Three Musketeers illustration by Kuskov. Ivan Sergeevich Kuskov – book graphic artist

It was either in 87 or 88. I was introduced to Sergei Kuskov, we had a drink somewhere, and our companion took it into his head to drag me into the apartment of his artist father. After stocking up on wine, we went into the entrance of an old beautiful house in Obydenskoye. The owner who opened the door, with the dignity of a lion and the gallantry of a gentleman, extended his hand to me, introducing himself: “Ivan Kuskov.”
But my eyes were already glued to the drawings hanging everywhere, tightly connected in my memory with a bunch of childhood books: Till, Don Quixote, Ivanhoe, Mine Reid, Cooper... But the main thing is - Three Musketeers!!! Probably half the pleasure from these books came from the pictures - you could look at them for a long time and in detail.
The owner really turned out to be the author of all these illustrations and I looked at him, wide-eyed. "The Three Musketeers" was the first book I read in in every sense on my own: having barely learned to read, I stole a thick red volume with fascinating pictures from the “adult” shelf. I remember that I transformed the incomprehensible names of the heroes in my own way, and when I later heard about D’Artagnan and Aramis, I did not immediately realize that these were exactly the people with whom I had already known in early childhood...

The owner's only room was no less remarkable than himself.
Empty bottles were found everywhere here. But storing empty glass containers is the most important feature of the owner’s personality. For example, in Itskovich’s famous apartment on Kalashny, a corner of a large half-empty room, which served as a living room, was allocated for this purpose. The empty bottles were placed one by one, starting from the corner, and over time they evenly filled the volume of the hall, forming on the wooden floor a map of some continent with fluctuating outlines.
For Kuskov, bottles were not containers or material for creating new forms. These were just bottles and each one found its place. Cognac bastards sprouted small shoots among other unimaginable half-broken souvenirs on a chest of drawers topped with an antique lamp with a homemade lampshade. Impressive “fire extinguishers” from port turned into dusty bottles from Burgundy drunk in the dark of a tavern and, wrapped in draperies of old fabrics, were woven into still lifes with a broken box and a carelessly thrown dagger. In addition to them, there were some decanters and wine glasses - either antique crystal, or bought yesterday in a souvenir shop. The walls and ceiling were painted with images that were barely visible in the darkness. The interior was filled with all kinds of hats, fake swords, old mirrors, horns, shells and a host of other obscure objects.
Both this apartment and the chivalrous manners of the owner were very attractive. But from the entire conversation I remember only the discussion of the question of whether to go get some more wine or whether it’s time to go home...

At the time of the visit, there was a guest in the apartment - a friend, as the owner introduced him, although he found it difficult to name his name. He was a drunkard philosopher, typical of those old Moscow alleys, who by that time had almost lost the power of speech, but behaved with dignity and significance.

I visited Kuskov Sr., it seems, once more. And since then, his son and I have sometimes crossed paths at some opening days. Sergei Kuskov was a highly respected art critic in certain circles. He worked, it seems, at the Tretyakov Gallery, he had colossal erudition, but he studied more contemporary art: wrote, curated exhibitions. In the 90s, I became interested in the artistic projects of the NBP - still “the one” where the spirit of Kuryokhin, Dugin and Letov hovered. We had a drink somewhere a couple of times. Having drunk, he first heatedly launched into an exposition of some fascinating and controversial ideas. Once, falling into a rage, he tried to grab my throat... I tried to understand him, it seemed that he saw something important, but his speech was too slurred, his diction worsened with each glass, and I was often completely busy other thoughts. Sergei left me with a feeling of some kind of childish insecurity. Once he said that his father was seriously ill. And over time he completely disappeared from view.
I learned about the fate of both Kuskovs the other day from the diary of one artist:

“The life of the artist Ivan Kuskov ended tragically. During “perestroika”, when there was no alcohol on sale, he, with some former sea captain (I suspect that it was a demon in the form of a captain), bought and drank alcohol. For nine years, until his death, the blind Ivan Kuskov was bedridden. Art critic Sergei Kuskov was forced to exchange housing on the “golden kilometer” of Ostozhenka for Ryazansky Avenue. After the death of his father, he ended up in the Krasnodar region and died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 53. "

All that we could find biographically about Kuskov Sr. was a tiny note on the website of the Moscow Art School Museum, where, it turns out, his works are stored.
And finally, collected in the LJ community first_books.

We managed to find only a few mentions of Sergey in blogs and fragments of his articles:
And an example of his “signature” style:
“So, it is no coincidence that on a black background, as in the skies of the night, a whole constellation of such small but cosmic sign-forms, sign-bodies appears. These are often ancient solar or astral signs, more often - modern author’s transformations and variations that do not break with the spell primary Archetypes. This is how it should happen: after all, the Archetype lives only by being reincarnated and reincarnated each time anew, always flickering differently on the verge of being recognizable and unrecognizable."(from an article about a ceramic artist)

The owner's friend among his works

Sergei Kuskov and Alexander Dugin at a squat near Petliura present a performance with some defiant fire-worshipping fascist idea. I don’t remember the idea, I only remember that the gas pipe burners were blazing, and the likenesses of these hanging “living corpses” were being burned in the fire.

VODKA BE DAMNED.

The Three Musketeers was my favorite book as a child. My friends and I literally lived in 17th century France. I think there were a lot of us like that, because every now and then I find in different diaries memories of my “musketeer” childhood. We loved everything that was somehow connected with the musketeers. And of course, they compared the illustrations in their well-read books. Yes, everyone had their own book with illustrations by different authors. Now I read that the best illustrator of The Three Musketeers is the Frenchman Maurice Leloir. But for me personally, and I think for many of my peers, the best illustrations of our childhood that he gave us will remain Ivan Sergeevich Kuskov.
I will post illustrations by I.S. Kuskov for various editions of “The Three Musketeers” - 1974, 1976 and 1990.

Illustration from the flyleaf of The Three Musketeers, 1974 edition.

Here's what I found about the artist: Ivan Sergeevich Kuskov is a famous book graphic artist, the author of illustrations for books that everyone read - “The Three Musketeers”, “Till Eulenspiegel”, “Don Quixote”... His colleagues and simply admirers admired him, calling him “the second Dürer," the "king of illustrations."
The artist was born in 1927 into the family of a pediatrician in Moscow, on Obydensky Lane near Ostozhenka. “Born, live, die in the same old house,” this quote from Saint Beuve, later written by Kuskov on the door of his room, actually became the motto of the artist, who actually lived in this house, in his sixteen-meter communal room, all his life. After the fourth grade of secondary school, he entered the first grade of the Moscow Art School, which had just opened in 1939. From 1941 to 1943 he was evacuated with this school in Bashkiria. He graduated from school in 1946. In 1947 he entered the Surikov Institute and graduated in 1952. Since then he has worked as an illustrator for various publishing houses. I.S. showed his talent as an illustrator. Kuskova very early. The museum's collection includes works he made at the age of nine. These compositions are on historical topics They amaze with their ability to compose and knowledge of the historical era. His schoolmates said about him that he was a natural phenomenon, and “already in the cradle he scratched with a feather the illustrations for “The Three Musketeers” ...
For my creative life the artist illustrated about a hundred books. Characters literary classics for Kuskov they seemed to come to life; he was an accomplice in the action being described. The interiors, landscapes, and costumes of the heroes of the works amaze with their artistic truth. He had many admirers, he corresponded with many, receiving numerous reviews from the most different places countries. He greatly valued these contacts with readers. It was in this not official-Soviet, but the true sense of the word that he was truly a people's artist.

D'Artagnan in Menge, 1974

D'Artagnan in Menge, 1990

Rochefort, 1974

Rochefort, 1990

Staircase of Mr. de Treville, 1976

Desho Monastery, 1974

Desho Monastery, 1990

D'Artagnan saves Constance, 1974

D'Artagnan saves Constance, 1990

D'Artagnan, Constance and Buckingham, 1974

D'Artagnan, Constance and Buckingham, 1990

Mr. and Mrs. Bonacieux, 1976

Road to Calais, 1974

Road to Calais, 1990

Pavilion in Saint-Cloud, 1976

Aramis' dissertation, 1974

Aramis dissertation, 1990

Letter from Madame de Chevreuse, 1974

Confession of Athos, 1974

Confession of Athos, 1990

Before the duel with the British, 1974

Before the duel with the British, 1990

The British and the French, 1976

Lunch with the prosecutor, 1974

Lunch with the prosecutor, 1990

D'Artagnan and Katie, 1976

Soubrette and Mistress, 1974

Soubrette and Mistress, 1990

D'Artagnan at Athos, 1990

Richelieu and d'Artagnan, 1974

Richelieu and d'Artagnan, 1976

Richelieu and d'Artagnan, 1990

D'Artagnan and the killer, 1974

Anjou wine, 1976

Marital Scene, 1974

Marital Scene, 1976

Marital Scene, 1990

Bet, 1976

Bastion of Saint-Gervais, 1974

Bastion Saint-Gervais, 1990

Milady's Arrival in England, 1990

The most vivid memories, as you know, are from childhood. The most delicious ice cream, the most interesting films, fun ski trips, trips to the skating rink, and the most scary stories, told to each other before going to bed, all this seems to have happened only then. And of course, the greedy “swallowing” of books, especially adventure ones.

Looking through these publications now, I remember that bright and carefree time. How they imagined themselves as the heroes of the stories, how they tried to finish reading as quickly as possible to the picture. Then again and again. And what a pity that the last page was approaching.

I don’t know about anyone, but my favorite book was the publication “The Three Musketeers” with illustrations by Ivan Kuskov. And although it is believed that the images of the heroes of Dumas’ novel were best conveyed by the artist Maurice Leloir, the “pictures” from the childhood book are dearer to my heart.

Book graphics are complicated in that the illustrator, as a co-author of the publication, must under no circumstances destroy the images that have already arisen when reading the story. On the contrary, its task is to combine the vision of the writer, the illustrator and the reader.

Ivan Kuskov (1927-1997) - Moscow graphic artist. During his life he designed more than a hundred books. The most famous of them are Charles Dickens, Charles Coster, Fenimore Cooper, Mine Reid, Jonathan Swift, Miguel Cervantes, Walter Scott and Alexandre Dumas. His favorite technique is ink and pen.

The artist accurately depicted Dumas's characters, the atmosphere and romantic spirit of that era. The animated heroes of his illustrations seem to have come out of engravings of the 17th century, in which the action took place. Their features, details of the costume, weapons, every feather on the hat are carefully drawn. All these nuances determined a kind of “dress code” for a nobleman, military man or official of that time. The style of Kuskov’s works corresponds to the very descriptive manner of the novel and reflects Dumas’s desire to give a comprehensive story about the appearance, habits, and manner of dressing in order to more accurately reveal the images of his characters.

The cause of the incident was an empty drink can, which a local art critic carelessly placed on one of the parts of the composition

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