Vyacheslav Grigorevich Schwarz
History painting in Russia was brought by Kursk artist Vyacheslav Schwarz.
The great artist Vyacheslav Schwarz was brought by a family of Danish ancestory on 22 September 1838. Historians claim that the house where the family lived in Kursk was located where School #18 is now (Sovetskaya st., 25). His father was Lieutenant General Grigory Schwarz, a hero of the Patriotic War of 1812. His mother, Natalia Schwarz later gave birth to Eugeny Schwarz, a younger brother who worked in Zemstvo (an institute of local government) and was a collector. In total, Vyacheslav had 4 brothers and 2 sisters, which is considered large today, but a norm in that period of time. When Schwarz was 3 years old, he had pencils in his hands and started drawing. His drawings displayed the battle scenes that is simply explained by the atmosphere he lived in. His father became the chief of the Jaro-Belokany Military District after the birth of his son.
By the way, the artist’s uncle, Fyodor Schwarz was an unselfish and hard-working man but sometimes his pedantic strictness led to the cruel combined with hesitation which got him into trouble. The very story that lead to his misery happened soon after he was named as the Commander for The Semyonovsky Lifeguard Regiment (one of the two oldest guard regiments of the Imperial Russian Army) on 9th of April 1820. This story was greatly demonstrated by a recent film released early this year “Union of Salvation”. Even now I clearly remember the shouts of the soldiers screaming “Schwartz, get out of there!”
His younger brothers, Eugeny, who held the junior position at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for his whole life received a membership in the Russian Academy of Arts mainly because he had a set of canvases that belonged to his elder brother, the hard work by Vyacheslav’s brush. Eugeny Schwarz was a friend of Boris Kustodiev and the artist left him some of his works too. [1]
Despite the desire of Vyacheslav Schwarz to study military science, he was enrolled in the Imperial Lyceum (where Alexander Pushkin got his education decades earlier) in 1853. Thanks to his powerful memory and other skills, he was the best student of his class even though during some classes he made sketches instead of writing down the teacher’s lecture. These exercises made him one of the best at drawing with ink that he practiced and preferred afterwards in his drawings. [2]
His groupmate E. A. Shakeev remembered:
“When we were free of classes, Schwarz and I hid in a corner. There I read aloud something and he made sketches about it with ink. Influenced by those stories (mainly based on history), he produced many works. He was keen on Crimean wars back then. I remember one very successful drawing he made: The Death of Andrey Karamzin, a son of famous historian who was hacked into pieces by the Turkish soldiers over a Russian cannon that he tried to defend.”
At the age of 10, Schwartz spoke fluent French, German and English languages, later he learned Italian.
At Lyceum he took classes of painting and there he honed his skills at engraving in acquatinta (гравирование крепкой водкой). In 1859 Schwarz graduated with a gold medal and got the highest rank possible— Titular councilor. In the same year, he presented his work to the Academy, “A Meeting of Svyatoslav I Kiev and John I Tzimiskes” where he got a smaller silver medal. A year later, Vyacheslav Schwarz got the same medal for another work “The Capture of Kazan”. [2] During the last year of his education, his vision on art had shaped enough to realize his affair for historical paintings.
In 1861, as an artist, Schwarz spent 4 months in Berlin where he studied alongside with Wilhelm von Kaulbach and Julius Schrader. Then he traveled across Dresden, Köln, Frankfurt am Main and Mainz. “Walpurgis Night” was the result of his travel upon his return after being enchanted by the Goethe writings.
In the same year, Vyacheslav Schwarz started working on another masterpiece that was his final work for graduation from painting school. His sister noticed, that the idea was outlined after a long search on what can serve to demonstrate severe physiological stress. Back then, not only historians were interested in Ivan the Terrible persona, as many of his deals were exaggerated. Later in 1864, Schwarz improved his work and now we can contemplate it with our own eyes: “Ivan the Terrible by the body of his son, who he had murdered”.
E. A. Shakeev once visited his friend and was shocked profoundly by the picture he saw. It was a drawing of a man lying on the table. A corpse with candles at 4 corners. It was his model for Ivan’s son. [3]
At the beginning of 1863, Schwarz made his second journey across Europe, starting from Germany and ending in Paris. There he became acquainted with Vasily Perov and his circle: people who were sent abroad by the Academy of Arts. They frequently visited folk holidays, local markets, and studied folk lifestyle and Schwarz tried to capture as many scenes as possible. In this time he realizes how deep he loves everything that is Russian.
In the spring of 1864, he came back to Russia with a firm thought that “it’s possible to reach the depths of Russia without western approaches.” This approach was what made him the first artist in Russia of historical painting.
The Russian artist had a slightly different approach from what we learned from the Impressionists. He walked to remote villages to draw real Rus details. Schwarz’s keen memory helped him to visualize and imagine later on his canvases what he could not add in time. Based on the letters to his friends, we may notice that Vyacheslav Schwarz gave an important significance to the picture “Palm Sunday in Moscow”.
At the end of 1866, he was in charge at the department for Russian arts during the International Exposition in Paris. His work was choosing the artists’ works and their transportation which took a complete year. Thanks to such effort, Europeans were able to experience new artists and genres, such as V. Perov. [4]
While in Paris, Schwarz took the time to study at Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier’s saloon to master his skills in military art.
In autumn 1867, he stopped in Weimar for two months to participate in the production of “The Death of Ivan the Terrible”, a historical drama by Alexander Tolstoy. In December as he was about to return to Russia from Paris, Schwarz suffered from Addison’s disease. [5] When the Kursk artist arrived home, he was exhausted and suffered from kidney diseases. At that particular time, he was at his parents' village in the Kursk region where he was working on “The Spring Pilgrimage of the Tsarina, under Tsar Aleksy Mihailovich”.
This painting was drawn from real people and real details like houses. He even visited the Moscow region because he could not find old peasant houses. This work was his last work in his life. Schwarz’s proper village was in the Kursk region (after the borders of the regions were changed, the land has become a part of the Oryol region). It was a present from his mother and Vyacheslav Schwarz tried to realize all of his plans on how to make the land beautiful. Unfortunately, he was not able to accomplish it. He passed away at the age of 31 in March 1868 (10th of April, acc to modern calendar).
His younger brother Eugeny tried to complete it (Eugeny had his own manor here, so imagine how well-developed enterprise he had!). In 1925, the Bolsheviks exiled them out of the village with his family when he was 89 years old. Eugeny Schwarz managed to build a brick factory and a train station in his brother’s village, but the Great Revolution in 1917 halted his project. It is the only Russian train station without a railway track! Their idea was to set the track from Kursk to the village to contemplate the village that was large and beautiful.
The Bolsheviks even dug the Schwarz family graves and scattered their remains. Later old women picked them up and placed them back. Years later they told to historians about the final resting place of the artist’s remains.
In the 1940s the Nazis set up a casino in the family shrine.
If you want to know further about the village which is located in the region of Oryol, you may watch this video.
REFERENCE
1.www.orel-heritage.ru/shvarc_e_g.html
2.www.rulex.ru/01250348.htm
3.www.smallbay.ru/artrussia/shvarz.html
4.www.artpoisk.info/article/v_g_shvarc_iz_serii_massovaya_biblioteka
5.www.stydiai.ru/gallery/shvarts-vyacheslav/
