Boris Kustodiev was an artist, graphic painter, sculptor and a book illustrator. He was born in 1878, in a family of a theological seminary instructor in Astrakhan. On finishing the parochial school, Kustidiev entered gymnasia. At the age of nine, the future artist saw the paintings of the Association of Itinerant Art Exhibitions and set his mind on starting to learn painting.
Boris Kustodiev was an apprentice of Pavel Vlasov, a famous Astrakhan painter. On completing the course in the seminary, he entered the High School of Art at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied under the guidance of Vasilii Savinskiy and Ilya Repin.
Kustodiev was granted the title of painter and a gold medal in 1903. A year after he became the member- founder of the New Painters’ Association established in St. Petersburg under the chairmanship of Dmitrii Kardovskiy. In 1909, Kustodiev was granted Academician of Painting title, and since 1910, he was a member of the Mir Iskusstva association.
The painter made an authentic depiction of the Russian provincial life: fairs, festivals and public festivities. His paintings are distinguished by the intrinsic brightness, polychromy, and an accuracy for details. Kustodiev created his own individual painting style, a style of a fairy tale, the folk, wood-coloured-type, gaudy representation.
Boris Kustodiev journeyed around villages and made sketches of the landscapes, genre scenes, peasants’ portraits. The public festivities and festivals were reflected in a number of the painter’s works of different periods. Kustodiev chose a similar theme was his graduation work at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.
The Christmas Tree Bargain was created in 1918. Kustodiev depicted the Christmas tree market as a festive event. The space in the painting reminds a stage: the painter turned the actual atmosphere of the Christmas Eve into a performance.
Kustodiev arranged the people’s figures chaotically, which creates the impression that the representation in the picture could be extended in any direction. The discontinuity of the composition and its specific fluidity, intensify that feeling.
Kustodiev put a special emphasis on the lines and the colour patch play. The light in The Christmas Tree Bargain is only slightly indicative: the artist intentionally stripped the sky of its depth, while painting the cupolas of the church with intensive colour patches, thus critically reducing the difference in dimensions. Thereby Kustidiev succeeded in reaching the decorativeness of the image and created the atmosphere of the New Year performance. The church cupolas look as if taken from a fairy tale, whereas the people in the street market are the brightly coloured costume scenery around the major subject of the bargain, the Christmas Tree.
Boris Kustodiev was an apprentice of Pavel Vlasov, a famous Astrakhan painter. On completing the course in the seminary, he entered the High School of Art at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied under the guidance of Vasilii Savinskiy and Ilya Repin.
Kustodiev was granted the title of painter and a gold medal in 1903. A year after he became the member- founder of the New Painters’ Association established in St. Petersburg under the chairmanship of Dmitrii Kardovskiy. In 1909, Kustodiev was granted Academician of Painting title, and since 1910, he was a member of the Mir Iskusstva association.
The painter made an authentic depiction of the Russian provincial life: fairs, festivals and public festivities. His paintings are distinguished by the intrinsic brightness, polychromy, and an accuracy for details. Kustodiev created his own individual painting style, a style of a fairy tale, the folk, wood-coloured-type, gaudy representation.
Boris Kustodiev journeyed around villages and made sketches of the landscapes, genre scenes, peasants’ portraits. The public festivities and festivals were reflected in a number of the painter’s works of different periods. Kustodiev chose a similar theme was his graduation work at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts.
The Christmas Tree Bargain was created in 1918. Kustodiev depicted the Christmas tree market as a festive event. The space in the painting reminds a stage: the painter turned the actual atmosphere of the Christmas Eve into a performance.
Kustodiev arranged the people’s figures chaotically, which creates the impression that the representation in the picture could be extended in any direction. The discontinuity of the composition and its specific fluidity, intensify that feeling.
Kustodiev put a special emphasis on the lines and the colour patch play. The light in The Christmas Tree Bargain is only slightly indicative: the artist intentionally stripped the sky of its depth, while painting the cupolas of the church with intensive colour patches, thus critically reducing the difference in dimensions. Thereby Kustidiev succeeded in reaching the decorativeness of the image and created the atmosphere of the New Year performance. The church cupolas look as if taken from a fairy tale, whereas the people in the street market are the brightly coloured costume scenery around the major subject of the bargain, the Christmas Tree.
