Museum Collection
Illustration for the Novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”
Six autolithographies by L.I. Shabarshina, unpublished earlier, were given to the Museum in 1987 by M.P. Sholokhova, the writer’s wife. It was a Diploma work of the artist: a cover draft for the novel «Тихий Дон» (“And Quiet Flows the Don”) and illustrations for the novel made in 1948-1949.
Lidiya Ivanovna Shabarshina was born on March, 20, 1919, in a town of Chistopol, the Tatar ASSR. Recollecting her childhood she wrote:
“Since my early years I had been fond of drawing… My room from ceiling to floor was pined up with my drawings…”
Still going to school the artist got fond of the art of M.A. Sholokhov and later, graduating from the Georgian Academy of Arts, she chose the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don” as the subject of her Diploma work.
The artist recollects: “When working over my Diploma, in 1948, I went to Vyoshenskaya, to the Don, to collect the material… Here I met with the author of the book. Mikhail Alexandrovich looked through my sketches, approved of them and gave me some useful recommendations on the subject.
The vice-president of the USSR Academy of Arts Fedorovskiy having learnt to know the illustrations for the novel said about them: “They are very realistic and professionally competent”.
The works of Shabarshina are very realistic, lifelike, drawn masterly. She was equally talented in working various techniques: plates, water-colours, tempera, monotype, in felt-tip-pen sketches, lithography. Her works were displayed at different exhibitions. Unfortunately, Lidiya Ivanovna has gone already, but her fascinating works have remained, they will always make the viewers feel happy.
Valentina Leonova
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