N.Smirnov
SELECTED WORK
An important part of "Reflections" along with the Meissen porcelain figurines designed by Johann Kendler, extremely popular in Russia during the reign of Anna Ioanivna and Elisabeth Petrovna, plays an open on the title page book "Travel to the Island of Love which "was translated into Russian by at that time student Vassily Trediakovsky and attributed to Count Alexander Kurakin". The book reminds the spectator some curious facts from Russian history:
the young writer, poet and translator Trediakovsky dedicates his work to Count Kurakin, his patron who was sent to Paris by Peter the Great with a comission to make arrangements for a possible marriage of Peter's daughter Elisabeth to Luis VIII and who supported and saved young Trediakovsky, who lived in Paris without sufficient means, from starvation.
As to the book "Travel to the Island of Love", it became literally a manual for all Post-Peter the Great young nobility from which they learned the art of courteous behaviour and galant interaction new Western way.
On the very top the painting is crowned as a drapery by a so-called "merlin shawl" named after female landowner Merlina whose serfs used to produce highly delicate, elaborate and precious shawls. According to the chronicles the french ambassador paid 10 000 Roubles for one of the shawls which was supposed to be a gift from Napoleon to Josefine, while at the same tome the entire village with serfs costed 2000 Roubles.
The"Tsarist Hunt" painting depicts the objects of the Tsar's ceremonial horse back departure.The composition is formed by a triangle of three objects: first - at the bottom - a small-sized open book "A new Order for Falcon Hunt procedure" that was written under the guidance and control of the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, a great enthusiast of Falcon hunt which explains the existence of Sokolniki and Preobrazhenskoe villages, first Tsar's hunting areas, nowadays - spacious residential quarters of Moscow. "This activity serves well to heal the sad hearts and entertains with a playful joy". The top of the triangle - is an Icon of an early christian martyr St.Trifon on a white horse holding a falcon, unique for Russian Orthodox tradition, while the left angle is reserved for a depiction of the legendary merlin Adragan. The last two objects are connected to an ancient tale about the falconer called Trifon who built the church devoted to his Saint (exists now - St Trifon Church on Trifonovskaya street in Moscow) as a gratitude for his help in finding the lost favourite tsar's merlin Adragan. The story was included into a famouse historic Alexei Tolstoy novel "Count Serebryany".
Gothic Times/Готические времена. 2003
Renaissance/Возрождение. 2003-2004
Central for the "Gothic Times" image of Virgin Mary is the artist's stylisation of Hans Memling portraiture but an exact icon doesn't exist and the image is far from the strict canons for sacred images: baby Jesus holds a tiny rolled up script as though he invites the spectator to solve the riddles and then reflect (normally medieval paintings show rolled dow scripts with readable texts).Two symmetrical portraits ^ male and female, on the top, are portraite of Nicolas Rollen and his young wife Gygon du Salen. The story of their love adds something important to our understanding of Medeival Epoch. On the floor tiles of the chapel where the remains of Gygon are placed the motto "To the one and only"(Seulle) is engraved along with the Rollen Family Coat of Arms. This chapel is an integral part of the Charity hospital for Poor (Hospice) in the town of Beaune, not far from Dijon, France, which Rollen and Gygon built in 1443 and gave away their vineyards to provide maintenance means. The hospital was in use for 600 years and nowadays it is a Unisco site.
Nikolai Smirnov's interpretation of timeless Shakespeare's tragedy, a homage to a fleeting and eternal love.
This is one of the most refined and balanced still-lives by Nikolai Smirnov with a well thought "concept" behind it. Inspired by Khachahturian's "Masquerade Ball" and by G.Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera" the painting narrates the story of mystification, temptation and seduction in its own elegant way. The painting has brought Smirnov some sort of first commercial recognition after it has made a a great auction result of $ 13400 in May 1990 (Auction Sale "Soviet Contemporary Art. The Property of Kniga Collection" organised by the Geneva Auction House "Habsburg Feldman").
"The Flowers" represents a symmetrical composition to include a piece of framed antique embroidery from his family estate and two hand made beads purses, a miniature portrait of a noble lady and a kidney shape table with a bunch of garden flowers on it. It's amazing to see how flowers as a piece of real nature blend into the composition erasing boundaries between real and illusory world. Smirnov used to paint such smaller size trompe l'oeils between more complex paintings to refresh and harmonise his skills.
Another elaborated trompe l'oeils where the artist is still developing his mastery, halfway towards the concept of historical still-lives. He is clearly trying his skill in various textures including most challenging, like velvet , golden embroidery or beads and includes into his composition some famous art images like Archimboldo's "Winter".
An early Italian Renaissance was a subject of focal study and a personal passion of art historian Nikolai Smirnov. In his archives a massive 125 pages manuscript about Botticelli and his contemporaries was found. A part of this work was transformed into an article and published in art magazine "The Artist" in May 1968 while he was working as an art researcher at the Pushkin State Museum of
Fine Arts. At "Renaissance" painting we can see numerous "citations" from his beloved epoch of art history: "The Young Man" on the top left is an interpretation of famous work by Fillippino
Lippi, who used to work with Botticelli and was his younger partner, a female portrait is an artist's version of Pollaiolo (Boticelli's teacher). The central image of Virgin Mary with a Child and two Angels" are from Andrea del Verocchio,
also Boticelli's mentor.
Central bottom part is dominated by the fragment of Perugino's "Adoratuion of the Magi", accompanied by two symmetrical images left and right side
Carpaccio and Signorelli respectively, both symbolise chastity, fidelity, sacrifice. All the object chosen by Smirnov for his "installation" tell their unique stories about people, values,achievements and discoveries of that marvellous epoch.
The first proper historic still-life of a large scale devoted to heroic events of Russian history which has brought the artist the fame and reputation. It has also made a considerable commercial success of $36600 at an auction sale "Soviet Contemporary Art.The Property of Kniga Collection" organized by the Geneva Auction House "Habsburg Feldman"(Paris. 1990)
On his first year in Bolivia Nikolai Smirnov was mesmerised and enchanted by the local baroque culture which opened to him as a whimsical and lavish mixture of pre-columbian and catholic traditions.
This nostalgic work is full of objects that had an emotional value for Nikolai Smirnov.
As a child he was raised by his Grandma, an educated lady and an amateur singer, who he was attached to; Her personal belongings, so familiar for the artist, are carefully put together here to re-create the intimate world of her soul from her grown up grandson's perspective.
This painting gives a great example of Nikolai Smirnov's early style when he has been making his first steps in mastering the trompe l'oeil technique using the texture of real wooden board as a background. It's a homage to his beloved Saint Petersburg with a symmetrically placed etchings, watercolours, architectural drawings and an oval miniature of Peter the Great . Smirnov mystifies the spectator inviting him/her to work out which object among others is not painted but glued up. There's also a "secret" signature and confirmation note made by the artist mixed up with other objects.