Exhibition "Faithfulness of Hand and Eye"

About exhibition

In 1912, numerous printed publications were issued in Russia to mark the 100th anniversary of the victory over Napoleon. Artists A. P. Apsit and N. S. Samokish actively collaborated with major publishing houses and established themselves as outstanding masters of book illustration. A. P. Apsit is the author of a cycle of illustrations for Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace for the I. D. Sytin printing house in 1912. This was the first illustrated and "scholarly" edition of the novel, with commentary compiled by Tolstoy's biographer P. I. Biryukov. The exhibition displays Apsit's illustrations for the novel's "Moscow chapters." The dramatic scenes of the French presence in devastated Moscow are recreated by the artist as closely as possible to Tolstoy's text. The series of drawings by the battle painter N. S. Samokish, which depict the chronicle of events of the Patriotic War of 1812, was recognized as an unquestionable creative success. The exhibition presents illustrations from this cycle intended for publication in the popular magazine Niva for the 1912 jubilee year. In these genre sketches of combat episodes, the author's creative imagination is combined with the historical accuracy characteristic of the battle genre. The attack on the Shevardino redoubt, the fight for Maloyaroslavets, and other scenes of military clashes became subjects for Samokish's watercolor drawings, which were issued in 1912 as separate sheets using chromolithography. In 1906, on the centenary of the formation of the Leib-Guard Finnish Regiment, a history of the famed military unit was compiled. N. S. Samokish worked on the artistic design of the multi-volume publication. On display at the exhibition are drawings of uniforms and battle scenes from the regimental history, as well as chapter vignettes for the book.