Georgian primitivist painter Niko Pirosmani (Niko Pirosmanashvili) was self-taught and a real nugget of the people. Despite his rather great popularity during his lifetime, he lived in poverty and often painted pictures for food, and world fame came to him only after his death. Even those people who have never seen his work must have heard the legend about how he once sold all his property to buy all the flowers in Tbilisi for the woman he loved. So who was the one for whom the artist spent the rest of his days in poverty?

Quite little is actually known about the woman who inspired Pirosmani. There is documentary evidence that she actually came to Georgia: in 1905, newspapers published announcements of performances by the singer-chansonnier, dancer and actress of the Parisian theater of miniatures "Belle Vue" Marguerite de Sevres.

Posters appeared in the city: “News! Belle Vue Theater. Only seven tours of the beautiful Margarita De Sevres in Tiflis. A unique gift to sing chanson and dance cake-walk at the same time! " Niko Pirosmani first saw her on a poster and fell in love. It was then that he wrote famous painting "Actress Margarita". And after he heard her singing at a concert, he decided on the act, which Konstantin Paustovsky and Andrei Voznesensky would later write about.

On his birthday, Pirosmani sold his tavern and all his property, and with the proceeds he bought all the flowers in the city. He sent 9 carts with flowers to the house of Marguerite de Sèvres. According to legend, she saw a sea of \u200b\u200bflowers, went to the artist and kissed him. However, historians claim that they never met. Niko sent her flowers, and he himself went to revel with friends.

"A million scarlet roses", which is sung in the famous song, is also part of the legend. Flowers, of course, no one counted, and in the carts there were not only roses: lilacs, acacia, hawthorn, begonias, anemones, honeysuckle, lilies, poppies, peonies were unloaded in armfuls directly onto the pavement.

The actress sent him an invitation, which he did not immediately use, and when the artist finally came to her, Margarita was no longer in the city. According to rumors, she left with a rich admirer and has never been to Georgia again.

Paustovsky later wrote: “Margarita lived as in a dream. Her heart was closed to everyone. People needed her beauty. But, obviously, she did not need her at all, although she watched her appearance and dressed well. Rustling with silk and breathing oriental perfume, she seemed to be the embodiment of mature femininity. But there was something formidable in this beauty of her, and it seems that she herself understood this. "

In 1968 an exhibition of paintings by Niko Pirosmani, who had been dead for 50 years, was held in the Louvre. They say that an elderly woman stood in front of the portrait of the actress Margarita for a long time. Eyewitnesses claim that it was the very same Marguerite de Sevres. And Pirosmani's act still inspires people of creativity:

Niko Pirosmani is an artist whose life is practically nowhere documented, as if there was no such person at all. But he was. He was and created his uncomplicated and piercing pictures as simply as he lived.

Childhood and youth

It has not yet been possible to establish in what year the Georgian artist Pirosmani was born. Art critics suggest that this happened in 1862. Niko Pyromanoshvili lived with a poor peasant family in the village of Mirzaani. He was the youngest child and helped his father with the housework. However, work on the ground did not capture him. He devoted every free minute to drawing. He recreated everything that surrounded him on old brown paper with the help of a pencil stub: bunches of grapes, a cracked jug, a scanty dog \u200b\u200b...

At the age of eight, the boy loses his father, and soon his mother and older brother. Since then, he has earned his own living. He walks around the surrounding villages and does small part-time jobs. Naturally, in such a difficult life situation, there could be no question of any kind of education, let alone an artistic one. However, Niko still learned to read in Russian and Georgian.

The path to art

From his youth, the future artist Niko Pirosmani took painting lessons from wandering masters. From them he took over the ability to paint signs for shops and taverns. In the eighties, Niko attempted to open an art painting workshop with his friend, also an artist. However, this idea failed miserably: there were practically no orders and the workshop had to be closed.

Having saved up a small capital, working as a conductor on the railway, Pirosmani invests in the dairy trade. However, Niko was a creative person, trade was alien to him. But he received a small income from a dairy shop, and that was the end of his entrepreneurial efforts.

The beginning of the 20th century became a whole era in the work of Pirosmani. The artist devotes himself entirely to art. He again returns to the manufacture of signs, and is also fond of creating decorative panels. It was during this period that Niko paints a lot on oilcloth using his own paints. He was especially good at black. Pirosmani added oven soot, infusion of oak bark and a couple of drops of oil to the ash. Oilcloths were white or black. And where it was necessary to display these shades, he simply left unpainted areas. This is how the artist developed one of his unique techniques. It looks especially impressive in portraits, giving the picture an extraordinary depth and penetration.

First successes

In the tenth years of the XX century, Niko received attention in professional circles. The futurist artist Kirill Zdanevich acquires a large number of Pirosmani's paintings, some of which were commissioned. Cyril's brother, Ilya, published an article about Niko "The Nugget Artist" in a local newspaper. And already in March 1913, the self-taught paintings were exhibited at an exhibition in Moscow. Of course it wasn't personal exhibitionbut nevertheless a personal tremendous success for a poor peasant from a Georgian village.

In 1916, they finally managed to arrange an exhibition, where only Pirosmani's works were presented. The nugget has gained some fame. He was invited to the Society of Georgian Artists, his works were bought for private collections. However, despite this, the artist Pirosmani, whose name became associated with authentic creativity, died in poverty and poverty.

Trace in art

Primitivism, a painting style characteristic of the artist Pirosmani, is an artistic embodiment of children's drawings. Naive in their execution and honest in their emotional component, these paintings do not carry anything pompous, superfluous, superficial. Only the simplicity of the perception of life, whatever it may be. Niko drew quickly. He could create a painting in just a few days. He did not like to correct or modify anything in the work - as it turned out, so it happened.

The main motives in the work of Niko Pirosmani are animalistic. The artist depicted animals with the gaze of human eyes, touching, on which, it seems, tears are about to come. Niko's friends argued that, depicting animals, Pirosmani actually draws himself more than a giraffe or a lamb. Due to the fact that they were performed in an original technique, the animals looked especially defenseless and alone.

Also one of the favorite themes was the image of feasts and feasts. Rich tables are bursting with food, wine flows like a river, people are having fun, forgetting about the hardships of life. All this had a huge contrast with the realities of the artist's life - poor, hungry, lonely. Pirosmani also painted portraits, but often not from nature, but simply redrawn the image from the photograph.

Not so many works by the hand of a self-taught artist have survived. Basically, we can appreciate Pirosmani's work by his signs for shops and taverns.

The most famous paintings

Niko Pirosmani is an artist whose paintings are striking in their piercingness. The Actress Margarita is a work that was once exhibited at the Louvre. They say that even the Frenchwoman herself, depicted on the canvas, came to the exhibition and stared at the picture for a long time without taking her eyes off. The artist emphasized the gracefulness of the actress's legs, the girl's thin waist. With great love, he portrayed Margarita, for the sake of which he once took a desperate step.

The work "A Childless Millionaire and a Poor with Children" seems to show what true wealth is. Dry stumps of trees in the background emphasize the meaninglessness of life, which cannot be immortalized in descendants.

In the painting "The Grape Harvest" one can see the artistic development of Pirosmani. He applied the technique of depicting perspective - vineyards stretching into the distance, emphasizing the fertile, rich Georgian land. The artist also painted light breaking through the leaves - an attempt to play with light and shadow.

What was he like?

The artist Pirosmani, whose name is now known all over the world, was a mystery to his contemporaries and remained an unsolved mystery for us. At the end of 1910, fans of the artist's work began to walk around the village and collect information about him in order to compile, if not a biography, then at least an approximate portrait of Niko. From the reviews of the peasants, we know that Pirosmani had an explosive character and an unbalanced disposition. Straightforward, emotional, desperate. The neighbors said that the artist had seven Fridays a week, as if he was not of this world. Such gossip was reinforced by the stories of Niko himself that he sees the saints and his brush “writes itself”.

Tangled trail

It is known that the artist corresponded with his sister, but these letters have not survived. They were burned by the girl herself, apparently frightened by the fact that strangers in the nearby villages began to ask more and more about her brother.

They say that Niko had a notebook with which he never parted and constantly wrote notes in it. But even during the artist's life, these notes were lost somewhere. And only shortly before his death, Pirosmani met educated people who understood the value of Niko's life and recorded the events of meeting with him and personal impressions.

• In 1969, a personal exhibition of Niko Pirosmani took place in the Louvre.
• The story of the poor artist's unhappy love from the song “A Million Scarlet Roses” was taken from the life of Niko Pirosmani. The artist spent all his savings to present the French actress Margarita de Sèvres, who came to Tiflis.
• The painting "Arsenalskaya Mountain at Night" was sold for $ 1.2 million at Christie's auction. The work was presented in the section " Russian art”, Which caused the discontent of the Georgian community.
• The artist Pirosmani, whose biography is filled with tragic moments, inspired many creators to work. Three films have been shot about him (one of them is short). Niko was dedicated to poems by Bulat Okudzhava, Andrey Voznesensky,

The artist, whose naive art inspired the avant-garde artists Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Ilya Mashkov, Pyotr Konchalovsky, was accidentally discovered by the Zdanevich brothers - the poet Ilya and the artist Kirill, who saw one of Pirosmani's works in Tiflis ...

This apparent simplicity is akin to archaic traditions in art - an icon or a fresco. Seemingly simple paintings by Niko Pirosmani - portraits, still lifes, images of animals - bring him closer to the works that have entered the history of painting. The restrained palette of his canvases, which are not even canvases - he often wrote on oilcloth, - transfers eternal images, so close and understandable to everyone.

The wandering artist created signs for Tiflis dukhans on tin and wrote everyday scenes like a feast in the village or a meeting of a childless rich man with a poor woman with many children ... ... From his oilcloths, too, little has survived. What has come down to us is today kept in museums in Russia and Georgia.

“On a summer evening in 1912, when the sunset was fading away and the silhouettes of blue and purple mountains against a yellow background were losing their color, plunging into darkness, we came to the station square, dusty and empty, which seemed huge, stopped, surprised by the silence, so strange here ... We entered into the large and spacious hall of the inn. Pictures hang on the walls ... We look at them amazed, confused - before us is a painting, the likes of which we have never seen! Completely original, she was the miracle we were looking for. The seeming simplicity of the paintings was imaginary. One could easily discern echoes of the ancient cultures of the East in them, but the traditions of Georgian folk art prevailed. "

Kirill Zdanevich

"Company come in"

Brother and sister. Scene from the play

Beauty with a fan

Celebration

Boy with milk

Prince with a horn of wine

Childless millionaire and poor with children

Not much is known about the life of Niko Pirosmanishvili, or Pirosmani. Unfortunately, the memories of his contemporaries about him are scattered and incomplete. Even the date of birth is not fully determined - about 1862. Coming from a peasant family, he was born in the village of Mirzaani in Kakheti. Orphaned early. He lived in the well-to-do Kalantarov family in Tiflis, where the boy was given into service. However, Niko lived well with the "important gentlemen": he was raised as his own son, learned the Georgian and Russian languages, indulged his passion for painting. In general, the Kalantarovs loved the orphan and in every possible way protected his delicate nature.

“The small, then young Pirosmanashvili is remembered as an impressionable, lively, keen and kind boy. There were many children in the house, he grew up with them, participated in their games. They played theater in the courtyard, and he, excited, fussed and made noise with everyone - he loved theater ... On the other hand, there was something unusual in him that distinguished him from those around him - he painted remarkably, was like a family artist, a certain landmark of the house. All this must have determined the unusualness of his position. "

Art critic Erast Kuznetsov

He had his own room, they took him with them to the theater and to prayer in the temple. When Niko was 20 years old, they took a photographer to take a portrait. On it we see a well-groomed and well-dressed young man. The reverent attitude of the Kalantarov family played in the formation young man a twofold role: he retained the purity of his soul and a kind attitude to the world, and at the same time he was not adapted to the hardships of adult life. He, of course, tried to get a profession - at the age of 28 he got a job as a conductor on the Transcaucasian Railway. The employee from Pirosmanishvili turned out to be not very responsible. He was late for work, violated office instructions, for which he received fines from his superiors. In addition, he was often ill ... In general, his service did not work out. Four years later, Niko resigned. And again he found himself without a profession, without a home, without a position ... For the severance pay and money borrowed from friends, he opened his own dairy shop. He rented a small room, which he decorated with images of cows, and painted a beautiful sign above the entrance. His affairs went uphill. He distributed debts and even began to make a profit. But a businessman from Pirosmani did not work - after a few years he went bankrupt. The reasons are still unclear: either a companion friend deceived, or a fatal love happened ...

“Pirosmanashvili met a woman whom he loved for life. Singer and dancer from the café, Frenchwoman Margarita, beautiful and graceful, struck Nico's imagination. He could not recover from amazement, Margot seemed to him "a beautiful angel who came down from heaven." Happy Niko gladly gave his heart and, without hesitation, all his fortune. And then Mademoiselle Marguerite's huge black eyes looked at Nico for the last time; she disappeared forever, breaking the artist's life. "

Kirill Zdanevich

Margarita

She simply ran away with a rich gentleman, leaving among the inhabitants of Tiflis memories of great love: once a crowd of onlookers gathered near the actress's house, who were perplexed, looking at the "whole sea of \u200b\u200bflowers" that grew under her windows - this was a gift from a poor artist ... the song by Raymond Pauls to the verses of Andrei Voznesensky is dedicated to this very story. The rejected Pirosmani did not harden himself, but forgave Margarita. In his portrait, the actress is depicted in a white dress, with a bouquet of flowers, in the middle of the meadows. She does not stand on the ground, but hovers like an angel, and only two felled trees are a symbol of the failed feelings of two.

Niko Pirosmani was a natural artist and a wanderer artist. With no place to live, he traveled and painted to order, but his work was worth a penny. He accepted his fate and did not resist it. Painting was the only craft he was capable of. Even though he never received any special education. Georgy Yakulov wrote that Pirosmani "was forced to learn from his instinct."

He painted the life that he knew and loved: the heroes of his paintings are sellers, fellow villagers, women with children ... The images of animals are amazing - lions, giraffes, deer have human eyes ...

In 1913, in Moscow on Bolshaya Dmitrovka, an exhibition of paintings by futurist artists "Target" was held. Among the works of Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova were exhibited paintings by Niko Pirosmani, brought by Ilya Zdanevich from Tbilisi.

Fruit shop

Georgian woman with tambourine

Man on a donkey

Mother and child

Man with a wineskin

In May 1916, Zdanevich organized a one-day exhibition of Pirosmani's works in Tiflis. Whether Niko himself was on it is unknown. Collected in one place, several of the artist's paintings made the public speak of him as a phenomenon in Georgian culture. The newspapers argued: some rejected his art, others admired. “I didn’t know a similar feeling of Georgia from any artist as from Niko. It seems to me that with the appearance of his paintings my life became richer, happier. When I admire Pirosmani's paintings, I feel how the mighty forces and juices of the earth, enclosed in Niko's oilcloths, renew me. ", - wrote the artist David Kakabadze.

The Georgian Art Society even found the artist and invited him to the meeting. Knowing about life's difficulties, they collected and handed him 10 rubles. The proud Pirosmani did not like alms, but accepted the money with the words that he would buy paints with them and paint a picture for the Art Society. And he kept his word - a few days later he brought the painting "A wedding in Georgia by old times." No one saw him again at the meetings of the Society ...

The fame that fell on the artist was quickly replaced by mockery - a caricature of Niko Pirosmani was published in the newspaper. Most likely, it was a behind-the-scenes struggle between supporters and opponents of his artistic style - primitivism. Pirosmani, of course, was far from intrigues and hardly knew about them, but the publication hurt the artist painfully. In his hearts, he tore up all the works that he was previously proud of. And finally withdrew into himself, turned away from people who all their lives considered him an eccentric ...

The Radishchev Museum and an excellent addition to its permanent exhibition, which presents such names of Russian avant-garde artists as Ilya Mashkov, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Olga Rozanova, Vladimir Franchetti, Marc Chagall ... All of them at different times were inspired by primitive art like merchant signs. For Pirosmani, the sign was not a craft, but real paintingfrom which his great, albeit naive, art grew.

The Georgian artist Pirosmani lived a short life, approximately 55-56 years. Little attention was paid to him. The facts are not confirmed by documents, but by approximate eyewitness accounts. Therefore, the biography of Pirosmani has overgrown with fictions, and we have no choice but to follow the legendary outline. The style of his work is called primitivism. There is no derogatory meaning in this word. It simply means primary. After all, he is just a brilliant self-taught artist who did not study anywhere, but simply took paints and painted, as children do.

Signboard

Let's take a look at one of Pirosmani's masterpieces. The artist painted a sign for the Zagatala pub. It was painted in oil on oilcloth at an unknown time. The piece is full of vague charm. Either because of the color, or because of the phaeton and a cart with passengers drawn by horses in the foreground, or, perhaps, because of the largest inscription made in red convex letters on a white background.

On the green grass two carriages are going towards each other. Behind them the white background of the inscription spills like a lake. In the distance, against the background of the mountains, a peasant cart, in which oxen is harnessed, rides, and even further away one can see a horseman on a horse. And over all the dark but joyful landscape in the background, the sky turns blue with a full moon. It illuminates the distant city, bathed in its silvery light. However, against the background of the mountains, the red sun shines with rays emanating from it. You might think that the pub is open around the clock. Admiration is the main thing to say about this sign.

What do we know about Niko's childhood and adolescence

Having turned over all the archives, art critics suggested that Niko Pirosmani was born in 1862. Nothing can be said about him with certainty, this is just an assumption. This event took place in a large peasant family in the village of Mirzaani. Niko was the youngest of four children. He was seven or eight years old when his father died, then his mother and older brother. Perhaps two sisters survived. The little boy was taken to the neighboring village of Shulaveri by the widow of a factory owner from Baku E. Kalantarov. He spent about 15 years in this family, learned to read and write in Georgian and Russian. It is believed that he briefly returned to his sister in Mirzaani and was a shepherd. Together with his son Kalantarova Georgy Niko went to Tiflis, where he studied to work in a printing house. Then he left and lived in the house of brother Kalantarova. From wandering artists, he learned how to handle paints and paint signs for dukhans and shops. I also visited the zoo. Let's see how Pirosmani worked. The artist often painted animals. He has a king of animals, a red deer against the background of a landscape, a simple rooster family in the village, a clean pig with piglets. Behind the naivety of Pirosmani's works, the paintings hide sadness and grief, joy and anxiety.

"Giraffe"

The artist dreamed of giving everyone freedom, and he painted the giraffe without a cage. How not to remember N. Gumilyov.

Somewhere far, far away on Lake Chad, an exquisite giraffe roams. He is slim and graceful. His skin is decorated with a magical pattern. Only the moon dares to equal her when she crushes and sways in the waters of deep lakes. The gaze of the giraffe Pirosmani is sad, sad and full of a silent question. The artist wrote that he remembers the smell of unthinkable grasses, about his smooth and joyful run among them - this colored savannah ship. Only one azure sky reminds a caught and caged giraffe of its homeland.

Independent earnings

For four years Niko worked as a conductor and in repair shops on the railway. At this time, a wonderful vagabond storyteller came there. His name was Alyosha Peshkov. His stories fascinated everyone who heard him. He was prompted to write down his stories. So Makar Chudra appeared in print, and a great Russian writer was born. Niko broke the rules: he was late and skipped. He was fined, and finally he quit his job. He was given severance pay, and together with a friend, an aspiring artist, who had not yet fully found himself, opened a shop selling milk. At the same time, he saved up some money and built a house in Mirzaani. For the shop, Niko drew two signs with a black and a white cow. For six years Niko suffered from trade, almost abandoning it. The partner gave him one ruble every day. Finally, he gave up trade for good and began to do what his soul was drawn to - painting. This happened in 1900.

Freelancer

The long-awaited, albeit half-impoverished, freedom for Pirosmani has come. The paintings that he quickly painted for the dukhan people, he sold very cheaply. For only thirty rubles, sometimes for lunch, dinner, or just a glass of chacha.

Most often, he painted for Bego Yaksiev. He lived with him for several years.

Later Pirosmani will paint the picture "Bego's Company" - a feast at a laid table. According to one of the assumptions, the person who raised the fish high is a self-portrait.

For the son of the dukhan "Eldorado", who was standing in a large amusement park, Niko Pirosmani painted a magnificent lion on a black oilcloth.

Black regal lion

It amazes with the grandeur and restraint of colors. There are few of them: only four or five. Black oilcloth serves as a background, and whitewash makes all the shades of the king of animals shining in the sunset rays of the sun. The painter from God understood color no worse than the artists who graduated from the academy.

A bronzing body filled with unspent power, formidable fangs, a magnificent mane, and at the same time the most sad eyes. This painting is a masterpiece of Pirosmani, and today it is associated with thefts and scandals, lawsuits to the court of heirs. While she is still in Moscow. It is not known when she will return to her homeland, but according to auction estimates, she is worth more than one million dollars. This is what Pirosmani's gift was. During his lifetime, few people appreciated the paintings, and even more so - understood. The exception is the collector Kirill Zdanevich, but we will talk about him a little later.

Fantastic love story

In 1905, and maybe in 1909, the beautiful Frenchwoman Margarita de Sèvres came to Tiflis on tour. She entertained the metropolitan audience with her singing and dancing. This is a historical character. Her photographs and posters have been preserved. True, in modern France they know nothing about her. It is also believed that the romantic K. Paustovsky invented a beautiful love story for her by Pirosmani. He arrived in Tiflis when the artist himself was no longer alive. But, one way or another, you will have to tell this story, similar to a wonderful dream, the awakening from which was tragic. Pirosmani attended the performance of Margarita. He was shocked. Where he got the money is unknown, but in the morning the whole pavement and sidewalk in front of the house where Margarita lived were littered with flowers of all kinds: lilacs, acacia, anemones, poppies, peonies, lilies, honeysuckle, begonias, hawthorns.

The astonished Margarita sent the fan a note and a ticket to the performance, and the careless artist skipped the whole evening with friends. When he remembered the invitation, Margarita was no longer in the city. Pauls' song "A Million Scarlet Roses" is also a beautiful variation on this theme, no more. The portrait of Margarita presented above, as art historians assume, was copied from the poster. And next to it is an elderly woman who came to the Louvre in 1969 at the Pirosmani exhibition to see her portrait. Was this fairy tale or not, but she is very poetic and beautiful.

Fame and recognition

By 1912, all the shops and dukhany were covered with works by Pirosmani. The artist has painted over two thousand paintings. During the years of war and revolution, their number was reduced to three hundred. Artists Kirill Zdanevich and his brother Ilya were the first to become interested in them as researchers and collectors.

Before you is a portrait of Ilya, painted by Pirosmani. In the 16th year, the brothers arranged a small exhibition of his paintings. The artist immediately dreamed of building big housewhere you can gather, drink tea and talk about art.

Harsh reality

Dreams were not destined to come true. The year was hungry and cold 1918. The artist caught a severe cold, spent three days half-dead in the basement, where he was accidentally found, and died in the hospital. He was buried in a communal grave for the poor, and his resting place is unknown.

Artist's work

Pirosmani's painting is a hymn to a constant holiday, which he created day after day, despite his half-starved existence. These are mainly plentiful feasts and feasts on signs. Images of animals occupy a large place in his work. Donkeys with peasants, fallow deer, deer, beautiful well-fed cows, pigs. All images have the sad eyes of the artist himself. All paintings have a black background, since the artist did not use canvas, but black oilcloth, often taken from the table in the dukhan where he worked.

House-Museum of Pirosmani

It is located in the village of Mirzaani in a house built by the artist himself. This one-storey building has a terrace and a cellar. It exhibits 13 early works by the master.

Nearby in Kakheti there is a museum of local lore in Sighnaghi, where 15 paintings by Pirosmani are exhibited.

It was love at first sight. One single meeting, one declaration of love. But what a! To this day, there is no other lucky woman who, waking up in the morning, saw a sea of \u200b\u200bflowers under her windows. So the Tbilisi artist Niko Pirosmani declared his love to Margarita de Sevres, a French dancer. It would seem like a good starting point for a happy story. But alas ... They went through life each his own way.

The life of the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani is surrounded by legends composed by his friends and admirers. One of them - about the artist's love for the dancer - has become a symbol of disinterested unrequited love. Niko fell in love with a beautiful image, which melted without a trace in the misty distance. A fleeting meeting ruined 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 are left indifferent by the story of a poor artist who gave his beloved woman a million roses. She inspires loving people for cute extravagances and gives women hope.

Born to be an artist

In 1862, in the east of Georgia, in the Kakhetian village of Mirzaani, a fourth child was born to a poor peasant family - the son of Niko (Nikolai Aslanovich Pirosmanashvili). The boy had an older brother and sisters. From childhood Niko helped his father to cultivate the land, and as soon as he had a free minute, he rushed to the house, where a stub of a pencil and a piece of paper were waiting for him. The child diligently painted out various utensils, animals, people - the artist woke up 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's breadwinner, sister Mariam, who got married and moved to Tiflis (Tbilisi), took her younger brother with her. The boy liked the capital, but he did not live here for long. The sister died soon after, and Niko returned to his native village. But troubles continued to haunt the Pirosmanashvili family - his mother and brother Georgy died. There was no place for the orphaned boy in the house of the second married sister, and he was left all alone. But the world is not without kind people... The orphan was warmed up by the rich Armenian family Kalantarovs, for whom Niko's father worked as a gardener in last years life. The Kalantarovs lived in Tbilisi, and together with their newfound brothers and sisters, Niko again ended up in the city they loved. And since then the names of Pirosmani and the city are inextricably linked, the legends about their beloved Niko are passed down from generation to generation. And we, perhaps, will not be able to find out what is in them is reality 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 kind of craft, but only drawing still occupied all his thoughts. Sometimes he took lessons from itinerant painters who shared simple techniques of skill. Often Niko went for a walk around the city alone, on the streets of which he drew plots for his canvases.

The Kalantarovs became very attached to Niko and proudly showed all the guests the creations of the named son and brother. The boy also cherished benefactors tender feelings, especially one of them. He wholeheartedly fell in love with the eldest daughter of the Kalantarovs Elizabeth. Niko lived with 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 in marriage. And then it became clear that a common childhood and long years living under one roof did not destroy the class barriers. The young man was not told openly, but subtly made it clear that peasant son pennilessly, it is not appropriate to 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 wounded Niko, who had to say goodbye to the dream of happy love. He could no longer stay in a strange house among people who refused to recognize him as an equal. The guy recovered where his eyes were looking. From that day on, he never saw the Kalantarovs. Niko was interrupted by odd jobs and dreamed of opening a painting workshop in order to earn a living by doing what he loved. But the customers were in no hurry to visit him. And Niko went to work for the railroad. Constant traveling tore the artist away from the brush with paints, besides, Niko turned out to be too absent-minded for such a responsible work - he was constantly hovering in the clouds. Unable to pull the strap any longer, Niko quit his job and bought a dairy store - with the money saved and severance pay. Pirosmani asked his old friend to do business in the shop, but he himself devoted himself entirely to painting. He tirelessly painted and sold pictures, often for such a paltry sum that it did not cover the cost of the paint. Nico 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 short and rather reserved person, in the circle of friends Niko was transformed and had long conversations with them. But sometimes he suddenly fell silent, became pensive, his gaze fixed on the distance. Then he went up to the workshop, where another creation was born. Niko painted lonely people with inexplicable longing in his eyes. He himself remained endlessly lonely in a polyphonic city, in a noisy crowd of friends and acquaintances.
But bouts of melancholy were replaced by fun, and Niko went to Ortachal Gardens - the place where the entertainment establishments of Tbilisi were concentrated. Fortunately, he had money in his pockets, he even thought 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 I lost my head.

The scented 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 audience to the performance of the French theater of miniatures "Belle Vue". The organizers of the tour considered the beautiful dancer and chansonnier Marguerite de Sevres as a special bait. Pirosmani feasted with friends that evening in the Ortochalsky garden, and then they all went to a variety show. Niko lazily entered the hall ... and froze. A graceful girl with a charming gentle voice, sparkling eyes and a wasp waist sang and danced on the stage. The hall was bathed in the charm of Margarita, from whom it seemed to radiate radiance. The evening passed in a daze. After the concert, Pirosmani drank, sang and had fun. But it was clear that he was being sharpened by a hidden thought. Suddenly, as if deciding 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 scent, stretched along the street. Nine carts were carrying heaps of all kinds of flowers to Margarita's temporary shelter. Having approached the dancer's house, the drivers began to unhurriedly unload their unusual load. In a few moments, the gray pavement turned into a wonderful flowery carpet. The townspeople timidly stopped, afraid to trample on the tender message of love.

“It seemed that the carts brought here flowers 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 up to their knees ... What flowers were not there! It makes no sense to list them! Late Iranian lilac. There, in each cup was a small drop of cold moisture, like a grain of sand ... Thick acacia with petals shimmering with silver. Wild hawthorn - its smell was stronger, the more stony the soil on which it grew. Delicate blue veronica, begonia and many colorful anemones. Graceful beauty honeysuckle in pink smoke, red funnels of morning glory, lilies, poppy that always grows on the rocks exactly where even the smallest drop of bird blood fell, nasturtium, peonies and roses, roses, roses of all sizes, all smells, all colors - black to white and gold to pale pink like early dawn... And thousands of other colors ", - this is how Konstantin Paustovsky described the unusual gift of the artist in his" Tale of Life ". This legend lived in the memory of the people of Tbilisi, and decades later they willingly shared their memories of their favorite Niko, supplementing it with all the new details. Subsequent events are presented differently by storytellers. According to one of the versions, on that day Pirosmani again arranged a fun party for friends, although he himself remained tense. When they brought him an invitation from Margarita, touched by a generous gift, to visit her, he refused. After some time, the artist nevertheless 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 admiring exclamations 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 flower sea. Then a man with sad eyes approached her from the other end of the fragrant carpet, and Margarita understood everything. She hugged him and kissed him in gratitude. But the love of the poor artist did not find a response in her soul. Shortly after this only meeting, Margarita left Tbilisi.

Niko Pirosmani became a beggar. The artist sold his shop to buy all the flowers in the city for his beloved woman. And again his dream crumbled to dust. Love did not find refuge in his house, and without her, 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. One consolation remained for a broken heart - painting. Pirosmani never stopped writing - at the behest of his soul and fulfilling orders. True, the hobby did not bring income. He often gave work as payment for the night, food, a glass of vodka. Niko avoided people and did not conduct intimate conversations with anyone else. Constant deprivation, cold and hunger did their dirty deed - Niko fell seriously ill and stopped appearing in public. Just then came a troubled time of change, and the artist's friends lost sight of him. When they missed it, they couldn't find Niko for a long time. Finally, someone found him in a damp, dark basement. Pirosmani was dying. The artist was taken to the hospital, where he died on May 5, 1918. They buried the great son of Georgia as an unknown poor man, his grave was lost.

Farewell with tears

This story was continued 50 years later. By that time, the name Niko Pirosmani had been taken out of oblivion, his works, although they caused fierce controversy, but they started talking about. 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 was an elderly woman who froze in front of the painting "Actress Margarita". She kept looking and looking, and then bent down and kissed the canvas. It was Marguerite de Sevres - she greeted her knight and said goodbye to him. The beloved woman Niko Pirosmani 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 there was no such belated meeting with fate. But the legend about her lives on ...