In 1935, Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin became a Soviet citizen. Upon returning to his homeland, the artist was actively involved in pedagogical and creative work.
During this period, Bilibin focused on graphic compositions. He came up with a new version of illustrations for the “Tale of Tsar Saltan”. At the same time, he created a series of illustrations for Aleksey Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the First”.
Bilibin had been isolated from the Soviet art and its development for many years, but his work did not undergo fundamental changes in the post-revolutionary decades. However, if in his old works Bilibin preferred to depict figures in calm, even static poses, and conveyed distinct movement and sharp gesture conditionally as a prolonged state, coordinating the outline of a moving figure with the general pattern of the composition, then in his plot illustrations of the 1930s, for example, for “Peter the First”, Bilibin strived for a more direct rendering of movement. Although, the artist did not always succeed: the figures fall out of the traditional Bilibin composition. Therefore, the best, most integral works of that time were those in which Bilibin still followed the laws of “strict graphics”.
In his autobiographical notes of 1938, the artist speaks about the need to reveal the figurative content of a literary work in illustrations and about the individualization of the portrait characteristics of the protagonist: “An illustrator should first of all think about what work is in front of them at the moment.”
The novel by Aleksey Tolstoy “Peter the First” is the central work of the writer’s Petrine theme. However, the subject of the novel is not only the personality of the famous Russian tsar, but also the entire era of reforms and upheavals, the time when peasant Russia, which had hitherto followed its own special path, suddenly came into contact with the European civilization and its material culture. This contact was both progressive and painful, as attempts to inculcate a European way of life sometimes were in deep contradiction with national traditions, could not blossom on Russian soil and, of course, generated resistance. The novel “Peter the First” firmly entered the canon of Soviet literature. From 1947 to 1990, it was republished 97 times in the USSR.
During this period, Bilibin focused on graphic compositions. He came up with a new version of illustrations for the “Tale of Tsar Saltan”. At the same time, he created a series of illustrations for Aleksey Tolstoy’s novel “Peter the First”.
Bilibin had been isolated from the Soviet art and its development for many years, but his work did not undergo fundamental changes in the post-revolutionary decades. However, if in his old works Bilibin preferred to depict figures in calm, even static poses, and conveyed distinct movement and sharp gesture conditionally as a prolonged state, coordinating the outline of a moving figure with the general pattern of the composition, then in his plot illustrations of the 1930s, for example, for “Peter the First”, Bilibin strived for a more direct rendering of movement. Although, the artist did not always succeed: the figures fall out of the traditional Bilibin composition. Therefore, the best, most integral works of that time were those in which Bilibin still followed the laws of “strict graphics”.
In his autobiographical notes of 1938, the artist speaks about the need to reveal the figurative content of a literary work in illustrations and about the individualization of the portrait characteristics of the protagonist: “An illustrator should first of all think about what work is in front of them at the moment.”
The novel by Aleksey Tolstoy “Peter the First” is the central work of the writer’s Petrine theme. However, the subject of the novel is not only the personality of the famous Russian tsar, but also the entire era of reforms and upheavals, the time when peasant Russia, which had hitherto followed its own special path, suddenly came into contact with the European civilization and its material culture. This contact was both progressive and painful, as attempts to inculcate a European way of life sometimes were in deep contradiction with national traditions, could not blossom on Russian soil and, of course, generated resistance. The novel “Peter the First” firmly entered the canon of Soviet literature. From 1947 to 1990, it was republished 97 times in the USSR.
