Vladimir Lebedev is an outstanding painter, master of book illustration. For many years he was engaged in the decoration of the works of Samuel Marshak. In addition, the painter created a number of cartoons on political topics, several portraits and still lifes. The topic of today's article is the creative path of the artist Vladimir Vasilyevich Lebedev.
early years
The future painter was born in 1891, in St. Petersburg. Artistic abilities showed up at him quite early. Education Lebedev began with training in the studio of A. Titov. Then he graduated from art school. The main feature of Lebedev was the desire to learn new things. He never stopped learning, even when he started teaching.
As a political cartoonist, Lebedev did not work long (1917-1918), but his work was remembered. Perhaps it was the collection of drawings "The Revolution Panel" that played a bad role in his fate.
"Panel revolution"
In 1922, Vladimir Lebedev created a series of drawings devoted to events relevant to his contemporaries. The artist first called the collection of twenty-three graphic images "Street of the Revolution." Then the first word in this name was replaced with a more precise one - “panel”.
In the early twenties, many suspicious and unreliable people scurried along the streets of St. Petersburg. The crime rate has increased. This situation was created by economic instability in the country. Typical representatives of his time depicted the artist Vladimir Lebedev.
The drawings are satirical, grotesque. The "panel of revolution" is an example of how an artist, freeing himself from all that is superfluous, transfers to the paper social and psychological types of people.
Still lifes and portraits
After completing cooperation with the popular Satyricon magazine, the artist worked for several years on posters for a telegraph agency. However, they remember today Vladimir Lebedev, primarily as an illustrator of children's books. He began this activity at the Rainbow publishing house. But no less attention worthy of both portraits and still lifes of Lebedev.
Lebedev's work in the twenties was determined by his friendship with such artists as I. Puni, N. Lapshin, N. Tyrsa. Communication with colleagues created the environment necessary for each master. Vladimir Lebedev was fascinated by the work of French artists Renoir, Manet. In the early thirties, he created a series of works, including: “Fruits in a Basket”, “Red Guitar and Palette”. Around this time, Lebedev also acts as a portrait painter (“Portrait of the Artist N. S. Nadezhdina, ” “Model Woman with a Mandolin, ” “Girl with a Pitcher, ” “Red Navy, ” “Turkish Wrestlers”).
Personal life and family
Vladimir Lebedev met his first wife during his studies at the Bernstein school. Her name was Sarah Lebedeva (Darmolatova). This is an outstanding Russian and Soviet artist, also known as a master of sculptural portraiture. After the divorce, Lebedev maintained friendly, warm relations with her for many years.
The second wife of the artist was the famous ballerina and choreographer Nadezhda Nadezhdina. Lebedev painted several of her portraits. The third time the painter married in 1940, the writer Ada Lazo.
In tandem with Marshak
The name of this writer’s children’s is known to all. However, not everyone knows that Samuel Marshak was engaged not only in literary work, but also made a huge contribution to the development of publishing. And, perhaps, much of what Marshak planned in the early twenties, he would not have been able to accomplish if it had not been for cooperation with such a talented and hardworking schedule as Vladimir Lebedev. He became an artist in a new children's book. What are the features of Lebedev's style?
A distinctive feature of the works of this artist is the poster style. Lebedev's illustrations are laconic. The background is rarely colored, and the figures of people and animals are depicted schematically. "Hinged puppets" - so called one of the critics of the figure of Lebedev. But at the same time, the “puppets” of the master of illustration turned out to be alive, bright, and memorable.
Lebedev created drawings for a large number of books, but more often he worked precisely with Marshak. They found a common language, because both were extremely demanding of their activities, they worked tirelessly. Marshak, as if picking up the Lebedev style, wrote dynamically, creating clear verbal pictures.
Many young and talented artists took lessons in book graphics from him. Lebedev is the creator of his own school. He managed to gather around himself masters of a completely different direction. Vladimir Lebedev devoted book illustrations to more than half a century.
