Modernist and storyteller Ivan Bilibin - in the Presidential Library rarities

Finished gymnasium with a silver medal and achieved special success in mathematics, Ivan Bilibin brought out a deep formula not in age: "Both the rough word "calculation" and the poetic "harmony" are, in fact, both related, because both are based on an account, in mathematics". Later a well-known painter for the calculation of composition, complex ornaments and at the same time impeccable firmness of a colleague's line will be called "Ivan the Iron Hand". August 16, 2018 marks the 142nd birthday of Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin, who for several generations of children discovered the world of Russian fairy tale in book illustrations.

The portal of the Presidential Library presents the most famous of his works from the series consisting of six fairy tales, among them "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" and "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel". Newspapers of the beginning of the last century wrote that Bilibin created a children's book as a work of art: in his performance they look like painted boxes that you want to consider for a long time. A supporter and continuer of the "contour line" technique, Bilibin acquired in due course a recognizable style and a name in the artistic environment.

With this disruptive man - a lawyer and an artist by education, modernist and lover of antiquity, the author of the revolutionary double-headed eagle, which became a symbol of Russia - the Presidential Library came in close contact through the Ivangorod Museum of Art, in whose building the Bilibin family once lived. Being a great esthete and a connoisseur of culture, Bilibin fills his house in Ivangorod with works of art: painting, tapestries, antique porcelain and antiques; transferred to the city family collection of Bilibins, in fact, and laid the foundation of the museum exposition. The collection of the museum includes more than 100 works of painting, graphics, arts and crafts of I. Bilibin himself and his third wife - artist, graphic artist, famous master of porcelain painting A. V. Shchekatihina-Potockaya.

One of the first results of cooperation between the Presidential Library and the museum was the historical calendar "Ivan Bilibin - the singer of Russian life", prepared for the 140th anniversary of the birth of the artist. It included the most famous illustrations for Russian fairy tales, as well as sketches created by Bilibin to various theatrical productions. In particular, the calendar presents costumes and scenery sketches for the operas of A. P. Borodin "Prince Igor" and N. Rimsky-Korsakov "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", the ballet "Firebird" by I. F. Stravinsky.

Today the Presidential Library portal features not only numerous postcards with famous illustrations from childhood. Here you can get familiar with Bilibin's editions, including unique books. For example, "Chronicle and Front Anthology of the House of the Romanovs", prepared in honor of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the dynasty. Today, this edition is recognized as a masterpiece of typographic art: the pages of Izbornik are decorated with colorful screensavers, endings, color photocycles. No less valuable are such rarities as the "Onego bylinas, recorded by A. F. Hilferding in the summer of 1871" (1938-1940), "Paintings on Russian History, published under the general editorship [and explanatory text] of S. A Knyazkov" (1908-1913) and other rare editions.  

Having become a connoisseur and admirer of the Russian North, Bilibin in his works masterfully conveyed his unique, restrained beauty. His trips to the Vologda, Olonets and Arkhangelsk provinces became fatal, where he was sent on assignment from the Russian Museum (Alexander III Museum) to collect ethnographic materials and photograph the monuments of ancient Russian wooden architecture. His own aesthetic manifesto Bilibin voiced throughout Russia: "Only recently, just like America, discovered an old art Russia, vandalized mutilated, covered with dust and mold. But under the dust, it was beautiful, so beautiful that it was understandable the first minute rush of those who opened it: return! return!"

Throughout his life, he returned the world to the newly discovered Russian culture. Due to circumstances, becoming an emigrant and working as a stage designer of the recognized theatrical scenes in Europe, he prepares brilliant scenery for the productions of Russian operas. Bilibin was a true connoisseur of ancient Russian costumes, he was interested in embroidery, braid, weaving techniques and everything that created the national color of the people.

In 1936, Bilibin returned to St. Petersburg, which became Leningrad. To all his professions it is added one more: teaching at the All-Russian Academy of Arts. In September 1941, at the age of 66, the artist refused the offer of the People's Commissar for Education to evacuate from the besieged Leningrad. "People do not run from the besieged fortress, they defend it", - he wrote. Under the fascist fire and bombing the artist creates patriotic postcards for the front, writes articles and appeals to the heroic defenders of Leningrad.

Professor Bilibin died of hunger in the first blockade winter. He was buried in the mass grave of professors of the Academy of Arts near the Smolensky cemetery.