Russian interiors of the 19th and 20th centuries. Wooden estates of the 19th century. Characteristic features of the style
Architecture of a wooden manor house of the 19th century
Russian people have always had a love for wood, for a wooden house. It’s somewhere in the subconscious, in the seventh sense. And at all times wooden house in Rus' it was considered the best, the most convenient for living, the best for human health. And in terms of price, a wooden house compared favorably with a brick building. Therefore, the desire of first a boyar, then a nobleman, and later a merchant and industrialist, to build a house from wooden structures is understandable. And when analyzing the manor houses that have survived to this day, we see a lot of houses built from wooden structures.
If you draw a shift table very schematically architectural styles in Russia throughout the 19th century, you get the following picture. The beginning of the century is classicism, gradually turning, especially after 1812, into the victorious Empire style. And somewhere from the 1840s, an active search for new forms began, the time of eclecticism began, which rebelled against the academic dogmas of ancient architecture. And only at the very end of the 19th century a truly new style began to gain strength - Art Nouveau.
But parallel to this change in styles, small urban and country estate houses were built in traditional forms of the Empire style. They continued to be built even in the second half of the century, when eclecticism reigned around, creating a fabulous symbiosis of the most bizarre combinations of architectural styles and details of past years. The traditional “manor’s house” with columns on the lawn attracted the attention of all segments of the then society. Both the wealthy merchant and the newly minted industrialist also built for themselves an empire-style house with columns. Obviously, to feel like an equal with the nobles.
Using the example of several wooden manor houses, today we have the opportunity to analyze the basic techniques and methods of their creation.
1. Manor house in Novospasskoye - the family nest of the composer M.I. Glinka
The estate is located in the southeastern part of the Smolensk region on the Desna River. Based on the name of the Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya church, the estate was named Novospasskoye. The manor house in Novospasskoye was built by the composer’s father I.N. Glinka in 1807-1810 on the site of the previous one. During Patriotic War In 1812 the estate was plundered. In 1813, after his return, Ivan Nikolaevich rebuilt manor house.
In the second half of the 19th century, the estate was sold, the wooden house was dismantled, and after that the estate fell into complete disrepair.
The manor house was restored after the revolution, in the 1970s. Archival documents, memoirs and paintings by M.I.’s contemporaries were used. Glinka.
Nowadays, the memorial museum of M. I. Glinka operates in the estate.
Probably the most interesting and most important thing is that the house was restored in wooden structures. This gives it historical truthfulness and naturalness. But here the first contradiction begins between the structure of the building and the elements of its decoration.
In Novospasskoye, the house was restored in wooden structures and with wooden wall cladding on the outside. And this is very good. But the details include plastering and stucco work. These are columns, capitals, balustrades and some other details. The result was a kind of symbiosis of a completely wooden mansion and details brought in from stone architecture.
But today we have to consider not a historical building - but a kind of fantasy of restoration architects on the theme of a wooden manor house.
2. Boldino Estate - Museum Reserve of A.S. Pushkin
Pushkin's office with classic wall decoration. There is no hint in this room
that the building is basically wooden
Among the buildings in Boldino there is the house of the Patrimonial Office, where Pushkin lived during his last
visiting the estate.The interior is interesting for its simple decoration, without any wall cladding
The attention shown to such estates is quite understandable - they were recreated as museum buildings, as witnesses to the life and work of our favorite writers, composers, and artists. Today they are visited by thousands of tourists and are included in numerous excursion routes. But a certain touch of “new construction” is certainly present in them. And there is some theatricality, which is probably quite acceptable when creating a museum.
It is much more interesting to see not recreated, but preserved buildings of wooden manor houses. As a visual aid for studying wooden house One can give an example of the restoration of a manor house in Vasino.3. Vasino Estate
The ancient Vasino estate is located in the Chekhov district of the Moscow region. on the high bank of the Lyutorka River, in a shady park. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Decembrists visited here, and at the end of the century, the zemstvo doctor A.P. Chekhov, who came from neighboring Melikhovo, visited Vasino. The manor house is wooden, covered with boards. This house is one of the few surviving examples of wooden estate buildings in the Empire style in the Moscow region. After the revolution, it housed a school, then a rest home. After the collapse of the USSR, the building stood abandoned for many years. Restoration began in 2014.
In a photograph from 1991, the manor house is still in good condition,
it housed a school for many years
Another photo from 1991 - it is clear that the building is in good condition
The house was in good condition until the 1990s, then stood abandoned for more than 20 years.
and restoration is now underway with the complete restoration of the original wooden structures
This is all a very sad story, but thanks to this situation, today it is possible to look at the details of the wooden structure of a “typical” manor residential building of the early 19th century, and see how such houses were created.
Vasino estate. House plan - restoration project
Vasino estate. Cross section of a house - restoration project
The approach to interior decoration is also interesting. The inside walls of the house were also not plastered, but simply covered with wallpaper on the boards. The remains of this wallpaper can be seen on the walls, at least today, during the restoration process, they can be studied and their design recreated.
In general, acquaintance with the Vasino estate provides a huge layer of information about the methods of building poor country estates in the 19th century.
Vasino estate. surviving fragment of wallpaper
Today it is difficult to say to what extent restorers will be able to recreate the entire structure of this unique wooden building, but the restoration that has begun is being carried out successfully.4. Volkov’s house in Vologda
Many wooden manor buildings have been preserved in Vologda. And one of the first I would like to name is a one-story wooden building built for the mayor N.A. Volkov in 1814. For many years the building was one of the cultural centers of Vologda. And since 1973, the house has housed the city music school.
with a front porch facing the courtyard with patterned brackets
Facade - restoration project
Plan - restoration project
Carved wooden details for finishing the facades seem to repeat the favorite Empire motifs that we are used to seeing in plaster work on the facades of stone houses.
Particularly impressive is the execution of columns and capitals in wood.
The interiors of the building are made in traditional plaster finish,
and in them ovens become very important
5. Sokovikov’s house in Vologda
Sokovikov's house looks completely different in Vologda. Unlike most wooden manor houses, this building has two floors. Since 1830, the house of Archpriest P.V. Vasilievsky, Since 1867 - the merchant I.M. Sokovikov. Its last owner was the son of Ivan Mikhailovich Sokovikov, Ivan Ivanovich. In 1918 the house was nationalized. In the spring, the building housed the Austrian embassy. After the revolution, the purpose of the house constantly changed; in the eighties there was a museum of the history of the youth movement, exhibitions were held.
Sokovikov's house is unique for Vologda with its architectural design. Noteworthy are the layout features characteristic of the houses of the first half of the 19th century century: the presence of a mezzanine floor, the location of the main entrance from the courtyard. The architecture is in the Empire style: the house gives the impression of simplicity and at the same time solemnity. The design of the portico on the northern facade is expressive: two pairs of widely spaced columns, placed on the ledge of the lower floor and supporting an entablature with a triangular pediment, form a balcony with a balustrade. The balcony door is interpreted as a large triple window with a complex frame. The house is completed with a large cornice with large projections - denticles. Above small windows on the ground floor there are semi-arched decorated carved frames. On the second floor, the tall windows of both street facades are framed by framed frames with light and simple frames.
The Empire style brought ancient Roman luxury and French arrogance to the homes of the Russian nobility. But under the influence of either the harsh climate or morals, he quickly changed, becoming softer and freer.
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On the picture:
"Big Style"
What does it represent? Interiors of the 19th century in the Empire style are, first of all, bright colors combined with gilding. It is not surprising, because gold is the royal metal, and Empire (French) means “empire”. This pompous style has a rather narrow time frame: the beginning of the 19th century and the reign of Napoleon (1804) - the decline of the great emperor (1814-1815). The Russian Empire style arose as an imitation of the French, but quickly acquired its own identity. It was softer, freer, more flexible and lasted until the 1830s and 1840s.
Main features. Empire is a decorative style created by Napoleon's court decorators, internally hard and cold. Includes Egyptian and especially Roman motifs, mostly attributes military history Romans, allows contrasting combinations of colors and sharp transitions of shapes and lines.
In the photo: chair 8900SC + 8912PL from Colombostile factory.
Walls. Scarlet, sky blue, green, they went well with gilded furniture, cornices, and chandeliers. Used and pastel shades: pistachio, blue, lilac. The main decoration of the walls were paintings and bas-reliefs on ancient subjects. They were not abstract, but indicated the preferences and views of the owner of the house, and even contained an image of him and/or his wife in the form of ancient heroes.
Ceilings. Decorated plaster stucco or grisaille - painted bas-reliefs. An indispensable detail was a luxurious chandelier, which was hung on heavy chains. Sometimes chandeliers were made... from papier-mâché, and only then covered with gold.
Examples of ceremonial chandeliers suitable for interior decoration in the Empire style.
Details
Luxury requires light. Special attention was paid to lighting in the Empire era. In addition to the huge chandelier, the halls and offices always included table lamps, sconces and cantilever candelabra, the light from which was reflected in gilding and numerous mirrors.
"Golden" character. Gilded bronze appeared in Russia thanks to the French master Pierre Agy. Interiors of the 19th century in the Empire style sparkle with candelabra, inkwells, toiletries and other small details. In the rooms you can see incense burners and jardinieres - stands for flowers. It was in the Empire era that mirrors appeared on dressing tables, illuminated on both sides by candelabra.
In the photo: watch 2001 from the F.B.A.I. factory.
The Golden Age of Russian Porcelain. This is what experts call the first third of the 19th century, when
domestic craftsmen managed to create a unique “Russian Empire style”. Historical and patriotic subjects (for example, the victory of 1812 was reflected in a series of “war plates” of the Imperial Porcelain Factory), portraits of the imperial family, landscapes, paintings by old masters - all this was captured on porcelain and glass vases and services. They were often created according to the drawings of famous architects.
Furniture as architecture. After 1812, Russian nobles began to acquire recamiers (the famous Parisian beauty Madame Recamier received guests in an antique tunic, lying on a couch), secretaries, boat sofas and other newfangled furniture. The furniture was often decorated with gilding, and antique architectural details were used in the decoration - columns, caryatids, friezes. Despite their fancy appearance, Empire style tables are convenient for working with a computer, and therefore are still popular today. Well, psiche mirrors and curule chairs (with X-shaped legs) are not so uncommon in the interiors of bedrooms and offices.
Famous masters of the Russian Empire style
| Carl Rossi (1775—1849) | Italian Carl Rossi came to Russia as an established master, at the age of 33. He built the Elagin Palace, the pavilions of the Summer and Mikhailovsky Gardens, and the Alexandrinsky Theater. He created the famous ensembles of St. Petersburg squares: Dvortsovaya, Senate, Alexandrinskaya. He remained in the memory of posterity as the main creator of the Russian Empire era. |
| Andrey Voronikhin (1759—1814) | Andrey Voronikhin is a Russian architect who built the buildings of the Mining Institute and the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. He enjoyed the patronage of Empress Maria Feodorovna. According to his “design”, vases, dishes, furniture and other furnishings of the imperial palaces, in particular Pavlovsk, were created. |
| Heinrich Gumbs (1764—1831) |
Furniture made by Heinrich Gambs decorated the imperial palaces and houses of the richest and most noble Russian families. “Gambs chairs” are mentioned in the works of Pushkin and Turgenev, and “Gambs chairs” already in the 20th century became the main characters of the famous book by Ilf and Petrov. |
|
Friedrich Bergenfeldt (1768 —1822) |
At the beginning of the 19th century in St. Petersburg there was a famous factory and shop of bronzer Friedrich Bergenfeldt. He was a supplier to the imperial court and the rich Russian nobility: the Sheremetevs, Stroganovs, Yusupovs. Chandeliers, candelabra, and vases by Bergenfeldt are kept in the Winter, Pavlovsk and Peterhof palaces. |
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A person lives “for others” and “for himself”. Everyday existence is hidden from the eyes of strangers, but always arouses burning interest. It is no coincidence that, talking about one Penza acquaintance, F.F. Wigel noted: “... and now let’s talk about what’s more interesting, about his home life.” History, as we know, is made not by abstract “figures”, but by specific people, “private individuals”, inevitably surrounded by their own home world, daily worries and a comfortable way of life. Residential interiors are the focus, the scene of action of everyday life. They reflect both the personal tastes of the owners and the basic attitudes of the era (for example, the concept of comfort), as well as, in the appropriate refraction, “great styles”. The study of residential interiors, to a much greater extent than front doors, is associated with the study of specific household norms and conditions.
The face of every house of those years was its ceremonial interiors, while the doors of “own” rooms were rarely opened to outsiders. If great importance has always been attached to the decoration of “rooms of splendor,” then the residential interior has rarely been given enough attention by its creators themselves, its “users,” and subsequently, researchers.
Let’s immediately make a reservation that this article does not clearly divide the residential interior into “urban” and “estate”. This question requires further study, but we point out that, as it seems to us, the border dividing them was of a rather arbitrary nature. Of course, life “in nature” was significantly different from the city, it was less constrained by rules and conventions, more “natural” and free; the delights of this unique village free spirit began to be especially appreciated by the end of the 18th century. But this difference related more to the nature of communication and behavior, daily routine, leisure time, etc., and did not so much affect the sphere of everyday life, especially from its everyday side. It is unlikely that life in the city was fundamentally better organized than in the countryside. Wealthy “city dwellers” who went to their estates for the summer or moved for a long time usually tried to make their life in the village just as comfortable. For this purpose, as is known, furniture, household items, etc. were exported en masse. For example, P.B. Sheremetev, having left St. Petersburg at the very beginning of the 1770s and engaged in the “decoration” of Kuskov near Moscow, exactly copied some of the interiors of his capital houses, even to the point of removing entire “furnishings”. Moreover, a variety of things were sent from St. Petersburg, even “mugs woven from roots for wiping feet.”
The one who was poorer spent most of the year in the countryside and went to the capitals for several winter months - either to his own house or to relatives, or to a hired one. Let us recall the move of the poor Larins to their Moscow aunt: “The usual convoy, three wagons / Carrying household belongings, / Pots, chairs, chests, / Jam in jars, mattresses, / Featherbeds, cages with roosters, / Pots, basins et cetera / Well, a lot every good thing." So they settled down there, apparently, just as they were used to in the village. F.F. notes, not without irony, about such moves. Vigel - “back then in Russia they traveled in the Abrahamic way - with slaves, male slaves and loaded camels.”
In rented city houses, life was sometimes much simpler than “at home” on the estate, and they were much more poorly furnished. M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin describes in “Poshekhon Antiquity” the winter visits of the protagonist’s family. In Moscow, a mansion with seven or eight rooms was rented, and “among the latter, only two or three “clean” rooms were quite spacious; the rest could, in the full sense of the word, be called cages. ... There was nothing to think about luxurious or even simply comfortable surroundings, and we, also middle-class nobles, did not pretend to be comfortable. The furniture was mostly prefabricated, old, covered with stained leather or torn hair fabric. In this tiny room, in a stale atmosphere saturated with miasma (there was no mention of ventilation, and the air was freshened only when the stoves were fired), huddled a noble family, often quite numerous. They slept everywhere - on sofas, and side by side on the floor, because there were few beds for rent in the house, and those that were available were assigned to the elders. The servants spent their days and nights in stalls in such miniature kennels that one could only marvel at how such a mass of people could be accommodated there.”
The similarity of the interiors of urban and country houses the end of the 18th century was noted by F.F. Vigel. Describing the Penza Dvoryanskaya Street, built up with “dwellings of the aristocracy,” he notes: “Landowners lived here just like in the summer in the village... Having described the location of one of these houses, city or village, can I give an idea of the others, so great were they uniformity".
Residential interiors were updated disproportionately more often than front doors - their furnishings often did not outlive their owner. There are very few images of this time - the genre of interior painting developed in Russia later, from the 1820s. Contemporaries had little interest in “household little things” - only from the second third of the 19th century a realistic direction with its “everyday” novel appeared in literature, and only then did the authors of memoirs begin to remember not only people and events, but also the details of everyday life. Therefore, references to her, to her home, surrounding things and habits (such as, for example, by A.T. Bolotov for the 18th - early 19th centuries are unique. S. Kaznakov said figuratively and very accurately about this at the beginning of the 20th century: “Yes , the task of an everyday writer is not easy... Notes, letters and stories of contemporaries do not explain anything; at that time they did little to describe the internal situation of life, its beauty was given so easily, they wrote more about events and people, especially during the reign of Paul, when even outsiders. observers barely had enough time to sort out the chaos of daily impressions.”
Unlike their compatriots, foreigners paid a little more attention to the “internal environment of life”, since, according to Yu.M. Lotman, “a foreigner who experiences someone else’s everyday life as exotic can perceive it aesthetically,” while “the direct bearer of culture, as a rule, simply does not notice its specificity.” Particularly noteworthy are the memoirs written by women, since, unlike men busy with service and representation issues, they were much more worried about everyday home life, and they devoted pages of their diaries to it much more often than their husbands. Sometimes 19th century authors' memories of their childhood are informative - they are written or processed decades later and are filled with descriptions of the everyday realities of a life long past. In general, it should be noted with regret that the memoirists of those years paid very little attention to the issues that interest us. Therefore, archival documents are of great importance, especially inventories of private houses and economic correspondence, as well as objects actually preserved in museums that originate from residential interiors.
The literature on Russian interior design during the period of classicism is quite extensive. But mainly ceremonial interiors were studied; residential ones were often left out of consideration. Valuable information on the topic of interest to us can also be gleaned from various works on the history of everyday life, everyday life, its private side.
Since ancient times, the interior of rich private houses has been divided into two zones - front and private; already in antiquity there were special rooms for receiving guests. Over time, the boundary between “front” and “private” changed its shape. In the 18th century, on the one hand, everyday life, which was completely uninteresting for contemporaries, was removed from view into the inner chambers, on the other hand, some of its components were exposed to their “ceremonial” side and included in the ritualized action that unfolded in the “rooms of splendor” . For example, rich nobles often came to their State Bedroom only in the morning to dress and comb their hair, accompanied by receiving visitors honored with this honor - such a daily “toilet” acquired the status of “not for prying eyes” only in the 19th century. Descendants were also surprised by the bathroom, which was sometimes included in the ceremonial suite of palaces of the 18th century. For example, in the Marble Palace, judging by the inventory of 1785, four rooms (“anteroom,” bathroom, bathhouse and utility room for heating water) are listed immediately after “a room that can serve as a painting room, for physical experiments, or as a billiard room.” But contemporaries perceived everything as it should. F. De Miranda, who traveled half of Europe and visited the palace a year later, lists its beauties, including “the dining room and the art gallery, where there are very good work Van der Werf and other Flemings; a large ballroom of correct proportions; an elegant bathtub in the shape of an ellipse, etc.; decorations and furniture are as exquisite as they are rich.” As we can see, the bathtub is perceived almost in the same way as the “amazing Flemish wooden bas-reliefs” from the “Reception Hall”. “Great” baths could be made of silver (as in Prince Potemkin’s Tauride Palace and proudly displayed to others. Such “ceremonial”, theatrical washing (then it was done in a sheet) also implied the presence of strangers - while taking a bath one could have small talk with guests .
The “public” nature of life, inherent in the 18th century, meant for the personal, private side of it the eyes of an outside observer. “... To become an object of contemplation is the highest desire of all. Intimacy is therefore excluded from life, and all behavior becomes a single official act, all life from birth to death and even in its most sacred moments. For in the sphere of feelings, pose and representation reign.”
But by the end of the “gallant age,” the private side of life began to acquire increasing importance. In about half a century, from the 1780s to the 1820s, a person’s self-awareness changed radically, he was formed as a person (in the modern meaning of the word). This qualitative change led to significant changes in the general cultural situation of those years and finally shifted the emphasis from the “external” world, which the man of the 18th century lived in, to the “internal” world. “Personality” is no longer a part of the whole, it is not “dissolved” in the collective, as before, but has full right not only to its inner world, but also to its habitat, which has finally acquired independent meaning and special value. If “for a very long time, everyday life was considered as the reverse side of being, i.e. “as an inconspicuous and unattractive opposite to the high forms of human self-expression - social, state-political, artistic, secular”, then during the first quarter of the 19th century there was once a huge distance between the “high” (civil service, politics, war, holidays, etc.) and “low” (daily worries, everyday life) is reduced and subsequently the sphere of the private ceases to be perceived as something base and unworthy of attention.
These changes were so strong that, if at the beginning of this half century the owners not only did not appreciate, but did not even notice “home life” at all, then by the end of it there were attempts to perpetuate their own home life in order to show the whole world “the absolute importance of their purely a private person who does not occupy any place in the state...", most clearly manifested in the creation of the "Nashchokinsky House", which was an exact copy of the real one. The importance of private life, finally appreciated, was also manifested in the emergence of the “in the rooms” genre, hitherto unknown in Russia.
The turning point in self-awareness, which chronologically almost coincided with the turn of the century, could not help but be felt by contemporaries, and in Russia was associated mainly with the change of reigns. The eighteenth century actually ended with the death of Catherine, the time of Alexander - “a new reign with new ideas.” The younger generation looked at the world with completely different eyes and already poorly understood the concerns and lifestyle of their fathers - the nobles of Catherine’s times. No wonder F.F. Wigel, recalling Kiev society at the end of the 18th century, exclaimed: “How funny we seem now! Forty years of time and one thousand two hundred miles of distance make a big difference in the concepts and opinions of people.”
An integral, unclouded perception of life, a state of balance between “internal” and “external”, so characteristic of many contemporaries of Elizabeth Petrovna and partly of Catherine II, did not receive its development in the descendants, who turned their gaze “inward, into the abyss of the “internal”.” This is clearly visible when comparing two representatives of the 18th century - the Sheremetev father and son. Father, Pyotr Borisovich, is a child of the 18th century, a gentleman and an epicurean, in whom hedonism, breadth of nature and practicality are organically combined; he seems to have managed to get closer to the ideal of the century - “a man truly with taste, who lives in order to live, and who enjoys himself..."
Son Nikolai Petrovich is a completely different person – he is a reflective and artistic person. He “was one of the first to set foot on the road of personal self-awareness, personal choice, personal action.” He does not strive for a government career; he reads a lot, plays music and is involved in theater. Quite early, “he began to have a tendency to that sad state and languorous for the soul..., so known to doctors as hypocondrical restlessness,” the family doctor writes about him. The desire for solitude, “peace and tranquility,” which intensified over the years, was complemented by an appeal to God, so natural for many in their declining years. Nikolai Petrovich himself wrote about this to his son: “I changed the feasts into peaceful conversations with my loved ones and sincere ones; theatrical spectacles were replaced by the spectacle of nature, the works of God and the deeds of men.”
Having excluded the sphere of “higher” service from his life, Nikolai Petrovich plunged into the life of a “private person,” paying considerable attention to domestic problems. In the solitude he consciously chose, he, “having a penchant for a homely life,” loved to “indulge in household needs and attend to the happiness of his many peasants.”
It should be noted that by the end of the 18th century, a considerable number of nobles already considered their civic duty to the Fatherland not military or public service, as was the case until recently, but considered it equivalent to service “not with a weapon, but with a pen in hand” - for example , in educating society through publishing activities (A.T. Bolotov, N.I. Novikov, N.M. Karamzin, etc.). This position was clearly formulated by A. T. Bolotov, refusing to participate in the elections in local government, explaining this by a reluctance to “interfere in their affairs” and striving to “better remain a perfect guest and a free person.”
Turning to oneself, to one’s newly acquired inner world, to private, home life inevitably led to an increase in the significance of the environment in which this self-realized person resides. Living rooms acquire, if not equivalent, then at least comparable significance to ceremonial interiors and emphasize individuality (already different from the lordly tyranny of the bygone century). If “for educators and romantics the everyday interpretation of the environment surrounding a person was excluded,” then in Biedermeier the residential environment goes beyond interior rooms to the front doors, in which from now on more and more time is spent both with and without guests. Already at the beginning of the 19th century, a custom that was so recently widespread and widespread was perceived as anachronistic, when the owners “in stone houses The large rooms were kept completely clean, and for this reason they never went into them, they huddled in two or three closets, slept on chests...”
The residential interior becomes an expression of the owner’s individuality - “the interior of my room, apartment, salon is a continuation of “my” inner world, “my” inner world alienated to the outside.” Only a select few are allowed into it. Therefore, to be honored with an invitation to the inner chambers was considered a special favor. It is no coincidence that F.F. Wigel, who sometimes visited the St. Petersburg house of P.G. at the very end of the 18th century. Demidov (grandson of the “famous blacksmith” Peter I Akinfiy), noted: “Several narrow long rooms of this house were designated for receiving guests; a much larger number of inner ones, like the heart of G. Demidov, were revealed only to his sincere friends.”
In the period we are considering from the last quarter of the 18th to the first quarter of the 19th century, the division into front and private, on the one hand, did not lose its relevance and residential interiors were significantly different from front ones; on the other hand, during the first quarter of the 19th century, the process of “conquest” began ( according to the terminology of E.V. Nikolaev) the ceremonial interior is residential. This process proceeded slowly, overcoming the aesthetic attitudes of the Empire style, focused on the “high” ancient art, which penetrated deeply into life. At this time, “everyday life was still entirely a subject of art.”
Characterizing the artistic situation at the turn of the century, B.C. Turchin notes: “In art there was a craving for the all-embracingness of being. This determined the high content of the images and the breadth of vision. The great must be commensurate with the individual, but then each individual was perceived as extraordinary, which is why little attention was paid to the details of everyday life, the petty, the insignificant. If particularity was attractive, it was only to the extent that it revealed something more significant than it actually was.” But time passed, and the “half-empty, with everyday life removed from view” rooms were filled with things, crowded out and forced, and in the second half of the 19th century they turned into cozy and extremely overloaded with various objects, evidence of a person’s attention to himself.
Under Catherine II, the concept of comfort was just coming into life and was still perceived as something very Western, non-Russian. But interest in everyday conveniences grew and the changes that took place within the memory of one person were striking. Thus, Wigel, recalling the times of about thirty years ago, noted that “we did not know as much of the comfort of the road or of home as today’s young people.” For example, the level of “road” comfort is evidenced by the memories of Catherine II during the numerous moves of the imperial court under Elizabeth Petrovna. One of the trips to Revel “was characterized by boredom and inconvenience. The empress herself usually stayed in post and station houses; They pitched tents for us or put us in the kitchen. I remember that once during this journey I had to get dressed at the stove in which bread was baked, and another time I went into the tent where a bed had been prepared for me and soaked up to my knees in water.” Another time, upon arrival in Moscow in the winter of 1753, Catherine and Peter were settled in a new house. “We were placed in a wooden outbuilding, just built last autumn: water flowed down the walls, and all the rooms were extremely damp.”
If in the middle of the 18th century, owners transported numerous pieces of furniture with them from one house to another, then by the end of the century the situation changed. Things are no longer perceived in themselves and do not belong to a specific person, but become part of a particular interior. Thus, Catherine II recalls that during the numerous moves of Elizabeth Petrovna’s court, different rooms could be allocated for living, that is, not those in which they lived on the last visit. For example, moving at the end of autumn to the Winter Palace for the whole winter, the Empress “took the rooms in which we lived last winter; we were given the rooms where he lived Grand Duke, being a groom. ... Empress Anna once lived in them.” If this was considered the norm under Elizabeth, then Catherine was no longer satisfied. She began to use her own money to buy furniture for her rooms in the Winter and Summer Palace “and, moving from one place to another, ... found her rooms completely tidy; Moreover, there was no fuss or breakage during transportation.”
This remark applies not only to imperial and grand ducal residences. For example, the Ostankino residential outbuilding (called the “Old Mansions” in documents) was kept in constant readiness for the arrival of the owner, for whom not only a smoking pipe was waiting on the table, sugar tongs and nail files, but even the silk dressing gown in the Bedroom was not put away inside the chest of drawers (which is why it was included in the text of the 1802 Inventory).
The arrangement of residential interiors at the end of the 18th century was characterized by a certain “stupidity”, when very little importance was attached to the ordinary (from our today’s point of view) conveniences of everyday life. E.N. Nikolaev, who studied a large number of private houses from the late 18th to the first half of the 19th century, noted “the undoubted fact that the structure of “everyday”, non-ceremonial life was weak point architecture of the 18th century." This everyday disorder was the rule rather than the exception and was characteristic not only of “regular” estates, but also of the imperial palaces of those years. For example, in Gatchina, which to a large extent embodied the tastes of Emperor Paul I, the layout, decoration and size of living rooms often caused bewilderment not only among descendants, but also among contemporaries. Countess V.N. Golovina wrote: “The crowded conditions in the castle, where ceremonies took place in the state halls, almost indecent living quarters for the first persons of the court and St. Petersburg society, dirt and an autumn sky overcast with clouds...”. The “obscenity” of the living quarters was described by one English memoirist, who wrote in 1827 about Paul’s private rooms, kept virtually untouched by Maria Fedorovna: the rooms are small and cannot boast of decoration in a majestic spirit.”
This “stupidity” gradually disappeared from life. If in the first half of the century living rooms formed a suite and in large houses were located on the third and first floors, then in classicism some of them began to be arranged on the front floor (in poor houses this was practiced before). Thus, the number of rooms in the residential area has increased, becoming geographically closer to the front rooms. The most important innovation of classicism was the appearance of a corridor, which was located parallel to the enfilade axis and additional doors were made in the bliss, as a result of which, by blocking the enfilade ones, it was possible to isolate one or several rooms. The enfilade layout began to be gradually replaced by the more convenient corridor-apartment layout. Mezzans began to be built above the living rooms, which were not as high as the front rooms - all this provided more comfortable living conditions.
In this way, new houses were built (or old ones were rebuilt). But for the most part, especially in the provinces, they continued to live in the old fashioned way for a long time. For example, this is how M.E. describes his hero’s provincial childhood in the 1820s. Saltykov-Shchedrin: “Although there were enough rooms in our house, large, bright and with plenty of air, these were front rooms; the children were constantly crowded together: during the day - in a small classroom, and at night - in a common nursery, also small, with low ceiling and in winter time in addition, heated hot. ... In the summer we were still somewhat revived under the influence fresh air, but in winter we were positively sealed within four walls. Not a single stream of fresh air reached us, because there were no windows in the house, and the room atmosphere was refreshed only by firing the stoves.” “I cannot boast about the external environment of my childhood, in terms of hygiene, neatness and nutrition.” In the children’s room “there were four or five children’s beds, and the nannies slept on the floor, on felts. Needless to say, there was no shortage of bedbugs, cockroaches or fleas.
These insects were like house friends. When the bugs were too annoying, the beds were taken out and scalded with boiling water, and the cockroaches were frozen in winter.”
But in general, but throughout the first third of the 19th century, the emphasis shifted from palace to private construction, to ordinary noble houses and “... the main place where culture settles and where the entire history of art is projected, assimilated and appropriated, turned into the property of the “I”, becomes a house, an interior.” Spacious living rooms are settled in and the residential interior “opens up” to the front door.
The evolution of the bedroom illustrates this process. In the 18th century, it was customary for rich houses to have two bedrooms – the front room and the “everyday” one. The first served for representation, the second was used for its intended purpose (of course, in ordinary houses these functions were combined). But by the end of the century, more and more often, the alcove of the front bedroom was separated by curtains or screens from the rest of the space facing the windows, which turned into a living room. “Such a successful solution led to the fact that even very rich people began to combine state and daily bedrooms in their palaces, which made it possible to use luxurious state interiors in everyday life without disturbing their splendor.” In accordance with the idea of combining a bedroom and a living room, a design for a niche was made in the 1790s for the Bedroom of the Ostankino residential mansion. The alcove, flanked by columns, was separated from the rest of the space by a curtain, in front of which, on the “guest” side, a canapé was placed, consisting of two halves and pulled apart to clear the passage to the bed for sleeping.
It is interesting to trace the direction in which old living rooms, for example father's, were rebuilt by children. Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev, who inherited the furnished and decorated Ostankino residential building, began to engage in its partial reconstruction in the 1790s (which took place simultaneously with the construction of a large palace located in the immediate vicinity). The work was carried out in three directions - the number of rooms was increased, the area of some of them was increased by combining existing ones, and the old enfilade layout was removed, where possible, by moving doorways and creating additional access to the park. At first, Nikolai Petrovich was apparently not satisfied with the size, but only with the number of rooms at his disposal, since on the plans of the outbuilding, which was initially supposed to be attached to the Old Mansions, the purpose and size of the new rooms differed little from those already available, and some were even smaller . The main inconvenience was not so much the size as the enfilade arrangement, which was widely practiced in the 18th century. If in the front half of the enfilade they were criticized mainly because of the drafts running through them (“So that the wind in November would call like on a ferry, and the master would not know where to go in the house,” then in the residential area they caused a lot of other inconveniences. From drafts It was possible to somehow escape with the help of screens, dividing the space of the room into “offices” and creating cozy corners by the fireplace or at the table, but to protect your peace from the constant movement of household members. adjoining rooms it wasn't that easy. For example, the Ostankino Old Mansion’s Office could only be accessed through the Bedroom, and it was no coincidence that Nikolai Petrovich was concerned about their separation. As a result of the restructuring, the Study was connected to a room that had its own exit, which made it possible to receive visitors without having to lead them through the Bedroom.
In the middle of the 18th century, it was completely natural to accommodate the bride of Grand Duke Peter and her mother, who had recently arrived in Russia, in such a way that they were forced “to go to mass or to the empress to go through the rooms of the Grand Duke, which were next to mine.” This does not cause dissatisfaction in Catherine, but on the contrary, it even has positive aspects “this way we saw him often.”
Another incident that happened to her in Moscow, where she and Peter arrived at the beginning of the winter of 1753, made her indignant. They were placed in a newly built outbuilding. Let us note right away that this did not happen somewhere in the wilderness, but in the second capital, and the house was specially rebuilt for their arrival. So the incident was completely in the spirit of the times - by the end of the century this could hardly have happened. So, in the dressing room connected to the Bedroom of the ill Catherine, 17 servants (“girls”, chamber-frau and their maids) were settled, and from this room “there was no other exit than through my bedroom, and women passed by me for every need, which was not at all convenient for them or for me. ... In addition, they dined in one of my front rooms.” Only ten days later the Empress visited them and, having learned about such torment, she could not think of anything better than to order to cut through external wall A restroom and thus make a separate exit to the outside for 17 people. Moreover, they had to “walk outside” to dine and to the latrines located under their windows - and all this in winter! In addition, such crowding had another unpleasant side, Ekaterina recalled: “So many insects of all kinds came to me from there that I used to be unable to sleep from them.”
The situation was aggravated by the fact that in city houses the “common people” lived according to village customs and therefore, as a rule, numerous servants slept not only in specially designated places (on mezzanines, benches in the kitchen and corridors), but also side by side on the floor in different rooms(servant's room, girl's room, etc.), “next door to the rooms where the owners slept, so as to be at their fingertips at night.”
It was not only foreigners who expressed dissatisfaction with this matter. F.F. Vigel, describing the houses of the Penza nobles of the late 18th century, noted: “In the hallway in front of the enfilade after the latrines,” I was greeted by a different kind of stench. A crowd of courtyard people fills it; all plucked, all torn; some lying on the counter, others sitting or standing, talking nonsense, sometimes laughing, sometimes yawning. In one corner there is a table on which are laid out either a camisole or an underwear that is being cut, sewn or mended, in the other the soles for boots are hemmed, which are sometimes smeared with tar. The smell of onions, garlic and cabbage mixes here with other fumes of this lazy and windy people.”
Sleeping not only out of bed, but also side-by-side on the floor was not considered shameful on special occasions and among the nobles. For example, this was a necessary necessity for numerous guests who came to the neighboring estate and stayed there for a long time: “Gvozdin, Buyanov, Petushkov / And Flyanov, not quite healthy, / They lay down on chairs in the dining room, / And on the floor is Monsieur Triquet, / In a sweatshirt , in an old cap."
The further from the capitals, the simpler the morals. So F.F. Wigel recalls a visit to a landowner at his estate near Kazan in 1805. After a dinner filled with libations, numerous guests were sent to bed. The governor and the most honored guest were put in separate rooms, and everyone else was taken “to a spacious upper room, kind of an empty hall, and they wished us Good night. On the floor lay mattresses, pillows and woolen blankets, taken away from actors and actresses. (Given that the arrivals of guests were repeated systematically and were not unexpected, “taking away” the bed linen was an established practice - S.D.) I bent down to look at the sheet in front of me and shuddered at its diversity. My companions, probably knowing in advance the customs of this house, calmly began to undress and cheerfully threw themselves onto their filthy beds. There was nothing to be done, I had to follow their example... if darkness and silence settled around me; the most disgusting smell of rotten cow butter, which permeated my headboard, would not have prevented me from calming down; but in the light of tallow candles (which, we note, also smell unpleasant - S.D.), the scribbling, our stupid road conversation resumed... More than once I raised not a menacing, but a pleading voice; The half-drunk people laughed at me, not as politely as rightly, calling me a sissy. One after another they began to fall asleep, but when the last two talkers fell silent, the dawn began to dawn, which freely poured into our windows without curtains. Meanwhile, flies and mosquitoes above, bedbugs and fleas below, all the prickly insects declared a cruel war on me. I didn’t close my eyes for a minute, tormented, I got up, somehow got dressed and wandered into the garden to freshen up with the morning air...” It is interesting that Wigel himself agrees that, according to his comrades, he is a sissy - after all, everyone else was sleeping peacefully, for this was completely ordinary for them.
Living rooms of those years were characterized by multifunctionality. The bedroom has already been mentioned - it is divided into an alcove used for practical purposes and a “living room”. It should be noted that the bedroom was of great importance not only in the system of front rooms, but also in living rooms. It could play the role of a living room, serve as an office (for which it was furnished with special pieces of furniture - secretaries, “offices” with numerous drawers for storing small items), a restroom (in addition to “restroom chairs”, for example, it could contain a wall-mounted washbasin). M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, describing the morning preparations, notes: “... and from his father’s bedroom the sounds of a washstand being set in motion can still be heard,” as well as a mini-dining room for especially close guests (Saltykov-Shchedrin recalled: “Mother immediately took Nastasya to his bedroom, where there was a samovar, a special one from the general and various kinds of delicacy"). The Ostankino Bedroom was simply filled with various objects - hung with prints, crowded with furniture and filled with small items. In addition to the listed activities, it was also possible to relax in it (for which canapés “for daytime relaxation” were used - they were widespread in bedroom settings, as well as an armchair and even a smoking pipe - note that in the 1790s smoking, which re-entered became fashionable under Paul I, but had not yet fully established itself in men’s offices), drink coffee (there were sugar tongs, a coffee pot and a milk jug there) and generally spend time comfortably during the day, for example, reading.
In turn, the Cabinet could be virtually anything. Let us remember: “This is the master’s office; / Here he rested, ate coffee, / listened to the clerk’s reports / And read a book in the morning...” In the Ostankino “Kontorochka” (as offices were often called when compiling inventories) there was no desk, bureau or secretary, but only a chest of drawers with a sliding board, filled with various trinkets. The presence of an inkstand on it indicates, after all, the purpose of the room. But three washbasins (including a wall-mounted one, that is, stationary) indicate additional function restroom. Very often, offices were used by the owner as a bedroom. And they were certainly not necessarily used for “scholarly” or “business” pursuits (“... not a speck of ink anywhere”). Let us recall Nozdryov’s office from Dead Souls, “in which, however, there were noticeable traces of what happens in offices, that is, books or paper,” there were all kinds of rarities: sabers, guns, daggers, even a barrel organ. Then pipes appeared - wooden, clay, meerschaum, smoked and unsmoked, covered with suede and uncovered, a pipe with an amber mouthpiece, recently won, a tobacco pouch embroidered by some countess...” Office to the described N.V. Gogol time has already become a recognized place for smoking. After dinner, the male part of the guests, led by the owner, usually retired to it - there they drank coffee, had “manly talk” and smoked.
Similarly, restrooms could be places for leisure or used as dining rooms, despite the presence of a special “dining room” in the residential complex. For example, in the Chamber-Fourier journal it is noted that on such and such a day Paul “did not leave the inner chambers (Mikhailovsky Castle - S.D.), he dined alone with the Empress below, in his dressing room; there was no evening meeting and Their Majesties dined in their dressing rooms.”
In the Ostankino house, the room called the “restroom” could also be a living room and an office. In it one could play music on the clavichord that stood there, play checkers and other board games; for “writing” classes there was a three-tiered secretary, as well as a writing instrument in a case. If desired, one could drink tea there from two “samovars” standing symmetrically on the cabinets, which also served as decoration.
All these features cannot always be explained by lack of space. The number of private habitable rooms is narrowed to the limit, their conspicuous multifunctionality, if available in the neighborhood large number spacious empty front doors, almost never used for everyday life until the beginning of the 19th century, speaks not only of not yet fully developed concepts of comfort, but also of the fact that for real life a person needs very little space - and it doesn’t matter at all whether he is a simple collegiate assessor or a privy councilor. Thus, Emperor Paul I set aside a number of living rooms for himself in the Mikhailovsky Castle, but did not use all of them. For example, his bedroom, since he placed his “camp” (i.e., collapsible) bed in the office, “which also served as his bedroom, where he spent time during the day and where he died.”
The furnishings and decoration of living rooms, as a rule, differed significantly from the front rooms. Most often they were filled out with simple, convenient and light furniture(veneered with mahogany or painted), mainly in the “English taste” - “everything English enchants us,” noted N.I. Novikov. The word “furniture” then had a broader meaning than it does today (there was even a special term “dining room furniture, that is, girandoles, vases and bronze shendans”). In contrast to the front rooms, the furnishings of living rooms in rich houses were characterized by enormous diversity.
The furnishings of living rooms are characterized by polystylistics, when outdated “furniture”, as well as favorite objects of different “ages” that cannot be parted with, coexisted perfectly with more fashionable furniture. In the 18th century, the attitude towards things was very different from the subsequent times of the factory industry, and when the furnishings in the front rooms changed, old objects were not destroyed, but could be partially included in the new one or were sent to live out their lives in residential and service rooms - they were settled in mezzanines, outbuildings and various secondary premises. This is clearly illustrated by the “Inventory of big house» Kuskovskaya estate, built in 1777-1779 on the site of the old one. If the entire mezzanine was decorated and furnished in a “new taste” (in the style of early classicism), then the mezzanines inhabited by “servants” were filled with old things from the furnishings of the previous house - “Chinese” cabinets painted in gold, which no longer found a place in the mezzanine, but there was The memory of their considerable value is still alive, with stacked tables on turned legs, “flying” tables, etc.
Such outdated “furniture” was very often sent not only to living rooms, but also much further - from the city to the village, from the main manor house to secondary estates. Therefore, the furnishings of the latter either were not updated for decades, or were “updated” by things that were no longer in demand locally. Inventory of houses in the possessions of P.B. near Kuskov. Sheremetyev - Amirev, Markov of Bronnitsky district, Meshcherinovo of Kolomna district, compiled in the 1770s, clearly paint a picture of the delay in the style of furniture decoration. These mansions were filled with old oak furniture, tables on turned legs with “slate” boards and intarsia, armchairs and sofas, nails upholstered in black leather with large round heads, mirrors with two volutes on top and other things that no longer corresponded to the fashion of the third quarter of the century. .
Naturally, the poorer the estate, the farther it is from the capitals, the simpler the situation (note that the distance was less important than wealth). For example, in the “picture book” of the poor prince T.I. Engalychev, who lived constantly since the 1790s on his estate in the Tver province, one of the sheets depicts a “Dining Room”, with furnishings characteristic of the mid-18th century (in any case, the pre-classical period) - the same bent legs, Chippendale chairs, etc., although the design dates from the end of this century.
A large number of things were carried with them during temporary moves from city to village and back. When the move was planned for an indefinite period, its scale was significant. As already noted, in 1770 P.B. Sheremetev, leaving service, moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow and settled in the suburban Kuskovo. The furnishings of the Kuskovo mansions, formed in the 1750s, did not meet his discerning metropolitan taste, so he decided to significantly update it at the expense of the St. Petersburg Fountain House and Champetre dacha. In correspondence from the 1770s, the count constantly orders to do something “like in my Fountain house.” For example, the interior of the Main Bedroom is proposed to be copied in its entirety; silk or “garus” upholstery (i.e., trellises) and various items are transported to some rooms.
Carts with mirrors, tables, girandoles, etc., were drawn to Moscow along the sleigh route, and decrees from the “Count-Sovereign” flew towards them from Moscow, demanding not to forget this and that. Porcelain was exported lighting, park sculpture, tents, tents, a cabinet of curiosities, all thermometers in the Fountain House were removed, even the “pugs” from the fireplaces and French whisks made from shavings for fanning flies were moved. The Count transports a large amount of furniture from St. Petersburg houses and orders copies of some of the items. The old Kuskovo house, while not being rebuilt yet, is being partially modernized inside, even new parquet floors, brought from the same St. Petersburg, are being laid. Of course, such a serious move is a special matter. Its scale was explained not only by considerations so that furniture would not be wasted in an empty St. Petersburg house, but also by the fact that in Moscow in those years it was not easy to get a lot of things or to make them at the proper level. Apparently, it is no coincidence that Pyotr Borisovich wrote to the St. Petersburg manager in 1770: “For Kuskov, there are so many armchairs and chairs that need to be made in St. Petersburg, because here they have been making a lot of things for a long time and they don’t know how to make them well, which, looking around, I will write about in the future.” True, having “looked around”, the count soon began to order furniture in Moscow - in the last quarter of the 18th century the Moscow furniture manufacturing is already experiencing its heyday.
The desire to arrange everything in Kuskovo as much as possible in the same way as in the capital is a characteristic feature of those years. In general, in the 18th century. It was customary to recreate the furnishings of city houses in country residences, even when there was no longer a need to directly remove the furniture.
So, we touched on a number of issues related to the topic of private everyday life and residential interior. Some aspects of the study (for example, finishing methods, color solution residential interiors, their relationship with front doors, etc.) remained outside the scope of this article. In conclusion, I would like to note that all these little things of “home life”, which seem insignificant, are of great importance, since they are one of the components that ultimately form the “historical person”, and it is in “this nameless space [of everyday life - S. D.] most often the real story unfolds.”
Notes:
A man with his family. Essays on the history of private life in Europe before the beginning of modern times. / Ed. Yu.L. Bessmertny. M., 1996. P.5
/Vigel F.F./. Memoirs of F.F. Vigel. Parts 1 and 2. M, 1864. 4.2. P.73
Right there. P.206
Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. Poshekhonskaya antiquity. Collection Op. in ten volumes. T. 10. M, 1988. P. 238
/Vigel F.F./ Decree. Op. Part 1. P.229
Andrei Timofeevich also left us with a rare image of the office for the end of the 18th century. See: Bolotov A.T. The life and adventures of Andrei Timofeevich Bolotov. In 4 volumes. T.1. Moscow, 1973. Frontispiece.
Lanceray N., Weiner P., Trubnikov A., Kaznakov S., Pinay G. Gatchina under Pavel Petrovich Tsesarevich and the Emperor. St. Petersburg, 1995. P.244
Masson S. Secret notes about Russia during the reign of Catherine II and Paul I. M., 1996; Miranda F. de. Travel around Russian Empire. M., 2001; Segur L.F. Notes on his stay in Russia during the reign of Catherine II // Russia XVIII centuries through the eyes of foreigners. L., 1989, etc.
Lotman Yu.M. Poetics of everyday behavior in Russian culture of the 18th century. // Lotman Yu.M. Selected articles in three volumes. T. 1. Articles on semiotics and typology of culture. Tallinn, 1992. P.249
For example: Blagovo D.D. Grandmother's Stories: From the Memories of Five Generations, Recorded and Collected by Her Grandson D. Blagovo. L., 1989; Golovina V.N. Memoirs. // The life story of a noble woman. M., 1996; Kamenskaya M.F. Memories. M., 1991
For example: [Vigel F.F.] Decree. op.; Zhikharev SP. Notes from a contemporary: Memoirs of an old theatergoer. In 2 volumes. T. 1 -2. L., 1989
The literature on Russian classic interior design is mainly devoted to its history. For example: Bartenev I.A., Batazhkova V.N. Russian interior of the 18th-19th centuries. M., 2000; Bartenev I.A., Batazhkova V.N. Russian interior of the 19th century. L., 1984; Borisova E. Romantic trends in Russian interiors. On the issue of Biedermeier // Issues of art history. No. 4, 1994. P. 358-386; Kuchumov A.M. Decoration of Russian residential interior XIX century: Based on materials from the exhibition at the Pavlovsk Palace Museum. L., 1977; Artistic decoration of the Russian interior of the 19th century: Essay-guide / Authors: Guseva N.Yu., Orlova K.A., Ukhanova I.N., Petrova T.A, Kudryavtseva T.V. Under general ed. I.N. Ukhanova. L., 1986. Less attention was paid to theoretical issues. For example: Lotman Yu.M. Artistic ensemble as a domestic space // Lotman Yu.M. Selected articles in three volumes. T.3. Articles on the history of Russian literature. Theory and semiotics of other arts. Mechanisms of culture. Small notes. Tallinn, 1993. pp. 316-322; Pronina I.A. Terem. Castle. Estate: Evolution of the interior ensemble in Russia at the end of the 17th - first half of the 19th century. M., 1996
With the exception of a few works. For example, Nikolaev E.V. Classic Moscow. M., 1975; Sokolova T.M., Orlova K.A. Through the eyes of contemporaries. Russian residential interior of the first third of the 19th century. L., 1982. Soloviev K.A. “In the taste of smart antiquity...”: Manor life of the Russian nobility of the first half of the 18th - second half of the 19th centuries. Based on memoirs, letters and diaries. Essays. St. Petersburg, 1998; Tydman L.V. Hut, house, palace: Residential interior of Russia from 1700 to 1840. M., 2000
Historians of the 19th – early 20th centuries were interested in everyday issues. For example: Karnovich E. Historical stories and everyday sketches. St. Petersburg, 1884; Kirchman P. History of public and private life. Part 1. M., 1867; Pylyaev M.I. Wonderful eccentrics and originals. St. Petersburg, 1898; It's him. Old Moscow: Stories from the former life of the capital city / Comp. Yu.N. Alexandrov. M., 1990; It's him. Old Petersburg: Stories from the former life of the capital. St. Petersburg, 1889. Interest in a specific person and his objective environment began to grow again around the last quarter of the 20th century. He brought to life a whole series of publications devoted to the history of everyday life: “Living History: Everyday Life of Humanity”, “Private Life”, etc. For example: A Man in the Family Circle: Essays on the History of Private Life in Europe Before the Modern Time / Ed. Yu.L. Immortal. M., 1996; Kirsanova R.M. Pink Xandreika and draded shawl: Costume - a thing and an image in Russian literature of the 19th century. M., 1989; Kirsanova R.M. Costume in Russian artistic culture of the 18th – first half of the 20th centuries. / Ed. T.G. Morozova and V.D. Sinyukova. M., 1995; Kirsanova R.M. Stage costume and theatrical audience in Russia in the 19th century. M., 1997; Knabe G.S. Life as a subject of history // DI USSR. No. 9, 1982. pp. 26-27; Lotman Yu.M. Conversations about Russian culture: Life and traditions of the Russian nobility (XVIII - early XIX centuries). St. Petersburg, 1994; Fedosyuk Yu.A. What is unclear from the classics, or the Russian encyclopedia life XIX century. M., 1998. Close interest from historians in last years They also raise questions devoted to certain aspects of life in the 18th-19th centuries (card games, social entertainment, the construction of baths, etc.). For example, Bogdanov I.A. Three centuries of the St. Petersburg bathhouse. St. Petersburg, 2000; Gordin A., Gordin M. Pushkin’s century: Panorama of metropolitan life / Series: Former Petersburg. Book 1 and 2. St. Petersburg, 1999; Parchevsky G.F. Cards and gamblers: Panorama of metropolitan life / Series: Former Petersburg. St. Petersburg, 1998. Works appear devoted to the life and everyday life of various eras or individual families, as well as specific estates. For example, Semyonova L.N. Essays on the history of everyday life and cultural life of Russia: the first half of the 18th century. L., 1982; Smilyanskaya E.B. Noble nest of the mid-18th century: Timofey Tekutyev and his “Instructions on Household Orders.” M., 1998.
Historical science I realized this turn even later - everyday life was rehabilitated for culture not so long ago, approximately from the beginning of the 1960s. The study of “the vast kingdom of the familiar, the routine, this “great absent history”” (Braudel F. Structures of everyday life: the possible and the impossible. Vol. 1. Material civilization, economics and capitalism.. XV-XVIII centuries. M, 1986. P. 18 ), was prepared by the activities of representatives of the “Annals” school (the journal “Annals of Social and Economic History”). The line between traditionally understood culture and everyday life began to blur and the study of the latter has become one of the most relevant areas in modern historical knowledge (See: A Man in the Family Circle: Essays on the History of Private Life in Europe Before the Modern Time / Edited by Yu.L. Bessmertny. M.: Russian State University for the Humanities, 1996; Knabe G.S. The first, theoretical introduction, which says almost nothing about ancient Rome, but poses in general terms the problem of the relationship between everyday life and history. Ancient Rome– history and everyday life. Essays. M., 1986. P. 7-18; Knabe G.S. Materials for lectures on the general theory of culture and the culture of ancient Rome. M., 1994).
Hereinafter: Shcheblygina I.V. Moral position of A.T. Bolotov in the system of his value orientations. (On the question of the value system of the Russian educated nobility of the second half of the 18th century) // Man of the Enlightenment. M., 1999.P.122
Turchin B.S. The era of romanticism in Russia: On the history of Russian art of the first third of the 19th century / Essays. M: Art, 1981. P.242.
Thus, already with some bewilderment, F.F. described. Vigel at the very beginning of the 19th century was such an archaic custom, still widespread in the provinces. (See: /Vigel F.F./ Op. cit. Part 2. P. 166).
Mikhailov A.V. The ideal of antiquity and the variability of culture. The turn of the 18th-19th centuries. // Life and history in antiquity. M., 1988. P.236
/Vigel F.F./. Decree. Op. Part 1. P. 158
Nikolaev E.V. Decree. Op. P.216; Researcher M. Von Behn wrote: “The stylization of life according to ancient models required that /the room/... resemble a temple as much as possible... As a result, living rooms acquire pathetic features; they follow the program, not convenience and coziness. People are ashamed of their needs and the need to send them” (Quoted from: Mikhailov A.V. Op. cit. P.243)
Turchin B.S. The main problems of Western European and Russian art of the late 18th – early 19th centuries. Abstract... for a... doctor of art history. M, 1989. P.43
Knabe G.S. Thing as a cultural phenomenon // Museum Studies. Museums of the world. (Sat. scientific works Research Institute of Culture). M., 1991.S. 123
/Vigel F.F./ Decree. Op. Part 1. P. 166
/Catherine II/ Notes of Empress Catherine II / Russia of the 18th century in publications of the Free Russian Printing House A.I. Herzen and N.P. Ogareva. Reprint. M., 1990. P.48, 133
Sipovskaya N.V. Art and life in porcelain culture. On the question of artistic views in Russia in the second half of the 18th century. Dissertation for the scientific degree of Candidate of Sciences. arts M, 1992. P. 58
“The living rooms themselves, even in that era when the interior of classicism was already crystallizing, were distinguished by some kind of stupidity, or rather, a special “everyday” logic.” (Nikolaev E.V. Op. op. S. 190, 201).
See: Baiburova R.M. Russian manor interior from the Classical era. Planning compositions // Monuments of Russian architecture and monumental art. Materials and research. M., 1980. S. 146-148; Tydman L.V. Izba. House. Castle. Residential interior of Russia from 1700 to 1840s. M., 2000. P. 20.
ON THE. No. 350. P. 154.
In the next century they hardly burdened themselves with this kind of memory. In the 1870s, during the division of property between the heirs of D.N. Sheremetev these cabinets were valued at the level of a pair of spittoons of the 19th century, and for one living room table of the same century, the same amount was offered as for about two dozen items from the 18th century, among which were stacked chests of drawers, card tables decorated with intarsia, a cabinet with “Florentine” mosaics, etc. (Inventory of 1876. RGADA. F. 1287. Op. 2. Part 1. D. 1197).
TsGIAL, f. 1088, op. 17, d.69, l.l. 155-164
Kornilova A.V. The world of album drawing. Russian landscape graphics of the late 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. L., 1990. P.65.
Bayburova R.M. Hall and living room of a manor house of Russian classicism // Monuments of Russian architecture and monumental art. M, 1983. P.111
Lotman Yu.M. Conversations about Russian culture. P. 13.
What is Russian style in the interior of an apartment and what was everyday life like in a Russian estate? Small rooms, and not at all ballrooms and state drawing rooms, opened only on occasion, mismatched furniture, paintings that have more family than artistic value, everyday porcelain.
Fragment of the dining room. Custom curtain fabric, Colefax & Fowler, tartan piping, Manuel Canovas. Painted screen, early 20th century, France. The armchairs are upholstered in fabric, Brunschwig & Fils. Vintage decorative pillows with hand painting on silk.
Even members of the imperial family in their personal lives tried to surround themselves with ordinary comfort - just look at the photographs of the personal apartments of Alexander III in the Gatchina Palace or Nicholas II in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo...
Dining room. The green marble fireplace portal was made according to the sketches of Kirill Istomin. Wool carpet, Russia, late 19th century. Antique chandelier, France, 19th century. Chinese style carved dining table and leather upholstered chairs, England, 20th century. Fabric covers, Cowtan & Tout. On the table is an antique lace tablecloth from the collection of the owners of the house. Porcelain service, France, early 20th century. On the wall is a collection of antique French, German and Russian porcelain.
It was precisely these kinds of interiors that decorator Kirill Istomin was thinking about when clients approached him with a request to create a manor interior for a house in the Russian style without pretensions to historical authenticity.
Kirill Istomin
“We started to come up with a legend on the fly,” says Kirill. - From the first days of working on the project, we, together with the owners, began to look for completely different furnishings - as they say, in reserve.
Fragment of the office. The sofa is custom-made according to the sketches of Kirill Istomin; upholstery, Clarence House. On the wall are icons of the owners of the house.
Main living room. Tapestry, France, 18th century. Vintage English armchair, upholstery, Cowtan & Tout. Desk lamp made from antique Chinese vases. Coffee table red lacquer with gold painting in chinoiserie style, vintage. The shelving unit and sofa are custom-made according to the decorator's sketches, fabric, Cowtan & Tout. Desk with a leather tabletop and drawers, England, 20th century, next to it is a vintage rattan chair. Round table with marble countertop, Russia, 19th century.
The reconstruction of the house began with this tapestry - there was simply not enough space for it in the old living room. The new extension, adjacent to the living room, is equal in area to the first floor of the house.
Hallway. Wallpaper, Stark. Carved wooden gilded chandelier, Italy, 20th century. Mirror, England, 19th century. Chest of drawers and sconces, vintage. Fabric chair covers, Lee Jofa.
Square in plan, it is divided in half into two rooms: a dining room and a new living room, on one of the walls of which there is a tapestry.
Kitchen. Fabric bandeau, Lee Jofa. Chair covers, Schumacher fabric. Chandelier, dinner table and chairs, Russia, 1900s.
“I understand what the architects thought when we ordered them to plan the rooms, taking into account the placement of existing furnishings,” Kirill smiles. “But I always treat the confrontation between decorators and architects with humor.”
Fragment of the kitchen. The countertop and splashback are made of granite.
Intentionally simple finishing- wooden floors and painted walls - compensated for by the height of the ceilings in the rooms. In an old house they are about one and a half meters lower.
Guest bathroom. Floral wallpaper, Cowtan & Tout. The base skirt is made of linen, Clarence House. Mirror above the base in painted carved wooden frame, Italy, early 20th century.
However, even this does not make the premises look like state halls - the same living rooms, as if straight out of pre-revolutionary photographs. It’s just hard to say in which country these photographs could have been taken: in the dining room, the combination of porcelain plates hung on the celadon walls and the floral patterns of the curtains are reminiscent of English estates Victorian era, while the decor of a small living room with historical wallpaper depicting flower garlands and the boiling white lace ruffles of crimson curtains echoing them are reminiscent of the Russian style in the interior, a merchant mansion somewhere on the Volga.
Fragment of the main bedroom. English vintage lacquered secretary with gilded painting in the Chinese style.
Almost kitsch, but hot tea with jam has already done its job, and you don’t want to think about anything, covered with a downy scarf and listening to the soothing purr of the cat. “Of course, this is a completely invented interior, and you are unlikely to find historical parallels here.
Small living room. Vintage French bronze sconces were purchased in St. Petersburg. The backs of antique gilded armchairs are covered with antique lace from the owners' collection. Vintage sofa with fringe in original crimson upholstery. Hand-printed wallpaper based on archival originals, made to order. Curtains, silk, Lee Jofa. Wooden shelving is made according to the decorator's sketches.
Rather, it brings back memories of what you imagined a bygone era to be like when you read the classics,” says the decorator. - There are a lot of incompatible things in the house, but such “imperfection” makes my work invisible.
Rudolf von Alt, Salon in the apartment of Count Lankorowski in Vienna (1869)
Today, photographs of impeccable interiors and countless photographs of private homes can be easily found in design magazines and on the Internet. However, when the tradition of capturing private rooms arose in the early 19th century, it was very avant-garde and unusual. Even before photography, people who could afford it would hire an artist to paint detailed watercolor sketches of the rooms in their home. Such drawings were inserted into an album and, if desired, shown to strangers.
Such paintings, which survive to this day, provide a glimpse into the decadent lifestyles of the affluent 19th century and an appreciation of the art of detailing home interior design. There are currently 47 such paintings on display at the Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Gallery at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. The exhibition was organized by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. According to curator Gail Davidson, the paintings were usually painted after the room was renovated, as a keepsake for the family.
Rudolf von Alt, Library in Count Lankorowski's apartment in Vienna (1881)
Rudolf von Alt, Japanese Salon, Villa Huegel, Vienna (1855)
Some parents made albums with similar paintings as wedding gifts for their own children, so that they would have memories of the home in which they grew up. People also often displayed albums on living room tables to impress guests. According to Davidson, Queen Victoria, who commissioned many paintings of palace interiors, wrote in her personal diaries that she and her husband loved to look at these paintings, remembering the years they lived in these houses. Aristocratic families throughout Europe eventually also adopted the practice of commissioning these "interior portraits." The exhibition features paintings of home interiors from many countries including England, France, Russia and Germany, which show the various interior design trends of the 1800s, as well as the rise of consumer culture. As people began to travel more, their homes began to be filled with furniture from abroad. Interior illustrations became very fashionable, peaking around the 1870s.
This practice was largely a reflection of the growth of the industrial classes. Many watercolors, for example, depict interiors filled with plants and organic decorations, which reflect not only an interest in the natural world, but also a growing trend for rare exotic plants. The Hotel Villa Hügel in Venice, for example, had a Japanese salon filled exclusively decorative elements who turned it into a “garden”; in the Berlin Royal Palace there was a Chinese room with panels with tropical plants and birds that also hovered over the space in the ceiling painting. Interiors of the era were also characterized by the presence of orchids and caged birds, which people kept not only to impress, but also to entertain guests. Many artists (mostly men) began their careers by drawing topographical maps for military use or painting porcelain, and then began to specialize in interior paintings due to increased demand. Some painters even made their name in this genre. The exhibition features works by Austrian brothers Rudolf and Franz von Alt; James Roberts, a British painter who traveled with Queen Victoria; and designer Charles James - all of whom were famous great styles. The approach to painting these interiors also evolved over time, gradually becoming less formal and more intimate.
Joseph Satire, Study room of Queen Alexandra Feodorovna, Russia (1835)
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a more impressionistic form of painting became popular and artists gradually began to depict more relaxed, domestic environments. Sometimes even residents were present in the paintings: the Polish Count Lankoronsky, for example, reading a book in his office in Vienna; a girl plays the piano in the room, and a dog lies next to her. Although these paintings were created to capture how people decorated their homes, what furniture and fabric they chose, what they hung on their walls, and what they collected, they sometimes resembled illustrations of everyday life, until the early 20s. In the 19th century, the camera took over this role.
James Roberts, The Queen's Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, England (1848)
Henry Robert Robertson, Interior of one of the halls of a palace in Kent (1879)
Eduard Gaertner, Chinese Room in the Royal Palace, Berlin, Germany (1850)
Eduard Petrovich Gau, Living Room of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna
Anna Alma-Tadema, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema's Study Room, Townsend, London (1884)
Charlotte Bosanquet, Library (1840)
Karl Wilhelm Streckfuss (1860)
