Princess Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva - philanthropist, collector, enamel artist, public figure
When she was young and not yet known to anyone, she once told her story to Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. He, thoughtfully, replied: “Oh, it’s a pity that I’m sick and didn’t know you before. What an interesting story I would write..."
Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva (nee Pyatkovskaya, according to her stepfather - Maria Moritsovna von Desen) was born on May 20, 1858, in St. Petersburg.
The girl was illegitimate and grew up in her stepfather’s rich house as a complete wild child, despite the abundance of governesses, nannies and teachers. They demanded complete obedience and restraint from her. The mother was cold towards her, obviously associating with this child those moments of life that she wanted to forget.
“I was lonely, abandoned. When everything was quiet in the house, I quietly tiptoed into the living room, leaving my shoes outside the door. There are my painting friends... These good, smart people are called artists. They must be better, kinder than other people, they probably have a purer heart, a nobler soul?...”
When Maria turned 16 years old, after graduating from a private gymnasium, a young lawyer R. Nikolaev proposed to her. Of course, the thought that marriage would give her freedom pushed her to agree. Early marriage, birth of a daughter. And my husband turned out to be an avid gambler. “Everything was so gray, ordinary, meaningless,” she later wrote.
A trifling incident gave her hope: she was told that her strong “operatic” voice had a beautiful timbre. You need to go to study in Italy or France.
Easy to say! How is this possible? Where's the money? Where's the passport? After all, at that time the wife entered into her husband’s passport. The mother refused to help with money. But Maria collected as much money as she could by selling the furnishings of her room. It was much more difficult to wrest permission to leave from my husband. But this too turned out to be overcome. ...A lonely woman with a small daughter in her arms and with meager luggage boarded a train that promised not Paris - a new life.
“It’s hard to describe what I experienced when I finally felt free... Choked by the influx of uncontrollable feelings, I fell in love with the universe, fell in love with life, grabbed hold of it.”
Sokolov A.P. Portrait of Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva (1898)
Maria begins to learn singing from the famous Matilde Marchesi. He also begins to take art lessons from the famous graphic artist J.G. Victor, later in St. Petersburg attends the classes of Baron Stieglitz, showing bright abilities in this field. He begins to deeply study the history of art, spending hours reading books and visiting museums.
Another passion that clearly manifested itself in her youth and played an important role in her future fate was love for antiquity, a craving for everything ancient. “Modern exhibitions left me indifferent; I was drawn to antiquity. I could spend hours standing in front of display cases of antique objects.”
Her mezzo-soprano of rare beauty enchanted the Parisians. Marchesi was sure that her Russian student would become famous as an opera singer. She was offered a tour of France and Spain. But the entrepreneur, as it turned out, believed that in addition to the interest due to him, the young and beautiful woman had something to thank him for the profitable engagement. The arbitrariness in the talent market, the dependence on money bags, the grip of which Maria immediately felt, affected her like a cold shower. “A woman... can only advance by miracle or in ways that have nothing to do with art; every step is given to her with incredible effort.”
There, in Paris, she will feel that the theater and the stage are not for her. "Singing? This is fun... This is not what my destiny wants.”
M.K. Tenisheva. Portrait by I. Repin (1896)
In the meantime - return to Russia, lack of money, ambiguous position in society. The husband actually took away his daughter, sending her to a closed educational institution. He said about his wife’s artistic plans: “I don’t want my name to be scattered over fences on posters!” But the long, grueling divorce still took place. As a result, the daughter became very distant from her mother, not forgiving her even in adulthood for her desire for self-realization to the detriment of caring for the family and her.
At a critical moment in her life, Maria Klavdievna is searched for by her best childhood friend Ekaterina Konstantinovna Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya. Chetvertinskaya will play a very big role in her life. A friend calls her her family estate Talashkino.
Ekaterina Konstantinovna Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya
At some friendly party she was asked to sing. A man undertook to accompany him, in whose appearance, if not for the frock coat, which betrayed the hand of an expensive Parisian tailor, there was something peasant, stocky, almost bearish. The cello sounded wonderful in his hands! This is how she met Prince Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Tenishev.
TO Prince V.N. Tenishev. Leon Bonnat (1896)
He started out as a railroad technician with a pittance salary. By the time he met Maria, he had a huge fortune, growing steadily thanks to his fantastic energy, enterprise, and excellent knowledge of the commercial and financial world. He managed to become famous as the author of several serious books on agronomy, ethnography, and psychology. He was known as a generous philanthropist and a serious figure in the field of education. And he was divorced.
In the spring of 1892, Maria and Prince Tenishev got married. Their marriage was not simple and cloudless. She was thirty-four years old, he was forty-eight years old. Two strong independent natures, similar in many ways and at the same time very different, with already established principles and views on life. It was not enough for her to be loved only as a woman; she always wanted to be seen as an individual, to be taken into account with her opinions and principles.
Together with her husband, the princess moved to the town of Bezhetsk, where Tenishev managed the affairs of a large plant.
School opened by Tenisheva in Bezhetsk
Tenisheva recalled: “Little by little, a whole picture of the true situation of the workers at the plant unfolded before me. I discovered that in addition to the overworked matrons and well-fed indifferent figures, there were also small, depressed people, scorched by the fire of foundry furnaces, deafened by the endless blows of the hammer, rightly perhaps embittered, calloused, but still touching, deserving at least a little attention and care for their needs. After all, these were people too. Who, if not they, gave these figures, and my husband and I, prosperity?..”
Repin I.E. Portrait of Princess M.K. Tenisheva (1896)
Maria Klavdievna becomes the trustee of the only school in Bezhitsk, then founds several more schools in the city and surrounding villages. All schools were created and maintained with the capital of the Tenishevs. Maria Klavdievna goes further: she organizes a people's canteen with high-quality lunches and for a reasonable fee. She also made it possible for workers’ families to be given empty lands for temporary use - resettlement began from cramped and stuffy barracks, breeding grounds for dirt and disease. But that's not all. Another important problem is the leisure of workers, which could become an alternative to drunkenness and idleness. Tenisheva is organizing a theater in Bezhitsk, where visiting artists will perform, evenings and concerts will be held.
When Tenishev resigns from the management of the Bryansk factories, the family leaves for St. Petersburg.
Tenishev House on the English Embankment in St. Petersburg
Famous composers and performers, Scriabin, Arsenyev, began to visit the music salon and the Tenishevs’ house. The voice of the salon owner will then delight Tchaikovsky.
M.K. Tenisheva. Portrait by Serov.
(written in the drawing room of the princess's house in St. Petersburg)
Maria Klavdievna creates a studio for herself for serious painting, but is immediately inspired by the idea of I.E. Repin to organize a studio to prepare future students for admission to the Academy of Arts and gives his workshop to the studio. Repin himself undertakes to teach. Soon this place became very popular among young people. There was no end to those interested, the workshop was filled to capacity, “they worked five hours a day, not paying attention to the cramped and stuffy conditions.” Tenisheva tried to help students: training in the studio was free, everything needed for classes was purchased, free teas were arranged, and student works were purchased. Among the students of the Tenishev studio are I.Ya. Bilibin, M.V. Dobuzhinsky, Z.E. Serebryakova, E.V. Chestnyakov and many other future famous artists.
Maria Klavdievna becomes one of the founders of the World of Art magazine.
Cover of the magazine "World of Art"
Tenisheva's gambling nature was captured by another passion - collecting. On trips with her husband to Europe, the princess, not limited in funds, bought Western European paintings, porcelain, marble sculpture, jewelry, things of historical value, and products by masters from China, Japan, and Iran. Artistic taste was given to her by nature. She learned and understood a lot from communicating with people of art. Readings, lectures, exhibitions completed the matter - Maria acquired the keen sense of a connoisseur and knew how to appreciate what she got into her hands. And so, when she and her husband traveled through the old Russian cities: Rostov, Rybinsk, Kostroma, through Volga villages and monasteries, the princess saw the hand-made beauty of unknown masters - original, unimaginable in the variety of shapes and colors and perfect in execution. Before our eyes, a new collection of utensils, clothing, furniture, jewelry, dishes and crafts was being born - things of amazing beauty, taken from a darkened hut or an abandoned barn.
Portrait of Princess Tenisheva M.K. Korovin K.A. (1899)
In 1893, Maria Klavdievna persuades her friend to sell Talashkino to her. As in St. Petersburg, she very quickly creates a hospitable, creative atmosphere in the Talashkino house, which brings together many famous artists, musicians, and scientists. I.E. often come here. Repin, M.A. Vrubel, A.N. Bakst, Ya.F. Tsionglinsky, sculptor P.P. Trubetskoy and many others. By the way, in Maria Klavdievna’s circle there were always many people of art, but for some reason there was never an atmosphere of idleness and bohemianism.
Vrubel M.A. Portrait of Princess M.K. Tenisheva as Valkyrie (1899).
But her most expensive creation was a school on the Flenovo farm near Talashkino, for village children. In September 1895, a new school building with bright classrooms, a dormitory, a dining room, and a kitchen opened its doors. There were a lot of people interested. Orphans had priority when entering school, and Tenisheva took them in for full support. Great attention is paid to the selection of teachers. According to her ideas, a rural teacher should not only know the subject well, but also be a mentor and friend for the child, an example in life.
Teremok in Flenov
Next to the school building, according to Malyutin’s sketch, a fairy-tale house was built, decorated with carvings and paintings; a library and a teacher's room were located here. The best books, textbooks, art albums, and magazines are brought here from the capital and foreign trips.
Door - portal in the interior decoration of Teremka
Another pearl of the Flenov school was the children's balalaika orchestra, which became famous throughout the Smolensk region.
Talashkinsky Balalaika Orchestra.
A new school with the latest equipment for those times, a public library, and a number of educational and economic workshops also appeared in Talashkino, where local residents, mostly young people, were engaged in woodworking, metal chasing, ceramics, fabric dyeing, and embroidery. Practical work began on the revival of folk crafts. Many local residents were involved in this process. For example, women from fifty surrounding villages were engaged in the Russian national costume, weaving, knitting and dyeing of fabric.
Products of Talashkin craftsmen
All this went to the Rodnik store opened by Tenisheva in Moscow. There was no end to buyers. Orders also came from abroad. Even prim London became interested in the products of Talashka craftsmen. This success was not accidental. After all, Tenisheva invited those who at that time constituted the artistic elite of Russia to live, create, and work in Talashkino. In the workshops, a village boy could use the advice of M.A. Vrubel. Patterns for embroiderers were invented by V.A. Serov. M.V. Nesterov, A.N. Benoit, K.A. Korovin, N.K. Roerich, V.D. Polenov, sculptor P.P. Trubetskoy, singer F.I. Chaliapin, musicians, artists - this land became a studio, workshop, stage for many masters.
I wanted things created according to ancient principles of beauty to enter the lives and everyday life of city residents and change their taste, which was accustomed to cheap imitations of European style. And she really wanted local peasants to participate in the new artistic process. After all, in the Smolensk province from time immemorial there were many handicrafts, but the products of the handicrafts had long since departed from the beauty of folk art, they were rough, clumsy, and stereotyped; the peasants tried to improve them, but, not seeing or knowing good examples, they worked primitively and sold their products at low prices. Tenisheva believed that with the right and loving approach, it is possible to revive the primordial craving of Russian people for beauty.
The princess was also interested in enamel, a branch of jewelry that died out in the 18th century. She decided to revive it. Maria Klavdievna spent whole days in her Talashkino workshop, near the furnaces and galvanic baths.
It was thanks to the work of Tenisheva and her quest that the enamel business was revived, together with the artist Jacquin, more than 200 tones of opaque (opaque) enamel were developed and obtained, and the method of making “champleved” enamel was restored.
"Overseas Guests" The sketch for this enamel was made by N.K. Roerich at the request of M.K. Tenisheva. The plate was made in 1907, ended up abroad and was sold at Sotheby's auction in Geneva in 1981.
Her works have been exhibited in London, Prague, Brussels, and Paris. In Italy - the birthplace of this matter - she was elected an honorary member of the Roman Archaeological Society. European experts ranked Tenisheva in the field of enamel work “one of the first places among her contemporary masters.” And in her homeland, Maria Klavdievna defended her dissertation entitled “Enamel and Inlay.” She was offered a chair in the history of enamel work at the Moscow Archaeological Institute.
A dish and salt shaker with a Siberian orlets stone, presented as a gift to Emperor Nicholas II
In 1903, her husband, Prince Tenishev, dies.
At this time N.K. arrives in Talashkino. Roerich. Friendship with him became an important page in the life of Maria Klavdievna: “Our relationship is a brotherhood, a affinity of souls, which I value so much and in which I believe so much. If people more often approached each other the way he and I did, then a lot of good, beautiful and honest things could be done in life.”
In 1905, she donated her colossal collection of art objects to the city of Smolensk. The authorities did not want to provide her with a room for her display. Moreover, they were in no hurry to accept the princess’s gift. Then Tenisheva bought a piece of land in the city center, built a museum building at her own expense and housed the collection there.
The building of the Museum "Russian Antiquity" in Smolensk.
But before it could open, the museum found itself in danger. Arsons began in the city and villages, proclamations were flying here and there, someone had already seen thrown away icons and people with a red flag in their hands. At meetings they shouted about “bloodsuckers” and called to “rob the bourgeoisie.” Secretly at night, having packed the collection, Tenisheva took it to Paris. And soon an exhibition opened in the Louvre, which was trumpeted by all European newspapers. Paris seemed to have gone crazy, flooding the five large halls. Here one could meet the entire intellectual elite of the capital: scientists, writers, politicians, collectors, guests who specially came to look at the incomparable spectacle. “And this is all from Smolensk? Where is it?" Since the time of Napoleon, the French had not heard of such a city and could not imagine that all this abundant luxury “came” from a quiet province.
Bronze candlesticks
Tenisheva was very proud that the Russian folk dresses she showed in Paris “had a strong impact on the fashions and accessories of women’s toilet.” Receptive to all innovations from the world of clothing, French women adopted a lot from the Smolensk peasantry. “I noticed,” Maria wrote, “the obvious influence of our embroideries, our Russian dresses, sundresses, shirts, hats, zipuns... Even the name “Russe blouse”, etc. appeared. Our Russian creativity was also reflected in the jewelry business, which made me so happy and was a reward for all my work and expenses.
Wooden valley. According to Fig. book M.K. Tenisheva.
“What freshness of forms, richness of motifs! - the observers were stunned to introduce readers to the unprecedented opening day. “This is delight, a real revelation!” Behind the abundance of exclamation marks, one question delicately loomed: “Is all this really made in Russia?” Princess Tenisheva was the first to open the door to Europe into the original, unlike anything else, world of Russian artistic creativity.
Balalaika, painted by Vrubel.
For a collection of balalaikas painted by Golovin and Vrubel, Maria Klavdievna was offered an astronomical sum. The newspapers of those years wrote that the collection would never return home: its display in different countries of the world could become a real goldmine for the owners. But every single thing returned to Smolensk.
An exhibit from the “Russian Antiquity” collection
But with the revolution, life in “Russian Athens” (as Talashkino’s contemporaries called it) was interrupted. Arsons began, propaganda was carried out at the school, and Tenisheva could not understand why what she had created was being destroyed. Potatoes were stored in the Church of the Holy Spirit, built by Tenisheva and painted by N.K. Roerich. The tomb of V.N. Tenishev was destroyed, and his ashes were thrown out.
But the school in Talashkino lasted only ten years, the workshops even less - four and a half years!
On March 26, 1919, Tenisheva, together with her closest friend E.K. Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya and close friend and assistant V.A. Lidin, left Russia forever and went through the Crimea to France.
Chest and pendant inlaid with champlevé enamel. Work by M.K. Tenisheva.
Tenisheva spends the last ten years of her life in exile, in the small estate of Vaucresson, which her friends called “Little Talashkino”. Here, already seriously ill, in a small workshop on Duquesne Avenue, she continues to work on enamels, earning a living with her own labor.
Maria Klavdievna also gladly accepted the offer to design costumes for the opera “The Snow Maiden”.
“Her performance was amazing,” recalled E.K. Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya. “Until her last breath, she did not give up her brushes, pen and spatulas.”
Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva died in the spring of 1928. She was buried in the cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve des Bois.
Maria Klavdievna Pyatkovskaya was born in St. Petersburg in 1867. Family legend has preserved different versions of who her father was; even the name of Emperor Alexander II was mentioned. After graduating from a private gymnasium, the girl was early married to lawyer Rafail Nikolaev and soon gave birth to a daughter, Maria. But the marriage was unsuccessful. “Everything was so gray, ordinary, meaningless,” Maria Tenisheva recalled later. In 1881, taking with her her little daughter, Maria Klavdievna, the owner of a delightful soprano, left for Paris to study singing. The desire to become a professional singer is so great that the displeasure of her family and friends is not taken into account. Returning from abroad, Maria Klavdievna becomes close to her childhood friend, Princess Ekaterina Konstantinovna Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya, who invites the young woman to stay at her family estate Talashkino. Next to Talashkino were the lands of Prince Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Tenishev, the largest Russian industrialist and landowner. The prince came to the Smolensk region every summer to hunt. Prince V.N. Tenishev was 22 years older than Maria Klavdievna, but the age difference was not so important and noticeable. The revealed kinship of souls was of much greater importance. After the quick divorce of Prince V.N. Tenishev with his first wife and, in turn, the divorce of Maria Klavdievna, they got married in 1892.This is how the Smolensk region acquired an amazing person. And today’s walk will be a story about Maria Klavdievna.
True, her husband’s relatives did not recognize the dowry, and Maria Klavdievna was never included in the genealogy of the Tenishev princes.
Tenishev gave Maria Klavdievna, in addition to spiritual support, a princely title, fortune and the opportunity to realize herself as an educator and philanthropist.
She created the School of Craft Students (near Bryansk), opened several primary public schools in St. Petersburg and Smolensk, organized drawing schools together with Repin, and opened courses for training teachers.
Maria Klavdievna’s life’s work was Talashkino, the family estate of her childhood friend, Princess Ekaterina Konstantinovna Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya, which the Tenishevs acquired in 1893, leaving the management of the affairs in the hands of the former mistress. Tenisheva and Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya realized in Talashkino the idea of an “ideological estate”: enlightenment, agricultural development and the revival of traditional folk artistic culture as a life-giving, life-creative force.
At the turn of the century, Talashkino turned into the spiritual and cultural center of Russia, where traditional Russian culture was revived and developed by the community of outstanding artists of the era. Roerich called Talashkino an “artistic nest”, as famous in its time as Abramtsevo near Moscow. The neo-Russian style in art comes from Talashkino.
In 1894, the Tenishevs bought the Flenovo farmstead near Talashkino and opened there an agricultural school, unique at that time, with the best teachers and the richest library. The use of the latest achievements of agricultural science during practical classes allowed the school to train real farmers, whom Stolypin’s reform demanded.
There is only one street here. And it's called Museum. And the house is lived mainly by museum aunties who are workers.
At the school, on the initiative of the princess, educational workshops of applied arts were created: ceramics, carpentry, wood carving and painting, fabric dyeing and embroidery, metal embossing. Children from poor families, and most of the students, were taken into full care. Cozy houses for boys and girls were built next to the school. Poorly performing students were not expelled from school. They taught some kind of craft. Princess M.K. Tenisheva sent capable and talented children to study further in Smolensk, St. Petersburg, and abroad. In her memoirs, the princess wrote: “He comes to school as an unconscious savage - he doesn’t know how to step, and there, you see, little by little he is chipped away, the rough bark peels off - he becomes a man. I loved to unravel these natures, work on them, guide them... Yes, I love my people and believe that the whole future of Russia lies in them, you just need to honestly direct their strengths and abilities.”
The fact that all these charitable deeds came from the heart is also evidenced by the review of one of his contemporaries: “... in Maria Klavdievna’s charity... there is nothing ostentatious, aiming for a cheap, purely external effect. Everything is deep, everything is from the heart.” Princess Tenisheva tried to introduce her students to art. Her friendship with the musician Andreev, who first brought folk instruments to the capital’s stage, ultimately led to the creation of a balalaika orchestra in Talashkino. And the musician of the orchestra, Vasily Aleksandrovich Lidin, left St. Petersburg altogether, moved to Talashkino and headed the folk instrument orchestra he created. Andreev often visited the Tenishev estate; participated in concerts with peasant children.
She herself was a wonderful enamel artist. Her works were exhibited in Paris, receiving unanimous approval from professional craftsmen (an unprecedented thing for a woman, and a foreigner at that) in Italy, the birthplace of enamel, in London, Brussels, and Prague.
Sergei Malyutin is the author of the carved “Teremka” (1902). We see him almost immediately as we enter the gate. Again, like Tenisheva herself, this man is a storehouse of talent: he is an artist, an architect, and a set designer, in general, a jack of all trades. And he invented the matryoshka toy.
Museum cat and hedgehog.
And the air is here! I just want to sit on a bench and listen to the silence.
Malyutin and the architect of the Church of the Holy Spirit (1903-1908), which was already painted by Roerich. The church is located on a high hill. It was also built as the future tomb of Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Tenishev.
Now it is being very seriously restored. And the face of Christ is covered with a net.
Nicholas Roerich, first of all for Flenovo, is the artist who painted the Church of the Holy Spirit and decorated its external facades with striking smalt mosaics. He came to Smolensk at the invitation of the princess. The city, and especially the Smolensk Wall, greatly impressed him: “The Smolensk hills, white birches, golden water lilies, white lotuses, like the cups of life in India, reminded us of the eternal shepherd Lela and the beautiful Kupava, or, as the Hindu would say, of Krishna and the Gopis " Roerich painted several paintings here (“Watchtower”, “General view of the Kremlin walls”, “Smolensk Tower”, etc.). In the Art Workshops he works on ceramics (in “Teremka” there are his works - a vase and paintings). And a few years later he came to Flenovo again to paint the church. He manages to complete the frescoes of the altar, paint one of the arches and lay out a mosaic over the main entrance (the First World War began). The paintings were on a fabric basis! And for this reason they were not preserved. And most importantly, Roerich depicted above the altar not the Russian Mother of God, but the Mother of the World, that is, he departed from the Orthodox canons, and therefore the church itself was strictly denied consecration. Only its ground floor (tomb) was consecrated. After the revolution, the body of Prince Tenishev was taken out of the tomb of the Church of the Holy Spirit, before setting up a vegetable storage there. They say that some peasants secretly reburied him in a birch grove. And now near the church there is a symbolic cross in memory of the owner of these lands, the benefactor and husband of Princess Tenisheva.
With the revolution of 1905, the former life in “Russian Athens” was interrupted. Arsons began, revolutionary propaganda was carried out at the school. Princess M.K. Tenisheva could not understand why the world she had created with love was being destroyed before her eyes. In the princess’s memoirs we read her thoughts about what was happening: “I look at everything as a fatal fate from above. This must be the way it should be... There was silence where the school was. And above it, high on the mountain, stands alone on the top the crown of the deed of love - the temple. During sunset, I look sadly from the balcony at the flaming cross, I grieve, I suffer and still love. For a long time I reasoned with myself, my soul ached for a long time, but finally, after many sleepless nights and strong internal struggles, I told myself that churches, museums, and monuments are not built for contemporaries, who for the most part do not understand them. They are built for future generations, for their development and benefit. It is necessary to discard personal enmity, resentment, all this will be swept away with the death of my enemies and mine. What will be created will remain for the benefit and service of youth, future generations and the homeland. I always loved her, the children and worked as best I could.”
After 1917, Maria Tenisheva emigrated to a small town near Paris. There is no money, but she has her favorite set: hard work, energy, talent. Madame Russian Princess finds use for her gift of creation here too - she becomes a jeweler, a specialist in products inlaid with champlevé enamel. In 1928, the princess passed away.
I remember, when about three and a half years ago I was warming my pregnant belly in the foreign south, reading all sorts of interesting magazines on art, the thought for the first time pierced me to the very heart that in the development of this or that creative person, patrons of the arts are sometimes no less important than teachers, wives and mistresses, and sometimes more....
Then, I remember, I read an article about the great Tenishcheva, whose fate was brilliant and tragic: having given Russia everything she had, from capital to talent, she died in complete oblivion. ...And the other day, having stumbled upon a portrait of her by Repin, I involuntarily wanted to write a post...
Contemporaries called Princess Tenisheva “the pride of all Russia.” She was lucky, she communicated with outstanding people of her era - Repin, Turgenev, Tchaikovsky, Mamontov, Vrubel, Korovin, Roerich, Benois, Diaghilev, Malyutin, Serov...
Portrait of Repin
Many sources say that the exact year of Tenisheva’s birth is unknown for certain (between 1857 and 1867), but Wikipedia lists 1858, which is what I put in the title of the post; only the date is considered reliable - May 20.
She came from the capital's nobles, but was illegitimate. Family lore has kept different versions of who her father was.
After graduating from a private gymnasium, the girl was married to lawyer Rafail Nikolaev and gave birth to a daughter, Maria, but her marriage was unsuccessful (“Everything was so gray, ordinary, meaningless,” she later wrote).
Since 1881, she studied in Paris: she took music and vocal lessons, wanting to become a professional singer, and did a lot of drawing. The daughter, left with her husband, was subsequently sent by her father “to college” (which presupposed the boarding school system) and became very distant from her mother, not forgiving her in adulthood for her desire for self-realization to the detriment of caring for the family and her.
For the summer, Maria Klavdievna returned from France to Russia and lived on the estate of A.N. Nikolaev (husband’s uncle) near Smolensk. It was there that her lifelong friendship began with her neighbor, the owner of the Talashkino estate, E.K. Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya (“Kitu”) - a woman of a similar fate, similar views on life and aesthetic tastes. Little thinking about who and what was teaching her daughter at this moment, the tireless princess, supported by Kitu, organized the first “literacy school” for local peasants in 1889 in Talashkino.
In the neighborhood of Talashkino there were also the lands of Prince V.N. Tenishev, a major Russian industrialist who subsidized the construction of Russia's first automobile plant and one of the pioneers of electromechanical production. He came to the Smolensk region to hunt, he was 22 years older than Maria Klavdievna, but the age difference did not matter given the kinship of souls that was discovered. After the prince’s quick divorce from his first wife and the dissolution of Maria Klavdievna’s marriage, they got married in 1892.
V.N. Tenishev gave his wife, in addition to his last name (however, his relatives did not recognize the “dowry”, and Princess Maria was not included in the genealogy of the Tenishev princes), spiritual support, a princely title, a large fortune and the opportunity to realize herself as an educator and philanthropist . Having received funds to implement the projects she had conceived, Tenisheva soon opened a school for craft students near Bryansk (where her husband headed a joint-stock company), and several elementary public schools in St. Petersburg and Smolensk.
In those same years, she met I.E. Repin, whom she was fascinated by the idea of organizing drawing schools for gifted children from the people, as well as courses for training art teachers.
The life's work of M.K. Tenisheva became Talashkino
Vrubel
At the turn of the century, Talashkino turned into the spiritual and cultural center of Russia, an “artistic nest” similar to Abramtsevo near Moscow - a meeting place for outstanding cultural figures inspired by the idea of the “new Russian Renaissance”. The neo-Russian style in art “comes” from Talashkino.
The educational idea attracted many outstanding Russian artists to Talashkino. V.D. Polenov, V.M. Vasnetsov, M.V. Vrubel, K.A. Korovin, V.A. Serov, N.K. Roerich visited and worked on the princess's estate, offering their drawings for painting balalaikas, chests, and furniture.
In 1901, Tenisheva held an exhibition of applied art products made in Talashkino in Smolensk, and at the same time opened the Rodnik store in Moscow, on Stoleshnikov Lane, to sell them. During these years, the Teremok office was built in Talashkino, all of the furnishings of which were made in the workshops.
In Flenov, on her initiative, the Church of the Holy Spirit was built with paintings and mosaics by N.K. Roerich.
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. Benois, Tenisheva organized an exhibition of her collection in 1897, from which about 500 works were then donated to the Russian Museum, which was preparing to open.
S.P. Diaghilev, whom Tenisheva met at this time, fascinated her with the idea of creating the magazine “World of Art,” which she founded and (together with S.I. Mamontov) financed in 1898–1904. In 1899, she was among the organizers of the first exhibition of “Mirs of Art” in St. Petersburg.
Idyll. Caricature by Shcherbov P. E. 1899. L.S. Bakst (rooster), S.P. Diaghilev (milking a cow), D.V. Filosofov, M.V. Nesterov, M.K. Tenisheva (cow), I.E. Repin, S.I. Mamontov
The joy is immeasurable. Caricature (paired caricature "Idyll") 1900. V.V. Staso, M.K. Tenisheva (cow), I.E. Repin, M.V. Nesterov (at the easel), S.I., Mamontov (mammoth), S.P., Diaghilev
Meanwhile, Nicholas II appointed V.N. Tenishev as chief commissioner of the Russian department at the World Exhibition in Paris. This section created a sensation - largely thanks to the works of Maria Klavdievna. A versatile educated man, the husband of M.K. Tenisheva did not share some of her hobbies and did not approve of her friendship with artists, wanting to see his wife only as a society lady. And yet he helped her, subsidizing all her endeavors, and she made his name sound as a patron of the arts and philanthropist.
In 1903, Tenishev died. Now she alone managed the huge capital left to her as an inheritance.
In 1906, she helped S.P. Diaghilev in organizing the Exhibition of Russian Art at the Autumn Salon in Paris, and an important section of the exhibition consisted of objects of Russian folk art collected by herself. Subsequently, this collection formed the basis of the country’s first Museum of Russian Decorative and Applied Arts “Russian Antiquity”, which in 1911 was donated by the princess to Smolensk.
In those same years, the princess actively participated in the historical and archaeological study of Smolensk and the surrounding area, and contributed to the opening of a branch of the Moscow Archaeological Institute in the city.
In 1912, she received the title of honorary citizen of the city of Smolensk; One of the city streets was named after her.
At the same time, she was a wonderful enamel artist. Among her works were large ones (an altar cross in silver and gold for the Church of the Holy Spirit, door decor with the image of St. George the Victorious in the Teremka in Flenov, a double-leaf portal made of precious wood with enamel inlays) and very thin, small-sized works ( a dish with multi-colored enamel, subsequently purchased by the Museum of the Luxembourg Palace in Paris, enamel portraits of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and Emperor Nicholas II with the heir-Tsarevich as a gift to the sovereign in honor of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov).
M.K. Tenisheva exhibited her works at the salon of the National Society of Fine Arts in France (1906–1908), and the Union of Decorative Arts.
In 1914 she showed the enamels in Rome, receiving a diploma and honorary membership in the Roman Archaeological Society. Two years later, she defended her doctoral dissertation on “Enamel and Inlay” at the Moscow Archaeological Institute. (The text of the work, lost during the revolution, was restored by her students in Prague in 1930.)
As an artist, collector and art researcher, Tenisheva was elected a member of several European academies.
The revolution of 1917 forced M.K. Tenisheva to emigrate to France, where she lived with the same “Kitu” and her daughter from her second marriage, Lisa, in Vaucresson near Paris from 1918 until her death. During the ten years of emigration, the women managed to establish the business of teaching enamel art among the children of emigrants.
E.K. Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya preserved Tenisheva’s diaries and memoirs. She also handed over the equipment of the Tenishev workshop, materials and technological recipes to Tenisheva to her emigrant friend and like-minded person T.N. Rodzianko, who after receiving this gift organized the “School of Enamel Art” in Prague.
Introductory article.
N.I. Ponomareva
The name of Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva (1867?-1928) is one of the names undeservedly forgotten. It, like some others, seemed to “drop out” from the history of Russian culture. Even the memory of her was not preserved. A street in Smolensk, named after Tenisheva in 1911, when Maria Klavdievna became an honorary citizen of the city, was renamed after her death. The “Russian Antiquity” museum, a unique collection of Russian antiquities, which she donated to Smolensk in 1911, does not preserve her memory; the museum's collection, shuffled many times and hidden from our eyes, is dying in storage.
What about Talashkino - the estate of M.K. Tenisheva near Smolensk? Talashkino is a world-famous center of Russian culture at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, which today should be no less famous than Mamontov’s Abramtsevo. And there spiritual life froze, and the last, miraculously surviving architectural monuments are threatened with death from destructive restoration...
But the manuscripts, according to Bulgakov, fortunately, do not burn. And those 35 notebooks that were preserved after Tenisheva’s death by her friend Princess Ekaterina Konstantinovna Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya, and then published by the Russian Historical and Genealogical Society in France in 1933, now - almost 60 years later - have seen the light in Maria Claudievna’s homeland.
And this is an event of great importance, not only because we are fulfilling our duty to the memory of Tenisheva and thereby restoring historical justice, but also because we are returning at least a part of what she did to national culture. Unfortunately, due to many years of undeserved oblivion in her homeland, a lot of “research” time was lost and a significant part of the facts of Tenisheva’s biography is no longer replaceable. Almost everyone who knew Maria Klavdievna passed away, all the students of her agricultural school, her archive was lost in France; So far it has not been possible to find her relatives, who lived with her in Paris in the 20s. And every day these losses multiply...
Why does it seem necessary to us now to restore, bit by bit, all the creative activity of M.K. Tenisheva? First of all, because all Tenishev’s undertakings of a hundred years ago have not lost their relevance at the present time. And the main thing depends on our understanding of the meaning of the activities of outstanding Russian educators and philanthropists, such as M.K. Tenisheva, whom contemporaries called “the pride of all Russia” - the possibility of continuing the work they started, but, alas, interrupted at takeoff, like Tenisheva’s case in Talashkin.
The book has long become a bibliographic rarity, and it was possible to get acquainted with it only through photocopies or microfilms. This reissue of Tenisheva’s memoirs, conceived by the Leningrad branch of the publishing house “Iskusstvo,” was also prepared from a photocopy he made from a copy stored in the State Public Library. M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrin. At the very end of the work, Alexander Alexandrovich Lyapin, who lives in Paris, came to Leningrad - the grandson of the wonderful Russian artist Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov - and brought two copies of Tenisheva’s book, one of which he donated to the Teremok Museum in Talashkino, and the other to the author of these lines.
It must be said that A.A. Lyapin and other representatives of the Russian emigration in Paris, who cherish the memory of M.K. Tenisheva and her deeds for the benefit of the fatherland, provided us with all possible assistance in searching for archives and materials related to Maria Klavdievna. Frankly, it was painful to realize that there, in Paris, the memory of Tenisheva was preserved better than in her homeland. Unwittingly, M.K. Tenisheva herself predicted such a turn of fate: “My country was my stepmother, while in the West I was greeted with open arms.”
“Impressions of my life” is a book of confession. It is unique in terms of genre. According to E.K. Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya, Tenisheva’s notes were not intended for publication. These were diary entries. But we will be immediately surprised by one of their non-diary features - the absence of dates. It cannot be assumed that this is a coincidence. There is not a single letter from Maria Klavdievna or a note written by her that does not contain a date. But in the book, dates begin to appear only in the second half of the story. The ending of the book is focused on the date, and not only on the date, but also on the hour (these lines were written at seven o’clock in the evening on December 31, 1916). “Now there are only 5 hours left until the end of this ill-fated year. What does 1917 promise us?
The image of time in the book is an image of the flow of life. The farther from the first phrase: “Early childhood is a foggy vision,” the closer to the “shore”, to the final point, the more clearly visible are the time milestones... I think it’s true that it was not a poetic image that forced Tenisheva to deliberately not indicate a single exact date, which would suggest the year of her birth, because the facts stated in her notes - a meeting with I. S. Turgenev (no later than 1883), an implausibly early first marriage and the birth of her daughter, departure to Paris in 1881 - do not in any way correspond to the indicated year birth - 1867.
Larisa Sergeevna Zhuravleva, one of the few researchers of the life and work of M.K. Tenisheva, found in the documents another date of her birth - 1864 - but this date probably requires clarification. Thus, in John Boult’s article “Two Russian philanthropists Savva Morozov and Maria Tenisheva”, under Tenisheva’s photographs there are dates: 1857-1928.
We touched on this issue only because research that strives for truth must be based on reliable data, and in order to restore the picture of the life of M.K. Tenisheva, we still have to finally establish the date of her birth, which is still hidden from us.
The origin of M.K. Tenisheva also remains a mystery. The girl did not know her father. “It’s strange...” Tenisheva writes in her diary. “I grew up under the name Maria Moritsovna, and then, as if in a dream, I remembered that a long time ago, in a foggy childhood, my name was Maria Georgievna.”
In the memoirs of Olga de Clapier, Tenisheva’s student during the years of emigration, we read the following: “Mani’s father was killed when she was 8 years old. She clearly remembered the extraordinary excitement that began in the afternoon in the large mansion on the Promenade des Anglais. When they sang “Rest With the Saints” and Manya knelt down, among the women’s sobs behind her the words were often heard: “My God. My God! The king was killed...” We are talking about the murder of Alexander II, according to de Clapier, the father of M.K. Tenisheva...
“Impressions of my life” are diaries and memories at the same time. The diary entry was supplemented by memories, which, in turn, corrected the diary. You will undoubtedly feel the powerful energy intensity of some episodes of the book. These “fiery” notes were clearly written under the strong impression of the event that had just occurred. There are quite a few recordings of a different nature - carefully thought out, “cooled down”, clearly structured.
According to V. Lakshin’s figurative definition, the “hell” and “honey” of memories collide in the book. “Hell” occupies most of the diary, which gives us reason to judge the degree of loneliness and secrecy of Maria Klavdievna, when she only confided in paper the conflicts that had happened. There is much less “honey”.
An interesting assumption about the origin of “Impressions...” was made by O. de Clapier: “I would like to say how much these “impressions” do not correspond to her personality. This wonderful woman, with the stamp of genius, had many talents, but - may her shadow forgive me this statement - not a writer! She had a notebook, in which for many years in a row she wrote several pages occasionally, only annoyed by some failure, upset by deception: it has been known from time immemorial that very rich people are often victims of clever and unscrupulous seekers of easy money, intriguers and petitioners. This causes bitterness and frustration among victims of deception...
Princess Maria, having written two or three pages of bitter lamentations, calmed and cheerful, went downstairs, joked, ate something forbidden by the doctor, quietly from Kitu (Ekaterina Konstantinovna Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya. - N.P.), walked on the wet grass and no longer thought about the people who deceived her. She has already gotten rid of the “obsessive thought.”
June 1 (old style - May 20) marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of an outstanding woman, whose contribution to the development of Russian culture is difficult to overestimate. Princess Maria Tenisheva was a collector, philanthropist, public figure and enamel artist. Turgenev regretted that he did not have time to write a story about her; she posed for Repin, Serov, Korovin and Vrubel. Contemporaries called her “the heroine of our time” and “the pride of all Russia,” but today her name is hardly known to most and is undeservedly forgotten.
Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva, née Pyatkovskaya, was born into a noble family, but was illegitimate. According to rumors, her father could be Emperor Alexander II. Her mother got married after her birth, and therefore was not recognized in her stepfather's family. Mary did not need anything, but was completely left to herself. Later in her memoirs she wrote: “I was lonely, abandoned. When everything was quiet in the house, I quietly tiptoed into the living room, leaving my shoes outside the door. There are my painting friends..."
After graduating from high school, Maria married lawyer Rafail Nikolaev and gave birth to a daughter, but she was not happy in her marriage, since the couple did not love each other. Later, Maria called this marriage “a stuffy shell,” because “everything was so gray, ordinary, meaningless.” The husband was indifferent to everything in the world except playing cards. After 5 years, Maria sold some of the furniture and used the proceeds to go abroad with her daughter.
In Paris, she began attending vocal school, discovering a mezzo-soprano of rare beauty. Her mentor predicted a career as an opera singer for her, but Maria decided that the stage was not for her: “Singing? This is fun... This is not what my destiny wants.” Abroad, she also took art classes and spent a lot of time in museums and reading books.
A year later, Maria returned to Russia. The husband took away his daughter, sending her to a closed educational institution, and spoke contemptuously about his wife’s creative successes: “I don’t want my name to be scattered across fences on posters!” And the daughter gradually moved away from her mother, never forgiving her for deciding to leave the family in the name of self-realization.
In difficult times, a childhood friend, Ekaterina Svyatopolk-Chetvertinskaya, came to the rescue, inviting her to her family estate Talashkino. Since then, Maria's life has changed dramatically. There she met Prince Vyacheslav Tenishev, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and public figure. Despite the significant age difference, they felt kindred spirits in each other and soon got married.
Together with her husband, the princess moved to Bezhetsk, where Tenishev had a large factory. Maria Klavdievna became a trustee of the local school, then founded several more schools, organized a public canteen and theater, and opened vocational schools for the children of workers. Later, the family moved to St. Petersburg, where a music salon was organized in the Tenishevs’ house, which was visited by famous composers.
On the advice of Ilya Repin, Tenisheva opened a studio-workshop where students were trained to enter the Academy of Arts. The princess also co-founded the World of Art magazine, sponsoring exhibitions of world artists. At the same time, she took up collecting; the princess later donated many paintings to the Russian Museum. In 1893, she acquired an estate in Talashkino and turned it into a cultural center, not inferior to the workshops in Abramtsevo. Repin, Bakst, Vrubel, Serov and other famous artists visited here.
On the Flenovo farm near Talashkino, the princess opened a school for village children, where the best teachers taught. A new school and a number of educational and economic workshops were opened in Talashkino. There they were engaged in wood processing, metal chasing, ceramics, embroidery, etc. Orders for works by Talashkin masters came even from abroad. The princess became interested in enamel and spent whole days in the workshop, passionate about the idea of reviving the enamel business. Her works were exhibited abroad and enjoyed great success.
In 1903, Tenisheva’s husband died, and soon all her beloved children died. After the revolution, life in “Russian Athens,” as Talashkino was called, ceased. Potatoes were stored in the church built by the princess and painted by Roerich, Tenishev’s tomb was destroyed, and the workshops were closed. She wrote about these days: “There is no doubt that it was a natural storm that flew over Russia. Blind, unscrupulous people... These are those who stand up for the people, shout about the good of the people - and with a light heart they destroy that little, those rare centers of culture that are created by the individual hard efforts of individuals.”
In 1919, the princess had to leave the country. She spent the last years of her life in exile, continuing to work on enamels, despite a serious illness. Maria Tenisheva died in 1928 and was buried in France, and in her homeland the emigrant was consigned to oblivion.
On the Flenovo farm, Princess Tenisheva, together with Roerich, built a unique, restored in 2016.
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