Publications in the Architecture section

5 wins and 5 losses of Anna Golubkina

Sofia Bagdasarova tells about the ups and downs of the first woman who became famous in Russia as a sculptor.

Win #1: Gardener Becomes Sculptor

It was not a miracle that Golubkina became famous. The miracle in general is that she managed to become a sculptor. Indeed, in the 19th century, it was difficult for a woman to master a profession. Let us recall the difficult path of the artist of her generation Elizaveta Martynova (the model of the Somovskaya “Lady in Blue”), who entered the Academy of Arts in the very first year when it was allowed for women. There were about a dozen students, and they were looked at with skepticism. And Golubkina, in addition, studied not as a painter, but as a sculptor, that is, she was engaged in not at all female physical labor.

And then there is the origin: her grandfather, an Old Believer and the head of the Zaraysk spiritual community, Polikarp Sidorovich, redeemed himself from serfdom. He raised Anna, whose father died early. The family was engaged in growing a garden and kept an inn, but the money was only enough to educate brother Semyon. All the other children, including Anna, were self-taught.

When the gardener left Zaraysk and went to Moscow, she was already 25 years old. She planned to study firing techniques and porcelain painting at the Fine Arts Classes, which had just been founded by Anatoly Gunst. They didn’t want to take Golubkina, but she fashioned the “Praying Old Woman” figurine overnight, and she was accepted.

Defeat #1: First trip to Paris

The training went well at first. A year later, she moved to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where she studied for another three years. Finally, the top: she was taken to study at the St. Petersburg Academy.

Here Golubkina was also offered to engage in salon art, which did not suit her temperament at all. But that's not the problem. Although her memoir friends are silent about this time in solidarity, something bad happened to Golubkina then in Paris. Apparently, unhappy love, according to rumors - with a certain French artist. A woman who crossed the 30-year mark twice tried to commit suicide: first she threw herself into the Seine, then tried to poison herself. The artist Elizaveta Kruglikova, who also lived in Paris, took her home. In Moscow, Golubkina went to the psychiatric clinic of the famous Korsakov.

Win #2: Recovery

The professor treated her for only a few months: it was obvious that Golubkina's healing was not in medicine, but in creativity, or maybe just in work. Golubkina returned to her family in Zaraysk, then, together with her sister Alexandra, who had just completed medical assistant courses, went to Siberia, where the two of them worked hard at the resettlement center.

Win #3: Second trip to Paris

Anna Golubkina in Paris in 1898

Having restored peace of mind, Golubkina returned to Paris in 1897. And finally she found the one from whom she should have learned - Rodin.

In 1898, she presented the sculpture "Old Age" to the Paris Salon (the most prestigious art competition of the time). For this statue, the same middle-aged model posed as for Rodin's "She Who Was Beautiful Olmiere" (1885).

Golubkina interpreted the teacher in her own way. And she did it with success: she was awarded a bronze medal and praised in the press. When she returned to Russia the following year, they already heard about her. Savva Morozov ordered her a relief to decorate the Moscow Art Theater. She created portraits of the most brilliant cultural figures Silver Age- A. Bely, A.N. Tolstoy, V. Ivanov. Chaliapin, however, refused to sculpt: she did not like him as a person.

Defeat #2: Revolutionary Activity

Golubkina was born during a fire and she herself claimed that she had a "fireman" character. She was intolerant and uncompromising. The injustice revolted her. During the revolution of 1905, she almost died while stopping the horse of a Cossack who was dispersing the workers. Her ties with the RSDLP began: on their order, she creates a bust of Marx, visits secret apartments, and makes a turnout for illegal immigrants from a house in Zaraysk.

In 1907, she was arrested for distributing proclamations and sentenced to a year in a fortress. However, due to Golubkina's mental state, the case was dismissed: she was released under police supervision.

Defeat #3: Absence of Husband and Children

Anna Golubkina with a group of artists. Paris, 1895

Or maybe this is not a defeat, but also a victory? No wonder Golubkina said to one girl who wanted to become a writer: “If you want something to come out of your writing, don't get married, don't start a family. The art of bound hands does not like. One must come to art with free hands. Art is a feat, and here you need to forget everything, and the woman in the family is a prisoner..

However, although Golubkina was unmarried and had no children, she dearly loved her nephews and raised her brother's daughter Vera. And among her works, the images of Mitya's nephew, who was born sick and died before he was a year old, are especially touching. One of her favorite works was the Motherhood relief, to work on which she returned year after year.

Her pockets were always full of sweets for children, and in the post-revolutionary years, just food. Because of the children, she once almost died: she sheltered a flock of homeless children, and they drugged her with sleeping pills and robbed her.

Win #4: Moscow Exhibition

In 1914, the first solo exhibition of the 50-year-old Golubkina took place - within the walls of the Museum of Fine Arts (now the Pushkin Museum). The audience was breaking, the profit from the tickets was huge. And Golubkina donated everything for the benefit of the wounded (the First World War had just begun).

Critics were delighted with her work. However, Igor Grabar, who was thinking of buying a few sculptures for the Tretyakov Gallery, scolded Golubkina for her pride: she asked for too high prices. Nothing was sold from the exhibition.

Victory #5: Civil War Survival

Alas, in 1915 Golubkina again had a nervous breakdown, she was placed in a clinic. For several years she could not create. However, in the post-revolutionary months, she joined the Commission for the Protection of Ancient Monuments and the bodies of the Moscow Council for the fight against homelessness (here are the children again!).

When Moscow was freezing and starving, Anna endured it steadfastly. As friends said, because she was so accustomed to asceticism that now she did not notice hardships. However, for the sake of earning money, she was engaged in painting on fabrics, gave private lessons. Friends brought her a drill and dragged old billiard balls: from them - made of ivory - she carved cameos, which she sold.

Lev Tolstoy. 1927

Despite the revolutionary past, Golubkina did not work well with the Bolsheviks. She was distinguished by a gloomy character, impracticality and inability to arrange her affairs. In 1918, she refused to work with the Soviets because of the assassination of Kokoshkin, a member of the Provisional Government. Over time, perhaps, it could have improved - but in the competition for the monument to Ostrovsky in 1923, she took not first place, but third, and fell into anger.

In the 1920s, Golubkina earned money by teaching. Her health was deteriorating - a stomach ulcer worsened, which had to be operated on. The last works of the master were "Birch" - a symbol of youth and a portrait of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, whom she sculpted from memory, fundamentally not looking at the photographs. Shortly before her death, Golubkina returned to her relatives in Zaraysk, surrounded by whom she died at the age of 63.

Defeat #5: The Fate of the Workshop

The sculptor's relatives handed over to the state, according to her will, more than one and a half hundred works. The Golubkina Museum opened in the Moscow workshop. But in 1952 disaster struck. Suddenly, as part of a struggle either with formalism, or with something else, it turned out that Golubkina "distorted" the image of a person, including a "Soviet" one. The museum-workshop was closed, and its collection was distributed among the funds of museums in several cities, including the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery.

Only in 1972 Golubkina's reputation was cleared and the museum was decided to be restored. Since the workshop became a branch Tretyakov Gallery, it was easy to return many works to their native walls. But the rest of the works forever stuck in other cities. However, the main thing is that Golubkina got her good name back.

Her grandfather was a serf in his youth, in the end he managed to buy himself free and settled in Zaraysk, taking up gardening. Her father died early, and all her childhood and youth, together with her mother, brothers and sisters, she worked in the family garden. For the rest of her life, she retained respect for physical labor, vivid and figurative folk speech and self-esteem.

Anna Golubkina did not have any - even primary - education. Unless the deacon taught her to read and write... She re-read many books as a child, and at the same time she began to sculpt clay figurines. A local art teacher urged her to study seriously. Relatives did not interfere with this, but Annushka herself understood what it meant for peasant family lose an employee. Therefore, a lot of time passed before she decided to leave her native Zaraysk.

Golubkina's house in Zaraysk

Anna was twenty-five years old when she, tied in a rustic handkerchief, in a black pleated skirt, arrived in Moscow and entered the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. “In the workshop between antique casts, strict and majestic, she looked like a mythical ancient Sibyl prophetess,” recalled S.T. Konenkov, who studied with her.

“She was a thin, tall, quick-moving girl with a spiritual, beautiful and strict face,” some contemporaries claimed. “... with an ugly and brilliant face,” others clarified.

The well-known Russian philanthropist Maria Tenisheva said: “Shortly after the return of A. N. Benois from St. she has the means to complete her art education ... "

Tenisheva did not follow Benoit's ardent persuasions, did not take care of her and did not give any funds ... Which, by the way, she later regretted very much - when the name of Golubkina was already widely known.

But the originality and strength of Golubkina's talent really attracted everyone's attention to her already during her studies. Later she moved to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Among her professors was the famous sculptor V. A. Beklemishev, who played a special role in the life of Anna Golubkina. In letters to her family, she called him "remarkably kind and a good man"," a major artist. Behind these general words was a deep, tragic, unrequited love, which Beklemishev himself, married to a rich merchant and happy in family life, never knew about.

In 1895 Golubkina left for Paris to continue her education. Her family and the Society of Art Lovers helped her with funds. She entered the Academy of F. Colarossi, but very soon she realized that the same salon-academic direction, which was completely alien to her in spirit, dominated there as in St. Petersburg. This year turned out to be very difficult for the young sculptor. Anna Semyonovna was tormented by creative dissatisfaction, doubts about the correctness of the chosen path, an unquenched feeling for Beklemishev. Some memoirists mention her short, unhappy relationship with some French artist and a suicide attempt ... It is not by chance that Golubkina fell ill with a nervous breakdown.

The artist E. S. Kruglikova brought her to Russia. Returning from the hospital to Zaraysk, to her family, Anna Semyonovna calmed down a bit and began to think about how to live on. And in the end I decided to go with my older sister Alexandra, who graduated from medical assistant courses, to Siberia. Here she worked at a resettlement center, helping her sister, with whom, like her mother, she always had a trusting relationship. The sculptor's mother, Ekaterina Yakovlevna, died at the end of 1898. Anna Semyonovna could not recover for a long time after this loss and did not take on any work until she fashioned her bust from memory ...

The second trip to Paris was more successful. The great Rodin himself saw the work of Golubkina and invited her to study under his guidance. Many years later, recalling a year of work with the master, Anna Semyonovna wrote to him: “You told me what I myself felt, and you gave me the opportunity to be free.”

The works of Golubkina, exhibited at the Paris Spring Salon in 1899, were a well-deserved success. In 1901, she received an order to sculpt the front entrance of the Moscow Art Theatre. The high relief "Wave" she made - a rebellious spirit struggling with the elements - still adorns the entrance to the old building of the Moscow Art Theater.

She visited Paris again in 1902. She also visited London and Berlin, getting acquainted with the masterpieces of world art. She returned from a trip with huge debts; There was nothing to rent a workshop, and Anna Semyonovna never knew how to get profitable orders.

True, already in the early years of the twentieth century, some of the works brought her decent fees. Golubkina's sculptures appeared more and more often at Russian exhibitions, each time meeting with an enthusiastic reception. But Anna Semyonovna distributed everything she earned with amazing generosity to needy, acquaintances and strangers, donated to kindergarten, school, folk theater. And even after becoming famous, she still lived in poverty, eating only bread and tea for weeks.

“Her costume,” recalled one friend, “always consisted of a gray skirt, blouse and canvas apron. In ceremonial occasions, only the apron was removed.

Her entire ascetic life was devoted to art. She told the daughter of her friends, Evgenia Glagoleva: “If you want something to come out of your writing, don’t get married, don’t start a family. The art of the related does not like. One must come to art with free hands. Art is a feat, and here you need to forget everything, give everything away, and a woman in the family is a prisoner ... "And she admitted:" Whoever does not cry over his thing is not a creator.

Without her own family, Anna Semyonovna raised her niece Vera, the daughter of her older brother. Often and for a long time she lived with her relatives in Zaraysk, helped her sister with the housework, worked in the garden on an equal basis with everyone else. And this, oddly enough, did not interfere with her work at all ...

In the pre-revolutionary years, Zaraysk was one of the places of exile. The Golubkins' house constantly gathered "politically unreliable persons" expelled from the capitals, and the local revolutionary-minded intelligentsia. Slowly, but with interest, there were long conversations about the future of Russia over the samovar. Anna Semyonovna could not help being carried away by the idea of universal brotherhood, justice and happiness. She even distributed illegal literature... But once, when it came to the inevitability of a revolutionary upheaval, she prophetically said: "It's scary how much, how much blood will be shed."

During the events of 1905, she ended up in Moscow. An eyewitness recalls that when the Cossacks dispersed people with whips, Anna Semyonovna rushed into the crowd, hung on the bridle of the horse of one of the riders and shouted in a frenzy: “Killers! You don't dare to beat the people!"

Two years later, she was arrested for distributing proclamations. In September 1907, the court sentenced the artist to a year's imprisonment in the fortress, but for health reasons she was released on bail. Anna Semyonovna remained under police surveillance for a long time. Here is another bitterly prophetic phrase from her letter: "In our times, nothing nasty can happen, because it already exists."

When the First World War began, Golubkina was already fifty. Criticism wrote after her solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts: "Never before has Russian sculpture touched the viewer's heart so deeply as at this exhibition, arranged in the days of great trials." Anna Semyonovna donated the entire collection from the exhibition for the wounded.

The hot character of Golubkina made her rather quarrelsome even with close people. One of the stumbling blocks between her and her contemporaries is the purchase of her work.

“There are wonderful things - mostly portraits,” wrote artist I. Grabar, trustee of the Tretyakov Gallery, about the Golubkina exhibition. - I would buy 6-7 things, but she is like Konenkov: there is nothing to eat, but less than 2500-3000 rubles and do not approach. Just a misfortune this tramp pride and "contempt for the bourgeoisie", as she considers every person who wears a collar that is not dirty and wrinkled starched.

Well - that's the kind of money the gallery paid for the most outstanding works of Russian artists, and private collectors bought them for a much higher price! For Golubkina and Konenkov, their older contemporary Valentin Serov, strict and principled, served as an example when it came to evaluating the work of artists.

Not a single sculpture by Golubkina has been sold since that exhibition. From the museum halls they migrated to some basement, where they stood unattended for a long time, until the 1920s ... And then, in 1915, Anna Semyonovna was again overtaken by a nervous breakdown. Dr. S. V. Medvedeva-Petrosyan said: “I saw a tall, middle-aged, sickly-looking woman, with almost masculine features of an ugly face. She smiled at me, and what a charming smile it was, what an extraordinary radiance shone in her shining gray eyes, what an attractive force emanated from her whole being! I was immediately captivated by her ... The patient was tormented by gloomy melancholy and insomnia, however, even in the worst moments of her illness, her excellent moral character was not overshadowed by an impatient word or a sharp outburst. Everyone loved her very much."

Golubkina did not allow outsiders into her soul, she refused to pose for portraits. To all such requests, Mikhail Nesterov exclaimed: “What are you doing! write me! Let me go crazy! Where do I go with my mug to a portrait! I am crazy". (Recalling Anna Semyonovna years later, the artist said: “It was Maxim Gorky in a skirt, only with a different soul ...”) And, as a master, she advised her students: “Look for a person. If you find a person in a portrait, that's beauty."

Anna Semyonovna was even photographed extremely reluctantly. N. N. Chulkova, the wife of a writer, recalled: “... she said that she did not like her face and did not want her portrait to exist. “My face is actor’s, sharp, I don’t like it.” And on rare photo her youth - a sweet girl with a blond braid ...

Party

Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky

Few people know that the portrait of Golubkina still exists! In the painting by V. Makovsky "Party" (1897), she, still quite young, modestly stands at the table. Persuaded the same artist to pose, albeit for a scene from folk life ...

“The artist (there can be no doubt!) quite deliberately prevented the collection and publication of materials that would be devoted to her biography,” says A. Kamensky, a researcher of the life and work of the sculptor. “Perhaps, nothing appreciated Golubkina as much as the ability to step back from oneself, to completely dissolve in one’s business, to become an echo of human experiences ...”

She never wrote down the location of her sold sculptures. The organizers of her museum put a lot of effort when in 1932 they collected the works of the master together, in the premises of her former workshop. Some of the works have not been found so far ...

... After the news of the October Revolution, Golubkina said: "Now, now real people will be in power." But soon she learned about the execution of two ministers of the Provisional Government, one of whom she was familiar with (later they wrote that they were shot by anarchists). And when they came to her from the Kremlin, offering a job, Anna Semyonovna answered with her characteristic directness: “You good people kill,” and refused.

Despite this, in the first post-revolutionary months, Golubkina joined the Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Antiquity and Art and the bodies of the Moscow Council to combat homelessness. Dirty, ragged boys she brought to her workshop, fed, left to spend the night - even after one day they robbed her and nearly killed her.

Kamensky

Those who knew Golubkina claimed that she endured the hardships of those years more easily than others, because she was used to hardships and "did not notice them now." For the sake of earning money, the famous sculptor painted fabrics, carved jewelry from bone, but there was barely enough money not to starve to death ... She took private lessons, often free - as a rule, the fee was paid "in kind": for example, one of her students heated the workshop masters.

In 1920-1922, Anna Semyonovna taught at art workshops, but she had to leave because of the unkind atmosphere. She was close to sixty, and a severe stomach ulcer was added to her old ailments from constant malnutrition and unrest. Another harsh word or rude attack against her could turn into excruciating pain and permanently deprive her of peace of mind. Once some guy threw in the face of the sculptor that she was already dead to art. The artist replied that she may have died, but she lived, and her evil opponent was always dead. Anna Semyonovna, who retired, had to undergo an operation ...

Straight to the point of sharpness, she could not be different in art either. At one time she refused to sculpt a bust of Chaliapin - she simply could not work on portraits of people to whom for some reason she had an ambivalent attitude. In 1907, she created a portrait of Andrei Bely - a perfect profile ... of a horse! She did not tolerate vainglory and unbridled praise. When one day her sculptures were compared with antique ones, she sharply replied: “Ignorance speaks in you!” Valery Bryusov, when Anna Semyonovna appeared in the literary and artistic circle, turned to her with a "highly pompous speech." Startled, Golubkina turned away, waved her hand at him three times, turned around and left.

In 1923, the sculptor took part in a competition for the manufacture of a monument to A. N. Ostrovsky. She presented nine sketches-variants, two of which were awarded prizes. But the first place and the right to make a monument was given to another author - N. Andreev. Anna Semyonovna, deeply offended, arrived at the meeting room and began to destroy her models: “They compared him Ostrovsky with mine! It's disgusting and nothing else."

Golubkina's last work, Leo Tolstoy, was unexpectedly the indirect cause of her death. In her youth, Anna Semyonovna once met with the "great old man" and, according to an eyewitness, had a serious argument with him about something. The impression from this meeting remained so strong that many years later she refused to use his photographs in her work and "made a portrait according to the presentation and from her own memories." The block, glued together from several pieces of wood, was massive and heavy, and Anna Semyonovna could not move it in any case after the operation, which was transferred in 1922. But she forgot about her age and illnesses: when two of her students unsuccessfully fought with a wooden colossus, she pushed them away with her shoulder and moved the unyielding tree with all her might. Soon after that, she felt bad and hurried to her sister, in Zaraysk: “She knows how to treat me ... Yes, I’ll come in three days ...”

The departure proved to be a fatal mistake. Professor A. Martynov, long years who treated the artist, said that an immediate operation would certainly have saved her ...

Text by E. N. Oboymina and O. V. Tatkova

Magnificent photographs from the museum-workshop of Golubkina are taken from the album "Golubkina" on Yandex photos:

Essay By academic discipline"Culturology"

on the topic: "The work of the sculptor Golubkina A.S. (1864 - 1927)"

Plan

1. Introduction.

2. Childhood and adolescence, the beginning of professional activity.

3. Pre-revolutionary period: the rise of skill.

4. Portraits from nature.

6. A new rise in creativity.

7. Conclusion.

8. List of references.

1. Introduction.

A.S. Golubkina (1864 - 1927) - the pride of Russian sculpture. The value of her artistic heritage has long been beyond doubt; she has long been recognized as a master of sculpture. The more paradoxical is the fact that there is no detailed biography of the artist and a small number of art criticism studies of her work. This is largely due to the fact that Golubkina herself prevented the collection and publication of materials about her personality and art. This is how the artist's credo was expressed: to move away from the world, from herself, in order to completely indulge in creativity. For the same reason, she did not create self-portraits, practically did not take pictures, did not pose for other artists, while she herself created a magnificent gallery of images of her contemporaries, many of whom were the largest representatives of the era, the Silver Age. It is known that V.A. Serov (1865 - 1911) begged the artist to paint her portrait, to which she resolutely refused.

A.S. Golubkina is one of those masters who renounced the joys of life for the sake of art. It was in art that she saw joy, consolation and the meaning of life. Having risen to the heights of creativity from the very bottom, she created sculptures marked by the stamp of genius.

Golubkina's works are perfect not only from the technical side. They are filled with deep meaning, spirituality and attract with high humanism. The artist, who experienced all the hardships of life, sought not to satisfy her own ambitions with the help of art, but to become the true voice of the era. She honed her skills to perfection, so that she could be free and knowing hand to create real works of art in which thought, soul and sincerity would live.

Golubkina's creative code was so strict that there were no passing things in her heritage, which is a rarity. The deeply psychological portraits made by Golubkina are a kind of reflection of the spiritual life of the era. In this they enduring value, as, in fact, and all of her work.

A.S. Golubkina made a significant contribution to the development of artistic pedagogy and the theory of sculpture. Without her work, it is impossible to imagine the domestic art of the first half of the twentieth century. Legacy of A.S. Golubkina is one of his brightest and most original pages.

2. Childhood and adolescence, the beginning of professional activity.

Anna Semenovna Golubkina was born in 1964 in the city of Zaraysk near Moscow in a large family. From the very beginning, the life of the future sculptor was difficult. Parents, although they kept an inn and grew vegetables in their own garden, could not fully provide for the family. The situation was complicated by the early death of his father, and the mother had to take care of herself. She was a strong and extraordinary woman. Being a simple peasant woman who did not receive any education, she was naturally endowed with an outstanding mind and a cheerful disposition. She managed to create an atmosphere of friendship and joy within the family, to accustom children to hard work. It was in such conditions that the character of A.S. Golubkina. And in the future, the mother had a huge impact on the fate of her daughter in spiritual and moral terms. She remained a devoted friend of Anna even when she became an adult and independent and grew into a large, subtle, deeply feeling the world, artist.

The years of Golubkina's childhood and youth were filled with constant work: working in the garden, helping with the housework, agricultural work. In such conditions, she was unable to receive a systematic education, because she did not go to school. Later, the artist recalled that she learned to read and write from a deacon [Golubkin; eleven]. The circumstances of her life look all the more tragic, because Anna strived for knowledge with all her might. IN free time, which fell out very rarely for her, she only did what she read, taking books from the library of her brother, who studied at a real school.

According to L.P. Trifonova, the range of issues that interested her was very wide and went far beyond the school curriculum. The assimilation of simple truths did not suit Anna, she wanted to learn how to analyze, draw independent conclusions, give her own assessments of the phenomena and processes being studied [Trifonova; 4].

Even then, in early youth, Golubkina's personality traits appeared - an independent, freedom-loving nature. She did not immediately realize her vocation, at first she wanted to become a teacher, to bring enlightenment to children. Nevertheless, artistic ability already showed up in her. She painted a lot, sculpted from clay. And it so happened that the work of young Golubkina attracted the attention of people close to art, and they gave the girl advice to get an education in this direction. So Golubkina decides to go to Moscow. At first, her goal is devoid of grandiose plans: she intends to master the technique of making faience dishes and painting on porcelain. But later, thanks to the manifested qualities of the artist and strong personality, Golubkina is changing her orientation. She enters the fine arts classes of the artist-architect A.O. Gunst (1858 - 1919), and then - to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

Golubkina's studies began rather late - at the age of twenty-five. At this age, most artists, on the contrary, are already completing their education. This circumstance was a negative factor in her career, since a lot had to be made up for, and the flexibility and ease inherent in youth had already disappeared. At twenty-five, Anna Golubkina was already a mature, established personality. But there was also a positive side to late learning, and it consisted in the consciousness with which Golubkina approached the creative process and learning. She did not receive professional skills, but embodied her own ideas, paving the way to her own place in art.

While studying at the sculpture department of the school, Golubkina stood out favorably among other students, although really gifted people studied at this educational institution. S.T. Konenkov (1874 - 1971), a fellow student of Golubkina and an outstanding representative of Russian sculpture, recalled: “... She sought to find a special expression in nature ... That barely distinguishable and such a special expression that she managed to convey amazed us” [Konenkov; 48].

As emphasized by L.P. Trifonova, Golubkina has a heightened emotionality, a bright mind, a broad outlook, knowledge of life and people. That is why she grew into a true artist, a person who perceives the world subtly and deeply [Trifonova; 5]. The artistic nature of Golubkina was clearly manifested in everything, she did not stop in her creative search and development. For this reason, she continues her studies, this time at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in the workshop of V.A. Beklemishev (1861 - 1919).

Gradually, Golubkina's corporate style was formed, while her methods of constructing a sculptural form, the nature of modeling went beyond the traditional system. Due to the inclination towards innovation, self-will manifested, Golubkina began to have conflicts with teachers. This struggle did not give the sculptor pleasure, but she could not retreat from her positions, which is why she often fell into despair.

Golubkina made attempts to find answers to her questions in the center of the artistic life of Europe in the late XIX - early XX century - in Paris. She went there, despite the lack of funds. She was provided with material and moral support by her mother, who believed in her daughter's special talent.

In Paris, Golubkina intensively studied and absorbed everything that could develop and deepen her artistic talent. She worked very hard, despite the fact that her food was meager. As a result, she began to have a nervous breakdown, and the sculptor returned to Russia in a serious condition. After treatment, she was forced to take a break for creative activity because the stress of labor was dangerous to her health. But even inaction could not satisfy Anna Semyonovna. And then she and her sister went to Siberia to help the peasants who left the hungry provinces. Charitable work heals Golubkina, and she is again able to create.

3. Pre-revolutionary period: the rise of skill.

In 1897 Golubkina created the most significant of her early works called "Iron" (bronze). This is a figure of a worker, made in a passionate and expressive manner. With the Iron sculpture, Golubkina opposed the school of academism, which had become obsolete, putting passion and rebelliousness into this work, thereby expressing a protest against evil and grief. Because the sculpture turned out so excited and impulsive. It was a very bold and important step in the work of the young sculptor, and it meant a lot to Golubkina. But at the same time, it should be understood that "Iron" is only the beginning of her innovative art. And Golubkina, being a professional, understands that not all the secrets of mastery have been comprehended by her, and without this it is impossible to move forward. And she goes back to Paris. This time she has a very definite goal: to get to study with Auguste Rodin himself (1840 - 1917). She manages to do this, although not to the full extent, since she does not have money to pay for tuition. But Rodin agreed to give her advice, drew up a program for her and checked her sketches. He noticed the undoubted talent of Golubkina and treated her in a special way, because he felt in her not only a vein of genius, but also a readiness to devote herself completely to art.

A short period of study with Rodin was a very important period of formation in the creative evolution of Golubkina. Rodin helped her not only professionally, but also in the matter of gaining faith in herself, because until now almost all her teachers told her that she was on the wrong path [Kamensky; 26].

In Paris, in addition to sketches, Golubkina creates a portrait of Professor E.Zh. Balbiani and a composition called "Old Age" (1898). Rodin's model posed for this sculpture. It was from her that he blinded his famous sculpture"The one who was beautiful Omier" (1885). Golubkina interpreted this topic in her own way. Unlike Rodin, who depicted the merciless action of time with great dramatic force, Golubkina puts deep compassion into her work, thereby demonstrating the quality that later became one of the main ones in her work - high humanism.

Golubkina did not stay long in France. According to her warehouse, she was primordially Russian in nature, and therefore she aspired to her homeland, with which all her thoughts were connected. Thoughts about Russia, feelings for her fate with the greatest completeness and depth were reflected in her work. And since she did not know how to speak in an undertone, her thoughts are embodied in large forms, broad generalizations, symbolic images. She compares the events experienced within herself with the eternal elemental forces of nature. This is how the sculptural compositions "Water", "Fire", "Fog", "Wave", "Earth", "Swamp" are born. They turn out to be close in character and intent to such compositions as "Sleepers", "Prisoners", "Music and Lights Away". These works are marked by the influence of Rodin, you can find imprints of symbolism and impressionism in them; they are filled with pain and despair, reflect the emotional anguish and fragility of the images.

Such moods cannot be called dominant in the work of Golubkina, since she strove for vitality, for displaying real life. Obviously, in this way, the author's sympathy was expressed for suffering, humiliated and offended people; manifested her inherent high humanism. These two directions - symbolism and realism - reveal the inconsistency of the sculptor's work.

Interesting in this regard is the composition "Kochka" (1904, bronze). It reflects the popular belief in the author's small homeland that the souls of dead children move to swampy hummocks. L.P. Trifonova, commenting on the sculpture, writes: “As if two small touching creatures appear before the eyes of the viewer. They are children, almost babies. They are like two twins. Both curled up into a ball. Each has the delicate, soft body of a small child and an exorbitantly large head. The look of their forward-looking eyes is piercing, in them there is a bottomless longing - longing for inaccessible happiness, their childish naivety, and almost senile wisdom, insight, bitter knowledge of life. The created images are deeply symbolic and at the same time they are tangibly concrete, full of vibrant life, truthful and authentic” [Trifonova; 13 - 14].

The above analysis of the sculptural composition shows that the works of Golubkina, like the poems of A.A. Akhmatova (1889 - 1966) can be called "compressed novels", their inner content is so deep and ambiguous. And Golubkina looks at the most acute problems of our time through the prism of symbolism.

As a symbolist, Golubkina established herself with the Fog vase (option in plaster - 1899; in marble - 1908). According to I.N. Sedova, this sculpture belongs to the mythological theme, in which the motif of duality is very clearly implemented - one of the main ones in the work of the artist. I.N. Sedova writes: “But if in most works the artist implements the binary opposition man/nature (“Earth”, “Bushes”, “Kochka”, “Puddle”, “Gorgon”), then “Fog”, according to the typology of imagery, certainly stands out from this series, since here the binary opposition acquires a new interpretation: not man/nature, but man/celestial element. The figurative binarity is emphasized by the binarity in the presentation of the material, namely, in the collision of two directly opposite methods of processing marble, and initially gypsum: the smoothed surface of the faces of the characters and the loosened swirling forms of texture, symbolizing the air element” [Sedova; 222].

The sculpture “Wave” (1903) is also symbolic. Here one of the characteristic features of Golubkina's work is revealed - the reflection in sculpture not of a state of rest, but of movement, its development in time. The sculpture seems to overcome the limits set for it, symbolizing the stormy and restless time in which its author lives. Golubkina conveys the impression of a gradually growing and impending wave, which gradually arrives from the depths and rises furiously on the surface of the relief. Golubkina managed to create a high shaft of bronze, foaming and bubbling water. This image of the raging elements is a symbol of the troubled state of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Golubkina's contemporary A.A. perceived the era in approximately the same context. Blok (1880 - 1921), who foresaw "unprecedented changes" and "unheard of revolts" [Blok; 132]. The bas-relief "Wave" entered the architectural appearance of Moscow - it was installed on, built by the architect F.O. Shekhtel (1859 - 1926), the building of the Art Theater.

In 1903, Golubkina created the sculpture "Walking" (bronze), which is a portrait of a new person - her contemporary. The figure of the depicted person is far from ideals male beauty, she is rude and somewhat clumsy. In its proportions there is no harmony and lightness. On the contrary, it is squat and heavy, and seems to be a protest against ancient statues depicting beautiful gods and heroes. The irregularities of the sculpture do not mean the author's imperfections, but are traces of the living touch of his hands, part of the concept of the work. Therefore, there is a different beauty in “The Walking One” - this is the beauty of character and a clear individuality, a living person who was seen by a talented and unique artist in his originality. “”Walking,” writes V.I. Kostin, - outgrows the scope of the etude of the naked body, acquires a deep meaning" [Kostin; 88]. In The Walking One, the impressionistic style characteristic of Golubkina in the initial period of creativity clearly comes through.

Close in concept to the "Walking" work is the sculpture "Slave" (1909, wood). But if in "Walking" expression and movement are conveyed through the body, in the new work the author has focused on the face. The hero of Golubkina is a forced, reduced to the level of a downtrodden creature, devoid of a spiritual beginning. It is obvious that his only destiny is slave labor. But the strength of the author's skill is such that she was able to show the origin of thought in this creature. Let slowly, clumsily, but both thought and consciousness awaken in him. Like a flaring spark, the thought “uncontrollably and powerfully captures his whole being” [Trifonova; 17]. Gradually, the rough features of his face begin to fill with spirituality and light, an unprecedented strength grows. To convey such an inner movement in sculpture is an undoubted manifestation of the genius of Golubkina, the sculptor.

To some extent, the development of the theme of modernity and major social events, including revolutionary ones, is completed by the work “Seated” (1912, plaster). The rebellion of a slave is opposed here by other qualities: calmness, endurance, inner composure, willpower. The grain of this image should be called extraordinary internal energy, clarity of thought, which is clearly expressed in the sharply defined, masculine features of the hero's face. He is "sitting" only up to a certain point. A little time will pass, and the hero will get up to go into any, even the most dangerous battle for his ideas.

Golubkina confirmed her revolutionary views not only with art, but also with active social activity, she was arrested several times. For this reason, it was she who was the author of the first in Russia sculptural portrait of Karl Marx (1905, plaster), which opened a new important stage - the portrait line in the work of A.S. Golubkina.

4. Portraits from nature.

Portraits sculpted from life are a real element in the artistic activity of the artist. They have extraordinary power and depth. From nature, she created a whole gallery of magnificent images, which included people of various social strata - the intelligentsia, workers, the aristocracy, financiers, personalities with difficult fate. They are not similar to each other, differ in diametrical characters and bright individuality. Some of the people they met attracted the attention of the artist themselves, and some ordered their portraits to the now famous sculptor.

Golubkina's work on the portrait underwent a complex evolution. Before sculpting, she always studied her model for a long time and carefully, trying to comprehend the character and the spiritual world. She needed to penetrate the model with sympathy, even love. Only after that she began to work on the portrait, filled with knowledge about the person. Therefore, Golubkina's works in this genre outgrow the boundaries of the usual external resemblance. They turn out to be a revelation of the unique spiritual world of a person.

A special factor in the sculptural portraits of Golubkina is the attitude towards the prototype of the author himself. The interpretation of personality in these works does not raise doubts among the viewer. And at the same time, the author's assessment is far from an impartial assessment. Golubkina necessarily invested her attitude in the portrait, and not necessarily positive. In the gallery of portraits of the author, you can find a whole range of feelings: sympathy, hostility, hatred, love, friendliness, indignation, etc. At the same time, Golubkina the artist does not simplify the nature of the model, but conveys it in all its diversity and contradiction.

Golubkina's sculptural portraits combine fresh impressions and careful thoughtfulness. The most used material in this genre is clay, but bronze and gypsum (casting) are also found. True masterpieces of sculptural portraiture are such works by Golubkina as Marya (1905, clay, bronze, later in marble), Ivan Nepomniachtchi (1908, clay). Here, the individuality of the appearance with distinctly expressed unique features grows into a significant image.

The face of Ivan Nepomniachtchi is sculpted with true inspiration. L.P. Trifonova writes: “The plastic language of Golubkina achieves here extraordinary expressiveness, flexibility, acquires a wide range of shades, and the plasticity of the face is created either by sharp, contrasting juxtapositions of form, then by subtle transitions, then by small fractional strokes that form a complex immobile mass, sliding chiaroscuro, quivering vibration light” [Trifonova; 22].

Thanks to the masterful use of these techniques, Golubkina achieves the effect of a "living" sculpture, in which not only the face is humanized. In the portrait of Ivan Nepomniachtchi, the viewer sees a living soul. The hero of Golubkina is a middle-aged and ugly man, tired of life; his face looks tired and haggard, his eyes - half-sighted and even extinct. But the inner life of this man did not die out. The consciousness, and kindness, and the beauty of the soul still glimmer in him. The image of Ivan Nepomniachtchi is the image of the entire Russian people who have endured many sufferings, but have not lost their spirituality and purity. Thus, this sculptural portrait acquires universal human value.

The image of Marya echoes the previous portrait in its ideological design. In it, Golubkina sang the Russian peasant woman, giving her appearance lyricism and warmth. Next to this image of a toiler, the portrait of L.I. Sidorova (1906, marble). Here Golubkina finds other colors and techniques, introduces the viewer into another world. This woman is not an easy worker, and her personality is complex, somewhat arrogant, but very strong and smart. It is impossible to break her, but in addition to strength and intelligence, the viewer can catch other shades of her personality - irony and insight.

In addition to marble, bronze and clay, Golubkina was able to reveal the magnificent structural qualities of another material common in sculpture - wood. She managed to fully embody his expressive possibilities. The artist created a large number of works in wood. One of the best among them is the portrait of the writer A.M. Remizov (1911). Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867) defined the art of the portrait as "a dramatized biography of a model", as "the disclosure of the natural drama inherent in man" [Baudelaire; 233].

Sculptural portraits of Golubkina are the best confirmation of this peculiar designation. She managed to get into inner world Remizov, to understand its complex essence and character. In the portrait of Remizov, his confusion, rebelliousness, passion, despair, colossal tension of thought, desire to find the truth are quite clearly expressed.

It is noteworthy that when creating the image of this writer, Golubkina turned specifically to the tree, which under her hands literally spiritualized, came to life, ceased to be a dead material. The personality of the writer is embodied by Golubkina in all her life's inconsistencies.

The power of talent and realism A.S. Golubkina appeared in sculptural portraits of many outstanding writers and poets of Russia: M.Yu. Lermontov (1900), S.T. Morozov (1902), A. Bely (1907), A.N. Tolstoy (1911), S.T. Morozov. These works are of great importance for national culture Russia, help to better understand the personalities of great people.

5. Activities Golubkina during the First World War.

The first World War(1914 - 1918) tragically affected the worldview and fate of A.S. Golubkina. Sculptor Z.D. Klobukova (1887 - 1968) recalled that Golubkina was haggard from this news in a few days: “After all, it’s terrible,” she said, “to be left without eyes, without arms, without legs - it’s better to die! And families without breadwinners” [Zagorskaya; 44].

Having survived the first impressions of the war, Golubkina decides to bring real help country. To do this, she arranges an exhibition of her works, the proceeds from which she sends in favor of the wounded. This exhibition was opened at the Museum of Fine Arts. It featured one hundred and fifty works. The exhibition itself attracted great attention of Muscovites, and several thousand citizens visited it. Thus, the work of Golubkina became known to wide circles of Russian society. All the works presented at the exhibition allowed the audience to appreciate the talent of the artist at its true worth. But this circumstance did not improve the quality of her life.

Creative tension, constant unrest, a half-starved existence, being in prison for political reasons, a hunger strike - all this had a negative effect on Golubkina, and her health was severely undermined. A serious illness for a long time chained Anna Semyonovna to bed. Being a true artist by her calling, she could not imagine her life without creativity. But due to illness, she was forced to stop working, which was the most difficult period in her life. And then she turned to the plastic of small forms, creating models for figurines, children's toys, ivory miniatures and sea shells.

The revolution of 1917 opens a new period in her life. Despite her illness, she takes an active part in measures to protect ancient monuments, to eliminate child homelessness, and teaches at the Higher Artistic and Technical Courses created already in the Soviet period.

Golubkina devotedly taught, showing great sensitivity to the work of emerging artists. For them, she creates a kind of instruction called "A few words about the craft of a sculptor", which in fact was a fascinating analysis of the art of plasticity and a very interesting reflection of a great master on the laws artistic creativity. This small work is of value not only for sculptors, but also for other representatives of the fine arts.

Analyzing in detail the foundations of sculpture and focusing on its basic laws, Golubkina emphasizes that this is not the main thing in sculpture. What she describes is just a guide to action, a starting point. The main thing is independent action, self-expression and perception of the model. Golubkina warns against blindly following the teacher's instructions, as this kills creativity in a young artist, which is unacceptable. Development creativity- the first task that faces the teacher and the student.

Both the pedagogical and artistic heritage of Golubkina convince us today that she was a true realist. In the tense and controversial 20s of the twentieth century, when traditions and foundations were overthrown, she defended the positions of realism.

6. A new rise in creativity.

In 1922 A.S. Golubkina underwent an operation, and she was able to return to her previous work, to a large form. She took part in the competition for the monument to A.N. Ostrovsky, made portraits of T.A. Ivanova, I.I. Bednyakova, G.A. Savinsky, V.G. Chertkova, L.N. Tolstoy.

The best creation of these last years Golubkina was the portrait of the master molder G.A. Savinsky (1925, plaster). He himself cast her works, and to some extent he could be called an accomplice in creativity. Golubkina created a portrait of her assistant in record time - in two hours. Here, not only skill, but also innovation of the artist was manifested: the portrait opened a new stage of creativity. The tragic perception of the world and pain, the desire to release from captivity remain in the past. human soul. Savinosky's portrait is made in a different mood. It feels the confident and light hand of a professional sculptor, somewhat similar to the hand of a musician.

The new hero Golubkina is cheerful, his face is lit up with a radiant smile. This is a real hymn to life and work. It is obvious that the changed system impressed Golubkina, who got out of the very bottom. Now she interprets a person in a new way, seeing him as clear, harmonious, optimistically perceiving reality. This will be the mood of all her sculptural portraits of this period.

It's interesting that later work Golubkina, although it is the antithesis of the early one, at the same time logically continues it. This refers to the deep penetration into the image, which was characteristic of Golubkina the sculptor, no matter how she looked at the world: tragic or optimistic.

The last work was a portrait of L.N. Tolstoy, which was a true masterpiece of the master. Premature death did not allow Golubkina to complete the portrait of the great writer, but even unfinished, he makes the deepest impression on the viewer, he clearly feels “the mighty talent of the sculptor, her excited soul, confident strong hand, bringing to life the image of a brilliant writer” [Trifonova; 35].

This work was not accidental in the creative life of Golubkina. The image of L.N. Tolstoy - the greatest artist words and the truth-seeker - has long worried her, like many representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, because its importance for national culture can hardly be overestimated. Bowing before his talent, Golubkina thought a lot about his moral credo - non-resistance to evil by violence, trying to decide for herself whether such a worldview is correct. Independent in her judgments and views, Golubkina always tried to reach everything herself, often disagreeing with the generally accepted point of view.

In maturity, Golubkina was looking for a meeting with L.N. Tolstoy. His passionate spiritual and social quest was in tune with her own quest. The meeting of the two artists nevertheless took place, and during it Golubkina, according to her habit, began to argue with Tolstoy, directly expressing her disagreement with his theory of non-resistance. This meeting had a huge impact on the artist, contributed to the formation of the image of the writer in her imagination. What she said under the impression of the meeting “Tolstoy is like the sea…” became the basis for the concept of the future sculpture [Golubkin; 78].

Working on the image, Golubkina tried to find an expression of that passionate and huge element that she saw in him. She wanted to convey not only the elements, but also freedom, freedom. For this reason, the composition of the portrait is solved powerfully and widely, and the movements of the plastic masses are conveyed as a swaying, which is affected by an invisible volcanic force. All this suggests that the artist saw in Tolstoy a genius, a titan, wholly and completely embraced by the rebellious element of thought.

In parallel with the work on the portrait of the writer Golubkina was preparing an exhibition of her works. Her goal was to make and arrange the exhibition as best as possible, so the preparation process was lengthy. The artist changed the exposure, trying to ensure that every small detail turned out to be a harmonious part single concept. Golubkina realized that the wrong arrangement could ruin the whole impression. But, preparing for the long-awaited exhibition, she did not calculate her strength. Moving a heavy sculpture, she strained herself and fell ill again.

Her next mistake was ignoring the doctors. Arriving to her relatives in Zaraysk, Anna Semyonovna hoped for Fresh air and home walls. They might have helped her if Golubkina had not taken part in the harvest. A sharp deterioration came almost immediately, it was not possible to save her. On September 7, 1927, the outstanding sculptor of the twentieth century A.S. Golubkina died, bequeathing all her work to the state.

7. Conclusion.

So, the creative path of A.S. Golubkina was difficult, but still led her to success. She belonged to that small cohort of Russian sculptors who broke the established dead canons and paved the way for great, real truth in the art of plastic art. Golubkina's work was permeated with true transformative pathos and sincerity. She had to fight hard to defend her concept. But it was in this struggle that her skills were honed, and a new one was developed. artistic language. The efforts of Golubkina, as well as other outstanding sculptors - S.T. Konenkov (1874 - 1971), P.P. Trubetskoy (1866 - 1938), N.A. Andreev (1873 - 1932) and others - led to the revival of sculpture in Russian art.

Starting as an impressionist and symbolist, Golubkina, as a result of creative evolution, came to realism. Her creative heritage is really great. At the beginning of the 20th century, her works passed the severe test of time, but they withstood it. They continue to live even now, participate in the lives of other generations, allow new connoisseurs of art to identify other, previously invisible features in them. This proves that Golubkina's sculptures have not lost their significance, and today, when social upheavals have not disappeared anywhere, they continue to live and remain relevant.

8. List of references.

1. Alpatov M.V. Golubkina //Alpatov M.V. Etudes on the history of Russian art. In two books. Book 2. - M.: Art, 1967. - 600 p.

2. Blok A.A. Selected /A.A. Block. - M.: Pravda, 1978. - 480 p.

3. Baudelaire Sh. About art / Sh. Baudelaire. - M.: Art, 1986. - 422 p.

4. Zagorskaya E.S. Anna Golubkina is a sculptor and a person. - M.: Soviet Russia, 1964. - 134 p.

5. Kamensky A.A. Anna Golubkina: Personality. Epoch. Sculpture /A.A. Kamensky. - M.: art, 1990. - 464 p.

6. Kamensky A.A. A. Golubkina. Personality traits//Soviet sculpture, 1974. - 303 p.

7. Konenkov S.T. Meetings. Memoirs of contemporaries about the sculptor / S.T. Konenkov. - M.: Soviet artist, 1980. - 100 p.

8. Kostin V.S. Anna Semyonovna Golubkina /V.S. Kostin. - M.-L.: Art, 1957. - 243 p.

9. Golubkina A.S. Letters. A few words about the craft of the sculptor. Memoirs of contemporaries / A.S. Golubkin. - M.: Soviet artist, 1983. - 424 p.

10. Kalugina O.V. Creativity of A. S. Golubkina and some problems of the development of Russian sculpture of the late XIX - early XX century. Dissertation for the degree of candidate of art criticism. - M., 2003. - 277 p.

11. Lukyanov S.I. Golubkina's life. - M.: Children's literature, 1965. - 112 p.

12. Sedova I.N. Plastic and verbal in Russian symbolism. Creative parallels of Anna Golubkina, Alexei Remizov and Mitrofan Rukavishnikov // Tretyakov Readings 2014. Proceedings of the reporting scientific conference. - M., 2015. - 480 p.

13. Trifonova L.P. Anna Semyonovna Golubkina /L.P. Trifonova. - L.: Artist of the RSFSR, 1976. - 55 p.

Publications in the Architecture section

5 wins and 5 losses of Anna Golubkina

Sofia Bagdasarova tells about the ups and downs of the first woman who became famous in Russia as a sculptor.

Win #1: Gardener Becomes Sculptor

Defeat #1: First trip to Paris

Win #2: Recovery

Win #3: Second trip to Paris

Anna Golubkina in Paris in 1898

Having restored peace of mind, Golubkina returned to Paris in 1897. And finally she found the one from whom she should have learned - Rodin.

Golubkina interpreted the teacher in her own way. And she did it with success: she was awarded a bronze medal and praised in the press. When she returned to Russia the following year, they already heard about her. Savva Morozov ordered her a relief to decorate the Moscow Art Theater. She created portraits of the most brilliant cultural figures of the Silver Age - A. Bely, A.N. Tolstoy, V. Ivanov. Chaliapin, however, refused to sculpt: she did not like him as a person.

Defeat #2: Revolutionary Activity

Defeat #3: Absence of Husband and Children

Anna Golubkina with a group of artists. Paris, 1895

Win #4: Moscow Exhibition

Victory #5: Civil War Survival

Lev Tolstoy. 1927

Defeat #5: The Fate of the Workshop

Only in 1972 Golubkina's reputation was cleared and the museum was decided to be restored. Since the workshop became a branch of the Tretyakov Gallery, it was easy to return many works to their native walls. But the rest of the works forever stuck in other cities. However, the main thing is that Golubkina got her good name back.

Life story
Her grandfather was a serf in his youth, in the end he managed to buy himself free and settled in Zaraysk, taking up gardening. Her father died early, and all her childhood and youth, together with her mother, brothers and sisters, she worked in the family garden. For the rest of her life, she retained respect for physical labor, vivid and figurative folk speech and self-esteem.
Anna Golubkina did not have any - even primary - education. Unless the deacon taught her to read and write... She re-read many books in her childhood, and at the same time she began to sculpt clay figurines. A local art teacher urged her to study seriously. Relatives did not interfere with this, but Annushka herself understood what it meant for a peasant family to lose a worker. Therefore, a lot of time passed before she decided to leave her native Zaraysk.
Anna was twenty-five years old when she, tied in a rustic handkerchief, in a black pleated skirt, arrived in Moscow and entered the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. “In the workshop between antique casts, strict and majestic, she looked like a mythical ancient Sibyl prophetess,” recalled S. T. Konenkov, who studied with her.
“She was a thin, tall, fast-moving girl with a spiritual, beautiful and strict face,” some contemporaries claimed. “... with an ugly and brilliant face,” others clarified.
The famous Russian philanthropist Maria Tenisheva said:
“Shortly after the return of A. N. Benois from St. Petersburg ... he began to tell me about some young talented sculptor from peasant women, who was in great need and showed brilliant hopes, began to persuade me to take her into his care, to give her the means to complete her artistic education..."
Tenisheva did not follow Benoit's ardent persuasions, did not take care of her and did not give any funds ... Which, by the way, she later regretted very much - when Golubkina's name was already widely known.
But the originality and strength of Golubkina's talent really attracted everyone's attention to her already during her studies. Later she moved to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Among her professors was the famous sculptor V. A. Beklemishev, who played a special role in the life of Anna Golubkina. In letters to her relatives, she called him "a remarkably kind and good person", "a great artist". Behind these general words was a deep, tragic, unrequited love, which Beklemishev himself, married to a rich merchant and happy in family life, never knew about.
In 1895 Golubkina left for Paris to continue her education. Her family and the Society of Art Lovers helped her with funds. She entered the Academy of F. Colarossi, but very soon she realized that the same salon-academic direction, which was completely alien to her in spirit, dominated there as in St. Petersburg. This year turned out to be very difficult for the young sculptor. Anna Semyonovna was tormented by creative dissatisfaction, doubts about the correctness of the chosen path, an unquenched feeling for Beklemishev. Some memoirists mention her short, unhappy relationship with some French artist and her suicide attempt... It is no coincidence that Golubkina fell ill with a nervous breakdown.
The artist E. S. Kruglikova brought her to Russia. Returning from the hospital to Zaraysk, to her family, Anna Semyonovna calmed down a bit and began to think about how to live on. And in the end I decided to go with my older sister Alexandra, who graduated from medical assistant courses, to Siberia. Here she worked at a resettlement center, helping her sister, with whom, like her mother, she always had a trusting relationship. The sculptor's mother, Ekaterina Yakovlevna, died at the end of 1898. Anna Semyonovna could not recover for a long time after this loss and did not take on any work until she fashioned her bust from memory ...
The second trip to Paris was more successful. The great Rodin himself saw the work of Golubkina and invited her to study under his guidance. Many years later, recalling a year of work with the master, Anna Semyonovna wrote to him: “You told me what I myself felt, and you gave me the opportunity to be free.”
The works of Golubkina, exhibited at the Paris Spring Salon in 1899, were a well-deserved success. In 1901, she received an order to sculpt the front entrance of the Moscow Art Theatre. The high relief "Wave" she made - a rebellious spirit struggling with the elements - still adorns the entrance to the old building of the Moscow Art Theater.
She visited Paris again in 1902. She also visited London and Berlin, getting acquainted with the masterpieces of world art. She returned from a trip with huge debts; There was nothing to rent a workshop, and Anna Semyonovna never knew how to get profitable orders.
True, already in the early years of the twentieth century, some of the works brought her decent fees. Golubkina's sculptures appeared more and more often at Russian exhibitions, each time meeting with an enthusiastic reception. But Anna Semyonovna distributed everything she earned with amazing generosity to needy, acquaintances and strangers, donated to a kindergarten, a school, a folk theater. And even after becoming famous, she still lived in poverty, eating only bread and tea for weeks.
“Her costume,” recalled one friend, “always consisted of a gray skirt, blouse and canvas apron. In ceremonial occasions, only the apron was removed.
Her entire ascetic life was devoted to art. She told the daughter of her friends, Evgenia Glagoleva: “If you want something to come out of your writing, don’t get married, don’t start a family. The art of the related does not like. One must come to art with free hands. Art is a feat, and here you need to forget everything, give everything away, and a woman in the family is a prisoner ... "And she confessed:" Whoever does not cry over his thing is not a creator.
Without her own family, Anna Semyonovna raised her niece Vera, the daughter of her older brother. Often and for a long time she lived with her relatives in Zaraysk, helped her sister with the housework, worked in the garden on an equal basis with everyone else. And this, oddly enough, did not interfere with her work at all ...
In the pre-revolutionary years, Zaraysk was one of the places of exile. The Golubkins' house constantly gathered "politically unreliable persons" expelled from the capitals, and the local revolutionary-minded intelligentsia. Slowly, but with interest, there were long conversations about the future of Russia over the samovar. Anna Semyonovna could not help being carried away by the idea of universal brotherhood, justice and happiness. She even distributed illegal literature... But once, when it came to the inevitability of a revolutionary upheaval, she prophetically said: "It's terrible how much, how much blood will be shed."
During the events of 1905, she ended up in Moscow. An eyewitness recalls that when the Cossacks dispersed people with whips, Anna Semyonovna rushed into the crowd, hung on the bridle of the horse of one of the riders and shouted in a frenzy: “Killers! You don't dare to beat the people!"
Two years later, she was arrested for distributing proclamations. In September 1907, the court sentenced the artist to a year's imprisonment in the fortress, but for health reasons she was released on bail. Anna Semyonovna remained under police surveillance for a long time. Here is another bitterly prescient phrase from her letter:
“In our times, nothing nasty can happen, because it already exists.”
When the First World War began, Golubkina was already fifty. Criticism wrote after her solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts: "Never before has Russian sculpture touched the viewer's heart so deeply as at this exhibition, arranged in the days of great trials." Anna Semyonovna donated the entire collection from the exhibition for the wounded.
The hot character of Golubkina made her rather quarrelsome even with close people. One of the stumbling blocks between her and her contemporaries is the purchase of her works.
“There are wonderful things - mostly portraits,” wrote artist I. Grabar, trustee of the Tretyakov Gallery, about the Golubkina exhibition. - I would buy 6-7 things, but she is like Konenkov: there is nothing to eat, but less than 2500-3000 rubles and do not approach. Just a misfortune this tramp pride and "contempt for the bourgeoisie", as she considers every person who wears a collar that is not dirty and wrinkled starched.
Well, this is exactly the kind of money the gallery paid for the most outstanding works of Russian artists, and private collectors bought them for a much higher price! For Golubkina and Konenkov, their older contemporary Valentin Serov, strict and principled, served as an example when it came to evaluating the work of artists.
Not a single sculpture by Golubkina has been sold since that exhibition. From the museum halls they migrated to some kind of basement, where they stood unattended for a long time, until the 1920s ... And then, in 1915, Anna Semenovna was again overtaken by a nervous breakdown. Dr. S. V. Medvedeva-Petrosyan said:
“I saw a tall, middle-aged, sickly-looking woman, with almost masculine features of an ugly face. She smiled at me, and what a charming smile it was, what an extraordinary radiance shone in her shining gray eyes, what an attractive force emanated from her whole being! I was immediately captivated by her ... The patient was tormented by gloomy melancholy and insomnia, however, even in the worst moments of her illness, her excellent moral character was not overshadowed by an impatient word or a sharp outburst. Everyone loved her very much."
Golubkina did not allow outsiders into her soul, she refused to pose for portraits. To all such requests, Mikhail Nesterov exclaimed:
"What do you! write me! Let me go crazy! Where do I go with my mug to a portrait! I am crazy". (Recalling Anna Semenovna years later, the artist said: “It was Maxim Gorky in a skirt, only with a different soul ...”) And, as a master, she advised her students: “Look for a person. If you find a person in a portrait, that’s beauty.”
Anna Semyonovna was even photographed extremely reluctantly. N. N. Chulkova, the wife of a writer, recalled: “... she said that she did not like her face and did not want her portrait to exist. “My face is actor’s, sharp, I don’t like it.” And in a rare photograph of her youth - a sweet girl with a blond braid ...
Few people know that the portrait of Golubkina still exists! In the painting by V. Makovsky "Party" (1897), she, still quite young, modestly stands at the table. He persuaded the artist to pose, albeit for a scene from folk life ...
“The artist (there can be no doubt!) quite deliberately prevented the collection and publication of materials that would be devoted to her biography,” says A. Kamensky, a researcher of the life and work of the sculptor. “Perhaps, nothing appreciated Golubkina so much as the ability to step back from oneself, completely dissolve in one’s business, become an echo of human experiences ...”
She never wrote down the location of her sold sculptures. The organizers of her museum put a lot of effort when in 1932 they collected the works of the master together, in the premises of her former workshop. Some of the works have not been found so far ...
... After the news of the October Revolution, Golubkina said: "Now, now real people will be in power." But soon she learned about the execution of two ministers of the Provisional Government, one of whom she was familiar with (later they wrote that they were shot by anarchists). And when they came to her from the Kremlin, offering a job, Anna Semyonovna, with her usual directness, answered: “You are killing good people,” and refused.
Despite this, in the first post-revolutionary months, Golubkina joined the Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Antiquity and Art and the bodies of the Moscow Council to combat homelessness. Dirty, ragged boys she brought to her workshop, fed, left to spend the night - even after one day they robbed her and nearly killed her.
Those who knew Golubkina claimed that she endured the hardships of those years more easily than others, because she was used to hardships and "did not notice them now." For the sake of earning money, the famous sculptor painted fabrics, carved jewelry from bone, but there was barely enough money not to starve to death ... She took private lessons, often free - as a rule, the fee was paid "in kind": for example, one of her students heated the workshop of the master.
In 1920-1922, Anna Semyonovna taught at art workshops, but she had to leave because of the unkind atmosphere. She was close to sixty, and a severe stomach ulcer was added to her old ailments from constant malnutrition and unrest. Another harsh word or rude attack against her could turn into excruciating pain and permanently deprive her of peace of mind. Once some guy threw in the face of the sculptor that she was already dead to art. The artist replied that she may have died, but she lived, and her evil opponent was always dead. Anna Semyonovna, who retired, had to undergo an operation ...
Straight to the point of sharpness, she could not be different in art either. At one time she refused to sculpt a bust of Chaliapin - she simply could not work on portraits of people to whom for some reason she had an ambivalent attitude. In 1907 she created a portrait of Andrei Bely - a perfect profile ... of a horse! She did not tolerate vainglory and unbridled praise. When one day her sculptures were compared with antique ones, she sharply replied: “Ignorance speaks in you!” Valery Bryusov, when Anna Semyonovna appeared in the literary and artistic circle, turned to her with a "highly pompous speech." Startled, Golubkina turned away, waved her hand at him three times, turned around and left.
In 1923, the sculptor took part in a competition for the manufacture of a monument to A. N. Ostrovsky. She presented nine sketches-variants, two of which were awarded prizes. But the first place and the right to make a monument was given to another author - N. Andreev. Anna Semyonovna, deeply offended, arrived at the meeting room and began to destroy her models: “They compared him Ostrovsky with mine! It's disgusting and nothing else."
Golubkina's last work, Leo Tolstoy, was unexpectedly the indirect cause of her death. In her youth, Anna Semyonovna once met with the "great old man" and, according to an eyewitness, had a serious argument with him about something. The impression from this meeting remained so strong that many years later she refused to use his photographs in her work and "made a portrait according to the presentation and from her own memories." The block, glued together from several pieces of wood, was massive and heavy, and Anna Semyonovna could not move it in any case after the operation, which was transferred in 1922. But she forgot about her age and illnesses: when two of her students unsuccessfully fought with a wooden colossus, she pushed them away with her shoulder and moved the unyielding tree with all her might. Soon after that, she felt bad and hurried to her sister, in Zaraysk: “She knows how to treat me ... Yes, I’ll come in three days ...”
The departure proved to be a fatal mistake. Professor A. Martynov, who treated the artist for many years, said that an immediate operation would certainly have saved her...
Anna Golubkina died on September 7, 1927 in her native Zaraysk.