The
still life by Antonina Sofronova, an artist and member of the “Jack of
Diamonds” association, was presented to Mikhail Bulgakov by his friend, the
decorative artist Sergey Topleninov. Like Mikhail Afanasyevich, Topleninov
collaborated with the Moscow Art Theater and other Moscow theaters. Lyubov
Belozerskaya, Bulgakov’s second wife, described the artist as follows,
Still Life (copy of a painting by A.F. Sofronova
Creation period
1986–1987
Place of сreation
Moscow, the USSR
Dimensions
100,5x81 cm
Technique
oil, canvas
Collection
0
Open in app#4
#10
A charming and sociable man, a jack of all trades, a guitarist and a connoisseur of old romantic songs.
#11
Bulgakov often visited Topleninov in his house at 9 Mansurovsky lane, which was entirely owned by the artist and his brother Vladimir. Mikhail Afanasyevich even had his own little room with a stove there. According to some experts on Bulgakov, this house with a semi-basement served as the prototype of the Master’s basement in the novel “The Master and Margarita”.
#5
It is a still life, painted in dark Rembrandt tones, however, the content is highly revolutionary: potatoes take pride of place in a silver vase; in the foreground, on a piece of velvet is an onion; next to the apples is a turnip.
#6
Mikhail Afanasyevich himself was rather indifferent to painting. The artist Natalia Ushakova, who was a friend of Bulgakov, left a distinctive memory,
#7
When he often came to us in the afternoon — the table was in front of the sofa, and above the sofa on the wall there was a Sapunov, curtain to ‘The Bourgeois from the Nobility’. And he usually sat across the table — it would seem that, with his interest in Molière, this was supposed to interest him. But he only teased me: ‘What a terrible picture you have! ’ He could only be interested in who was in the painting…
#8
Nevertheless, Bulgakov hung Antonina Sofronova’s painting in the living room. When divorcing Lyubov Yevgenyevna in 1932, Mikhail Afanasyevich gave the painting to her, and decades later, Bulgakov’s expert and artist Alexander Kurushin, who was a friend of Lyubov Yevgenyevna, painted a copy of Sofronova’s painting and presented it to the Bulgakov Museum along with other items that are displayed in the permanent exhibition at 35a Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street.
#9
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
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Still Life (copy of a painting by A.F. Sofronova
Creation period
1986–1987
Place of сreation
Moscow, the USSR
Dimensions
100,5x81 cm
Technique
oil, canvas
Collection
0
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