Portrait of D. A. Furmanov is a painting by the Russian and Soviet artist Sergey Malyutin, created in 1922. It is part of the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery. The painting depicts a prominent participant in the Civil War and Soviet writer Dmitry Andreyevich Furmanov. The portrait is the most famous work of the artist, and one of the finest examples of Soviet portrait painting. Art historian and author of a monograph on the artist's work, I. Ilyushin, called the painting a "true triumph of portrait art", noting that a Soviet person cannot imagine the writer differently from how the artist depicted him on this canvas. According to Doctor of Art History Dmitry Sarabyanov, the artist managed to capture in the portrait the image of a new homo sovieticusAn overview of different points of view on this term contains an article by Klaus Gestva, PhD, professor at the University of Tübingen — Gestva K. Homo Sovieticus. The history of one collective concept // Vestnik obshchestvennyi obchestvennyi obrazovanie: Journal. 2018. 1-6 (№ 1-2 (126)). pp. 58-79. — an intellectual and humanist, who became the heir to all the progressive elements of pre-revolutionary Russia's cultural heritage.
Candidate of Art History Kira Sazonova considered the Portrait of D. A. Furmanov unusual in its painterly-plastic structure and the poetic means employed by the artist. On one hand, it is quite traditional (created in continuation of the realist traditions of pre-revolutionary Russia). On the other hand, the portrait was not only a product of a new era but also laid the foundation for a new art. Candidate of Art History Valentina Knyazeva believed that Malyutin's painting established the foundations for the future method of socialist realism, as it conveys both the individual essence of the subject and the typical traits of a person of his time.
Creation and history Throughout his life, Malyutin created over 300 pastel and oil portraits, yet, according to Dmitry Sarabyanov, portraiture for him was not only an opportunity to showcase his skill. His subjects were not just acquaintances or close associates but prominent figures in Russian culture. Sergey Malyutin immediately embraced the October Revolution, referring to the Bolsheviks as "bearers of truth and happiness". In 1922, he joined the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AKhRR), effectively being one of its founders, with the first meetings of the association held at the artist's apartment. In the late 1910s and 1920s, Malyutin created an entire gallery of portraits of people of the new era, including artists, writers, scientists, doctors, engineers, and later workers and soldiers of the Red Army.
In the catalog of a solo exhibition of S. V. Malyutin's works held in Moscow in 1934, the painting is listed under the title Portrait of D. A. Furmanov, with 1920 indicated as the year of creation. Doctor of Philological Sciences Alexander Berezhnoi, in his book Furmanov the Journalist, published in 1955, dated the portrait to 1921. Currently, art historians at the Tretyakov Gallery date it to 1922.
D. A. Furmanov in the early 1920s By the spring of 1921, Furmanov was working as the head of the of the 9th Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. After the restoration of Soviet power in Georgia, he was appointed to the 11th Army as editor of the newspaper Krasniy Voin. In June 1921, Furmanov moved to Moscow, where he began working first in the literary department of the Revolutionary Military Council, and later in the Higher Military Editorial Council, where he served as head of the periodical literature section (A. Kalnberzina also mentions his work at the journal Military Thought and Revolution). In August of the same year, he was demobilized. Initially, after arriving in the capital, Furmanov faced significant financial difficulties. He was forced to write a large number of articles and reviews, while, in his own words, cursing the royalty. To navigate the complex and turbulent literary scene of the time, Furmanov attended debates, theater performances, and poetry readings at the Polytechnic Museum, the All-Russian Union of Poets, the House of the Press, and cafés of the imagism artists. In October 1921, Furmanov was enrolled as a second-year student in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Moscow State University. In September 1923, he began working at State Publishing House as an editor of contemporary fiction, and in June 1924, he also took on a role as a reviewer at the Institute of Party History. In 1922, Dmitry Furmanov was 31 years old, but in the portrait, he appears younger.
Soviet critic, editor, journalist, and historian Vyacheslav Polonsky wrote about his meetings with Furmanov in the early 1920s:"He was a young, lean man of average height, slender, with a handsome face… His eyes made a strong impression on me. Large, they seemed black and wide open. His gaze did not glide but lingered for a long time… It seemed that in the dark depths of those attentive eyes burned an invisible but intense fire… Always reserved, he appeared secretive, withdrawn, as if constantly pondering something alone, not sharing his inner work with anyone. He rarely smiled, but when he did, his white, strong teeth lit up his face, making it boyish and spirited…"In January 1922, in Furmanov's diary appeared in the first entry about the idea of the novel Chapaev. Many months passed in thinking about the future of the novel. In the fall, direct work on the book began. From October to December, Furmanov worked on the novel day and night. During this time and the book was created.
Portrait's dating and circumstances According to art historian Alina Abramova, Furmanov was brought to Sergey Malyutin by the Russian Soviet peasant poet and artist, the last chairman of the Peredvizhniki Society and the first chairman of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia, P. A. Radimov. The artist's studio was then located on the eighth floor of one of several buildings at house 21 on Myasnitskaya Street. In his memoir About the Dear and Familiar, Pavel Radimov himself mentioned this episode, noting that he persuaded Furmanov to pose for an unspecified exhibition. Radimov recalled that "Furmanov posed with great embarrassment, was very shy, and blushed like a village girl". Doctor of Art History and senior researcher at the Research Institute of the Academy of Arts of the USSR Leonid Zinger wrote with surprise that he could find no mention of the artist's work on the writer's portrait in either Malyutin's manuscripts or Furmanov's diary entries. Furmanov mentioned the artist's name only once, much later— in the winter of 1923, in a diary entry about visiting the studio of engraver V. D. Falileev. Furmanov wrote that it was as uncomfortable and cold there as in Malyutin's studio. For this reason, Zinger considered the account recorded by him from Sergey Malyutin's daughter, Olga Malyutina dedicated to this event (recorded on July 30, 1968), to be extremely valuable. According to her, Malyutin painted Furmanov's portrait in winter— either at the beginning or end of 1922. Malyutin's unheated studio was very cold, so Furmanov had to drape a greatcoat over his shoulders. In Zinger's view, the beginning of the year can be ruled out, as Furmanov is depicted in the painting wearing an order. The Order of the Red Banner was awarded to him no earlier than the spring of 1922, by order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic on March 29, 1922.In August 1920, Wrangel's General Sergei Ulagai unexpectedly landed with Cossack units on the Azov coast and began moving along the Kuban River toward Krasnodar. The landing group, whose commissar was appointed Dmitry Furmanov, was to secretly advance along the Protoke and Kuban rivers to Ulagai's headquarters, defeat it and cut off the White Guards' retreat. The outstanding participants of the landing were honored with high government awards. According to Leonid Zinger, there were five posing sessions. One more —the final one— was planned. The artist intended to refine the hands of the subject and go over the portrait for the last time. Furmanov, however, was preoccupied with writing his novel, so the final session never took place. Sergey Malyutin was forced to complete the portrait from memory. Leonid Zinger suggested that it was during the work on the novel Chapaev at the end of 1922 that the writer posed for Sergey Malyutin.
Art historian Alina Abramova, citing the same memoirs of the artist's daughter, recounts this episode differently in her monograph on the artist. Malyutin reportedly expected two more sessions to finish painting the writer's hands. However, Furmanov got ill and then went on a business trip in the summer of 1922. His phone numbers changed after the trip. In the fall, he worked almost non-stop on Chapaev. The artist's work on the portrait was never resumed. Malyutin hoped to continue the sessions and, considering the portrait unfinished, did not submit it to the AKhRR exhibition in 1922. It was only presented at the AKhRR exhibition the following year. The portrait became one of the central events of that exhibition.
Abramova dated the portrait to the spring of 1922. She discovered an entry in the artist's expense book (preserving the original orthography and punctuation): "August 1922, 2nd — Wednesday. Note: 30 received from Kotov N. G. (according to him) advance payment of 150,000,000 from 'V. A. Kh. R. R.' From this amount, contributions were made: Membership 4 m. 2% to the secretariat 3 m. Total 7,000,000. This, for now? is the first payment, and to date I have completed: painted the portrait of Lazarevich, started the portrait of Furmanov. Trip to T. province. A second trip to Dmitrov Mosc. province is planned." She considered this entry proof that the painting was created before August 1922. The daily ration for Malyutin's family at that time was 13,000,000 rubles.
Another version was advocated by Candidate of Historical Sciences Dmitry Shelestov. In the summer of 1922, Moscow hosted the AKhRR exhibition Everyday Life of the Red Army, which was a great success (it was the second exhibition of the Association). It was decided to hold another exhibition on the same theme the following year to mark the 5th anniversary of the Red Army (the fourth Association exhibition was later named Red Army). Artists received commissions for paintings.On the contrary, Valentina Knyazeva, in her monograph on the activities of the AKhRR, claims that the exhibition committee, through the newspaper Izvestia, appealed to all artists of the USSR to participate in the exhibition, regardless of their membership in art associations. Sergey Malyutin was assigned the portrait of Dmitry Furmanov, who had recently received the Order of the Red Banner for personal heroism. Shelestov, like Zinger, dated the creation of the portrait to October–December of that year.