Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin (2011)

«Have you read "Eugene Onegin"? What do you think about "Eugene Onegin"? What do you think of "Eugene Onegin"? These are the questions repeated incessantly in the circle of writers and Russian readers», - said after the publication of the second chapter of the novel writer, an enterprising publisher and, by the way, the hero of Pushkin's numerous epigrams Faddey Bulgarin. It has long time is not usually estimate of Eugene Onegin. In the words of the Bulgarin, "He wrote a poem of Pushkin. This is enough." But illustrators still delight readers of different artistic interpretations of the novel in verse. One of the first cycle of drawings to "Eugene Onegin" was created by Pavel Sokolov, whom contemporaries called "the creator of Tatiana." And in several years tremendous popularity enjoyed excellent edition of one of the leading Russian publishing houses - the Association of R. Golike and A. Vilborg, provider of the Imperial Court, with watercolors by Helen Samokish-Sudkovskaya.

"In a bookstore of Lisenkov in the house the Corps of Pages, sold new book," Eugene Onegin, Pushkin's work, 1837. Price is five rubles. " Fans of Russian literature who read 19 January 1837 ad in the St. Petersburg Gazette and hurried to buy a novel in verse, were not even aware that they became the owners of the latest edition of Pushkin's lifetime. The publisher Glazunov release this miniature (8 to 12 cm) book, too, no one could have foreseen the tragic duel in the Black River. The publishers had hoped that copies will be sold only through the year, but five thousand copies was sold out completely by mid-February. Last lifetime edition of Eugene Onegin could hardly surprise the reader: the text was published in separate chapters for several years, and the design does not go beyond the typographic tradition of Pushkin's era - the book was small and without illustrations. But Pushkin himself, working on a novel in verse "for seven years, four months and seventeen days, seriously thinking about its design. In a letter to the poet's brother even asked to find a good artist, and to attach a drawing of Pushkin's Onegin and on the Neva embankment, said that the need to put "the picture for Onegin ... in the same location. Desire Pushkin tried to run the artist Alexander Notbek, published in "Nevsky Almanac" during 1829 six drawings for the novel. But the illustrations do not like the poet, that he broke two scathing epigrams. It would take half a century that publishers have been able to realize his dream: to issue an illustrated edition of Pushkin's works.

Helena Petrovna Samokish-Sudkovskaya, a student of painter Vereshchagin. Her work was exhibited with the paintings of masters such as Ivan Shishkin and Ilya Repin. In 1896, for the drawings to "Coronation collection" got the highest award and medal on a blue ribbon. Known for his illustrations to the works of A. Pushkin and the tale Ershov "Humpbacked Horse".