An exhibition of one painting "Vasily Mate (1856-1917). Portrait of I.E. Repin. K. XIX - N. XX centuries."

On March 21, an exhibition of one painting, “Vasily Mate (1856-1917), will begin work at the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts (104 Lenin Ud.) Portrait I.E. Repin. K. XIX - n. XX centuries "

The exhibition “Portrait of I. E. Repin”, created by V. Mate, is dedicated to the 175th birthday of the famous Russian artist Ilya Efimovich Repin.

Vasily Vasilievich Mate (1856-1917) - a famous schedule of the XIX-n. XX century., Woodcut and etcher, professor of the engraving workshop of the Academy of Arts, author of numerous portraits of figures of Russian history and culture.

V. Mate was German by birth and was born in East Prussia, in the family of an engineer. After moving to St. Petersburg, in 1870 he entered the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, where he studied with a wood engraver L. Seryakova. In 1875 he entered the engraving class of the Academy of Arts, and in 1880 he went as a pensioner to France, where he took lessons from A. Pannemaker. In 1889 he was elected an academician for the highly artistic work of the Academy of Arts.

V. Mate - a recognized master of facsimile reproduction engraving (reproducing original paintings and drawings by artists), stood out by his talent and innovative technical methods. Inborn industriousness, amazing endurance, brilliant technique, natural talent brought him early recognition. V. Mate played a huge role in the formation of Russian engraving as an independent art form.

The quantitative heritage of the master is significant: about 500 woodcuts, 300 etchings, many drawings. V. Mate created more than 200 portraits of famous artists, writers and public figures of that time - a whole gallery of "the best sons of his Fatherland." Etchings by V. Mate adorned almost the collected works of Russian writers, books on history and art.

No less important is the teaching activity of V. Mate, who brought up a galaxy of famous engraving artists: A. Ostroumov-Lebedev, V. Falileev, P. Shillingovsky and others. He taught various engraving techniques to I. Repin, V. Serov, I. Levitan, B. Kustodiev and others.

Close and close cooperation, mutual creative enrichment and friendship connected I. Repin and V. Mate. The master created a large number of engravings on the artist’s paintings: “They Didn’t Wait,” portraits of P. Tretyakov and M. Gorky, sketches for “Zaporozhets”, etc.

Kaluga etching reveals before us the appearance of I. Repin, seen by his colleague and contemporary. The chosen composition is quite traditional for the portraits of V. Mate: a breast image with the model turned to the side. The tenacious look of the author and his high technical skill allow us to convey the smallest details of the appearance of the depicted (elongated nose, wrinkles near the outer corners of the eyes, high forehead, etc.). By skillful gradation of the stroke from light and thin, lying clearly in shape on the face and neck, to solid and deliberately negligent in clothes and background, V. Mate confidently puts emphasis on the main and secondary in the image of the model, achieving internal psychology of the image and dynamics. The accurate and balanced application of black and white modeling allows the master to show the splendor of the hair and the texture of the beard and mustache, the whiteness of I. Repin’s shirt, complementing the appearance of the artist with important naturalistic details. In the presented etching, the vitality and general internal mood of the portrayed are highly artistic.

The work of V. Mate in the cultural heritage of the past, no doubt, occupies one of the honorable and significant places, and his personality and covenants still remain the standard of a true graphic artist and talented teacher.

The exhibition runs until April 21.