"Custodian women": a song to Russian beauty

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev (1878-1927) worked in a variety of genres, but most of all his name is associated with a number of portraits. Love of life, the ability to convey to the canvas the admiration of the world that was already leaving, a cozy and sedate world of merchants. He was somewhat idealized. Women, who portrayed BM Kustodiev, are always beautiful and often majestic and monumental.

Some facts from the biography

Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev was born in the family of a seminary teacher in Astrakhan. Father died early, but the boy, finishing gymnasium, began to learn painting from a local artist. The life of the merchant city on the Volga forever imprinted in his memory, and Kustodiev's paintings, even if they show other places, for example, "Fair" or "Walking", will resemble their native places. Since 1896, Kustodiyev studied for six years with I. Repin. And since 1906, he is looking for his way in art and comes to the image of petty-bourgeois merchant life in the province. Later it will be inspired by the Slavic type of woman, what is called "blood with milk": black eyebrows puff, huge eyes, snow-white skin with a gentle blush on the cheek, bright lips. Later this type of Russian Venus will be called "Kustodievsky women". The artist married in 1900 on an elegant, fragile girl, whom he met, having left for sketches in the Kostroma province. I must say that Julia Evstafievna endured the illness of her husband steadfastly. And when the doctors put her in front of a dilemma that she would leave in motion after the operation - hands or feet, she chose her hands. For the husband, full of creative plans, could not exist without painting. Since 1909, Kustodiev used a wheelchair, and for these same years and subsequent, the peak of his creative activity is necessary.

Cheerful canvases

The disease did not break Boris Mikhailovich. And the hungry 1920s brought to his paintings that type of women who are called "Custodian women". Western ladies and girls, lean, with narrow hips and rather broad shoulders, are very different from Russians. In Russia, the people (unlike the nobility) formed their ideal of beauty: tall, stately, dense, strong, with rounded shoulders, with broad hips and a thin waist woman. This we see in the picture "Merchant" (1918). It depicts a tall, lofty girl (a married woman would have a headscarf on her head) in a bright satin dress. She is full of quiet confidence in her beauty. You look at her and wonder - what stardom! Truly a Russian woman. Occupying the first plan of the picture, it rises above the surrounding reality. Everything in comparison with her is small, insignificant. Yes, "Custodian women" are just like that. In addition, at the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX century pampered sad women entered the fashion, which we see on the canvases of B. Borisov-Musatov, K. Somov. And what is worse than "Kustodievsky women"? Nothing. They are just different.

The popular idea of beauty

It became very close to the painful painter, whose legs were refused. And what was the concept of beauty of the Russian people? Of course, in health, in full legs, white and ruddy face, in sable brows, and lack was considered stoop and leanness. Still valued was a thick, in-hand, braid. A married woman possessed a special beauty, which was associated with fertility. Is a thin, narrow-shouldered woman taking out a large viable child and quickly resolved in childbirth? It is much more difficult for her to do this than physically strong woman. Here it appears on the canvas of Kustodiev "Merchant in front of a mirror." Golden-haired, burly beauty admires a new shawl, and next to it there is a servant who keeps a fur stole. Fitting will continue. From the doorway the father looks out, who can not look at the beautiful daughter. Here they are - "Kustodievskie beauty."

Festivities

Not only portraits, but full-scale paintings were created by the artist. Kustodiyev's paintings are full of joy of life. Here are examples: "Fair" (1908), "Strolling" (1909), "Weekend" (1920). All the canvases are sunny, summer colors are rampant, everyone calmly went out into the street to see the people and show themselves.

Tea drinking

What can warm a cold gray day or quench your thirst on a hot day? Of course, tea. He is good on holidays and on weekdays. The table is bursting with traditional Russian pies, pies, jams of different varieties. On the table must necessarily be a pot-bellied samovar polished to a mirror shine, which is melted with fir cones. The tea pot is on top, and when tea is poured into cups, it is surely baked with boiling water. And that he did not burn, then you can pour it in a saucer. This is the picture we see on the canvas, which Kustodiev wrote, "The Merchant of Tea". And what a charm this woman is full of! Belolitsa, with full shoulders and hands, with puffy fingers, with which she is a little mannered and picturesque holds a saucer. There is in this peculiar chic. No, the nobleman will dare to do this manner, but what does it matter to him. And if an unexpected visitor comes in, the landlady will not face him in the mud. With dignity the elegant hostess will seat the elegant hostess, in whose ears the pear earrings and the white collar of the dress are pinned with a bow with an expensive brooch. She sits on a cool veranda in the shade of oak trees. To her, a three-colored cat crouches. That's where comfort and contentment. Let it be a little funny, but how good!

Nowadays

The persistent desire of a woman, contrary to her nature, to drive herself into Western-imposed parameters forces women and girls to dry herself with a variety of diets. At the same time spoil health, skin, character. It's another matter if you are engaged for pleasure and flexibility with yoga. Then the gait, the posture, and the look at oneself will change. In another way, the men will look at the happy life with the lush forms of a girl who is not afraid to eat an extra piece and is not jealous at the table. That's the conclusion you come to when you look at the beauties, whom BM Kustodiev permanently imprinted on his canvases.