The State Tretyakov Gallery, like the Hermitage, is one of the best museums in Russia. The founder of the gallery is merchant Pavel Tretyakov. Since 1856, the museum has been exhibiting the largest collection of Russian fine art.
The huge exposition of the museum contains paintings associated with mysterious and mysterious stories.
For example, a canvas by the famous Russian artist Ivan Kramskoy. Inspired by Gogol's "May Night or the Drowned Woman", he painted the picture "Mermaids". The canvas made an eerie impression: night, dead light of the moon, ghostly mermaids emerge on the shore of the witch's lake …
At the exhibition of works, which was organized by the Association of the Itinerants, the painting "Mermaids" was next to the completely harmless landscape "The Rooks Have Arrived" by Savrasov. And on the very first night, the painting "Rooks" for no apparent reason fell off the wall. Tretyakov acquired both paintings for his gallery. He hung the Rooks on the wall in his office, and the Mermaids were placed in the hall. From that moment on, the amazing and terrible events began, which deprived the servants, households and the museum guardians of peace: from the hall came a mournful quiet singing … Everyone tried not to come close to the picture. Tretyakov himself admitted that, standing next to the "Mermaids", he felt a breakdown.
Even among the visitors there was a rumor about the "evil" picture. Many discussed the story that a certain young lady, after a long viewing of "The Mermaids", drowned herself in the Yauza.
An old nanny who lived in the family helped Tretyakov. She advised to outweigh the picture in the farthest dark corner so that light fell on it as little as possible. Only when the picture was practically in the dark did the whole devilry stop.
Kramskoy's painting "Unknown" is shrouded in the same mystery. At first glance, the portrait of a woman is quite ordinary: a discharged, beautiful lady is in an open carriage passing along Nevsky Prospect. Everyone believed that the painting depicted an aristocrat. This was indicated by a velvet coat decorated with fur and satin ribbons, as well as a fashionable hat at the time. Skillfully directed makeup: the furrowed eyebrows, the induced blush on the cheeks, lipstick on the lips indicated that the lady belongs to the semi-light. When the author was asked questions about the personality of his heroine, he was either silent or joked. At first, Tretyakov refused to buy "The Stranger" - perhaps he was wary of the existing belief that portraits of beautiful women can "suck strength" from the audience.“Stranger” for several years traveled to private collections and managed to acquire mystical events that were directly associated with the painting. Shortly after the purchase of the painting, his wife left the first buyer, the second started a fire in the house, the third went bankrupt…. All troubles and misfortunes were attributed to the portrait "Stranger".
The author of the work himself, Kramskoy, also failed to escape the curse: a year after the completion of work on the painting "The Stranger", both of his sons died. The painting was acquired by a foreign collector. But even there she continued to bring misfortune to her owners. In 1925, The Stranger returned to Russia and was housed in the Tretyakov Gallery. From that moment on, all the troubles associated with the painting stopped. Maybe she finally took her place?
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A special mysticism is associated with the paintings of Ilya Efimovich Repin. The future outstanding artist was born in the village of Chuguevo. There he learned icon painting. Already at the age of 19 he painted a church in his native village. Having received money for his work, Ilya went to Petersburg. There he entered a drawing school founded by the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. It was there that Repin met the portrait painter Kramskoy, who became his teacher for many years.
The years passed. Repin graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He quickly received recognition, but fame did not affect him: until the very end of his life, he was a modest, hardworking, thrifty person. When his right hand stopped working in adulthood, Repin learned to paint with his left hand, and tied the palette to his neck and continued to work like that.
Repin wrote not only pictures, he was also the author of prose. The best memories of the artist were written by his friend Korney Chukovsky in the work “Ilya Repin”: “I remember one winter in Kuokkala, in his garden, talking with him, I saw that under my feet on the white snow some of Repin's dogs left a narrow but deep yellow puddle. Without noticing what I was doing, I began to shovel the surrounding snow with the toe of my boot in order to cover the unpleasant spot … And suddenly Repin groaned in pain: “What are you! What do you! For three days I have been coming here to admire this wonderful amber tone … And you … And he looked at me so reproachfully, as if I were destroying a high work of art in front of him."
Surprisingly, the best and most famous paintings by Repin have magical powers.
Repin's painting "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan" immediately after its creation was surrounded by ill fame. When Tretyakov acquired the painting, he promised himself not to exhibit this painting in the gallery hall. However, the ban was soon lifted and troubles were not slow to begin.
The picture made a strange impression on the audience: some were crying, others fell into some kind of stupor, some fell to the floor. Once the young icon painter Abram Balashov, unable to withstand the nervous tension, rushed to the picture and cut the canvas with a knife. The offender was seized and taken to a mental hospital. This event so shocked the gallery keeper, who considered himself guilty for what had happened, that in a mad fit he ran out of the museum and threw himself under the train.
The canvas, over time, was restored, but the oddities with it continued. After completing work on the painting, Repin's right hand withered. The sitters who posed for the artist's picture met a terrible fate. The image of the tsar was painted from the artist Myasoedov. A calm and benevolent person, Myasoedov, after completing the picture, in anger almost killed his little son, who was also named Ivan. The tragedy did not pass by the writer Vsevolod Garshin, who posed to paint the image of the murdered prince and is known as the author of wonderful fairy tales for children. Repin explained Garshin's choice as follows: “In the face of Garshin, I was struck by the doom: he had the face of a man doomed to perish. This was what I needed for my prince. The writer's deep depression led him to a clouded mind and death.
Since then, no more mystical events associated with this painting have been observed.
But this did not mean that nothing strange happened to the rest of Repin's canvases. For example, a portrait of the composer Mussorgsky, painted by Repin just before the death of an outstanding musician.
The mystical feature of Repin's works was noticed during the artist's lifetime. Here is what Korney Chukovsky writes about this: “There is an ominous force in his portraits: almost everyone he writes dies in the next few days. I wrote to Mussorgsky - Mussorgsky died immediately. Wrote Pisemsky - Pisemsky died. And as soon as he wanted to paint a portrait of Tyutchev for Tretyakov, Tyutchev fell ill the same month and soon died … He wrote Stolypin at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and … as soon as Repin finished the portrait, Stolypin went to Kiev, where he was immediately shot. The satyricons said, laughing: Thank you, Ilya Efimovich!"
Repin's painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga" Dostoevsky praised, calling it "the triumph of truth in art." In order for Repin, who at that time to lack funds, could paint a picture, his friends, the artists, raised money for him. Thanks to these funds, Repin was able to leave for the Volga and paint the picture "Barge Haulers on the Volga". The finished painting was purchased for 3000 rubles by the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, who hung it in the Vladimir Palace in the billiard room. Repin wrote: “I must say it is true that the great prince did not like this picture. He loved to explain the individual characteristics on the picture: and the pacifier of Popa Kanin, and the soldier of Zotov, and the lower warrior, and the awkward little boy; the great prince knew all of them, and I heard with my own ears,with an interest he explained everything up to the most recent hints, even in the landscape and in the background of the picture. " Many said that all the hefty men who posed for Repin for the painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga" died prematurely.
There is a painting by Repin, which can be recalled in connection with the mystical events taking place around him - "The Solemn Meeting of the State Council." The canvas was ordered by the Russian government to Repin. Repin coped with the task successfully. There are 60 figures in the picture. Moreover, each character looks worthy, including the presiding Emperor Nicholas II. The author completed work on the canvas in 1903. And already in 1905, the state was "shaken" by the first Russian revolution because of which the heads of all the officials depicted in the picture flew. Some of them lost their titles and posts, others paid with their lives altogether: Prince Sergei Alexandrovich, Minister V. K. Plehve, Governor-General of Moscow.
An interesting fact is that several people survived. It turned out that those who were not painted by Repin himself, but by his students Boris Kustodiev and Ivan Kulikov, remained alive. The officials, who were written by students, passed a terrible fate and they lived long enough.
Another portrait connected with mysterious events is the portrait of the writer Natalia Nordman-Serova. Natalia Borisovna was Repin's wife. She was known as an active social activist, was fond of fiction and believed that it was impossible to use the services of a servant, and therefore advertisements were hung everywhere in her house urging guests to serve themselves: guests had to pour soup themselves and find food. Those who did not know how to perform these simple actions were fined. Natalya Borisovna was a vegetarian, loved to eat cranberry steaks, and everywhere forced her husband to do the same. Shortly after Repin painted her portrait, Natalia Norman passed away. Korney Chukovsky is sure that the death of his wife saved Repin himself: “Natalya Borisovna did not even try to separate her name from Repin, and he became involved in all of her culinary and other innovations. I heard with my own ears in the Crimea, in a sanatorium, how, having received the news that Repin had died, one of the professor's widow, an old woman, said to the other: - The one who ate the hay. Having heard this monstrous characterization of Repin, I, of course, could not help but think that Natalya Borisovna was, in fact, to blame for such a reputation. All the yellow press - "Petersburg newspaper", "Petersburg leaf" and "Birzhevka" - included her eccentricities among their favorite sensations, mainly because they could attach his famous name to them. "All the yellow press - "Petersburg newspaper", "Petersburg leaf" and "Birzhevka" - included her eccentricities among their favorite sensations, mainly because they could attach his famous name to them. "All the yellow press - "Petersburg newspaper", "Petersburg leaf" and "Birzhevka" - included her eccentricities among their favorite sensations, mainly because they could attach his famous name to them."
Why are terrible and terrible events associated with the paintings of Ilya Repin?
There is an assumption that inexplicable stories with Repin's canvases occur because the artist himself possessed extrasensory abilities and in the process of working on canvases charged them with unprecedented power.
Without a doubt, every painting in the Tretyakov Gallery has its own fascinating history and its own secret. And each visitor can take part in solving them.