1.
Tiraspol
–
Tiraspol is internationally recognised as the second largest city in Moldova, but is effectively the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognised Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The city is located on the bank of the Dniester River. Tiraspol is a hub of light industry, such as furniture. The modern city of Tiraspol was founded by the Russian generalissimo Alexander Suvorov in 1792, the city celebrates its anniversary every year on October 14. The toponym consists of two ancient Greek words, Τύρας, Tyras, the Ancient name for the Dniester River, and polis, i. e. a city. Tyras, also spelled Tiras, was a colony of the Greek city Miletus, probably founded about 600 BC, of no great importance in early times in the 2nd century BC, it fell under the dominion of indigenous kings whose names appear on its coins. It was destroyed by the Thracian Getae about 50 BC, in 56 AD the Romans restored the city and made it part of the colonial province of Lower Moesia. A series of its coins exist that feature heads of Roman emperors from Domitian to Severus Alexander, soon after the time of the latter, the city was destroyed again, this time by the invasion of the Goths. Its government was in the hands of five archons, a senate, a popular assembly, the images on its coins from this period suggest a trade in wheat, wine and fish. The few inscriptions extant are mostly concerned with trade, such ancient archeological remains are scanty, as the city site was built over by the great medieval fortress of Monocastro or Akkerman. During the Middle Ages, the area around Tiraspol was a zone between the Tatars and the Moldavians, and inhabited by both ethnic groups. The Russian Empire conquered its way to the Dniester River, taking territory from the Ottoman Empire, in 1792 the Russian army built fortifications to guard the western border near a Moldavian village named Sucleia. Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov is considered the founder of modern Tiraspol, the city took its name from Tyras, the Greek name of the Dniester River on which it stands. In 1828 the Russian government established a house in Tiraspol to try to suppress smuggling. The customs house was subordinated to the chief of the Odessa customs region and it began operations with 14 employees. They inspected shipments of bread, paper, oil, wine, sugar, fruits, after the Russian Revolution, the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created in Ukraine in 1924, with Balta as its capital. The republic had Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian as its official languages and its capital was moved in 1929 to Tiraspol, which remained the capital of the Moldavian ASSR until 1940. In 1940, following the provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Tiraspol
Tiraspol
Tiraspol
Tiraspol
2.
Kherson Governorate
–
The Kherson Governorate or Government of Kherson was a guberniya, or administrative territorial unit, between the Dnieper and Dniester Rivers, of the Russian Empire. It was one of three created in 1802 when the Novorossiya guberniya was abolished. It was known as the Nikolayev Governorate until 1803, when Kherson replaced Nikolayev as the governorates capital, the economy of the governorate was mainly based on agriculture. During the grain harvest, thousands of laborers from the parts of the Empire found work in the area. The industrial part of the economy, consisting primarily of flour milling, distilling, metalworking industry, iron mining, beet-sugar processing, from 1809, the governorate consisted of five uyezds, Kherson, Aleksandriya, Ovidiopol, Tiraspol, and Yelisavetgrad. The city of Odessa carried a special status, in 1825, The Odessa uyezd was added into the territorial division of the Kherson Governorate. A seventh uyezd — Bobrynets, existed from 1828 to 1865, in 1920, while being under Soviet Ukrainian rule, the governorates territory,70,600 km2, was divided to form the newer Odessa Governorate. The Kherson Governorate was renamed Mykolaiv Governorate in 1921, and in 1922 - merged with the Odessa Governorate, in 1925, the Odessa Governorate was abolished, and its territory was divided into six okruhas, Kherson, Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Pershotravneve, and Zinoviivske. In 1932, much of this territory was incorporated into the new Odessa Oblast, now a division of the modern Ukrainian nation. The gubernia had a population of about 245,000 in 1812,893,000 in 1851,1,330,000 in 1863,2,027,000 in 1885,2,733,600 in 1897, and 3,744,600 in 1914. In the 1850s it consisted of Ukrainians, Romanians, Russians, Jews, Germans, Bulgarians, Poles, Greeks, in 1914, Ukrainians composed only 53% of the population, while Russians made up 22% and Jews - 12%. Urban dwellers made up 10 to 20 percent of the population until the 1850s, after which the proportion of urban dwellers increased, migration within the Russian Empire mainly accounted for the areas population growth, with 46% of the population born outside of the governorate in 1897. Kherson regional universal science library of Oles Honchar
Kherson Governorate
–
Cathedral dedicated to
Saint Catherine (
Russian: Свято-Екаерининский Собор) in
Kherson the governorates seat at the time.
Kherson Governorate
3.
Russian Empire
–
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
Russian Empire
–
Peter the Great officially renamed the Tsardom of Russia the Russian Empire in 1721, and himself its first emperor. He instituted the
sweeping reforms and oversaw the transformation of Russia into a major European power.
Russian Empire
–
Flag
Russian Empire
–
Empress
Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, continued the empire's expansion and modernization. Considering herself an
enlightened absolutist, she played a key role in the
Russian Enlightenment.
Russian Empire
–
Catherine II Sestroretsk Rouble (1771) is made of solid copper measuring 77 millimetres (3 3 ⁄ 100 in) (diameter), 26 millimetres (1 1 ⁄ 50 in) (thickness), and weighs 1.022 kg (2.25 lb). It is the largest copper coin ever issued.
4.
Fontenay-aux-Roses
–
Fontenay-aux-Roses is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 8.6 km from the center of Paris, in 1880 a girls school École Normale Supérieure was opened in the town. It was one of the most prestigious of Paris and even of whole France in term of scientific research and it became a mixed school in 1986, and was relocated to Lyon in 2000. Fontenay is the location of the Commissariat à lénergie atomique, and former location of the first french nuclear reactor, Zoé, the climate of Fontenay-aux-Roses is oceanic gradient. The observation stations used for the weather in Fontenay-aux-Roses are at Orly, the climate is characterized by sunshine and fairly low rainfall. The average rainfall is about 650 mm per year, spread over 111 rainy days on average, temperatures are mild, the coldest month is January with an average temperature of 4. 7° C and the hottest months are July and August with a mean temperature of 20° C. Fontenay-aux-Roses is served by Fontenay-aux-Roses station on Paris RER line B, lycée professionnel privé Saint François dAssise, a private vocational high school, is in the commune. Bagneux Châtillon Clamart Le Plessis-Robinson Sceaux Borehamwood, United Kingdom since 1974 Wiesloch, indeed, many school projects are organized each year. Paul Scarron - writer, lived in Fontenay-aux-Roses, theresa Cabarrus - Known as Madame Tallien whose residence has become the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-aux-Roses. However, he refused the post, and preferred to remain an alderman, joris-Karl Huysmans - Lived in Fontenay in July 1881, living where he worked in the book À Rebours, with the hero des Esseintes who lives in Fontenay-aux-Roses. Ferdinand Lot - medieval historian, has lived in Fontenay-aux-Roses. Pierre Bonnard - Born in Fontenay at the corner of dEstienne dOrves Neyts and André, near the College des Ormeaux, paul Léautaud - writer, lived in Fontenay. Jacques Déprats - Born in Fontenay, geologist, valery Larbaud - writer, lived in Fontenay-aux-Roses. Mikhail Larionov - Painter of the Russian avant-garde, died in Fontenay-aux-Roses, alexandra Exter - Artist of the Russian avant-garde, died at Fontenay-aux-Roses. René Barthélemy - French physicist, lived in Fontenay and is based on communal cemetery, rené Letourneur - Painter and sculptor, lived in Fontenay-aux-Roses. Boris Vildé - Resistance fighter executed by the Germans, lived in Fontenay-aux-Roses, yves Klein - painter, lived in Fontenay-aux-Roses. Dieudonné Mbala Mbala - comedian, born in Fontenay, laurent Aiello - Born in Fontenay, racing driver. Kamsoo Queen - model, comedian, lives in Fontenay-aux-Roses, andrei Sinyavsky - Russian writer, dissident, gulag survivor
Fontenay-aux-Roses
–
The city hall
5.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
Russia
–
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century
Russia
–
Flag
Russia
–
The
Baptism of Kievans, by
Klavdy Lebedev
Russia
–
Sergius of Radonezh blessing
Dmitry Donskoy in
Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the
Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by
Ernst Lissner
6.
Isaac Levitan
–
Isaac Ilyich Levitan was a classical Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the mood landscape. Isaac Levitan was born in a shtetl of Kibarty, Augustów Governorate in Congress Poland and his father Elyashiv Levitan was the son of a rabbi, completed a Yeshiva and was self-educated. He taught German and French in Kowno and later worked as a translator at a bridge construction for a French building company. At the beginning of 1870 the Levitan family moved to Moscow, in September 1873, Isaac Levitan entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where his older brother Avel had already studied for two years. After a year in the copying class Isaac transferred into a naturalistic class, Levitans teachers were the famous Alexei Savrasov, Vasily Perov and Vasily Polenov. In 1875, his mother died, and his father seriously ill and became unable to support four children. The family slipped into abject poverty, as patronage for Levitans talent and achievements, his Jewish origins and to keep him in the school, he was given a scholarship. In 1877, Isaac Levitans works were first publicly exhibited and earned recognition from the press. In 1880 his painting Осенний день, Сокольники was bought by famous philanthropist and art collector Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov. In the spring of 1884 Levitan participated in the art exhibition by the group known as the Peredvizhniki. Levitan often visited Chekhov and some think Levitan was in love with his sister, in the early 1880s Levitan collaborated with the Chekhov brothers on the illustrated magazine Moscow and illustrated the M. Fabritsius edition Kremlin. Together with Korovin in 1885-1886 he painted scenery for performances of the Private Russian opera of Savva Mamontov, in the 1880s he participated in the drawing and watercolor gatherings at Polenov’s house. Levitans work was a response to the lyrical charm of the Russian landscape. Levitan did not paint urban landscapes, with the exception of the View of Simonov Monastery, mentioned by Nesterov, during work in Ostankino, he painted fragments of the mansion’s house and park, but he was most fond of poetic places in the forest or modest countryside. Characteristic of his work is a hushed and nearly melancholic reverie amidst pastoral landscapes largely devoid of human presence, fine examples of these qualities include The Vladimirka Road,1892 Evening Bells,1892, and Eternal Rest,1894, all in the Tretyakov Gallery. Though his late work displayed familiarity with Impressionism, his palette was generally muted, in the summer of 1890 Levitan went to Yuryevets and among numerous landscapes and etudes he painted The View of Krivooserski monastery. So the plan of one of his best pictures, The Silent Monastery, was born, the image of a silent monastery and planked bridges over the river, connecting it with the outside world, expressed the artists spiritual reflections. It is known that this made a strong impression on Chekhov
Isaac Levitan
–
Issac Levitan, Self portrait, 1880
Isaac Levitan
–
Autumn day.
Sokolniki. 1879
Isaac Levitan
–
Levitan. Portrait by
Valentin Serov (1893)
Isaac Levitan
–
Lake. Russia 1900. The last, unfinished Levitan painting.
7.
Valentin Serov
–
Valentin Alexandrovich Serov was a Russian painter, and one of the premier portrait artists of his era. Serov was born in Saint Petersburg, son of the Russian composer and music critic Alexander Serov, Serovs early creativity was sparked by the realistic art of Repin and strict pedagogical system of Chistyakov. The greatest works of Serovs early period were portraits, The Girl with Peaches, in these paintings Serov concentrated on spontaneity of perception of the model and nature. From 1890 on, the became the basic genre in Serovs art. It was in this field that his style would become apparent. Serovs favorite models were actors, artists, and writers, initially abstaining from the polychromatic, brightly colored painting style of the 1880s, Serov often preferred a dominant scale of black-grey or brown tones. Impressionistic features appeared sometimes in construction of a portrait, or to capture a sense of spontaneous movement. As in the work of his contemporaries John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn, the impressionism is not doctrinaire, receiving wide popularity, in 1894 Serov joined with the Peredvizhniki, and took on important commissions, among them portraits of grand duke Pavel Alexandrovich, S. M. Botkin,1899, and Felix Yusupov,1903 as well as Princess Olga Orlova, in these truthful, compositionally skillful, and picturesque executions in the grand manner, Serov consistently used linear-rhythmic drawing coupled with decorative color combinations. At the same time, he developed a contrasting direction, he frequently produced intimate, heartfelt, chamber portraits, mainly of children and women. In portraits of children Serov aspired to capture pose and gesture, to reveal and emphasize a spontaneity of internal movement, Serov frequently called upon various graphic techniques - watercolors, pastels, lithographs and so forth. Figures in Serovs portraits gradually became more and more refined and economical. From 1890 to 1900 Serov produced many landscape compositions on country themes, Serov married Olga Trubnikova in 1889. His wife and his children were the subject of many of his works, notably, his painting Children was of his sons Yura and Sasha. M. Gorkis museum, Moscow, Maria Yermolova, Feodor Chaliapin - both in the Tretyakov Gallery, and Helena Roerich, Serovs democratic beliefs were clearly shown during the Revolution from 1905 to 1907, he depicted a number of satirical figures exposing chastisers. A full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts since 1903, in 1905 he resigned as a gesture of protest against the execution of striking workers and their families on 9 January, Bloody Sunday. His late creativity found expression in painting, and depth of comprehension of the historical maintenance of an epoch. The last years of Serovs life were marked by works on themes from classical mythology, while addressing images from the ancient tradition, Serov endowed classical subject matter with a personal interpretation
Valentin Serov
–
Self-portrait, 1880s
Valentin Serov
–
Valentin Serov - Portrait of Princess Olga Orlova
Valentin Serov
–
The girl with
peaches (1887) was the painting that inaugurated Russian
Impressionism.
Valentin Serov
–
Valentin Serov - Portrait of
Helena Roerich, 1909
8.
Costume design
–
Costume design is the envisioning of clothing and the overall appearance of a character or performer. Costume may refer to the style of particular to a nation. In many cases, it may contribute to the fullness of the artistic, the most basic designs are produced to denote status, provide protection or modesty, or provide visual interest to a character. Costumes may be for a theater, cinema, or musical performance, Costume design should not be confused with costume coordination which merely involves altering existing clothing, although both create stage clothes. Four types of costumes are used in design, historical, fantastical, dance. Village festivals and processions in honor of Dionysus amongst the ancient Greeks, are believed to be the origin of theatre, the sculpture and vase paintings provide the clearest evidence of this costume. Because of their style of theatre many masks were used giving each character a specific look. Some masks were constructed with a cheerful as well as a side on the same face in an attempt to indicate a change in emotion without a change of mask. The same is true for the Romans, who continued the mask tradition, stereotypical characterization was key when clothing performers for this style of theatre. In most instances actors had to supply their own costumes when playing a character found in daily life, later, in Elizabethan performance during the 1500-1600s in England, costume became the most important visual element. Garments were very expensive because only the finest fabrics were used, ordinarily, fashionable garments were used in both comedy and tragedy until 1727, when Adrienne Lecouvreur adopted the much more elaborate and formal court dress for tragedy. Her practice soon became standard for all tragic heroines Major actors began to compete with one another as to who would have the most lavish stage dress and this practice continued until around the 1750s when costumes became relevant to the character again. Art began to copy life and realistic characteristics were favored especially during the 19th century, for example, Georg the second, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen took personal interest in the theatre and began managing troupes. He advocated for authenticity and accuracy of the script and time period and he also made sure the materials were authentic and specific, using real chain mail, armor, swords, etc. No cheap substitutes would be allowed, in August 1823, in an issue of The Album, James Planché published an article saying that more attention should be paid to the time period of Shakespeares plays, especially when it comes to costumes. In the same year, a casual conversation led to one of Planchés more lasting effects on British theatre, Planché had little experience in this area and sought the help of antiquaries such as Francis Douce and Sir Samuel Meyrick. The research involved sparked Planchés latent antiquarian interests, these came to occupy an increasing amount of his later in life. Despite the actors reservations, King John was a success and led to a number of similarly-costumed Shakespeare productions by Kemble, Planché also wrote a number of plays or adaptations which were staged with historically accurate costumes
Costume design
–
Costume design for Gianetta - The Gondoliers
Costume design
–
Historical costumes of Le Cateau Cambrésis, France
Costume design
–
A woman creating in a costume workshop in Prague theater.
Costume design
–
Example of draping muslin fabric onto a dress form
9.
Illustrator
–
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicated concepts or objects that are difficult to describe textually, illustration is the art of making images that work with something and add to it without needing direct attention and without distracting from the thing they illustrate. The other thing is the focus of the attention, and the role is to add personality. A cartoon illustration can add humor to stories or essays, use reference images to create scenes and characters. This can be as simple as looking at an image to inspire artwork, or creating character sketches. Some traditional illustration techniques include watercolor, pen and ink, airbrush art, oil painting, pastels, wood engraving, and linoleum cuts. Traditional illustration seems to have come full circle, from falling out of favor to photography in the early 1990s to being superseded by CGI, universities and art schools offer specific courses in illustration so this has become a new avenue into the profession. Many illustrators are freelance, commissioned by publishers or advertising agencies, most scientific illustrations and technical illustrations are also known as information graphics. Among the information graphics specialists are medical illustrators who illustrate human anatomy, often requiring years of artistic. A particularly popular medium with illustrators of the 1950s and 1960s was casein, the immediacy and durability of these media suited illustrations demands well. The artwork in both types of paint withstood the rigors of travel to clients and printers without damage, digital illustration is the technique of using a computer to produce original artwork. Digital illustrators use a combination of software and image editing software to create computer art. Digital illustration is not merely the manipulation of images with software, computer illustration or digital illustration is the use of digital tools to produce images under the direct manipulation of the artist, usually through a pointing device such as a tablet or a mouse. Computers dramatically changed the industry and today many cartoonists and illustrators create digital illustrations using computers, graphics tablets, software such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop are now widely used by those professionals
Illustrator
–
Jessie Willcox Smith 's 1923 illustration of the characters in
Alice in Wonderland.
Illustrator
–
A watercolor, by
John Simmons, depicting Hermia and Lysander, from A Midsummer Night's Dream (1870).
10.
Set designer
–
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained professionals. Scenic designers design sets and scenery that aim to fully immerse the viewer in the production, a designer looks at the details searching for evidence through research to produce conceptual ideas that’s best toward supporting the content and values with visual elements. The subject of, “How do we generate creative ideas. ”The most consuming part of expanding our horizons toward scenic concepts is more than witnessing creativity. It starts with us opening our mind to the possibilities, to have an attitude toward learning, seeking, and engaging in creativity and to be willing to be adventurous, inquisitive and curious. Whether outside or inside, colorful trees or concerts, star lit skies or the architecture of a great building, discovering what will best clarify and support the story being told. The scenic designer works with the director and other designers to establish a visual concept for the production. All of these required drawing elements can be created from one accurate 3-D CAD model of the set design. Scenic designers are responsible for creating models of the scenery, renderings, paint elevations. Prague, CZ What is Scenography Article illustrating the differences between US and European theatre design practices Special, WhatLinksHere/Julia Anastasopoulos
Set designer
–
Scenic design, The 2010 Family Series, by Glenn Davis
Set designer
–
Set design model by Marcel Jambon for an 1895 Paris production of
Giuseppe Verdi 's
Otello.
Set designer
–
A set designer works on the set with
carpenters.
Set designer
–
Scenic designer
Robert Edmond Jones (1887-1954) drawing at a waist high table (c. 1920).
11.
Russian language
–
Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
Russian language
–
Russian language street sign in
Russia.
Russian language
–
Russian minimarket in
Limassol, Cyprus; translation: "Teremok market. Russian goods. Phone number: 96 74 19 63"
Russian language
–
This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter
П.
Russian language
–
The
Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest
East Slavic book known, one of many medieval
illuminated manuscripts preserved in the
Russian National Library.
12.
Natalia Goncharova
–
Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova was born on June 21,1881, in Nagaevo and her father, Sergei, was an architect and graduate of the prestigious Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Goncharova moved to Moscow at the age of 10 in 1892, in 1901 Goncharova began her own studies at the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture as a sculptor, under Pavel Trubetskoi, who was associated with the World of Art movement. By 1903, she began exhibiting in major Russian salons and she was awarded a silver medal for sculpture in 1903-04. It was at the Moscow Institute that Goncharova met fellow-student Mikhail Larionov, Goncharova drew inspirations for primitivism from Russian icons and folk art, otherwise known as luboks. The Donkeys Tail was conceived as a break from European art influence. Goncharova and her counter-part, Larionav, were harassed for their artwork. However, the influence of Russian Futurism is much in evidence in Goncharovas later paintings, initially preoccupied with icon painting and the primitivism of ethnic Russian folk-art, Goncharova became famous in Russia for her Futurist work such as The Cyclist and her later Rayonist works. Goncharova and Larionav painted hieroglyphics and flowers on their faces and walked the streets as a part of a primitivist art movement, Goncharova herself sometimes appears topless in public with symbols on her chest. As leaders of the Moscow Futurists, they organized provocative lecture evenings in the vein as their Italian counterparts. Goncharova was also involved with graphic design—writing and illustrating several avant-garde books and she started to exhibit at the Salon dAutomne since 1906. Goncharova was a member of the Der Blaue Reiter avant-garde group from its founding in 1911, in 1915, she began to design ballet costumes and sets in Geneva. In 1915 she started work on a series of designs—Six Winged Seraph, Angel, St. Andrew, St. Mark, Nativity, and others—for a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev to be titled Liturgy. Also involved in the project, for which Igor Stravinsky was invited to compose the score, were Larionov and Léonide Massine, Goncharova moved to Paris in 1921 where she designed a number of stage sets of Diaghilevs Ballets Russes. She also exhibited at the Salon dAutomne in 1921, and participated regularly at the Salon des Tuileries, Goncharova and Larionav collaborated on four charity events in Moscow. These events were The Grand Bal des Aristes, The Bal Banal, The Bal Olympique and they both designed much of the publicity materials for the event. Between 1922 and 1926 Goncharova created fashion designs for Marie Cuttolis shop, Maison Myrbor on the Rue Vincent and her richly embroidered and appliquéd dress designs were strongly influenced by Russian folk art, Byzantine mosaic and her work for the Ballets Russes. In 1938 Goncharova became a French citizen, on June 2,1955, four years after Larionov suffered a stroke, the two artists got married in Paris to safeguard their rights of inheritance
Natalia Goncharova
–
Natalia in 1910
Natalia Goncharova
–
Self-portrait (1907)
Natalia Goncharova
–
Women with rakes (1907)
Natalia Goncharova
–
Khorovod (1910)
13.
Impressionism
–
Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s. The Impressionists faced harsh opposition from the art community in France. The development of Impressionism in the arts was soon followed by analogous styles in other media that became known as impressionist music. Radicals in their time, early Impressionists violated the rules of academic painting and they constructed their pictures from freely brushed colours that took precedence over lines and contours, following the example of painters such as Eugène Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner. They also painted scenes of modern life, and often painted outdoors. Previously, still lifes and portraits as well as landscapes were painted in a studio. The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting en plein air, the Impressionists, however, developed new techniques specific to the style. The public, at first hostile, gradually came to believe that the Impressionists had captured a fresh and original vision, even if the art critics and art establishment disapproved of the new style. In the middle of the 19th century—a time of change, as Emperor Napoleon III rebuilt Paris, the Académie was the preserver of traditional French painting standards of content and style. Historical subjects, religious themes, and portraits were valued, landscape, the Académie preferred carefully finished images that looked realistic when examined closely. Paintings in this style were made up of brush strokes carefully blended to hide the artists hand in the work. Colour was restrained and often toned down further by the application of a golden varnish, the Académie had an annual, juried art show, the Salon de Paris, and artists whose work was displayed in the show won prizes, garnered commissions, and enhanced their prestige. The standards of the juries represented the values of the Académie, represented by the works of artists as Jean-Léon Gérôme. In the early 1860s, four young painters—Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and they discovered that they shared an interest in painting landscape and contemporary life rather than historical or mythological scenes. A favourite meeting place for the artists was the Café Guerbois on Avenue de Clichy in Paris, where the discussions were led by Édouard Manet. They were soon joined by Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, during the 1860s, the Salon jury routinely rejected about half of the works submitted by Monet and his friends in favour of works by artists faithful to the approved style. In 1863, the Salon jury rejected Manets The Luncheon on the Grass primarily because it depicted a woman with two clothed men at a picnic. While the Salon jury routinely accepted nudes in historical and allegorical paintings, the jurys severely worded rejection of Manets painting appalled his admirers, and the unusually large number of rejected works that year perturbed many French artists
Impressionism
–
Claude Monet,
Haystacks, (sunset), 1890–1891,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Impressionism
–
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (
Bal du moulin de la Galette),
Musée d'Orsay, 1876
Impressionism
–
Édouard Manet,
The Luncheon on the Grass (Le déjeuner sur l'herbe), 1863
Impressionism
–
Alfred Sisley, View of the Saint-Martin Canal, Paris, 1870,
Musée d'Orsay
14.
Post-Impressionism
–
Post-Impressionism is a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction against Impressionists concern for the depiction of light. The movement was led by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, the term Post-Impressionism was first used by art critic Roger Fry in 1906. Three weeks later, Roger Fry used the term again when he organized the 1910 exhibition, Manet, the Post-Impressionists were dissatisfied with what they felt was the triviality of subject matter and the loss of structure in Impressionist paintings, though they did not agree on the way forward. Georges Seurat and his followers concerned themselves with Pointillism, the use of tiny dots of colour. Paul Cézanne set out to restore a sense of order and structure to painting, to make of Impressionism something solid and durable and he achieved this by reducing objects to their basic shapes while retaining the saturated colours of Impressionism. The Impressionist Camille Pissarro experimented with Neo-Impressionist ideas between the mid-1880s and the early 1890s, Vincent van Gogh used colour and vibrant swirling brush strokes to convey his feelings and his state of mind. Although they often exhibited together, Post-Impressionist artists were not in agreement concerning a cohesive movement, yet, the abstract concerns of harmony and structural arrangement, in the work of all these artists, took precedence over naturalism. Artists such as Seurat adopted a scientific approach to colour. Younger painters during the early 20th century worked in geographically disparate regions and in various categories, such as Fauvism and Cubism. Most of the artists in Frys exhibition were younger than the Impressionists, Fry later explained, For purposes of convenience, it was necessary to give these artists a name, and I chose, as being the vaguest and most non-committal, the name of Post-Impressionism. This merely stated their position in time relatively to the Impressionist movement, john Rewald limited the scope to the years between 1886 and 1892 in his pioneering publication on Post-Impressionism, From Van Gogh to Gauguin. This volume would extend the period covered to other artistic movements derived from Impressionism, though confined to the late 19th, Rewald focused on such outstanding early Post-Impressionists active in France as van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, and Redon. Pont-Aven School, implying more than that the artists involved had been working for a while in Pont-Aven or elsewhere in Brittany. Symbolism, a highly welcomed by vanguard critics in 1891. Rewald wrote that the term Post-Impressionism is not a precise one. Convenient, when the term is by definition limited to French visual arts derived from Impressionism since 1886, rewalds approach to historical data was narrative rather than analytic, and beyond this point he believed it would be sufficient to let the sources speak for themselves. Rival terms like Modernism or Symbolism were never as easy to handle, for they covered literature, architecture and other arts as well, Symbolism, however, is considered to be a concept which emerged a century later in France, and implied an individual approach
Post-Impressionism
–
Henri Rousseau, The Centenary of Independence, 1892,
Getty Center, Los Angeles
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
–
Poster of the 1889 Exhibition of Paintings by the
Impressionist and
Synthetist Group, at Café des Arts, known as the
The Volpini Exhibition, 1889
Post-Impressionism
–
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Portrait of
Émile Bernard, 1886,
Tate Gallery London
15.
Lubok
–
A lubok is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories and popular tales. Lubki prints were used as decoration in houses and inns, early examples from the late 17th and early 18th centuries were woodcuts, then engravings or etchings were typical, and from the mid-19th century lithography. They sometimes appeared in series, which might be regarded as predecessors of the comic strip. Cheap and simple books, similar to chapbooks, which consisted of pictures, are called lubok literature or. Both pictures and literature are commonly referred to simply as lubki, the Russian word lubok derives from lub - a special type of board that pictures were printed on. Russian lubki became a genre of during the last half of the seventeenth century. Russian lubok was primarily influenced by the woodcuts and engravings done in Germany, Italy and its popularity in Russia was a result of how inexpensive and fairly simple it was to duplicate a print using this new technique. Luboks were typically sold at various marketplaces to the lower and middle classes and this type of art was very popular with these two social classes because the lubok provided them with an inexpensive opportunity to display artwork in their houses. The Koren Picture-Bible, 1692-1696 established the most prominent style, an Old Russian rendering of international iconography and subjects, by mid-18th century, however, the woodcuts were mostly replaced with engraving or etching techniques, which enabled the prints to be more detailed and complex. After printing on paper, the picture would be hand-colored with diluted tempera paints, while the prints themselves were typically very simplistic and unadorned, the final product, with the tempera paint added, was surprisingly bright with vivid colors and lines. The dramatic coloring of the early woodcut prints was to some extent lost with the transfer to more detailed engravings, in addition to the images, these folk prints would also include a short story or lesson that correlated to the picture being presented. Russian scholar Alexander Boguslavsky claims that the style is a combination of Russian icon and manuscript painting traditions with the ideas. Typically, the luboks artist would include minimal text that was supplementary to the illustration that would cover the majority of the engraving. Folklorist Dmitri Rovinsky is known for his work with categorizing lubok. Jewish examples exist as well, many luboks can be classified into multiple categories. Russian lubok The satirical version played an important role in the luboks from Russian wartime and it is used to present Napoleon in a satirical manner while portraying the Russian peasants as the heroes of the war. This also inspired other Russians to help fight the war by attempting to, the luboks presented a manner for the Russians to mock the French enemy, while at the same time display the ‘Russianness” of Russia. “These war luboks satirized Napoleon and depicted French culture as degenerate”, the lubok was a means of reinforcing the idea of defeating the French invaders and displaying the horrible destruction Napoleon and his army caused Russia. All the different representation of the Russian heroes helped define and spread the belief in Russian identity, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 began on February 8,1904, at Port Arthur with a surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy
Lubok
Lubok
–
A modern rural shed with lubok decoration
Lubok
–
"A
Joker and His Wife". This 18th-century lubok is an adaptation of a German print.
Lubok
–
"The Valiant Knight
Yeruslan Rescuing Princess
Anastasia ", an 18th-century lubok.
16.
Henri Matisse
–
Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse was a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is primarily as a painter. Although he was labelled a Fauve, by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century. Matisse was born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, in the Nord department in northern France and he grew up in Bohain-en-Vermandois, Picardie, France. In 1887 he went to Paris to study law, working as an administrator in Le Cateau-Cambrésis after gaining his qualification. He first started to paint in 1889, after his mother brought him art supplies during a period of following an attack of appendicitis. He discovered a kind of paradise as he described it. In 1891 he returned to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian and became a student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau, initially he painted still lifes and landscapes in a traditional style, at which he achieved reasonable proficiency. Chardin was one of the painters Matisse most admired, as an art student he made copies of four of Chardins paintings in the Louvre, in 1896 and 1897, Matisse visited the Australian painter John Peter Russell on the island Belle Île off the coast of Brittany. Russell introduced him to Impressionism and to the work of van Gogh and he later said Russell was my teacher, and Russell explained colour theory to me. In 1896 Matisse exhibited five paintings in the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, with the model Caroline Joblau, he had a daughter, Marguerite, born in 1894. In 1898 he married Amélie Noellie Parayre, the two raised Marguerite together and had two sons, Jean and Pierre, Marguerite and Amélie often served as models for Matisse. In 1898, on the advice of Camille Pissarro, he went to London to study the paintings of J. M. W. Turner and then went on a trip to Corsica. Upon his return to Paris in February 1899, he worked beside Albert Marquet and met André Derain, Jean Puy, Matisse immersed himself in the work of others and went into debt from buying work from painters he admired. The work he hung and displayed in his home included a plaster bust by Rodin, a painting by Gauguin, a drawing by van Gogh, in Cézannes sense of pictorial structure and colour, Matisse found his main inspiration. Many of Matisses paintings from 1898 to 1901 make use of a Divisionist technique he adopted after reading Paul Signacs essay and his paintings of 1902–03, a period of material hardship for the artist, are comparatively somber and reveal a preoccupation with form. Having made his first attempt at sculpture, a copy after Antoine-Louis Barye, in 1899, he devoted much of his energy to working in clay, fauvism as a style began around 1900 and continued beyond 1910
Henri Matisse
–
Henri Matisse, 1913, by
Alvin Langdon Coburn
Henri Matisse
–
Henri and Amélie Matisse, 1898
Henri Matisse
–
Woman Reading, 1894, Museum of Modern Art, Paris
Henri Matisse
–
Blue Pot and Lemon (1897),
Hermitage Museum,
St. Petersburg, Russia
17.
Georges Braque
–
Georges Braque was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most important contributions to the history of art were in his alliance with Fauvism from 1906, braque’s work between 1908 and 1912 is closely associated with that of his colleague Pablo Picasso. Their respective Cubist works were indistinguishable for many years, yet the quiet nature of Braque was partially eclipsed by the fame, georges Braque was born on 13 May 1882 in Argenteuil, Val-dOise. He grew up in Le Havre and trained to be a house painter, however, he also studied artistic painting during evenings at the École des Beaux-Arts, in Le Havre, from about 1897 to 1899. In Paris, he apprenticed with a decorator and was awarded his certificate in 1902, the next year, he attended the Académie Humbert, also in Paris, and painted there until 1904. It was here that he met Marie Laurencin and Francis Picabia, Braques earliest works were impressionistic, but after seeing the work exhibited by the artistic group known as the Fauves in 1905, he adopted a Fauvist style. The Fauves, a group that included Henri Matisse and André Derain among others, Braque worked most closely with the artists Raoul Dufy and Othon Friesz, who shared Braques hometown of Le Havre, to develop a somewhat more subdued Fauvist style. In 1906, Braque traveled with Friesz to LEstaque, to Antwerp, in May 1907, he successfully exhibited works of the Fauve style in the Salon des Indépendants. The 1907 Cézanne retrospective at the Salon dAutomne greatly affected the artists of Paris. Braques paintings of 1908–1912 reflected his new interest in geometry and simultaneous perspective and he showed this in the painting Houses at lEstaque. Beginning in 1909, Braque began to work closely with Pablo Picasso who had been developing a similar proto-Cubist style of painting. At the time, Pablo Picasso was influenced by Gauguin, Cézanne, African masks, Picasso celebrates animation, while Braque celebrates contemplation. Thus, the invention of Cubism was a joint effort between Picasso and Braque, then residents of Montmartre, Paris and these artists were the styles main innovators. After meeting in October or November 1907, Braque and Picasso, in particular, both artists produced paintings of monochromatic color and complex patterns of faceted form, now termed Analytic Cubism. In 1912, they began to experiment with collage and Braque invented the papier collé technique, French art critic Louis Vauxcelles used the terms bizarre cubiques in 1908 after seeing a picture by Braque. He described it as full of little cubes, the term Cubism, first pronounced in 1911 with reference to artists exhibiting at the Salon des Indépendants, quickly gained wide use but Picasso and Braque did not adopt it initially. Art historian Ernst Gombrich described Cubism as the most radical attempt to stamp out ambiguity and to one reading of the picture—that of a man-made construction. The Cubist style spread quickly throughout Paris and then Europe, the two artists productive collaboration continued and they worked closely together until the beginning of World War I in 1914, when Braque enlisted with the French Army
Georges Braque
–
Georges Braque, 1908, photograph published in
Gelett Burgess, The Wild Men of Paris, Architectural Record, May 1910
Georges Braque
–
Georges Braque, 1906, L'Olivier près de l'Estaque (The Olive tree near l'Estaque). At least four versions of this scene were painted by Braque, one of which was stolen from the
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris during the month of May, 2010.
Georges Braque
–
Georges Braque, 1907-08, The Viaduct at L'Estaque (Le Viaduc de l'Estaque), oil on canvas, 65.1 x 80.6 cm,
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Georges Braque
–
Georges Braque, 1908, Maisons et arbre (
Houses at l'Estaque), oil on canvas, 40.5 x 32.5 cm,
Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art
18.
Paul Gauguin
–
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a French post-Impressionist artist. Underappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his use of color. His work was influential to the French avant-garde and many artists, such as Pablo Picasso. Many of his paintings were in the possession of Russian collector Sergei Shchukin and he was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer. He was also a proponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms. Gauguin was born in Paris, France to Clovis Gauguin and Alina Maria Chazal on June 7,1848 and his birth coincided with revolutionary upheavals throughout Europe that year. His father, a 34-year-old liberal journalist, came from a family of petit-bourgeoisie entrepreneurs residing in Orléans and he was compelled to flee France when the newspaper for which he wrote was suppressed by French authorities. Gauguins mother, the 22-year-old Aline Marie Chazal, was the daughter of Andre Chazal, an engraver, and Flora Tristan and their union ended when Andre assaulted his wife Flora and was sentenced to prison for attempted murder. Paul Gauguins maternal grandmother, Flora Tristan, was the daughter of Thérèse Laisnay. Details of Thérèses family background are not known, her father, Don Mariano, was a Spanish nobleman, members of the wealthy Tristan Moscoso family held powerful positions in Peru. Nonetheless, Don Marianos unexpected death plunged his mistress and daughter Flora into poverty, when Floras marriage with Andre failed, she petitioned for and obtained a small monetary settlement from her fathers Peruvian relatives. She sailed to Peru in hopes of enlarging her share of the Tristan Moscoso family fortune and this never materialized, but she successfully published a popular travelogue of her experiences in Peru which launched her literary career in 1838. An active supporter of early socialist societies, Gauguins maternal grandmother helped to lay the foundations for the 1848 revolutionary movements, placed under surveillance by French police and suffering from overwork, she died in 1844. Her grandson Paul idolized his grandmother, and kept copies of her books with him to the end of his life. In 1850, Clovis Gauguin departed for Peru with his wife Alina and he died of a heart attack en route, and Alina arrived in Peru a widow with the 18-month-old Paul and his 2 ½ year-old sister, Marie. Gauguins mother was welcomed by her granduncle, whose son-in-law would shortly assume the presidency of Peru. To the age of six, Paul enjoyed an upbringing, attended by nursemaids. He retained a vivid memory of period of his childhood which instilled indelible impressions of Peru that haunted him the rest of his life
Paul Gauguin
–
Aline Marie Chazal Tristán, La mère de l'artiste ("The Artist's Mother"), 1889,
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.
Paul Gauguin
–
Gauguin, c. 1891
Paul Gauguin
–
Woman Sewing, 1880,
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
19.
Vincent van Gogh
–
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings and his suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty. Born into a family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling and he turned to religion, and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881 and his younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept up a long correspondence by letter. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, in 1886 he moved to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the Impressionist sensibility. As his work developed he created a new approach to still lifes and his paintings grew brighter in colour as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in the south of France in 1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include trees, cypresses, wheat fields. Van Gogh suffered from episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor and he spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris and his depression continued and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died from his injuries two days later, Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius. His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as elements of his style came to be incorporated by the Fauves. The most comprehensive source on Van Gogh is the correspondence between him and his younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincents thoughts, Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support, and access to influential people on the contemporary art scene. Theo kept all of Vincents letters to him, Vincent kept few of the letters he received, after both had died, Theos widow Johanna arranged for the publication of some of their letters. A few appeared in 1906 and 1913, the majority were published in 1914, Vincents letters are eloquent and expressive and have been described as having a diary-like intimacy, and read in parts like autobiography
Vincent van Gogh
–
Self-Portrait, Spring 1887, Oil on pasteboard, 42 × 33.7 cm.,
Art Institute of Chicago (F 345)
Vincent van Gogh
–
Vincent c. 1871-1872 aged 18. This photograph was taken at the time when he was working at the branch of
Goupil & Cie 's gallery in
The Hague.
Vincent van Gogh
–
Vincent c. 1866, approx. age 13
Vincent van Gogh
–
Van Gogh's drawing of
87 Hackford Road
20.
Vladimir Tatlin
–
Vladimir Yevgraphovich Tatlin was a Soviet painter and architect. With Kazimir Malevich he was one of the two most important figures in the Soviet avant-garde art movement of the 1920s, and he became an important artist in the Constructivist movement. He is most famous for his design for The Monument to the Third International, more known as Tatlins Tower. Tatlin was born in Kharkiv, the son of a railway engineer and he worked as a merchant sea cadet and spent some time abroad. He began his art career as a painter in Moscow. He also sang in Ukrainian and was a professional musician-bandurist, Tatlin became familiar with the work of Pablo Picasso during a trip to Paris in 1913. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed the huge Monument to the Third International, planned from 1919, the monument was to be a tall tower in iron, glass and steel which would have dwarfed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Inside the iron-and-steel structure of twin spirals, the design envisaged three building blocks, covered with windows, which would rotate at different speeds. For financial and practical reasons, however, the tower was never built, Tatlin conceived these sculptures in order to question the traditional ideas of art, though he did not regard himself as a Constructivist and objected to many of the movements ideas. Later prominent constructivists included Varvara Stepanova, Alexander Rodchenko, Manuel Rendón Seminario, Joaquín Torres García, László Moholy-Nagy, Antoine Pevsner and this led Malevich to develop his ideas further in the city of Vitebsk, where he found a school called UNOVIS. Tatlin also dedicated himself to the study of clothes, objects, at the end of his life he started to research bird flight, in order to pursue one of the great dreams of humanity, to fly. In the year of 1930 he taught in Kiev where one of his students was Joseph Karakis, Tatlin was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Media related to Vladimir Tatlin at Wikimedia Commons Tatlin Playing The Bandura, special Project of the Library of Ukrainian Art. Exhibition of Russian-Soviet artist Vladimir Tatlin in Basel — Tatlin’s “new art for a new world”
Vladimir Tatlin
–
Vladimir Tatlin
21.
Marc Chagall
–
Marc Zakharovich Chagall was a Russian-French artist. Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century, according to art historian Michael J. Lewis, Chagall was considered to be the last survivor of the first generation of European modernists. For decades, he had also respected as the worlds preeminent Jewish artist. Using the medium of stained glass, he produced windows for the cathedrals of Reims and Metz, windows for the UN, and he also did large-scale paintings, including part of the ceiling of the Paris Opéra. Before World War I, he travelled between Saint Petersburg, Paris and Berlin, during this period he created his own mixture and style of modern art based on his idea of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. He had two basic reputations, writes Lewis, as a pioneer of modernism and as a major Jewish artist. He experienced modernisms golden age in Paris, where he synthesized the art forms of Cubism, Symbolism, and Fauvism, and the influence of Fauvism gave rise to Surrealism. Yet throughout these phases of his style he remained most emphatically a Jewish artist, when Matisse dies, Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is. Marc Chagall was born Moishe Segal in a Lithuanian Jewish family in Liozna, at the time of his birth, Vitebsks population was about 66,000, with half the population being Jewish. A picturesque city of churches and synagogues, it was called Russian Toledo, as the city was built mostly of wood, little of it survived years of occupation and destruction during World War II. Chagall was the eldest of nine children, the family name, Shagal, is a variant of the name Segal, which in a Jewish community was usually borne by a Levitic family. His father, Khatskl Shagal, was employed by a herring merchant and his father worked hard, carrying heavy barrels but earning only 20 roubles each month. Chagall would later include fish motifs out of respect for his father, writes Chagall biographer, Chagall wrote of these early years, Day after day, winter and summer, at six oclock in the morning, my father got up and went off to the synagogue. There he said his prayer for some dead man or other. On his return he made ready the samovar, drank some tea, hellish work, the work of a galley-slave. No word will ever ease my fathers lot, There was always plenty of butter and cheese on our table. Buttered bread, like a symbol, was never out of my childish hands. One of the sources of income of the Jewish population of the town was from the manufacture of clothing that was sold throughout Russia
Marc Chagall
–
Chagall, c.1920 (by Pierre Choumoff)
Marc Chagall
–
Chagall's Parents
Marc Chagall
–
Portrait of Chagall by
Yehuda (Yuri) Pen, his first art teacher in Vitebsk
Marc Chagall
–
Marc Chagall, 1912, Calvary (Golgotha), oil on canvas, 174.6 x 192.4 cm,
Museum of Modern Art, New York. Alternative titles: Kreuzigung Bild 2 Christus gewidmet [Golgotha. Crucifixion. Dedicated to Christ]. Sold through Galerie
Der Sturm (Herwarth Walden), Berlin to Bernhard Koehler (1849–1927), Berlin, 1913. Exhibited: Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon, Berlin, 1913
22.
Kazimir Malevich
–
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician. He was a pioneer of abstract art and the originator of the avant-garde Suprematist movement. He was a devout Christian mystic who believed the central task of an artist was that of rendering spiritual feeling, Kazimir Malevich was born Kazimierz Malewicz to a Polish family, who settled near Kiev in Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire during the partitions of Poland. His parents, Ludwika and Seweryn Malewicz, were Roman Catholic like most ethnic Poles and they both had fled from the former eastern territories of the Commonwealth to Kiev in the aftermath of the failed Polish January Uprising of 1863 against the tsarist army. His native language was Polish though he spoke Ukrainian in public, subsequently, Malevich even wrote a series of articles about art in Ukrainian. Kazimirs father managed a sugar factory, Kazimir was the first of fourteen children, only nine of whom survived into adulthood. His family moved often and he spent most of his childhood in the villages of Ukraine, amidst sugar-beet plantations, until age twelve he knew nothing of professional artists, although art had surrounded him in childhood. He delighted in peasant embroidery, and in decorated walls and stoves and he was able to paint in the peasant style. He studied drawing in Kiev from 1895 to 1896, from 1896 to 1904 Kazimir Malevich lived in Kursk. In 1904, after the death of his father, he moved to Moscow and he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture from 1904 to 1910 and in the studio of Fedor Rerberg in Moscow. In the same year he participated in an exhibition by the collective, by that time his works were influenced by Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, Russian avant-garde painters, who were particularly interested in Russian folk art called lubok. Malevich described himself as painting in a Cubo-Futuristic style in 1912, in March 1913 a major exhibition of Aristarkh Lentulovs paintings opened in Moscow. Already in the year the Cubo-Futurist opera, Victory Over the Sun, with Malevichs stage-set. In 1914 Malevich exhibited his works in the Salon des Indépendants in Paris together with Alexander Archipenko, Sonia Delaunay, Aleksandra Ekster, Malevich also co-illustrated, with Pavel Filonov, Selected Poems with Postscript, 1907–1914 by Velimir Khlebnikov and another work by Khlebnikov in 1914 titled Roar. In 1915, Malevich laid down the foundations of Suprematism when he published his manifesto, in 1915–1916 he worked with other Suprematist artists in a peasant/artisan co-operative in Skoptsi and Verbovka village. In 1916–1917 he participated in exhibitions of the Jack of Diamonds group in Moscow together with Nathan Altman, David Burliuk, Aleksandra Ekster, famous examples of his Suprematist works include Black Square and White On White. Malevich exhibited his first Black Square, now at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, a black square placed against the sun appeared for the first time in the 1913 scenery designs for the Futurist opera Victory over the Sun. The second Black Square was painted around 1923, some believe that the third Black Square was painted in 1929 for Malevichs solo exhibition, because of the poor condition of the 1915 square
Kazimir Malevich
–
Self-portrait, 1912
Kazimir Malevich
–
Black Square, 1915, oil on linen, 79.5 x 79.5 cm,
Tretyakov Gallery,
Moscow
Kazimir Malevich
–
Suprematist Composition:
White on White, 1918,
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Kazimir Malevich
–
A section of Suprematist works by Kazimir Malevich exhibited at the
0.10 Exhibition, Petrograd, 1915
23.
Jack of Diamonds (artists)
–
Jack of Diamonds, also called Knave Of Diamonds, was a group of avant-garde artists founded in 1910 in Moscow. The group remained active until December 1917, the Knave of Diamonds was an exhibition that opened in Moscow in December 1910, featuring French cubist paintings by Henri Le Fauconnier, André Lhote, Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger. Curated by Alexandre Mercereau, the included works of four Russian artists expelled from the Moscow School of Painting. Subsequently the title was adopted by a newly formed artistic society in Moscow, soon thereafter, this group became the largest and one of the most significant exhibition societies of the early Russian avant-garde. The name itself was coined by Mikhail Larionov for the exhibition of 1910 because he liked the sound of it, well-known painters that participated in the first Jack of Diamonds exhibition, in addition to the French Cubists were Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Kazimir Malevich. The group included Robert Falk, Aristarkh Lentulov, Ilya Mashkov, Alexander V. Kuprin, Adolf Milman, Alexander Osmerkin, Wladimir Burliuk, Pyotr Konchalovsky and Moisey Feigin. Other new styles and genres, such as performance and body-art, emerged from this unlikely blending of fine European art, Russian folk art, later Mikhail Larionov and his followers disagreed with the groups ethos and formed the more radical Donkeys Tail. G. G. Pospelov, Bubnovii Valet / Knave of Diamonds, State Russian Museum, State Tretiakov Gallery, Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, The Knave of Diamonds in the Russian Avant-Garde. Benedikt Livshits, The One and a Half-Eyed Archer, newtonville, Mass, Oriental Research Partners,1977, pages 69–96. Knave of Diamonds, InCoRM, Compiled by Patricia Railing
Jack of Diamonds (artists)
–
Aristarkh Lentulov Woman with a Guitar, 1913
24.
Niko Pirosmani
–
Niko Pirosmani, simply referred to as Nikala, was a Georgian primitivist painter who posthumously rose to prominence. Pirosmani was born in the Georgian village of Mirzaani to a peasant family in Kakheti province and his parents, Aslan Pirosmanashvili and Tekle Toklikishvili, were farmers, who owned a small vineyard, with a few cows and oxen. He was later orphaned and left in the care of his two sisters, Mariam and Pepe. He moved with them to Tbilisi in 1870, in 1872, while living in a little apartment not far from Tbilisi railway station, he worked as a servant to wealthy families and learned to read and write Russian and Georgian. In 1876, he returned to Mirzaani and worked as a herdsman, Pirosmani gradually taught himself to paint. One of his specialties was painting directly into black oilcloth, in 1882, with self-taught George Zaziashvili, he opened a painting workshop, where they made signboards. In 1890, he worked as a railroad conductor, in 1893, he co-founded a dairy farm in Tbilisi, which he left in 1901. Throughout his life, Pirosmani, who was poor, was willing to take ordinary jobs including housepainting and whitewashing buildings and he also worked for shopkeepers in Tbilisi, creating signboards, paintings, and portraits, according to their orders. Although his paintings had some local popularity his relationship with professional artists remained uneasy, in April 1918, he died of malnutrition and liver failure. He was buried at the Nino cemetery, the location was not registered and is unknown. Pirosmani’s paintings were influenced by the conditions of his time. There are many works about merchants, shopkeepers, workmen, Pirosmani was fond of nature and rural life. He was the only Georgian animalist, Pirosmani also was attracted by historical figures and themes such as Shota Rustaveli, Queen Tamar, Giorgi Saakadze, as well as ordinary Georgian people and their everyday lives. Unlike other artists, Niko didn’t aim at a pure imitation of the nature, some of his paintings are monochrome. His paintings demonstrate the authors sharp compositional consideration, placements of the figures are frontal, while faces do not demonstrate a specific mood. In the 1910s, he won the enthusiasm of the Russian poet Mikhail Le-Dantyu, Ilia Zhdanevich wrote a letter about Pirosmani to the newspaper Zakavkazskaia Rech, which it published on February 13,1913. He undertook to publicise Pirosmanis painting in Moscow, critics writing later in the same newspaper were impressed with his talent. In the same year, an article about Niko Pirosmani and his art was published in Georgian newspaper Temi
Niko Pirosmani
–
Pirosmani, 1916
Niko Pirosmani
–
Pirosmani, "A Janitor", 1909,
Georgian National Museum
Niko Pirosmani
–
Niko Pirosmani on
Georgian lari.
25.
Rayonism
–
Rayonism is a style of abstract art that developed in Russia in 1911. Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova developed rayonism after hearing a series of lectures about Futurism by Marinetti in Moscow, the Futurists took speed, technology and modernity as their inspiration, depicting the dynamic character of early 20th century life. The Rayonists sought an art that floated beyond abstraction, outside of time and space and they derived the name from the use of dynamic rays of contrasting color, representing lines of reflected light — crossing of reflected rays from various objects. At the 1913 Target exhibition they introduced the style to the public, the ray is depicted provisionally on the surface by a colored line. That which is valuable for the lover of painting finds its expression in a rayonnist picture. We do not sense the object with our eye, as it is depicted conventionally in pictures and as a result of following this or that device, in fact, we do not sense the object as such. We perceive a sum of rays proceeding from a source of light, consequently, if we wish to paint literally what we see, then we must paint the sum of rays reflected from the object. Now, if we wish to depict an object exactly as we see it, then we must depict also these reflex rays belonging to other objects -- and then we will depict literally what we see. Perception, not of the object itself, but of the sum of rays from it, is, by its very nature, much closer to the symbolic surface of the picture than is the object itself. This is almost the same as the mirage which appears in the air of the desert and depicts distant towns, lakes. Rayonism erases the barriers that exist between the surface and nature. A ray is depicted provisionally on the surface by a colored line Rayonists not only painted, they also designed theater sets, although short-lived, Rayonism was a crucial step in the development of Russian abstract art. As Larionov said, it represented the true freeing of art from the former realistic conventions that had oppressed the artistic community, electro act The Rayonists took their name from the movement. Ray tracing An essay on the Russian avant-garde by faculty at Northwestern University, Russian Painting by Alexander Boguslawski at Rollins College. Tate Museum - Rayonism Chronology of related art fields in the 1910s
Rayonism
–
Mikhail Larionov Red Rayonism 1913
Rayonism
–
Stroganov School
26.
Omega Workshops
–
The Omega Workshops Ltd. was a design enterprise founded by members of the Bloomsbury Group and established in July 1913. It was located at 33 Fitzroy Square in London, and was founded with the intention of providing graphic expression to the essence of the Bloomsbury ethos, the Directors of the firm were Fry, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. Fry was keen to encourage a Post-Impressionist influence in designs produced for Omega, however, Cubist and Fauvist influences are also apparent, particularly in many of the textile designs. To ensure items were only for the quality of the work. The products were in expensive, and aimed at an exclusive market. A commission was taken to decorate a room for the 1913 Ideal Home Exhibition, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant produced designs for Omega, and Wyndham Lewis was initially part of the operation. This letter contained accusations particularly against Fry, criticising the workshops products and this split led to the formation not only of the Rebel Art Centre, but also of the Vorticist movement. A company in France was used to manufacture early printed linens, in the autumn of 1913 Fry, who also created the designs for Omegas tall cane-seat chairs, started designing and making pottery. The management of the Omega Workshop was passed to Winifred Gill from 1914 as the men started to become involved in the First World War, one artist exhibitions included those of Edward McKnight Kauffer, Alvaro Guevara, Mikhail Larionov and Vanessa Bells first solo exhibition in 1916. Edward Wolfe worked at the Omega Workshops, hand-painting candle-shades and trays, Wolfe, who died in 1982, was one of the last of the Bloomsbury painters. In January 1918, Omega were commissioned to design sets and costumes in the Israel Zangwill play Too Much Money, Omega closed in 1919, after a clearance sale, and was officially liquidated on 24 July 1920. A series of financial decisions and internal conflicts all contributed to its decline. At the time of its closure, Fry was the remaining original member working regularly at the workshop. Despite this, Omega became influential in interior design in the 1920s, a revival of interest in Omega designs in the 1980s led to a reassessment of the place of the Bloomsbury Group in visual arts. British art References Sources Christopher Reed, Bloomsbury Rooms, Modernism, Subculture, and Domesticity. The Omega Workshop at the Tate Gallery
Omega Workshops
–
33 Fitzroy Square, London. (from 1929 to 2003 the London Foot Hospital)
Omega Workshops
–
Furniture created by Roger Fry for the Omega Workshops, on display in 2009.
Omega Workshops
–
Nina Hamnett painted by Roger Fry, 1917, in a dress designed by Vanessa Bell and made at the Omega. The shoes may also be from Omega and the cushion on the chair is covered with 'Maud' linen, also by Bell.
27.
Sergei Diaghilev
–
Sergei Diaghilev was born to a wealthy and cultured family in Selishchi, Russia, his father, Pavel Pavlovich, was a cavalry colonel, but the familys money came mainly from vodka distilleries. After the death of Sergeis mother, his father married Elena Valerianovna Panaeva, the family lived in Perm but had an apartment in Saint Petersburg and a country estate in Bikbarda. In 1890, Sergeis parents went bankrupt, having for a time lived beyond their means. After graduating in 1892 he abandoned his dreams of composition, during his years at University, Diaghilevs cousin Dmitry Filosofov introduced him to a circle of art-loving friends who called themselves The Nevsky Pickwickians. They included Alexandre Benois, Walter Nouvel, Konstantin Somov, although not instantly received into the group, Diaghilev was aided by Benois in developing his knowledge of Russian and Western art. In two years, he had voraciously absorbed this new obsession and came to be respected as one of the most learned of the group, with financial backing from Savva Mamontov and Princess Maria Tenisheva, the group founded the journal Mir iskusstva. In 1899, Diaghilev became special assistant to Prince Sergei Mikhaylovich Volkonsky, in 1900–1901 Volkonsky entrusted Diaghilev with the staging of Léo Delibes ballet Sylvia, a favorite of Benois. The two collaborators concocted an elaborate plan that startled the established personnel of the Imperial Theatres. At the same time, some of Diaghilevs researchers hinted at his homosexuality as the cause for this conflict. However, his homosexuality had been known long before he was invited into the Imperial Theatres. In the following year he took a major exhibition of Russian art to the Petit Palais in Paris and it was the beginning of a long involvement with France. In 1907 he presented five concerts of Russian music in Paris and this led to an invitation to return the following year with ballet as well as opera, and thus to the launching of his famous Ballets Russes. The company included the best young Russian dancers, among them Anna Pavlova, Adolph Bolm, Vaslav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina and Vera Karalli, and their first night on 19 May 1909 was a sensation. During these years Diaghilevs stagings included several compositions by the late Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, such as the operas The Maid of Pskov, May Night and his choreographer Michel Fokine often adapted the music for ballet. Diaghilev also worked with dancer and ballet master Léonide Massine, the artistic director for the Ballets Russes was Léon Bakst. Together they developed a complicated form of ballet with show-elements intended to appeal to the general public. The exotic appeal of the Ballets Russes had an effect on Fauvist painters, coco Chanel is said to have stated that Diaghilev invented Russia for foreigners. Perhaps Diaghilevs most notable composer-collaborator, however, was Igor Stravinsky, Diaghilev heard Stravinskys early orchestral works Fireworks and Scherzo fantastique, and was impressed enough to ask Stravinsky to arrange some pieces by Chopin for the Ballets Russes
Sergei Diaghilev
–
Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Diaghilev
–
Portrait of Sergei Diaghilev by
Valentin Serov (1904)
Sergei Diaghilev
–
Portrait of Serge Diaghilev with His Nanny, by
Léon Bakst (1906).
Sergei Diaghilev
–
Diaghilev's gravestone,
Isola di San Michele,
Orthodox section,
Venice, Italy (April, 2011)
28.
Ballets Russes
–
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company based in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society, after its initial Paris season, the company had no formal ties there. It also introduced European and American audiences to tales, music, the influence of the Ballets Russes lasts to the present day. The French plural form of the name, “Ballets Russes, ” specifically refers to the company founded by Sergei Diaghilev and active during his lifetime. ”To add to the confusion, some publicity material spelt the name in the singular. The names “Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo” and “The Original Ballet Russe” refer to companies that formed after Diaghilevs death in 1929, Sergei Diaghilev, the companys impresario, was chiefly responsible for its success. He was uniquely prepared for the role, born into a wealthy Russian family of vodka distillers, he was accustomed to moving in the upper-class circles that provided the companys patrons and benefactors. In 1890 he enrolled at the Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg, from childhood, Diaghilev had been passionately interested in music. His ambition to become a composer was dashed when Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov told him he had no talent, in 1898, several members of The Pickwickians founded the journal Mir iskusstva under the editorship of Diaghilev. As early as 1902, Mir iskusstva included reviews of concerts, operas, the latter were chiefly written by Alexandre Benois, who exerted considerable influence on Diaghilevs thinking. Mir iskusstva also sponsored exhibitions of Russian art in St. Petersburg and its enormous success created a Parisian fascination with all things Russian. Diaghilev organized a 1907 season of Russian music at the Paris Opéra, in 1908, Diaghilev returned to the Paris Opéra with six performances of Mussorgskys opera Boris Godunov, starring basso Fyodor Chaliapin. The performances were a sensation, though the costs of producing grand opera were crippling, in 1909, Diaghilev presented his first Paris Saison Russe devoted exclusively to ballet. Most of this company were resident performers at the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg. The first seasons featured a variety of works chiefly choreographed by Michel Fokine, including Le Pavillon dArmide, the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, Les Sylphides. The season also included Le Festin, a set by several choreographers to music by several Russian composers. The Ballets Russes was noted for the standard of its dancers, most of whom had been classically trained at the great Imperial schools in Moscow. Their high technical standards contributed a great deal to the success in Paris. The Ballets Russes was even more remarkable for raising the status of the dancer, largely ignored by choreographers
Ballets Russes
–
Ballet Russes by
August Macke, 1912
Ballets Russes
–
Tamara Grigorieva, Irina Zarova, Alberto Alonso (as the Dwarf in front), Georges Skibine and Nicolas Ivangin in Pavane, Original Ballet Russe Australian tour
Ballets Russes
–
Dimitri Rostoff as Malatesta in Francesca da Rimini, Original Ballet Russe, 1940
Ballets Russes
–
Russian stamp:
Sergei Diaghilev
29.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
.jpg)
.jpg)
