AN UNPUBLISHED SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS FOR J. F. COOPER’S NOVEL THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS BY ALEXANDER BENOIS AND ANNA OSTROUMOVA-LEBEDEVA

The article examines for the first time the history of the creation and artistic solution of a series of illustrations based on drawings by A. Benois (1905), engraved by A. Ostroumova-Lebedeva (1906), for the novel by J. F. Cooper The Last of the Mohicans. These illustrations are considered in comparison with the previous series of illustrations by M. E. Andriolli (1883) for this novel. To show Benois’s new approach to the text when creating illustrations, as well as their artistic innovation, is the goal of this work, which determined its objectives: to identify the pictorial sources that Benois and Ostroumova-Lebedeva turned to, and the role of each source in the artistic solution of the illustrations. It has been established that Benois turned to a reproduction engraving of Annibale Carracci’s painting Pieta, as well as to the pictorial sources and expressive means of his drawings, which made up the series The Last Walks of Louis XIV (1896–1898). They were created after the impressions from the engravings based on drawings by Adolph Menzel from the Friedrich cycle, magazine graphics of the Jugendstil and Japanese wood prints. In the sheet Departure Benois also used the fragmentation of figures characteristic of Japanese prints. It is revealed that Ostroumova-Lebedeva used the 16th century Italian technique of chiaroscuro pictorial engraving, due to which she accentuated Benois’s artistic techniques. The author concluded that the principle chosen by Benois of illustrating with large episodes covering a significant fragment of the text predetermined a change in the approach to the artistic solution of the illustrations: several general scenes instead of numerous line drawings created new requirements for their visual solution. Using new sources and techniques, artists created visual, decorative, and even monumental illustrations in just seven sheets, depicting the difficult and dangerous life of the New World.