Photo Album of Those Times
Karol Szymanowski (on the left) and Natalia Davydova, founder of Verbivka Embroidery Workshop, nee Hudym-Levkovych (on the right) - Rome, 1912. The story of their relationship was an example of extraordinary feelings of two artists, who shared mutual understanding, admiration and respect.
Picture of sheet music of Sonata No. 2 by Karol Szymanowski dedicated to Natalia Davydova (ІІ Sonate A Madame Nathalie Davidoff), taken from the book by Polish researcher Teresa Chylińska
Karol Szymanowski is believed to be one of the most outstanding composers of the XX century. In terms of composing significance, he goes second on Mount Olympus of Polish artists, right after Chopin.
Karol Szymanowski was a close friend of Natalia Davydova, a founder of an embroidery workshop in the village of Verbivka.
Kazimir Malevich – genius of XX century Avant-Garde, born in Ukraine. Photo: Berlin, 1927.
Kazimir Malevich. Suprematism Composition. Sketch on paper.
Pillow with embroidered suprematism composition after the sketch by Kazimir Malevich (in the center). Oliver Sailer’s photo, 1917. Under the pillow is Olaga Rosanova’s tape. Natalia Davydova’ fragment article with ornamental pattern is on the top left. applique' work and fragment of tape after Nadezhda Udaltsova’s sketch (Attribution by O.Shatskikh) The fact that Malevich had been creating sketches for embroidery is a sensation. Decorative masterpieces made after his drafts in Natalia Davydova’s Verbivka Embroidery Shop was presented at Lemercier’s Gallery (in 1915) and Mikhaylova’s Salon of Art (in 1917).
Natalia Davydova and embroidery masters in Verbivka village (1915). Photo from archive of Kamianka State Historical and Cultural Reserve.
Yevmen Pshechenko – Ukrainian master of folk painting, sketches and embroidery. In a preface to exhibition catalogue “Embroideries and Carpets after artists’ sketches” (1915), Prominent Avant-Garde artist Alexandra Exter appraised his works as a sample of contemporary folk art
Hanna Sobachko-Shostak (on the left) and Paraska Vlasenko, 1920. Distinktive folk artists from Workshop of Anastasia Semihradova (Skoptsy village). Photo from archive of National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art.
Hanna Sobachko-Shostak at work. 1922. The artist, who had her own feeling of color and plastic language, have created futuristic masterpieces permeated with folk energy.
Paraska Vlasenko at work. Kyiv, 1935. Her works intertwine old folk traditions, Avant-Garde features, and modern style. Photo from archive of National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art.
Paraska Vlasenko at work.
Masterpices by Hanna Sobachko-Shostak was presented at various exhibitions in Europe. Photos from archive of National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art.
Anastasiia Semihradova
The environment of Anastasiia Semihradova’s country estate. Anastasiia Semihradova – patron of art, folk craft producing organizer, founder of educational and showcasing workshop in Scoptsy village
In the mansion of Anastasiia Semihradova. In the centre - Anastasiia Semihradova and Yevgenia Prybylska, artistic head of educational and showcasing workshop in Scoptsy village. Photo from archive of National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art.
In the mansion of Anastasiia Semihradova. Yevgenia Semihradova, Anastasiia Semihradova, Eugenia Prybylska, etc. at work on embroidery (from left to right). Skoptsy village, 1910-1915. Photo from archive of National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art.
Eugenia Prybylska – researcher of Ukrainian embroidery, folk craft producing organizer in Ukraine. Artistic head of educational and showcasing workshop in Scoptsy village (renamed as Veselynivka, Kyiv oblast). It was she, who has revealed for the world such folk masters as Hanna Sobachko-Shostak and Paraska Vlasenko.
Nina Henke-Meller. Since 1914, she had been an artistic head of Natalia Davydova’s Embroidery Workshop in Verbivka village, a unique laboratory of Avant-Garde art. Her abstract compositions have given the patterns for embroidery folk masters from Verbivka, Skoptsy, and Zozove, who have created decorative panels, pieces of interior, and clothing.
Exhibits by Hanna Sobachko-Shostak, Yevmen Pshechenko and Vasyl Dovhoshiia demonstrated at Exhibition “Rustical Art of USSR”. Berlin, 1924. Photo from archive of National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art.
Exhibition “Contemporary Decorative Art. Embroidery and Carpets after Artists’ Sketches”. Lemercier’s Gallery, Moscow, 1915. Photo from archive of National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art.
Outhouse of Davydovs’ Country Estate in Verbivka, where the folk embroidery masters was working.
Davydovs’ Country Estate in Verbivka (currently in Kamianka district of Kyiv oblast). Beginning of XX century. Photo from archive of Kamianka State Historical and Cultural Reserve.
The story about detention of the artist Natalia Davydova by Cheka in Odesa in winter, 1920 resembles a horrible surrealistic story from absurd theatre play. Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and further terrible events have left her without anything. The picture presents the sketch by AGITPROM, 1919. The building of local Cheka, the most horrible place in those days, is behind the Statue of Katherine II (wrapped in fabric with stars).
The engraving of the end of ІХХ century shows so called Prison Castle on Lustdorf Way, Odesa. It’s here, where Natalia Davydova’s younger son has died and where she has been imprisoned for most of her confinement term after artificial indictment. On the right, the two-stories building of women department is visible, which Davydova depicted in her diary “Half-year of imprisonment in 1920-1921”.