In 1885–1886, at Ilya Repin’s drawing evenings in St. Petersburg, one could encounter a young man who had recently arrived from Kharkiv and enrolled at the Academy of Arts. And in the summer of 1885, the young artist from our beloved city even stayed at the master painter’s dacha in Siverskaya. It was during this time that the brilliant Repin painted his portrait.
In 1893, the painter Sergei Arsenyevich Vinogradov, who had lived in Kharkiv for some time, also painted a portrait of this young man.
Incidentally, Vinogradov lived in our city from 1890 to 1898 (according to other sources, 1896). However, Kharkiv did not appeal to Sergei Arsenyevich. In letters to his friends, he called it “unpleasant” and “repulsive.” To a native of the village of Bolshie Soli in the Kostroma Governorate, our city seemed “monotonous and provincial, with nothing of substance to do.” To be honest, reading these lines, I was genuinely surprised that, despite the efforts of “Kharkiv connoisseurs,” this artist did not become a “great son of Kharkiv,” and that no one is demanding that streets be named in his honor or raising funds to open a museum dedicated to him.
However, we have digressed. In 1902, we encounter the man who had previously posed for Repin and Vinogradov in a portrait created by the artist Osip Emmanuilovich Braz.
Who is this young man from Kharkiv, who has been immortalized on canvas time and again by great masters?
Konstantin Konstantinovich Pervukhin, a magnificent landscape painter, was born in our beloved city on May 21, 1863. His father, Konstantin Pavlovich Pervukhin, was a district surveyor for the land survey office. After graduating from the Kharkiv Real School, Konstantin Konstantinovich studied at M. D. Raevskaya-Ivanova’s art school from 1884 to 1885.
In 1885, Konstantin Pervukhin left our beloved city and moved to St. Petersburg with the intention of devoting himself entirely to art. Lacking both funds and connections, he took on any job he could find and carved out a path for himself on his own. The fields and forests became his primary school and studio. His acquaintance with, the advice from, and—most importantly—the support he received during that period from Ilya Repin played a major role in Pervukhin’s future life.
As early as 1886, the young painter passed the entrance exam to the Academy of Arts and was admitted as an auditor. In February 1887, Konstantin Konstantinovich exhibited his work for the first time at a traveling exhibition. His works were so beautiful that P. M. Tretyakov himself purchased the painting “Winter” for his gallery even before the official opening of the exhibition. For Pervukhin, this was not only recognition but also a success. The artist’s landscapes began to appear at Itinerant exhibitions and were always well-received by art lovers.
In 1896, the young man visited Venice and the island of Capri for the first time. The City of St. Mark captured the heart of the Kharkiv artist. He would try to return here at every opportunity, and it was this city that he would paint more often than any other landscape.
In 1902, Konstantin received an invitation to Moscow to teach at the Stroganov School in the so-called “academic drawing” classes—that is, drawing from plaster casts, classical sculptures, and live models.
In 1903, Pervukhin, having signed—along with A. M. Vasnetsov, S. V. Ivanov, A. E. Arkhipov, S. A. Vinogradov, A. S. Stepanov, and I. S. Ostroukhov, a statement announcing their withdrawal from the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions, became one of the founders and organizers of the Union of Russian Artists. Between 1912 and 1914, the painter visited Italy several times, primarily Venice, which he loved so dearly. One might say that Konstantin Konstantinovich had a passionate love affair with this city. In one of his letters, he confesses:
“If it’s a beautiful day—I can’t take my eyes off Venice; I often take a detour just to drink my fill of the colors and the life that is so picturesque…” (From a letter by K. K. Pervukhin, fall 1912). The brilliant artist left this world on January 26, 1915, having died of tuberculosis in Moscow.
Nothing in our beloved city now serves as a reminder of this great native son and wonderful painter. Yet for more than 100 years, the paintings of Venice—which Konstantin Konstantinovich loved so dearly—have simply captivated viewers with their beauty and masterful execution.
Konstantin Konstantinovich Pervukhin was by no means the only one of our fellow townspeople to immortalize the city of St. Mark in his paintings during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The well-known Kharkiv artist Nikolai Vasilyevich Doseikin (1863–1935) also painted it.
It turns out that Sergei Ivanovich Vasilkovsky (1854–1917), so beloved by many in our city, depicted not only Ukrainian huts and the nature of Slobozhanshchyna in his paintings, but also Venice. These extraordinarily beautiful paintings once again confirm the saying, “A talented person is talented in everything.”
With the arrival of summer, the season of leisure and vacations begins. Each of us will spend this wonderful time in our own way. I sincerely hope that some of you will still have the chance to enjoy the views of this amazing city on the water, which our fellow citizens have immortalized in their paintings. And perhaps some of you will even add to the gallery of “Kharkiv’s Venice” through your own artistic endeavors…
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