The nineteenth century from today's perspective seems to be the haven of happy people. Everyone is ready to imagine himself a nobleman in an estate on the banks of a large river, or a traveler discovering Sorrento and Saxony, or, at worst, a St. Petersburg ladies' man lorning the stalls. Few people will remember that such citizens made up less than two percent of the total imperial population, and the fate of a soldier in the dusty steppe, a servant in a tavern on the Siberian highway, or, God forbid, a serf, was statistically much more frequent.
The large exhibition «Peace and Joy», opened in the St. Petersburg «Manege», welcomes escapism in its various manifestations. Already in the first hall, the viewer is waiting for two views of the estate of Prince Alexander Borisovich Kurakin (1752–1818) Nadezhdino in the Saratov province, now the Penza region, where he went at the behest of Catherine II, who was dissatisfied with his excessive closeness with Paul and found a reason for exile in his freemasonry. He lived in exile for 14 years in the hope of removing disgrace — in fact, the estate was at first Borisoglebsky, Kurakin renamed it Nadezhdino, because, although he swaggered, he was afraid to stay here forever.
Indulging in excesses
The prince did not waste time, reminiscing about his numerous European travels with his heir and trying to materialize the aesthetics of European courtyards in the planning of the park and collecting art objects, the maintenance of two orchestras and the discharge of teachers for peasants from abroad in music and painting. As Philip Vigel, who grew up in the neighborhood, recalled, “in his magnificent solitude, he created for himself, like the courtyards he visited, also something similar to a courtyard. Completely poor nobles, for a large fee, accepted from him the positions of chief palace administrators, even masters of the horse and masters of ceremonies. <…> Every day, even on weekdays, music thundered at his table, and on Sundays and holidays there were big exits; the distribution of time, business, as well as fun, everything was subject to strict order and etiquette. <…> He enjoyed and tormented the memories of Trianon and Marie Antoinette, dedicated a wooden temple to her and named the long alley leading to it after her. There was also a temple of Patience — another self-reminder of evil fate and faith in change. Other temples were reminiscent of the parks of Pavlovsk and Gatchina — it was to Gatchina, the heir, that Kurakin sent letters describing the views from his own window, designed to rather convince himself that life was getting better.
Photo: Manezh Central Exhibition Hall
The bachelor remained a serf master, lived, to the displeasure of the local clergy, 70 children, some of them obtained baronial titles: this is how the Vrevsky and Serdobin dynasties appeared in Russia. Surely there would have been more, but Catherine died and was returned to St. Petersburg. A brilliant career began, the position of vice-chancellor, embassy duties in Vienna and Paris (until the outbreak of the war of 1812, and if it were not for the injuries received during the fire at the ball on the occasion of Napoleon's marriage, service to the state would have continued further).
Nadezhdino is a perfect example of how a disgraced nobleman maintains his dignity by constructing a parallel world. If the government punishes without malice and does not seek to finish off the defeated, this is possible, would be finances. The majority got books and landscapes, it is no coincidence that the everyday genre and views of nature form the basis of the exhibition on St. Isaac's Square.
Statistics and around
In total, the works of more than a hundred authors are collected here. From Vladimir Borovikovsky and Vasily Tropinin to Mikhail Nesterov and Viktor Borisov-Musatov. Paintings and drawings were selected from the funds of almost forty museums, from Tambov to Petrozavodsk, from Nizhny to Kislovodsk, where the Memorial Museum-estate of the artist Nikolai Yaroshenko is located. There is also a foreign country, Minsk is always near-distant to us.
As a result of the impressive preparatory work, Manege has collected a lot of amazing things. Thus, a portrait of Ekaterina Stolypina, painted by the first Chechen artist of the 19th century, Pyotr Zakharov-Chechen, arrived from the capital of Buryatia. Who is depicted in the portrait was established only in 2018, when the Moscow researcher Meda Shakhbieva discovered in the Dmitrov Museum a lithograph of Zakharov-Chechen with a portrait repeating the picture from Ulan-Ude. From Yekaterinburg, they brought a work of Pyotr Zabolotsky, rare in terms of plot, depicting “Girl with a Cigarette” in the 1850s. And the Moscow Tropinin Museum shows Tropinin's «Girl with a Pot of Roses». She disappeared in Alupka during the war, where she was brought to the exhibition by the Russian Museum. Then it was found in one of the antique shops by the collector Fyodor Vishnevsky (his collection became the basis of the Tropinin Museum), and in 2003 the Russian Museum officially handed over the painting to Muscovites.
Photo: Manege Central Exhibition Hall
Someone gave out works for an exhibition for the first time and, as the curator of the project Semyon Mikhailovsky says, he literally learned to draw up the necessary documents on the go. But not only this makes the exhibition spread over two floors an event.
The hall “Bel paese” is about the idyll of a “beautiful country”, as the Italians themselves usually call Italy, “La nature” is about the triumph of nature, “Russe” — it is clear that the most ironic chapter, although the rest are not without a squint, and finally , «La vie privée», private life, the last refuge of a little man in a world of great history and restless and inhumane politics.
Barge haulers, Narodnaya Volya and the Decembrists who woke them up were left behind the walls, without them peace is more joyful. The organizers failed to get the canvases of Venetsianov and his students, at the same time their retrospective is going on in Moscow, and sweet gingerbread, the poet sang, is always not enough for everyone. This is annoying: the Russian Biedermeier is built on the Venetian myth, without it it is rather frail and does not reach the European, primarily Austrian, heights of the genre.
Demand dictates supply, and our art market was much more modest in size, and there were fewer potential customers for such painting, because instead of the growing bourgeoisie, serfdom triumphed, which hampered the development of not only industry, but also art.
Musical non-pause
And landscapes, and still lifes, and the romantic look of a young lady behind a book or at the window are examples of how you can escape from external reality into your own world. But dreams, ideas and conversations are no less dangerous than going out into the square, because the abundance of people reading in portraits is perceived not only as a need to occupy the model with something, but also as an homage to the world of dreams. It is difficult to write about them, which, however, does not justify the stinginess of explanatory texts in the halls. There are so many works that, without explanation, not everyone can make out in Moonlit Night. Open Window» by Borisov-Musatov, a subtle rhyme to «Window» by Alexander Wernick — between them there is almost a century of travel from optimism to quiet depression.
The public likes explanations, and not always audio guides — they are bet on in the «Manege» — fully replace the written text. For some from the institute, a textbook is nicer than a lecturer, but watching and listening at the same time is another task. In St. Petersburg, the choice is small: you listen to an audio guide or the music of Anton Batagov, in the halls it sounds non-stop.
Photo: Manege Central Exhibition Hall
It seems that the Manezh decided to make the musical accompaniment of the expositions their trademark. On the previous blockbuster, dedicated to Russian sculpture, they sang nonstop: the sculptors' work was linked with opera, it looked and listened almost effortlessly.
Batagov's meditative music, practicing Buddhism, is good, but vision is in danger of conflict with hearing. It's time to start sessions with and without music — for those who appreciate silence.
History loves forks, including the choice of how to absorb art. The final tondo, made up of 35 miniature portraits, can be skimmed over by some and examined in detail. And then two similar children's photo portraits will be found. One is the future Emperor Nikolai, the other is Volodya Ulyanov.
It is easy to comment on the obvious, but the incredible is beyond peace and joy.