Artist Mikhail Kostin was born in 1918 in the Cossack village of Koisug, Rostov Region. He graduated from the Moscow Surikov Art Institute. He participated in the Great Patriotic War, and then became a teacher at the Vladivostok Art School, chairman of the Primorsky Union of Artists. Later he worked in Moscow.
The artist worked in portrait, landscape and still life genres. Several of his paintings were shown at the All-Union and Republican art exhibitions. Kostin’s works are now kept in many regional Russian museums.
The painting “Denis Davydov and Bagration” depicts a poet, hussar and partisan, the commander of the 1st battalion of the Akhtyrsk hussar regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Denis Davydov, outlining his guerilla plan to Prince Bagration. Even though the painting is called “Denis Davydov and Bagration”, there is also a third figure on the canvas, placed with his back to the viewer. Considering some details of the figure: a gray-haired head, general’s epaulettes, a ribbon of the Order of St. George of the 1st degree over the right shoulder, it can be assumed that this person is Mikhail Kutuzov.
However, the scene depicted on the canvas could not have taken place. Denis Davydov was the adjutant of Prince Bagration for seven years. But on the eve of the Patriotic War of 1812, he submitted a report on transfer to an army regiment and became a lieutenant colonel of the Akhtyrka hussar regiment. Throughout the entire period of the war, when the Russian army retreated inland, and the Napoleonic army followed it, Davydov hatched plans for guerilla in the enemy rear.
Shortly before the battle at Borodino, taking advantage of Prince Bagration’s favor, he decided to approach to him with a proposal to start guerilla. From Davydov’s ‘Diary of Guerilla Warfare’ it is known that he twice met Prince Bagration on the eve of the Battle of Borodino. During the first meeting, Denis Davydov outlined his plan for guerilla to Bagration, received the approval of the prince and his promise to talk with the commander-in-chief. The second meeting took place after Prince Bagration received permission from Kutuzov to Davydov to lead a party of hussars and Cossacks for operations in the enemy rear and hastened to report this to the lieutenant colonel. Thus, Davydov did not meet His Serene Highness the Prince himself.
The artist worked in portrait, landscape and still life genres. Several of his paintings were shown at the All-Union and Republican art exhibitions. Kostin’s works are now kept in many regional Russian museums.
The painting “Denis Davydov and Bagration” depicts a poet, hussar and partisan, the commander of the 1st battalion of the Akhtyrsk hussar regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Denis Davydov, outlining his guerilla plan to Prince Bagration. Even though the painting is called “Denis Davydov and Bagration”, there is also a third figure on the canvas, placed with his back to the viewer. Considering some details of the figure: a gray-haired head, general’s epaulettes, a ribbon of the Order of St. George of the 1st degree over the right shoulder, it can be assumed that this person is Mikhail Kutuzov.
However, the scene depicted on the canvas could not have taken place. Denis Davydov was the adjutant of Prince Bagration for seven years. But on the eve of the Patriotic War of 1812, he submitted a report on transfer to an army regiment and became a lieutenant colonel of the Akhtyrka hussar regiment. Throughout the entire period of the war, when the Russian army retreated inland, and the Napoleonic army followed it, Davydov hatched plans for guerilla in the enemy rear.
Shortly before the battle at Borodino, taking advantage of Prince Bagration’s favor, he decided to approach to him with a proposal to start guerilla. From Davydov’s ‘Diary of Guerilla Warfare’ it is known that he twice met Prince Bagration on the eve of the Battle of Borodino. During the first meeting, Denis Davydov outlined his plan for guerilla to Bagration, received the approval of the prince and his promise to talk with the commander-in-chief. The second meeting took place after Prince Bagration received permission from Kutuzov to Davydov to lead a party of hussars and Cossacks for operations in the enemy rear and hastened to report this to the lieutenant colonel. Thus, Davydov did not meet His Serene Highness the Prince himself.
