vrubel, mikhail, featured paintings in detail (2)

VRUBEL, Mikhail

Featured Paintings in Detail

(2)

(Vrubel's Demon)

VRUBEL, MikhailDemon Seated1890 Oil on canvas. 116.5 cm x 213.8 cm Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

VRUBEL, MikhailDemon Seated (detail)1890 Oil on canvas. 116.5 cm x 213.8 cm Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

VRUBEL, MikhailFlying Demon1899Oil on canvas, 138,5 x 430,5 cm The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

VRUBEL, MikhailFlying Demon (detail)1899Oil on canvas, 138,5 x 430,5 cm The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

VRUBEL, Mikhail Demon Prostrate 1902Oil on canvas,139 х 387Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

VRUBEL, Mikhail Demon Prostrate (detail)1902Oil on canvas,139 х 387Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

VRUBEL, MikhailTamara and Demon1890-1891Black water colour on paper..Illustration to M. Lermontov`s poem The Demon.The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

VRUBEL, MikhailTamara and Demon (detail)1890-1891Black water colour on paper..Illustration to M. Lermontov`s poem The Demon.The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

VRUBEL, MikhailHead of the Demon. 1890-1891Black water colour, tempera white, on paper. Illustration to M. Lermontov`s poem The Demon.The Museum of Russian Art, Kiev

VRUBEL, MikhailHead of the Demon (detail)1890-1891Black water colour, tempera white, on paper. Illustration to M. Lermontov`s poem The Demon.The Museum of Russian Art, Kiev

VRUBEL, MikhailDemon and Angel with Tamara's Soul. 1891Black water colour, whitewash on paper. Illustration to M. Lermontov`s poem The Demon.The Museum of Russian Art, Erevan

VRUBEL, MikhailDemon and Angel with Tamara's Soul (detail)1891Black water colour, whitewash on paper. Illustration to M. Lermontov`s poem The Demon.The Museum of Russian Art, Erevan

VRUBEL, Mikhail, Featured Paintings in Detail (2) (Vrubel's Demon)

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Michael Lermontov The Angel 1831

At midnight an angel was crossing the sky,And quietly he sang;The moon and the stars and the concourse of cloudsPaid heed to his heavenly song.He sang of the bliss of the innocent soulsIn heavenly gardens above;Of almighty God he sang out, and his praiseWas pure and sincere.He bore in his arms a young soulTo our valley of sorrow and tears;The young soul remembered the heavenly song So vivid and yet without words.And long did it struggle on earth,With wondrous desire imbued;But none of the tedious songs of our earthCould rival celestial song.

The Demon, as presented in art, has become a theme often employed to represent a madness that has developed within the artist. This demon can serve as both a muse and a destructive force for the artist

who cannot find a means to control it.

In 1884, the famous art historian Adrian Prakhov, who supervised the re-construction of the old and construction of the new cathedrals in Kiev, invited Vrubel to take part in the restoration of the Old Russian

murals and mosaics in the 12th century Church of St. Cyril. The knowledge Vrubel acquired in the process of this work contributed to the perfection of his style as a painter.

In the Kiev period the personal style Vrubel was formed, the key feature assimilates which one - creation of effect of a scintillation of crystalline edges of the form that compares the pictures of the artist with mosaics.

In Kiev Vrubel started to work on the theme of the Demon. The Kiev versions of the Demon, both the pictures and sculptures, have not survived. In fact, Vrubel did not take pains to preserve his works, being more

interested in the process of creation than in the result.

During his first year in Moscow, Vrubel went on working on the paintings he had conceived in Kiev. Among others are the Demon Seated (1890) and a series of illustrations for Mikhail Lermontov’s poem The Demon

(1890) and his novel A Hero of Our Time (1890-1891). The illustrations made his name known to the public but brought him notoriety rather than fame: too unusual for the tastes of 1880s, they caused bewilderment and

derision. But in the artistic circles of Russia, Vrubel was received favorably.

The Demon is one of Vrubel’s most favorite images. He is sick and tired of doing evil, yet goodness is a thing alien to him. Immortal – he has no future, omniscient – he is without peers, omniscient – he is denied choice.

In the Demon Seated of 1890 the Demon sits in melancholy contemplation in the midst of a cold and endless desert. He is a mighty and strong spirit, suffering in a body so powerful it seems hewn out of rock. The tragedy of the Demon is the tragedy of the artist himself, protesting the collapse of his

romantic illusions.

In the picture Demon Seated the young Titan is depicted on a clifftop in the sunset. His fine powerful body seems almost too big for the picture; he wrings his hands; his face is touchingly handsome; and his eyes express inhuman sorrow. Vrubel's Demon is a union of opposites: beauty, majesty, strength, and

constraint, helplessness and yearning. He is surrounded by a fabulous, beautiful, yet petrified and cold world. The picture's colouring is also full of contrasts: a cold lilac is in 'combat' with a warm golden-orange. The rocks, the flowers and the figure are painted in a peculiar Vrubelesque manner: the

artist seems to hew the shapes from a block, creating an impression of a world composed of precious stones.

In 1891 Vrubel did the illustrations for a jubilee edition of Mikhail Lermontov's works, edited by Konchalovsky. Of thirty illustrations half of them refer to Lermontov's Demon. In fact, these are all works of art in their own right, important in the history of Russian book illustrations, and demonstrate

Vrubel's profound comprehension of Lermontov's poetry.

Of course, the story is steeped in tragedy. The demon falls in love with a human woman named Tamara and he loses her. The figure of the demon himself is tragic: he’s more powerful than but utterly unlike those around him, and through his experiences he loses faith in humanity.

Particularly noteworthy is the monumental watercolor «Head of the Demon». Against a background of stony and snow-covered mountaintops is a close-up head, with black hair and a pale face: the lips are parched, the eyes burning and penetrating; this gaze is full of unbearable torment, it

expresses a thirst for knowledge and freedom, the rebellious spirit of doubt.

Some years later Vrubel painted «Flying Demon» (1899) — a sombre picture, full of a foreboding of ruin and doom. Was conceived as the culminating work of the Demon theme, but did not become such in actuality and is perceived instead as a prologue to Demon Prostrate (1902). The proud flight above the world ended in a tragedy of loneliness and repudiation of the hero. The entire canvas is rendered in dark tones; the mystical light that lit Demon Seated has been extinguished, and the image has taken on a heavy inertia, petrified, which in combination with

the horizontally elongated composition led to a contradiction of the very theme of flight. Flying Demon seems to touch the peaks of mountains. The figure's movement is hindered by the fantastic weight of his warped wings. The flight creates a feeling of the Demon's tormented

imprisonment, like a billowing cloud that encounters the resistance of the elements.

Finally, in 1901-02, appeared the last picture: Demon Prostrate, on wich Vrubel worked intensively and painstakingly.

Exhibited in 1902, the painting overwhelmed the audience and won real fame for the artist. The painting, charged with motion, is strongly decorative. Striving to create the astounding effect, Vrubel, who at the time, was already unbalanced, repainted the Demon’s face, his sinister eyes, his lips, twisted

by pain. He repeatedly repainted the picture even when it was on display until he had one of his breakdowns.

The broken, deformed body of the Demon, his wings fractured, is flung out in a gorge, and his eyes burn with fury. It is dusk and the last sunray flashes on the Demon's crown and on the mountain-tops. The spirit of rebellion is overthrown, but not crushed.

Shortly after finishing his Demon Prostrate (Demon Overthrown), Mikhail Vrubel fell seriously ill and was admitted to hospital.

vrubel, mikhail, featured paintings in detail (2)

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