Country Folks

Vyaceslav Legkobit

This time of year always finds me in the mood for some 

good old fashioned folk-inspired art from Russia and Eastern Europe.

I would be very happy to live in the same village as all these lively creatures!

Russian figurine, thanks to Made with Love by Hannah (check out her blog 

fully of lovely hand-crafted, folk-inspired clothing, art and tutorials)

Yuri Vasnetsov, Russian folk song, via HannaRivka

Russian Folk Tales, author unknown, thanks to normanack 

Vladimir Golozubov, Two Roosters, thanks to Kievljanka

Yevgeny Charushin

Josef Lada, thanks to 50 Watts 

Solomea Loboda, linocut from Ukrainian folk Rhymes, thanks to polny shkaf

another lovely book from HannaRivka

 L'udovita Fullu, Varila Mysicka Kasicku, 1966 ( a lucky vintage bookstore find)

Rumen Skorchev, Bulgarian Folk Tales, 1979, 

and N. Trepenok, Sharp-toothed Mouse and Rich Sparrow, 

thanks to Book Graphics

Feodor Rojankovsky, The three bears, 1967 

Fox and Hare

I recently received a comment on my post about Yuri Vasnetsov by David from Australia, 

suggesting that I look up Yuri Norstein's films. I had already featured Hedgehog in the fog, 

a lyrical masterpiece and one of my all time favorite animations, but thanks to David 

I discovered the charming The Fox and the Hare, Norstein's 1973 debut as a film director. 

Illustrations from Yuri Vasnetsov's Ladushki, 

Progress Publishers, 1971, thanks to flamenconut on flickr

Three illustrations from Yuri Vasnetsov's Dancing Perch: Folk Songs and Ditties, 

compiled by N. Kolpakova, Progress Publishers, 1974, thanks to SamsMyth on flickr 

This animated short is based on a Russian folk tale and, as David noticed, it shares 

a very similar feel with Vasnetsov's folk art inspired illustrations. Besided being lovingly 

drawn and animated, I particularly enjoy the inclusion of classic folk motifs like borders 

and flowers, and although I don't understand Russian, the voiceover sounds wonderful!

The Russian Ark of Yuri Vasnetsov

Keeping with the theme of Russian folklore, I am very glad to share another great illustrator of the Soviet era.

 Yuri Vasnetsov was born in Vyatka in 1900. In 1921 he moved to Petrograd, where he studied at the Higher 

Art Technical Studios (Vhuteina) and later perfected his skills at the State Institute of Artisic Culture (Ginhuke)

under Kasimir Malevich. His paintings of the 1920's–early 30's combine elements of Suprematism and Primitivism.

Still life with chessboard, 1926-28

While still a student, he began to cooperate with the state publishing house Gosizdat

 headed by Vladimir Lebedev. With Charushin, Pachomov and Kurdov, he was part of the group 

of young artists who Lebedev most favored and had high expectations on. 

For this reason, he was often harshly critical of their works, and they in turn were quite afraid 

of showing him their sketches. Vasnetsov started to develop his own peculiar style, 

less stylized than his colleagues and deeply influenced by traditional Russian popular art. 

The resulting artworks are both sweet and bold, popular and refined, traditional and eccentric.

Wax-crayon illustration for Boloto (The bog) by Vitaly Bianki, 1930

The drawings in this book were the result of Vasnetsov's long research into the life of bog inhabitants.

Page from Putanica (Disorder) by Korney Chukovsky, 1934

Cover of Tri medvedja (The three Bears) by Lev Tolstoj, 1935

Illustration from The little humpbacked horse by Piotr Yershov, 1935

Page from Pjat'desjat porosjat (Fifty pigs) by Korney Chukovsky, 1936

Page from Kradenoe solnce (The stolen sun) by Korney Chukovskij, 1936

These early books brought him a reputation as one of Russia's leading artists of children's books. 

In this period he also created lithographies using the same fairy tale themes as the illustrations. 

Due to the war, in 1941 Vasnetsov was evacuated to Perm, where he worked in the puppet theater, 

then in 1943-45 he moved to Zagorsk where he became chief designer at the Institute of toys.

Cover of Russian fairy tales

In the postwar years Vasnetsov continued to be very active as a book illustrator, 

working on children's stories, fairy tales and folklore collections. Among his most famous late works 

are the illustrations for the books Ladushki and Rainbow arc. Vasnetsov was also a painter all his life, 

although he did not show publicly his works for fear of being accused of "formalism". He died in 1973, 

and in 1979 the State Russian Museum held a retrospective exhibition of his art.

Cover of Animal friendships, 1989 edition

Cover of Russian tales, 1974 edition

Two iIllustrations from Ladushki, Russian rhymes and tales for little ones, 1964,

thanks to Flamenconut's amazing flickr collection,

where you can see more artworks from this lovely book.

Cover and illustration from Rainbow arc. Russian folk songs, tales, nursery rhymes, 1969

You can check out Animalarium's other posts on Soviet children's books illustrators

Vera Ermolayeva, Vladimir Lebedev, Yevgeny Charushin and Nikolai Tyrsa.