Kardovskiy Dmitri (1866-1943)

A talented artist and teacher, Kardovsky best known as the illustrator of Russian classical literature and the author of the compositions on historical themes.

Apprentice P. Chistyakov and I. Repin St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1892-96), he initially learned the principles of realism literary method, saw his task is not to blindly copy nature, but in understanding its laws and follow them.

For the development of the beautiful gifts Kardovsky of great importance were lessons (1896-1900) in the then popular Munich school Aschbe gradually evolved from the classical academic to plein-air painting. Another source, significantly influenced the creation Kardovsky, was the work of the association "World of Art" with the intellectualism of his rational, well expresses the basic, fundamental line of Petersburg culture, as opposed to emotional and spontaneous Moscow.

The most well-known works Kardovsky in book illustrations - drawings to the "Kashtanka" by Anton Chekhov (1903), "Nevsky Prospect" by Nikolai Gogol (1904), a large series of illustrations, including the color, to the "I'm burning from the mind "Griboyedov (1907). Moreover, if, illustrating "Kashtanka" and "Woe from Wit" Kardovskiy bytopisatelya talent shows, the wizard to create sharp and shrewd character types, then, turning to the "Nevsky Prospect", he transforms his style in the direction of greater elegance and graphic conventions. All of this allows us to speak about the impact on the artist's book illustrations "World of Art" created by the aesthetics of the new book, decided to set all of its elements as a single organism, as a specific work of art.

Illustrations for "Nevsky Prospect" Kardovsky made for "mug lovers Russian editions Fine" and meet the tastes of the customers rather than the artist himself with his attraction to the subject of specificity and certainty types. Such is the nature of artistic talent that allowed him to organically express themselves in the field of theater and decorative art.

It happened in 1920, when Kardovskiy started to make the play by Nikolai Gogol, Ostrovsky, Turgenev for Moscow's Maly Theater. It is significant that his theatrical sketches by carefully designed accessories, costumes and decor are close to independent, fully complete the mise en scene. This equally applies to images of the characters. For each Kardovskiy found his distinctive portrait type, expressive pose and gesture. It is therefore not surprising that the theatrical sketches created for the play "The Government Inspector" in 1922, then was published as a book illustration. In addition to the most successful figures in the works of Chekhov and Gogol Kardovskiy also appealed to the novels of Leo Tolstoy "Childhood," "Boyhood", "Youth", the novel "War and Peace", Ivan Krylov's fables, stories and IM . Turgenev. He illustrated the "Peter I" But Tolstoy, "Sot" LM Leonov, the famous "Robinson Crusoe" Defoe and other works of classical literature.