Biography of Gregory Soroki

The work of Grigory Soroka is one of the brightest and at the same time tragic pages of the history of Russian art of the 19th century. Surprisingly poetic was the gift of Magpie, truly tragic - the fate of the serf artist, who was fully experiencing the hardships of the summary of the Russian peasant. Grigory Vasiliev Soroka - his nickname was born in the village of Pokrovskaya Vyshnevolotsky district of the Tir province and was the "courtyard" of the landowner N.

From childhood, he loved drawing, and in the early 10th, the most important event in his life happened - a meeting with a friend and neighbor Milyukov, a wonderful artist and man Alexei Gavrilovich Venice. Back in the beginning of the x, the Venetians, according to him, in order to establish himself more on the way that he chose for himself then, began to take the poor boys to his maintenance and teach their painting.

The teaching activities, like the excellent art of Venetianov, were imbued with faith in the "bright nature" of man, the "future grace of folk feelings" and genuinely high opportunities in ordinary people. Many of the students who disinterestedly gave their souls and the knowledge of the Venetians of all of them were more than 70, justified the hopes of the teacher, compiling one of the remarkable phenomena of Russian painting of the first half of the 19th century - the "Venetian school".

Noticing the ability of the young man, the Venetians took him to his estate Saphonkovo. Already the earliest works by Soroki testify to the extraordinary and special charm of his talent. The album of sketches from the peasants of the surrounding villages indicates that the artist was initially inherent in living observation, sensitivity to the characteristics of human characters.

In the picture "Gumno"?

The talent of Magpies quickly bloomed, and in the near future Venetinov was with satisfaction noted in one of the letters a significant “increase” in his skill to such a “station”, to which the others should “need to be Italed for a long time”, and another “do not get”. The landscapes created by the forty in the middle of the X "fishermen", "view of the dam", "view of the Spasskoye estate" are already marked by mature skill and belong to the best creatures of Russian painting in this genre.

Gogol, these landscapes are full of pacified and some kind of meek, chaste beauty. The artist reaches in the images from childhood the places of such inner harmony and proportionality that they know that they are perceived as a world of embodied dreams of happiness, a world where peace and consent reign. In this world, man and nature are united and connected by the general, the main, as if "fascinated" rhythm.

The whole golden soft flocks are merged into a single whole here, and the blue sky, which is reflected in the mirror of water, and the slender classical architecture, and the green cums of trees, and the figures of the peasants, whose light clothes, almost majestic poses and leisurely moves make the belief inherent in many figures of Russian culture that the Russian sundress is no worse than the Greek tunic.

" As part of this beautiful, “fascinated” world, the manor interiors captured by forty are perceived, in particular, truly precious in the picturesque embodiment of the “cabinet in the islets” in this spacious shade of the room, behind the windows of which the bright ones were visible according to the landscapes of the Lake Minor, some kind of sounding silence and ordinary things, objects of the situation.

gain a secret, poetic meaning. With his characteristic gaze and affectionate attention, the features of various materials conveys forty attention: the matte shine of polished furniture, a warm, cozy yellowness of freshly launched walls with paintings hung on them. And the figure of a boy, who crouched on the edge of the sofa with a book in his hands, is perceived as the personification of mental grace and delicacy, which is imbued with the whole picture.

Characterizing the lovely portraits of young Elizabeth and Lidia Milyukov, art historians are not accidentally recall the art of revival masters. In fact, there is something in common between the crystal clear, enlightened and fulfilled spirit of humanism with the images of the Italian quatrocento and the penetrated love for a person, the sincere art of Magpie, as well as his teacher, “excellent kindness and simplicity of the heart” and the “hardness of the spirit” of which the serf artist captured several portraits.

Founded in the work of Magpie and the hostile, unkind forces and circumstances that were constantly present in his life. In the "Self -portrait" beginning. And she, in fact, was merciless to him. If, for other and less gifted students, Venetianov managed to "ask the gentlemen to be complete freedom", then forty was destined to languish in captivity almost until the end. The owner, allowing him to join high art and “release the soul from the crypt”, eventually showed himself as a typical representative of “mud of feudalism” by Venetianov.

He refused Magpie in the "free", forbade him to trips to St. Petersburg, forced him to serve as a gardener. And when the Venetians in the year, as a result of an absurd accident, died, "broken by horses", life far from art centers, spiritual loneliness and completely condemned the artist’s talent for fading.In the work that have reached us, the magpies performed in the end of the 10th to the beginning of the 10ths, dissonant intonations appear.

Wide and free spaces are replaced in its landscapes with a shady corner of the “Chapel in the islets” or the coast of the lake, overgrown with reeds, among which the “View in Islands” lurked. In the 10th years, he lived in his native village, wrote an image for village churches, tried to follow Venetianov’s example and teach his fellow countrymen painting. In the year, after the abolition of serfdom, he opposed his former master, protesting against the predatory conditions of "liberation".

But the complaint remained unrequited. Magpie was accused of "spreading false rumors" and for "rudeness made" sentenced to arrest and, apparently, bodily punishment. Visited "due to illness", he "poked", "walked in thought in the village" and on May 10, 22 was discovered in "burning a hut." Thus ended the life path of one of the purest lyrics in the history of Russian painting.

Materials of the article by VL. Petrova in the book. One hundred memorable dates. Art calendar. Annual illustrated publication.