For the first time, “Tales of the Old Talking Woman” were published at the end of the 19th century by order of a Russian publisher, a Swiss by birth, Alfred Fedorovich Devrien. He began his career as a manager in one of the bookstores in St. Petersburg, but soon opened his own publishing company. She mainly published books and magazines on agriculture and zoology, but Devrien was also attracted to other literature, in particular fairy tales. He commissioned illustrations for “Tales of the Old Talking Woman” from two gifted artists - Nikolai Ivanovich Tkachenko and Samuil Martynovich Dudin. Tkachenko was a graphic artist and professional illustrator. He studied the skill of a draftsman within the walls of the famous Academy of Arts. Dudin is more familiar to history connoisseurs as an outstanding ethnographer. However, he began his career precisely as an artist; from 1891 to 1897, Ilya Efimovich Repin himself was his mentor. Dudin’s beginning to independent life was not easy. For his participation in the People's Will movement, he was arrested and exiled to Eastern Siberia. However, this did not prevent the versatile manifestations of his rich nature. In exile, he collected geological samples and made ethnographic sketches. Returning to St. Petersburg at the request of friends and receiving an art education, Samuil Martynovich became interested in ethnography and soon became a major professional in this field. The paintings he painted often resembled illustrations for serious ethnographic studies: “Duvans”, “Entrance to the Mosque of the Blind in Samarkand”, “From the Life of the Old East”... Commissioned by the same Devrien, Dudin, in collaboration with Tkachenko, completed a large series of illustrations for the deluxe edition of N.V. Gogol's story "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka". Dudin's thorough knowledge of the realities of the Ukrainian provinces was an excellent aid in our joint work. Although sometimes the excess of absolutely accurate realities in the drawings led the viewer away from the integral perception of the capacious images of Gogol’s prose. Illustrations for fairy tales made by masters are also reliable in the details of peasant life and in the images of animals, although some of them are dressed in human clothing. Carefully selected, discreet color pictures in this collection of fairy tales are interspersed with masterfully executed black and white illustrations, which gives the book a special charm. Source: u003d6049725