Friday Art & History Feature - Old Russian New Year's Greeting Cards

In the spirit of the holidays and because I'm a bit nostalgic about my childhood right now, here's a collection of old Russian and USSR New Year's Greeting cards. New Year was THE holiday that everyone celebrated for many years (since the government pretty much outlawed the celebration of religious holidays, like Christmas, during the Soviet years. Now people are back to celebrating those again, thankfully!)The Rusisan equivalent of Santa Clause is Old Man, orGrandfather, Frost (Ded Moroz), and he's often seeing with his granddaughter Snow Maiden (Snegurochka).

Note: All the cards say "Happy New Year" in Russian.

Enjoy!

 

 

Friday Art & History Feature - Nadya Rusheva

Apollo and Daphne by Nadya Rusheva

 
When I was a young girl in Kiev, Ukraine, I remember my older cousin, an artist, leaving me a book of drawings by Nadya Rusheva when she immigrated. I remember being very moved by the drawings, especially because some of them were of scenes from my favorite book, Master and Margarita by M. Bulgakov, but moved even more, and saddened, by Nadya's biography. I was about twelve or thirteen when I encountered this amazing artist - and she made an especially strong impact on me because she was only 17 when she passed away.

Nadya Rusheva

Nadya was born in 1952 in Ulan Bator, where her parents were staying at the time of her birth, although they soon moved back to Russia. She began drawing when she was five, and by the age of seven, her family realized that she had an amazing talent. She once painted 36 illustrations to "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", written by Alexander Pushkin, in one night, as her father was reading the story to her.

Nadya always drew without preparation, and almost never erased. She often worked with a pen to make the drawings. The simplicity of her drawings, the purity of the lines, make a strong impression and endear to the viewer. When Bulgakov's widow, Yelena Bulgakova, saw the drawings of Master and Margarita by Nadya (when the young artist passed away), she said "I wish I knew this amazing and subtle creature."

Nadya died of a brain hemorrhage because of congenital defect. She died in March of 1969 in Moscow. She created 10,000 artworks in the span of her short, but stunning, life.

Asteroid 3516 Rusheva is named after Nadya.

Here's a collection of some of my favorite drawings by this remarkable young woman.

Master and Margarita meeting for the first time, by Nadya Rusheva

Margarita, by Nadya Rusheva

Centaurs by Nadya Rusheva

Women, by Nadya Rusheva

Pushkin (a classical Russian writer and poet) and his wife, by Nadya Rushina

Goncharova, Pushkin's wife, by Nadya Rusheva

Ballerina, by Nadya Rusheva

Little Prince (by Antoine de Saint-Exupery) by Nadya Rusheva

Friday Art & History Feature - Hermitage

Today's post mixes art and history. Specifically, it's about one of the greatest art museums in the world - Hermitage. Hermitage, located in St. Petersburg is a State Museum of Russia and its collection rivals that of the Louvre. Hermitage consists of six buildings, although only some of them are open to public. Four of the buildings are called the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage and New Hermitage.


Winter Palace

The collection now contained within this museum took its start with Catherine the Great in 1764. She also commissioned the building of an extension to the Winter Palace, which served as the official residence of the Russian monarchs from 1732 all the way up to the Revolution in 1917.

Catherine the Great

By the time Catherine died, her collection contained 4,000 paintings, 10,000 drawings, 38,000 books, 10,000 engraved gems and various coins and medals.

The collection continued to expand in the 19th century through acquisitions by Alexander I and Nicholas I. After the Revolution of 1917, the buildings of the Hermitage and the Winter Palace were merged together as the State museum and collectively called Hermitage.

Small Italian Skylight Room

Room of Modern Sculpture

The museum contains works by Titian, Rafael, Leonardo da Vinci, Velasquez, El Greco, Michaelengelo, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Picasso and hundreds more artists, including many famous Russian painters. It also holds amazing exhibitions of ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman art, European decorative art, and even Prehistoric art.

Leonardo da Vinci at Hermitage

Raphael at Hermitage

Visiting Hermitage is a must when on a trip to Russia. It will be an unforgettable experience.

Pavillion Hall

Matisse at Hermitage