Golden Khokhloma:
Russian folk craft

Back in the 17th century, wooden dishes made on a lathe were decorated with painting in the remote forests of the Volga region. The settlers, hiding from religious and political persecution during the turbulent times of Peter the Great, also began to gradually participate in the local trade. Among them were experienced painters, who enriched the simple peasant painting with drawings of plant motifs and techniques of free mastery of the brush. The new craftsmen inherited the classic forms of wooden products and clear rhythms of ornamentation from ancient crafts. This is how, almost 300 years ago, it appeared in the Trans-Volga region of Khokhloma - in the villages of Semino, Novopokrovskoye, Kuligino and the city of Semyonov. This craft was to grow, survive several eras, and become famous throughout the world.

Wood is an obedient material, always at hand. Easy to cut, easy to paint. Does not break, does not break. Wooden dishes are good for both beauty and business. At Russian fairs trade in "pieces of wood" was brisk. Everyone who looked there for all sorts of things, bought spoons and bowls at the same time. But not only residents of neighboring villages appreciated the dishes made by the Trans-Volga craftsmen. Painted goods, carefully packed in boxes, were loaded onto barges and floated along the Volga to Astrakhan, and from there onward to the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the countries of the East. And everywhere I liked the cheerful, golden and scarlet Khokhloma. People of different customs and languages could understand the simple Khokhloma painting, its flowers and herbs. How did this wonderful artistic craft come about?

Khokhloma. Kitchen set

“In the city of Semyonov, they are not engaged in agriculture. During the year, they make various wooden, painted and lacquered dishes and white - a bowl of large, medium and small 550 thousand, glasses - 100 thousand ", - says the document of 1797. After 100 years, 800 people were already engaged in fishing in this city and the nearest villages. In 1916, shortly before the October Revolution, a school for artistic woodworking was opened in Semyonov. The artist G.P. Matveev became its founder. In Soviet times, a new generation of artists grew up in this center of Khokhloma painting.

In the villages of Semino, Novopokrovskoe and Kuligino, there are now workshops of the Khokhlomskoy artist factory. The Khokhloma painting factory operates in the city of Semyonov. Most of the artists working in factories today are hereditary ornamentalists.

Khokhloma: original ornament

Khokhloma ornament is always subject to a certain rhythm. Its elements alternate in a certain order, creating a feeling of prowess, flight, a kind of wooden "melody". How do artists do it?

Since olden times the masters of Khokhloma have been using two types of painting - "horse" and "background". Horse - this is when the picture is applied on top of the background. The result is a clear graphic pattern. Most often it is grass, bushes and twigs. A kind of horse "herbal" writing - painting "under a leaf" with a smoothly curved branch, around which there are small leaves and round berries.

Khokhloma: painting technique

When writing on horseback, most of the surface of the items remains gold. How does the “Khokhloma miracle” come about - the golden honey color of the tree? As a result of numerous operations - drying, repeated coating with a liquid solution of clay, oil, drying oil and shiny metal powder - the product first acquires a silvery color. And then the most important thing begins. A drawing is applied on a silvery background, it is dried, varnished and placed in the oven. At a certain temperature, the varnish turns yellow and darkens. The silvery surface turns golden…

In the painting “under the background”, a golden floral ornament stands out against a red, green or black background. And then the details of the brilliant silhouette of the ornament are drawn with strokes. In the painting "under the background" the motives of "registration" are introduced - berries, small leaves, bushes, grasses grow over the colored background.

A special, relatively new version of the background letter - "Kudrina". It consists of round intricate curls. Sometimes fantastic flowers grow out of these curls, on which fabulous birds sit. The ancient masters used little Kudrin. Contemporary Semyonov artists are looking for new opportunities for Kudrina. Sometimes, in terms of complexity and sophistication of execution, this painting becomes like a lacquer miniature.

All these writing techniques were not formed immediately and not in one day.

The floral ornament that appeared in Khokhloma thanks to icon painters has undergone significant changes over time. It has become more concise and clear. Russian craftsmen began to use flowers and plants familiar to their fellow countrymen in the ornament. The tulip and grape leaf, which were written in the 17th century, were replaced by a bell and a maple leaf, and northern berries appeared next to them - lingonberry, cranberry, strawberry.

Over the years, the Khokhloma painting becomes even more figurative, more expressive with a great severity of the selection of artistic means.

Khokhloma: from antiquity to modern times

The ancient history of Khokhloma painting

The museums have preserved things born in Khokhloma at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. These are samples of lacquer painting: cups, brothers, mugs and tuesques. They have only narrow golden belts on them. Apparently, the silver powder, which was then used by the craftsmen, was too expensive for wooden dishes. But the best products of that time delight us with how freely the master mastered the brush, how poetically he thought, how he conveyed the beauty of Russian nature in his own way. So, how did the golden art of Khokhloma develop in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?

In the first half of the 19th century, noticeable changes took place in the Khokhloma painting. At this time, craftsmen began to use cheap tin instead of silver. The wooden surface sprinkled with such a powder during firing became the same golden as the silvered one. Now the masters are already completely painting the walls of the brothers, cups, salt licks and suppliers. The "grass" pattern allows for a more effective use of the "gold" color. Artists learn to paint an ornament on a gold background, they abandon the use of paints with which they painted before. Instead of blue, cyan, pink, green and brown, the main colors are now red, black and gold.

At one time it was said that the masters of Khokhloma use these three paints only because they do not fade in the furnace during hardening. But this is just one of the reasons. Brown, yellow and green paints also do not change their color at high temperatures. But they do not provide such an amazing decorative effect as the combination of red, black and gold. The red color gives the gold a lot of warmth, and the black paint makes the gold background appear lighter and brighter.

It was unprofitable to expose the “fake” gold background in large parts - it was inferior to the “real” one both in brightness and warmth. Therefore, Khokhloma artists gradually came to drawings in which the background only shone through the pattern and in the intervals between the motives. Now the breadth of writing, the master’s fluency with a brush, has acquired great importance. Performing the pattern "by hand", the master learned to freely change the ornament, immediately come up with new combinations.

And the form? To paint a large round dish is one thing, a tall, cylindrical dish is another, and a spoon is a third.

The masters built drawings on cups and dishes, taking into account the techniques of composition in a circle. The artists highlighted the bottom, drawing in the center a rosette with diverging rays - the sun, on large things they also drew a square or rhombus with softly rounded corners around the rosette, which was called "gingerbread". And around they wrote a pattern associated with the movement of the brush in a circle.

The masters painted four “flowers” or “trees” - two red and two black ones on the supplies and salt licks, which have a cylindrical shape.

Using traditional motives and typical compositions, even ordinary artists created highly artistic works, never turning into copyists.

The craft has developed more and more every decade. Already in the mid-18th century, residents of several dozen villages were engaged in Khokhloma painting. Turning wooden utensils were transported on barges along the Volga to all parts of the country and beyond. At the end of the 19th century in Khokhloma, a lot of various products were created - large "artel" dishes, plates, salt shakers, flour scoops.

Craftsmen painted baskets for berries, arches, spinning wheels, boxes for storing spindles. In the villages then a division of labor developed: in one they harvested wood, in others they sharpened wooden dishes, in others they painted it. Buyers bought finished products for next to nothing, and then sold them at exorbitant prices. And some of the buyers maintained their workshops, where turners, spoon-makers and dyers worked for many hours in a row.

In almost every village there were craftsmen who composed new patterns. And today the memory of the inhabitants of the village of Novopokrovskoye keeps their names: Ivan Krasilnikov, Mikhail Krasilnikov, Yakov Marusin.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, hard times came for Khokhloma. The demand for painted wooden tableware fell, and the market was flooded with manufactured products. During the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War, the dye houses were closed, the craftsmen went to the front.

They tried to adapt the craft to the tastes of city buyers. This is how “semi-antique” products began to be written in Khokhloma. There appeared stylized "a la rus" tables and sideboards, chairs and sofas with horse heads, buckets similar in shape to snakes and dragons. Painting them, the artists began to distort the traditional motives of painting "under the background" and "Kudrins". Craftsmen began to use stencils; it was impossible to write the fashionable "Slavic knit" ornament using traditional techniques. "Grass" was named "peasant" drawing.

Khokhloma. Revival of an ancient craft

After the revolution, the revival of the ancient craft began. A decree was published, signed by V. I. Lenin and M. I. Kalinin, which outlined measures to promote the handicraft industry. All enterprises of the small handicraft and handicraft industry were declared not subject to either confiscation or nationalization. Khokhloma craftsmen become members of the first handicraft artels. The workshop of the Krasilnikovs, the successors of the dynasty of famous Khokhloma artists, is gaining great importance. A special woodworking school in Semyonov helps artists develop the best traditions of the craft, fight against the dominance of the pseudo-Russian style, and look for new motives and ornaments. Today, the works made many decades ago by P.F.Raspopin, S.S.Yuzikov and I.E. Tyukalov are the pride of the Semenov Art Museum.

In 1925, the works of Khokhloma masters were presented at the International Exhibition in Paris and were awarded a high award - a gold medal.

Today, craftsmen from Semyonov are looking for new, more complex forms of products, trying to create compositions that deviate from traditional writing. So, in addition to forest plants and berries, masters also try to paint lush, intricate garden flowers. This enriches the decorative design of products, makes them even more festive. But Khokhloma artists are not going to forget the traditional techniques that go back to ancient pagan Russia, when they worshiped the sun god - Yaril, when the sown field symbolized a square divided into four parts or a rhombus with dots-grains in each.

The Khokhloma master, like the artists of most other crafts, never repeats the drawing. He is constantly improvising, looking for new ornaments. The works of the laureates of the State Prize named after I. Repin E. N. Dospalova, N. P. Salnikov, O. P. Lushin decorated the most representative exhibitions.

"Set for honey" E. Dospalova decorates the Russian Museum in Moscow. Cheerful scarlet strawberries on a black background, the golden inside of the bowls, the graceful shape of small spoons - everything creates a holiday mood. Or “Wedding Set” by E. Yakovleva. Two chiseled glasses, a salt shaker, dishes with flowers and birds. And all this is scarlet, with gold painting. You look at these beautiful things, and it is immediately clear: there is a holiday in the house. Yes, such that it happens only once in a lifetime. You couldn’t imagine a better wedding present.

@ textnet.ru