway.

And Niko makes another attempt to become a good citizen. He opens a dairy shop. There is a cute cow on the sign, the milk is always fresh, the sour cream is undiluted - things are going quite well. Pirosmanishvili is building a house for his sister in his native Mirzaani and even covering it with an iron roof. He could hardly have imagined that his museum would one day be in this house. Trading is a completely unsuitable occupation for an artist... Dimitra, Pirosmanishvili’s partner, was mainly involved in the affairs of the shop.

In March 1909, a poster appeared on the stands in the Ortachal Garden: “News! Belle Vue Theater. Only 7 tours of the beautiful Margarita de Sevres in Tiflis. A unique gift to sing chansons and dance the kek-walk at the same time!” The Frenchwoman struck Nicholas on the spot. “Not a woman, a pearl from a precious casket!” - he exclaimed. In Tiflis they loved to tell the story of Niko’s unhappy love, and everyone told it in their own way.
“Niko was feasting with friends and did not go to the actress’s hotel, although she invited him,” the drunkards said. “Margarita spent the night with poor Nikolai, and then she was afraid of too strong a feeling and left!” - the poets asserted. “He loved one actress, but they lived separately,” the realists shrugged. “Pirosmani never saw Margarita, but drew the portrait from a poster,” skeptics smash the legend to dust. With the light hand of Alla Pugacheva, the entire Soviet Union sang a song about “a million scarlet roses” into which the artist turned his life for the sake of the woman he loved.

The romantic story is:
This summer morning was no different at first. The sun rose from Kakheti just as inexorably, setting everything on fire, and the donkeys tied to telegraph poles cried in the same way. The morning was still dozing in one of the alleys in Sololaki, the shadow lay on the wooden low houses gray with time. In one of these houses, small windows were open on the second floor, and Margarita was sleeping behind them, covering her eyes with reddish eyelashes. In general, the morning would really be the most ordinary, if you did not know that it was the morning of Niko Pirosmanishvili’s birthday and if it were not for that very morning that carts with a rare and light load had not appeared in a narrow alley in Sololaki. The carts were loaded to the brim with cut flowers sprinkled with water. This made it seem as if the flowers were covered with hundreds of tiny rainbows. The carts stopped near Margarita's house. The growers, talking in low voices, began to remove armfuls of flowers and dump them on the sidewalk and pavement at the threshold. It seemed that the carts brought flowers here not only from all over Tiflis, but also from all over Georgia. The laughter of the children and the cries of the housewives woke Margarita. She sat up in bed and sighed. Whole lakes of smells - refreshing, affectionate, bright and tender, joyful and sad - filled the air. Excited Margarita, still not understanding anything, quickly got dressed. She put on her best, richest dress and heavy bracelets, tidied up her bronze hair and, while dressing, smiled, she didn’t know why. She guessed that this holiday was arranged for her. But by whom? And on what occasion?
At this time, the only person, thin and pale, decided to cross the border of flowers and slowly walked through the flowers to Margarita’s house. The crowd recognized him and fell silent. It was a poor artist Niko Pirosmanishvili. Where did he get so much money to buy these snowdrifts of flowers? So much money! He walked towards Margarita's house, touching the walls with his hand. Everyone saw how Margarita ran out of the house to meet him - no one had ever seen her in such a blaze of beauty, hugged Pirosmani by her thin, sore shoulders and pressed herself against his old checkman and for the first time kissed Niko firmly on the lips. Kissed in the face of the sun, the sky and ordinary people.
Some people turned away to hide their tears. People thought that great love would always find its way to a loved one, even if it was a cold heart. Niko's love did not conquer Margarita. That's what everyone thought, at least. But it was still impossible to understand whether this was really so? Nico couldn't say it himself. Soon Margarita found herself a rich lover and ran away with him from Tiflis.
The portrait of actress Margarita is a witness to beautiful love. A white face, a white dress, touchingly outstretched arms, a bouquet of white flowers - and white words laid at the actress’s feet... “I forgive white people,” said Pirosmani.

Nikolai finally broke with the shop and became a wandering painter. His last name was increasingly pronounced short - Pirosmani. Dimitra assigned his companion a pension - a ruble a day, but Niko did not always come for money. More than once he was offered shelter and a permanent job, but Niko always refused. Finally, Pirosmani came up with what he thought was a successful solution. He began to paint colorful signs for the dukhans over several wine lunches and several dinners. He took part of his earnings in cash to buy paints and pay for lodging. He worked unusually quickly - it took Niko several hours to complete ordinary paintings and two or three days for large works. Now his paintings are worth millions, but during his lifetime the artist received ridiculously little for his work.
More often they paid him with wine and bread. “Life is short, like a donkey’s tail,” the artist liked to repeat, and he worked, worked, worked... He painted about 2,000 paintings, of which no more than 300 survived. Some were thrown away by the ungrateful owners, some burned in the fire of the revolution, some then the paintings were simply painted over.

Pirosmani took on any job. “If we don’t work on the lower, how will we be able to do the higher? - he spoke with dignity about his craft, and with equal inspiration he painted signs and portraits, posters and still lifes, patiently fulfilling the wishes of his customers. “They tell me – draw a hare. I wonder why there’s a hare here, but I draw it out of respect.”

It was love at first sight. One single meeting, one declaration of love. But what! To this day, there is no other lucky woman who, waking up in the morning, saw a sea of ​​flowers under her windows. This is how Tbilisi artist Niko Pirosmani declared his love for Margarita de Sèvres, a French dancer. It would seem like a good start to a happy story. But alas... They each went their own way through life.

The life of the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani is surrounded by legends created by his friends and admirers. One of them – about the artist’s love for a dancer – has become a symbol of selfless, unrequited love. Niko fell in love with the beautiful image, which disappeared without a trace in the foggy distance. A fleeting meeting destroyed his life - a short moment of happiness turned into years of melancholy and wandering. We remember Niko Pirosmani not only because of his original talent and rich creative heritage. Few people remain indifferent to the story of a poor artist who gave the woman he loved a million roses. She inspires lovers to do sweet extravagances and gives women hope.

Born an Artist

In 1862, in eastern Georgia, in the Kakheti village of Mirzaani, a fourth child was born into a poor peasant family - son Niko (Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanashvili). The boy had an older brother and sisters. From childhood, Niko helped his father cultivate the land, and as soon as he had a free minute, he rushed into the house, where a stub of a pencil and a piece of paper were waiting for him. The child diligently drew out various utensils, animals, people - the artist awakened in him. Relatives did not approve of Niko's hobby, but he stubbornly continued his painting experiments.

Hard peasant labor soon drove his father into a coffin; he died when Niko was barely 8 years old. After the death of the family breadwinner, sister Mariam, who got married and moved to Tiflis (Tbilisi), took her younger brother to live with her. The boy liked the capital, but he didn’t have a chance to live here for long. The sister soon died, and Niko returned to his native village. But troubles continued to haunt the Pirosmanashvili family - mother and brother Georgiy died. In the house of the second married sister there was no place for the orphaned boy, and he was left completely alone. But the world is not without good people. The orphan was sheltered by the rich Armenian Kalantarov family, for whom Niko’s father worked as a gardener in the last years of his life. The Kalantarovs lived in Tbilisi, and together with his newfound brothers and sisters, Niko again found himself in his beloved city. And since then, the names of Pirosmani and the city are inextricably linked, the townspeople pass on legends about their beloved Niko from generation to generation. And we, perhaps, will no longer be able to find out what is fact in them and what is fiction.

Life in the Kalantarov family was fun and carefree. Niko was taught Russian and Georgian literacy, they wanted to give him the skills of some craft, but only drawing still occupied all his thoughts. Sometimes he took lessons from traveling painters, who shared simple techniques of craftsmanship. Often Niko went alone for a walk around the city, on the streets of which he drew subjects for his canvases.

The Kalantarovs became very attached to Niko and proudly showed all the guests the creations of their named son and brother. The boy also had tender feelings for his benefactors, especially for one of them. He fell in love with the Kalantarovs' eldest daughter Elizabeth with all his heart. Niko lived in a foster family for almost 15 years. And when he turned 27, he decided to open his heart to Elizabeth and asked for her hand. And then it became clear that a common childhood and many years of living under the same roof did not destroy class barriers. The young man was not told openly, but they subtly made it clear that a penniless peasant son should not dream of a rich heiress... (True, there is an opinion that Elizabeth refused Pirosmani because she considered him a brother.) The girl’s refusal deeply hurt Niko, who had to say goodbye to the dream of happy love. He could no longer remain in a house that had become a stranger among people who refused to recognize him as an equal. The guy recovered straight away. From that day on, he never saw the Kalantarovs. Niko did odd jobs and dreamed of opening a painting workshop to make a living doing what he loved. But customers were in no hurry to come to him. And Niko went to work on the railroad. Constant traveling took the artist away from his brush with paints, and besides, Niko turned out to be too absent-minded for such important work - he was constantly in the clouds. Unable to bear the burden any longer, Niko quit his job and bought a dairy shop with the money he saved and his severance pay. Pirosmani asked an old friend to manage business in the shop, while he devoted himself entirely to painting. He painted paintings tirelessly and sold them, often for such a paltry sum that it did not cover the cost of paint. Niko also drew for friends and acquaintances. Sometimes he refused to pay in cash and asked to buy him good paints.

The small people of Tbilisi sincerely fell in love with the artist, he made many friends. A man of few words and a rather reserved person, Niko was transformed when surrounded by friends and had long conversations with them. But sometimes he suddenly fell silent, became thoughtful, his gaze directed into the distance. Then he went up to the workshop, where the next creation was born. Niko painted lonely people with inexplicable melancholy in their eyes. He himself remained endlessly alone in the polyphonic city, in the noisy crowd of friends and acquaintances.
But attacks of melancholy were replaced by fun, and Niko went to the Ortachala Gardens - the place where Tbilisi’s entertainment establishments were concentrated. Fortunately, he had money in his pockets; he was even thinking about buying a small house on the outskirts of Tbilisi. But these plans were forgotten on a beautiful spring day when Niko met love. And he lost his head.

The fragrant gift of love

Tbilisi at the beginning of the twentieth century was famous as a place where one could see performances of European celebrities. In March 1909, posters appeared on the streets of the city inviting the public to a performance by the French miniature theater Belle Vue. The tour organizers considered the beautiful dancer and chansonnier Margarita de Sèvres to be a special attraction. Pirosmani feasted with friends that evening in the Ortochala Garden, and then they all went to a variety show together. Niko lazily entered the hall... and froze. An elegant girl with a charming gentle voice, sparkling eyes and a wasp waist sang and danced on stage. The hall was bathed in the charm of Margarita, from whom a radiance seemed to emanate. The evening passed in a blur. After the concert, Pirosmani drank, sang and had fun. But it was clear that he was being haunted by a hidden thought. Suddenly, as if having decided on something, Niko left his friends and disappeared into the night. The artist’s friends could not even imagine what he was up to.

The next morning, Tbilisi froze in surprise, not understanding what was happening. A procession, enveloped in a wonderful aroma, stretched along the street. Nine carts carried piles of all kinds of flowers to Margarita’s temporary shelter. Having arrived at the dancer’s house, the drivers began to slowly unload their unusual cargo. A few moments later, the gray pavement turned into a marvelous flowery carpet. The townspeople stopped timidly, afraid to trample the tender message of love.

“It seemed that the carts brought flowers here not only from all over Tiflis, but also from all over Georgia... No one dared to be the first to step on this blooming carpet, which reached people to their very knees... What flowers were there! It's pointless to list them! Late Iranian lilac. There, in each cup there was hidden a small drop of cold moisture, like a grain of sand... Thick acacia with petals shimmering in silver. Wild hawthorn - its smell was stronger the more rocky the soil on which it grew. Delicate blue speedwell, begonia and many colorful anemones. Graceful beauty of honeysuckle in pink smoke, red funnels of morning glory, lilies, poppies, always growing on the rocks exactly where even the smallest drop of bird’s blood fell, nasturtium, peonies and roses, roses, roses of all sizes, all smells, all colors - from black to white and from gold to pale pink, like the early dawn. And thousands of other flowers,” this is how Konstantin Paustovsky described the artist’s unusual gift in his “Tale of Life.” This legend lived in the memory of Tbilisi residents, and decades later they willingly shared memories of their favorite Niko, adding new details to it. The narrators present subsequent events in different ways. According to one version, that day Pirosmani again arranged a cheerful feast for friends, although he himself remained tense. When they brought him an invitation from Margarita, touched by the generous gift, to visit her, he refused. After some time, the artist finally decided to visit Mademoiselle de Sèvres, but the bird had already flown away in the company of a wealthy patron. According to the version told by Paustovsky, on that spring morning, Margarita, awakened by laughter and exclamations of admiration coming from the street, looked out the window and was stunned. She immediately, dressed up as if for a holiday, ran downstairs and froze in front of the sea of ​​flowers. Then, from the other end of the fragrant carpet, a man with sad eyes approached her, and Margarita understood everything. She hugged him and kissed him in gratitude. But the poor artist’s love did not find a response in her soul. Soon after this single meeting, Margarita left Tbilisi.

Niko Pirosmani became a beggar. The artist sold his shop to buy all the flowers in the city for the woman he loved. And again his dream crumbled to dust. Love did not find refuge in his house, and without it, Niko’s life lost its meaning. He wandered the streets of Tbilisi and became addicted to drinking. The artist spent the night with kind people, and sometimes even on the street. There was only one consolation left for a broken heart - painting. Pirosmani did not stop writing - at the behest of his soul and fulfilling orders. True, my favorite activity did not bring any income. He often gave away work as payment for an overnight stay, food, or a glass of vodka. Niko avoided people and did not have intimate conversations with anyone anymore. Constant deprivation, cold and hunger took their toll - Niko became seriously ill and stopped appearing in public. Just then a troubled time of change arrived, and the artist’s friends lost sight of him. When they got there, they couldn’t find Niko for a long time. Finally, someone discovered him in a damp, dark basement. Pirosmani was dying. The artist was taken to the hospital, where he died on May 5, 1918. The great son of Georgia was buried as an unknown poor man, his grave was lost.

Farewell with tears

This story was continued 50 years later. By that time, the name of Niko Pirosmani had been brought out of oblivion; although his works caused fierce controversy, people started talking about them. The artist’s original talent was recognized; exhibitions of his works were held throughout the USSR and abroad. In 1959, Pirosmani's paintings went to Paris, to the Louvre.

Crowds of art lovers flocked to the palace. And among them there was an elderly woman who froze in front of the painting “Actress Margarita.” She looked and looked, and then leaned over and kissed the canvas. It was Margarita de Sevres - she greeted her knight and said goodbye to him. Niko Pirosmani’s beloved woman visited the exhibition every day - she stood for a long time at her portrait, and tears flowed down her cheeks. Margarita missed true love - one in a million.

Perhaps this belated meeting with fate never happened. But the legend about her lives on...

Niko Pirosmanashvili (Pirosmani)- Georgian primitivist artist, whose work continues to cause heated debate. The self-taught artist lived a tragic life, died of starvation, and received recognition only in recent years. Little is known about him: the exact date of his birth has not been established, only three photographs of him have survived, no more than three hundred works out of more than two thousand have survived, not a single wall painting has survived. But for more than a century, the story of his tragic love, an act that had a huge impact on his entire already difficult fate, has been told throughout the country and beyond.

The song “A Million Scarlet Roses” is an almost real story from the life of the artist, a legend that inspired A. Voznesensky to write the well-known lines. What was it really like?

Life before...

Born into a poor family in the small Kakheti village of Mirzaani, as a child he was sent into service by a rich Tiflis family, after which he worked on the railway and traded in a dairy shop. Throughout this time, Niko painted a lot, painted signs for dukhans, and gave paintings to his customers and friends.

There was no money for canvases, so everything that was at hand was used: tavern oilcloths from tables, tin sheets and boards. The strange choice of materials largely determined the style of his painting, for example, the famous painting “Black Lion” was painted on black oilcloth.

His works are about nature, animals, cheerful feasts, the everyday life of Georgia and its inhabitants, as it seemed to a simple merchant from the people.

Niko and Margarita

Pirosmani first saw Margarita de Sèvres, a French actress and singer who came on tour to Tiflis at the beginning of the twentieth century, on a poster and, according to legend, fell in love with her even then. The richest and most influential people sought her favor, but even for them she remained inaccessible, let alone a poor artist. Niko often lay in wait for her at the hotel, looking for meetings with her in every possible way, but his love was a burden for the actress.

The story about Pirosmani’s incredible act is overgrown with legends and speculation, we will tell you the most common version of events.

On the morning of the writer’s birthday, drovers with carts loaded with all kinds of flowers began to arrive at the house where the actress lived. Flower growers dumped armfuls of flowers directly onto the pavement and sidewalk in front of the actress’s house; it seemed that that morning on this street there were all the flowers not only from Tiflis, but from all over Georgia. According to legend, the entire street in front of Margarita’s windows was strewn with all kinds of flowers; by the way, there were almost no roses there!
Margarita ran out of the house to meet poor Pirosmani, hugged his sore shoulders and kissed him firmly on the lips for the first and last time. Sadly, such a gesture did not conquer the beauty; according to rumors, she ran away from Tiflis with a rich admirer and never visited Georgia again.

In memory of the girl, the artist painted her portrait. “Actress Margarita” - a girl with a white face, in a white dress with a bouquet of white flowers...

“I forgive white people,” said Pirosmani

There is a beautiful legend about how at an exhibition of paintings by Niko Pirosmani in the Louvre in 1968, an elderly woman often stood for a long time in front of the portrait of the actress... the same Margarita de Sèvres.

Life after Margarita

To win the heart of his beloved, Niko had to sell his shop and everything he had. Pirosmani becomes a wandering artist, working for food and shelter. The artist was already quite popular in the city, he was offered official work and housing, but he constantly refused, continuing to paint walls and draw pictures for dukhans, accepting lunches and dinners as compensation, small money to pay for overnight stays and purchases of paints.

“They tell me – draw a hare. I wonder why there’s a hare here, but I’m drawing it out of respect.”

Confession

The fame of the artist outside the city and country was spread by the brothers Zdanevich and Mikhail Le-Dantu. It is not surprising that the artist’s folk art was noticed by them in one of the city taverns. It was they who first started talking about the artist, after which recognition came to him, but, unfortunately, posthumously. His works are exhibited in museums, wine and streets in different cities are named after him, and his beautiful act for his beloved has become a legend that has inspired and continues to inspire poets, writers and ordinary people around the world.

In modern Georgia, Pirosmani is loved and remembered: reproductions of his paintings decorate the walls of establishments, his name is used by famous brands and manufacturers, and his love story is a beautiful legend for tourists, which local residents love to tell.