Sverchkov Nikolai

Nikolai Egorovich Sverchkov (1817-1898) – one of the earliest representatives of Russian realistic genre painting. In addition to genre works, he painted historical and battle canvases, was engaged in sculpture. The painter achieved great skill in the depiction of animals, especially horses. His travel scenes, hunting paintings, horse sketches played a prominent role in the history of Russian painting.

Born in Petersburg. His father, a hereditary peasant, served in the court stables as a coachman and senior groom. Noticing the son’s love for drawing, his parents sent him at the age of 11 to the Educational School at the Academy of Arts. His mentor was A.I. Sauerwade. But after a year and a half in 1829, due to illness, he was unable to attend classes. The future artist received further education at the Peter and Paul School of the General Type.

At the request of his father, at the age of sixteen, Sverchkov entered the economic department of the Ministry of the Interior. However, the career of an official did not appeal to the young man at all. In 1839, Sverchkov decided to send his first paintings to the academic exhibition: “Self-portrait”, “Rider”, “Italian with a Guitar” and “Portrait of the Girl Sverchkova”. The success was obvious, and he was awarded the title of free portrait painter. In 1842, the young artist left the department and the rank of college secretary and resigned. Since then, he has devoted himself to art. Not having received a special art education, Sverchkov managed by hard work to develop natural talent. For a long time he was an artist at the Khrenovsky and Chesmensky State Studs. Often traveled to Russia, fulfilling orders of famous horse breeders: P.N. Zubova, A.F. Orlova A.G. Orlov-Chesmensky, K.K. Tolya and others. He created a huge number of images of the most diverse types of horses, executed with great knowledge of nature. It was then that Sverchkov gained fame as an experienced animal artist. Publisher Felten released “An album of horse breeders with portraits of factory stallions and queens of the best Russian factories, painted from life and lithographed by artist N. Sverchkov” (1846-1852).

The middle of the 50s – the heyday of N.E. Sverchkova. For the work “The landowner’s troika” he receives the title of academician “on the painting of folk scenes.” A significant creative achievement of the master was the painting “Travelers” (1855), which brought him well-deserved fame and a professorship.

In the artist’s life, the 1850s. were marked by friendship with N.A. Nekrasov, in whose Yaroslavl estate, Karabikha, he spent a lot of time and created a number of paintings on the peasant theme.

In those same years, the artist in his works reflected the life of coachmen. He traveled all over Russia on the crossroads and like no one else knew all the vicissitudes of the Yamskoy service. His “triples” are imbued with unbridled removal, then sadness and sadness. Also in the mid-50s, in the artist’s work, in addition to paintings on everyday and travel topics, hunting plots appeared.

Since 1856, Sverchkov began to engage in sculpture. Its wax and bronze bas-reliefs and models of horses, dogs and other animals are known.

In the early 60s, the artist went traveling abroad: he traveled to Paris, London, Brussels, where he showed his paintings at international exhibitions with great success. His works were exhibited at major exhibitions. I.E. awarded the jury of the Paris International Exhibition for “Return from the Bear Hunt”, “Post Fair” and “Fair in Voronezh” Sverchkov’s Order of the Legion of Honor, and the painting “Return from the Bear Hunt” was acquired for the collection of Napoleon III.

The new genre in his work was battle scenes, the most famous of them – “Guard Crossing the Balkans” (1879) – was devoted to the events of the Russian-Turkish war. However, neither in historical nor in battle painting did Sverchkov prove himself to be such a subtle master as he was in the animalistic genre. In the artist’s workshop in Tsarskoye Selo there were numerous episodes, sketches, travel albums with pencil sketches and sketches, she was stuffed with stuffed animals of different kinds. A small stable was arranged at the house, where the horses needed for work were kept. The artist was a great master of his genre.

In the last period of his artistic activity, Nikolai Yegorovich Sverchkov was associated with the St. Petersburg collection “Monday nights collection”, founded in 1881 by amateur painters to help families in need of artists. The circle consisted of prominent masters of that time – I.I. Shishkina, K.E. Makovsky, A.P. Bogolyubova, L.F. Lagorio, N.A. Kosheleva, K.Ya. Kryzhitsky and others. Sverchkov at that time lived in Tsarskoye Selo rather solitary, rarely going anywhere. In his compositions, old plots began to be repeated, variants of previous motives.

During this period of creativity, Sverchkov painted the painting “Three”, dated 1882. It should be noted that the famous Russian three appeared in fine art for the first time in the paintings of N.E. Sverchkova, later – in the works of P.O. Kovalevsky and others. In the center of the composition is a triple of moose