First assessment of the work of P. N. Ryazantseva, analysis of biographical data was implemented in Zabaykalsky known local historian of the turn of XIX-XX centuries by V. A. Kharchevnikova (1889-1937) , who believed that the artist "has not received a proper assessment of his work, neither his contemporaries nor for a long time". A large part of the factual material of the first biographer of the artist were borrowed from the notes of the Ryazantseva, part of this his son, who lived at the time in Nerchinsk.
So now we know what Procopius Nikolaevich Ryazantsev was born in Nerchinsk TRANS-Baikal region in 1829 in a poor middle class family. His father Nikolay Ivanovich was the head of a large family, which included besides his wife four sons and four daughters, and had his own farm, barely containing all. Of all the children only one Procopius was given training in the parochial school, obviously, as the smartest. He then studied in the Nerchinsk district school, where he showed his great achievements in painting.
The superintendent of the County schools Chavusau, who was at that time a teacher of drawing, gave him private painting lessons, supplying paints and other necessary accessories. It was he who recommended to the County authorities to take Ryazantseva after graduating from College as a teacher of drawing. Submitted by Procopius Nikolaevich drawings, tracing penmanship and calligraphy, drawings received an honorable mention in the Imperial Academy of arts, and Ryazantsev was appointed to the post of teacher of drawing Nerchinsk district school, where he worked for 26 years and reached the rank of provincial Secretary (1868), combining lessons in other schools, for example, women's gymnasia. But to obtain formal art education, he had failed.
Teaching earnings were small, and barely making ends meet, the artist kept for his wife, two sons and a daughter. So often fulfilled additional orders of a different nature. One of the main types of such earnings become class iconography, "by orders of the citizens and inhabitants of the suburban villages" and Church temples.
The fate of the poor talented painter attracted the attention of well-known in Siberia, gold mining, Nerchinsk merchant of the first Guild Michael D. Butina (1835 - 1907), who undertook to assist and help the artist. With him I traveled to Buryatia, repeatedly visited Agay, Cugola and other places in Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia. During visits, he drew a lot from nature: the Buryat types, regions, ritual and domestic scenes, cities and towns. In the future, these drawings and sketches formed the basis of numerous works.
So in the funds of the Chita regional Museum named after A. K. Kuznetsov kept seven graphic works by P. N. Ryazantseva, Buryat devoted to the subject. Among them, of special interest are sheets depicting the life of Lam and Zagorskogo AGINSKY datsans.
According to A. V. Kharchevnikova, in 1873, when crossing the Nerchinsk former Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Ryazantsev he was presented with a picture of Buryat life, which tells about the supplication of the lamas near a sacred spring, into which they threw coins. Two other paintings also ethnographic character was given a passing generals. By the way, in the collection of M. D. Butina in addition to portraits and landscapes, there were also themed paintings of local content. Art collection Butina, according to some researchers, Zabaykalsky, was one of the most representative and included a few dozen works, including Russian and foreign art, which in turn also had an impact on the personality of the artist, his creative aspirations.
Another form of income for prokopiya Nikolaevicha was writing on the orders of the local population portraits. Today, there are in the Museum collections, only 12 works by P. N. Ryazantseva, including therefore three portraits.
In addition to artistic creativity I did a lot of teaching activities: taught private art lessons, for a short time was the first teacher of the famous artist-Siberian N. I. verkhoturova (1863-1944), home coach of the first professional journalist of Transbaikalia, the writer and ethnographer V. I. Bogacheva (1843-1919). Coming in 1887 to resign, he was replaced by a teacher at school was still one of his pupil Aminogen to Panteleimonovich Kolosov (life years are unknown).
In the same year he, along with his wife and two sons moved to Blagoveshchensk, where he continued to work creatively and perhaps participated in local art exhibitions. Then he moved together with his eldest son in Primorye, continuing to work, "drawing from life of the gilyak, their lifestyle, their types, and the types of Cupid." And one of the paintings depicting the ride of the gilyaks on the dogs, the artist presented to Nicholas II during his trip to Japan in 1891, and was awarded the silver medal of Alexander III.
From 1892 to 1894 M. D. Boutin lives again in his native Nerchinsk. In the summer of 1895 Procopius N. first returned to Blagoveshchensk, and then moved to the eldest son on mine Nikolaev, who was in the taiga, in 12 versts from the river Amur, 200 miles from the city of Nikolayevsk, where he died September 7, 1897, and was there buried.
A. V. Kharchevnikov made in 1920, a special expedition in Nerchinsk on collecting materials about the life and work of P. N. Ryazantseva, as well as to find his works themselves. The result was writing the first biographical article on the artist, the Annex to which was given the full list of 115 works, discovered in the Nerchinsk works and belonged to different owners, as well as specified in the personal papers of the artist. Some of them, they were brought to the Museum of the Zabaikalsky division of the Russian Geographical society.
As mentioned above, to date, survived only 12 works by P. N. Ryazantseva. One pencil drawing of the panorama of the city Nerchinsk - is stored in the Nerchinsk Museum of local lore, 10 in the Chita regional Museum named after A. K. Kuznetsov (two female portraits, two landscapes, six ethnographic drawings dedicated to the Buryats), and the work - in the Irkutsk regional art Museum named after V. P. Sukachev.
Exploring extant and extant works, it is safe to say that as an artist attitude to nature: faces was written with interest, with a sincere emotion. A wide range of depicted characters are residents of Nerchinsk, Kyakhta, Blagoveshchensk, etc., where he has been.
Since I mostly wrote in order, it left a definite imprint on all his work. He was always trying to be attractive, to reveal the human soul. His painting is characterized by romanticizing the images. And at the same time portrayed them on-its-him touching and always truthful. They contain the will, wisdom, determination. Depicted people are always modest. Mental clarity and inner nobility - the main motive of the portrait genre in the works Ryazantseva. A common feature of them is that their models, the artist rarely writes brightly lit, often uses soft, diffused light. A variety of compositional situation of the paintings. Most of them goes beyond the simple fixing of the external appearance of the hero. They are meaningful in color, with considerable skill, they have the endearing humanity, truth of art, which allow to consider them as works of their time.
Irkutsk "Portrait of P. I. Pershin" was written Ryazantsev in July 1876 in Nerchinsk and depicts the famous Narcissa Peter Ivan Pershin-Karacharskova (1836-1912). In the oval portrait by the youthful looking man in formal wear, a white shirt which clearly allocates slanted eyes and dark complexion of the model. Portrait rather neutral with respect to the model and a hero to the world. It should have the quality to call a Grand family portrait.
P. N. Ryazantsev probably loved to paint young faces. However, such portraits are not enough joie de vivre, exuberant energy of youth. They represented the young people focused, anxious, full of thoughts that if something listen. This is common, and two portraits of the Chita girls Chita stored in the Museum named after A. K. Kuznetsov, which differ not only in characteristics, and composition. On the oval portrait "Girl with a rose" depicts a young creature in a white blouse. Painted with oil paints in soft colours, it is full of the short mood and charm. "No visitor to the Museum, sensitive to the arts were not stopping his attention to the portrait," thought Kharchevnikov. This is one of the first works Ryazantsev admitted to the Museum, was donated in 1916 by Nonalloy V. Surovtseva, wife of Mikhail Fedotovich Surovtseva (1850-1915), honorary citizen of the city of Nerchinsk, which is supported with Ryazantsev warm and friendly relations. We believe that it depicts the N. V. Surovtseva in his youth. He was commissioned to the artist a loving husband, probably in the first year of marriage, because it depicts a young lady, in a half-open dress, with a rose (symbol of love in art), long hair laid on the nape in the hair, the eyes light raskosne.
Turning to face the viewer, her head on his right shoulder and leaning on the high back carved chair, the heroine thought, and absently staring in front of him. Felt tense stiffness: she smiles but at the same time, visible tired of posing. Ryazantsev with undisguised pleasure writes her attractive face, wide eyes, scattering black eyebrows, well-shaped mouth, oval face, passing the trepidation of youth.
The second portrait – "Girl with rabbit" - a rectangular shape. The girl shown in the twist to the audience. Neck, chest and shoulders bared, dekolirovaniya light dress. A discerning eye, black eyes with a little shyness looking at the viewer. On the left hand of the girl sitting on a fluffy white rabbit, which she is feeding sheets. On a symbolic level it conveys the character of the heroine, tender and defenseless. The second heroine with the correct small facial features and a dimple on the chin is more simple, but at the same time attractive and even poetic. This is reflected in the open, with some shy look, in a free pose. In her melancholy reverie and innocent reverie is inner purity, some light and clean start.
Thematic work of P. N. Ryazantseva are mostly of an ethnographic nature and are of great skill, completeness, revealing remarkable powers of observation and understanding of various aspects of local "native" of life: character types, everyday life, costumes, rituals.
So watercolor "Blessing Seretha" is not only a good knowledge of the local Buryat customs, but also a strong pattern. On the basis of canonical traditions, the artist builds the composition by putting to the fore all the actors and saturating the interior of the various relevant attributes of the situation. We have before us a scene of farewell between father and son, leaving the novice in the temple in the presence of the old Lama. The scene is carefully traced in the details – faces, hands, costumes. The flatness of the composite solution is cleared with the expressiveness of the figures of the actors, and the absence of psychological characteristics and ethnographic content. This sheet is a historical document recording a certain period of time and at the same time reflecting the stage of development of genre art school in Siberia. Life concreteness, the expression of the artist of his relationship to the person of any nationality and social status, its problems are not only one of the advantages of this work, but rather creativity PN. Ryazantseva.