Alexander Benois and the Artistic Heritage of France of the 18th Century

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu15.2019.205

Abstract

The article discusses the influence of the works of Charles-Nicolas Cochin, Jean-Michel Moreau the Younger, Jacques Rigaut, Antoine Watteau, and Edmé Bouchardon on the work of Alexander Benois. A formal and stylistic analysis reveals that the engravings and Bouchardon’s sculpture “Eros” served as iconographic and artistic sources for Benois’ works “Louis 14th. Feeding fish,” “Versailles. At Curtius,” “The Marquise’s Bath,” “To Rest,” and illustrations for Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades.” Images of characters of the Italian comedy in paintings of Antoine Watteau shaped similar images in Benois’ works (“Italian Comedy. A Love Note,” “Winter Dream”). Based on a complex method that combines formal and stylistic observations with an analysis of data from the artist’s memories, his diaries, and works on the history of European art, the author concludes that Benois turned to engravings from the works of Watteau. His experience to repeat the painting style of this master in gouaches “Chinese Pavilion. The jealous” remains unique. The article first addressed the issue of the influence of the art of the Impressionists and William Turner. Based on this method, the author concludes that the paintings of the Impressionists and Turner influenced the embodiment of the image of Versailles park in Benois’ work at the same time as the eighteenth century French engravings (“Rain in Versailles,” “Apollo Fountain in Versailles”). Benois’ passion for Turner’s art was influenced by the work of John Ruskin’s “Modern painters,” and Richard Muther’s “Geschichne der Malerei im XIX. Jahrhunderte,” to the special attention of Benois to the genre of landscape.

Keywords:

Alexander Benois, Russian art late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries, Charles-Nicolas Cochen, Jean-Michel Moreau le jeune, Jacques Rigaut, Antoine Watteau, Edmé Bouchardon, Versailles Park, history of collecting, William Turner

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Author Biography

Anna E. Zavyalova, Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts of the Russian Academy of Arts

PhD; leading researcher of the, department of Russian art XVIII — early XX century

References

Литература

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Источники

I. ОР ГЭ. Ф. 4. 1919. Ед. хр. 1475.


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Sources

I. OR GE. F. 4. 1919. Ed. hr. 1475. [State Hermitage. Manuscripts Department. Stock 4. 1919. Record 1475]. (In Russian)

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Published

2019-05-30

How to Cite

Zavyalova, A. E. . (2019). Alexander Benois and the Artistic Heritage of France of the 18th Century. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Arts, 9(2), 300–324. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu15.2019.205

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2019)

Section

Visual arts

License

Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Arts" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.