Ilya Sergeyevich Glazunov was born and
raised in Leningrad. World War II brought
the nightmare of the Leningrad blockade,
when the young artist had to endure watching
both parents die of starvation before his
eyes. It was perhaps only through Divine
Providence that he survived to fulfill his
destiny of becoming an artist. “Sometimes
it seems to me that God saved me and left
me on our terrifying, apocalyptic earth
so that I might carry out my mission as
an artist and citizen. At the time of the
blockade I was only 11 years old. Yet to
this day, over half a century later, the
terrible sense of death’s closeness and
faith in God’s miracles has remained with
me. I must live and prevail,” states Ilya
Sergeyevich.
During the evacuation, Glazunov lived in
the small village of Greblo, situated in
the boundless forested expanses surrounding
Novgorod. It was here that he earned his
first wages working alongside the local
peasant youths. The remote village made
a lasting impact on the artist and his work.
Upon his return to Leningrad, Glazunov enrolled
in the secondary art school under the auspices
of the Academy of Arts. Displaying an iron
will and great persistence, he soon became
an inspiration to his fellow students for
his diligence and devotion to his art. The
young artist and his fellow students were
regularly exposed to the masterpieces of
the great artists at the Hermitage and the
State Russian Museum. “My friends and I
were awe-struck by the paintings in the
Hermitage and the State Russian Museum.
Over the course of 12 years we studied both
from models and from the great masters.
These were years of intense effort and learning,
and advancement in the school of high realism.
At times, looking at the imperfection of
my student works, I would become desperate
and try any way I could, denying myself
in everything, to attain the secrets to
becoming a master artist. I have written
about this in my book ‘Russia Crucified.’
Even then I was stunned by many of the works
of Soviet artists that mirrored a programmed
optimism and were seemingly deaf to the
reality of our daily lives,” recalls Ilya
Sergeyevich. The names of masters such as
Velasquez, Rubens, Vandyke, Titian, Surikov,
Kustodiev, and Riabushkin still evoke reverent
awe in Ilya Glazunov. Russian artists such
as Ivanov, Repin, Vasilyev, Nesterov, Surikov,
Vasnetsov, Kustodiev and Riabushkin instilled
in him a love for his country and an awareness
of his role in Russia’s fate. This then,
was the course of the great artist’s development.
Looking at his early works, it is difficult
to believe that they were created by a mere
student. Not surprisingly, one of his student
works was awarded the “grand prix” at an
exhibition in Prague, bringing him his first
international success. This success was
followed in 1957 by a major exhibition in
Moscow held in the halls of the Central
House of Workers in the Arts. The exhibition
by the 26-year-old Leningrad artist exploded
on the scene, polarizing public opinion
and generating enormous lines with both
ardent admirers and enemies that follow
the artist to this day.
Hopefully, the majority of Glazunov’s works
from those years have not been irretrievably
lost. Those that still remain in the artist’s
possession are striking in their extraordinary
level of mastery, professionalism, and a
certain inner complexity that informs not
just the artist’s finished works, but also
sketches made during excursions along the
Volga or while visiting his favorite town
of Luga, located about 90 miles south of
St. Petersburg.
