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КАТАЛОГ «ХЛЕБНИКОВСКОЙ КОЛЛЕКЦИИ» ДОМА-МУЗЕЯ ВЕЛИМИРА ХЛЕБНИКОВА
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scarf”, “Mushrooms”, “The Tsarevna” and many
others.
In “Portrait of Father” (1904–1905), Vera cap-
tured Vladimir Alekseyevich during his traveling
on the Volga in his uniform: all his life he had
held government employment and served until
getting the rank of a state councilor. There is the
following record made by P. Miturich on the re-
verse side, saying: “During this steamboat trave-
ling on the Volga, some barge ran into the steam-
boat and crashed the room occupied by the
Khlebnikovs”.
Only one of the works performed by Vera ab-
road (1910–1913) is presented: “The Carnival in
Florence” (1912–1913): a shoulder-length portrait
of a young lady wearing some outlandish hat. Vera
captured the carnival motives traditional for the
Italian theme.
In a letter to her mother in Astrakhan of 23–24
November 1914 she wrote: “Now we have the Car-
nival days. Bright masks twinkle here and there.
The colored confetti rains down upon people’s
faces all time. In all that noise and brightness, the
ancient palazzos seem to be even more austere and
gorgeous and their heavy barred windows get
more mysterious. There is no beauty, no sophisti-
cation, no richness, but there is a plenty of artifi-
ciality, movement, transparency, mood… And this
really redeems”.
In the Astrakhan period (1916–1924) drawings
(“A Young Girl with a Swan”, “A Kalmyk Costume”,
“A Kalmyk Ornament”) – the echoes of Kalmykia,
in which Vera Khlebnikova was born and which
was missed by her far away from the motherland:
“Well, I have a noble Kalmyk soul, – she reported
her mother from Paris. – And what does a soul
containing the boundless Kalmyk plains need,
apart from the flashy sky, aroma winds, a hidden
secret of the ancient churches, a simple word of
greeting?”
In such drawing as “Free Trade or an Artist’s
Family Selecting a Grave for Themselves” – the
echoes of the tragedy of the Astrakhan post-revolu-
tionary reality. In 1920, Bolshevik M. Kalinin, who
arrived from Moscow, introduced the NEP (New
Economic Policy) in Astrakhan. This resulted in
a sharp social differentiation: to the fed-up NEP
people (bourgeois) on one hand, and to the star-
vation deaths – on the other hand. Within that
hard period, the Khlebnikovs sold their grand
piano and other valuables to survive. But there
also were families that failed to survive. The draw-
ing depicts a cemetery, an artist, his wife with two
babies and the dead people offering them any
grave at their own discretion. This is the result of
the so-called ‘free trade’.
Such drawing as “A Grandfather, a Grand-
mother and their Grandson” depicts Vera’s pa-
rents with their grandson May. The Khlebnikovs’
tragedy is not known to everybody: within the pe-
riod of wars and revolutions the parents lost four
children (Boris, Aleksandr, Velimir and Yekate-
rina). Their younger daughter Vera was the only
one survived. She and her son May became some
consolation for their parental old age. They called
May their “spring grandson”.
Such drawing as “A Coat on the Hanger. M. As-
kinazi Visiting the Miturich Family” (1937) is rela-
ted to the Moscow period. What motives actuated
the artist to take such a tenuous plot? Having given
home to her aged parents at the VKHUTEMAS
(Higher Art and Technical Studios) hostel, she ex-
cluded herself from creative life for full five years.
She drew in snatches: a coat on the hanger, the
clothes on a line… She was pressed for time: just
for her son-rearing and taking care of her parents.
“They are like old trees, – she said, – they need to
be poured with care and love”.
The graphic works by Petr Miturich
is repres-
ented in the Collection by a cycle of the Volga draw-
ings and sketches, the galleries of the portraits of
V. Khlebnikov and Y. Khlebnikova, his son May.
In such drawing as “Yekaterina Nikolayevna is
Listening to the Radio” (1937), there is the echo of
the time of technical progress in the Soviet Rus-
sia – the agricultural country in the past. The radio
experienced the period of its fledging period. In
a letter to her mother in Astrakhan (1926) Vera
wrote: “Now, I have arranged some break and I am
listening Italian romances on the Radio, drea-
ming…When will you have the radio, at last? A guy
named Usachev installs the radio in Astrakhan…”
The drawing depicts Yekaterina Nikolayevna, all
about listening to a self-made radio set, maybe first
time ever in her life.
“Portrait of Velimir Khlebnikov” (1955)
There was an intimate friendship between the
artist and Velimir in the last three months of the
poet’s life. Miturich supported financially the poet
in need, published his works: “The Boards of Fate;
Sheet One” (1922), “Velimir Khlebnikov’s Jour-
nal” N
o
1 (1922) and others. After Velimir’s death,
some of the poet’s manuscripts left in Miturich’s
hands to be later on included in a five-volume edit-
ion (1928–1933).
The drawing (paper, colored pencil) depicts
Khlebnikov with antlers on his head.