By Vestnik Kavkaza
The opening of a unique exhibition project "Dagestan through the eyes of Eugene Lancere" took place in the Sytnyi Dvor gallery in Kolomenskoye. The exhibition presents a unique collection of drawings, watercolours, and paintings created by Lancere throughout the years. A number of drawings feature ethnographic details of local life; several works are related to the life of the Cossacks in the Caucasus.
Lanceray was famous for designing illustrations for Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Hadji Murad.’ He visited the Caucasus to draw landscapes, local residents, houses, household things, and arms. As the result he achieved unique authenticity. At the same time, Lanceray didn’t use stylization, as he felt that it contradicted Tolstoy’s idea.
“In the interiors of the 17th century we have not only united history and modernity, but also two wonderful cultures - the culture of the Russian people and the wonderful, ancient culture of the people of Dagestan,” Sergey Khudyakov, director of the Moscow Museum "Kolomenskoye-Izmailovo-Lefortovo-Lyublino", says. “The exhibition is dedicated to Eugene Lanceray and his work during his stay in Dagestan, it includes more than 600 works, 600 exhibits fully showing the creative world of Eugene Lanceray, a remarkable artist, and gives an idea of the arts and crafts of Dagestan, presenting its best examples.”
Pavel Pavlinov, art historian, great-grandson of Eugene Lanceray, told Vestnik Kavkaza: “A significant part of the history of my family, including that of Eugene Lanceray, is associated with the Caucasus. This story is connected to the fact that he wanted to study Hadji Murad, wanted to study the history of the Caucasus. To get a better feel of the Caucasus, Dagestan, of course, he went on his own to Dagestan in 1912. It was more than 100 years ago. Now, when we look at these wonderful pictures, we imagine the old Dagestan. Dagestan, of course, is rapidly changing. Modern Dagestan is not the same Dagestan as in the 1910s, 20s and 30s. I myself wanted to visit Dagestan, and ten years ago I came to Dagestan. I was given a wonderful welcome at the Dagestani Museum, shown all of my great-grandfather's works, and they amounted to more than 100, almost all of them in good condition. Some required some restoration, but now we see these works at the exhibition, all of them are in good condition. Of course, Dagestan is impressive: its beautiful mountains, these wonderful traditions, its very interesting people, because Dagestan is home to many peoples. My great-grandfather studied one of them in 1925, he made a special trip at the invitation of the People's Commissar of Education in Dagestan, Taho Godi, to the area of residence of the Avars - the rivers Avar Koysu and Karakoysu.”
Speaking about his grand-grandfather’s works, Pavlinov said: “1925 means more than 50 beautiful works made in tempera, pencil, watercolour sketches of life, types of people, landscapes, drawings of buildings, mosques, some of which are no longer here, some of them did not even survive, but we see these buildings in these 1925 works. I think that Lanceray's work in relation to Dagestan is very important because he could grasp the Dagestan that existed before the Second World War. This was a Dagestan in which all people without exception wore the national dress, this was a Dagestan in which there were still no cars, because people had to walk in the mountains and ride a horse. It is now difficult, of course, to imagine how people could travel from Makhachkala passing Buynaks, Temir Khan Shura in the past, to some remote areas…
This is a beautiful region, I certainly urge everyone to visit Dagestan.”
