A.S. Pushkin
1799-1837
-
Russia 1999. Birth bicentenary of A.S. Pushkin.
- Left: Painting by K.P. Bryllov c. 1836.
- Right: Painting by S.G. Tchirikov c. 1815.
|
Navigation (in separate window) |
Homepage Art History on Stamps |
|
|
A.S. Pushkin
|
|
Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian poet and author, who founded the literature of his language with epic and lyric poems, plays, novels, and short stories. Pushkin was also skilled in making drawings and illustrations to his own works.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Russia 1998. Drawings made by Pushkin. (The drawings are cut-out's from a sheetlet).
Pushkin was born June 6, 1799, in Moscow, into a noble family. He took particular pride in his great-grandfather Hannibal, a black general who served Peter the Great. Educated at the Imperial Lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo (later renamed Pushkin), Pushkin demonstrated an early poetic gift. In 1817 Pushkin was taken into the ministry of foreign affairs in St Petersburg; there he mingled in the social life of the capital and belonged to an underground revolutionary group. In 1820 his Ode to Liberty came to the attention of the authorities, and the young poet was exiled to the Caucasus; nonetheless, Pushkin continued to hold official posts.
|
|
He began his most famous work, Eugene Onegin, in 1823; a Byronic
love story with a realistic contemporary setting that has been
described as the first of the great Russian novels (although in
verse), it was not completed until 1831.
This work was later translated into Hebrew by the Israeli writer Abraham Schlonski (1900-1973), and for the occasion of the international Pushkin-year in 1999, the joint issue between Russia and Israel was issued. The stamp shows one of Pushkin's own illustrations to this work.
|
Transferred to Odessa in 1823, he incurred the stern disapproval of a superior by carrying on an affair with his wife. He was dismissed from government service in 1824 and banished to his mother's estate near Pskov.
|
|
Although unhappy about this isolation, this
was to prove an extremely productive time for Pushkin. There he
wrote (1824-1825) "Boris Godunov", a Russian historical
tragedy in the Shakespearean tradition, published six years later, and
based on the life of the early Russian Czar Boris Godunov. In
1826 Tsar Nicholas I, recognizing his enormous popularity, pardoned
him.
|
Pushkin continued to draw upon Russian history in two long poems, "Poltava" (1828) and "The Bronze Horseman" (1833), and in his novel of the Pugachev rebellion, "The Captain's Daughter" (1836). He also wrote short stories, the best known of which is "The Queen of Spades".
The Pope and |
The Tales of |
The Fisherman |
The Dead |
The Golden |
"The Golden Rooster" and "The Tales of Czar
Saltan"have also appeared on stamps in the Soviet series of Artworks
from Palekh, Mstira, and Fedoskino.
|
|
|
That same year Pushkin published his Ruslan and Lyudmila, a long romantic poem based on Russian folklore, which earned him a reputation as one of Russia's most promising poetic talents. The influence of Lord Byron shows itself, along with Pushkin's own love of liberty, in his next major poems, The Prisoner of the Caucasus (1822), The Fountain of Bakhchisaray (1822), and The Gypsies (1823-1824).
|
Pushkin provided a literary heritage for Russians, whose native language had until then been considered unfit for literature. He was also a versatile writer of great vigour and optimism who understood the many facets of the Russian character. His lyric poetry and his simple, vivid prose were invaluable models for the writers who followed him.
|
|
|
Navigation (in separate window) |
Homepage Art History on Stamps |
| Revised 24-jul-2006. Ann Mette Heindorff Copyright © 1999-2007. All Rights Reserved |
