Museum Collection
The Don Landscapes by B.V. Shcherbakov
17 works of art by a painter B.V. Shcherbakov are kept and exhibited in the Museum-Reserve of M.A. Sholokhov. Among the canvases are “A Cossack House”, “Near the White Mountain”, “Alyoshka’s Gully”, “The Time of Sunset”, “Vyoshenskaya”, “The Steppe of Birth”, “Old Poplars at the Migulyanka”, “Near Lebyazhiy Village” and others. The three pictures – “Near Leybyazhiy Village”, “Old Poplars at the Migulyanka”, “The Quiet Don” – adorn the walls of the House-Museum of M.A. Sholokhov.
Boris Valentinovich Shcherbakov (1916-1995), the Honoured Artist of the USSR, the Correspondent Member of the USSR Academy of Fine Arts from 1973. His works show a special colouring and a special charm of the Upper Don nature.
In 1973-74 Boris Valentinovich and his wife Zoya Anatoliyevna worked in Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya over a series of the Don landscapes consisting of 40 paintings. The artist was enamoured of the Don nature, what is said in the letter to Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov (completely as follows):
“Dear Mikhail Alexandrovich,
We have lived our Moscow life for two months already, but it looks as if we said good-bye to you and to Vyoshenskaya only yesterday. I think it is so because I could do nothing, think of nothing but the Don landscapes, by which I was captivated. For the first time in my life, living in the nature of Podmoskoviye for a month and a half I did not take brushes in my hands to paint a nature landscape, but I continue to work out and as far as possible to amend what was done at the Don. All the time Zoya Anatoliyevna and I kept studying your tetralogy. It was hard and joyful as this occupation became not merely reading but experiencing.
Half an age old though, the colours keep fresh, the situation remains acute and the characters are still bright.
In the art of painting we have only Surikov, who rose high in depiciting the people’s drama. In a word, we never part with you, even for a day. On arriving in Moscow, late in August, I, in no time, had to tackle the preparation for the jubilee exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts. It was opened only yesterday. For a fortnight I had to work over the exposition and the pictures. It deprived me of the pleasure of enjoying the beauty of Pigaryovka forest and other scapes, late in August, as I had dreamed before, but all this was only delayed, but not gone out. On the contrary, I’ve got new ideas more closely connected with your pictures, that is, those 36 landscapes, which I could show you now, should be considered the first part of the work.
Anatoliy Vladimirovich Sofronov tackled the job and now the publishing house “Sovetskaya Rossiya” is preparing an album of my landscapes with his article, and in the “Ogonyok”, N39, the first publication will appear. I suppose he informed you about it. Zoya Anatoliyevna and I often remember Mariya Petrovna, her eyes with a secret anxiety, and most cordially we wish you the best health and good mood.
We send you our best wishes. Give our heartiest regards to Mariya Petrovna.
With deepest respect.
Z. Shcherbakova,
B. Shcherbakov.
11.9.74
Moscow”
Valentina Leonova
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