The painting “Portrait of the composer Dmitry Morozov” shows a composer and musician who was famous during Kustodiev’s lifetime. It was painted in the artist’s house.
Dmitry Vitalievich Morozov (1882–1942) composed numerous romances and symphonies, and was known for his chamber vocal music. There are records of the performance of Morozov’s symphonic poem “From the Life of a Hero” in 1923. It tells of three important moments of the hero’s journey using musical images: a young man gaining strength, a hero performing a feat, and a man passing on his great ideas to descendants. Art produced in the wake of the October Revolution, often had a distinct romantic pathos to it. In this portrait Boris Kustodiev wanted to show the composer in the process of creation. The artist himself was not too pleased with the portrait, he believed that he “wasn’t able to catch the moment of inspiration once again”.
The study drawing for this painting, which turned out to be much more successful, lively and frank, is kept in the collection of the State Russian Museum. It wasn’t just a random portrait. The Kustodievs were quite close with the Morozovs. The musician’s wife, Eulalia Dogayeva, was also native of Astrakhan, the daughter of a famous local doctor. Kustodiev taught drawing to one of the Morozovs’ sons, Roman. In 1916, the artist’s son Kirill spent the summer at the Morozovs’ dacha in Finland.
Boris Kustodiev was musically gifted. He enjoyed listening to music, attended musical theater, and played arias from operas on the piano. The Kustodievs were friends with many musicians. They had a beautiful grand piano made by the “Blüthner” company in their living room, which they received as a gift from the conductor Wendel. Young Dmitry Shostakovich played in their house, along with such brilliant performers as Vladimir Sofronitsky, Maria Yudina and Konstantin Igumnov. Inside the walls of this house one could hear music by Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and, of course, Wagner — the family’s favorite composer. Having undergone several surgeries, Kustodiev, active, lively, cheerful, continued to stay in the thick of things, worked a lot and was constantly surrounded by people.
The portrait of Morozov was
donated to the museum by Yulia Kustodieva in 1929.
