A multifaceted artist and intellectual, Vardges Sureniants is considered the founder of Armenian historical painting.
He
was born in Akhaltskha (Akhaltsikhe), in modern-day Georgia, on
February 27, 1860. His father Hakop was a priest who taught religious
history. After their family moved to Simferopol, in Crimea, in 1868, his
father was appointed to the Armenian diocese in Moscow. This gave young
Sureniants an opportunity to study at the prestigious Lazarian School
from 1870-1875.
From
early on, the future artist showed his interest and aptitude for the
arts. He furthered his education at the department of Architecture of
the Moscow Art School (1875-1878). He went to Munich (Germany), and
after a year at the department of Architecture of the Academy of Fine
Arts (1879), he made a crucial shift and studied at the department of
Painting for the next five years until 1885.
Sureniants
became interested in caricatures and sketches during his years at the
Lazarian School. In Munich, some of his caricatures were published in
the
Fliegende Blätter
magazine.
The
painter traveled to Italy in 1881 and visited Venice, including the
island of San Lazzaro. In the library of the Mekhitarist Congregation he
studied Armenian fine arts and manuscripts. In 1883 he published his
first article, about Armenian architecture, in the daily
Meghu Hayastani
of Tiflis.
After
his return to Russia, in 1885–87 he traveled to Persia as a member of
the scientific expedition led by Valentin Zhukovski, a professor of
Oriental Studies at the University of Saint Petersburg. They visited the
cities of Tabriz, Tehran, and Shiraz, and Sureniants spent several
months in Ispahan. Afterwards, he translated William Shakespeare’s play
Richard III
and
sent it to the celebrated Shakespearean actor Bedros Atamian
(1849-1891), in Constantinople, to have it produced there. He would
later translate
Midsummer’s Night Dream
and
some of Shakespeare’s sonnets. He taught painting and general art
history at the Gevorgian Seminary of Holy Echmiadzin in 1890-1891.
After
1892 Sureniants participated actively in the artistic, theatrical, and
social life of Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Tiflis, and Baku. He visited
Ani and Lake Sevan, and became familiar with historical monuments and
everyday customs of Armenian rural life. He also studied the Armenian
illustrated manuscripts in the repository of the monastery of Holy
Echmiadzin. He traveled to France and Spain in 1897-1898.
He
has been categorized as a realist painter in his representations of
landscapes and historical events, and played an important role in the
revival of the Armenian past through art. His paintings would reflect
the aesthetic knowledge acquired during his studies and his travels. In
1901 he held a solo exhibition of his works in Baku, which would be his
only exhibition in his lifetime. Afterwards, he moved to St. Petersburg,
where he worked as a stage decorator until 1915.
Sureniants was also known for his illustrations of famous literary works, such as Ferdowsi’s
Shahname,
Alexander Pushkin’s
The Fountain of Bakhchisaray,
Oscar
Wilde’s fairy tales, and works by Belgian poet Georges Rodenbach and
Armenian poets Smbat Shahaziz and Alexander Tzaturian.
His famous painting “Salome”(above, left) was included in the exhibition dedicated to the 100
th
anniversary of the Academy of Fine Arts of Munich (1912). In 1915 he
returned to the Caucasus, and in 1916 he founded the Armenian Artists’
Society, together with Yeghishe Tateosian, Martiros Sarian, and Panos
Terlemezian. He also made many paintings of survivors of the Armenian
Genocide.
In
1917 Sureniants moved to Yalta, in Crimea, where he was commissioned to
draw the decorations for the newly built Armenian cathedral. He
decorated the altar (above, right), walls, and dome of the church. However, he suffered
a grave illness during his task. He passed away on April 6, 1921, and
was buried in the courtyard of the cathedral he had contributed to
decorate.
