The life of Philip Malyavin is similar to his paintings – just as bright and colorful. He was born in 1869 to a poor family in the Orenburg province. He began to draw early: at the age of four, he was drawing pictures with charcoal on literally everything. As he grew older, he began to save money for paper and pencils. And, he was happy when he managed to get his hands on fuchsine – a purple dye. He received his first commission at the age of eight: a village woman asked him to paint a portrait of her son to send to her husband, who was fighting in the Russian-Turkish War. The fee was 10 kopecks.
Then, a meeting with icon painter Prokl in 1885 changed his life: he traveled with him to Mount Athos to become an apprentice in an icon painting workshop. He spent six years there. His work was noticed by Vladimir Beklemishev, a sculptor at the Imperial Academy of Arts, who was so impressed that he convinced the young artist to leave Athos and study in St. Petersburg.
Malyavin studied in the workshop of Ilya Repin. At that time, he created portraits of his fellow students. “Malyavin asked me to lend him a stretcher and, in one session, he threw together a portrait that caused a sensation at the Academy. The portrait was finished in one sitting and it stunned everyone so much that, the following day, all the professors came running to see it; Repin came, too, having long admired the power of the sculpting and the vitality of the portrait,” recalled Igor Grabar.
At the same time, the artist turned to images that were close and understandable to him – the life and everyday life of peasants. Among the first works with a bright color scheme is the painting ‘Peasant Woman Knitting a Stocking’. In it, Malyavin depicts fellow villager and namesake Praskovya Malyavina. The painting was presented in the salon of the Moscow Society of Amateurs of Arts, where it was acquired by philanthropist Pavel Tretyakov for his collection.
Malyavin studied rapidly: he completed the academy course in just two years. His graduation work ‘Laughter’ was not accepted by the council of professors of the Academy, who considered it meaningless – only colored spots! Repin, defending his student, noted: “This indomitable, brilliant talent completely blinded our academics.” But, it was thanks to ‘Laughter’ that the European public learned about Malyavin. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, it received a gold medal. A year later, ‘Laughter’ was presented at the Venice Biennale. The painting did not return to Russia – Italy bought the canvas for the International Gallery of Modern Art.
In 1900, he settled with his family in an estate in the Ryazan province: he set up a workshop there. In 1906, at the ‘Union of Russian Artists’ exhibition, Malyavin presented his work ‘Whirlwind’. Newspapers called it “a hymn to the breadth of Russian nature, its daring and scope”. And they admitted: against the background of ‘Whirlwind’, the other paintings faded. And the delighted Repin saw in the work of his student not only joy, but also anxiety and called it “a symbol of life” in 1905-1906. “Here it is: shapeless, deafening, ringing like bells and trumpets, an orgy of colors<…> Even from afar, the whole picture seems like a colossal bloody flood…” The painting was bought by the Council of the Tretyakov Gallery immediately after the exhibition.
In the same year, Filipp Malyavin was elected an academician, after which he went abroad and returned to Russia only three years later. In 1911, at the ‘Union of Russian Artists’ exhibition, Malyavin presented a self-portrait with his wife and daughter, painted in a modernist style. Critics did not accept the work and, for a long time, he did not show his paintings at exhibitions, preferring to remain in his estate.
After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Malyavin's estate was nationalized. He moved to Ryazan where he taught for a short time at the Free Art Workshops and the Garrison Art Studio. And then, he moved to Moscow – he took almost all of his works with him, except for those that were stolen from the estate in the Spring of 1918. Including this painting with dancing peasant women.
In 1920, Malyavin was sent to the Moscow Kremlin – he had won the People's Commissariat of Education competition for the anniversary of the October Revolution. There, he made sketches of Lenin, Trotsky and other leaders of the young Soviet government. One of the drawings was later acquired by Pablo Picasso, who admired the artist's skill, saying that Malyavin's portrait depicts "a living and genuine Lenin".
In 1922, the artist left Russia forever. He settled in Paris, then in Nice. Malyavin painted portraits to order. His exhibitions were held in the Parisian Charpentier Gallery and the Prague exhibition pavilion Myslbek.
In Paris, Malyavin painted a portrait of the performer of Russian folk songs and romances Nadezhda Plevitskaya. Nicholas II called her the Kursk nightingale. After leaving Russia, Plevitskaya did not stop performing.
In exile, Malyavin turned to landscapes and created a series of nostalgic works with a troika riding through snow-covered fields toward a village visible in the distance.
World War II found the artist in Belgium, occupied by Germany. Malyavin was arrested, suspected of being a spy. He could not explain himself properly, as he did not know French. He was released by chance: the head of the Gestapo turned out to be an art connoisseur. The artist returned to France on foot. These trials undermined the health of the 70-year-old artist. On December 23, 1940, Philipp Malyavin passed away.
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