Aleksandr Pushkin, “the sun of Russian poetry,” is the favorite poet of Ilya Glazunov. Glazunov’s portrait of the poet, completed in 1994, captures the viewer’s imagination with its penetrating portrayal of the poet on the eve of his ill-fated duel. In the background are the Winter Palace and the Aleksandrovskaya Column. Glazunov has chosen to portray the brilliant poet midway between the Imperial Palace and his apartment on the Moika River embankment. Snow is falling from a foreboding twilight sky. Sorrow and loneliness are reflected in Pushkin’s eyes.

A. S. Pushkin. On the Eve. 1994

Pushkin’s Youth. Tsarskoye Selo. 1982

Pimen and Grishka Otrep’ev in a cell. Illustration for A. Pushkin’s drama “Boris Godunov.” 1961

Lermontov is one of the most enigmatic figures of Russian culture. Although his life was cut short at a young age, just as Pushkin’s, he succeeded in conveying so much to the world that we can only marvel at his strange, singular talent which has yet to be fully unraveled by literary critics, both at home and abroad. Glazunov’s portrait of Lermontov conveys all of the complexity and inscrutability of the great Russian poet.

Portrait of M. Yu. Lermontov. 1964

Mtsyri in the Monastery. Illustration for Lermontov’s poem “Mtsyri.” 1965

As a young man, Glazunov numbered Aleksandr Blok among his favorite poets, after Pushkin and Lermontov. Once again we have mysterious St. Petersburg, only now it is Blok’s creation, and not Dostoyevsky’s, Pushkin’s or Gogol’s. Many critics consider Glazunov’s illustrations of Blok’s “Verses about the Beautiful Lady” to be the finest illustrations of the works of the great and tragic voice of the “Silver Age of Russian Poetry.” Glazunov was born and raised in the blocks of the so-called Petrogradskaya Storona (Petrograd Side) of the city, which is inseparably linked with the work of the symbolist poet. “As much as I love and understand Blok’s pre-revolutionary work, I am unable to understand how he could go to Smolny (headquarters of the October Revolution) with that ruffian Mayakovsky and propose to his fellow-countrymen that they ‘listen to the music of the revolution.’ Now”, says the artist, “reading through Blok’s works once again, I find theosophical influences that are foreign to me, and I simply cannot agree with the proposition that we Russians are Scythians – Asians with slanted, greedy eyes.” Nonetheless, Glazunov’s illustrations of Aleksandr Blok are just as complex, mysterious and beautiful as the famous poet’s verses which gave birth to an epoch in Russian literature.

Aleksandr Blok. 1956. Paper, black oiled chalk, pastels. 52 x 82	Lilies of the Valley. Illustration for a poem by A. Blok. 1978. Paper, black oiled chalk, pastels. 64 x 79	By a Hole in the Ice. Illustration for A. Blok’s poem “The City.” 1971. Paper, black oiled chalk. 80 x 60	Aleksandr Blok’s City. 1971. Paper, pastels. 100 x 70	The Series “Snow Mask.” Illustration for A. Blok’s verse. 1971. Paper, black oiled chalk, pastels. 90 x 60	Mysterious Lady. Illustration for A. Blok’s poem. 1985. 100 x 200
Old Woman. Illustration for A. Blok’s verse. 1971. Paper, black oiled chalk. 110 x 70	Lilacs. Illustration for A. Blok’s verse “The Motherland.” 1979. Paper, gouache. 100 x 70	Mysterious Lady (at the restaurant). Illustration for A. Blok’s verse. 1980. Paper, black oiled chalk, pastels. 100 x 70	Evening. Illustration for A. Blok’s verse “By the Fireside.” 1971. Paper, black oiled chalk, pastels. 104 x 70	At the Window. Illustration for A. Blok’s verse. 1978. Paper, black oiled chalk, pastels. 67 x 49	Poems About a Beautiful Lady. Illustration for A. Blok’s poem. 1971. Paper, black oiled chalk, pastels. 75 x 50