Beauty

I don't know if I managed to do and express in my things what I wanted - love of life, joy and cheerfulness, love for my Russian - this was always the only "plot" of my paintings ...

Boris Kustodiev

The artist considered his "Beauty" to be the crown of searches, the embodiment of his style. She stands among the Venuses of the early 20th century - a puffy, full-blooded and imposing beauty, as if in defiance of the skinny, angular modernist actresses. She is a symbol of the outgoing real folk beauty ...
The model for this work was the young actress of the Moscow Art Theater - Faina Shevchenko. When the actress found out that she would have to pose nude, she refused. It took a long time for Kustodiev to persuade his model. And he persuaded! She agreed. For art. Faina did not like the result: although she was complete, she thought that the artist had gone too far with the forms. At her request, the canvas was not exhibited for a long time.
Stanislavsky, seeing the picture, called the actress a whore, but then forgave her, paying tribute to the talent of his student. Ranevskaya also considered her extremely talented. Soon Faina Shevchenko became the owner of the title of People's Artist for services in the national cinema.

Kustodiev was often accused by contemporary critics for gravitation in his paintings to "merchant" luxury. And he just created his own fairy tale!

The beauty seemed to bathe in a fabulous milk river, as if for one more moment, and the Firebird sorceress, the good fellow Ivan Tsarevich and the evil Baba Yaga will immediately appear ...

Lush figure and luxurious chest, satin skin, scarlet lips and a dimple on the chin, morning blush on the cheeks, transparent turquoise eyes and sable eyebrows, golden curls, braided into a powerful braid ...

A real Russian beauty!

She just woke up and, like the mythical Aphrodite from the foam, came out of the fluff and satin of snow-white-pink pillows and blankets. She is like the most delicate rose in a bouquet of all flowers!

The artist places his model as if in the usual merchant life, but in fact endows the surrounding environment with truly fabulous properties:
here a simple grandmother's chest blossoms like the plumage of a wondrous firebird;
and a small ottoman under Beauty's leg looks like a feather that has fallen out of that plumage;
and the magic figures on the chest of drawers - probably porcelain;
and chic flowerpots with crimson roses on luscious blue wallpaper create an atmosphere of "a million scarlet roses" ...

Inspired by his success, Kustodiev created several canvases of The Beauty. He presented one of them to Maxim Gorky. The writer was crazy about the picture. The artist wrote another work at the request of Chaliapin, with whom he was friends. Chaliapin "Beauty" charmed no less. With her, he went to Paris, in exile.
The fact of repetition indicates that the author appreciated "Beauty" highly, considered it very significant in his work. The most decorative of all is "Beauty", owned by Chaliapin. It is not surprising that it was this painting that caused serious battles at the Sotheby's auction in London in May 2003. It sold for a record £ 845,600.

At exhibitions near the Custodian merchants and beauties, people always crowded. They say that a certain Metropolitan, having seen one of the versions of "Beauty", was so blinded by female charms that he could not resist and exclaimed: "Apparently, the devil led the artist with a bold hand when he wrote his" Beauty ", for he confused my peace forever. I am her charm and tenderness and have forgotten fasts and vigils. I am going to the monastery, where I will atone for my sins. "