Alexander
Arkhipovich Bochkarev

One of the outstanding and last master icon painters who worked in Syzran was Alexander Arkhipovich Bochkarev (15.01.1866 - 31.05.1934). The father of Alexander Arkhipovich - Arkhip Afanasyevich - was married to the daughter of the already mentioned D. V. Popov - Alexandra. It is not known whether Arkhip Afanasyevich was engaged in icon painting. One of the documents concerning his professional activity says that he was a singer. The kinship with D. V. Popov explains the continuity in the icon painting craft of Alexander Arkhipovich.
Alexander Arkhipovich lived in a house at 5 Chapaeva St. (former Kanatnaya St.). This house was acquired by him from the prayer house, next to which it stood, and where Alexander Arkhipovich, as told by his daughter, was the choir director. Also most of the icons for the iconostasis were written by him.In the Perezhoginskaya prayer room Alexander Arkhipovich went very rarely, only on important holidays. Here everything was native, simple, cozy, without pompousness - in a homely way.
Alexander Arkhipovich's wife Darya Nikolayevna, née Spirina, was from a poor family, an orphan, and lived with her brothers before her marriage. A. A. Bochkarev had eight children: six daughters - Zoya, Ekaterina, Zinaida, Miropia, Euphalya and Anna, and two sons - Nikolai and Alexei. At the birth of the latter Alexander Arkhipovich wrote a small wooden cross - "Crucifixion" - allegedly "all, I put the cross, and on this there will be no more children". The icon painting business brought little income, and it was hard to feed such a horde. In relation to children Alexander Arkhipovich was kind and affectionate, but demanding, strictly monitored that all prayed to God. All the children were taught church literacy and stood on the choir in the prayer room.
The workshop was located in the same house, with three workbenches, a bed and a hanging kerosene lamp in the back room. Four windows provided natural light.
Three of Alexander Arkhipovich's brothers, Ivan, Fyodor and Peter, were also trained in icon painting. But Alexander Arkhipovich liked (according to his daughter's testimony) to work alone. For some reason he was not satisfied with the work of his brothers, and when Fyodor Arkhipovich came to help him in his workshop, he was entrusted with only auxiliary work (painting, hemming).
Alexander Archipovich's brothers, apparently, like himself, learned the icon-painting craft from D. V. Popov. This is evidenced by the inscription on the label that F. A. Bochkarev put on his icons: "The icon-painting workshop of Fyodor Arkhipovich Bochkarev, successor of David Vasilievich Porfirov". But his son Nikolai Alexander Arkhipovich already taught himself.
There were other apprentices of the master, but they did not stay long: laziness, and the work of an icon painter requires spiritual endurance, as well as great diligence, attention and patience. Alexander Arkhipovich's apprentice was Ivanushka, an orphan boy of 14-15 years old, who lived in the Bochkarev family for a long time.
Valentina Alexandrovna still has one test work by one of his students. It is a small, slightly larger than a matchbox, plaque depicting the Virgin Mary. It lacks an ark, poorly laid levkas and, it seems, even without a pavoloka, and because of unprofessionalism in the work today it has a very poor preservation.
The boards for writing icons were ordered. As Alexander Arkhipovich's daughter Valentina Alexandrovna recalls: "they gave off some amazing pleasant, fragrant odor - cypress wood".
On some of his icons Alexander Archipovich Bochkarev, as mentioned above, put personal stamps on the back side, which are now of special value to us. Two types of his author's stamps are known. The first is a clearly drawn circle with a diameter of two centimeters, inside which there were inscriptions: "Icon painter in Syzran. A. A. Bochkarev ....". This stigma was written by hand on gold leaf placed directly on the board. The uneven edges of the gold slightly went beyond the edges of the circle. This stigma was placed on the back side of the icon, just above the lower key, to the right of the center. The second stigma is a rectangle with a similar inscription inside. It is also handwritten on gold leaf and was placed in the lower right corner at the back of the icon. The stamp of F. A. Bochkarev, the text from which was mentioned above, was a standard stamp.

All the icons can be confidently attributed to one or another iconographic school, but by and large these creations are nameless. Only highly-named iconographers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries branded them, thus not only claiming their copyright but also full responsibility for their craftsmanship.
Alexander Arkhipovich Bochkarev took part in the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition of 1896, as stated in the "Detailed index to the departments of the All-Russian industrial and artisanal exhibition of 1896 in N. Novgorod. Department X. Artistic and Industrial" (M.1896, p. 13, No. 92). The book does not mention A. A. Bochkarev's awards for participation in the exhibition, but allegedly there is information that he was awarded a certificate of commendation there.
Later his skill was also recognized in his native town. This is evidenced by the "Certificate of Appreciation", kept in the local Museum of Local History, with the following text: "The Managing Committee of the Syzran Agricultural and Craft Exhibition awarded Alexander Archipovich Bochkarev with this certificate of appreciation for the two icons painted in oil colors. september 9, 1902. Chairman of the Committee, signature. Commissioner, signature. Members, signature.
In the bookcase of the Samara Pomor community there is a handwritten book "A statement from the sacred rules and from the teachers of the church, as it is not proper to admit heretics to the communion...". In this book there are records, apparently, to whom it was supposed to be sent. There are addresses and names (in the dative case) of well-known teachers of the Pomor Church of the late 19th - early 20th centuries: Ivan Ivanovich Zykov, Ivan Mikhailovich Tsvetkov and Andrei Alexandrovich Nadezhdin. Among others there is also a record (with minor losses) of the following content: "in the city of Syzran (Simbirsk province... for krymza, in a soldier's street... to icon painter Alexander Arkhipovich Bochkarev.".
This record testifies, if not to Alexander Arkhipovich's personal acquaintance with these persons, then to his respect and spiritual authority in Pomor society throughout Russia.
In 1931, A. A. Bochkarev was exiled to the Arkhangelsk province, the village of Kholmogory, to a free settlement, where he lived with an old woman and took care of the cattle. At the same time, the nearby prayer house was closed, and the icons were loaded onto a car and taken away. During the loading someone said that the stables were to be covered with floors, maybe as a sacrilegious taunt, or maybe it was true: after all, it often happened. Later this room was used as a sewing room, and the girls sometimes sang obscene songs while working. At different times it was also an elementary school and repair shops. The desecrated room burned down in the 80s and was soon dismantled.
Upon his return from exile, Alexander Arkhipovich was under constant surveillance by the authorities. He was not allowed to paint icons, and there were no customers. The family needed something to feed, and to somehow earn bread, he had to get a job in the Art Workshops on Sovetskaya Street, where he worked for six months, until his death. He wrote posters and slogans, on the red flags drew a sickle and hammer. In this the biography of A. A. Bochkarev is similar to the biographies of many masters - icon painters, whose life's work fell on the first years of Soviet power.