Brodsky’s painting “V.I. Lenin in Smolny”. A work of art as a historical source
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2025-9-118-137
Abstract
The article attempts a biographical reconstruction of the artist’s life with reference to his painting V.I. Lenin in Smolny (1930). I.I. Brodsky (1884–1939) and his work are presented against the backdrop of the terror of the 1930s, the ideological collapse of the fine arts, and the artist’s personal success. The diaries of P.N. Filonov (1883–1941) make it possible to see I.I. Brodsky from an unusual perspective not only as the founder of an entire movement of the so-called socialist realism in the fine arts of the Soviet Union, but also as a man with his own thoughts and feelings. Brodsky managed to undergo an amazing transformation from an academic artist of the pre-revolutionary period to a pillar of Soviet art. That reflected his talent of both a person and an artist who was able to grasp the tendencies of the time and respond to them with relevant art both before and after the Russian Revolution, while remaining a recognized academic master of the world level and whose canvases can be quite rightly placed alongside the works of Diego Velazquez, Alexei Antropov, or Jacques-Louis David. Based on a hitherto unknown work (a variant of the painting Lenin in Smolny), the article reveals an unknown up to the present day, contradictory, and experimental side of his art that echoes an era full of tragedy.
Keywords
I.I. Brodsky,
V.I. Lenin,
P.N. Filonov,
a work of art as a historical source,
Leniniana,
Soviet art of the 1930s
Supporting agencies: This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, project no. FEUZ-2023-0018.
About the Author
A. V. Keller
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Andrei V. Keller, Dr. of Sci. (History)
6-6, Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047, Russia
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Review
For citations:
Keller A.V. Brodsky’s painting “V.I. Lenin in Smolny”. A work of art as a historical source. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2025;(9):118-137. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2025-9-118-137
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