Bem Elizabeth: biography and photos

A good talent, which brought light and joy to adults and children, was possessed by Elizabeth Berm (1843-1914).

Childhood and youth

Bem Elizabeth was born in St. Petersburg in a family of immigrants from the ancient Tatar clan of the Endaurs who moved to the service of Russian tsars in the 15th century. From five to fourteen years she lived in the estate of her father in the Yaroslavl province. Until the end of her life Bem Elizabeth loved rural life and village children. They were a constant source of inspiration, while Elizaveta Merkurievna became an adult. And while the girl did not let go of the pencil and drew on any scrap of paper that came across her arm. Friends of her parents were advised to give her art to a girl. Parents, when her daughter was 14 years old, identified her in the School of Promoting Artists. Her teachers were outstanding people - P. Chistyakov, I. Kramskoy, A. Beidman. School Bem Elizabeth graduated in 21 years in 1864 with the Gold Medal.

Marriage

Three years later Lizochka Endaurova marries Ludwig Franzevich Böhm. He was 16 years older, but very attractive with his eccentricity. He was a violin musician, who later worked as a teacher at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. There was always music in their house, and not just a violin one. The pianoforte was also a favorite instrument. The marriage that Bem Elizabeth entered was happy. She gave birth to several children. The family lived on the Vasilievsky Island, later, when the children grew up and began to live separately, it is still about and without it the whole family together with the grandchildren-gymnasiums gathered in the hospitable house of grandmother Elizabeth Merkurievna, and once again the Stradivari violin, which once belonged Beethoven, and on which Ludwig Franzevich was now playing. He brought her with him from Vienna.

Silhouettes

In the XVII century, the hobby of cutting scissors from a folded sheet of paper of portraits-silhouettes, contour images of profiles, was born. In the XVIII century, it was simply a pandemic. People sat and in the evenings whole families cut out more or less complex pictures. It could be sailboats, running horses or a full-length portrait of a man with a hat and a cane. For this, both black and white and colored paper were used. Fascinated by this and Hans Christian Andersen. There were craftsmen in this nice occupation, who skillfully owned scissors. In the XIX century, Bem Elizabeth raised him to the level of high art. Since 1875 she began to make silhouette pictures in the technique of lithography. On the polished surface of the stone, she applied a carefully drawn drawing with the finest detail (curly hair of children, feathers of birds, lace on puppet dresses, the finest blades of grass, flower petals), then etched it with acids, and as a result, after painting and printing a small miracle happened . In such a complicated way Elizaveta Bem made silhouettes. Now they could be repeatedly printed out for a whole circulation of books. First there were postcards "Silhouettes". Two years later the album "Silhouettes from the life of children" was released. At least five albums were published later. They enjoyed insane popularity. They were published not only in Russia, but also abroad, in particular in Paris. Her fans were both Leo Tolstoy and Ilya Repin.

Illustrations

Bem Elizabeth since 1882 illustrated children's magazines "Toy" and Malyutochka. " Later - a fairy tale "Repka", the fables of I. Krylov and "Notes of a Hunter" by I. Turgenev, A. Chekhov, N. Nekrasov, N. Leskov. And everywhere success came to her. The strictest critic V. V. Stasov enthusiastically spoke about her works. Its silhouettes were reprinted all over Europe. One after another, her publications were published in Berlin, Paris, London, Vienna and even overseas. Even when the vision was weakened (1896) and the artist left the silhouette technique, still her works participated in the International exhibitions, getting medals. So, in 1906, the artist received a gold medal in Milan.

ABC

In our time it was not possible to establish exactly when the first edition of the ABC book was published. Apparently, it happened around the end of the 80s. This wonderful work and attracted the child, forcing him to peer into colorful drawings, incidentally memorizing letters. For the letter "beeches" the initial is painted in the form of a snake, which grabbed its tail. A picture of a little boyar. On each page there was an entertaining text, which was accompanied by a colorful illustration. Letters were executed in the style of those initials that made the patterned color viscous miniatureists of the 14th - 16th centuries. For example, the initial letter is a verb. She shows a little guslar, who sits in a hut on a stool and sentences. With love to a small student, she made drawings by Elizaveta Böhm. "ABC" simply attracts and does not let go of any parents who teach their baby, nor a child who carefully looks at each picture, listening to what his parents are reading to him. This "Azbuka" is reprinted in the form of gift editions and in the XXI century with fabric and leather covers with bronze clasps. And in the middle of the XX century some of the letters were reprinted in New York.

Postcards for the holidays

This is a special line in the work of the master. Open letters, painted by Elizabeth Bem, the artist managed to make bright and memorable. These were holiday cards that people sent for Christmas or Easter. The signatures were made by the artist herself, showing great ingenuity. The texts included elements of Easter songs, as well as citations from Russian poets and proverbial proverbs and sayings. Postcards appeared in the early 1900s. Elizaveta Bem initially collaborated with the publishing house of the St. Eugenia, later - in St. Petersburg with the company Richard and IS. Lapin in Paris. Open letters were published in large editions according to the standards of that time - three hundred copies. It would seem that there are charming children and bear colored eggs and a willow. But the boy and the girl are so sweet that this discreet drawing of color speaks much to the heart.

Postcards for every day

They also liked the buyers, because they were depicted scenes from Russian life, full of poetry, sincerity and cordiality. To them, the artist made signatures. And the main characters of her postcards were village children, whom Elizaveta Merkurievna saw every summer when she came to the estate near Yaroslavl. Those who, for example, quarreled, were intended an open letter, which called not to be angry and not to be a beech, but to make peace. Here the children are dressed in historical costumes, which she collected. The artist had a large collection of decorative and applied art. Therefore, it is impossible to reproach her for being unreliable. Even such a "trifle" as a postcard, became a work of art, which is based on truth. So sweet is the postcard with the inscription "the heart of the answer is waiting." These postcards followed the traditions of national culture and included folklore elements.

Making dishes

Accidentally with glass and its processing, having gone to my brother Alexander to a factory for the manufacture of crystal, and this is a complex technology, Elizaveta Mercuryevna was carried away, and, as always, success came to her. Firstly, looking at old traditional brothas, cups, cups, ladles, she began to make shapes. Then she went to the painting. And this was work related to poisonous fluoride fumes. When etching glass, the artist put on a mask. And immediately in the same year that she began to deal with the decor of the glass, at an exhibition in Chicago she received a Gold Medal.

In 1896, the twentieth anniversary of Elizaveta Merkurievna's creative activity took place. All the creative intelligentsia responded to him. Greetings came from Leo Tolstoy, I. Aivazovsky, I. Repin, V. Stasov, A. Somov, I. Zabelin, A. Maikov.

In 1904, Elizaveta Merkurievna became a widow, but still could not imagine a life without creativity. And in 1914, on the eve of World War II, she passed away. During the Soviet era, her work was not in demand, they were trying to forget. The true art that Elizabeth Bem created did not die. Her biography developed happily. Her works are alive and pleasing to her admirers even now, when a hundred years later she passed away.