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Biography of Niko Pirosmani

Niko Pirosmanashvili also known as Niko Pirosmani (1862-1918) was born in 1862 in Kakheti, in the small village of Mirzaani to peasant parents. They had died when he was very young, and his sisters took him to Tbilisi, where they have become servants. When Niko’s elder sister died, he and his younger sister had to go back to their native village. Niko worked as a shepherd and his sister had kept house.

He has taught himself to read. To paint he has also taught himself. His thirst for knowledge has made him leave his village and return to Tbilisi. But insecurity and the necessity to earn his living by hard manual labor prevented him from going ahead with his self-education. He has worked on railways for some time, but later had to give this up because of his poor health. For a while he ran adairy shop, but like all his other business undertakings, it has failed. Even when he was a small boy, paintings had fascinated him. He loved watching sign-painters painting signboards and murals for tavern and inns. He has taught himself to paint signboards, found clients and together with a painter, G.Zaziashvili, opened a painting business (1882). But he was a poor businessman and was soon forced to close the shop.

As a traveling artist, with brushes and paints he wandered from tavern to tavern, from one inn to another, painting his pictures and signboards on oil-cloth, cardboard, tin-plate or any material he could get hold of, and sometimes painting murals. Pirosmanashvili was proud, he never complained, never turned to anybody for help, though all his life he has lived in poverty.

In 1912 the poet Ilya Zdanevich and two students of the Academy of Arts Kirill Zdanevich, brother of the poet, and Mikhail Le Dantiu became interested in the works of Pirosmanashvili and started collecting his paintings. M.Larionov included Pirosmani's works in the exhibition “Target” of the Jack of Diamond group (1913). Ilya Zdanevich’s published newspaper articles, diary notes (which he published in Paris) and organized exhibitions in Moscow, St.Petersburg and Paris. But Pirosmanashvili himself never moved from Georgia.

Gradually the public began to show real interest in Pirosmani’s art. The manager of the Georgian National Gallery has collected in a short time the main paintings of this remarkable artist, and they are presented in the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Georgia. The Museum possesses almost all of Pirosmani’s works, except for the few paintings in private collections.

The Society of Georgian Painters founded in 1916 invited Pirosmanashvili to attend one of it first meetings. Its members showed interest in Pirosmani as a person and in his paintings. His portrait and articles devoted to him appeared in a Georgian newspaper. The Society instructed a painter Lado Gudiashvili to help Pirosmani out of his financial difficulties. Once the artist has come to a meeting, but unfortunately he did not get along with the Society. And the reason was that the same newspaper which had published a favorable article about the work of Pirosmani, has also published a cartoon of him. Later he always avoided meeting painters. The artist died as he lived, impoverished, lonely and unwanted, on May 1918. His burial place is unknown.

Niko Pirosmani was from the east part of Georgia -- Kakheti, where live the most even-tempered and calm Georgians. They grow grapes and Kakheti is considered to be the motherland of the best Georgian wine. Niko was born in 1862, possibly in May 5. His parents - Aslan Pirosmanashvili and Tekle Toklikishvili were farmers. They had couple of cows, the little vineyard, and were not poor and nor rich. His father was big fairy-tale admirer, and both they worked hard were devoted to the family and were happy together. They had three children, two daughters - Mariam and Pepe and the youngest son Niko. But in 1870 his father caught cold and died, so their short term family happiness ended there.

That happiness and love to his relatives is obvious from his pictures - on painting "Rtveli - Picking Grapes", you see a woman and a man, possibly that is how his parents were - working all the time, or painting "Mother and Son" could be only inspired with his sweet dream about mother, and similar "Father and Son". Child on both of these pictures is obviously the same. But with the death of his father that idle and happy life ends and in his paintings start to penetrate more dark and gloomy colors, children are sad, and women pictured on them is bent under the pressure of hard work. On the picture "Georgian Women With Children" a woman holds on a heavy jar of water on her back, little girl and boy, who stops on each step and looks behind, women tries to hold him and keep his pace. Niko was nice boy, he worked from early childhood to help his mother as much as he could.

Niko painted his sister Mariam. Her husband bought her an umbrella and nice hat - "A Woman With Flower and An Umbrella". When Niko was 8 years old, Mariam's husband took him to Tbilisi to ease his mother's life and keep company for his sister. He had good life there with Mariam, but soon she got seek during epidemic of cholera in Tbilisi and died. Her husband didn't care much about child and he gave him to Kalantarov's family to live with them and serve them at the table. In that family Niko was loved and treated well. His duties were to boil 'samovar' (a big pot to boil the water), bring water and wash the dishes. Niko learned to read and write in that home, he was smart boy, he loved to read books and paint, he painted all the walls in his room. Already from his childhood he didn't care about material things, he was all in the creative work. They loved him in that family, he was devoted and honest, and they would trust him everything. Also he had very good gift of declamation, and often diverted children from the neighborhood with fairy tales, painting in the same time on the walls what he was telling. 

Later he lived in another family, working there as a servant as well. He was treated well there too. When he became young man he fall in love with his land-lady - Elizabeth (she was widow). Possibly she was fond of him too, but she kept that secret, that was not satisfactory for Niko. He wanted to marry her. According memoirs of Solomon - Elizabeth's son Niko, wrote her letter asking to marry him - "I'm well aware that there is a big gap between us and our positions, but I know that you are prominent and educated woman and I hope you won't pay that much attention and will accept my proposal. I assure you - my love to you is the most sincere and dearest." But soon everybody get to know about their love affair and he had to leave Elizabeth's house. After that he started independent life. 

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