Beardsley Movement in the Russian Silver Age Culture
https://doi.org/10.24833/2541-8831-2022-3-23-141-155
Abstract
The article dwells on the phenomenon of Russian Beardsleism, which was formed by the influence of the works and personality of the English graphic artist Aubrey Beardsley on the Russian intellectual society at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries. Being the brightest representative of English aestheticism and Art Nouveau, Aubrey Beardsley became a champion of the ideas of new art for Russia. In his homeland, Aubrey Beardsley managed to make a real revolution in the field of illustration and book graphics, separating them into independent elements of creativity and raising the art of graphics to a completely new, unprecedently high level. No less revolutionary was the behavior of the artist — Aubrey Beardsley turned his life into art, postulating innovative aesthetic and philosophical aspirations by his very appearance. The worth of his personality was undoubtedly comparable to the worth of his works, and one became inseparable from the other. Thus, the very image of Aubrey Beardsley became a symbol of the Art Nouveau era, containing a lot of complex concepts. Therefore, no wonder that the sphere of influence of this master in Russia was extremely wide — not limited only to the field of graphics, it extended from new artistic methods up to the lifestyle and demeanor. The significance of Beardsleism in the Russian artistic life of the turn of the centuries is also indicated by its scope — the most prominent figures of the Silver Age, such as S. Diaghilev, L. Bakst, N. Feofilaktov, and rather obscure A. Silin, A. Arapov and M. Durnov — both those and others experienced a significant influence of Aubrey Beardsley on their works and life.
Keywords
silver age,
decadence,
Aubrey Beardsley,
Russian journals,
graphics,
illustration,
symbolism,
Anglomania,
dandyism
About the Author
V. D. Ryabchenko-Shats
MGIMO University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Valeria D. Ryabchenko-Shats — Lecturer, Department of International Journalism, PhD student, Department of World Literature and Culture
76, Prospect Vernadskogo, Moscow, Russia, 119454
References
1. Barbey D’Aurevilly, J. (1879) Du dandysme et de George Brummell. Paris: Alphonse Lemerre. (Russ. ed.: (2000) O dendizme i Dzhordzhe Brammelle. Moscow: Izd-vo Nezavisimaya gaz. Publ.).
2. Baudelaire, C. (1868) L’Art Romantique. Paris: Michel Levy Freres. (Russ. ed.: (1986) Ob iskusstve. Moscow: Iskusstvo Publ.).
3. Bely, A. (1990a) Mezhdu dvukh revolyutsii [Between two revolutions]. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia lit-ra Publ. (In Russian).
4. Bely, A. (1990b) Nachalo veka [The beginning of the century]. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia lit-ra Publ. (In Russian).
5. Benua, A. (1980a) Moi vospominaniya: v 5 kn. Kn. 1–3 [My memories: in 5 books. Books 1–3]. Moscow: Nauka Publ. (In Russian).
6. Benua, A. (1980b) Moi vospominaniya: v 5 kn. Kn. 4–5 [My memories: in 5 books. Books 45]. Moscow: Nauka Publ. (In Russian).
7. Bott, I. (2004) ‘Mebel’ Charl’za Kamerona [Charles Cameron Furniture].’, Pinacoteca, (18–19), pp. 18–25. (In Russian).
8. Chulkov, G. I. (1999) Gody stranstvii [Years of peregrination]. Moscow: Ellis Lak Publ. (In Russian).
9. Dobuzhinsky, M. V (1987) Vospominaniya [Memories]. Moscow: Nauka Publ. (In Russian).
10. Dovzhyk, S. (2021) ‘Beardsley Men in Early Twentieth-Century Russia: Modernising Decadent Masculinity’, Modernist Cultures, 16(2), pp. 191–215. (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.3366/mod.2021.0328
11. Garetto, E. (1989) ‘Zhiznʹ i smertʹ Niny Petrovskoy [Life and death of Nina Petrovskaya]’, in Minuvsheye: Istoricheskiy Alʹmanakh. [Past: Historical Almanac]. (8). Paris: Atheneum, pp. 7–139. (In Russian).
12. Gerchuk, Y. (2004) ‘Pod znakom Berdsli [Under Beardsley’s sign]’, Pinacoteca, (18–19), pp. 119–125. (In Russian).
13. Grabar, I. E. (1937) Moya zhizn’: avtomonografiya [My life]. Moscow; Leningrad: Iskusstvo Publ. (In Russian).
14. Lebedev, D. L. (2021) ‘O. Birdsley and A. Rackham: the Fine of Influence’, Arts education and science, 1(1), pp. 97–107. (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.36871/hon.202101011
15. Makovsky, S. (1955) Portrety sovremennikov [The portraits of the contamporaries]. New York: Izd-vo im. Chekhova Publ. (In Russian).
16. Pertsov, P. P. (2002) Literaturnye vospominaniya 1890–1902 [Literary memoirs]. Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie Publ. (In Russian).
17. Petrov-Vodkin, K. S. (1982) Khlynovsk: Prostranstvo Evklida: Samarkandiya [Khlynovsk: Euclid’s space: Samarkand]. Leningrad: Iskusstvo Publ. (In Russian).
18. Shcherbatov, S. (2016) Khudozhnik ushedshei Rossii [The Artist of bygone Russia]. Moscow; Berlin: DirectMedia Publ. (In Russian).
19. Sternin G. Iu. (1984) Russkaia khudozhestvennaia kul'tura vtoroi poloviny XIX – nachala KhKh veka [Russian culture of the second half of the XIX – early XX century]. Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik. (In Russian).
20. Sturgis, M. (1998) Aubrey Beardsley : a biography. London: HarperCollins. (Russ. ed.: (2014) Audrey Beardsley. Moscow: KoLibri Publ.).
21. Vinogradov, S. (1993) ‘O strannom zhurnale, ego talantlivykh sotrudnikakh i moskovskikh pirakh [About a strange magazine, its talented employees and Moscow feasts]’, in Vospominaniya o Serebryanom veke [Memories of the Silver Age]. Moscow: Respublika Publ., pp. 430–440. (In Russian).
22. Vyazova, E. S. (2004) ‘Bogema i dendizm: «shtany s bakhromoi» ili buton’erka v petlitse? [Bohemia and dandyism: “fringed trousers” or a boutonniere in a buttonhole?], Pinacoteca, (18–19), pp. 63–69. (In Russian).
23. Vyazova, E. S. (2009) Gipnoz anglomanii. Angliya i «angliyskoye» v russkoy kulʹture rubezha XIX–XX vekov [Anglomania hypnosis. England and ‘English’ in Russian culture at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries]. Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie Publ. (In Russian).
24. Zav'ialova A. E. (2008) Somov i Berdsli. Liubopytnye sovpadeniia. Novye fakty [Somov and Beardsley. Curious coincidences. New facts], Russkoe iskusstvo, (4), pp. 94–98. (In Russian).
Review
For citations:
Ryabchenko-Shats V.D. Beardsley Movement in the Russian Silver Age Culture. Concept: philosophy, religion, culture. 2022;6(3):141-155. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24833/2541-8831-2022-3-23-141-155
Views:
595
Email this article 