Minsk: How they prepare for Mardi Gras at the Repin Museum-Estate News

Looking at the high sandy bank of the Western Dvina and the age-old resin-covered pines fifteen kilometers from Vitebsk, it is easy to imagine the motives that prompted the idea of ​​equipping the first estate of the famous painter in these places. . , whose 180th anniversary will be celebrated in the State of the Union in a year.Guests Saturday, declares BELTA awaited horseback riding and folk festivals, fun games and fragrant pastries, farewell to winter, grand ladies, jenga, winter fishing and exciting competitions. Photo: https://belta.by And the incendiary performance began with a prepared theatrical performance, during which, according to tradition, a symbolic effigy was burned over a large fire. By the way, lovers of memorable images also appreciated the photo zones prepared by the local museum and the fabulous snow figures built the day before, and the children were able to take a short pony ride.By tradition, each party participant was also invited to the Repin House Museum, which the artist acquired at the end of the 19th century, having paid part of the costs for the painting “Cossacks Writing a Letter to the Turkish Sultan” . Externally, the Noble Nest looked more like a local wooden church with an unusual crenellated turret, according to its former neighbors.This corner of Belarusian land, observers note, became for the master the place he humorously nicknamed “his state”, where he even had agrarian concerns. Sometimes, instead of sketching, he put the easel aside and sat down at the rotation tables. “What space, what beauty!” – used to exclaim the painter.In less than ten years, which the artist spent in the Belarusian sphere, he created more than forty paintings and drawings, including “Autumn Bouquet”, “Moonlight Night, Zdravnevo”, “Duel”, “Hope with the dog Pegasus on the banks of the Dvina”, as well as numerous studies and sketches.It should be remembered that when creating the painting “Belarusian”, a local peasant Sidor Shavrov posed for the master. Vera Fedorova, Shavrov’s granddaughter, recalled: “Repin invited him and told him to pose for him. Grandfather did not immediately understand what to do. And he said: “Well, you stay there, and I’ll draw you.” Repin painted the picture for three days, and so that Shavrov did not get bored, the artist’s eldest daughters read poetry to him.Everyone who has visited these places says that the Repin House-Museum resembles a “small Tretyakov gallery”. About five hundred exhibits tell about the life course of the legend of Russian fine arts. Hundreds of guests come to Zdravnevo to see the places that inspired him to create paintings that are part of the treasure of world culture. Photo: https://belta.by Moreover, more than ten years ago, the artist’s French descendants visited their family estate for the first time. Among them are fifth-generation parents and four great-great-grandchildren of the great artist: Ivan, Serge, Nadine and Michel. The Dyakonov family is now the only branch of the painter’s direct heirs. It comes from the priest Dmitry Diakonov, whom Repin’s granddaughter Tatyana married in Zdravnevo.It remains to add that, according to information from the curators of the museum, up to two hundred people come to see them during the annual celebrations around Maslenitsa. And this year, they assured, there were no fewer guests. Since it has already become a tradition for many residents of Vitebsk to spend an outdoor vacation in Zdravnevo.