Elizaveta Merkuryevna Bem (1843 - 1914) possessed a kind talent that brought light and joy to adults and children.
Childhood and youth
Bem Elizaveta was born in St. Petersburg in a family of immigrants from the old Tatar family of the Endaurovs, who came to the service of the Russian tsars in the 15th century. From the age of five to fourteen, she lived on her father's estate in the Yaroslavl province. Until the end of her life, Bem Elizaveta loved rural life and village children. They were a constant source of inspiration, at a time when Elizaveta Merkuryevna became an adult. In the meantime, the girl did not let go of the pencil and drew on any piece of paper that came to her hand. Friends of her parents advised her to send the girl who was passionate about art to study. Parents, when their daughter was 14 years old, assigned her to the School for the Encouragement of Artists. Her teachers were outstanding people - P. Chistyakov, I. Kramskoy, A. Beidman. Elizaveta Bem graduated from school at the age of 21 in 1864 with a Gold Medal.
Marriage
Three years later, Liza Endaurova marries Ludwig Frantsevich Bem. He was 16 years older, but very attractive for his eccentricity. It was a musicianviolinist, who later taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. There was always music in their house, and not only violin music. The piano was also a favorite instrument. The marriage that Bem Elizabeth entered into was a happy one. She gave birth to several children. The family lived on Vasilyevsky Island, later, when the children grew up and began to live separately, all the same, with or without him, the whole family, together with their grandchildren-gymnasium students, gathered in the friendly hospitable house of grandmother Elizaveta Merkuryevna, and the Stradivarius violin, which once belonged to Beethoven, and which was now played by Ludwig Frantsevich. He brought her with him from Vienna.
Silhouettes
In the 17th century, the passion for cutting out silhouette portraits and contour profiles from a folded sheet of paper arose with scissors. In the 18th century, it became simply rampant. People sat and in the evenings whole families cut out more or less complex pictures. It could be sailboats, running horses, or a full-length portrait of a man with a hat and cane. For this, both black and white and colored paper were used. Hans Christian Andersen was also fond of this. There were craftsmen in this cute occupation who masterfully owned scissors.
In the 19th century, Elizaveta Bem raised it to the level of high art. From 1875 she began to make silhouette pictures using the lithographic technique. On the polished surface of the stone, with special ink, she applied a carefully written drawing with the smallest details (curly hair of children, feathersbirds, lace on doll dresses, the finest blades of grass, flower petals), then etched it with acids, and as a result, after applying paint and printing, a small miracle occurred. Elizaveta Bem made silhouettes in such a complicated way. Now they could be printed multiple times for a whole run of books.
First, the postcards "Silhouettes" appeared. Two years later, the album "Silhouettes from the Life of Children" was released. At least five albums were released later. They were wildly popular. They were published not only in Russia, but also abroad, in particular in Paris. Both Leo Tolstoy and Ilya Repin were her fans.
Illustrations
Bem Elizaveta has been illustrating children's magazines "Toy" and "Malyutochka" since 1882. Later - the fairy tale "Turnip", fables by I. Krylov and "Notes of a Hunter" by I. Turgenev, A. Chekhov, N. Nekrasov, N. Leskov. And success came to her everywhere. The strictest critic V. V. Stasov spoke enthusiastically about her work. Her silhouettes were reprinted all over Europe. One after another, her editions appeared in Berlin, Paris, London, Vienna and even overseas. Already when her eyesight weakened (1896) and the artist left the silhouette technique, all the same, her works participated in international exhibitions, receiving medals. So, in 1906, the artist received a gold medal in Milan.
ABC
In our time, it was not possible to establish exactly when the first edition of the ABC was published. Apparently, this happened around the end of the 80s. This wonderful work attracted the child, forcing him to peer into the colorful drawings,memorizing letters along the way. For the letter “buki”, the initial is painted in the form of a snake that grabbed its tail. And the picture depicts a little boyar.
On each page was an entertaining text, which was accompanied by a colorful illustration. The letters were executed in the style of those initials that the miniaturists of the 14th-16th centuries made in patterned color script. Here, for example, the initial letter of the verb.
She shows a little harper who sits on a bench in the hut and says sayings. With love for the little student, Elizaveta Bem made the drawings. "Azbuka" simply attracts and does not let go either parents who teach their baby, or a child who carefully examines each picture, listening to what his parents read to him. This "ABC" is reprinted in the form of deluxe editions in the 21st century with fabric and leather covers with bronze clasps. And in the middle of the 20th century, some of the letters were reprinted in New York.
Holiday cards
This is a special line in the work of the master. The open letters that Elizaveta Bem painted, the artist managed to make bright and memorable. They were holiday cards that people sent at Christmas or Easter.
The signatures for them were made by the artist herself, showing great ingenuity. The texts included elements of Easter hymns, as well as quotations from Russian poets and the artist's favorite proverbs and sayings. Postcards appeared in the early 1900s. ElizabethBem initially collaborated with the publishing house of the community of St. Evgenia, later - in St. Petersburg with the firm of Richard and I. S. Lapin in Paris. Open letters were issued in large circulations by the standards of that time - three hundred copies each. It would seem that charming children are standing and carrying colored eggs and willow. But the boy and the girl are so cute that this discreet color drawing says a lot to the heart.
Cards for every day
Customers also liked them, because they depicted scenes from Russian life, full of poetry, sincerity and cordiality. The artist made signatures to them. And the main characters of her postcards were village children, whom Elizaveta Merkuryevna saw every summer when she came to the estate near Yaroslavl.
For those who, for example, quarreled, an open letter was intended, which urged not to be angry and not to be a beech, but to make peace. Here, the children are dressed in historical costumes that she collected. The artist had a large collection of arts and crafts. Therefore, it cannot be accused of unreliability. Even such a "trifle" as a postcard became a work of art, which is based on the truth.
So cute postcard with the inscription "the heart is waiting for an answer." These postcards followed the traditions of the national culture and included folklore elements.
Cookware making
Accidentally glass and its processing, having gone to see my brother Alexander at a crystal factory, and this is a complex technology, I got carried awayElizaveta Merkurievna, and, as always, success came to her. First, looking at the old traditional bratinas, goblets, cups, ladles, she began to make forms. Then I moved on to painting. And this was work related to poisonous fluoride fumes. When etching glass, the artist put on a mask. And immediately in the same year that she began to decorate glass, she received a Gold Medal at an exhibition in Chicago.
In 1896, the twentieth anniversary of the creative activity of Elizaveta Merkuryevna took place. The entire creative intelligentsia responded to him. Congratulations came from Leo Tolstoy, I. Aivazovsky, I. Repin, V. Stasov, A. Somov, I. Zabelin, A. Maikov.
In 1904, Elizaveta Merkurievna became a widow, but still could not imagine life without creativity. And in 1914, on the eve of World War II, she died. In Soviet times, her works were not in demand, they tried to be forgotten. The true art created by Elizaveta Bem has not perished. Her biography has developed happily. Her works are alive and delight her admirers even now, when a hundred years have passed since her death.
