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A PORTRAIT OF ALEXANDER GRIN,
A NEO-ROMANTICIST AND SYMBOLIST OR… POSITIVE REALIST


 

Sound track for the painting:

R. Karaklaich. A little boat. Lyrics М. Таnich; music S. Aliyev


Aroma for the painting:
ocean


Taste for the painting:
tears

 

Technique: oil on cardboard

Dimensions: 49 х 34 cm

Style: Positive Synergism
Private collection

 

Aleksandre Stepanovich Grinevsky, a classical prose writer and poet of the Soviet literature, best remembered for his romantic novels and short stories, which dealt with sea, adventures, and love, mostly set in an unnamed fantasy land, had many pseudonyms (including even of a female character – Victoria Clem; Elza Moravskaya)… However, to the world he is better known by his pen name Alexander Grin, who had neither precursors, nor direct followers… Critics tried to compare him with the close in style Edgar Poe, Ernst Hoffmann, Robert Stevenson, Bret Harte, and others… Nevertheless, every time it became obvious that the semblance was superficial and limited…
Even the genre of his novels is difficult to define. Yury Olesha, a notable Russian and Soviet novelist, used to recall how his admiration of Grin’s brilliant fantastic idea of a flying human in The Shining World made Grin get offended: ‘It is a symbolic novel, not science fiction! And the man is not flying; he is soaring in the spirit!’
However, his basic moral values and guiding principles always were in the mainstream of traditional for the Russian literature humanistic moral ideals… The majority of Alexander Grin’s books are poetically and psychologically sophisticated fairy-tales, novels, and stories about coming true dreams, about the right of a human for something more worthy than just existence on earth, about lands and seas full of amazing miracles and wonders, enjoyable meetings, heroic exploits, and grandiose deeds…
I wonder if he spoke English, but his name GRIN speaks volumes!

 

A crimson sail is like a trademark representing Alexander Grin, as a symbol of Gray’s ship from his fairy-tale Crimson Sails about unfailing belief in wonders and a triumph of an elevated dream...
In his rough copies of the She Who Runs on the Waves, Grin was writing the following about how the first idea of the fairy-tale came to him:
‘I have Crimson Sails, a story about a captain and a girl. I learnt how it had happened quite by chance: I stopped by a shop-window with toys and noticed a boat with a pointed end sail of white silk. This toy had told me something but I did not know what; so I asked myself, if the sail were of a red color, would it tell me more… or better even of a crimson color, because in crimson there is bright jubilation. Jubilation presupposes that one knows why he is happy and triumphant. And further, starting with this, adding waves and a ship with crimson sails, I saw the purpose of its existence’…
Thus appeared Assol (As in Russian means ace, and sol means salt, i.e. essence of the best), who in the woods encountered an old man, who claimed to be a wizard and promised the girl that one day a prince would come on a ship with crimson sails to carry her away to be happy together. Assol believed the old man; she was determined to wait for the prince. To wait and believe! To believe and wait! And one fine day her dream came true… Or, to be more exact and correct: the one, who truly loved her, physically performed a miracle, and made her dream come true…

In this novel reflected the best traits of Grin’s talent: the profound mystical idea of the need for people to have hopes about their dreams, subtle poetical psychologism, and intriguing romantic plot.

 

He enjoyed making up delightful tales, and many tales were made up about him, … this day-dreamer, castle-builder, keen visionary, and weirdo (who used to write his manuscripts and letters with the old-fashioned, before revolution, orthography; and who counted days according to the old style calendar)… Nevertheless, what is known about Alexander Grin for certain: despite all his trials, deprivations, hardships, and the mischief from his fate, he ‘lived not by lies’, always believed in wonders and miracles, and performed miracles and wonders himself… like his Heroes!

 

 

 

A LITTLE BOAT

 

Music by S. Aliyev
Lyrics by М. Таnich
Performing R. Karaklaich
Translated by Em Rostverg

 

 

Once a little guy
Made a little boat
Out of a notebook page!
She was sailing
Forward-forward, and
Got drowned around the corner,
But the dream did not go down with her!
She was sailing
Forward-forward, and
Got drowned around the corner,
But the dream did not go down with her!

 

If you really want it,
You will get it one day,
And the boy saw sails in his sweet dreams!
The small guy became a captain,
And is tossed now by the waves
Of the not safe paper-made seas!
The small guy became a captain,
And is tossed now by the waves
Of the not safe paper-made seas!

 

Refrain:
We ought, we ought, we ought
Everywhere always,
We ought, we ought, we ought
To believe in miracles!
Repeat everywhere,
Everywhere always,
Instead of “I will or not” -
“Yes, I will! I will! I will!”

 

Where are you, where,
The ash grey-eyed boy,
Captain of the little shallop toy?
Why, exactly like your ship,
My longtime dreams are becoming,
Are becoming true in real life?
Why, exactly like your ship,
My longtime dreams are becoming,
Are becoming true in real life?

 

Refrain:
We ought, we ought, we ought
Everywhere always,
We ought, we ought, we ought
To believe in miracles!
Repeat everywhere,
Everywhere always,
Instead of “I will or not” -
“Yes, I will! I will! I will!”

 

If you really want it,
You will get it one day,
And the boy saw sails in his sweet dreams!
The small guy became a captain,
And is tossed now by the waves
Of the not safe paper-made seas!
The small guy became a captain,
And is tossed now by the waves
Of the not safe paper-made seas!

 

I’ll believe in miracles!
Yes, I will, I will!
Everywhere always
I’ll believe in miracles!

 

 

 

 

 

 

© 2015-2024 The Institute of the Sun
Pictures of the paintings: Sergrei Didyk