Traugot Alexander Georgievich biography. Works by the artist Traugott G

Brothers Alexander Georgievich Traugot and Valery Georgievich Traugot are honored artists of Russia, the most famous book graphic artists of Leningrad from the 60s to the 90s. Born in Leningrad into a family of artists. The main teacher is considered to be his father, Georgy Nikolaevich Traugot (1903 - 1961). The first books were created and conceived together with his father - hence the collective pseudonym “G. A. V. Traugot."

My acquaintance with Valery Georgievich began in 2003 with a request to make four pictures for “The Princess and the Pea” for my daughter’s first birthday (later, on the basis of this series, a wonderful bibliophile book was published, published by the Moscow collector S. Serov). In 2003 - 2004, he took an active part in the exhibition activities of Valery Georgievich, presenting previously acquired works from ancient cycle(Homer, Ovid, Apuleius) and illustrations for O. Bergolz(II International Fair "Nevsky Book Forum" in the Ice Palace (2003), Exhibition for the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg in Loskh (2003), Personal exhibition in Tsarskoe Selo). I met Alexander Georgievich later in 2006 at the presentation in the Hermitage of the book “The Master and Margarita” published by the Vita Nova publishing house with their illustrations. And in the same 2006 in the library named after M.Yu. Lermontov hosted the exhibition “Classics of St. Petersburg Illustration by G.A.V. Traugot” from the collections of Vita Nova and K. Avelev. An illustrated booklet was printed for the exhibition (photo on the right). AK

Homer "Iliad" Odyssey"
Drawings by G.A.V. Traugott

Literary and artistic publication in two volumes (case).
Publishing house "Firefly", St. Petersburg, 2001. Circulation 5,000 copies.

Work on the illustrations lasted two years, preceded by a long preparatory period. In their plastic sharpness and artistic ease, these compositions are reminiscent of ancient scenes in the graphics of Picasso and Matisse.<…>in this cycle one can recognize many characteristic features of the artists’ graphic style: blurring the contours of figures, combining different phases of the hero’s movement in one drawing, the “transparency” of objects, their permeability to the eye.
The Traugotts work in black ink and watercolor, combining fine pen drawings with thick brushed lines and washes to model volumes. In some compositions, using the monotype technique, a patina effect is created that covers ancient sculptures.

ILLUSTRATIONS
1999 - 2000, GAV Traugott

artists :
year : 1999 - 2000
technique : ink, watercolor

Name :
image (paper) size:
price:

1. Homer “Odyssey”, Canto Three, title page (p. 43)
11.5 x 13 (21 x 18) cm
Sales

2. Homer “Odyssey”, Canto Six, illustration(p.112)
17 x 13 (19.7 x 14.7) cm
20,000 rub.

3. Homer “Odyssey”, Canto Four, ending (p.91)
10.5 x 10 (22 x 19) cm

drawings by G.A.V. Traugott on www.site?

provenance: * - work No. 1 is reproduced in the monograph album “Line, Color and Mystery of G.A.V. Traugott", 2011, p. 234

Homer "Iliad" Odyssey" Publishing house "Firefly", St. Petersburg, 2001, pp. 43, 91, 112
Publishing house Vita Nova, St. Petersburg, 2011, p. 234

ILLUSTRATION OPTIONS
1999 - 2000, GAV Traugott

artists : GAV Traugot

name, year:
price:

1. Homer “Iliad.” Odyssey", illustration version,1999 - 2000

Sales

2. Homer "Iliad" Odyssey", illustration version,1999 - 2000
monotype, watercolor 29.6 x 20.8 cm
15,000 rub.

illustrations by G.A.V. Traugott on www.site?

Having completed work on the two-volume work of Homer, the artists did not part with the ancient theme and turned to the classics of Roman literature. In 2002, the Kaliningrad publishing house “Amber Tale” published Ovid’s poem “The Science of Love” and Apuleius’ novel “The Golden Ass” with drawings by the Traugots.

Apuleius "The Golden Ass" Illustrations by G.A.V. Traugott

Literary and artistic publication in two volumes.
Publishing house "Yantarny Skaz", Kaliningrad, 2002. Format 70x90 1/64.

The Ovidian and Apuleian cycles were made using the same technique of pen drawing with watercolor shading, in a similar stylistic key, but there are significant differences between them, especially obvious in the choice of colors.

The submissive, long-suffering donkey evokes the constant sympathy of artists, is perceived by them as a full-fledged lyrical hero: he is touching, full of naive grace, his sad figure flickers every now and then in illustrations, headpieces and endings, placed on a pedestal, entwined with flower garlands. This image even has a specific prototype. “We found a silver donkey at the zoo, visited him, and made drawings from life. It was amazing...” the Traugotts recalled.
D.V. Fomin (Line, color and mystery by G.A.V. Traugot, 2011)

artists : G.A.V. Traugott [G.A.V. Traugot]
year : 2002
technique : watercolor

Name :
image (paper) size:
price:

1. Apuleius “The Golden Ass”, Book Ten
illustration option for page 240
22 x 17 (27 x 20) cm
SALES

2. Apuleius “The Golden Ass”, Book Ten
illustration option for page 311
19.5 x 15 (27 x 20) cm
25,000 rub.

3. Apuleius “The Golden Ass”, Book Ten
illustration option for page 291
11.7 x 8.7 (16.5 x 15) cm
50,000 rub.

graphics G.A.V. Traugott on www.site?

provenance: purchased from V.G. Traugott in 2003
Work No. 3 is reproduced in the monograph album “Line, Color and Mystery of G.A.V. Traugott", 2011, p. 251

exhibitions & publications:
Exhibition “Classics of St. Petersburg Illustration by G.A.V. Traugott", Library named after M.Yu. Lermontov, St. Petersburg, 2006
L.S. Kudryavtseva D.V. Fomin “Line, color and mystery of G.A.V. Traugott" Vita Nova Publishing House, St. Petersburg, 2011, p. 251

Publius Ovid Naso "The Science of Love"
Design and illustrations by G.A.V. Traugott

Literary and artistic publication. Case.
A small part of the edition is bound in full leather with a gold edge along the top edge.
Publishing house "Amber Tale", Kaliningrad, 2002. Format 70x901/64

price: 100 EUR

“The Science of Loving” 2002 is an elegant miniature edition of almost square format. On the top cover of the brown binding, figures of lovers entwined in embraces are imprinted in gold.<migrated from the previous cycle to Homer. AK>.
Graceful contour drawings with a pen, conveying the swiftness of the characters’ movements and the ardor of their temperaments, are highlighted by the finest tints of watercolor.<…>Illustrators are trying to comprehend the plastic nature of ancient sensuality. They recreate the atmosphere of an entire era, which, as is known, was not distinguished by modesty and chastity, and turn to a culture in all spheres of which eroticism played an exceptional role.
D.V. Fomin (Line, color and mystery by G.A.V. Traugot, 2011)

artists : GAV Traugot

name, year:
technique, paper size:
price:

1. Ovid “The Science of Loving”, illustration (p. 214), 2001
monotype, watercolor 29.6 x 20.5 cm
15,000 rub.

2. Ovid “The Science of Loving”, illustration (p. 90), 2001
monotype, watercolor 29.6 x 20.8 cm
SALES

3. Ovid “The Science of Love”, illustration (p. 207), 2001
ink, pen, watercolor 29.1 x 20.9 cm
20,000 rub.

4. Ovid “The Science of Love”, illustration (p. 179), 2001
monotype, watercolor 27.2 x 20.9 cm
15,000 rub.

artists : G.A.V. Traugott [G.A.V. Traugot]
year : 2000
technique : monotype, watercolor
paper size: 39.9 x 29.5 cm

Name :
price:

1-2. Ovid “The Science of Loving”, illustration (p. 236) + variant
70,000 rub.

3-4. Ovid “The Science of Loving”, illustration (p. 191) + variant
70,000 rub.

provenance:
illustrations purchased from V.G. Traugott in 2003
optionspurchased from M.A. Vershvovsky in 2013

G. A. V. Traugot is a common signature under which the book graphics of three artists were published: Georgy Nikolaevich Traugot and his sons Alexander and Valery.

Brothers Alexander Georgievich(b. 1931) and Valery Georgievich(1936-2009) Traugotts

Painters, book graphic artists, sculptors.

Honored Artists of Russia. Born in Leningrad into a family of artists. The main teacher is considered to be his father, Georgy Nikolaevich Traugot. Since 1956 they have been working in book graphics. The first books were created and conceived together with his father - hence the collective pseudonym "G. A. V. Traugot."

The artists designed more than 150 books: “Tales of Mother Goose”, “Fairy Tales” by Charles Perrault, “Fairy Tales and Stories” by Hans Christian Andersen, “Cuban Tales”, “Tales of Cambodia”, “Iliad” and “Odyssey” by Homer, “The Science of Loving” "Ovid, "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius, "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov and many others. Andersen's fairy tales in their design were reprinted 17 times and had a total circulation of over three million copies.
They worked in a wide variety of techniques: gouache and watercolor, pastel, etchings, sanguine, pen drawings and etchings painted with pastels.
At all-Russian competitions, A. and V. Traugott received more than 30 diplomas, 14 of them - first degree.
The works of the brothers A. and V. Traugot are in museums in Moscow (including the Tretyakov Gallery), St. Petersburg, Tver, Arkhangelsk, Petrozavodsk, Vologda, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Ryazan, Kaliningrad, as well as abroad: in the Andersen Museum in Odessa, Japan, Germany, Czech Republic, etc., in many private collections in Europe, USA, Israel.

Books with illustrations by artists

There have never been many storytellers. 86-year-old Alexander Georgievich Traugot is the last of those remaining. All his life he has been creating books for children.

Magical watercolors for fairy tales by Perrault, Andersen, Hauff, signed “G.A.V. Traugot,” became the entrance to the magical and great world of literature for many generations. The first three letters are George, Alexander and Valery Traugot - father and two sons. The most terrible dwarfs and red-eyed cannibals, the most mysterious princesses, the most magical castles - all this in Traugott’s watercolors.

The house of Alexander Traugott in St. Petersburg is a cult place (who has never been here!) and one of the most inaccessible for the curious. It seems that time stopped here a century ago. Traugott believes that the tame fly that lives with him can read books, and considers Benedict the cat his friend...

— Alexander Georgievich, your creative pseudonym also contains the name of your father...

— My dad, Georgy Nikolaevich Traugot, entered the Academy of Arts in ’21 or ’22. The American charitable organization APA gave each student a cup of cocoa and a bun, but the father was, in their opinion, too ruddy and blooming. Therefore, in order to get the same bun, he had to chop wood. My mother’s brother, Konstantin Yanov, studied with my father. One day his father came to see him and was amazed to see his younger sister: “If I had such a sister, I would give her flowers every day!” - he said. "Dari!" - said Kostya. And so it happened - they got married. Mom, although she studied at the Institute of Civil Engineers, also became an artist, although she never exhibited. If you have friends whom you love and respect and they support you, then you don’t need a huge audience to recognize you.

We lived in a communal apartment on Bolshaya Pushkarskaya with our grandparents. This house was unusual. Before the revolution, it belonged to my mother’s family, and it was built by the young architect Mitrofan Fomichev. He made sphinxes and nymphs there - this was his first home. Not everything in it was preserved: something later disappeared from the façade, and in 1917 and 1942 shells hit the house...

— You’ve been illustrating children’s fairy tales all your life. Apparently this is love from childhood? What did you read as a child?

- I have to bet. There are no children. All people are children. And even from the height of my age I can say: a person always remains a child.

And when I was a child, there were no children’s books; adults read them. My younger brother, for example, already at the age of 9 was reciting passages from Shakespeare's plays by heart. What else did you do?

Few people went to museums before the war, and everyone worked a lot. But such trips were memorable. The Hermitage and the Russian Museum differed in their entrance: a doorman opened the door for each visitor. And the doorman even said hello to my father.

— Your family was in Leningrad throughout the blockade. Only my younger brother and his kindergarten were evacuated. I know that you yourself almost died of hunger. How do you remember those days?

“During the blockade, some showed nobility, others became beasts. Maybe it's a child's sharp gaze. People often fell in line for bread. In December 1941, my father fell and his cards were stolen - he held them in his hand, because it was impossible to put this treasure in his pocket. We were left without bread. Mom took me by the hand and led me to my aunt. My aunt was a military doctor, 480th Special Engineer Battalion. We walked through the entire city, resting along the way in empty trams. The trams stopped anywhere. When we arrived, my mother told my aunt: “I want to leave Shurik with you, otherwise he will die.” That's how I stayed alive.

We pretty soon stopped paying attention to the bombings. At first, every alarm we went to the bomb shelter. Then we simply went down to the neighbors’ apartment on the first floor. Often during bombings they read aloud, for example, Chesterton's "The Man Who Was Thursday." And at that time everything was shaking, we heard bombs falling nearby. And we lived as if in two worlds: the real world and Chesterton’s world... In front of the windows of the apartment where we were holed up, there is now a wasteland. And during the war there was a wasteland. In May 1942, school began, and we were sent to dig a garden in this wasteland. It was scary because we often came across stumps of human legs and arms...

During the blockade, there was a barge opposite the Hermitage; there was a bathhouse there. It was very difficult to get a ticket there. And so my father and I in 1942, during the most difficult times, almost in the dark with kerosene lanterns, washed ourselves there.

The commander beckoned to the father. He was sitting in the bathhouse in uniform, apparently he was the boss. He beckoned and said: “Well, you are ugly.” And one day some Red Army soldier, seeing me and my mother, gave us each a piece of bread with lard. And he said to my mother: “I want you to eat this in front of me. Because you might give it to someone.” This is an unknown person whom I always remember.

And so Pechkovsky sings Herman’s aria, addressing the portrait of Stalin: “What is true is that there is only one death. Who is dearer to her among us, friends. Today you,” he points to Stalin, “and tomorrow I...” A sigh rolled through the hall.

— You studied at art school in the late 1940s. It was a dark time for art; even the third floor of the Hermitage with the Impressionists was closed. Did your family talk about this art?

— I entered school at the Academy of Arts in 1944. The building was partially destroyed by a bomb and it was very cold. Teachers and students had little knowledge of contemporary art. Van Gogh, Matisse - it was inaccessible. And my father had a library, and back in the 30s it was possible to get foreign magazines. My father prescribed Cahiers d'Art. So I once brought a reproduction of Matisse to school - a portrait of a boy in a pink shirt and green pants on a yellow background. I must say that we never had fights at school, but one boy, when he saw this reproduction, rushed at me with his fists. He was such a shock. He was outraged: this reproduction upset much of what he loved...

— In the post-war period, people were wary of companies, they only went to visit relatives - they were afraid of denunciations. Were there many informants around your family?

— The informants were easy to distinguish. We had friends from the Obraztsov Theater, they told us that one lady was serving part-time in the NKVD. But it was impossible to show that they understood this, so as not to scare them, so as not to arouse suspicion. The informants had their own rules: they always came without a prior telephone call, always on holidays.

One day we were walking in a group, talking about color, about flavor. White Night. And we see: the janitors have gathered, all in white aprons. Then a janitor was on duty at every house all night, and the gates were locked. And I say: “Like penguins, very beautiful.” Suddenly a policeman appears and we are taken to the station. The police chief asks: “What languages ​​do you speak?” It turns out that the janitors told the police that we were speaking a foreign language. Because they used words they didn’t understand—cobalt, ultramarine...

— It is known that you were familiar with “all of Leningrad.” The inevitable question about Akhmatova: were you friends?

— We had many mutual friends. We, of course, knew her poems, but there was no need to get acquainted. It's like meeting Fet.

But I knew Akhmatova’s son, Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov, for many years. In the late 1940s, my father painted panels at the Ethnographic Museum and there he met Lev Nikolaevich. He had a constant problem - they wouldn’t hire him anywhere. My psychiatrist aunt got him a job in the library of a psychiatric hospital. He is, of course, a talented man, but wounded by the fact that he is the son of great parents. Nervous, very proud. I remember meeting him at the concert of singer Nikolai Pechkovsky, this was before the 20th Congress. Pechkovsky had just returned from the camp and slipped into his old tailcoat. The hall was packed, all with former prisoners; Gumilyov was sitting in the front row. Opposite the stage hung a large portrait of Stalin against a red background. And so the concert began. Pechkovsky was most famous for his role as Herman in The Queen of Spades. And he sings Herman’s aria, addressing the portrait: “What is true is that there is only one death. Who is dearer to her among us, friends. Today you,” he points to Stalin, “and tomorrow I...” A sigh swept through the hall.

— You illustrated Perrault. They portrayed beautiful France without having been there. From old engravings?

— I didn’t want to go to France at all for a very long time. It seemed to me that that France no longer existed, that my world would be destroyed. But when I arrived, I was not disappointed. For me, Paris and St. Petersburg are connected.

I remember the words of the artist Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin. Having emigrated, he lived in France, living financially difficult. They told him that he had to go to America. To which he replied: a Russian artist should live in Paris or St. Petersburg.

— Your wife Elizabeth is French. How did you meet her?

- This is a romantic story. Is it decent to tell it?.. I was about 25 years old. I came to the Hermitage - I was sculpting something and wanted to see one sculpture. Elizabeth, come here! I’m just telling you about our acquaintance... I look - a group of French schoolgirls. And I see in profile one girl with thick cheeks. This picture seemed to freeze before my eyes. And I say to myself: “Why are you looking at her?” Many years later. After graduating from the Sorbonne, Elisabeth was sent on an exchange to teach Russian in Yaroslavl. She wanted to go to Leningrad, and her friends gave me my brother’s address. This is how I met the girl whose profile stopped me in the Hermitage at the age of 25. We got married in Paris. I then bought new shoes, and in the city hall in Montparnasse the stairs were wooden and polished. I slipped and fell down. I was afraid that this was a bad omen. It worked out...

—Have you ever wanted to write fairy tales yourself?

“When I see a piece of paper, a white porcelain plate, a canvas, it’s so natural for me to start drawing that it’s hard to force myself to write...

Interviewed by Zinaida Kurbatova

Alexander Georgievich Traugot (1931) And Valery Georgievich Traugot (1936-2009) known to several generations of readers under the pseudonym G. A. V. Traugot.

Three letters stand next to the surname, but not in order to intrigue or amuse us, not for the sake of eccentricity, the artists Alexander and Valery Traugot write another initial. This is the name of their father Georgy Nikolaevich Traugot. It was he who once introduced his sons to his craft and, together with them, no longer young, began working in a children's book. They managed to jointly illustrate “Bluebeard” by Perrault and Andersen’s fairy tale “The King’s New Clothes.” The first initial “G” became not only a tribute to the respect and memory of their father, but a desire to preserve the creativity that he discovered in them.

The Traugot family was truly St. Petersburg. My father graduated from the Academy of Arts and studied with Petrov-Vodkin, Savinov, and Rylov. Mother Vera Pavlovna Yanova was an architect.

Alexander and Valery spent their childhood in a typical communal apartment at No. 3 on Bolshaya Pushkarskaya Street, where “the population of an entire district town was located,” as their grandfather once used to say (before the revolution, the house belonged to my mother’s uncle). Not far from the house stood the Prince Vladimir Cathedral. The appearance of the five-domed cathedral with a bell tower fascinated the boys; they often ran there and walked in the church garden. Their baptism ceremony took place there.

“Everything happened very early in their childhood: they started talking early, they fell in love with reading early, and especially early, naturally, they began to draw and sculpt.

Drawings of two-year-old Alexander and two-year-old Valery have been preserved. They constantly went to the zoo, which, fortunately, was very close. At home they cleverly sculpted animals. And sometimes little Valery would draw something, and his brother, having been naughty in the long corridor with the boy neighbors, would run in and quickly correct something in his drawing. Valery shouts to his father, who asks: “Well, has it gotten better?” - “Yes” - “Then what are you dissatisfied with?” Georgy Nikolaevich encouraged his sons to work together.

Alexander loved his communal apartment - few people will hear such words from today. “Life, this best director, has brought together the most dissimilar families in one ark,” he would write later, remembering the blockade. “I’m from there, from a communal apartment, and I think I wouldn’t exist without it, that is, I would be, but if I were different, I would be poorer." The communal apartment, in his opinion, taught him to see and understand people, developed his vision, “just as a musician’s hearing develops with constant communication with music.” He remembers with pleasure the neighboring boys, friendship, quarrels, games. “We rushed along the endless corridor on scooters, played tag, hide and seek in the dark corners of the apartment.” He was attracted, as he says, by freedom, independence from adults in boyish relationships, which were not

happens neither in kindergarten nor in pioneer camp. The feeling of home made the brothers happy.” (1)

And in their room they were artists. Reproductions of favorite paintings hung on the walls: “Prisoners’ Walk” by Van Gogh, “Girl on a Ball” by Picasso, “The Conquest of Siberia by Ermak” by Surikov.

But the war began. Alexander was ten years old, Valery five. The eldest and his relatives remained in Leningrad, the youngest was evacuated. Georgy Nikolaevich was sent to the front as a military artist. Like all children of the siege, Alexander survived everything. I heard the ringing whistle of bombs overhead, the house rocked from their explosions like a boat, there was no electricity, heat or water. The boy ate porridge made from wallpaper glue and buried the frozen corpses of his neighbors.

“Did I feel afraid? – Alexander repeated my question. – One of Tolstoy’s heroes said that he would never die, because he was close to death and knows what it is. So I felt that I would not suffer, that I would live long, and there was no fear.”(1)

In February 1942, my grandparents died. The apartment was completely empty. By spring, there were only two left: ten-year-old Alexander and Vera Pavlovna.

He painted the entire blockade. His drawings, not at all childish, are priceless evidence of the life of a besieged city. Alexander did not draw from life, from memory, with a pen or brush. With a few brittle lines, a few anxiously floating spots of black watercolor, the boy captured hunger, death, destruction, death. These drawings by Alexander Traugot, years later, will be included in the book “Once Upon a Time,” by I. Mixon, about the fate of the girl Tanya Savicheva and her famous siege diary.

In July 1941, Valery went into evacuation. He found himself thousands of kilometers from his home, in a Siberian village under the incomprehensible name of Emurtla, which in Tatar means “one hundred eggs.”

Together with other children of artists, Valery was accommodated in a two-story house made of Siberian pine - six children per room. The artists' wives became their teachers for four years. Gradually they started their own household - how else to feed more than a hundred little Leningraders? We learned to plant vegetables, care for livestock, and built a barnyard. There was also a stable with horses.

But his most important impressions are still about books, modeling and drawing. The library at the school where he began studying at the age of seven was extremely good - from Plutarch and Shakespeare to Russian classics. Her

was brought together by the director of the school with the literary surname Lear, who came from St. Petersburg to Emurtla back in 1911 with a university badge on his frock coat to teach the minds of Siberian children. Thirty years later he had the chance to educate Leningrad schoolchildren. In the early dark evenings, by the light of the smokehouse - there was no trace of electricity - he read Shakespeare, Dickens, Pushkin, Tolstoy aloud to the children. Valery himself has already read a lot. For example, by the age of nine he knew Shakespeare's chronicles by heart, and then, already in Leningrad, he even acted them out with a school friend, making his own costumes and weapons.

Georgy Nikolaevich, as soon as the opportunity arose, began sending his son drawing paper in large envelopes along with letters from the front. And here’s another joy: a clay kiln. It was equipped by the sculptor Gavrila Aleksandrovich Schultz, who got out to them from besieged Leningrad along the saving icy Ladoga road. He willingly took the talented boy as his student, and Valery himself began to burn the figures he sculpted, mainly all kinds of living creatures and birds, which he loved to watch, draw and sculpt. Four years passed so intensely for him.

For a long time in Emurtla they did not know about the blockade of their hometown, and they did not immediately learn about the victory itself - they had neither newspapers nor radio. They were not allowed into Leningrad immediately after the end of the war - passports were issued only to native Leningraders, and even then not to everyone. Finally, they obtained permission to enter, and on August 14, 1945, Valery Traugot found himself at home.

The native house, although heavily damaged by a shell, was still beautiful - with its St. Petersburg ocher color, white stucco above the preserved favorite balconies. But they entered another entrance, from the yard. Now the Traugotts lived in a separate three-room apartment; the previous communal apartment, with fifteen rooms, was given over to a boarding school for orphans. My mother met me at the door. In the largest room there were familiar easels. As always, my father’s paintings were leaning against the walls, and Alexander’s drawings were attached with thumbtacks. Valery unfolded his drawings and sculptures, which he had carefully brought with him. Everyone watched and rejoiced.

Since 1944, Alexander studied at the Secondary Art School (SAS) at the Academy of Arts in the sculpture department, and in 1948 Valery entered it.

The situation in those years was difficult. Georgy Nikolaevich was distinguished by his breadth of thinking, and this is not

everyone liked it. He was convicted of freethinking and his workshop was taken away. They wrote all sorts of condemning articles about him. The phone went silent. Only true friends and on business rang the doorbell. The family expected a more severe punishment. It blew by. So the years passed.

Alexander became a professional sculptor. Fascinated by the circus since childhood, he made a colored porcelain figurine of the clown Pencil with a dog, it was a success and was reproduced many times; his witty porcelain sculptures of Pinocchio, Cipollino, funny Oleg Popov with a rooster and many others were acquired by the City Museum. For the same museum, Alexander sculpted sculptures of characters by Gogol and Saltykov-Shchedrin, demonstrating the ability to keenly see characters.

Valery went to Moscow in 1955 to enter the Surikov Art Institute at the sculpture department. Valery passed the exams brilliantly, the only one on a scholarship. After two years of intense and interesting study at Surikovsky, Valery returned home for good - without exams he entered the third year of the decorative sculpture department of the Art and Industrial School named after V. I. Mukhina.

By this time, the brothers had already begun to engage in book painting professionally. Was finally

A spacious workshop was completed on the Petrograd side, not far from the house, on Blokhina Street, for the whole family. There was a place to work without bothering each other.

But on September 28, 1961, Georgy Nikolaevich left the house on a bicycle to admire the evening sunset and did not return. He was hit by a truck.

“Dad’s death was not just a tragedy for us. It was very difficult. We worked then, in the 60s, mainly in Moscow, at Goslitizdat. They brought drawings for Chekhov's plays to Tamara Georgievna Weber, then the chief artist of the publishing house, and she approved them. The collection of poems by Sandor Petofi “Love and Freedom” became a milestone. Then we came to the firm idea that separate children's literature

no and cannot be. This, however, was the opinion of both Pushkin and Chekhov.

It happens that an artist becomes a slave to his knowledge - the history of art - and tries to copy the greats. But it is impossible to draw the way they painted a hundred, two hundred years ago. Being inspired by old masters is another matter.”(3)

1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s, first decade of the new century. Hard and happy life. The brothers paint pictures, drawing according to their impressions. They do sculpture. The sculptor’s work was very useful to them in their book drawings.

Valery in the late 1980s - early 1990s will become the main artist of the Leningrad branch of the publishing house "Children's Literature", and will undertake to save the fading great cause. Then he will be the main artist at the publishing houses “Firefly” and “Tsarskoye Selo”, where only beautiful books and short-circulation bibliophile publications were published.

“We love fairy tales very much. And, probably, they made various fairy tales more than others. The fairy tale combines the best features of folklore. Folk art is wonderful. The author's fairy tale is certainly connected with him. Andersen's fairy tales contain the people's consciousness, real poetry. A very difficult genre. Few writers can do it

work."(3)

There is no tale of the great Danish storyteller that the brothers Alexander and Valery Traugott would not touch upon. The world of big, pure, human feelings, deep, noble thoughts has always attracted artists. For them, Andersen was never a children's writer. Artists expand the traditional framework of the fairy-tale genre, introducing modern real-life details into the design, which begin to live a different, amazing life.

“How unexpected, enigmatic, mysterious Perrault’s world appears, strange, “shrouded in a colored fog.” “Colored Fog” is so darkly beautiful that you can’t help but ask: “Is this Perrault?” But fairy tales are magical, besides “Cinderella” or “Little Red Riding Hood” there is also “Tom Thumb”, “Bluebeard”, and there are villains and blood (although in “Little Red Riding Hood” the wolf is also a villain), cruelty and revenge. It’s not for nothing that something eerie is happening in the colorful fog of the Traugoth illustrations. In the evening darkness, with the reflection of some invisible light, the old witch pokes her hooked finger into the crown of the newborn princess, pronouncing a terrible spell (“Sleeping Beauty”).

Mr. Puss in Boots is also not a simple creature. He is surrounded by an almost devilish glow

color tones - violet, lilac, lilac, smoky red, fiery, dangerous... But he threatens the peasants to be cut into pieces if they do not carry out his order. The red cloak on his shoulders and the cold, cat-like gaze do not speak of the simple power of this Master. Genuine fairy-tale tragedies are unfolded by artists, and fairy tales are already read differently than with illustrations by B. Dekhterev or N. Golts.”(7)

The artists recalled their work on Chekhov’s “Kashtanka”: “... an incredibly Russian thing - in intonation, in the look at what devotion is. After all, Kashtanka did not exchange her home for illusory glory. Therefore, we depicted in detail the situation at the carpenter’s place - and himself, reading the newspaper.

In this story, however, we were interested in everything: both the image of the circus and the clown-trainer himself. We traced the route of Kashtanka. We visited the clown near St. Isaac's Square. We found a smart, cute dog and a white, imposing cat.

We thought: what would today’s children be interested in seeing? Well, to the audience at the circus - it was incredibly different back then, colorful and lordly, and very simple. In good seats sit a lady with a lorgnette, a cavalry guard, a high school student in a uniform cap... Higher up is the maid, our drunkard carpenter. Decided

show the marching regiment in all its splendor - which Kashtanka had her eye on. With music, dressed up officers, a thundering orchestra... It was the Life Guards of the Cossack regiment, its chief was the emperor himself. Such an illustration seems to us more legitimate than slavish adherence to the plot. But today’s children don’t know how it was... The illustrator must create a temporary environment, an emotional situation.”(3)

The artists' style is special: airy, graceful. Their drawings cannot be confused with any others. Valery Georgievich called such drawing the French word “touché” - “touch”. The work should give the impression of a light touch, the flight of a pen or brush. And in fact, as if with one stroke, their drawings were made without the slightest effort. But we know that such ease does not come without a lot of work, skill and talent.

Illustrations by artists G.A.V. Traugott are widely known and popular not only in Russia, but also abroad. Their thin, elegant drawings illustrate about four hundred books with a total circulation of more than 80 million copies, which is equal to the population of a large European country.

At all-Russian competitions, A. and V. Traugott received more than 30 diplomas, 14 of them - first degree. Artists regularly participated in exhibitions of books and illustrations: in Russia - annually, as well as in Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Japan, France.

The works of the brothers A. and V. Traugot are in museums in Moscow (including the Tretyakov Gallery), St. Petersburg, Tver, Arkhangelsk, Petrozavodsk, Vologda, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Ryazan, Kaliningrad, as well as abroad: in the museum

Andersen in Odense, in Japan, Germany, the Czech Republic and others, in many private collections in Europe, the USA, Israel. On October 5, 2009, Valery Traugott passed away. However, new books signed by illustrators “G. A.V. Traugott" continues to be published. Now Alexander works alone, and his father and brother continue to live in his drawings.

Lately, he has been leaving St. Petersburg less and less for Paris, where not so long ago he spent many months with his French wife Elizabeth.

At the end of March 2014, Alexander Georgievich Traugot received the Presidential Prize of Russia “for his contribution to the development of the domestic art of children’s and youth book illustration,” namely for illustrations for A. Volkov’s book “The Wizard of the Emerald City,” which was published in 2015 by the Vita publishing house Nova."

“When I gave my response in the Kremlin, I was ordered to speak for no more than two minutes. I don’t know if I got it done... But I asked Putin if I could whisper one word in his ear,” says Alexander Traugot. - And I whispered: “Cirtations.” He told me: "Okay." But it’s true that children’s books are published in unacceptably small print runs. I think the president heard me.”

List of books illustrated
G. A. V. Traugott

Aksakov S. T."The Scarlet Flower"

Andersen G.H."The King's New Clothes", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Princess and the Pea", "Fairy Tales", "Fairy Tales and Stories"

Baukh E. I."Pots and Count Truffle"

Berggolts O. F.“Poems and poems”, “Meeting”, “There is no past”

Blok A. A."Poems and Poems"

Borisova E. B."A happy ending"

Borisova M. I.“More interesting on foot: thirty-three poems and three stories about Leningrad-Petersburg”

Brothers Grimm"Fairy tales"

Bulgakov M. A."Master and Margarita"

Butkov Ya. P."Tales and Stories"

Volkov A. M."The Wizard of Oz"

Gernet N.V."A Tale of Moonlight"

Gauf V."Fairy tales"

"Silly Tiger"

Gogol N.V."Christmas Eve"

Homer"Iliad", "Odyssey"

Hoffman E. T. A. “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober”, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, “The Golden Pot”

Gumilyov N. S."Captains"

Dubyanskaya M. M."Spread wider, circle"

"Alive in the Kingdom of the Dead"

"Enchanted Hill"

Zoshchenko M. M."Favorites"

Koehler V.R."Tales of a Day"

Kipling R."Sword of Wieland"

Krshizhanovskaya E. I."Man decides for himself"

Kruchenyuk P."The Little Cat and the Cunning Mouse"

Kruzhkov G. M."Rainy Island"

"Cuban Folk Tales"

Kuprin A.I."Emerald", "Olesya"

Lisnyak A. G."Bell Simpleton"

Lewis K."The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"

Mar A. M."A Stream from Thuringia", "Kobolds Live in Norway"

Matveeva E. A."Twelve stories from the life of Gioachino Rossini"

Macourek M."Poorly Drawn Chicken"

Mezhelaitis E."Castant musician"

Maeterlinck M."Blue bird"

Nabokov V.V."Poems"

Nekrasov N. A."General Toptygin"

Perrot S."Bluebeard", "Tales of Mother Goose", "Fairy Tales"

« Songs: front-line collection"

Petofi Sh."Love and Freedom"

« The Adventures of the Cunning Aleu and other tales of Cambodia"

Prokofieva S. L."I won't ask for forgiveness"

Pushkin A. S."Poltava", "Little Tragedies", "Dubrovsky"

Rostand E."Cyrano de Bergerac"

Sergunenkov B. N."Fairy tales"

« Tales of the peoples of the world T. 4.:tales of the peoples of Europe"

Tolstoy L. N."The Lion and the Dog"

Tsyferov G. M.“My Andersen”, “The Mystery of the Baked Cricket”, “How the Little Frog Was Looking for Dad”

Cherkashin G. A."Doll"

Chekhov A.P."Plays", "Kashtanka"

« Japanese folk tales"

About creativity

1. Kudryavtseva L. Line, color and mystery G. A. V. Traugot / L. Kudryavtseva, D. Fomin; artist G. A. V. Traugott. – St. Petersburg: Vita Nova, 2011. – 416 p.

2. Kudryavtseva L. What book did Alexander Traugot show in the Kremlin? / L. Kudryavtseva. – Preschool education. – 2014. – No. 9 – P. 40-51.

3. Traugot A. Traugot V. The depth is hidden: [famous St. Petersburg illustrators about their childhood and creativity / talked to N. Nazarevskaya, L. Kudryavtseva] // Children's literature. – 1992. – No. 10. – P. 58.

4. Traugot A. A book is an intellectual undertaking / A. Traugot, V. Traugot // Children's book artists about themselves and their art: articles, stories, notes, speeches / comp. V. I. Glorets. – Moscow: Book, 1987. – P. 242-250.

5. Asmus E. Traugot. Endowed with God's trust: the brilliant Traugott family of artists: [the essay was written for the opening day of the exhibition “The Traugott Family” in the Russian Museum] / E. Asmus // http://asmus-e.livejournal.com/164365.html.

6. Drobysheva M. Trust God: about the work of artists G. A. V. Traugot // http://www.avrora-lukin.ru/--32006/386.html.

7. Kudryavtseva L. Traugot G. A. V. // http: //redakzia.ru/artists.

Alexander and Valery Traugott: digest for hands. children's reading / Primorskaya region. det. b-ka; comp. A. S. Chernomorskaya. – Vladivostok, 2016. – 12 p.