 Figure 1.--Here is a sensitively done illustration of a serf boy for Leo Tolstoy'snovel 'Philipok'. It was drawn by Alexey Pakhomov. |
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We are familiar with many Western illustrators. In fact we remember seeing their work as children. The work of Western illusrators is thus relatively known to most HBC readers. We know only a few individual Russian at this time. Thankfully we also have a few Russian readers. They have provided us some information. The work of these illustrators has not been widely circulated in the West. This is one of the great benefits of the internet, the ability to share information across international borders. We have begun to compile an interesting list of illustrators with some interesting examples of their work. We still have, however, relatively limited information about their work and background. Hopefully our readers will be able to tell us more about these illustrators. The work of many Western illustrtors has crossed national boundaries. This has not been the case of Russian illustrators. Most of these illustrators are from the Soviet era. This may reflect the Soviet focus on children and mass education. We wonder if the work of some Tsarist writers and illustrtors was supressed.
Elisaveta Merkuryevna Bem (Елизавета Меркурьевна Бём / Elisabeth Bohm ) was a Russian illustrator who is best known for creating postcards during tecTsarist era. She was born in Saint Petersburg to an aristocratic family with both Russian and Tatar roots--Endaurov (Эндауров). She was rised on the estate of her parents which was located near Schiptsy, a village in Poshekhonsky uezd, Yaroslavl Governorate. This was the era before emancipation. She was thus intimately familiar with rural and serf life. She would have played with serf children. She enrolled in the School of Painting at the Society for Promotion of Artists (Школа Поощрения Художеств) when she was only 14 years old (1857). This was a highly unusual step for a girl in highly traditional Russian society, let alone a child of her age. There she studied under Ivan Kramskoi and Pavel Chistyakov. Elisaveta graduated with the Large Silver Medal (1865). She then continued her art education through private lessons from Kramskoi. She studied further at the Imperial Academy of Arts, receiving a Large Encouragement Medal for animal paintings. Elisabeth married Russian-Hungarian violinist Ludwig Bohm/Bem. He was an important violinist and professor of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. She did a great deal of work in water colors. She became known for illustrating children books published by the Folk Library (Народная библиотека). As a result of her work there she met famed writer Leo Tolstoy. While best known for her water colors, she began experimented with glass and ceramics and acquired considerable aclaim. Sge was awarded medals at the World Fairs in Chicago (1893), Paris (1900), Munich (1902), and Milan (1906). At Milan she was awarded a gold medal. But it is for postcards she is best known in Russia today. She is one of the most prominent Russian creator of postcards during the Tsarist era. She is known to have created more than 350 postcards. They were printed by the St. Eugenia Welfare Society (Благотоворительное Общество Святой Евгении). Here style is very destinctive. Here mos prized works today are her impages of serf children. Her rather nostalgic sentimental style was highly appreciated in Tsarist Russia. Her work may have been supessed during the Stalinist era, but we do not yet have details on this.
A very famous illustrator and painter in Russia today is Viktor Chizhikov. I do not know much about him. He was born in 1935. He has created illustrations for children's books and magazines. He illustrated Sergei Mikhalkov's fairy tale "Prazdnik Neposlushanya" (Day of Children's Disobedience). His drawing won all-USSR contest in 1977 year. Chizhikov is perhaps best known in Russia as the creator of the Bear Misha, the cartoon mascot for the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
Vladimir Konashevich is well-known for his illustrations for books of Barto, Chukovsky and Marshak. Here's his picture for the book English children songs and rhymes" in Marshak's interpretation.
A Russian HBC reader tells that Evgeniy Medvedev was perhaps the most famous Russian illustrator of children's books during the late Soviet period, the 1970s and 80s. He often illustrated the books of Vladislav Krapivin, the most famous modern Russian author of the books for children. Medvedev organized and headed the specialized "naval"pioneer summer camp "Karavella" in the Crimea. We can compare the original uniform of "Karavella" to Evgeniy Medvedev's illustrations to a book by V. Krapivin.
Alexey Pakhomov was especially know for his illustrations of Turgenev and Tolstoy novels. He also did llustrations for children books, both fiction and poetry books. Here we see a sensitvely done illustration by Pakhomov for a Tolstoy novel (figure 1). We also note an illustration for Valentina Oseeva's novel On the skating-rink.
We notice a set of fine illustrations by G. Phittingof for a Soviet edition published in 1958. We know nothing about the illustrator at this time. Perhaps our Russian readers will know something about him. The illustrations are nicely done. I don't think a reader could tell that they were done by a foreign illustrator, let alone a Soviet illustrator. The clothing illustrated seems quite accurate. One of the few inaccuracies we note are wide-brimmed Western hats that boys would have mot worn in 1840s Missouri.
Vladimir Suteev was a prolific illustrator and creator of cartoons. Some people called him the "Russian Disney" for his incredible cartoons about animals. He was also an author and usually illustrated his own stories. Here's an illustration for the tale "January" which is about fir trees.
Gengich Valk was a popular Soviet illustrator. His name suggests he was of German origins. Генрих, reads like Henry (English) or Henrych (German). Actually he was Estonian. German until World War II was widely used in the Baltic countries. We note some of his illustrations from the The luting which looks to be a children's book. It was written by Nikolay Nosov and published in 1968. The book and illustrations seem to have a contemporary setting. One of the boys who seem to be the main characters wears short pants and long stockings. This was still fairly common in the Soviet Union during the 1960s. We see this again in About a Mimosa. The time some of the books were published was published was about the time that tights began to replace long stockings foir children in the Soviet Union. This took place about a decade after long stockings disappeared in Western Europe. There was no indication of his Estonian nationalist leanings. If so he would not have been allowed to publish. While a popular Soviet illustrator, as soon as it became possible, Valk became involved in politics and championed the cause of Estonian independence. It was Valk who named the quest for independence the "Singing Revolution" (laulev revolutsioon). He also created the movement's slogan,"One day, no matter what, we will win!" During his Soviet literary career he was known as Gengich Valk, as Estonian moved toward independence he became known as Heinz Valk.
Konstantin Vasilyevich Kuznetsov was an artist, book illustrator, engraver, and animator. He is probably best known as an illustrator of children books. He is one of the furst sych illistrators and became the dean of children's book illustrators in the Soviet Union. He was also one of the first illustrators of fairy tales in Soviet Russia and this was his true love. If course there is an obvious overlap betweem fairy tales and childrens literarure. He had a one of the best backgrounfs for Soviet advancement--he had peaant origins. Kuznetsov was born in a village -- Pochinki, Nizhny Novgorod Province (1886). As a youth worked as forestry clerk injn Vetluga. His family made have been of peasant orgigins, but there were influential people in the family as well-- including am influential arerist. His cousin Leonid Ovsyannikov was an artist of some note and a professor of the Academy of Arts. Ovsyannikov peaked his interest and Vasilievichar first with no real academoc training began to master both drawing and engraving--a tgechnique needed to print illustrations. He attended the Drawing School at the Imperial Society for the Promotion of Arts. He then graduated from the St. Petersburg gymnasium. He studied at the Psychoneurological Institute, but never graduated. He began working in a capitalist environment braining commissions for commercial projects (1910-13). He created drawings of handicraft toys (ladies, Cossacks, horses). They were in Paris. He began creating a name for himself. He sunmitted works published in variousd punlicationd, including New Satyricon, Apollon, and Russian Icon. He the innovative art work for theater posters and programs. But then his tuberculosis worsened. He had to leave to leave leave St. Petersburg and move to a warmer environment -- Pyatigorsk in the Cacauses of southern Russia near Georgia. He he supported himself by working in a telephone exchange. After the October Revolution he easily made the transition to a socialist economy. He began working again in illustraions. His first project was 'Windows of KavGROWTH' He then moved to Mosciw (1922). He became an illustrator used by publishing houses: Detgiz, GIZ, Young Guard, Soviet Writer and others. He also did illustrations for magazines: Krasnaya Niva, Fun Pictures, Murzilka. He emerged as clearly the leading illustrator of children's books (1930s). He headed the the children's circle in the propaganda department of the children's book of the Museum of Public Education in the Russian Soviet Reoublic. We notice a colsboration with Alexander Ivanovich Vvedensky.
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