The document features details on several paintings by Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel from 1900-1904, including "Swan Princess", "The Six Winged Seraph", "Lilac", "Pan", and "Flight of Faust and Mephisto". It provides information on the medium, dimensions, current location, and symbolic meanings or themes in each painting. Context is also given on Vrubel's life and critical reception as an artist producing work in a politically volatile time in Russia who is now recognized as pioneering Russian Art Nouveau styles.

2. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Featured Paintings in Detail
(1)

3. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Swan princess
1900
Oil on canvas, 142 × 83 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

4. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Swan princess (detail)
1900
Oil on canvas, 142 × 83 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

5. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Swan princess (detail)
1900
Oil on canvas, 142 × 83 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

6. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Swan princess (detail)
1900
Oil on canvas, 142 × 83 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

7. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Swan princess (detail)
1900
Oil on canvas, 142 × 83 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

8. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Swan princess (detail)
1900
Oil on canvas, 142 × 83 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

10. VRUBEL, Mikhail
The Six Winged Seraph. (Azrael)
1904
Oil on canvas, 155 x 131 cm
The Russian Museum, St.
Petersburg

11. VRUBEL, Mikhail
The Six Winged Seraph. (Azrael)
(detail)
1904
Oil on canvas, 155 x 131 cm
The Russian Museum, St.
Petersburg

12. VRUBEL, Mikhail
The Six Winged Seraph. (Azrael)
(detail)
1904
Oil on canvas, 155 x 131 cm
The Russian Museum, St.
Petersburg

13. VRUBEL, Mikhail
The Six Winged Seraph. (Azrael)
(detail)
1904
Oil on canvas, 155 x 131 cm
The Russian Museum, St.
Petersburg

14. VRUBEL, Mikhail
The Six Winged Seraph. (Azrael)
(detail)
1904
Oil on canvas, 155 x 131 cm
The Russian Museum, St.
Petersburg

16. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Lilac
1900
Oil on canvas. 160x177 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

17. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Lilac (detail)
1900
Oil on canvas. 160x177 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

18. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Lilac (detail)
1900
Oil on canvas. 160x177 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

19. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Lilac (detail)
1900
Oil on canvas. 160x177 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

21. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Pan
1899
Oil on canvas, 106.3 x 124 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

22. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Pan (detail)
1899
Oil on canvas, 106.3 x 124 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

23. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Pan (detail)
1899
Oil on canvas, 106.3 x 124 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

24. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Pan (detail)
1899
Oil on canvas, 106.3 x 124 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

26. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Flight of Faust and Mephisto
1896
Oil on canvas, 290 x 240 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

27. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Flight of Faust and Mephisto
(detail)
1896
Oil on canvas, 290 x 240 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

28. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Flight of Faust and Mephisto
(detail)
1896
Oil on canvas, 290 x 240 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

29. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Flight of Faust and Mephisto
(detail)
1896
Oil on canvas, 290 x 240 cm
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

30. VRUBEL, Mikhail, Featured Paintings in Detail (1)
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31. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Flight of Faust and Mephisto
Flying in the twilight of lead, riding magical horses, Doctor Faust and Mephistopheles. Curly mane mighty horses, fluttering from the devil capes flight.
Faust thoughtful gaze, looking to the future uncertain. The severity of the terrible oath deprives him of the delights of sensation of flight. Freedom - a ghost.
Mephistopheles sees confusion victim. His glittering gaze penetrates into the heart of Faust.

32. VRUBEL, Mikhail Aleksandrovich
Pan
The image of Pan, ancient Greek god of forests and pastures, patron of shepherds, reflects symbolism's interest in creatures of dual nature. Pan in Greek
means all-pervading, omnipresent. With his ugly appearance as a fur-coated man with goat's horns and hooves, Pan sent people "panicking" if they
dared to disturb him.
At the same time, Pan is a merry god, a companion of playful nymphs, the legendary creator of the pipe, the first musical instrument. He fashioned it from
the cane, in which was turned the nymph Syrinx, who rejected the love of the goat-like god.
Vrubel's "Pan" looks more like a Russian leshy, with the artist using its image to express the soul of dusky northern nature in an attempt to capture "the
most intimate national note". The appearance of Vrubel's subject has nothing frightening; he seems to have sprung from the roots of an old tree in order
to sit on a stump and play his pipes. For the artist, Pan is an embodiment of sensitive, poetic soul. Listening to the rustling of the forest at night,
murmuring of a brook, whispering of leaves, he draws in all the sounds and vibrations in order to give them voice in his sad plain tunes.

33. VRUBEL, Mikhail Aleksandrovich
Lilac
The painting is a version of the theme "Lilac". It embodies symbolism's typical image of the elemental world concealed under the veil of twilight The
artist seems to bring to life Nature's spirits lifted from ancient mythological consciousness. They are the souls of flowers and plants. The moon light
reveals the outline of one of them: the soul of lilac bush, a dryad.
Vrubel works with a palette-knife (thin steel plate), which makes it possible to apply paint in faceted dabs. Thanks to this technique, the lilac bunches
grow, as it were, from the depth of dark space and turn into fantastic crystals, glistening in the moon light.
The artist does not complete the flower heads, making them look as if covered in flocks of fluttering moths, their shape in a state of continuous
transformation. The concentration of purple shades gives rise to the illusion that the atmosphere is saturated with the aroma of lilacs, filling the dark
night with their breath.

34. VRUBEL, Mikhail
The Six Winged Seraph. (Azrael)
In this painting, Vrubel uses an image derived from Alexander Pushkin's poem "The Prophet". In Pushkin's poem, the figure of the poet is described as
dragging himself through a spiritual desert. He is met by a six-winged seraph who touches the poet's eyes, ears and lips, opening to him the mysteries of
the world, normally hidden from human eyes. Finally, he rips out the poet's heart and replaces it with a burning coal.
After this operation, the poet hears the voice of god who tells him: "Arise, poet, and see, hear/Fulfill my will/And passing through the land and seas/Ignite
the souls of man with words." The notion of the artist as the mediating force between the phenomenal and noumenal worlds was immensely popular
among the symbolists.

35. VRUBEL, Mikhail Aleksandrovich
Swan Czarevna
Swan Czarevna is the heroine of the "Tales about Tzar Saltan" by A.S.Pushkin, suggested by the images of Old-Slavic myths. Pushkin's fairy tale found
new life in the opera of the same title by N.A.Rimsky-Korsakov
. Vrubel designed the scenery for the production, with the artist's wife, Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel starring as Swan Czarevna. "All the singers sing like
birds; and Nadya, as a human being!" Vrubel used to say about her performance.
But the painting is not a costume portrait of the actress; it is a charming myth about supreme beauty, about the secret of its manifestation in the world.
The aesthetics of symbolism interprets the swan as the epitome of inspiration, which may either elevate the soul or reveal to it darker, mysterious sides
of life. The artist imparts to his image demonic traits.
Swan Czarevna is a creature of dual nature: she epitomizes two elements: the dark, cold element of water, and the airy, celestial element pointing
heavenward. The artist tries to seize the moment when a maiden turns into a bird, the miraculous metamorphosis of shapes, which seem to be melting
in the last rays of the setting sun. He freezes the elusive movement of departing czarevna. The picture seems to be a disembodied phantom of a vision.

36. VRUBEL, Mikhail
Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel (1865-1910) was a Russian artist of remarkable talent
and a turbulent. His paintings were produced in a political climate that was
alternately hostile and sympathetic. In his lifetime, he knew both praise and
disdain, with critics calling his work everything from “wild ugliness” to “the
fascinating symphonies of a genius”. Gradually, however, Vrubel’s painting came
to be viewed as an integral part of Russian culture. Some modern scholars
compare his work directly to Early Renaissance or Late Byzantine art and
recognize Vrubel as a proud artistic individual who held aloof from contemporary
trends. Others consider Vrubel the founder of Russian Art Nouveau and group him
with that movement.