The collection of the Western European art put together by A.P. Bogolyubov can be conventionally split into two parts: contemporary artists and old masters. Both parts could not be separated from the personality, creativity and his life.
He was a painter and drawer, participant of the contemporary arts process. This is one of the features of the collection from which the Radishchev Museum started. ‘Communication with oils and painting mechanisms never drew up from books but only from practice comparing with the outcomes of the years and strangers’ pictures having effect on me’, — he writes about himself. In Rome, Dusseldorf, Paris, on the shores of Normandy he was among artists who came from different parts of Europe and USA.
The diversified and multiple acquaintances in the art world reflected the composition of the arts collection and drawings of artists contemporary to Bogolyubov. One of the most significant works of the collection is Tide in Normandy by Charles Daubigny. The shores of Normandy are a fairly rare motive in the creativity of Daubigny who preferred more pacified flat landscapes of the shores of Seine and Marne. However, very few of the artists of that time seeking to master the technique of conveyance of living air and light environment who didn’t work on the shores of Normandy.
The interest towards the conveyance of the time of day, nuances of lighting, air and light environment in the landscapes of Daubigny foreshadow the searches of impressionists. On the painting Tide in Normandy the state of nature is conveyed in such a manner that one can discern the time of the year, direction of wind.
The dramaturgy of the landscape is shaped in a natural way from the interaction between natural forms. A strong marine wind sets in motion the sea, clouds and riparian vegetation. The dynamics of the picture is developed and amplified through a broken diagonal of the shoreline.
The artist managed to link the expression of a certain moment in the life of nature and a lofty feeling of its infiniteness together. Bogolyubov was proud of the works of Daubigny in his collection. He admired craftsmanship of the French artist and attentively studied the painting method on open air applied by Daubigny. With his knowledge Bogolyubov shared with his compatriots. ‘Youth started coming to me — notes Bogolyubov having returned from Saint Petersburg after a pensioner travel, — I presented them my standpoints to art and recommended to paint more sketches from life and not by drafts as our summer work of artists used to start with, but definitively and consciously’.
