Pavel Kuznetsov Varfolomeyevich
(1878-1968)

Nature has endowed PV Kuznetsov brilliant and beautiful gift of inexhaustible energy of the soul. A sense of admiration for the artist's life did not leave until a ripe old age. Art was for him a form of existence.

By fine craft Kuznetsov could join as a child, in the workshop of his father-icon painter. When the boy's artistic inclinations clearly defined, he entered the studio of painting and drawing at the Saratov Society of Fine Arts, where he studied for several years (1891-96) under the leadership of Vladimir Konovalov and GP Salvi-ni-Barakki.

An extremely important event in his life was the meeting with V. E. Borisov-Musatov had a profound and positive impact on the Saratov artistic youth.
Kuznetsov in 1897 had passed the exams in MUZHVZ. He studied fine, standing out not only the brightness of talent, but also a genuine passion to work. During these years, Kuznetsov was under the spell of the beautiful artistry K. Korovin , it was no less profound disciplining effect B. Serov .

At the same time, Kuznetsova rallied around a group of students, who later became well-known members of the creative community, "Blue Rose". From Impressionism to Symbolism - this is the main trend that defined the search Kuznetsova in the early years. Paying tribute to plein-air painting, the young artist tried to find a language that would show not only the experience of the visible world as a state of mind.
 Along the way, right up painting has moved closer to poetry and music, as if testing the limits of visual possibilities. Among the important concomitants - part Kuznetsov and his friends in the design of symbolist plays, cooperation in the symbolist journals.

In 1902, the Smiths with two friends - K. Petrov-Vodkin and PS Utkin - made ​​the experience of painting in the Saratov Church of the Kazan Mother of God. Young artists do not embarrass yourself observance of the canons, giving free rein to imagination. Risky experiment provoked a storm of public indignation, accusations of blasphemy - paintings were destroyed, but the artists themselves this experience was an important step in the search for a new pictorial expression.

By the time the Moscow School of Painting (1904) Kuznetsova symbolist orientation fully determined. Of particular importance purchased scenic opening Borisov-Musatov. However, the balance of the abstract and the concrete, which marked the Lithuanian mousse best thing is not peculiar symbolism Kuznetsova. The flesh of the visible world is melting in his paintings, his vision is almost surreal paintings, woven of images-shadows, indicating the subtle movements of the soul. Kuznetsovsky favorite motif - Fountain of sight of the water cycle artist was fascinated as a child, and now the memories of this are raised on canvases ranging theme of the eternal cycle of life.

As Musatov, Kuznetsov preferred tempera, but uses its decorative possibilities of a very peculiar way, as if with an eye to the techniques of Impressionism. Razbelennye shades like tend to merge into one: barely colored light - and the picture is shrouded in mist color ("Morning", "Blue Fountain", both in 1905, "Birth", 1906, etc.).

Kuznetsov soon became famous. The artist was not yet thirty, when his work was included in the famous Russian art exhibition arranged by SP Diaghilev in Paris (1906). The apparent success resulted in the election of a member of the Salon d'Automne Kuznetsova (such an honor was not many Russian artists).

One of the most important events in Russian artistic life in the early twentieth century was the exhibition "Blue Rose" opened in Moscow in spring 1907 As one of the initiators of this action, Kuznetsov made and as the artistic leader of the movement, which from that time called "goluborozovskim." At the end of the 1900s. the artist has experienced a creative crisis. The strangeness of his work often becomes painful and seemed to have exhausted itself and can not lived up to expectations. Especially impressive was the revival Kuznetsova, has applied to the East.