VRUBEL, Mikhail, Featured Paintings in Detail (2)

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Featured Paintings in Detail
(2)
(Vrubel's Demon)

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Demon Seated
1890
Oil on canvas. 116.5 cm x 213.8 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Demon Seated (detail)
1890
Oil on canvas. 116.5 cm x 213.8 cm

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Flying Demon
1899
Oil on canvas, 138,5 x 430,5 cm
The State Russian Museum, St.
Petersburg

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Flying Demon (detail)
1899
Oil on canvas, 138,5 x 430,5 cm
The State Russian Museum, St.
Petersburg

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Demon Prostrate
1902
Oil on canvas,139 х 387

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Demon Prostrate (detail)
1902
Oil on canvas,139 х 387

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Tamara and Demon
1890-1891
Black water colour on paper..Illustration
to M. Lermontov`s poem The Demon.
The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Tamara and Demon (detail)
1890-1891
Black water colour on paper..Illustration
to M. Lermontov`s poem The Demon.
The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Head of the Demon.
1890-1891
Black water colour, tempera white, on
paper. Illustration to M. Lermontov`s
poem The Demon.
The Museum of Russian Art, Kiev

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Head of the Demon (detail)
1890-1891
Black water colour, tempera white, on
paper. Illustration to M. Lermontov`s
poem The Demon.
The Museum of Russian Art, Kiev

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Demon and Angel with Tamara's Soul.
1891
Black water colour, whitewash on paper.
Illustration to M. Lermontov`s poem The
Demon.
The Museum of Russian Art, Erevan

VRUBEL, Mikhail
Demon and Angel with Tamara's Soul
(detail)
1891
Black water colour, whitewash on paper.
Illustration to M. Lermontov`s poem The
Demon.
The Museum of Russian Art, Erevan

VRUBEL, Mikhail, Featured Paintings in Detail (2)
(Vrubel's Demon)
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Michael Lermontov
The Angel
1831
At midnight an angel was crossing the sky,
And quietly he sang;
The moon and the stars and the concourse of
clouds
Paid heed to his heavenly song.
He sang of the bliss of the innocent souls
In heavenly gardens above;
Of almighty God he sang out, and his praise
Was pure and sincere.
He bore in his arms a young soul
To our valley of sorrow and tears;
The young soul remembered the heavenly song
So vivid and yet without words.
And long did it struggle on earth,
With wondrous desire imbued;
But none of the tedious songs of our earth
Could rival celestial song.

The Demon, as presented in art, has become a theme often employed to represent a madness that has
developed within the artist. This demon can serve as both a muse and a destructive force for the artist
who cannot find a means to control it.

In 1884, the famous art historian Adrian Prakhov, who supervised the re-construction of the old and
construction of the new cathedrals in Kiev, invited Vrubel to take part in the restoration of the Old Russian
murals and mosaics in the 12th century Church of St. Cyril. The knowledge Vrubel acquired in the process of
this work contributed to the perfection of his style as a painter.
In the Kiev period the personal style Vrubel was formed, the key feature assimilates which one - creation of
effect of a scintillation of crystalline edges of the form that compares the pictures of the artist with mosaics.
In Kiev Vrubel started to work on the theme of the Demon. The Kiev versions of the Demon, both the pictures
and sculptures, have not survived. In fact, Vrubel did not take pains to preserve his works, being more
interested in the process of creation than in the result.
During his first year in Moscow, Vrubel went on working on the paintings he had conceived in Kiev. Among
others are the Demon Seated (1890) and a series of illustrations for Mikhail Lermontov’s poem The Demon
(1890) and his novel A Hero of Our Time (1890-1891). The illustrations made his name known to the public but
brought him notoriety rather than fame: too unusual for the tastes of 1880s, they caused bewilderment and
derision. But in the artistic circles of Russia, Vrubel was received favorably.

The Demon is one of Vrubel’s most favorite images. He is sick and tired of doing evil, yet goodness is a thing alien to him.
Immortal – he has no future, omniscient – he is without peers, omniscient – he is denied choice.

In the Demon Seated of 1890 the Demon sits in melancholy contemplation in the midst of a cold and endless desert. He is a mighty and strong spirit,
suffering in a body so powerful it seems hewn out of rock. The tragedy of the Demon is the tragedy of the artist himself, protesting the collapse of his
romantic illusions.
In the picture Demon Seated the young Titan is depicted on a clifftop in the sunset. His fine powerful body seems almost too big for the picture; he wrings
his hands; his face is touchingly handsome; and his eyes express inhuman sorrow. Vrubel's Demon is a union of opposites: beauty, majesty, strength, and
constraint, helplessness and yearning. He is surrounded by a fabulous, beautiful, yet petrified and cold world. The picture's colouring is also full of
contrasts: a cold lilac is in 'combat' with a warm golden-orange. The rocks, the flowers and the figure are painted in a peculiar Vrubelesque manner: the
artist seems to hew the shapes from a block, creating an impression of a world composed of precious stones.

In 1891 Vrubel did the illustrations for a jubilee edition of Mikhail Lermontov's works, edited by Konchalovsky. Of thirty illustrations half of them refer
to Lermontov's Demon. In fact, these are all works of art in their own right, important in the history of Russian book illustrations, and demonstrate
Vrubel's profound comprehension of Lermontov's poetry.
Of course, the story is steeped in tragedy. The demon falls in love with a human woman named Tamara and he loses her. The figure of the demon
himself is tragic: he’s more powerful than but utterly unlike those around him, and through his experiences he loses faith in humanity.
Particularly noteworthy is the monumental watercolor «Head of the Demon». Against a background of stony and snow-covered mountaintops is a
close-up head, with black hair and a pale face: the lips are parched, the eyes burning and penetrating; this gaze is full of unbearable torment, it
expresses a thirst for knowledge and freedom, the rebellious spirit of doubt.

Some years later Vrubel painted «Flying Demon» (1899) — a sombre picture, full of a foreboding of ruin and doom. Was conceived as the
culminating work of the Demon theme, but did not become such in actuality and is perceived instead as a prologue to Demon Prostrate (1902).
The proud flight above the world ended in a tragedy of loneliness and repudiation of the hero. The entire canvas is rendered in dark tones; the
mystical light that lit Demon Seated has been extinguished, and the image has taken on a heavy inertia, petrified, which in combination with
the horizontally elongated composition led to a contradiction of the very theme of flight. Flying Demon seems to touch the peaks of mountains.
The figure's movement is hindered by the fantastic weight of his warped wings. The flight creates a feeling of the Demon's tormented
imprisonment, like a billowing cloud that encounters the resistance of the elements.

Finally, in 1901-02, appeared the last picture: Demon Prostrate, on wich Vrubel worked intensively and painstakingly.
Exhibited in 1902, the painting overwhelmed the audience and won real fame for the artist. The painting, charged with motion, is strongly decorative.
Striving to create the astounding effect, Vrubel, who at the time, was already unbalanced, repainted the Demon’s face, his sinister eyes, his lips, twisted
by pain. He repeatedly repainted the picture even when it was on display until he had one of his breakdowns.
The broken, deformed body of the Demon, his wings fractured, is flung out in a gorge, and his eyes burn with fury. It is dusk and the last sunray flashes
on the Demon's crown and on the mountain-tops. The spirit of rebellion is overthrown, but not crushed.
Shortly after finishing his Demon Prostrate (Demon Overthrown), Mikhail Vrubel fell seriously ill and was admitted to hospital.

VRUBEL, Mikhail, Featured Paintings in Detail (2)

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VRUBEL, Mikhail, Featured Paintings in Detail (2)