Vasilii Shukhaev

(1887 - 1973)

1410

Alexandre Pouchkine

Boris Godounov

Paris: Éditions de la Pléiade, 1925

314 x 244 mm. 126 pages

Edition: 445. Copy nr. 221

Shukaev (Choukhaeff) studied together with Jacovleff (Iakovlev) and Grigoriev at the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg. The three remained friends all their lives. But their art was different and  albeit Choukhaeff and Jacovleff were closer in style, there were some clear distinctions. If Grigoriev could be characterized as the most progressive, Iacovleff as the better portrayer of the travelling world, and Choukhaeff was the painter that at best understood the Russian medieval culture. In the pochoirs illustrating his Boris Godunov this affinity and understanding of the medieval world is clearly seen. The frontispiece, a portrait of Godunov, has all the splendid qualities of a medieval icon. The man in his regal dress, with the crown of Monomakh on his head, is depicted as a lean and tragic figure whose eyes are deep set in an elongated face, accentuated by a long and strait nose. Just as in an icon the man does not look at the spectator but at something superior in the distance. The lay-out of the cover and title page is also a reflection of a medieval manuscript. The borders and small decorative designs suggest a precious book of bygone days. Choukhaeff returned in 1935 to the Soviet Union and was at once deported to Magadan and from there to Tiflis in Georgia, where he died in 1973.

References:

Illiustrirovannaia Rossiia : 52 (1927) p. 9

Leningrad 1972, pp. 57-61

Fekula 1988, nr. 5060

Paris 1999, pp. 46-47

Strasbourg 2010, p.70, 76

Seslavinskii 2009, pp. 433-435

Yakovleva 2019, p. 173