Smolensk (Talashkino) - country estate of Princess M.K. Tenisheva.

Smolensk is a country estate of Princess M.K. Tenisheva. Tenisheva

(Pyatkovskaya) Maria Klavdievna - princess, public figure, collector, philanthropist.

Turgenev regretted that he did not have time to write a story about her, she posed for Repina, Serov, Korovin and Vrubel. Contemporaries called her “heroine of our time” and “the pride of all Russia”, and nowadays her name is hardly known to most and undeservedly forgotten. Her fate is brilliant and tragic: having given Russia everything she had, from capital to talent, she died in oblivion.

The exact year of birth is not known (between 1857 and 1867), only May 20 is considered reliable. She came from the capital's nobles, but was illegitimate. It was said that Mrs. von Desen, who had a very difficult character, could not forgive her daughter her unwanted birth (there were even rumors that the father of Masha was Emperor Alexander II). Since 1881 she studied in Paris: took music lessons, vocals, wanting to become a professional singer, a lot of drawing. For the summer, Maria Klavdievna returned from France to Russia to her childhood friend Ekaterina Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya, who invited her to her family estate Talashkino. Near Talashkino was also the land of Prince V. N. Tenishev, the largest Russian industrialist, who subsidized the construction of the first car factory in Russia, one of the initiators of electromechanical production. In Smolensk, he came to hunt, was 22 years older than Maria Klavdievna, but the age difference did not become significant with the revealed kinship of souls - in 1892 they got married.

The business of M.K. Tenisheva’s whole life was Talashkino, which the couple acquired from Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya in 1893, leaving the estate under her management. In Talashkino, Tenisheva and her friend realized a common dream of an “ideological estate”, the foundations of which were to be enlightenment, the development of agriculture and the revival of traditional folk art culture as a “life-creating force”. Maria Klavdievna created a very special creative atmosphere in Talashkin, which attracted many artists, musicians, scientists. There were often artists I. E. Repin, M. A. Vrubel, K. A. Korovin, N. K. Roerich, J. F. Tsionglinsky, A. N. Bakst, sculptor P. P. Trubetskoy, scientists A. V. Prakhov, I. F. Barshchevsky, V. I. Sizov, musicians V. V. Andreev, A. D. Medem and many others.

A dream is born to revive the Russian style, not imitating antiquity, but only inspired by the epic, fabulous past embodied in ancient Russian art. To do this, Tenisheva invites, on the recommendation of Vrubel, the artist S.V. Malyutin, who will head art workshops. Ceramic, embroidery and dyeing workshops, workshop of furniture, artistic forging and wood carving began to work in 1900. And in Stoleshnikov Lane in Moscow, a special store was opened to sell products produced in these workshops. The spirit of the new, the spirit of creative search in Talashkin inspired many famous artists. Here, in search of a new language in Russian fine art, N. Roerich, M. A. Vrubel, K. A. Korovin, D. S. Stelletsky, A. P. Zinoviev, V. D. Beketov and many others worked. Students made products according to the sketches of artists, many things were developed by Maria Klavdievna herself.

In addition, Maria Klavdievna opened a school in the village of Sozh, a school in the village of Bobyri, a drawing school in Smolensk (previously it was done by her in Peteburg), built a theater.

Another pearl in Talashkino was a children's balalaika orchestra led by the famous musician V. A. Lidin. The Talashkinsky Theatre and Orchestra became famous throughout the Smolensk region and gathered many spectators at their performances. Russian Athens will be called Talashkino’s contemporaries, and Maria Klavdievna herself – “Pericle of Russian Peasants”, because she built her “Athens” for ordinary people.

In 1894, Tenisheva bought the farm Flenovo near Talashkin, where he decided to create a new type of agricultural school with an exemplary educational economy. In September 1895, a new school building with bright classrooms, a dormitory, a dining room, a kitchen opened its doors. The advantage in admission to school had orphans, whom Tenisheva took on full support. The training course was six years: three special classes and three preparatory classes. Subjects were taught: agriculture, land surveying, horticulture, zoology, law, the Law of God, cattle breeding, geodesy, chemistry, physics, gardening, drawing, beekeeping, geometry, botany, geography, Russian language, arithmetic, Russian history, clean writing, Slavic reading. In Flenovo, an exemplary educational facility, a meteorological station, an apiary and a beekeeping museum are being created. The hardest work in the school economy was done by adults, the rest was done by the guys themselves, learning various wisdoms. Classes in craft workshops were compulsory for all classes.

“I wanted to crown my creation with the temple of God.” Thus began the construction of the Temple of the Spirit. Tenisheva departs from the canons of modern church architecture. She tries to combine images of Russian antiquity, impressions taken from her travels in the Russian North, with the silhouettes of local nature. Nicholas Roerich, whom Maria Tenisheva met in 1903, supports her and helps in construction. Sketches and paintings of the interior decoration of the temple, mosaic on the facade - in these works new facets of Roerich's talent were opened. The Church of the Spirit in Flenovo in total was built for twelve years and was decorated with grandiose mosaics of Roerich and his paintings. Nikolai Konstantinovich also worked on sketches of paintings for the Temple in Gopsala (Estonia) in 1910. And the famous sketches of the mosaic “Savior” and “Queen of Heaven” were kept in the collection of the Tenishev Museum in Smolensk. Later, one of the most significant and diverse collections of works of the great artist will appear in this museum. The created temple embodied all types of art that flourished in Talashkin: architecture, ceramics, enamel, artistic sewing, painting, coinage, forging. In addition, in the decoration of the temple, it was decided to combine the cult elements of various confessions. Both creators of the temple sought not only artistic synthesis, but also religious synthesis. The official church could not accept the idea. The temple was not consecrated, church services were not performed in it, in fact, it was a unique cultural monument. The marriage gave the princess the opportunity to satisfy her passion for collecting. Having compiled an extensive collection of watercolors by Russian and foreign artists, the systematization of which was entrusted to A.N. Benoit, Tenisheva arranged an exhibition of her collection in 1897, of which about 500 works she presented to the then preparing for opening the Russian Museum.

In 1900, Nicholas II, on the proposal of Finance Minister S.Y. Witte, appointed Vyacheslav Tenishev as chief commissioner of the Russian department at the World Exhibition in Paris. This section caused a furor – largely thanks to the works of Maria Klavdievna. In 1903 Tenishev died of heart disease, having lived for sixty years. A man of versatile education, a fine musician, a prominent ethnographer, an amateur archaeologist, he, nevertheless, did not share the hobbies of Maria Klavdievna in antiquity, did not approve of her friendship with artists. And yet he helped her by subsidizing all her endeavors, and she made him sound like a philanthropist. After the death of her husband, she alone disposed of the huge capital she inherited. In 1906, she helped S.P. Diaghilev in the organization of the Exhibition of Russian Art at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, and an important section of the exposition consisted of objects of Russian folk art collected by her. Subsequently, this collection formed the basis of the first in the country Museum of Russian decorative and applied art "Russian Antiquity".

In the same years, the princess actively participated in the work on the historical and archaeological study of Smolensk and the surrounding area, contributed to the opening of a branch of the Moscow Archaeological Institute in the city. In 1907, Tenisheva’s collections were exhibited in the Louvre. This event caused a huge resonance throughout Europe. A catalogue of more than six thousand exhibits was compiled and printed in French. For the first time, the audience had the opportunity to get acquainted with traditional Russian art. The exhibition was visited by 78,000 people. Many times Maria Klavdievna was offered huge money for her collection, but she still returned it to Russia. On May 30, 1911, the Tenisheva Museum became the property of the ancient Russian city. On a commemorative dish made by the princess herself, it was written: "Own, wise." The Museum of Emperor Alexander III (now the State Russian Museum) Maria Klavdievna presented a large collection of watercolors by Russian artists.

In 1911, the city Duma of Smolensk awarded the title of honorary citizen M.K. Tenisheva "for a donation to the Moscow Archaeological Institute of Antiquities, so that the museum would remain in Smolensk forever." The Smolensk City Duma, in its meeting of May 31, 1911, unanimously decided to name the street where the museum is located, Tenishevskaya. (In Soviet times, the street was renamed.) As an artist, collector and researcher of art, Tenisheva was elected a member of several European academies.

After the revolution, life in “Russian Athens”, as Talashkino was called, ceased. In the church built by the princess and painted by Roerich, potatoes were kept, the tomb of Tenishev was ruined, the workshops were closed. Since 1919 she was in exile, lived in France in the town of Vaucresson near Paris. This town was nicknamed “Little Talashkino”: outstanding artists came there, and it quickly turned into one of the centers of spiritual life of the Russian emigration. She continued to paint enamel and taught enamel art to children of immigrants.

She died on April 14, 1928. She was buried in Saint-Cloud, near Paris. E.K. Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya has preserved the diaries and memories of Tenisheva. She also transferred the equipment of the Tenishev workshop, materials and technological recipes Tenisheva her emigrant friend and like-minded T.N. Rodzianko, who organized after receiving this gift the School of Enamel Art in Prague.

Today, in a beautiful building made of red brick, built in 1905 for the art and ethnographic museum "Russian Antiquity" at the expense of M.K. Tenisheva, an art gallery is located, the basis of which is its collection of paintings, works of folk and applied art, historical and ethnographic material. In the department of the Smolensk Museum-Reserve "Teremok" an exposition dedicated to M.K. Tenisheva was created, the name of the street in Smolensk was restored, canceled in the twenties.