DRAWINGS BY FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

DRAWING DOSTOYEVSKY

GRAPHICS F. M. DOSTOYEVSKY: WHAT IS IT?

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky rarely spoke about his drawings and left us no direct written evidence of their existence. The writer did not like to discuss the secrets of his creative laboratory with strangers. His "notebooks", containing most of the drawings, were kept away from prying eyes and, as the greatest treasure, his wife, Anna Grigorievna.

However, precisely because the writer carefully kept the “written books”, where he made the initial notes for all written and unwritten works, numerous graphic sketches have come down to us, made by him in the process of thinking over the “plan” of Crime and Punishment. "Idiot". "Demons". "Teenager". "The Brothers Karamazov".

A characteristic property of Dostoevsky's graphic heritage, which sharply distinguishes it from the typologically diverse drawings of A. S. Pushkin, is a strikingly strict (and with its own reasons) division into three main iconographic motifs:

1. Men's, women's, children's portraits about 7 percent. of the total number of drawings.

2. Architectural sketches ("Gothic") - about 26 percent.

3. "Calligraphic Exercises" by Dostoevsky - about 61 percent.

PORTRAIT DRAWINGS F. M. DOSTOYEVSKY

The problem of the incarnation of a human character in a portrait worried Dostoevsky no less than any portrait painter. On the pages of the manuscripts for the novel "Crime and Punishment" one can observe the graphic development of Raskolnikov's face. his mother and sister Sonya, Porfiry, Lizaveta. Sometimes he painted his contemporaries and colleagues in literature - V. G. Belinsky. M. M. Dostoevsky. A. A. Kraevsky, I. S. Turgenev. Meet among the faces depicted by him and favorite writers O. de Balzac. M. Cervantes, Tikhon Zadonsky. Reflecting on the peculiarities of the life path of the so-called "great people", the writer drew in his notebook the faces of Peter I, Nicholas I, Napoleon III and Napoleon Bonaparte. Such drawings always appeared in connection with the development of a new plan for the novel, the prototypes of the main characters of which turned out to be figures of Russian and European history.

"GOTHIC" F. M. DOSTOYEVSKY

A large layer of Dostoevsky's graphics is his "Gothic": architectural drawings, which are graphic variations on the themes of arches, turrets and lancet windows of Gothic buildings. The greatest number of them is contained in the manuscripts for the novel "Demons".

"Gothic drawings" by Dostoevsky amaze with their exquisite beauty, splendor of decoration and fantastic variety. In them we can recognize the arrow-shaped arches and stained-glass windows of Cologne, Milan, Paris (Notre Dame), and other Gothic cathedrals that the writer saw and admired. But it would be a mistake to seek explanations for these drawings only within the limits of their possible architectural similarities. In his sketches, the writer allowed his imagination to go into areas inaccessible to real architecture: most of the architectural "projects" of the writer are not feasible under terrestrial gravity and can only be realized in weightlessness, or at least on the moon. This is especially important to note because the "mistakes" in the writer's architectural sketches do not stem from his ignorance of the principles and patterns of architectural art or his inability to display them: it is quite clear that they were made consciously.

Dostoevsky had a diploma from the Main Engineering School, the best military-architectural educational institution in Russia, where the best domestic and foreign professors taught. The quality of educational work was personally checked by Grand Duke Mikhail, which further increased the exactingness of teachers. According to peers. Dostoevsky, obviously bored with lectures on geodesy, fortification and mathematics, noticeably perked up only in classes in two disciplines: the course of Russian literature and lectures on the history of architecture, which captivated him almost without any connection with the future engineering specialty. Even then, the future writer admired the beauty of the Gothic lines, this architectural blue turned out to be closest to his aesthetic tastes and was associated in his mind with that image of perfect, complete beauty, embodying goodness and truth, which he intensely sought during these school years.

In the Gothic cathedral, he saw "poetry", in stone, "like the cry of the whole universe," as one of the heroes of the novel "The Teenager" says. On the contrary, literature, literary art, to which Dostoevsky devoted all his free time during the years of his studies, taught him the meaning and perception of that idea of ​​"absolute art", the material embodiment of "beauty - truth - goodness", which was at the basis of the whole worldview of the writer in the years of mature creativity. .

"CALLIGRAPHY" F. M. DOSTOYEVSKY

Leafing through Dostoevsky's "notebooks", it is easy to see that many of their notes are made in calligraphic handwriting. Comparing handwritten texts to various works of the writer, we are gradually convinced that this "beautiful" handwriting is most often found in the preparatory materials for the novels "Crime and Punishment", and especially the novels "Idiot" and "Demons", where "calligraphy" flourishes most opulent and varied.

In the arsenal of the writer is not just OTHER different handwriting, often side by side on the same page, within the same text, executed even at the same time, but one can even say that Dostoevsky had his own special handwriting for each thought he expressed, every written word. This diverse, multifaceted "handwriting" of Dostoevsky is almost impossible to classify: the written STYLES used by the writer during his work flow smoothly into one another. Each has its own place in relation to the two opposite poles of fast, reminiscent of barbed wire, barely readable cursive writing and striking in its artistic perfection "calligraphy", which, as it were, personifies some artistic word that is ideal in its perfection. Dostoevsky's "calligraphy" is by no means simple copybooks, not a norm written by hand, but a whole world of artistic images, in their richness, quite comparable with the world of the writer's work. The comparison of both is not invented by us, but is contained in the works of Dostoevsky, for example, on the pages of the novel "The Idiot", the main character of which is an "handwriting artist" or "artist", capable of expressing a person's character in the lettering of a letter.

DRAWINGS OF DOSTOYEVSKY - CHAOS OR REGULARITY?

Dostoevsky did not simply “write” or “write down” in the process of creative reflection, but as if he lived in the space and time of the special artistic world of the “written book”, where the meanings and meanings of words, as well as the meanings and meanings expressed by visual images, are in close interaction. Word and image, organically combined, help the writer in philosophical understanding and artistic embodiment of the perceived world: this expressed the very essence of Dostoevsky's creative individuality. Starting a new novel, he turned to himself with a call: “look in old books”, “look in an old book”, etc. There is nothing insignificant in the whole, unified process of creating a great work of art, at the beginning of which are graphic or, better to say. ideographic notes of the novelist.

How significant graphics were for Dostoevsky herself is also proved by the fact that the writer changed, moreover, very sharply and characteristically, the very way of designing preparatory notes in different periods of his work. For example, the manuscript materials for "Crime and Punishment" differ sharply not only in their content, but also in their external form from the materials for the novel "The Idiot". "Demons", other works. The same can be said about the recordings for "The Teenager" or "The Brothers Karamazov". A creative manuscript for any work of a writer of each period of his work has its own face. Being at the "forefront" of the writer's struggle for the sought-after artistic form, Dostoevsky's graphics in their change bring us information about important changes in the methods and style of the novelist's work, which brought with them the years of his creative maturity.

Konstantin BARSHT

PORTRAIT DRAWINGS

The earliest of the portrait drawings known to us by F. M. Dostoevsky. Physiognomic interpretation of the "voluptuous insect" type. Subsequently, this image was captured in Totsky ("The Idiot"). Svidrigailov ("Crime and Punishment"), Senior Prince Sokolsky ("Teenager"). Fyodor Karamazov ("The Brothers Karamazov"), Around 1860.

The image of the "wax person" of Peter the Great, made by the sculptor Rastrelli. The drawing was made during the writer's work on the novel "Crime and Punishment". 1865

An attempt at a graphic definition of the "face of the idea" of the protagonist of the novel "The Idiot" (first edition). 1867

Image of the face of the protagonist of the novel "The Idiot" (first edition). 1867

A sketch of a portrait of the "idiot" of the protagonist of the unrealized first edition of the novel "The Idiot". 1867

Portrait sketches of the "old man", the bearer of the idea of ​​the Christian revival of Russia, and the "idiot", the protagonist of the unfulfilled plan of the novel "The Idiot" (first edition). 1867

The last of the portraits of the protagonist of the novel "Idiot" known to us. 1867

Portrait of General Yepanchin. one of the acting days of the novel "The Idiot". Has similarities with Alexander II, Emperor of Russia in these years. 1868

Self-portrait of Dostoevsky in his youth (18-20 years old), the image of the "old man", a slightly caricatured image of G. Rossini, who died in the year this drawing was created. Florence. 1868

Portrait of an "old man" who has similarities with St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. 1868

Portrait sketch and "Gothic". "The second notebook for the novel "Demons". 1870 - 1871.

Portrait of a young man on the page of a draft autograph of the second chapter of the third part of the novel "Demons". 1871 - 1872

A young monk with a cross around his neck and in his hands. The drawing was made at the stage of completion of the novel "The Teenager". At the same time, he outlines the plot of Dostoevsky's next work, The Brothers Karamazov. 1875

Portrait sketch of a Russian Orthodox truth seeker from the peasantry. He was embodied in Makar Ivanovich Dolgoruky ("Teenager"). 1873 - 1874

The only portrait drawing of Dostoevsky, which is in the manuscript of the "Diary of a Writer" of 1876-1877. It has similarities with A. A. Kraevsky, a famous writer of the 1840s. 1877

Portrait drawing in pen among the notes to the novel "The Brothers Karamazov". 1878 - 1880

The image of the "wanderer" and the "face of the idea" of the protagonist of the novel "The Brothers Karamazov" - Alyosha Karamazov. 1879

GOTHIC SKETCHES

Gothic sketches in the manuscript of the novel "Demons". 1870

Details of lancet windows in Gothic cathedrals. "Notebook" for the novel "Demons". 1871

Gothic sketches in the manuscript of the novel "Demons". 1871

"Gothic". "The second notebook for the novel "Demons". 1870 - 1871

Graphic composition, including the image of architectural details, calligraphic notes and a portrait sketch "The second notebook for the novel "Demons". 1870 - 1871.

Drawing in draft notes for the sixth part of the third part of the novel "The Teenager". 1875

"CALLIGRAPHY"

Calligraphic notes made by Dostoevsky while working on the novel The Idiot. 1867

Continuation of calligraphic notes showing F. M. Dostoevsky's interest in the personality and character of Julius Caesar in the light of the writer's work on the "face of the idea" of the protagonist of the novel "The Idiot" (first edition). 1867

"Calligraphy". "The second notebook for the novel "Demons". 1870-1871.

The hieroglyph "nose" in the "notebook" for the novel "Teenager". 1873-1874

Drawing and "calligraphy" in the "notebook" for the novel "Teenager". 1874

Like many of us, Fyodor Dostoevsky liked to draw something mechanically when he was upset or anxious. His drawings have been found in several manuscripts, depicting expressive faces and carefully drawn architectural elements. But such sketches were not only a way for the writer to distract himself and occupy his hands. It was part of his literary style.

According to the researcher of the writer Konstantin Barsht, Dostoevsky was not limited only to notes during the creative process. In fact, in his work, the meaning and importance of words interact with other meanings expressed through visual representation. Barsht also argues that this style is unique to Dostoevsky. And this is how Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov, Sonya Marmeladova, Porfiry Petrovich, Semyon Marmeladov and other heroes of the novel "Crime and Punishment" looked in the writer's imagination:

Dostoevsky had much in common with the main character of the novel when he first began writing it in 1865. The writer lost almost all his fortune in cards and was in a difficult financial situation. Literary critic Joseph Franks argues that the story was originally conceived as a short story written in the first person, following the example of Notes from the Underground. Whole fragments of the original story can be found in the writer's manuscripts.

Franks refers to the scholar Edward Wasiolek, who published translations of the Crime and Punishment manuscript in 1967. It contains drawings, brief notes about various things, sketches, cost estimates, sketches, and comments by the writer.

An unusual find was made by Vytegorsky local historian V.N. Seliverstov. While sorting through his grandfather's papers, he found a folder with the inscription "Staraya Russa. A.G. Dostoevskaya" on the cover. Grandfather V.N. Seliverstov worked in Staraya Russa as a zemstvo doctor. According to family tradition, he was acquainted with A.G. Dostoevskaya, and it was to him that she left part of the family papers, leaving in 1918 for the Crimea.

The folder discovered by the local historian contained twenty-three sheets written in small handwriting. An analysis of the manuscript showed that it was the hand of F.M. Dostoevsky.

At the moment, the first two pages of the found text have been read. Apparently, this is the beginning and plan of the unwritten F.M. novel, which in drafts was called "Liberal".

Work on the manuscript continues, and we acquaint our readers with the first fragments of the newly found text of the great writer.

At the end of November, during the thaw, at nine o'clock in the morning, the train of the Petersburg-Warsaw railway approached Petersburg at full speed. It was so damp and foggy that it was hardly dawn; ten paces to the right and left of the road, it was difficult to see anything from the windows of the car. Of the passengers were those returning from abroad; but the compartments for the third class were more filled, and all with petty and businesslike people, not from very far away. Everyone, as usual, was tired, everyone's eyes were heavy during the night, everyone was cold, all their faces were pale yellow, the color of fog.

In one of the carriages of the third class, a very conspicuous passenger rode (nrzb, credit). He was wearing a rather wide and thick cloak without sleeves and with a huge hood, just like the travelers often use, in winter, somewhere far abroad, in Switzerland or, for example, in Northern Italy, not counting, of course, at the same time, and to such ends along the road as from Eidtkunen to St. Petersburg. But what was suitable and quite satisfying in Italy turned out to be not entirely suitable in Russia. The owner of the cloak with a hood was (Lev Nikolaevich Koshkin, ch.) a young man, about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, a little above average height, very blond, thick hair, with sunken cheeks and with a light, sharp, almost completely white beard. His eyes were large, blue and intent; there was something quiet in their eyes, but heavy. The young man's face was, however, pleasant, thin and dry, but colorless, and now even blue-chilled. In his hands dangled a skinny bundle made of an old, faded foulard, containing, it seems, all his travel possessions. On his feet were thick-soled shoes with cleats, - everything is not Russian.

The conversation, he says that he is coming from Austria-Hungary, is inspired by the Constitution.

But (nrzb, credit) there is no catholicity, seeking came (nrzb, credit)

Friends and Enemies:

Alevtina, a Polish count, in love with her. Koshkin is jealous, says a speech condemning Catholicism. Nrzb.

Agrippina Fedorovna - a woman of extraordinary beauty ... dark-blond hair, dark, deep eyes, a thoughtful forehead; the expression on her face is passionate and, as it were, arrogant, somewhat thin in face, pale. Terrorist.

Publications in the Literature section

Field figures. Dostoevsky's drawings for his manuscripts

Fyodor Dostoyevsky often drew in the margins of his manuscripts and in his notebooks. Who and what did the writer represent? We look at the sketches and guess the famous philosophers and characters of the novels, consider the Gothic arches and the unusual handwriting of the Russian writer.

Characters of works

Drawing for the manuscript "The Idiot"

group portrait

Drawing for the manuscript "The Brothers Karamazov"

Dostoevsky He drew with lead, sometimes with ink. The first sketches in his drafts appeared in the margins of Notes from the House of the Dead, but Dostoevsky spent most of his energy on "Crime and Punishment". He painted Rodion Raskolnikov, Arkady Svidrigailov, Sonya Marmeladova, Porfiry Petrovich and other heroes of the novel.

The characters didn't take shape right away. In the drafts of the novel, next to the descriptions of Raskolnikov, his sister and mother, there were, for example, portraits of Dostoevsky himself, the mother and sister of the writer.

Many drawings in other manuscripts: a novel "Idiot" , "The Brothers Karamazov" , "Demons". Researchers are still arguing about some of them: it is not clear whether the characters of the works or someone from Dostoevsky's acquaintances are depicted in the margins.

Belinsky and Napoleon

Peter the First

Shakespeare and "Demons"

Rene Descartes

The writer drew not only the characters of his works. He made sketches for portraits of his contemporaries - Belinsky, Turgenev, and favorite writers - Balzac and Cervantes. Dostoevsky also drew rulers: Peter I And Nicholas I. Napoleon III and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Portraits of philosophers appeared in the manuscripts: thinking over the image of each character, the writer reflected on different ideas. So on the pages of "Crime and Punishment" appears a portrait of Kant, who talked about the moral law. Some descriptions of Prince Myshkin are similar to the images of Rene Descartes, who owns the phrase "I think, and therefore I exist." Among the descriptions of the hero of the "Teenager" you can find a portrait of Voltaire, and images Shakespeare the pages of "Demons" are full of. However, one can only guess which of the heroes Dostoevsky represented as an English poet.

"Demonic" Gothic

Drawings on the margins of "Demons"

Drawings on the margins of "Demons"

Drawings on the margins of "Demons"

In addition to portraits in "notebooks", Fyodor Dostoevsky painted urban landscapes, architectural elements: spiers, turrets, especially lancet windows. In the writer's drawings one can recognize the arrow-shaped arches and stained-glass windows of Notre Dame, Cologne, Milan and other Gothic cathedrals in Europe. Dostoevsky saw them when he traveled through Europe. There are especially many similar drawings in the margins of "Demons", although the action of the novel takes place in a small provincial town.

In his youth, Fyodor Dostoevsky graduated from the Main Engineering School of St. Petersburg. Here the future writer made the first sketches of buildings, studied the history of architecture. Dostoevsky retained his love for the art of building throughout his life, and especially for