Maria Konstantinovna. Forgotten names: Maria Bashkirtseva (17 photos)

Genus. near Poltava November 11, 1860, d. October 31, 1884 Her childhood passed under abnormal conditions: after two years of marriage, her parents separated, and mother and daughter settled with her father, Babanin, a very rich landowner, a very educated man and not without poetic talent. In 1870, Babanin with his daughters and granddaughters moved permanently abroad, accompanied by his entire home staff and, after a short stay in Vienna, Baden-Baden and Geneva, chose Nice for permanent residence. From here the whole family often took trips around Europe and lived for long periods in Paris. Bashkirtseva early became a skilled musician, playing the piano, organ, harp, mandolin and guitar; from 1870 she began to study drawing under the guidance of Benz, and at the age of 16 “in just 35 minutes she sketched sketches of portraits of her father and brother from life.” Since February 1874, she has been studying Latin, and then Greek, reading the classics and is going to take the matriculation exam. “I am immersed,” she notes in 1876, in serious reading and see with despair how little I know... I have a feverish need to learn, but there is no one to guide me... In 1876, Bashkirtseva discovered a voice, according to a review Ave. Faccio, “in 3 octaves minus two notes,” and the strict Professor Wartel predicts her “artistic success if she works on herself.” This discovery delighted Bashkirtseva; she considered herself capable of being a “singer and artist,” since she had a “giant imagination” and she could not come to terms with the idea that her “poor young life would be limited to the dining room and household gossip.”

After a platonic romance with the 23-year-old Count Antonelli, the nephew of the all-powerful cardinal under Pius IX, Bashkirtseva went to Little Russia in the fall of 1876. And here Bashkirtseva feverishly expands her knowledge, this time on agriculture, but specifically in order to “surprise someone with a conversation about sowing barley or the quality of rye, next to a poem by Shakespeare and a tirade from the philosophy of Plato.” In the spring of 1877, Bashkirtseva took a trip to Italy with her mother, met the artist Gordigiani, who encouraged her to take up painting and predicted a brilliant future for her. But the spoiled girl cannot calm down on anything: “Reading, drawing, music is boring! In addition to all these activities and entertainment, you need to have something alive, but I’m bored.” She cannot give up art, because then her life will be empty, and on the other hand, it seems to her that art in itself is a trifle and “only a means to achieve fame and success.” "If I had all this, I wouldn't do anything." And so she gives herself another year, during which she plans to work on herself even harder than before. In October 1877, she entered the studio of the artist Rodolphe Julian, which rightly enjoyed the reputation of the most serious school for women.

Julian guessed his student’s great talent from the very beginning. And indeed, already in January 1879, at a competition at school, Lefebvre, Bouguereau, Boulanger and Robert Fleury awarded Bashkirtseva a medal, and in 1880 she, under the name Marie Constantin Russ, submitted to the art exhibition (Salon) a portrait of a “young woman reading "Question de divorce" by A. Dumas." In 1881, under the name "Andrey" she exhibited the painting "Julian's Workshop"; The Parisian press noted this picture as a work full of life, smartly written and successful in color. In 1883, Bashkirtseva appeared at an exhibition under her own name with a female portrait of “Parisian Woman”, painted in pastels; The drawing fully reflected the bright and original individuality of the artist. At the same time, she exhibited a genre oil painting, “Jean and Jacques,” depicting two Parisian schoolchildren; Bashkirtseva received a commendable review for this picture. In March 1884, at the women's art exhibition "Union des femmes" Bashkirtseva gave a painting called "Trois rires". In this sketch, very smartly written, extraordinary powers of observation and richness of colors were revealed. The same exhibition featured the elegant landscape “Autumn,” which captivated the viewer with its heartfelt melancholy. The same landscape was later exhibited by Bashkirtseva at the Salon, along with the “Meeting” genre. These paintings brought the artist wide fame in the world of French artists, among whom Bashkirtseva found an ardent admirer in the person of Jules Bastien-Lepage. The newspapers also started talking about her, first French and then Russian. But this fame did not satisfy Bashkirtseva, who made too high demands on contemporary art in general and on her own creativity in particular. “The other day, we read in the Diary, Tony (Robert Fleury) was forced to agree with me that you need to be a great artist to copy nature, because only a great artist can understand and convey it. The ideal side should consist in choice of plot; the execution must be in the full sense of what the ignorant call naturalism... I am tormented... I do nothing. They say that this torment proves that I am not a nonentity... unfortunately, no! They prove , that I am smart and understand everything... Fools think that in order to be modern or realistic, it is enough to write the first thing you come across, without arranging it. Well, don’t arrange it, but choose and grasp it - that’s all... What What attracts me to painting is life, modernity, the mobility of the things you see. But how to express all this?... Great can only be the one who opens his new path and begins to convey his special impressions, his individuality; my art does not yet exist"... "I have always loved form most of all... painting seems pathetic to me compared to sculpture... In my lifetime I have made two groups and two or three busts; all this is abandoned halfway, because, working alone, without a leader, I can become attached to the only thing that really interests me, where I invest my life, my soul "... A too nervous and stressful life exhausted Bashkirtseva’s strength and undermined her health: in 1878 she lost her voice, began to go deaf and gray in 1880, and consumption quickly began to develop in her in 1881. She was aware of her situation, and the proximity of inevitable death awakened in her soul new, hitherto dormant moods: “It seems to me,” she writes, that no one loves everything as much as I love - art, music, painting, books, light, etc. Everything seems to me from its interesting and beautiful sides: I would like to see everything, have everything, embrace everything, merge with everything" - and adds bitterly: "I find that it was stupid of me not to take up the only thing that gives happiness, makes one forget all sorrows - love." Despite her completely ruined health, Bashkirtseva in the fall of 1884 conceived the painting “Bench on Suburban Parisian Boulevards” for the 1885 exhibition and, while sketching sketches for it, caught a cold. After her death, in 1885, the French Society of Women Artists organized an exhibition of her works; Along with her already known paintings, new things appeared here: the almost completed - according to her own review, her most important painting, “Holy Wives after the Burial of Christ,” (this painting goes against all academic traditions) and about 150 more paintings, sketches, drawings and sculptural studies; all this gave the public the opportunity to become fully acquainted with the energetic, courageous talent of the deceased; her works breathe observation, deep humanity and free individual creativity: “Meeting” and “Portrait of a Model” by Bashkirtseva were acquired by the French government and placed in the Luxembourg Museum; two pastel portraits were received in provincial museums - in Ajan and Neraka. In 1887, on the initiative and at the expense of Dutch artists, an exhibition of Bashkirtseva’s works was held in Amsterdam. - Bashkirtseva was a member of the Paris Circle of Russian Artists (Cercle des artistes russes), and, according to her posthumous will, a prize “named after Maria Bashkirtseva” of 500 francs was established in Paris. , which is issued annually, in the painting department, to an exhibitor - male or female - who deserves promotion by his position.

Bashkirtseva left behind an extensive autobiography, to which she attributes the significance of an “interesting human document,” but although the writer assures that her confession is “the exact, absolute, strict truth,” she, perhaps unconsciously, is not averse to showing off, and her diaries are not alien to thoughts will sooner or later appear before the public. From her numerous notebooks, Andre Terrier made a selection, which, under the title “Journal de Marie Baschkirtseff”, was published in Paris in the Bibliothèque Charpentier in 1887 in French (in 2 volumes), and then appeared in Russian translation in the Northern Messenger "; Soon the Diary was published as a separate edition in German and English. The best pages of the diary are the last part, where Bashkirtseva, aware of the approach of death, writes simply and sincerely and makes a stunning impression on the reader. "The Diary of Bashkirtseva" evoked a number of enthusiastic reviews in the European and American press, and Gladstone, in an article (published in the winter of 1890 in the Nineteenth Century Magazine) recognizes the work of the Russian artist as one of the most remarkable books of the entire century - in sincerity, artistic observation and convexity of the image of the artist’s struggle with the temptations of secular vanity.

Larousse, Gr. dictionnaire universel, II supplement p. 485. - M. Baschkirtsefi, "Jourual". - Brockhaus and Efron, Encyclopedic Dictionary.

(Polovtsov)

Bashkirtseva, Maria Konstantinovna

Artist. Genus. November 11, 1860 near Poltava, in a wealthy noble family. B. spent her first years in Kharkov province, on her mother’s estate. In May 1870, the Bashkirtsevs went abroad and, having visited Austria, Germany and Switzerland, settled in Nice. This is where the future artist spent her early youth, who from childhood showed many-sided talent and lively curiosity. At the age of thirteen, B. herself compiled a program for her studies, which included mathematics, physics and chemistry and both ancient languages; She spoke German, English and Italian since childhood, and French was her native language, in which she thought and wrote her diary. At the same time, B. passionately devotes himself to music. However, B.’s education, despite its versatility, was extremely unsystematic and fragmentary: those in charge of B.’s upbringing did not hesitate to take the girl away from her studies for the sake of social pleasures and travel. As for painting, it occupied the very last place in B.’s upbringing, but a love for this art and an unusually subtle artistic taste developed in her in her early years. In 1877, B. moved to Paris and entered the private academy of Rudolf Julian, where he devoted himself entirely to painting under the guidance of Professor Robert-Fleury. After eleven months of work, she received the first gold medal at the workshop’s general competition, unanimously awarded to her by the artists Robert-Fleury, Bouguereau, Lefebvre and others. In 1880, B. exhibited her first painting at the Salon: “A young woman reading Alexandre’s Question du divorce Dumas." At the Salon of 1881, B. exhibits signed Andrey the painting "Julian's Workshop", noted by the Parisian seal as a work full of life, with a solid pattern and warm color. In 1883, B. exhibited a pastel portrait and a large painting under his own name " Jean et Jacques", depicting two small schoolchildren from the poor class of the Parisian population. This picture attracted everyone's attention and aroused rave reviews from the press: the strong, brave, real talent of the artist reaches significant development in this picture. Then B. exhibits the original sketch "Three Laughs" and a large painting depicting schoolchildren gathered in a circle, entitled “Meeting.” The painting, for its remarkable strength of execution, for the extraordinary typicality of faces and figures, for the subtlety and truthfulness of details, took a leading place in the Salon of 1884 and brought the Russian artist the most flattering fame in world of French artists. While working on the painting "Bench on a Country Parisian Boulevard", B. caught a cold, and consumption, which had been slowly developing in her for several years, worsened and took her to the grave. B. died on October 31, 1884, about 24 years old After her death, the French Society of Women Artists organized an exhibition of all of B.'s works, where the public could see the extraordinary diversity and productivity of her talent; B. left about 150 paintings, sketches and drawings and, in addition, several sculptural sketches, revealing her great talent in this direction. After this exhibition, the French press unanimously spoke of B. as a first-class talent, as an artist who promised a number of brilliant works. Indeed, many of B.’s sketches indicate an extraordinary humanity and the depth of her energetic, courageous talent. Started map. “Holy Wives after the Burial of Christ” most certainly confirms this opinion with the originality of its design, which runs counter to the usual academic template. B.'s best paintings were purchased by the French government for national museums. " Meeting" and the pastel "Portrait of a Model" are in the Luxembourg Museum. In January 1887, an exhibition of B.'s paintings took place in Amsterdam - on the initiative and at the expense of the Society of Amsterdam Artists. Dutch art criticism fully confirmed the reviews of the French press. In the same year it was published Charpentier's "Diary of Bashkirtseff" (Journal de Marie Bashkirtseff). This two-volume edition represents a reduction of the enormous handwritten material left by the artist. This reduction, made by the famous novelist Andre Terrier, cannot be called particularly successful. But even in this form, the "Diary" represents a remarkable work, depicting with complete sincerity and purely artistic observation the entire story of B.'s life and her struggle with the temptations of light and vanity. The "Diary" aroused keen interest of the public and the press and in a short time went through several editions. In recent years, the "Diary" has been translated into the languages ​​German and English and caused a new series of enthusiastic reviews in the European and American press. In the winter of 1890, an article by Gladstone dedicated to the Diary appeared in the Nineteenth Century, in which the famous statesman calls the Russian artist’s Diary one of the most remarkable books of our century. Only some pages of the “Diary” were published in Russian in a very small book.

(Brockhaus)

Bashkirtseva, Maria Konstantinovna

(1860-1884) - author of the famous "Diary", Russian artist. The aristocratic environment in which B. was born and raised, with its prejudices and secular, scattered life, did not allow B.’s abilities to develop to their full extent. In the “Diary” B., left alone with himself, tells the whole truth about himself - about his vanity, the desire to be the first everywhere, adventurous plans, and finally, about the emptiness of life, about a serious illness that she carefully hides from others. This “diary” is a wonderful “human document” characterizing a certain class. It has not yet been published in full. An incomplete text with articles by Könne and Gladstone was published in French in 1887 in 2 vols. There are translations into Russian and German. and English language As an artist, B. received insufficiently thorough training. She first performed in Paris, at the Salon, in 1880 (“A Young Woman Reading Dumas”). The main works are "The Meeting", "Jean and Jacques" (Paris, Luxembourg Museum). New criticism does not highly value Bashkirtseva’s artistic works, considering them technically very weak.

Ed. "Diary" of B.: "From Bashkirtseva's diary", with the appendix of Art. Fr. Coppe and reviews in French. printing, translated by K. Plavinsky, St. Petersburg, 1889; Unpublished diary of Bashkirtseva and correspondence with Guy de Maupassant, edited by M. Gelrot, Yalta, 1904; Diary of Bashkirtseva, ed. Wolf, St. Petersburg, 1910.

Large biographical encyclopedia. 2009 .

See what “Bashkirtseva, Maria Konstantinovna” is in other dictionaries:

Maria Bashkirtseva ... Wikipedia

- (1860 84), Russian artist. The creative heritage (more than 150 paintings, drawings, watercolors, sculptures), as well as the “Diary” (in French; published in Russian translation in 1892) reflected the mentality and aesthetic trends of the latter... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1860 84) Russian artist. The creative heritage (more than 150 paintings, drawings, watercolors, sculptures), as well as the Diary (in French; published in Russian translation in 1892) reflected the mentality and aesthetic trends of the last quarter... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Bashkirtseva (Maria Konstantinovna) artist. Born on November 11, 1860 near Poltava into a wealthy noble family. B. spent her first years in the Kharkov province, on her mother’s estate. In May 1870, the Bashkirtsevs went abroad and, visiting... ... Biographical Dictionary

Maria Bashkirtseva can equally be considered a Russian, French and Ukrainian artist. She was born in the Poltava region and spent her childhood; the girl’s early youth was spent on family trips around Europe, and her short-lived artistic activity was concentrated mainly in Paris. Bashkirtseva became not only the first woman, but also the first Russian artist whose works were acquired by the Louvre. However, what made this extraordinary personality famous was the posthumous publication of her diaries, which Maria kept from the age of twelve. Their multiple editions in various languages ​​became a kind of bestseller of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Her published recordings made a deep impression on famous creative people of that period and continue to inspire our contemporaries.

The article will tell about the short but extraordinary life of the artist Maria Bashkirtseva, her gifts, talents and creativity, about her famous diary with quotes from it.

Childhood and early adolescence

The age of Maria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva was slightly changed in the posthumous edition of her diaries. According to records found in the National Library of France, her date of birth is 1858, November 24. Father Konstantin Bashkirtsev, an actual state councilor and leader of the local nobility, owned the Gavrontsy estate in the Poltava province, where Maria was born. But the girl spent her first childhood years in Chernyakovka, in the domain of Colonel Chernyak, not far from Dikanka, glorified by Gogol. Her parents divorced, and her mother, before Babanin’s marriage, moved to her father’s estate, which was located in the Kharkov province.

Since May 1870, ten-year-old Musya, as she was affectionately called at home, has been traveling to Europe with her mother, grandfather and aunt. For two years the family travels through Austria and Switzerland, stopping in Vienna, Baden-Baden, Geneva, and ends their travels in France, where after visiting Paris they settle in Nice. Here Maria Bashkirtseva begins to keep her fateful diary in French, the first entries of which date back to 1870. Her travels did not end there; she often traveled with her family to Italy, to Ukraine to visit her father, to St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Education

Governesses and teachers were hired for Musi. This was the best education for a thirteen year old girl at the time. She chose the subjects herself, and Maria's range of interests turned out to be extremely wide. In addition to the compulsory dances, fine arts, vocals and music, she was most interested in languages, history, literature, and philosophy. As if foreseeing a short period of her life, she is concerned about the transience of time. The girl decides to devote nine hours to studying every day. Her thirst to know as much as possible and quickly is comparable to an unquenchable passion.

“When I finish Titus Livy, I will begin Michelet’s history of France. I know Aristophanes, Plutarch, Herodotus, partly Xenophon... Also Epictetus, but, really, all this is far from enough. And then Homer - I know him very well; a little bit also of Plato.”

She is too demanding of both herself and her teachers. While waiting for the teacher, indignant that she was delayed, Maria writes in her diary:

“I’ve been waiting for the teacher for an hour and a half; she is late, as always. I am beside myself with annoyance and indignation. She makes me waste my time. After all, I’m 13 years old, and if I waste time, what will become of me?.. There’s so much to do in life, and life is so short!”

Her childish ambition, aspirations and ambitions seem simply incredible. Within five months of 1873, she completed a three-year educational course at the Lyceum. In addition to Russian and Ukrainian, she was fluent in several European languages, as well as Latin and Ancient Greek, in which mainly scientific and philosophical works were published. Maria preferred to read all authors in the original. The famous French playwright, poet and prose writer François Coppet, later visiting the Parisian studio of the artist Maria Bashkirtseva, described his impressions as follows:

“...in a dark corner, numerous volumes of books are clearly visible, randomly arranged on shelves, scattered on the desktop. I walked over and began looking at the titles. These were the best works of human genius. They were all collected here in their native language - French, Italian, English, as well as Latin and even Greek, and these were not “library books” at all, books for furniture, but real, used books, read and re-read. On the desk lay Plato, open on one of the most wonderful pages.”

Musical and vocal talent

In addition to her extraordinary abilities in the field of fine arts, the girl was gifted with an outstanding hearing, as well as a strong and clear mezzo-soprano voice with a wide range. She perfectly mastered playing the piano, harp, guitar and mandolin. Maria devoted a lot of time to vocal and music classes. In her quest for fame and desire to become someone significant, she planned to achieve extraordinary success as an opera singer. Admiring her rare talent, all family members and acquaintances also predicted this career for her. And young Mademoiselle Bashkirtseva wrote about her hopes:

“I was created for triumph and strong sensations, so the best thing I can do is become a singer...”

However, by the age of 16, the girl was diagnosed with consumption, as tuberculosis was once called. The complication spread to the throat, which led to the loss of the singing voice and the appearance of gradually increasing deafness. If not for this unfortunate circumstance, the biography of Maria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva would have been completely different. She could have lived a longer life, devoting herself not to painting, but to the opera stage; her diary acquired a completely different content and, perhaps, would never have been published.

Art education

Having spent the entire year of 1876 in the resorts of Italy due to illness, Maria Bashkirtseva decided to improve her artistic talent and achieve outstanding success in the field of fine arts. In 1877, her family moved to Paris, where Maria first studied painting in the studio of the outstanding teacher Robert-Fleury, and then entered the private Julian Academy, which was a worthy competitor to the Parisian School of Fine Arts.

“Painting makes me despair! Because I have the ability to create miracles, and yet, in terms of knowledge, I am insignificant than the first street girl I meet who is noticed to have abilities and who is sent to school.”

“It’s terrible to strive to draw like a master after six weeks of study.”

The institution of Rodolfo Julian was at that time the only art academy that accepted women. Therefore, there were many students from America, Brazil, Canada and most European countries. Among them studied two future famous artists, Anna Bilinskaya-Bogdanovich from Poland and Louise Breslau from Switzerland, whom Bashkirtseva, as she noted in her diary, considered her only real rivals. Her notes from the period of study also left many memories of the academy, teachers and students. Maria understands that she has little time for creativity and self-affirmation, so she is in a hurry to master as quickly as possible all the artistic science that Julian’s institution can teach.

“In the workshop everything disappears; here you have neither a first nor a surname; here you cease to be your mother’s daughter, here everyone is on his own, every person has art before him, and nothing more.”

“I see nothing ahead... nothing but painting. If I became a great artist, this would replace everything for me, then I would have the right (to myself) to have feelings, beliefs, I would not feel contempt for myself, writing down all my worries here.”

She spends many hours in workshops, amazing teachers with her unprecedented ability to work. In two years, Bashkirtseva managed to complete a seven-year academic course of study, but she continued to attend Julian’s women’s studio and maintain relationships with its students. In one of the subject paintings of 1881, the girl depicted a studio atmosphere, students drawing from life, and herself sitting in the center, in the foreground of the canvas.

Fine art

From 1880 until her death, Maria Bashkirtseva participated in regular exhibitions of the most prestigious art exhibition at the Paris Salon. The only exception was 1883. The painting "Salon Julian", exhibited by the artist in 1882, received second place, the painting "Meeting" and a pastel portrait of her cousin in 1984 received an honorable mention from the jury.

The most heartfelt paintings by Maria Bashkirtseva are considered to be “Rain Umbrella”, “Jean and Jacques”, and the most famous paintings are “Meeting”, depicting children of the Parisian slums, and “In the Studio”.

In addition to park landscapes and city scenes, the artist’s main theme was portraits of women and children, in which she skillfully conveyed the mood, character, and deep emotional state of her models. In a number of self-portraits, the artist emphasized the liveliness and sophistication of her nature much better than the photographs reflect, concentrating attention either on an inquisitive, penetrating gaze, or on a fleeting and meaningful smile.

“My photographic portraits will never convey me, they lack colors, and my freshness, my incomparable whiteness constitute my main beauty.”

Bashkirtseva worked too intensively and was in a hurry to leave behind as many works as possible. Sometimes, unable to maintain the pace set for herself, she expressed her fatigue on the pages of her diary.

“There are moments when I’m ready to say to hell with this crucible of mental work, fame and painting, in order to go to Italy - to live in the sun, music and love.”

“What am I? Nothing. What do I want to be? Everyone. Let’s give rest to my mind, tired of these impulses towards the infinite.”

The paintings of Maria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva are written in the style of realism and naturalism, somewhat reminiscent of the style of Jules Bastien-Lepage, the artist’s favorite teacher and friend, whom she admired. However, while Lepage drew his inspiration from nature and rural landscapes, Bashkirtseva turned to urban scenes, writing about it:

“I say nothing about the fields, because Bastien-Lepage reigns over them as sovereign, but the streets do not yet have the power of his brushes.”

Unfortunately, both artists were struck down by fatal illnesses too early, and the teacher outlived his student by only a month. Maria Bashkirtseva died in 1884, on November 12. In a few days she would have turned 26 years old.

The legacy of Bashkirtseva's artistic works

Despite the fact that the artist’s entire creative career, including her study period at the academy, totaled seven years, she was very productive. Of all the paintings by Maria Bashkirtseva, it is known that there are 150 canvases and pastels, about 200 drawings, sketches and watercolors, as well as one sculpture. There were many more works, but they were not catalogued, and many of them did not have names. Most of Bashkirtseva’s paintings have been lost, and therefore the artist’s original works are now quite rare; today there are about 60 of them left around the world.

In 1885, the Society of Women Artists of France organized an exhibition of Bashkirtseva’s works, where ten canvases, some watercolors, drawings, and sculptural sketches were exhibited. All of them are now in museums in France.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Bashkirtseva’s mother donated a collection of her daughter’s artistic works to the Russian Museum of Alexander III. The collection included drawings, sketches, oil paintings, and pastels. The Russian Museum kept thirteen drawings and eight paintings by the artist on display. At the beginning of the 1930s, several works were transferred to the Krasnoyarsk Museum and two canvases to the Dnepropetrovsk Museum. 127 works by Bashkirtseva were provided to Ukrainian museums, of which three paintings now remain in the country, the rest disappeared during the Great Patriotic War. 66 paintings were lost from the Kharkov gallery during the evacuation; the fate of the remaining works is unknown. Also, many of Bashkirtseva’s works were stored in Gavrontsy; they were destroyed during the bombing.

The artist’s most famous works are presented in the collection of the Orsay Museum in Paris and in Bashkirtseva’s studio-mausoleum. Some of her works are in museum and private collections around the world.

The only sculpture

If fate had allowed Maria Bashkirtseva a longer life span, perhaps the artist would have become more famous in the field of sculpture than painting.

“I was born a sculptor; I love the form to the point of adoration. Colors can never have such power as form, although I am crazy about paints. But the form! Great movement, great pose. You turn - the silhouette changes, retaining all its meaning!.. Oh, happiness, bliss! My statue depicts a standing woman crying with her head in her hands. You know that movement of the shoulders when they cry.”

Bashkirtseva worked on sketches for five sculptures, but she sculpted only one, “The Sorrow of Nausicaa,” which the artist worked on for two years and finished in the year of her death. Sculpture adopted the ideas of realism much later than painting, and therefore Bashkirtseva’s work is quite unusual for sculptors of that time; it is more reminiscent of Rodin’s later works. Now “The Sorrow of Nausicaa” is an exhibit at the Orsay Museum and testifies to how multifaceted the talent of Maria Bashkirtseva was.

History of the diary

The biography of Maria Bashkirtseva is inseparable from her main work, her diary, the entries of which were no secret to either relatives or friends. According to the mentions of some people close to her, Maria was looking for a publisher for her 105 notebooks during her lifetime. Most likely, she gave verbal instructions to her mother about the posthumous publication of the diary, but in Bashkirtsev’s notes she repeatedly expresses her intentions.

“Why lie and pretend? Of course, I want, and I hope, perhaps, in one way or another, to remain on this earth. If I don’t die young, I hope to remain as a great artist; and if I die young, I want to leave a diary, and let it be published: it can’t be that it won’t be interesting.”

“And after my death they will rummage through my drawers, find this diary, my family will read it and then destroy it, and soon there will be nothing left of me, nothing, nothing, nothing! That's what always terrified me! To live, to have such ambition, to suffer, to cry, to struggle and, in the end, oblivion... oblivion, as if I had never existed...”

After Maria's death, the architect and artist Emile Bastien-Lepage, the younger brother of Bashkirtseva's teacher, introduced her to her mother André Terrier, a writer who took up editing the diary. The text prepared for publication was far from complete; it omitted many family stories that were too openly presented by Maria, as well as fragments that were unacceptable to the society of that time. Maria Bashkirtseva’s mother condemned her daughter’s intention to publicly reveal secret notes, but did not want to disobey her dying will. The first edition of the diary, called Mon journal, is dated 1887. An English translation appeared two years later under the title “The Diary of a Young Artist 1860-1884.” Gradually, publications in several other languages ​​were sold in large numbers throughout Europe.

In the French National Library in the mid-1980s, the original texts of Bashkirtseva’s diary were discovered. They were published in parts by various French publishing houses. In 2005, a 16-volume version of the diary was published, based on the original full-length manuscript by Maria Bashkirtseva, and the first part, entitled “I am the most interesting book of all,” was published in English.

The diary of Maria Bashkirtseva is a strikingly modern psychological self-portrait of a young, gifted mind. Her literary prose, which sometimes turns into dialogue, remains extremely fascinating even for the modern reader. The girl undoubtedly had an outstanding literary gift. The main theme of her manuscripts is Bashkirtseva herself, her hopes, deep desire to achieve fame, the growing fear that periodic exacerbations of the disease may turn out to be a fatal disease, and she will not have time to realize herself in life.

“So many aspirations, so many desires, so many projects, so many... to die at 24 on the verge of everything!”

“...I want to live faster, faster, faster... (“I’ve never seen such a hectic life,” said D., looking at me.) It’s true, I’m only afraid that this desire to live at full speed is a sign of fragility. Who knows?"

“Let me be given at least no more than ten years, but in these ten years - glory and love, and I will die content at thirty. If there was anyone, I would make a condition: to die at thirty, but only after living.”

“It seems to me that I must die, I cannot live: I am abnormally created, there is an abyss of unnecessary things in me and a lot is missing; such a character is not capable of lasting.”

The girl's sharp mind is devoid of hypocrisy, the diary contains not only an insightful history of her family, but also an innovative account of bourgeois society in the 19th century. In addition to notes about current events, Bashkirtseva’s manuscript mainly includes observations and statements about human qualities, feelings, actions, her personal emotions and experiences, and attitudes towards various social spheres and phenomena. Without realizing it, Maria, from the age of thirteen, carried out a ruthless psychoanalysis of her own personality and other people who came into her area of ​​attention.

“I know a man who loves me, understands me, pities me, devotes his life to making me happy, who is ready for anything for me and who will never cheat on me, although he has cheated on me before. And this person is myself.”

Quotes from the diary

Many excerpts from her notes have become popular, especially those imbued with subtle philosophical conclusions or almost deductive, psychological observation.

“They humiliate themselves verbally only when, in essence, they are quite confident in their height.”

“True egoists should do only good: by doing evil, you yourself become too unhappy.”

“Let us not expect anything from people; from them we receive only disappointed hopes and sorrows.”

“Pinpricks drive you crazy, but you can withstand a strong blow from a club. This is true".

“Blessed are those who have ambition, that noble passion; out of pride and ambition, you try to be kind in front of others, even if only for a minute, and this is still better than never being kind.”

“I cried once in my mother’s arms, and this shared suffering left me for several months with a feeling of such cruel humiliation that I will never cry of grief in front of anyone again. You can cry in front of anyone out of frustration or over the death of Gambetta, but never pour out all your weakness, your misery, your insignificance, your humiliation in front of others! If this makes you feel better for a minute, then you regret it as if it were an unnecessary confession.”

“Life is short, you need to laugh as much as you can. Tears cannot be avoided, they come on their own. There are sorrows that cannot be averted: death and separation, although even the latter is not without its pleasantness as long as there is hope for a meeting. But never ruin your life with little things!”

“We should never allow ourselves to look into our souls, even those who love us. You need to stay in the middle, and when leaving, leave behind regret and illusions. This way you will appear better and leave a better impression. People always regret what has passed and will want to see you again; but do not satisfy this desire immediately, make him suffer; however, not too much. What costs us too much suffering loses its value when it is finally acquired after so many difficulties: it seems that we could have hoped for something better. Or make you suffer too much, more than too much... then you are a queen.”

“Only one who discovers his new path, the opportunity to convey his special impressions, to express his individuality can be great. My art has not yet been born.”

“True artists cannot be happy; firstly, they know very well that the crowd does not understand them, they know that they work for some hundred people, and everyone else is guided in their judgments by their bad taste or some Figaro. Ignorance in matters of art is truly appalling in all classes of society.”

“...bravery is not doing what others are afraid of and what you are not afraid of; real, the only courage is to force yourself to do what is scary.”

“Love decreases when it can no longer increase.”

“When people are quite happy, they quietly begin to love less and end up growing apart from each other.”

“Life without love is like a bottle without wine. But the wine also needs to be good.”

“Love makes it possible to imagine the world as it should be.”

“How do they break hearts? Not loving or ceasing to love.”

“Once the heart is full of one woman, there is no room for another; but as soon as it begins to empty, the other one enters it - from the very minute she put even the tip of her little finger there.”

In 1881, Bashkirtseva wrote several articles for the feminist newspaper La Citoyenne under the pseudonym Pauline Orrell, after which one of her statements began to be often quoted by the French:

“Let's love dogs, let's love only dogs!”

Letters from Maupassant and Maria

This happened in the last year of her life. The initiator of the correspondence was Bashkirtseva, as she herself wrote, this idea came to her unexpectedly:

“I woke up one fine morning with the desire to encourage a true connoisseur to appreciate everything beautiful and intelligent that I can say. I searched and chose him.”

Yes, she chose him, the outstanding literary master Guy de Maupassant, and not only because the whole of Europe was engrossed in his works. The great writer was extremely observant, he perfectly understood the subtlest properties of the human soul and was known as an expert on French society with many of its secrets, which he described in an easy and fascinating form on the pages of his short stories and novels. His style was lively, imaginative and slightly mocking. He knew how to capture the reader's attention, even if the story did not contain an acute plot. Obviously, Bashkirtseva considered Maupassant worthy of appreciating her sharpness of mind and literary abilities.

The girl sent the writer six letters in succession on behalf of various fictitious personalities. The style of each message was different and reliably conveyed the character of the invented character. Maupassant was intrigued and supported the dialogue, completely unaware of who he was conducting it with. He learned the name of the true addressee too late, after the girl’s death. The writer visited her grave, and in memory of her wit and brilliant literary joke, he left the line in his notes:

“This was the only rose in my life whose path I would strew with roses, knowing that it would be so bright and so short!”

Public feedback

Immediately after publication, Bashkirtseva’s diary was a stunning success. In the year of its publication, Francois Coppet, a famous French writer, published an enthusiastic essay about the artist in the press, which included the following lines:

“I saw her only once, I saw her only for one hour - and I will never forget her. Twenty-three years old, she seemed incomparably younger. Almost small in stature, proportionally built, with beautiful features of a round face, with light blond hair, as if eyes burned with thought, burning with the desire to see everything and know everything, with trembling nostrils, like those of a wild horse - Bashkirtseva at first glance produced something so rarely experienced impression: a combination of strong will with gentleness and energy with a charming appearance. Everything about this sweet child revealed an outstanding mind. Under the feminine charm one could feel iron power, purely masculine.”

One of the very first admirers of the literary experience of the Russian artist Maria Bashkirtseva was Bernard Shaw, who used her life story in two of his plays. British Prime Minister William Gladstone, who was also a writer, called the diary “a book without parallelism.” The frank style of the published notes is considered a source of inspiration for the autobiographical accounts of the American writer Mary MacLane, as well as a later generation of foreign modernist writers: Pierre Louis, Anaïs Nin, Katherine Mansfield and others.

In Russia, Bashkirtseva’s work has become popular since the beginning of the 20th century. Marina Tsvetaeva became his enthusiastic fan, who dedicated “Evening Album,” her first collection of poetry, to the “brilliant memory” of the artist. In the diary of the writer and literary critic Valery Bryusov the following lines were left about Bashkirtseva:

“Nothing resurrects me more than Bashkirtseva’s diary. She is me with all my thoughts, beliefs and dreams.”

The largest figure of the Russian avant-garde, poet and writer Velimir Khlebnikov, formed the following impression after reading the diary:

“I conjure the artists of the future to keep accurate diaries of their spirit: to look at themselves as at the sky and keep accurate records of the rising and setting of the stars of their spirit. In this area, humanity has only one diary of Maria Bashkirtseva - and nothing more. This spiritual poverty of knowledge about the inner heaven is the brightest black Fraunhofer feature of modern humanity.”

Much was written about Maria Bashkirtseva, her life story was admired, and her diary was often quoted, and this remains unchanged 134 years after her death. She achieved her goal - she became famous.

Mausoleum

At the Passy cemetery in Paris, over the grave of Marie Bashkirtseva, a crypt was built on the model of an Orthodox Russian chapel. Its architect Emile Bastien-Lepage was a close friend of Bashkirtseva and the younger brother of her dear teacher. Inside the building, a full-scale artist’s studio is reproduced. Her easel, painting supplies, some personal belongings and pieces of furniture, as well as one of her last paintings, “Holy Wives,” are kept here. The lines of a poem by Andre Terrier, editor of Bashkirtseva’s diaries, are engraved on the outer wall:

“O Mary, oh white lily, shining beauty / you will not fade in this night / your spirit is alive, blessed memory / and the immortal spirits of flowers always come next to you.”

The French government declared Bashkirtseva’s gravestone chapel with the interior of the workshop a historical monument. For many years, the building was a place of pilgrimage for admirers of the artist, and for a long time it was supported by the Friends of Maria Bashkirtseva society. The chapel is now closed to prevent theft, but it still remains one of the most visited graves in the historical cemetery, where many famous people are buried.

Russian artist Bashkirtseva Maria Konstantinovna (1860-1884).

God gave her too much!
And too little - he let go.
Oh, her stellar path!
I only had enough strength for the canvases...

I know this girl
Alas, of course it wasn’t!
But how did she sit at home?
And she wove a golden pattern.

In the familiar cage of loneliness,
Where one soul lives,
There are so many prophecies in the diaries,
When you are deprived of Love!

The Lord has given her so much!
And I counted Life in grains.
Oh, her stellar path!
And Death is a confession pedestal!

M. Tsvetaeva (from the collection "Evening Album")
The phenomenon of her charm will cause controversy for a long time and, apparently, will never be fully understood. Indeed, the girl, who had almost nothing to do in her life, stirred the souls of poets and artists. Her charm was invisibly present in the Russian “Silver Age”, in French existentialism, and it also influences modern avant-gardeism. This mysterious attraction of art may be associated with the drama of the inexpressibility of her soul despite her extraordinary talent. Maria Bashkirtseva left to her descendants only a youthful diary, a few paintings, and a brilliant longing for the impossible.

Self-portrait with a palette. 1882.
73 x 92 cm. oil, canvas.
Nice, Jules Cheret Museum

M.K. Bashkirtseva was born into a noble and wealthy family. The girl was very sickly, and at the age of ten her mother took her to Nice. Since then, she has only visited Russia briefly three times, living constantly abroad and traveling extensively throughout Europe.
In 1877, she began to attend the R. Julian Academy in Paris. In 1879, she received a gold medal in a competition of student works and from that time on she regularly exhibited her paintings, which invariably received warm reviews from French newspapers and magazines.

Few of her works have survived; almost all of them were lost during the First World War. The democratic sentiments of the era were reflected in her paintings “Jean and Jacques” (1883), “Meeting” (1884), which was acquired by the Luxembourg National Museum.

Jean and Jacques. 1883.
115 x 155 cm. oil, canvas.
Private collection

Meeting. 1884.
193 x 177 cm. oil, canvas.
Paris, Orsay Museum

Meeting Detail

Among the most famous paintings are “Rain Umbrella”, “Three Smiles”, “Autumn” (all 1883), now in the State Russian Museum.
In their painting workshop, the influence of Bashkirtseva’s teacher, the French artist J. Bastien-Lenage, is noticeable, but the choice of subjects and motifs of the image demonstrates the individuality of the artist.

Umbrella. 1883.
93 x 74 cm. oil, canvas.

Autumn. 1884.
117 x 97 cm. oil, canvas.
St. Petersburg, Russian Museum

Three smiles
1. Smile of a child, 1883.
55 x 46 cm. oil, canvas.
St. Petersburg, Russian Museum

Three smiles 2. Smile of a girl, 1883.
55 x 46 cm. oil, canvas.
St. Petersburg, Russian Museum

Three smiles 3. Smile of a girl, 1883.
55 x 46 cm. oil, canvas.
St. Petersburg, Russian Museum

While her work was highly appreciated by E. Zola and A. France, in her homeland Bashkirtseva’s work received very contradictory assessments. Bashkirtseva is one of the artists whose fate attracts almost more than their creativity. From a young age, she was distinguished by the desire for fame and success. She was very beautiful, knew six European languages, played the piano, guitar, harp and mandolin, and had an excellent soprano.

From the age of thirteen until her death, Bashkirtseva kept a diary, where she recorded with amazing frankness all the events of her life, her thoughts and feelings. “I say everything, everything, everything,” she wrote, destining her diary for publication. “The Diary of Maria Bashkirtseva” was first published in France in 1887, and in 1893, having already gone through several editions in French, it was published in Russia. He captured the image of a woman artist who strived for happiness, freedom and creativity, who seemed to have all the possibilities for this, but never had time to realize herself.

DIARY OF MARIA BASHKIRTSEVA.

It was written with talent and extremely frankly; there are almost no works like it in the history of literature. Maybe that’s why “The Diary” evoked both enthusiastic responses and furious criticism.

“Life is short, you need to laugh as much as you can. Tears cannot be avoided, they come on their own. There are sorrows that cannot be averted: these are death and separation, although even the latter is not without pleasure, as long as there is hope for a date. But you should never spoil your life with trifles !"

Creativity, experiences, doubts, trips to Europe, the fight against illness. And - shocking sincerity.

Paul_Bashkirtseff_(Portrait of Brother Paul)
Musee_Beaux_Arts_
Nice_1876

Self-portrait in a hat with a feather, 1878

Girl_Reading_by_a_Waterfall.

Young woman with lilac 1880

In a studio. Julian's workshop, 1881
188 x 154 cm.
oil, canvas.
Dnepropetrovsk, Art Museum

Female portrait.
35 x 27 cm. oil, canvas.
Moscow, Tretyakov Gallery

Female portrait. 1881
92 x 73 cm. oil, canvas.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

Female portrait. 1881.
116 x 89 cm. oil, canvas.
St. Petersburg, Russian Museum

Myrrh-Bearing Women (Holy Wives)

Georgette. 1881.
55 x 46 cm. oil, canvas.
France, Museum of the Castle of Henry IV. Haute-Garonne

For a book. ca.1882.
63 x 60.5 cm. oil, canvas.
Kharkov, Art Museum

Eastern girl. 1882.
oil, canvas.
Nice, Jules Cheret Museum

Parisian from Gavrontsy

Portrait of Irma. 1882.
46 x 55.3 cm. oil, canvas.
Paris, Petit Palace.

Portrait of a young girl reading, circa 1882
130 x 98 cm. oil, canvas.
Private collection

Portrait of an elderly woman.
oil, canvas.
Krasnoyarsk Art Museum named after. V.I. Surikova

The image of Bashkirtseva in recent months is recalled in detail in the preface to the catalog of her paintings by the well-known critic Francois Coppet. She was a small girl, thin, very beautiful, with a heavy knot of golden hair, “exuding charm, but giving the impression of will hiding behind tenderness... Everything in this charming girl revealed a higher mind. Underneath the feminine charm one could feel an iron, purely masculine strength, and one involuntarily recalled Ulysses’ gift to young Achilles: a sword hidden between women’s attire.”

In the workshop, the guest was surprised by the numerous volumes of books: “They were all here in their native languages: French, German, Russian, English, Italian, ancient Romans and Greeks. And these were not “library” books on display at all, but real, tattered books, read, reread, studied. Plato was lying on the table, open to the right page.”

During the conversation, Koppe experienced some kind of inexplicable internal anxiety, some kind of fear, even a premonition. When he saw this pale, passionate girl, he “imagined an extraordinary hothouse flower - beautiful and fragrant to the point of dizziness, and a secret voice whispered in the depths of his soul too many things at once.”

Spring, April. 1884.
199.5 x 215.5 cm. oil, canvas.
St. Petersburg, Russian Museum

As if saying goodbye to life, Maria began to paint a large panel “Spring”: a young woman, leaning against a tree, sits on the grass, closing her eyes and smiling, as if in the sweetest dream. And around there are soft and light reflections, delicate greenery, pink and white flowers of apple and peach trees, fresh sprouts that make their way everywhere. “And you need to hear the murmur of a stream running at her feet, like in Grenada among the violets. Do you understand me?

This gifted artist died of tuberculosis before reaching the age of twenty-four. The first exhibition of Bashkirtseva’s works took place in Paris in 1885, and since then interest in her work and personality has not waned.

Evening smoke appeared over the city,
Somewhere in the distance the carriages obediently walked,
Suddenly flashed, more transparent than an anemone,
In one of the windows is a half-childish face.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
With that girl by the dark window
- A vision of heaven in the bustle of the station
More than once I met in the valleys of sleep.
But why was she sad?

What was the transparent silhouette looking for?
Perhaps there is no happiness in heaven for her?

M. Tsvetaeva

Maupassant, visiting her grave, said:
“This was the only Rose in my life whose path I would strew with roses, knowing that it would be so bright and so short!”

After Maria’s death, her mother transported the bulk of her daughter’s paintings to Russia, to an estate in the Poltava region. In the fateful year of 1917, the collection burned down along with the estate that was set on fire... The remaining paintings that survived in the outbuilding were lost during the bombing in 1941...

The Luxembourg Gallery in Paris was once decorated with the allegorical sculpture “Immortality”: a young genius dies at the feet of the angel of death, in whose hand a scroll is unrolled with a list of remarkable artists who have gone to an early grave. On this scroll there is a Russian name - Maria Bashkirtseva.

IN The Luxembourg Museum in Paris has a long-standing rule that the museum preserves the works of artists for ten years after their death, and then transfers the best to the Louvre. This happened with the paintings of Maria Bashkirtseva (1860–1884) “Meeting”, “Portrait of a Model”, “Jean and Jacques”, which were acquired at the artist’s posthumous exhibition and then entered the Louvre. It should be noted that this was the first time that paintings by a Russian artist entered the Louvre.

At the same time, in 1885, the famous writer and playwright Francois Coppe published the essay “About Maria Bashkirtseva.”

“I saw her only once, I saw her only for one hour - and I will never forget her,” the writer admitted. - Twenty-three years old, she seemed incomparably younger. Almost small in stature, proportionally built, with beautiful features of a roundish face, with light blond hair, as if eyes burned with thought, burning with the desire to see everything and know everything, with trembling nostrils, like those of a wild horse - Bashkirtseva at first glance produced something so rarely experienced impression: a combination of strong will with gentleness and energy with a charming appearance. Everything about this sweet child revealed an outstanding mind. Under the feminine charm one could feel iron power, purely masculine.”

M. Bashkirtseva. Photo from 1876

F. Coppe describes his impressions of visiting the studio of a young artist, where in a dark corner he “vaguely saw numerous volumes of books, randomly arranged on shelves, scattered on the work table. I walked over and began looking at the titles. These were the best works of human genius. They were all collected here in their native language - French, Italian, English, as well as Latin and even Greek, and these were not “library books” at all, books for furniture, but real, used books, read and re-read. On the desk lay Plato, open on one of the most wonderful pages.”

The Russian poetess and translator, winner of the prestigious Pushkin Prize, Olga Chyumina, dedicated a sonnet to the memory of Bashkirtseva in 1889, which describes the paintings seen by the poetess in the artist’s studio in Paris:

From the petty dramas of the lives of the poor,
recorded and captured from life,
where everything lives: both faces and figures,
and speaks more eloquently than words,
to the wonderful scenes of the gospel legends
il the fatal epic of Rome and Greece:
the entire cycle of her creations -
everything is imbued with truth.
“Holy Wives”, “Caesar”, “Nauzicaa”...
Everywhere is thought, everywhere is a living soul.

Several novels have been written about the artist. Marina Tsvetaeva dedicated her first collection of poems, “Evening Album,” to “The blessed memory of Maria Bashkirtseva.”

M. Bashkirtseva left more than 150 paintings, 200 drawings, and several sculptures. Most of the paintings, after two exhibitions organized in Paris by the French Society of Women Artists, were acquired for museums in France and America. The Nice Museum has a separate room for Bashkirtseva. Her paintings are kept in the Russian Museum, Tretyakov Gallery, Dnepropetrovsk, Saratov, Kharkov museums.

M Aria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva was born in the village of Gaivorontsy, near Poltava, into a rich, well-born noble family. Two years after the wedding, Bashkirtseva’s mother separated from her husband and moved with her two children to her parents’ estate. In 1870, the Bashkirtsevs - mother, aunt, grandfather, brother, cousin - accompanied by a family doctor, went abroad and settled in Nice. In 1877, the whole family, at the insistence of Maria, moved to Paris. In the same year, Maria entered the famous studio of F. Julian. After eleven months of work in the studio, the Academy jury, consisting of famous artists (Robert-Fleury, Bouguereau, Boulanger, Lefebvre), awarded her a gold medal.

Autumn. 1884. Luxembourg Museum

She worked continuously, without rest, developing her extraordinary abilities and all-round talents. She played the piano, harp, and guitar. Possessing an outstanding, rare voice and pronounced dramatic talent, she studied singing. Fluent in French, she also mastered English, German, Italian, ancient Greek and Latin. In Nice, twelve-year-old Maria began writing a diary. First published in French in 1887, and then translated into almost all European languages, including Russian, the Diary made her name famous. Since the 1990s, it has been published three times in Russia.

“This is a very interesting human document,” writes a twelve-year-old girl, starting a conversation with herself. But at the same time, she begins to think about the future reader. The following words are addressed to him: “If this book did not represent the exact, absolutely strict truth, it would have no meaning. But a person’s life, all life as it is, without any disguise or embellishment, is always a great and interesting thing.”

The first feeling that arises when reading the “Diary” is surprise at the extraordinary maturity of the author’s thoughts. Constantly, at every step, Bashkirtseva tests and tests her talent in everything. Her brilliant abilities are best illustrated by her correspondence with Maupassant in 1884.

“I woke up one fine morning,” Maria writes in her “Diary,” “with the desire to encourage a true connoisseur to appreciate everything beautiful and intelligent that I can say. I searched and chose him.”

Six letters were addressed to Maupassant, signed by various fictitious names. Each of the letters is written in such a different style from the others that even such a master as Maupassant succumbed to this literary mystification. So, in one of the letters he expresses suspicion that it is not the young woman who is writing to him, as she introduced herself, but an old university teacher, in another he suggests that his correspondent is a lady of easy virtue. He never found out with whom he was actually corresponding.

Here is an excerpt from Maria Bashkirtseva’s letters to Maupassant.

“Why did I write to you? One fine morning you wake up and discover that you are a rare creature, surrounded by fools. It makes your soul feel bitter to think that you are scattering so many pearls in front of swine. What if I wrote to a famous person, a person worthy of understanding me? It would be lovely, romantic and - who knows? - perhaps, after a few letters, he would become your friend, and, in addition, conquered under very original conditions. And so you ask yourself: who should I write to? And the choice falls on you."

Rally. 1884. Orsay Museum, Paris

As you can see, the entries on this matter in the Diary and the letter differ greatly. Where is the real Bashkirtseva? Of course, in the “Diary”, which is intended for readers: family, friends. And writing is “literature,” albeit a brilliant one.

L The literary merits of the Diary are undeniable. And yet, every line of it testifies that the author is, first of all, an artist. Subtle, soulful sketches of nature, its moods, magnificent portraits of people, as if sculpted by the hand of a sculptor. She even treats her appearance as a work of art: “My outfit and hairstyle have changed me a lot. I looked like a painting." Everything that Bashkirtseva writes reflects the restlessness of the seeking soul, a lively, ardent imagination: “What do we, in the end, need? Since there is no way to experience everything in reality, all that remains is to feel vividly and deeply, living in dreams.” And when she entered Julian’s studio, Maria became possessed by a single passion - a passion for painting. “I want to give up everything for the sake of painting,” she writes in her Diary. “We must firmly remember this, and this will be our whole life.”

Gradually, a feeling of blood connection with world artistic culture is born in her: “And in my audacity I consider myself related to all the heroes, with all the masterpieces of the world! One could write an interesting dissertation on the topic of that mysterious connection that connects the heroes in exemplary works with all thinking people!

Portrait of a young woman. 1881. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

In art, she “likes everything that is most truthful, that is closest to nature. And isn’t this imitation of nature the very purpose of painting?” Her favorite artists are the old Spanish masters: “Nothing can be compared with Velazquez. And Ribera? Is it possible to see something more truthful, more divine and truly truthful? We need a connection between spirit and body. You need, like Velazquez, to create like a poet and think like an intelligent person.”

She had a sensitive heart, responding to both beauty and suffering. Bashkirtseva was engaged in philanthropic activities, and sympathy for poor people was manifested in the choice of the main characters in her paintings. These are the children of the outskirts of Paris, schoolchildren, poor people from the streets, whose fate she was able to so truthfully and convincingly convey through the means of painting.

ABOUT This was especially evident in one of the artist’s best paintings, “The Meeting.” Many masters did not want to admit that the work was done by a young, almost novice artist. This prompted the following entry in the Diary: “For six years, the best six years of my life, I have been working as a convict; I don’t see anyone, I don’t use anything in my life. Six years later I create a good thing, and they still dare to say that they helped me! The reward for such labors turns into terrible slander!

Looking at the painting “Rally”, you remember the words of the artist: “I was born a sculptor, I love the form to the point of adoration. Colors can never have such power as form, although I am crazy about paints. But the form! Great movement, great pose! You turn - the silhouette changes, retaining all its meaning!

Rain umbrella. 1883. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

A group of schoolchildren is reliably “knit together”, like an old, but still strong fence, against which the action takes place. Only the face of one boy is shown from the front; the rest are not visible or not fully visible. But the silhouettes, poses, legs, even shoes of each character are full of expressiveness and extremely individual. All the details are beautifully drawn, especially the children's hands.

The painting “Meeting” seems to realize the aphorism of Maria Bashkirtseva: “One canvas can contain three hundred pages.” Everything here is so imbued with mature skill, brilliant talent, and the truth of life.

It seemed to Maria that she was only on the eve of real work. “Even if Fleury and others said “excellent,” she exclaims on one of the pages of the Diary in 1883, “even then I would not feel happy, since this is not the maximum of what is in my power. I myself am not very happy with myself, I would like better, more! And don’t think that this is the painful discontent of a genius, it’s... well, I don’t know what it is!”

Acquaintance with Jules Bastien-Lepage, his work, imbued with the idea of ​​“poetic realism,” made Bashkirtseva’s art even more refined and deep. Her numerous portraits amaze with their maturity, conscious and almost barely restrained stinginess of color, truthfulness of gesture, and ability to reveal the essence of the personality of the person depicted. Such is the wonderful portrait “Young Woman with a Bouquet of Lilacs” (1881).

The beautiful, clearly sculpted tense, passionate face of a woman, her thin hand with long fingers and a delicate bouquet of lilacs - everything adds sophistication and creates a romantic image of a woman of yesteryear.

The painting “Autumn” (1884) is one of the best landscapes of the 19th century, where a simple autumn motif grows into a deep symbol. Looking at this picture, you understand what a great master young Maria Bashkirtseva was and what heights she would have reached if she had lived longer.

Maria Bashkirtseva died of consumption at the age of 24.

Young woman with a bouquet of lilacs. 1881.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

In September 1884, a month before her death, she writes in her Diary: “I had an idea for a new painting... I have a strong attraction to a plot in a new taste, with numerous nude figures; the canvas should not be too large. Yes, I will definitely do that. It’s the fairground wrestlers, and there are people all around... It will be very difficult, but since it captivates me, then nothing else is required: intoxication, that’s all!”

And the wonderful, extraordinary Maria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva remained such a fighter for life, for man, for real art until the end.

BASHKIRTSEVA MARIA KONSTANTINOVNA

(b. 1860 – d. 1884)

Talented Russian realist artist. Author of about 150 paintings, drawings, watercolors, sculptural sketches and a personal “Diary”.

Maria Bashkirtseva is a bright and self-sufficient phenomenon in art. Her motto: “Nothing before me, nothing after me, nothing but me,” sounds pretentious and arrogant at first glance. But these words are caused by an early awareness of one’s purpose in this world, the ultimate revelation of the thoughts and feelings of a talented person who had only a short time in earthly life. In one of the halls of the Luxembourg Museum in Paris there is a statue of the sculptor Longelier “Immortality”. It depicts a dying genius holding out to the angel of death a scroll of eight names of great men who went to their graves prematurely. Among them is one Russian name – Maria Bashkirtseva.

“Her Starry Road” began on the Gavrontsy estate, near Poltava, on November 11, 1860. Masha belonged to a wealthy aristocratic family. Her father, Konstantin Pavlovich Bashkirtsev, a fairly educated man and not without literary talent, was for a long time the leader of the Poltava nobility. Mother, nee M. S. Babanina, belonged to an ancient family descended from Tatar princes. A Jewish fortune teller predicted to her that “your son will be like all other people, but your daughter will be a star...”

Parents and numerous relatives treated Musa like a star, loved and idolized her, forgave her pranks and admired any of her achievements. As a child, she was “thin, frail and ugly,” but in the head of the plain little girl, who even then promised to become pretty, thoughts about the greatness bestowed on her from above were crowded.

Musya's mother, due to disagreements in the family, decided to divorce and won the divorce proceedings. From the age of two, the girl actually remained in the care of her aunts and grandfather, S. Babanin, a brilliantly educated man. Worried about her fragile health, the Babanin family sent the girl with her mother and aunt abroad in 1868. After two years of traveling through European cities, they settled in Nice. Masha lived for a long time in Italy: Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples, the best hotels and expensive villas, social receptions of the highest nobility, the most famous museums of the world - everything was at the feet of a small, but wise girl beyond her age, who felt herself locked in a gilded cage. Wealth and what it gave, she liked and took for granted, but her soul and mind were cramped within the confines of home. Masha categorically did not fit into any traditional canons. Life was in full swing in her. A nasty, arrogant aristocrat, mocking and arrogant even in her childhood, she was constantly looking for activities for herself that were not typical for young ladies of her age.

From the age of five, Masha studied dancing, but she dreamed not of balls, but of an acting career. At the age of 10, she began to draw, and success was obvious, but the desire to sing turned out to be stronger. Possessing a rare ear, the girl perfectly played the harp, piano, guitar, zither, mandolin, and organ. Her magnificent and naturally strong voice (mezzo-soprano) covered a range of three octaves without two notes. She knew his value and confidently strived to become a great singer, and not to play music in fashionable salons. At the same time, Maria studied chemistry and languages: Russian was “for home use,” she thought and wrote in French, and was fluent in Italian, English, German, and later ancient Greek and Latin.

“Until the age of 12, they spoiled me, fulfilled all my desires, but never cared about my upbringing. At the age of 12, I asked for teachers, and I compiled the program myself. I owe everything to myself." And the more Maria studied, the more deeply she understood how much she had to do. From then on (1873), she recorded all her thoughts, every action, every interesting phrase in her diary.

This is not a diary of a young lady with empty “ahs”, this is a confessional diary of a self-sufficient person who, with impartial frankness, reveals her thoughts, dreams, aspirations, confidently realizing that she writes not only for herself, but for everyone. “Why lie and show off! Yes, there is no doubt that my desire, although not hope, is to stay on earth at all costs... it’s always interesting” - the life of a girl, a girl and, above all, a woman, written down day by day, without any panache, like as if no one in the world should read what was written, and at the same time with a passionate desire for it to be read.

106 large handwritten volumes in less than 12 years. She is all in them, with her “immense vanity”, the desire to be either a duchess or a famous actress, a “proud, real aristocrat”, preferring a rich husband, but irritated by communication with banal people, “despising the human race - out of conviction” and trying to figure out what the surrounding world, man and his soul are worth. With childish maximalism at the age of 12, she declares: “I was created for titles. Fame, popularity, fame everywhere - these are my dreams, my dreams...” And next to it are mystical lines, heightened by the feeling of the transience of time: “... Life is so beautiful and so short!.. If I waste time, what will become of me!” and this spoiled child found refuge in hard labor.

Maria wasted no time. The treatises of Horace and Tibulus, La Rochefoucauld and Plato, Savonarola and “my dear friend Plutarch” occupied her mind, as did the books of Collins, Dickens, Dumas, Balzac, Flaubert and Gogol. It was not just a quick reading, but thoughtful work, comparing their views with her worldview.

She approached any question seriously, spoke openly about herself, like a psychologist, understanding her feelings. Having fallen in love with Duke G. (Hamilton?), Masha discussed in detail on the pages of her diary about her love and her upcoming, in her dreams, marriage. An attempt to understand the feelings that arose between her and the nephew of Cardinal Pietro Antonelli (1876) leads Maria to the conviction that she has outgrown her potential suitors and the level of her circle. This consciousness doomed her to mental loneliness.

How much was given to this girl, but her weak body could hardly cope with the exorbitant loads that Bashkirtseva placed on her brain and soul. At the age of 16, her health condition deteriorated sharply. Doctors, resorts, social life, travel - but the pace of working on yourself does not slow down for a minute. Maria lived with the feeling of approaching death. “To die?.. It would be wild, and yet it seems to me that I should die. I cannot live: I am abnormally created, there is an abyss of excess in me and too much is missing; such a character cannot be durable... What about my future, and my glory? Well, of course, then all this will end!”

Maria withstood the first blow, giving up her dreams of becoming a singer. Catarrh and inflammation of the larynx deprived her of her beautiful voice, and premature deafness deprived her of ideal hearing. Hope flared up and then faded away. “I will have it all or die,” she wrote in 1876, on the eve of her trip to Russia. In six months she visited St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kharkov. The young beauty shone, flirted, made local aristocrats fall in love with her and counted her aimlessly lived days. Masha dreamed of reconciling her parents, who still loved each other. And this capricious young lady managed to reunite the family.

Finally, Maria decided not to waste her abilities and take up painting on her own: “Painting brings me to despair. Because I have the ability to create miracles, and yet, in terms of knowledge, I am insignificant than the first girl I meet...” In the fall of 1877, she entered the private Academy of R. Julien (Julian). Maria conquered the teachers with her remarkable abilities. Making up for lost time, the girl worked 10–12 hours a day and achieved success that is usually not expected from beginners (she mastered the seven-year course in two years).

Her teachers R. Julien and T. Robert-Fleury recognized Bashkirtseva’s natural gift after a week of classes. “I thought it was the whim of a spoiled child, but I must admit that she is well gifted,” Julien told the mother of the aspiring artist. In the spring of 1878, Maria took part in her first competition for Academy students and took third place. And after 11 months of training, the jury awarded her the first medal. “This is the work of a young man, they said about me. There is a nerve here, it’s nature.”

This was a well-deserved reward, because Maria lived, counting the hours wasted irrevocably on sleep, dressing, social receptions, and at the same time, finding a reserve for studying Roman history and literature. The body could not withstand such a stressful regime. The aspiring artist was forced to interrupt her studies for consultations with medical luminaries and trips to the water. The doctors' diagnoses were vague (“the cough is purely nervous”), and Maria did not take treatment seriously, dreaming only of achieving heights in painting.

In 1880, under the pseudonym “Mademoiselle Mari Constantin Russ”, she took part in the Salon. The first painting, “Young Woman Reading Dumas’ Divorce,” was noticed and approved by critics. Her works, distinguished by the vitality and solidity of the drawing, are designed in a realistic manner, close to naturalism and even symbolism. “The amazing power of her brush, the originality of her ideas, the deep truthfulness of her execution,” were the unanimous reviews of her talent from the press. She succeeded in everything: portraits, genres, landscapes, historical paintings and marinas. She also tried herself as a sculptor (“Nausicaa”, 1882)

“Julien's Atelier” (1881), a complex multi-figure composition, received second place at the Salon. The year 1883 marks the bulk of Bashkirtseva’s creative heritage: “Jean and Jacques”, “Autumn”, the “Three Smiles” series (“Baby”, “Girl”, “Woman”), “Parisian Woman”, captivating with their kindness and truthfulness. These paintings already spoke of the artist’s mature skill. The Rain Umbrella (1883) depicts a shivering girl wrapped in a patched skirt. She stands holding a broken umbrella above her head, and in her childish, serious eyes there is a silent reproach for a small creature who has learned need early. Painted en plein air, in the rain, it is as real as the artist’s progressive illness. And now the doctors are categorical - tuberculosis has completely affected the right lung and there are lesions in the left.

Bashkirtseva is full of new ideas and plans. But more and more often she is forced to stop working. Maria was fully aware of how little she was given: “I still have enough for a while.” She believes that painting will save her, and if it does not prolong her life, it will not allow her to disappear without a trace. Bashkirtseva is in a hurry to get everything done, but her works are distinguished by the thoughtfulness of their composition, color scheme and the smallest details. In the large self-portrait “Portrait of Bashkirtseva at a Painting” (1883), she depicts herself in a creative impulse - the look of her gray eyes shines with inspiration, her facial features are confident and at the same time gentle. As in the small self-portrait painted earlier, she objectively and self-critically emphasizes the slant of her eyes and protruding cheekbones.

Presented at the Salon of 1884, the elegant landscape “Autumn” and the genre painting “Meeting” (together with the “Portrait of a Model” were acquired by the French government for the Luxembourg Museum in Paris) brought the artist long-awaited fame. Maria is not embarrassed by constant comparisons of her creative style with the works of J. Bastien-Lepage. She liked his paintings, she was friends with the artist, and incurable illnesses brought them even closer together. But Bashkirtseva clearly saw the limitations of her friend’s skill and far surpassed him in color, looseness of plot and skill.

Bashkirtseva also dreamed of becoming a writer. She felt the need for some connoisseur, a writer, to appreciate her epistolary work. She wanted to entrust her diary to Guy de Maupassant, who writes so much about women in his books. But the correspondence with him, started by Maria, disappoints her: “You are not the person I am looking for...” And Bashkirtseva, on May 1, 1884, herself wrote the preface to her phenomenal “Diary” (her will was written back in June 1880) . Such a diary, full of passion, desire for fame and greatness, understanding of one’s genius and creative potential, according to psychologists, could have been written by any writer or artist, but no one except Bashkirtseva had enough honesty and frankness to reveal their secret aspirations and hopes. Perhaps she was so sincere because she subconsciously knew that she had a short time to live. Before reaching 12 days before her 24th birthday, on October 31, 1884, Maria Bashkirtseva died and was buried in the Passy cemetery in Paris. On the slabs near the large white monument, reminiscent of a Russian chapel, there are always modest violets.

A year after her death, the French Society of Women Artists opened an exhibition of works by M. K. Bashkirtseva, which presented 150 paintings, drawings, watercolors and sculptures. In 1887, at the Amsterdam exhibition, the paintings of the Russian artist were instantly sold out by the most famous galleries in the world, including representatives of the Alexander III Museum. In the same year, the “Diary” was published (in an abbreviated version), which I. Bunin, A. Chekhov, V. Bryusov, V. Khlebnikov “suffered” from, and Marina Tsvetaeva dedicated her “Evening Album” to her. Unfortunately, most of the paintings transported by the artist’s mother to the family estate near Poltava were lost at the beginning of World War II. But in the museum of 19th century art, which opened in 1988. d'Orsay, an entire hall is devoted to paintings by Bashkirtseva. She could have become a great artist, the “Balzac of painting,” if she had been given a whole life.

“I, who would like to live seven lives at once, live only a quarter of my life... And therefore it seems to me that the candle is broken into four parts and is burning from all ends...”

“God has given her too much!

And too little - he let go.

Oh, her stellar path!

I only had enough strength for the canvases...”

(M. Tsvetaeva)

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