
DL Sigalov, who was very fond of theatrical art.


“The exhibition presents works created after the eight works of Shakespeare. Among them are such famous plays as “Richard III”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Much Ado About Nothing”, “Macbeth”, “Antonio and Cleopatra” and “The Merchant of Venice” - begins a short tour of the exhibition curated by Natalia E. Ageeva, leading researcher at the Kiev Museum of Russian Art.
Shakespeare and theatrical art
The play “The Venetian Merchant” was almost never staged in the domestic art of the first half of the twentieth century. Its performance at the Bolshoi Drama Theater in 1920 is considered unique. The director and designer of this play was Alexander Benoit.St. Petersburg is called the Venice of the North, and when, after the revolution and the civil war in a ruined, hungry Petrograd, the audience saw the performance with amazing, luxurious decorations of magnificent Venice - a sharp contrast made a great impression!
Interestingly, this play was staged in Kiev for the first time in 1913 at the Solovtsov Theater. The next time the people of Kiev saw this production in the “Young Theater” only in 2010. It was called "Satisfaction".




In 1935, the production of "Richard III" was being prepared at the Bolshoi Drama Theater of Petrograd. Tyshler carefully read the text of the play and "searched" for the image of the main character. The most important thing for him was to “grope” the character of the character. As a result of his search, the artist displays the formula of the character - the murderous philosopher. Tyshler perceived Richard III not an ordinary criminal, hungry for power, but an extraordinarily capable man, but with a minus sign.
The drawing by Tyshler is not just a sketch of the costume, but really the development of the smallest character traits. I look at the drawing, you literally feel the movements of the hero, and the vibrating red tone of the sketch is consonant with the color of blood.
A.Tyshler "Richard III", 1935. Costume design for the tragedy of William Shakespeare "Richard III". Paper, watercolor, ink, gouache
Konstantin Rudakov, one of the brightest graphs of the first half of the 20th century, worked on costumes and decorations.

The artist approached the task in an unconventional way and created not only costumes, but also portraits of the characters of this play. Compositionally, they are very reminiscent of Italian, Spanish and French portraits of the XVI-XVII centuries. Presumably, this figure depicts the positive hero of the play - Antonio, brother of Leonardo, the governor of Messina.
The staging did not take place in besieged Leningrad, and these portraits lead independent lives.
K. Rudakov "Costume Design for William Shakespeare's Comedy" Much Ado About Nothing ", 1943, paper, watercolor, gouache

Shakespeare and book illustration
Mikhail Pikov is a versatile gifted artist, he was fond of astronomy, studied music, was very fond of ancient authors, oriental writers. He knew the ancient world perfectly, so it was not by chance that, turning to the works of Shakespeare, he chose the tragedy “Antonio and Cleopatra”.

The son of Victor Hugo did it in two words: they say, this is a story about a mota who fell in love with a courtesan, squandered his whole fortune and decided to marry a rich man. No sooner had the wedding ceremony ended, he returned to the courtesan to squander his fortune again. Wife could not stand it - turned to his brother, he called him to a duel, the mot died, and the courtesan also decided to commit suicide.
Bernard Shaw also did not really appreciate this play and wrote his wonderful version of “Antonio and Cleopatra”.


Fyodor Konstantinov (1910 - 1997) created his famous illustrations for Romeo and Juliet in 1943 in the Moscow region. Almost half starve, he promptly completed work on a cycle of engravings. For these works, he was presented to the State Prize, but the prize was not given to him, they said "too young."
Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare's favorite plays, attracted the artist's romantic nature. Contemporaries Konstantinov said that the artist and the main character are in many ways similar - they are both honest, open, and loving justice.
F. Konstantinov “Duel (Romeo and Tybalt)”, 1943. Illustration to the tragedy of W. Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet", paper, woodcut