Stories and History

Fairy tale subjects grew out of a long oral tradition going back to the hero legends of the pre-Christian era in Kievan Russia. In the nineteenth century, when Russia experienced a resurgence of nationalism, folk tales and songs were considered the embodiment of truly Russian culture. Ethnographer Alexander Afanasiev published the best known collection of such tales around the middle of the century, but many sources were available to writers and artists even earlier. In the hope of publishing his illustrations, Djeneeff produced several watercolors showing episodes from the story of Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf, scenes rich in color, ornament, and details of costume and setting. Among the episodes Djeneeff treated were Ivan’s journey in search of the Firebird, his visit to a distant court, his betrayal and murder by his brothers, and his return home for a splendid wedding to the Princess Elena the Beautiful.

Djeneeff’s early fascination with Russian history and legend remained a source of inspiration during the years in America. Many drawings of incidents from the reigns of Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great may have been studies for an illustrated textbook on Russian history for school children commissioned in the early 1920s. Lacking the narrative elements of most of these sketches, the imaginary portrait of Yaroslav the Wise has a static, frontal composition that suggests old Russian icons and frescoes. In this watercolor, more dignified in character than Djeneeff’s fairy tale illustrations, the artist aspires to convey a more complex message. Yaroslav the Wise, as a founder of both literary tradition and architecture in Russia, embodies the integration of meaning and form in art that Djeneeff most valued.

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