2. Artist-storyteller

Almost every Russian person knows Bilibin's illustrations from the books of fairy tales that were read to him at night in childhood. Meanwhile, these illustrations are more than a hundred years old. From 1899 to 1902 Ivan Bilibin created a series of six "Fairy Tales" published by the Expedition of Procurement of State Papers. After that, Pushkin's tales about Tsar Saltan and the Golden Cockerel and a slightly less famous epic "Volga" with illustrations by Bilibin were published in the same publishing house.

It is interesting that the famous illustration for "The Tale of Tsar Saltan ..." with a barrel floating on the sea resembles the famous "Big Wave" by the Japanese artist Katsushiki Hokusai. The process of making a graphic drawing by I. Ya. Bilibin was similar to the work of an engraver. First, he sketched a sketch on paper, clarified the composition in all details on tracing paper, and then translated it into whatman paper. After that, using a kolinsky brush with a cut end, likening it to a cutter, I traced a clear wire contour with ink over the pencil drawing.

Bilibin's books look like painted boxes. It was this artist who first saw a children's book as a holistic artistically designed organism. His books are similar to old manuscripts, because the artist thinks over not only drawings, but also all decorative elements: fonts, ornaments, decorations, initials and everything else.

Few people know that Bilibin even worked in the field of advertising. The place where the Polyustrovo mineral water plant is located in St. Petersburg used to be the Joint Stock Company of the New Bavaria Beer and Honey Factory. It was for this plant that Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin created advertising posters and pictures. In addition, the artist created posters, addresses, sketches postage stamps (in particular, a series for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov) and about 30 postcards for the Community of St. Eugenia.Bilibin later drew postcards for Russian publishing houses in Paris and Berlin.

4. Double-headed eagle

The same two-headed eagle, which is now used on the coins of the Bank of Russia, belongs to the brush of the heraldry connoisseur Bilibin. The artist painted it after the February Revolution as the coat of arms for the Provisional Government. The bird looks fabulous, not ominous, because it was painted by a famous illustrator of Russian epics and fairy tales. The two-headed eagle is depicted without royal regalia and with lowered wings; the inscription "Russian Provisional Government" and the characteristic "forest" Bilibino ornament are made around the circle. Bilibin transferred the copyright to the coat of arms and some other graphic designs to the Goznak factory.

5. Theater artist

Bilibin's first experience in scenography was the design of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden for the National Theater in Prague. His next works - sketches of costumes and scenery for the operas "The Golden Cockerel", "Sadko", "Ruslan and Lyudmila", "Boris Godunov" and others. And after emigrating to Paris in 1925, Bilibin continues to work with theaters: he prepares brilliant scenery for the performances of Russian operas, decorates Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird in Buenos Aires and operas in Brno and Prague. Bilibin made extensive use of old engraving, popular prints, and folk art. Bilibin was a true connoisseur of ancient costumes of different peoples, he was interested in embroidery, braid, weaving techniques, ornament and everything that created the national flavor of the people.

6. The Artist and the Church

Bilibin also has works related to church painting. In it, he remains himself, retains his individual style. After leaving St. Petersburg, Bilibin lived for some time in Cairo and actively participated in the design of the Russian house church in the premises of the clinic, arranged by Russian doctors. The iconostasis of this temple was built according to his project. And after 1925, when the artist moved to Paris, he became a founding member of the "Icon" society. As an illustrator, he created the charter cover and print design for the society. There is also a trace of him in Prague - he made sketches of frescoes and an iconostasis for the Russian church at the Olshansk cemetery in the Czech capital.

7 homecoming and death

Over time, Bilibin reconciled with the Soviet regime. He designed the Soviet embassy in Paris, and then, in 1936, returned by boat to his native Leningrad. Teaching is added to his professions: he teaches at the All-Russian Academy of Arts - the oldest and largest art educational institution in Russia. In September 1941, at the age of 66, the artist refused the proposal of the People's Commissar of Education to evacuate from besieged Leningrad to the deep rear. “They don't flee from the besieged fortress, they defend it,” he wrote in reply. Under fascist shelling and bombing, the artist creates patriotic postcards for the front, writes articles and appeals to the heroic defenders of Leningrad. Bilibin died of hunger in the very first blockade winter and was buried in the mass grave of professors of the Academy of Arts near the Smolensk cemetery.

Mikhailof Fedor

—The goal of the project: to find out which artists illustrated Russian folk tales.

- Objectives: 1. To find out who the illustrators are.

2. Find information about artists in the library. 2. Find illustrations for fairy tales in different collections.

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Project on fairy tales "Artists - illustrators" Prepared by a student of 3 "B" class Mikhailov Fedor

Project goal: to find out which artists illustrated Russian folk tales. Objectives: 1. To find out who illustrators are. 2. Find information about artists in the library. 2. Find illustrations for fairy tales in different collections.

ILLUSTRATORS - artists who draw illustrations for books, helping to understand the content of the work, to better represent the characters, their appearance, characters, actions, the environment in which the characters live.

Artists - storytellers 1.Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876-1942) 2.Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1881-1926) 3.Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov (1900-1973) 4.Evgeny Mikhailovich Rachev (1906-1997)

Artist Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin Master of graphics, creator of a special type of illustrated book, "the first professional of the book" - as experts call him.

Ivan Tsarevich and the Grey Wolf. I. Ya.Bilibin

"Baba - Yaga" to the fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful". I. Ya.Bilibin

Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov All my life I have been striving, as an artist, to understand, unravel and express the Russian spirit. V.M. Vasnetsov

Ivan Tsarevich on the gray wolf. V.M. Vasnetsov

V.M. Vasnetsov "Alyonushka"

Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov I illustrated and designed Russian folk tales, songs, nursery rhymes. He is rightfully called the artist of the Russian fairy tale. "Three Bears", "Teremok" and many others. Fantastic, fairy-tale landscapes are based on impressions of real Russian nature. Birds and animals from the artist acquire the habits that he noticed in reality.

"The Fox and the Hare" "Three Bears"

"Geese Swans" "Cat's House"

Evgeny Mikhailovich Rachev All animals and animals - the heroes of Rachev's drawings are “dressed” as people, in human clothes, thus Rachev shows that real life and real human relations are hidden behind a fairy tale plot and fairy images.

Masha and the Bear "Cat, Rooster and Fox"

"Kolobok" "Wolf and Fox"

The end A fairy tale brings us joy, He who knows will understand, There is a lot of meaning in a fairy tale, And love walks close there. A fairy tale is a wonderful piggy bank, What you save up, you take it, And without a fairy tale in this life, you will certainly be lost.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin - famous Russian artist, illustrator... Born on August 4, 1876 in the village of Tarkhovka, St. Petersburg province - passed away on February 7, 1942 in Leningrad. The main genre in which Ivan Bilibin worked is book graphics. In addition, he created various murals, panels and made decorations for theatrical performances, was engaged in the creation of theatrical costumes.

Still, most of the admirers of the talent of this wonderful Russian know him for what he deserves in the visual arts. I must say that Ivan Bilibin had a good school to study the art of painting and graphics. It all started with the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts. Then there was the studio of the artist A. Ashbe in Munich; at the school-workshop of Princess Maria Tenisheva, he studied painting under the guidance of Ilya Repin himself, then, under his guidance, there was the Higher Art School of the Academy of Arts.

IY Bilibin lived most of his life in St. Petersburg. He was a member of the World of Art association. He began to show interest in the ethnographic style of painting after he saw at one of the exhibitions a painting by the great artist Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov "Heroes". For the first time, he created several illustrations in his recognizable "Bilibino" style after he accidentally ended up in the village of Yegny in the Tver province. The Russian hinterland with its dense untouched forests, wooden houses, similar to the very fairy tales of Pushkin and paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov, inspired him so much with its originality that he, without hesitation, began to create drawings. It was these drawings that became illustrations for the book "The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf." We can say that it was here, in the heart of Russia, in its distant settlements lost in the forests, that all the talent of this wonderful artist manifested itself. After that, he began to actively visit other regions of our country and write more and more illustrations for fairy tales and epics. It was in the villages that the image of ancient Russia was still preserved. People continued to wear ancient Russian costumes, held traditional holidays, decorated houses with intricate carvings, etc. All this was captured by Ivan Bilibin in his illustrations, making them head and shoulders above the illustrations of other artists thanks to their realism and precisely noticed details.

His work is the tradition of ancient Russian folk art in a modern way, in accordance with all the laws of book graphics. What he did is an example of how modernity and the culture of the past of our great country can coexist. Being, in fact, an illustrator of children's books, he attracted the attention of a much larger public with his art, viewers, critics and connoisseurs of beauty.

Ivan Bilibin illustrated such tales as: "The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf" (1899), "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (1905), "Volga" (1905), "The Golden Cockerel" (1909 ), "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel" (1910) and others. In addition, he designed the covers of various magazines, including: "World of Art", "Golden Fleece", publications "Rosehip" and "Moscow Book Publishing House".

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin is famous not only for his illustrations in the traditional Russian style. After the February Revolution, he drew a two-headed eagle, which at first was the coat of arms of the Provisional Government, and from 1992 until now it has been decorating the coins of the Bank of Russia. The great Russian artist died in Leningrad, during the blockade on February 7, 1942 in a hospital. The last work was the illustration for the epic "Duke Stepanovich". He was buried in the mass grave of the professors of the Academy of Arts near the Smolensk cemetery.

The ingenious words of Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin: “Only quite recently, like America, was discovered the old artistic Russia, crippled by the Vandals, covered with dust and mold. But even under the dust it was beautiful, so beautiful that the first momentary impulse of those who discovered it is quite understandable: to return it! return!".

Ivan Bilibin paintings

Baba Yaga. Illustration for the fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful

White rider. Fairy tale of Vasilisa the Beautiful

Illustration for the epic Volga

Illustration for the fairy tale White duck

Fairy tale Marya Morevna

Illustration for the Tale of the Golden Cockerel

The Tale of Tsar Saltan

Illustration for the Tale of Tsar Saltan

The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf

Illustration for the Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf

Illustration for the fairy tale Feather of Finist Clear Falcon

In my opinion, there is no better fairy tale illustrator than V.M. Vasnetsov, except perhaps I. Bilibin. The next page is about him.

Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848-1926) is one of the first Russian artists who pushed the boundaries of familiar genres and showed a fairy-tale world, illuminated by the poetic fantasy of the people. Vasnetsov, one of the first Russian artists, turned to the recreation of images of folk tales and epics in painting. His fate was as if he was destined to be a singer of a Russian fairy tale in advance. He spent his childhood in the harsh picturesque Vyatka region. The talkative cook telling children fairy tales, the narratives of wandering people who have seen a lot in their lifetime, according to the artist himself, "made me love the past and present of my people for the rest of my life, largely determined my path." Already at the beginning of his career, he created a number of illustrations for "The Little Humpbacked Horse" and "The Firebird". In addition to fairy tales, he has works dedicated to the heroic images of epics. "A Knight at the Crossroads", "Three Heroes". The famous painting "Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf" is written on the plot of one of the most famous and widespread fairy tales, reproduced in popular prints of the 18th century.

"Princess Nesmeyana"

In the royal chambers, in the prince's palaces, in a high tower, Nesmeyana the princess flaunted. What a life she had, what freedom, what a luxury! There is a lot of everything, everything is, what the soul wants; and she never smiled, never laughed, as if her heart was not happy about anything.

There are merchants, boyars, and foreign guests, storytellers-musicians, dancers, jesters and buffoons. They sing, clown about, laugh, strum on the harp, all of which are great. And at the foot of the high tower - ordinary people, too, crowd, laugh, shout. And all this buffoonery is for the princess, the only royal daughter. She sits sadly on a carved white throne by the window. “There is a lot of everything, there is everything that the soul wants; and she never smiled, never laughed, as if her heart was not happy about anything. " And what is there, in truth, to rejoice if no one ever talks to her heart to heart, no one with a pure heart will come ?! All around are just noisy, they mark them as grooms, they try to present themselves in the best possible light, but no one cares about the princess herself. That is why she is Nesmeyana, until the only one, long-awaited, comes, who will give her a smile instead of buffoonery, warmth instead of indifference. And he will come, of course, because the fairy tale affects that.

"Koschey the Immortal and Beloved Beauty"

He only had time to leave the yard, and Koschey into the yard: “Ah! - is talking. - Smells like a Russian horse; know, you had Ivan Tsarevich. " - “What are you, Koschey the Immortal! Where can I see Ivan Tsarevich? He remained in dense forests, in viscous mud, still the animals have eaten! " They began to have supper; at supper, Beloved Beauty asks: "Tell me, Koschey the Immortal: where is your death?" - “What do you want, silly woman? My death is tied in a broom. "

Early in the morning Koschey leaves for the war. Ivan Tsarevich came to the Beloved Beauty, took that broom and brightly gilded it with pure gold. Only the prince had time to leave, and Koschey went into the courtyard: “Ah! - is talking. - Smells like a Russian horse; know, you had Ivan Tsarevich. " - “What are you, Koschey the Immortal! He flew across Russia himself, he picked up the Russian spirit - from you it smells of the Russian spirit. Where can I see Ivan Tsarevich? He stayed in dense forests, in viscous mud, the animals have eaten up to this day! " It's time for supper; The beloved Beauty sat down on a chair herself, and sat him on a bench; he glanced under the threshold - there was a gilded broom. "What's this?" - “Ah, Koschey the Immortal! You yourself see how I honor you; if you are dear to me, so is your death dear. " - “Silly woman! I was joking, my death was sealed up in an oak tynu ”.

"Princess Frog"

Consider a reproduction of V. Vasnetsov's painting "Feast" (p. 19 of the textbook).
If possible, it would be interesting to compare this picture with the illustration made for this episode of the tale by I. Bilibin.
Bilibin's illustrations framed by floral ornament very accurately reflect the content of the tale. We can see the details of the heroes' costumes, the expression on the faces of the surprised boyars, and even the pattern on the kokoshniks of the daughters-in-law. Vasnetsov in his picture does not dwell on the details, but perfectly conveys the movement of Vasilisa, the enthusiasm of the musicians, who seem to stamp their feet in time with the dance song. We can guess that the music to which Vasilisa dances is funny, mischievous. When you look at this picture, you feel the character of a fairy tale.
- Why do people call Vasilisa the Wise? What qualities does the people glorify in the image of Vasilisa?

V. Vasnetsov's painting creates a generalized image of a beautiful princess: next to her are guslars, people. The illustration by I. Bilibin specifically depicts the episode of the feast: in the center - Vasilisa the Wise, with a wave of her hand miracles happen; around people, amazed by what is happening. Different types of work are possible here:

1. Describe verbally what you see in each of the paintings (characters, setting, appearance of people around, their mood, prevailing colors).

2. Compare the image of Vasilisa the Wise by Vasnetsov and Bilibin. Is this how you imagine the main heroine of a fairy tale?

"Magic carpet"

The fantasy of the people created the tale of the flying carpet. You see two paintings by Vasnetsov with this name - early and late. On the first of them, a proud fellow looks from the airplane carpet at the expanses of the Russian land spread below. The discreet northern nature served as the background for the artist's painting. Rivers and lakes sparkle, a forest stands as a dark wall, huge birds accompany the carpet. The Firebird caught by the hero burns with a bright fire in the cage. This canvas tells about the wisdom, strength, dexterity of the people. The second picture is lighter and more colorful. The bright rays of the sunset, cutting through the veil of clouds, became a good background for the picture. Through the clouds, nature is seen bright, the greenery is juicy, perhaps because the heroes descended closer to her. And the girl and the boy in shining, gold-embroidered clothes do not seem to be outsiders on the canvas. Their young faces are beautiful, they gently bowed to each other, personifying loyalty and love.

Alyonushka, Snegurochka, Elena the Beautiful - these fictional images and portraits of women who are close to Vasnetsov "in spirit" - Elena Prakhova, Vera and Elizaveta Mamontov, portraits of his wife, daughter, nieces from different sides highlight what is called the Russian female soul, which becomes for Vasnetsov is the personification of the Motherland, Russia.

Alkonost. In Byzantine and Russian medieval legends, a wonderful bird, an inhabitant of Iria - a Slavic paradise. Her face is feminine, her body is a bird's, her voice is sweet, like love itself. Having heard the singing of Alkonost with delight, he can forget everything in the world, but there is no evil from her, unlike Sirin.

Alkonost lays eggs at the edge of the sea, but does not incubate them, but plunges them into the depths of the sea. At this time, the weather is calm for seven days. According to the ancient Greek myth, Alcyone, the wife of Keik, upon learning about the death of her husband, threw herself into the sea and was turned into a bird named after her alkyona (kingfisher).

It is depicted in popular prints as a half-woman, half-bird with large multi-colored feathers and a girl's head, shaded by a crown and a halo, in which a short inscription is sometimes placed. In addition to the wings, Alkonos has hands in which she holds paradise flowers or a bundle with an explanatory inscription. She lives on a paradise tree, on Buyan Island, together with the Sirin bird, has a sweet voice, like love itself. When she sings, she does not feel herself. He who hears her wonderful singing will forget everything in the world. With her songs, she consoles and elevates future joy. This is a bird of joy.

And here is Sirin, a dark bird, a dark force, a messenger of the ruler of the underworld. From the head to the waist, Sirin is a woman of incomparable beauty, from the waist - a bird. Whoever listens to her voice, forgets about everything in the world and dies, and there is no strength to force him not to listen to Sirin's voice, and death for him at that moment is true bliss. Dahl explained in the famous dictionary as follows: “... mythical and church birds of an owl, or an eagle owl, a scarecrow; there are popular prints depicting birds of paradise with female faces and breasts»(V. Dal" Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language "). In Russian spiritual poetry, sirin, descending from paradise to earth, enchants people with her singing. In Western European legends, the sirin is the embodiment of an unhappy soul. This is the bird of sorrow.

• #1
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• #5

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• #17

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students of 5 "B" grade

The project was completed in the 2015-2016 academic year

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COLLECTIVE PROJECT

students of 5 "B" grade

"Artists - illustrators

Russian folk tales "

Objective of the project:

• to expand knowledge about the work of illustrators.

Tasks:

• to get acquainted with the work of illustrators V.M. Vasnetsov, Yu.A. Vasnetsov, E.M. Rachev, T.A. Mavrina, I.Ya.Bilibin. V. Lebedev;
• see interesting techniques and ways of depicting animals and people;

• show positive emotions to the artistic word
• to develop an aesthetic attitude to works of folk art, the ability to compare the expressive means of artists
• make your own illustrations for read fairy tales, arrange an exhibition of your works.

Fundamental question:

• Why did the illustrators not just draw explanations for the text of fairy tales, but create wonderful independent works that enriched Russian and world art?

Problematic issues:

1. What is an illustration?
2. Who are illustrators?

Subject areas:literature, fine arts, Russian language.

Project participants - students of grade 5 "B"

We got acquainted with the facts of the biography and the peculiarities of the work of some artists - illustrators of Russian folk tales and found outWhy did the authors not just draw explanations for the text of fairy tales, but create wonderful independent works that enriched Russian and world art?

Illustration Is not just an addition to the text, but a work of art of its time.

Illustrators - these are artists who use illustrations for books, helping to understand the content of the work, to better represent the heroes, their appearance, characters, actions, the environment in which they live.

"A fairy tale is the great spiritual culture of the people, which we collect bit by bit, and through the fairy tale the thousand-year history of the people is revealed to us."

Viktor Vasnetsov was born in the Vyatka Territory on May 15 (new style) 1848 in the family of a village priest.

Father, Mikhail Vasilyevich, himself a well-educated person, tried to give children a versatile education, to develop inquisitiveness and observation in them. The family read scientific journals, drew, painted in watercolors. Here the early artistic inclinations of the future painter were first recognized. The motives of his first full-scale sketches were village landscapes, scenes from village life.

The village of Ryabovo, where the Vasnetsovs lived, stood on the picturesque Ryabovka river, bordered by dense coniferous forests, from the hilly banks of which horizons stretching for tens of miles to the Ural mountains opened up. The Vyatka Territory with its harsh and picturesque nature, a kind of way that preserves the foundations of the distant past, with ancient folk beliefs, old songs, fairy tales and epics, became the basis for the formation of Vasnetsov's early life impressions.

Victor spent nine years in Vyatka, but he did not feel the need to minister to the church. He devotes more and more time to drawing. On Sundays he goes to the city, to the bazaar, to draw "types", to study characters. His seminar notebooks are full of sketches from memory.

In August 1867, with the blessing of his father, Viktor Vasnetsov left the seminary a year and a half before its graduation and with the money raised from the lottery went to St. Petersburg to enter the Academy of Arts.

Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov lived a long, beautiful and difficult life. One of the most famous Russian artists of the 19th century, he knew an enthusiastic admiration and a coldly restrained, to the point of complete rejection, attitude towards his work, huge success and harsh criticism of his works, bordering on blasphemy.

He was called "the true hero of Russian painting". This definition was born not only due to the figurative connection with the "heroic" theme of his painting, but due to the awareness of his contemporaries of the significance of the artist's personality, understanding of his role as the founder of a new, "national" trend in Russian art. The significance of Vasnetsov's work is not only in the fact that he was the first among painters to turn to epic and fairy-tale subjects. Although it was this Vasnetsov - the author of "Alyonushka", "Bogatyrs", "Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf", widely reproduced for many years in huge circulations in school textbooks, on calendars, rugs, candy and cigarette boxes, - entered the mass consciousness , overshadowing the true face of the artist.

Ivan Alexandrovich Kuznetsov (1908 - 1987)

Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuznetsov was born on May 23, 1908 in the village of Monetovo, Vokhomsky districtKostroma region ... He was the twelfth child in the family. The boy dearly loved the spruce forests of his land, watched with interest all forest animals. And on any piece of paper he found, on any wall, he tried to depict what lived in his memory and imagination. Once I painted a dull fence in front of my hut with soldiers. For this, his father beat him hard and forced him to paint over all the drawings with thick gray paint.

After graduating from the school of peasant youth in the village of Vokhma, Ivan decided to fulfill his most cherished dream - to leave to study further. He is hired as a timekeeper on timber rafting along the Vetluga and Volga. The money earned made it possible to get to Leningrad, but there was no way to go anywhere. Then he ended up in Moscow. In the capital, he wandered, painted "from life" in pubs and shelters. A journalist from the Krestyanskaya Gazeta, which he met by chance, saw his drawings and decided to put the guy in his newspaper. At first, Ivan only pasted stamps and wrote on parcels the addresses of subscribers in the expeditionary department of the newspaper. He accompanies some notes with his drawings. They like the editorial board, and they put a capable young man in an art school.

After graduating from art school, Ivan Kuznetsov studied at the Polygraphic Institute from 1930 to 1935.

In the thirties, the first books appeared, designed by Ivan Kuznetsov. As a rule, these are modestly published books for children. Among them are "My friend and I", "What do you have?" S. Mikhalkov, "Dog and Cat" O. Tumanyan. These and other editions were published by Detgiz. Kuznetsov got into this publishing house at the time of its formation. It was Detgiz (now the Children's Literature publishing house) that published most of the books with his illustrations.

During the war, I. Kuznetsov, dismissed from the army due to illness, was sent to the tank factories of Chelyabinsk and Nizhny Tagil, where he worked as an artist-designer on assignments from the Ministry of Tank Industry.

And then his painstaking work on the book illustration continued. The greatest love of the artist Ivan Kuznetsov, one might say, his fate, was the wonderful world of fairy tales. A close acquaintance with his elder namesake Konstantin Vasilyevich Kuznetsov, while still working in "Cricket", contributed much to the appeal to the fairy tale.

Books with drawings by Ivan Kuznetsov contain fairy tales from different nations. Preparing for work, he collects a huge ethnographic material, carefully studies the nature, life, national characteristics of the heroes of the tale. And, of course, the Russian fairy tale was especially close to him. Here, the images of nature and signs of everyday life, well known to him from an early age, came to life. Thin little books with his drawings, such as "Geese-Swans", "Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka", "Goat - Glass Eyes, Golden Horns", many people of the older generation remember from childhood.

Since the fifties, collections of fairy tales illustrated by the artist have been published - "Mountain of Gems", "Russian Folk Tales", "Magic Ring", "Wonderful Mill", "Our Tales". Later, his famous "Swan" appears, where the heroine of each fairy tale is a kind, hardworking and sharp-witted Russian woman.

Among the books designed by Ivan Kuznetsov, there are both poetry and prose. Works by such authors as E. Blaginina and S. Shchipachev, K. Paustovsky and A. Platonov, L. Tolstoy and M. Gorky were published with his drawings. He turned to the fairy-tale theme, especially beloved by the artist, in his many famous engravings on linoleum. These are "Alyonushka", "Wonderful Carpet", "Flying Ship", "Firebird", "Thin Mind". Throughout the post-war years, the artist traveled a lot across Russia. I visited the Kama, the Oka, Baikal, in my homeland in Vokhma. He rented a room in Saltykovka near Moscow and lived and worked there for a long time. In the spring of 1966 he managed to visit Italy. From everywhere he brought his wonderful drawings and watercolors, mainly landscapes.

The originals of Ivan Kuznetsov's works are in various art museums, including the museum in his homeland in Vokhma, in the Shushenskaya Art Gallery, in the Museum of Fine Arts in the city of Irbit. Many originals of works and books illustrated by him are kept in the artist's family, his daughter. In the last years of his life, Ivan Alexandrovich was seriously ill. On May 1, 1987 he was gone. Everything said by this artist, be it book graphics, watercolors, drawings and linocuts, is imbued with warmth and kindness. His work is close and understandable to everyone - both children and adults.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876 - 1942)

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin was born in the village of Tarkhovka, St. Petersburg province. It was his illustrations that helped to create an elegant and accessible children's book.

Focusing on the traditions of ancient Russian and folk art, Bilibin developed a logically consistent system of graphic techniques, which remained in the basis throughout his entire work. This graphic system, as well as Bilibin's peculiar interpretation of epic and fairy-tale images made it possible to talk about a special Bilibin style.

It all began with an exhibition of Moscow artists in 1899 in St. Petersburg, where I. Bilibin saw V. Vasnetsov's painting "Heroes". Brought up in a St. Petersburg environment, far from hobbies for the national past, the artist unexpectedly showed interest in Russian antiquity, fairy tales, folk art. In the summer of the same year, Bilibin left for the village of Yegny, Tver province, to see for himself the dense forests, transparent rivers, wooden huts, and hear fairy tales and songs. Pictures from the exhibition of Viktor Vasnetsov come to life in the imagination. Artist Ivan Bilibin begins to illustrate Russian folk tales from Afanasyev's collection. And in the fall of the same year, the Expedition for Procurement of State Papers (Goznak) began to publish a series of fairy tales with Bilibino drawings.

For 4 years Bilibin illustrated seven fairy tales: "Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka", "White duck", "Princess-frog", "Marya Morevna", "The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf" , "The Feather of Finist Jasna-Sokol", "Vasilisa the Beautiful". Editions of fairy tales belong to the type of small-sized large-format notebooks. From the very beginning, Bilibin's books were distinguished by the pattern of the drawing, bright decorativeness. The artist did not create individual illustrations, he strove for the ensemble: he drew the cover, illustrations, ornamental decorations, typeface - he stylized everything like an old manuscript.

Bilibin proved himself to be an artist of the book, he did not limit himself to performing individual illustrations, but strove for integrity.

(1893-1976)

Vladimir Alekseevich Milashevsky was born in 1893. He spent his childhood and youth on the banks of the great Russian Volga River, in Saratov, a city rich in artistic traditions.

Milashevsky's love for drawing manifested itself very early, almost from childhood. Being a realist, he attended the Bogolyubov Drawing School in the evenings. In 1913 he entered the architecture department of the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts. Arriving to study in St. Petersburg, Milashevsky plunged headlong into the artistic life of the capital.

Milashevsky did a lot in the field of decorating an adult book, and his illustrations for the works of classics and contemporary Soviet writers occupy an honorable place in the history of Soviet graphics and books. But even more significant is his contribution to the business of illustrating books for children and youth.

He was one of the first and very few illustrators of these books, one might say - he stood at the cradle of Soviet books for adolescents and youth.

The literature had a big and responsible task to give this reader a new good Soviet book. No less difficult tasks were faced by the artists who had to illustrate these books. It was necessary to re-develop the principles of decorating books for schoolchildren, starting essentially from scratch. In those years, Soviet teenagers needed not a gift, but a mass book. It had to be cheap, the drawings in it were understandable and intelligible and at the same time easily reproducible, given the large circulation and modest printing capabilities of the first post-revolutionary years. This required drawing not in tone, but "on the stroke"; it had to be expressive, clear and simple to perform.

The first illustrations for fairy tales were made by Milashevsky in 1948. He made about 25 page and half-page illustrations for Pushkin's fairy tales, headpieces and endings.

They usually look at the pictures, but this word does not fit into Milashevsky's illustrations: they are not looked at, but examined, and they can be viewed many times, each time discovering more and more new details. His creative generosity is amazing! No matter how much he draws, everything seems small to him, he still wants to add some more interesting detail.

Milashevsky's illustrations are rooted in the very depths of folk life. That is why they are so believable, so convincing. It seems that the characters depicted by him have a portrait resemblance, that they all - even the water one or the devil - were exactly the same and only the same as the artist painted them. These are not abstractly fabulous faces, not masks, as some artists have - no! - these are the exact ethnic types of fairy tale heroes, Russians and persons of other nationalities, in all their diversity.

Milashevsky's illustrations are a whole encyclopedia from which you can glean absolutely accurate information about the old architecture of various regions of Russia and other peoples in all details, up to the patterns of wooden carving and painting of window frames, about folk clothes, about household items and details of the situation, about toys and utensils, about a thousand different things.

Depicting high examples of folk art, the artist, by his own admission, had in mind not only to make his drawings more interesting, but also to educate the reader, especially the little one, an artistic taste and love for real art. Now a lot is being said about the importance of aesthetic education of young people - Milashevsky's illustration is a practical step in this direction.

Milashevsky's illustrations are characterized by some kind of inner warmth and a gentle humor inherent in a folk tale. Milashevsky's works were shown at almost all major graphic exhibitions in our country and abroad, are in the State Tretyakov Gallery, in the Russian Museum in Leningrad, the State Museum of Fine Arts named after V.I. Pushkin, in the museums of A.S. Pushkin in Moscow and Leningrad and many other Soviet and foreign museums.

Artists - illustrators

Russian folk tales

Victor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov

Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov

Evgeny Mikhailovich Rachev

Tatiana Alekseevna Mavrina

Ivan Alexandrovich Kuznetsov

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin

Vladimir Alekseevich Milashevsky

Our illustrations

to read fairy tales