The artist of this painting, Alexander Alexeyevich Borisov, had a close connection to the Solovetsky Islands (or Solovki) since childhood. Borisov wrote about that connection himself: ‘When I was about ten, I got very ill, without any hope of recovery. My parents made a vow: if my condition improves, they’ll send me off to Solovetsky Monastery to work for a year for the benefit of the Church. Eventually I recovered and was sent off to Solovki at the age of fifteen. There I was appointed to a seine fishing ground. I took a lot of pleasure in this work and rejoiced in rambling through the woods from one unexplored lake to another, setting nets and fishing, without noticing the days passing by… A year later I came back home, but my soul was longing to escape. For a long time, I was trying to push away the persistent thought of leaving. At last, at the age of eighteen, I decided to go to Solovki once again and try to win admission to an icon-painting studio.’
Borisov was given a certificate stating that he had stayed at the monastery “for prayer and labour, performing a work of penance: first, as a fisherman in Savvaty hermitage, later, in a painting studio”, that had been established in Solovki in 1880. In the following years, Borisov, already a professional painter, continued visiting Solovetsky Islands now and then. In 1898, a boat for his Arctic expedition was equipped in Solovki. In the 1910s, Borisov used to come to the islands to paint studies.
In 1913, an interview with Borisov was published in Vecherneye Vremya, a St. Petersburg newspaper. “I”m not staying in St. Petersburg for long. Life turned out so that most part of the year I have to stay outside of Russia.
On the upside, every summer I head for the North and start working non-stop. We still don”t fully realize how beautiful, how mighty, how unique Northern nature is, and so I wish to depict it in my pictures. This summer, I am planning to work in Solovki. It surprises me that Russian painters who have visited those places weren”t carried away by the freshness of the landscape. How appealing it is, how typically Russian! Just Solovetsky monastery alone, with its peculiar architecture, with those huge, massive walls and formidable towers made of large boulders, surrounded by gnarled centenarian trees, can give a painter a lot to reflect on. Anyway, I am sure that soon painters are going to pay much more attention to the North of Russia. Now I am leaving for my home on North Dvina river, and then I will move to Solovki for the summer”, Borisov said in the interview.
The result of those artist trips was a large set of canvases representing architectural landscapes of Solovki. One of them is Harbour near Solovetsky Monastery.
Borisov was given a certificate stating that he had stayed at the monastery “for prayer and labour, performing a work of penance: first, as a fisherman in Savvaty hermitage, later, in a painting studio”, that had been established in Solovki in 1880. In the following years, Borisov, already a professional painter, continued visiting Solovetsky Islands now and then. In 1898, a boat for his Arctic expedition was equipped in Solovki. In the 1910s, Borisov used to come to the islands to paint studies.
In 1913, an interview with Borisov was published in Vecherneye Vremya, a St. Petersburg newspaper. “I”m not staying in St. Petersburg for long. Life turned out so that most part of the year I have to stay outside of Russia.
On the upside, every summer I head for the North and start working non-stop. We still don”t fully realize how beautiful, how mighty, how unique Northern nature is, and so I wish to depict it in my pictures. This summer, I am planning to work in Solovki. It surprises me that Russian painters who have visited those places weren”t carried away by the freshness of the landscape. How appealing it is, how typically Russian! Just Solovetsky monastery alone, with its peculiar architecture, with those huge, massive walls and formidable towers made of large boulders, surrounded by gnarled centenarian trees, can give a painter a lot to reflect on. Anyway, I am sure that soon painters are going to pay much more attention to the North of Russia. Now I am leaving for my home on North Dvina river, and then I will move to Solovki for the summer”, Borisov said in the interview.
The result of those artist trips was a large set of canvases representing architectural landscapes of Solovki. One of them is Harbour near Solovetsky Monastery.
