Happy Terem: Artist Boris Kustodiev and Kostroma

Artist Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev was born on February 23, 1878.

In 1922, the writer Yevgeny Zamyatin visited his Petrograd apartment:

The little room is the bedroom, and by the wall on the right in the bed is Boris Mikhailovich. This bed here is not an accidental thing, I remember it well: from head to feet, at a height, so, a yard with a little, a pole was stretched out - I did not understand why it was.

On the table next to the bed was my manuscript, Boris Mikhailovich wanted to show me some place in the text, stretched out his hand - and suddenly I saw: he rose on his elbow, grabbed a pole and, gritting his teeth, gritting the pain - bent his head forward, as if protecting it from some blow from behind.

I saw this gesture many times afterwards, I later got used to it, how we get used to everything, but then I remember: I was ashamed that I was healthy, and he, grasping a pole, writhing with pain, that now I would get up and go, and he could not get up. From this shame I could no longer listen, I did not understand what Boris Mikhailovich had to say about our book.

I took the impression with me: what a tired, weak, painful person.

A few days later, I was here again, to see this time: what cheerfulness, what wonderful strength of spirit man!

I was taken to the workshop. The day was frosty, bright, from the sun or Kustodiev's paintings in the workshop was fun: on the walls rose lush bodies, burned with gold crosses, green summer herbs were spread - everything was full of joy, blood, juice. And the man who gave juices, made all these canvases live, sat (near the legalized bourgeois in those years) in a chair on wheels, with dead legs wrapped up, and said, poking fun at himself: “Foots are ... a luxury item!” But the hand begins to hurt – it is already hurtful.

All the years of illness next to the artist was his wife Julia. Many noticed that it was her support and care that allowed Kustodiev to prolong his creative life. And they met on the northern outskirts of the Kineshem district of the Kostroma province.

The Vysokovo estate stood on the shore of Medoza opposite the village of Klevantsovo. Today, the village has become a village in the Ostrovsky district, and the estate has long ceased to exist.

Their neighbor, Boris Kindyakov, recalled:

“A park with alleys of linden and oaks descended to the river, where there was a small pool...” There lived three old Greeks – Maria Petrovna, Julia Petrovna and Evgenia Petrovna. Widely educated, speaking French, English, German, they wrote foreign literature and possessed a rich library.

On the walls hung paintings and portraits in heavy gilded frames - the owners of this house loved and appreciated art, and M.P.Greck herself was engaged in painting and carving on wood (I remember, for example, her carving an ink device depicting a hunting dog).

In memory of their dead brother, they built a two-storey wooden school in Klevantsov, the teacher of which was supported at their own expense.

The facade of the house was decorated with two porches: a front porch, which was not used (behind it was a greenhouse), and a porch on the right side of the house. Inside is the kitchen, then the front, the hall and finally the dining room with a large buffet of carved black nuts, a large table and carved chairs with a high back, decorated with an eagle with outstretched wings.

The wooden staircase led to the mezzanine, where the girls Zoya and Julia Proshinsky lived - the pupils of old Greeks.

In September 1900, the peace and quiet of the old manor house was broken.

Art historian V.V. Voinov recorded the story of Boris Kustodiev himself:

They, a company of young artists, came to the Greek manor on a desperate village cart (one ruble for the whole day).

They drove 12 versts almost in step, falling into the cart, breaking several whips against the horse.

The manor almost got scared, thought that the robbers had come, invited them to the back room and sent them to talk to Zoya (Julia’s sister), as the most “brave” one.

But the wife of Boris Kustodiev two years later became just timid Julia, a recent graduate of the Smolny Institute. At first, they just occasionally visited in Vysokov, and then the artist built his house next to him in the Russian style and called it Terem.

To live and rejoice... But the death of his son and the serious illness of the artist took away this joy. The lives of both were a feat. As Zamyatin wrote, “life.”

Among the tablets on the Avenue of Recognition in Kostroma there is a plate with the name of Boris Kustodiev. Pay attention to it when you walk along Mira Avenue on the red route of the author’s excursion. "Kostroma at 15:15.".

According to the materials of the scientific consultant of the project “Kostroma at 15:15” candidate of cultural studies Larisa Sizintseva.