The Swan Princess by Mikhail Vrubel, which is on display, was acquired by Pavel Dogadin at the Moscow antique shop Venice owned by Alexander Golikov in 1915. A fireplace screen sketch was originally designed for Savva Mamontov, one of Vrubel’s regular customers.
Mikhail Vrubel suffered a tragic fate. The artist was born in Omsk in 1856. He was a weak and sickly child who learned to walk only at the age of three. Mikhail got interested in art at an early age. He studied painting with professional teachers, painted his family’s portraits and copied the paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky and the frescoes by Michelangelo.
In the 1870s, Vrubel was a student at the Law School of St. Petersburg University. Learning did not come easily to him, and it was theater, philosophy and drawing that Mikhail was much more interested in. In those years he got acquainted with some art students from the Academy of Arts which he entered in 1880. Vrubel got into the workshop of Pavel Chistyakov and the watercolor workshop of Ilya Repin. He created sketches for restoration of old frescoes, painted murals on Church walls and created several icons. In 1885 Vrubel headed for Italy where he continued his study of church painting and the Byzantine art.
In the 1890s, Vrubel lived in Moscow and worked on illustrations for the complete works of Mikhail Lermontov. His characteristic style formed in these years: the artist began to use angular brushstrokes in painting which made his works resemble idiosyncratic mosaics.
Vrubel also became a family man after marrying Nadezhda Zabele, an opera singer, who after several years of marriage gave birth to their son and left the stage.
Mikhail Vrubel suffered a tragic fate. The artist was born in Omsk in 1856. He was a weak and sickly child who learned to walk only at the age of three. Mikhail got interested in art at an early age. He studied painting with professional teachers, painted his family’s portraits and copied the paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky and the frescoes by Michelangelo.
In the 1870s, Vrubel was a student at the Law School of St. Petersburg University. Learning did not come easily to him, and it was theater, philosophy and drawing that Mikhail was much more interested in. In those years he got acquainted with some art students from the Academy of Arts which he entered in 1880. Vrubel got into the workshop of Pavel Chistyakov and the watercolor workshop of Ilya Repin. He created sketches for restoration of old frescoes, painted murals on Church walls and created several icons. In 1885 Vrubel headed for Italy where he continued his study of church painting and the Byzantine art.
In the 1890s, Vrubel lived in Moscow and worked on illustrations for the complete works of Mikhail Lermontov. His characteristic style formed in these years: the artist began to use angular brushstrokes in painting which made his works resemble idiosyncratic mosaics.
Vrubel also became a family man after marrying Nadezhda Zabele, an opera singer, who after several years of marriage gave birth to their son and left the stage.
