Narbut Georgy Ivanovich (1886-1920)

GI Narbut born into a family that belonged to the old, but an impoverished noble family. Cravings for their future innermost cause - book design - he felt a schoolboy when he suddenly became interested in the ancient Russian "charter" and the letter for himself rewrote several large texts. Then he began to draw illustrations, imitating the "World of Art", especially I. Bilibin .

In 1901 Narbut moved to St. Petersburg, where he met with Bilibin, who took him under his wing, introducing the terms "World of Art." No education Narbut did not get: he had tried to attend art school E. Zvantseva, but painting was given to him, and he was awesome nugget, by nature endowed with sophisticated graphic culture.

He made his debut in 1907 Narbut illustrations for children's books, which immediately brought him fame. Great success was "we dance, Matthew, do not be sorry bast" (1910) and two books of the same name "Toys" (1911) in all three, he skillfully used the stylized Russian folk toys. In these illustrations, thorough outline drawing, subtly colored with watercolors, still bore the traces of the influence Bilibin, but soon Narbut it outlived its usefulness.

A new, mature style of the artist influenced Russian culture craze of the first quarter of the XIX century. - So passionate that Narbut even furnished his apartment, his clothes and comb their hair in the spirit of the time. In three editions of IA Krylov's fables (1910, 1911), he skillfully used the decorative techniques of the Russian Empire, creating a lot of imitators. In two of these books, as well as in the famous edition of "Nightingale" H.-K. Andersen (1912), where the varied traditional "kitayschina" he brilliantly revived the art of the silhouette.

Having become famous as one of the reformers of books for children, Narbut no less successfully illustrated and designed books for adults. Together with S. B. Chekhonin and D. Mitrokhin , he defined a high level of pre-revolutionary Russian book illustrations years undoubtedly excelled in all topics related with the old, and in particular with the heraldry of the motives which he developed with a special love.

After the February Revolution of 1917 Narbut returned to Ukraine. The best work of this period were begun in Petrograd sheets to the "Ukrainian alphabet", inventive and sophisticated on the subjects of the graphic skills.

In Kiev, the autumn of 1917 he became professor of the newly formed Ukrainian Academy of Arts, and six months later - its rector. Publishing online was in decline and frequent changes of regime prevented a normal life. Languishing without a favorite cause, Narbut played graphic products for themselves and their friends (so he designed a gorgeous own family archive). When orders from journals and publishers finally went, he was building on the Ukrainian Baroque forms, composed a new original font, subsequently picked up by and is still widely replicated Ukrainian artists.