Igor Emmanuilovich GRABAR

Born 1871, Budapest - Died 1960, Moscow

Painter, architect, writer, theoretician of art

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Biography:

Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar was born on March 25th, 1871 in Budapest. His father, Emmanuil Ivanovich Grabar, a lawyer, came from Ugro-Russia, then a part of Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In 1876 he moved to Russia, taking the name Khrabrov. In 1880 Grabar’s mother with her nine-year-old son joined her husband and enrolled him in the Yegoryevsk preparatory school in the Riazan province (now the Moscow region), where his father was teaching. In 1882 they transferred the boy to M.Katkov’s lyceé in Moscow.

Grabar’s passion for drawing has already shown itself in early childhood. His first portraits of teachers and fellow-pupils as well as his first oil landscapes date to his school years.

After finishing the lyceé in 1889, Grabar entered the faculty of Law at the St. Petersburg University, as there were no vacancies in the Faculty of History and Philosophy, and has attended a full course at both. Upon graduation in Law in 1893, he wanted to take the examinations for History and Philosophy as well, but was denied his request because of his participation in student strikes.

While an undergraduate student, Grabar wrote for a number of magazines. In 1890 the A.Marx house published a series of stories by Gogol with Grabar’s illustrations, signed as Khrabrov.

In 1894 Grabar entered the St.Petersburg Academy of Arts, headed at that time by such well-known Russian artists as I.Repin, A.Kuinji and V.Mathé. A year later he joined Repin’s studio and was taught by Chistiakov.

In 1895 Grabar went to Europe for the first time to study the renowned architecture monuments and picture galleries of France, Germany and Italy. He was astounded by the paintings by Gauguin, Van Gogh and Sézanne, which he saw in Vollard’s little art shop, scarcely known at that time. 

Striving to improve his artistic education Grabar left for Munich in 1896. There he entered the private art school of Anton Ažbe, famous for its techniques of drawing from nature. Ažbe taught him to paint in broad sweeps without mixing the colors on his palette. Grabar made quick progress, and before long has set up a teaching studio, first in partnership with Ažbe, then on his own. While in Munich (1896-1901), Grabar lost no time, attending the architecture course in the Polytechnic.

Grabar admired the paintings of the Impressionists, and the artists both preceding and succeeding them. However, he did not try to imitate their manner of painting. Perfect rendering of form and color and the utmost clarity of composition characterize his paintings from the Munich period – “Lady with a dog” and “Lady at the piano” (1899).

In 1901, Grabar’s return to Russia marks a new period in his life. It was there that Grabar was to create the landscapes, which would open a new page in the history of Russian painting. Having assimilated the system of Impressionism, he was ready to enrich the painting of his native land with new artistic devices. He spent the summer and autumn of 1901 in the environs of Moscow and fell in love with the beauty of the spectacle of that golden autumn so much, that he painted landscapes for whole days without intermission.

On his own admission, the painting ”September snow” (1903), marks a turning point in his development as an artist. Russian critics welcomed this painting enthusiastically, seeing in it an expression of novel artistic searchings.

Many of the artist’s woks are connected with the Russianwinter, snow (“White winter. Rook’s nests”, “February sky-blue”, “March snow”, “The spring flow” – all of 1904, – and others). His favorite tree, the birch, is present in near all his works from “White winter” to the last study “Birch-tree lane”, 1959.

Grabar’s manner in this period is characterized by the separate brush strokes technique, altered according to the nature of what the artist is depicting: a single painting may contain various types of brush strokes. Everything about Grabar’s work amazed his contemporaries – from the balanced sobriety of the composition to the genuine violence of the colors. Still life attracted the artist no less than landscapes. The beauty of everyday things surrounding man is conveyed in works such as “Flowers and fruits on the piano” (1904), “Chrysanthemums” (1905) and “After the meal” (1907), which have become classic examples of still life of the early XXth century.

Grabar’s career as a painter was closely connected with his activity as a theoretician of art. He was one of the first essayists to supply Russian readers regular information about Western-European art. From the end of the 1880’s he began to contribute to the “World of Art” magazine, and his own paintings were continually on show at the exhibitions of the World of Art group. Many of the most outstanding members of the World of Art group were his friends: E.Lanceray, B.Kustodiev, A.Ostroumova-Lebedeva and especially A.Benois.

In the years 1910-1914 several volumes of his “History of Russian Art” were published (Moscow, Knebel publishing house).

Besides with his careful study of Russian painting and architecture, Grabar was concerned for a number of years with the design and construction of a hospital on the outskirts of Moscow, near the station of Khimki (today the Zakharyino sanatorium).

Grabar was no less attracted by museum work. In 1913 he became director of the Tretyakov gallery and remained in office until 1925. His management of the gallery was linked with the fundamental reform of exhibition techniques. He also brought about the publication of the gallery’s first descriptive catalogue in 1917. 

His strenuous work left him less and less time for painting. From 1908 to the end of 1914 there was a long interruption in his artistic career. But he not only wished to remain a painter, he wanted to paint in a different way. His impetus brush strokes seem to change, the colors becoming more decorative. In still life he paints fruit in vases, baskets and simply scattered around tables covered with patterned cloth, ignoring the surrounding interior and concentrating on revealing the decorative quality of color. As a rule, the surface of the table is raised gradually and flattened. 

Never tiring of painting study after study, the artist did not want to lose the skills, acquired through efforts of so many years. But he had to forego painting for a task of national importance: preservation of historic monuments.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Grabar took an active part in organizing the safe custody of museum treasures. In Moscow, the Department of Museum Work and the Preservation of Historic and Cultural Monuments was founded. Later (1918-1930), Grabar was to head the Central State Restoration Workshops, concerned with the systematic discovery and restoration of masterpieces of early Russian icons and monumental painting.

In 1920 Grabar launched an expedition northwards, along the Northern Dvina and the White Sea coast. He painted several studies along the banks of the Dvina, particularly successful amongst these are “The village of Oseryodok on the Northern Dvina” and “The Siyski monastery. His joy of his contact with nature is also evident in his “Autumn at its height” (1921), “Clear autumn evening” (1923) and “On the ake” (1926). 

Grabar the portrait painter has created his finest pieces during 1921-1935. He painted a series of portraits of persons well known in soviet science and culture: academicians N.Zelinsky and S.Chaplygin, writer K.Chukovsky and composer S.Prokofiev. 

During the 30’s Grabar was engaged in writing his autobiographical work “My Life”. This book was published in 1937. This year also saw the publication of his two-volume monograph of Repin (one of a large series of monographs about artists), which was later to receive a State Prize. 

From 1937 to 1943 he was director of Moscow Art Institute. During the World War II he headed the All-Russian Academy of Arts and the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1944 he initiated the foundation of a Scientific Research Institute of History of Art of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which he headed until the time of his death. Grabar was made People’s Artist of the USSR and was awarded two Orders of Lenin as well as the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

During the 40’s and the 50’s, the painter returned to the natural scenery of his youth, in the Moscow district. He worked until the winter of 1959. The master painter died on May 16th, 1960.

The artistic career of Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar continued for over five decades. Throughout his long life Grabar was both an artist and a scholar. Whichever sphere he was concerned with – painting, literary and critical writing, composing a history of Russian Art, restoration of historical monuments or museum work – he was always linked with new artistic searchings and scientific discoveries.

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