Description
SERGEEV, NIKOLAI 1855-1919 Tsar-Svet signed, titled in Cyrillic and dated 1916 Oil on canvas, 112 by 112 cm.
Authenticity has been confirmed by Vladimir Petrov.
Exhibited: XIII Annual Spring Exhibition of Oils of the Union of Artists in the Rooms of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Petrograd, 1916-1917, No. 259.
Literature: Exhibition catalogue, XIII Annual Spring Exhibition of Oils of the Union of Artists in the Rooms of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Petrograd, 1916-1917, No. 259, listed.
Tsar-Svet is an object of extraordinary interest, both in terms ofpoetic mood and artistic purpose. It is a burning hot Ukrainianday. Gogol's beloved remote green landscapes of Poltava stand inthe midday light. The air is white-hot in the blinding rays of thesun. A stream stands still, almost motionless between the lowmeadow banks. A small farmstead, drowsy in the heat, slumbers inthe foreground. It is that midday time when all around is shroudedin a vague misty haze. All is visible, but at the same time sharpshadows lie on the earth. The sky is immense, endless - it occupies half the composition, hanging above the river which flowsaway into the distance, and above the lush green of the farm gardens. Seen at a sharp angle, it is crossed by many fine shadings ofcolour. In the foreground is the blue of the sky, in the mid-ground- a pale, pearly heat haze, and in the background - a dense,ashen-rose glow on the horizon. The artist was clearly inspired bythe desire to convey that moment when sunlight is most intense,with all the force that colour can achieve. The midday heat andthe brilliance and transparency of the abundant southern vegetation in the sun always captivated him. This same desire, in allprobability, also explains the choice of large canvases, in which thecarefully calculated scale of the landscape sometimes creates theillusion of real light. Characteristic in this respect is the gradualtransition from the long format of the canvases to the square format of the paintings and studies, and the compositional devicecharacteristic of Tsar-Svet, which allows the gaze to encompass allthe vastness of the sky diffusing its light over the fertile southernland. There is no doubt that the view before us is July, when theburning heat is at its most intense, its breath felt on everything -on the mud huts, on the trees, in the air and on the lazy farm ani-mals which the good housewife has come out to feed.
Throughout his life Sergeev delighted in painting the wonderfullandscapes of Ukraine, "Little Russia", which he had so loved sincechildhood: the shady forests and groves, the velvety green meadows, the quiet winding streams and the sun-drenched hills aroundKharkov, Kiev, Poltava. His peers noted that "as a landscapepainter, Sergeev did not confine himself to mere representation ofthe external forms of Nature, he perceived her with the soul of anartist and poet, sensitive to her life and many moods. His picturesare always poetic.., they are full of light, the brilliance of the sun'srays; they have a distinctive general tone and colouring, whichmade a favourable impression on Nikolai Alexandrovich from thevery first appearance of his works at exhibitions".
Sergeev's brush captured images of Ukrainian huts, standing out sobrightly in the meadow, the forest or by the river, homely villagecourtyards prettily shaded by a silver poplar, rowan or willow, andovergrown ponds. A generic motif is present in some of the artist'slandscapes - peasants depicted against the background of a natural scene, working in the fields, gathering fruit or threshing. But thefocus of interest in his best canvases was invariably the light, itseffects and elusive changing states. It is no accident that many ofthe artist's paintings have such titles as Light and Shade, Rainbow, Lightthrough the Clouds, Stars Dying Out, Ablaze, White Night, Mist, Rays,Fireflies, and so on. But the canvas Tsar-Svet presented here for auction, with its epic scope and pictorial perfection, stands out even inthis series as an undoubtedly programmatic work of the artist.
In his search for means to express the transparency and shades oflight on canvas as fully as possible, Sergeev focused very much ontexture and experimentation with painting techniques. For example, he would paint outlines in watercolours, sometimes leavingclean areas of the base layer showing through. Sergeev attachedgreat importance to glazes and used them, even though theyappear inconsistent with the character of his thickly texturedpainting on coarse canvas. Although Sergeev created a great number of meticulously precise nature studies, he often painted largeworks only from his impression, without preliminary studies, andsubsequently regarded these paintings as his best works.
By 1916 when he created Tsar-Svet, the artist had achieved the fullflowering of his artistic gift and was widely known and highlyesteemed by the intelligentsia of the capital. Thus, the author ofan article in Khudozhestvennye Novosti wrote: "Sergeev is one of ourmost productive painters; in a comparatively short time, he hasgained a reputation as a talented landscape painter and standsequal to the best of our painters of nature. In his manner, hepartly resembles V. Orlowsky, but he develops slightly differentthemes: ... in his paintings we undoubtedly feel the scope of a trueartist, pensive, poetically attuned and able without the slightestaffectation to give emphasis to his own poetic feeling".
Sergeev received his early education in Kharkov, where he graduatedfrom the same school as Semiradsky and Vasilkovsky, the best in thecity. This school was famous, especially for the drawing lessons taughtby the artist D. Bezperchiy, a pupil of the great Karl Brullov.Sergeev's parents encouraged their son's passion for painting, but didnot take it seriously - they were preparing the young man for acareer as a road engineer. Giving their blessings to their son on completion of his course, in 1876 they sent him to the St PetersburgSchool of Military Engineering. But Sergeev had other plans, andwhen he failed his drawing exam for the Academy of Arts, the tal-ented youth became a pupil in the private studio of Lev Lagorio.
His lessons with the well-known painter of seascapes were successful, and in 1886 Sergeev was awarded a Large silver medal forworks presented at the Academy exhibition: Outskirts of a CossackTown, On a Country Road, On the Flood-Meadow. F. Bulgakov, a well-known art critic who visited the exhibition, so accurately caughtthe essential spirit of this emerging landscape painter in his earlywork, that he effectively defined the artist's creative credo for therest of his life: "Sergeev is one of those artists who depict thebeauty of nature in Ukraine, and his new landscapes show manyoriginal features ... The picture On the Flood-Meadow is one of thebest pieces in the exhibition, it brings to mind the characteristicfeatures of Ukraine.
