Belarus-Israel: the teacher of Marc Chagall and the mystery of the family heirloom

History does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. And yet, if the historian and editor for Israel and the CIS leading Russian-language newspaper in the United States did not come to VitebskDaily Forum»Shimon Briman and his interest in the museum collection of Yehuda (Yuri) Peng in the Art Museum, we would never know that another picture of our painter-academician is“ alive ”. The fate of this canvas is as difficult as the life of the person depicted on it.

- I have been studying Pen's work for many years, I saw his works in albums and finally in the Museum of Vitebsk, where in the summer of 2014, I had the opportunity to see the originals. The portrait of my grandfather, Seeds Briman, is really similar in style to other Pan portraits: a lit pensive face protruding from the dark. I liked the Vitebsk museum, and in the hall where Peng is on display, I seemed to see something familiar and familiar, Shimon shared.

As you know, portraiture in the works of the founder of the first school of drawing in Vitebsk occupied one of the central places. Pan's heroes are not fiction, they were all real residents of the city in the first third of the 20th century. Unfortunately, not all the prototypes of the images created by the artist are known, and even more interesting is the information of Shimon Briman, who also sent for publication a photograph of the portrait that has been kept in the family for almost a century. And the story is.

“My grandfather Semyon Yakovlevich Briman and his wife Sophia Moiseevna came to Vitebsk from Ukraine, from near Kiev, at the end of the 1920-s,” said the source. - Their son and my uncle Moses Briman recalled that they lived next door to Pen's house (the apartment and the school-studio were located on Gogol Street, in the Cathedral Square area, approximately at the site of the current so-called “blue house.” - Note .). Grandfather Semyon in a neighbor's way helped the old artist, chopped wood for him, heated the stove. As a token of gratitude, Peng suggested painting a portrait. So this picture appeared in the Vitebsk family apartment. On it, Semen Briman, 1903 of birth, about 30 years, the portrait, perhaps, can be dated 1932 — 1935 for years.

- Shimon, judging by the nobility of the look, the suit in which Semyon Yakovlevich is dressed, he belonged to intellectual circles. What did your grandfather do?

- As far as I know from the stories of relatives, he was an employee or a foreman at one of the factories or in a large artel in Vitebsk. Semyon played in the urban brass band, it was a hobby. Relatives remember him as a witty person. By the way, he paid for it. Before the start of the war in 1940-1941, my grandfather was arrested for political jokes, and at the time of the German invasion, he was transferred from Vitebsk ...

At the beginning of the war, our family fled the city, literally in the last echelon. Grandma Sophia took out the older generation and her children Moses and Bella, 1928 and 1937, born herself. The family tradition says that when they decided: to stay in Vitebsk or leave for evacuation, the argument in favor of the first was: “How can we leave everything here, we recently bought a new leather sofa” (Simon smiles). Of course, the choice between life and the sofa was made in favor of life and escape. Of the few things that the grandmother managed to take with her, the main and greatest family value is the portrait of the arrested husband.

The picture survived all travels and disasters, it reminded of Semen, who by that time was already in the army, in war. The portrait was evacuated both in the Ural village and in Baku, where in the 1944 year after the injury Semyon Yakovlevich was treated at the hospital. It was here where grandmother and grandfather joined, in Baku in July 1945, my father Jacob was born.

It can be assumed that for sure at that time for Sophia, who was waiting for her husband, who had first sunk into obscurity, then picked up by the fiery whirlwind of war, the portrait was akin to a talisman, a symbol of family reunion. This shrine, which survived the hard times, for many decades re-occupied its place in the family nest, but already in Kharkov, where the Brimans came to live after the war.

“By the way, I was born in Kharkov, they wanted to call me Shimon in honor of Semyon’s grandfather ... Officially, I took this name for myself when I came to Israel in 1996,” the source continued. - His portrait, which has preserved traces of folding into a tube, always had a touching attitude in the family. Pen's signature, unfortunately, was erased, at least with her naked eye is not visible now, although at the beginning of 1990-s we gave the painting for restoration to the Kharkov Art Museum. After my parents left in 1994 for Israel, the portrait was kept with our friends in Kharkov. And only in 2005-m, I was able to issue permission to export the canvas Peng. The picturesque image of my grandfather, created by the legendary Vitebsk artist, has “lived” for ten years in the apartment of my parents in Haifa.

Shimon's grandson is surprisingly similar to his grandfather. It is easy to assume that this striking resemblance fueled the curiosity of the historian and journalist to the artist's work, and also prompted a trip to the places where native people lived in the first third of the last century. According to Shimon, the contrast between Shagal-Panovsky Vitebsk in his view and modern streets turned out to be great, and, nevertheless, the city where he visited for the first time was pleasantly impressed with cleanliness and comfort. And most importantly, in his heart he aroused the desire to come here again, to once again see Pen's exhibition, as well as his work in the museum’s storerooms.

Shimon's visit, his amazing story once again inspired the search for prototypes of Pan's portrait heroes, therefore the Art Museum and the editorial office of the “Vitbichi” newspaper restore the project of last year “Peng and the Citizens”. We will publish Pan's portraits from the museum's collection with a request to respond to those citizens who recognize their relatives and friends in them, comparing them with photos in family albums, and will tell about their fates. It is interesting. And it is very important for museum work.

Author: Natalia Krupitsa (Vitebsk, Belarus).

Photo provided by Shimon Briman (Israel).