On the corner of Trekhprudny and Palashevsky lanes stands a building, constructed in 1885 by the renowned Moscow architect Sergey Mikhailovich Goncharov. This mansion was built on a family plot when the Goncharovs moved to Moscow in 1891 from their estate in the Tula province. The Goncharov family was connected to Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina, as his great-grandfather was her father.
However, the house became famous not because of Sergey Goncharov or his ancestors, but due to his daughter Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova, named after Natalia Nikolaevna. Natalia Goncharova became one of the key figures of the Russian avant-garde. The Goncharov mansion turned into a studio for Natalia and her common-law husband Mikhail Larionov. Their home became a center of artistic life, where figures like Sergey Diaghilev, Aristarkh Lentulov, Ilya Mashkov, Pyotr Konchalovsky, and others gathered.
The history of this house has been preserved in the memories of Goncharova and Larionov's friends, including many prominent figures of the Silver Age. Marina Tsvetaeva, who spent her childhood in the neighboring house, recalls Natalia Goncharova in her essay, describing the proximity of their homes and family stories.
The interior of the artists' apartment is described by painter S. Romanovich: the apartment consisted of three rooms, including a kitchen that sometimes served as Natalia Sergeevna's studio. The bedroom and the brightest room were the studio, where paintings stood on the shelf like books in a library. There was little furniture, apart from a table and a few chairs. The studio contained wooden sculptures and also shaped pretzels made of dough that served as decorations.
Valentina Khodasevich describes the atmosphere in the studio: a deserted room with a single easel, usually holding Goncharova's work. Larionov worked directly on the wall, and friends often sat on the floor for tea. Despite the lack of furniture, art reigned here, and all conversations revolved around it.
Work in this small studio was remarkably productive. In 1913, Sergey Diaghilev told the French writer Michel Georges-Michel about Natalia Goncharova, who exhibited seven hundred of her canvases and several panels, creating them in a small atelier and assembling them in exhibition halls.
The studio on Trekhprudny Lane existed until 1915. After Mikhail Larionov returned from the front, the family moved to Paris at Sergey Diaghilev's invitation to work on the 'Russian Seasons' and never returned to Russia.
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