I started drawing portraits of celebrities back in early childhood, at that time I really liked to draw from magazine pictures. At that time, naturally, it was the magazine “Soviet Screen”, unfortunately there were no others at hand, where photographs of mainly our domestic actors were shown, most of these were stills from our films.
Mostly then I drew in the usual way with a simple pencil, sometimes I drew with colored pencils, of course I didn’t keep all these drawings.
I can say with confidence that many artists often or rarely turn to the topic of drawing famous people. It would seem, what’s wrong with this and why is it needed?
When I was street artist and painted, for example, on Arbat, each artist always exhibited his work in order to attract those who wanted to paint their own portrait. This is where portraits of celebrities were just necessary. Visitors even chose the artist based on the best resemblance of the star portraits and, of course, the quality and realism of the work.
There are commissioned portraits of celebrities, but they are rare. Since I'm in Lately I draw portraits from photographs to order for everyone, and portraits famous people on my website they tell my potential customers the level of my work.
I still have a craving for drawing famous people today, thanks to the Internet where I exhibit my works not only on this site but also in in social networks like Facebook, Devianart and Instagram, I get a lot positive feedback, from time to time, and customers who, as you know, inspire to continue drawing famous actresses, actors, singers and other popular personalities.
On this page I present portraits of famous people that I have painted from time to time over the past 15 years, most of them using dry brush techniques.
Among the works are portraits of singer Britney Spears, Natalia Oreiro, actresses Emma Watson, Megan Fox, and actors Vladimir Vysotsky, Johnny Depp, Richard Gere, Monica Bellucci, Emilia Clarke, Charlize Theron, Eliza Taylor, Brittney Karbowski, cosmonaut German Titov, Cardinal Ratzinger , Benedict XVI, Top Models: Valeria Matza, Josie Maran and others.
Lately, often walking on the Internet, I sometimes notice images of various famous personalities inspiring me as an artist to the idea of drawing a portrait of a celebrity.
Also, the inspiration to draw a particular actor or actress has recently been revealed after watching films and TV series. For example, Game of Thrones or Lost. In the series Game of Thrones, I was attracted by the image of the beautiful actress Emilia Clarke, where she played Khalissi, the Mother of Dragons, resulting in six portraits and it was also difficult not to notice a very striking figure in this film, this is the dwarf actor Peter Dinklage in the role of Tyrion Lannister and young actress Maisie Williams as Arya Stark. In the film Lost or Staying Alive there is the incomparable beauty Evangeline Lilly in the role of Kate Austen, 3 portraits, one of them in oil on canvas.
In most cases, I try to change a lot in the portraits of my idols, for example, light and shadow shades, sometimes volume, background, hairstyle, etc. Subsequently, this helps to increase the perception of the star’s portrait to the proper level. For example, I had to change a lot, add in the portraits of Peter Dinklage, Evangeline Lilly, Emilia Clarke, young Charlize Theron, Maisie Williams, Nina Dobrev and Chloë Grace Moretz and others.
There are photographs where the actress, in my opinion, does not look like high level in understanding female beauty and the task becomes how to somehow fix it, make it just like candy, flatter it somewhat without going beyond the bounds and, of course, add some charm. Perhaps someday, my work will be seen on the Internet by the owner herself this image will cheer her up :). If you would like to order a portrait from a photograph of any celebrity, or for someone you know, just let me know.
The ballet portrait is part of the rich heritage of Russian theatrical portrait art turn of XIX-XX centuries. Portraits of ballet dancers and choreographers deserve special consideration as special genre V fine arts, since they make up a considerable part of all ballet works, but at the same time do not fall out of general works of artists belonging to the association “World of Art” and, of course, represent one whole with the rest of the works on this topic. For them, he was embodied in the guise of a ballet dancer. new ideal, which personified poetry and the power of their creative quests, they were often an expression of their own reflection. Ballet images could not help but excite their imagination and elevated them above the everyday life and prose. Before moving on to a direct examination of the work of artists who worked on a ballet portrait, you need to understand what the goals and objectives of the author of the work, the subject of which is a ballet dancer, may be. A portrait of a ballet dancer can be a full-length figure, a half-figure, the attention can be focused only on the face, the artist can be shown in and outside of dance. Such a task requires its own methods of solution; it considers ballet plasticity and harmony, rather inclined to the spiritual principle, and uses the model as a means to reflect it. The artists' quest for portraiture is related to the psychology of ballet and the study of the artists' personalities. When working on a portrait of a dancer, an artist can set a task - to convey the artist in a certain ballet role, to capture his unique traits of talent, since the life of a dancer, like any other artist, is inextricably linked with the characters he embodies on stage. Another category of portraits is associated with showing ballet dancers in everyday situations, since artists, like all people, are not isolated from the life around them. When working on such a portrait, the artist proceeds, first of all, from a specific psychological characteristics character, taking into account at the same time the features of his creative individuality.
The gallery of portraits of ballet dancers belongs to the “World of Art” artists: A. Bakst, K. Somov, A. Golovin, M. Dobuzhinsky, B. Kustodiev, K. Korovin. It cannot be said that all of them worked fruitfully in this genre. Of all, only L. Bakst and M. Dobuzhinsky left a considerable legacy, the rest created only a few works, in addition, some of them are listed in catalogs, their location is unknown, so during the analysis we will focus only on some of them.
Portraits of L. Bakst depicting “A. Pavlov", "A. Duncan" (1918, Pushkin Museum), "L. Myasina", "V. Tsukki" (1917, collected abroad) and portraits of K. Somov depicting the dancer N. Poznyakov (1910-1913, State Russian Museum, part of Moscow) are distinguished by the artists’ deep attention to the model’s face. Anyone who carefully watched the ballet was probably convinced not times that nature itself classical dance instantly reminds us of the constant laws of the structure of human form in ballet. It is easy to notice that artists in portraits look for such nuances, such a position of the person being portrayed, the expression of their faces, the tilt of the head, in which they would most fully capture typical features ballet dancers. This is achieved, first of all, by the surprisingly smooth linear drawing of L. Bakst, and the soft, velvety light and shadow treatment of K. Somov. In the finished portrait and in one of the versions for the “portrait of N. Poznyakov,” Somov only in some places emphasizes the lightness of the image with outlined lines. L. Bakst in “Portrait of A. Pavlova” and “A. Duncan” takes a slightly lower view of the model, in which the dancers’ necks take on a graceful curve, a fluid movement, the dance itself. On gray-blue paper with a soft Italian pencil, the artist convincingly draws the appearance of the ballerinas, without trying to outline the elements of the costume, as if afraid to disturb and interrupt the flowing lines outlining the oval of the face, neck and shoulders. IN male portraits L. Bakst “Portrait of L. Massine” and K. Somov “Portrait of N. Poznyakov” use the same technique, exposing the neck of the dancers, using soft shading to reveal the relief of muscles, flexibility and mobility. L. Bakst was most successful in creating images that were in tune with the themes that were embodied on stage in “Portrait of A. Pavlova.” Capturing the flexible smoothness of movement, the charm of a slight turn of the head towards the viewer, fixing half-closed eyes and a gaze averted to the side, using light shading , the artist thereby achieves a mood of some detachment, emphasizing the ghostly fragility of the plastic appearance characteristic of her ballet roles.
If in the portraits of L. Bakst the image of the artist is quite developed and complete, then the portrait sketches of M. Dobuzhinsky look completely different: two “Portraits of S. Lifar” (1936,1937), two “Portraits of T. Tumanova” (1935), “Portrait V. Nemchinova”, four “portraits of T. Karsavina” (1914, 1915, 1923). they are original, instantaneous sketches in graphite pencil, conveying nature in all its spontaneity. “Portrait of T. Karsavina” and “Portrait of B. Nemchinova” are sketches of dancers in life. If in the portraits of L. Bakst and K. Somov the dancers are presented primarily as ballet dancers, then in these portrait sketches by M. Dobuzhksky, along with the artistic aspect, human essence. The constant internal self-discipline of a ballet dancer does not make his heroes superhuman; they are characterized by ordinary human feelings - fatigue, irritation, the desire to withdraw into oneself, to distance themselves from a specific situation. “Portrait of T. Kyarsavina” (1914) captures a dancer during a rehearsal of N. Stravinsky’s ballet “ Parsley". Although one profile image of the head is given, the headdress is slightly outlined, we immediately recognize T. Karsavina in this role, the image is so truthfully interpreted. Achieving amazing similarity is based, first of all, on extremely laconic, precise characterization general form heads with an emphasis on individual characteristics.
Another aspect in the field of ballet portrait can be seen in the works of L. Bakst, K. Somov, A. Golovin, K. Korovin, associated with an attempt to replace the tension of posing in a portrait with the free behavior of the artist, transferring it to an everyday environment. We have just observed similar searches in the portrait sketches of M. Dobuzhinsky, but if they were just emerging there, then in the works: Somov “Portrait of V. Fokina” (1921, Russian Museum), A. Golovin “Portrait of the ballerina E. Smirnova” (1910 , Tretyakov Gallery), “Portrait of the ballerina J. Szymanskaya” (1916, KOKG.), L. Bakst “Portrait of V. Nijinsky on the Lido Beach” (1914, h.s.), “V. Nijinsky and other artists on the Lido beach” (part collection), “A. Duncan on the Beach” (1909, n.w.), K. Korovin “Dancer” (1918, h.p. Moscow), “Portrait of V. Trefilova” (1924, n.z.) they are clearly revealed. For artists, the most important thing in artists is not the professional, but the person, which is why they depict the artists’ rest, moments of peace, scenes of forced withdrawal from work. On a light background, illuminated theatrical light, with great tangibility and at the same time somewhat mysteriously, the figure of V. Fokina appears, sitting down to rest at a rehearsal, with an inspired face, a half-open mouth, attentive eyes and artistic hands with flexible musical fingers. Simple graphite pencil turns into an exceptionally rich and inexhaustible remedy in the hands of K. Somov. The artist brings the pencil spots to a velvety darkness or makes them delicate, like a light shadow falling on the paper. Everything down to the direction of the stroke is permeated with the same state - the state creative life artists during a moment of rest. Same expressive means A. Golovin solves “Portrait of the ballerina Zh. Szymanskaya”. In the figure depicted, the emphasis is also placed on the dancer’s hands. Here they are the same as Fokina’s, eloquently expressive, but interpreted in a completely different way. There they are flexible and moving, conveying internal tension and creative thought, here, on the contrary, they are graceful and smooth, emphasizing the lyrical mood of the image.
In the picturesque portraits of A. Golovin, K. Korovin, L. Bakst, the figures are transferred to a specific environment: Golovin “Portrait of E.A. Smirnova" - landscape, L. Bakst "Portrait of V. Nijinsky on the Lido Beach" - landscape, Korovin "Dancer" - rooms, "Portrait of V. Trefilova" - artistic dressing room. If in “The Dancer” and “Portrait of V. Trefilova” K. Korovin does not try to capture the portrait resemblance, he interprets the figures with a generalized broad stroke, the main thing for him is to express general atmosphere rest, disconnection of the artist from the world of creative tension into the world of everyday relaxation. Therefore, he moves the figures of the dancers into the depths of the canvas, wanting to leave more space for air and light filling the room. In the portraits of L. Bakst “Nijinsky on the Lido Beach” and A. Golovin “Portrait of the ballerina E. Smirnova,” despite the models being shown in a landscape setting, attention is focused rather on their appearance, identifying them as ballet dancers. In “Portrait of V. Nijinsky on Lido Beach” a slim body a dancer with an athletically developed body and naked muscular legs, with forms relief modeled in chiaroscuro, makes one recall images of gods and heroes ancient Hellas. In the “Portrait of E. Smirnova” A. Golovin highlights the figure of the ballerina from the surrounding landscape with a striking, almost photographic resemblance, conveying the originality of posture, the unique individuality of gesture, and demeanor. If such identification of professional traits in K. Somov in “Portrait of Fokina” and in A. Golovin in “Portrait of Zh. Szymanskaya,” as we observed, was expressed primarily through the face and plasticity of the hands, then in these portraits it is more likely through the silhouette , through a drawing of the pose of the depicted model.
Artists demonstrate a different approach to considering a ballet portrait when they strive to show a ballerina in dance, thanks to which in their works the display of a purely professional moment plays a fundamental role. In such a portrait, the process of the artist’s work is rather emphasized, attention is focused more on the transfer of movement than on the personality itself. However, in the works of L. Bakst:
“Portrait of I. Rubinstein” (1921), “Portrait of I. Rubinstein as Antigone” (1906), “A. Duncan dancing" (1907, n.z), B. Kustodieva: "Portrait of V. Ivanova" in spanish dance Panderos in A. Glazunov’s ballet “Raymonda” (1921, State Theater Center), a version of the “portrait of V. Ivanova” (DKhM) during the entire show dance movement The images of each of the ballerinas are convincingly drawn, their portrait features are reliably conveyed.
So, the portrait, as a special area of the ballet theme in the fine arts in the work of the artists of the “World of Art”, has more realistic features than their own works plot theme. Retrospectiveism, characteristic of creative thinking these masters in the smaller sea touched of this genre. This is explained by the fact that the object of the image in the portrait is the ballet dancer himself, his face, figure, and finally, his creative person, requiring the artist to reproduce it faithfully. The images of ballet dancers in the works of the artists “World of Art” are a collective portrait of a whole generation of Russian dancers with their special attitude, way of thinking and value system. When defining artistic achievements in the field of ballet portraiture, we can answer that the best of the created works reveal the originality of the actors' personalities, individual creativity, the inner world, which is their main and enduring meaning.
Accepted abbreviations
GCTM - State Central theater museum them. A. Bakhrushin. Tretyakov Gallery - State Tretyakov Gallery.
DXM – Dnepropetrovsk Art Museum KOKG - Kalinin regional Art Gallery. S.Z. - meeting abroad.
Ch.s – private collection.
A photo exhibition dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Rudolf Nureyev opened at the Nashchokin House gallery
Rudolf Nureyev in the interior of a Parisian apartment on the Quai Voltaire, 1986
*Rudolf Nureyev marked the beginning of the “ballet” emigration. In 1970, one of the best ballerinas Kirov Theater Natalya Makarova. In 1974, during a tour Bolshoi Theater In Canada, Mikhail Baryshnikov became a “defector”. In 1979, during a tour of the Bolshoi Theater in New York, he made a request for political asylum Alexander Godunov.
June 16, 1961, the most important day in the life of the great dancer Rudolf Nureyev, became a landmark in the history of Russian ballet. Then, together with the troupe of the Kirov Theater, Nureyev was on tour in Paris. When all the artists arrived at Le Bourget airport to fly to London to continue the tour, Nureyev’s ticket was taken away and he was ordered to return to Moscow. And then he made his famous leap over the heads of the assigned KGB officers and found himself free. The front pages of French newspapers were full of headlines: “Ballet star and drama at Le Bourget Airport”, “Leap to Freedom”...*
„”For Nureyev, the train has always remained a metaphor for his life, because he himself was born on a train
Bad behavior
This escape was preceded by many other events. In 1958, he and his partner Ninel Kurgapkina toured the GDR. Ninel wore trousers, which seemed natural to everyone, but the director of the State Concert wrote in the report that “the ballerina even came to the Dresden Gallery in an indecent form” (that is, in trousers). Kurgapkina was no longer allowed to go abroad. “I didn’t know what to do,” she recalled. - I ran around the authorities. She even dragged Rudika along with her to the regional party committee. Did not help". Nureyev was shocked by this incident - he was much more defenseless before the authorities.
Once in Paris, he could not breathe the air of freedom; he later described how he was fascinated by the Saint-Germain quarters, Saint-Cloud Park, and the halls of the Louvre. I returned to the hotel in the early morning, just like that day, June 16th. However, all this was described in the reports of “competent comrades” to Moscow. KGB Chairman Shelepin reported to the CPSU Central Committee: “Information has been received from Paris that Rudolf Khamitovich Nureyev goes into the city alone and returns to the hotel late at night. He established close relationships with French artists, including homosexuals. Despite the preventive conversations held with him, Nureyev did not change his behavior...” The trial in absentia of the “defector” condemned him for “treason to the Motherland” to seven years in prison with confiscation of property (the court decision was overturned by the Prosecutor General’s Office only in 1998, later five years after his death).
“All my luggage flew to London,” Nureyev recalled. - In the suitcases all the most expensive things I owned remained: a collection of ballet shoes and tights, which I bought wherever I performed: in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Egypt... I will never be able to restore this. The wig I ordered for the role of Albert in Giselle was also lost. I jokingly nicknamed this blond, curly and very romantic wig “Marilyn Monroe”. But what I regret most is my very first purchase in Paris - a beautiful electric train, a symbol of the fascination that trains have always aroused in me, railways, the smoke of the stations - those alluring promises, distant horizons and mystery that I always felt in them.” For Nureyev, the train has always remained a metaphor for his life, because he himself was born on a train that was going to Far East...
Expensive toys
Once in the West, Nureyev became one of the world's most famous and most expensive ballet celebrities. He was lonely and spent almost all his money on buying real estate (including an island in the Mediterranean Sea) and works of art. Exhibition “Life in Photographs. Paris - New York" is a kind of photo chronicle of the performances different years, graphic portraits artist James Wyeth, as well as unique photographs of the luxurious interiors of Nureyev’s apartment in Paris, taken after the dancer’s death by the most famous British photographers - the world, concrete and fictitious, in which he lived.
Gallery director Natalya Rurikova says that “by what was collected, bought, acquired, one can judge inner world dancer. The collection reveals him not only as a great artist, but also as a very special person.” Nureyev collected oriental fabrics, carpets, bronze, paintings, furniture from Karelian birch. Perhaps the attraction to luxury was a reaction to the poverty in which he lived as a child, when there was often simply no food in his parents’ house and when a group of gifted children from Bashkiria were sent to ballet school to Leningrad, his father did not have money for a ticket...
Exhibits from Christie's auction, 1994
All unique collection Rudolf Nureyev was sold after his death at Christie’s and is now preserved only in photographs presented at the exhibition.
photos: Jean Gaumy, Lord Snowdon, Fritz von der Schulenburg
