M. Tikhanov: First Russian painter to visit Philippines

by Y. S. Rutenko

The interests of economic development and use of the enormous natural riches of the North Pacific, as well as developments of trade with China required a comprehensive and detailed study of the Pacific to aid in navigation of Russian ships to North America. Works on making new maps and refinement of existing ones were carried out during round-the-world voyages of Russian sailors in the early 19th century. Among the important tasks of expedition participants was to collect materials on geography, ethnography, linguistics, to familiarize with local peoples, conditions of their life, customs, economic activities. At the time when photography did not yet exist, sketches of artists were the only means of fixing travel impressions and scientific observations, which could not be described in the diaries and notes of travelers.

For this reason in 1817 Mikhail Tikhanov was asked to join an around-the-world expedition, headed by Captain Vasily Golovnin. The purpose was to visit the Russian colonies in America and to study in detail the northern part of the Pacific. As in all such expeditions, an artist was included in its composition. "To document and vividly depict the life of the peoples with whom the Russian seafarers were to meet, the artist Mikhail Tikhanov was enlisted in the crew of the sloop".

It was decided to print them at the expense of the Admiralty Department. Naturally, Tikhanov's drawings were to be published simultaneously with the description of the voyage, and therefore Golovnin, through the chief of the Naval Staff, addressed to the Academy of Arts with a request to give them "for selecting some of them and for engraving", as "the printing [...] of the voyage to which they belong is nearing the end" .In May-June 1822 the drawings were given to Golovnin. At the same time the Academy probably compiled a list of them: "The inventory of the paintings that belonged to the voyage of the fleet of the captain commander V.M. Golovnin". The fact that this list had been in Golovnin's hands is evidenced by the pencil inscription on the first page: "Vasily Mikhailovich". Golovnin marked the drawings by Tikhanov, which he did not consider necessary to engrave. There were 15 such drawings (out of 43). After viewing and marking the drawings Tikhanov was returned to the Academy of Arts. On July 31, 1822 Olenin informed the chief of the Naval Staff A.V. Moller, that on "the highest command" engravings on the drawings Tikhanova should be made "by artists of the local Academy of Fine Arts at my choice and that the amount needed to engrave 30 boards, to print them in the number of 600 copies and the purchase of paper, all 12 thousand rubles, His Majesty had released it to me from his cabinet...". Thus Olenin succeeded in getting not only the engraving, but also the publication of Tikhanov's drawings under the authority of the Academy of Arts.

However, Tikhanov's drawings never showed up, and the new request to Olenin in December 1824 from the chief of the Naval Staff to engrave and print drawings "without any further delay" was not successful. What prevented the timely production of the engravings and why they were not printed, it is not known yet. It is possible that one of the reasons is that Olenin received the money necessary for the production of engravings only in 1826-1827, and not 12 thousand rubles, but only 8 thousand. But in 1841, only in 1841 were finally made prints from these boards, one copy of which was left in the stamps office of the Academy, and another was given to the Board of Directors of the Academy. Ukhtomsky engraved and printed only 22 drawings by Tikhanov, although the original project by Olenin proposed to make 30 engravings. When selecting drawings the engraver did not always take into account Golovnin's marks. A.A. Fedorov-Davydov writes that Ukhtomsky was not a very good engraver.

Only three watercolors by Mikhail Tikhanov devoted to the Philippines have come down to us. All of them are listed in Golovnin's book, published in 1949. They are "An Indian in Manila tore his hat off Tikhanov and ran away", "The Malayans of Lukonia Island, living in Manila - Arey and Thomas" and "The Manila Indians". "Golovnin writes: "They tore off one of our officers' hats in the evening, when he was riding in a carriage, and it happened near the brig, but the thief left, and the same thing happened to another, who was walking down the street. The "other" was Mikhail Tikhanov. "The Indian in Manila ripped off Tikhanov's hat and fled "The artist has depicted himself near the Chinese shops, with his hand raised in frustration, surprise, and indignation, as if ready to shout something to the thief. His clothes are immediately striking against the attire of the locals. Only one person in this picture is dressed in a similar way - it is the gentleman standing behind Tikhanov and buying something from the shop. He leans over the counter and holds out his hand to the merchant. We see the Indian already turning the corner and quickly running away with his prey.

He, like all the natives depicted in this watercolor, is wearing the national Filipino garb of a loose white shirt and black tight pants. In the lower right corner, we see the Indians noticing the scene. In the painting we see a typical Manila street, not very wide and filled with the usual houses of the time. "In the lower floors there are cellars, storerooms, stables and barns, in the upper there are living rooms. In such a climate it would be almost impossible to live in houses built in the usual European style. The rooms of the second, or living, floor are wide and very high. The best houses are up to 3 sazhens high. No windows in the walls, but at a distance of 10 to 12 feet large doors were made, against which all around the house there is a covered corridor, four and five feet wide, mounted on mats, which protrude beyond the wall. Outside of this corridor is a four foot wide light wooden balustrade, on which are placed sliding frames of fine wicker; instead of glass, they have flat polished oyster shells. All these frames can be slid and cover the whole corridor with them or, having moved them aside, one can open it". All this can be seen in the street depicted by Tikhanov.

On the second reproduction "Malay Islanders of Luconia living in Manila - Arey and Thomas" two children are depicted. At the beginning of the 19th century landscape painting was well developed, but realistic and portrait painting was just beginning to develop. One can see it in the portraits of children, painted according to the canons of Russian painting of the early nineteenth century. The figures are more proportionate than in the other drawings by Tikhanov from the trip. But all the same we see unnatural facial features - too big a nose and eyes of a precise oval form, which simply does not exist in nature. The hands are disproportionately small. Unfortunately, reproductions do not allow us to see what the children have in their hands. Unlike the phi-figures, the clothes and folds on it are well-drawn. Tikhanov's academic education is evident here - the long hours spent painting the draperies on the antique figures.

The third watercolor, "Manila Indians," depicts a domestic scene in the city. In the background is the arch of the stone fortress wall, behind which you can see the landscape. In the foreground are two Manila Indians watching with passion a fight of fighting roosters. You can not see the faces of Indians, they are dressed in their national clothes - white shirts and black pants, barefoot Indians. On their heads are woven hats painted with patterns.

In the Philippines, cockfighting was a traditional pastime. The Filipinos are an impulsive people, and the competitive spirit is in their blood. Even Pigafetta, Magellan's companion, describing the island of Palawan, noted that "everyone here has roosters, sometimes they make them fight each other and bet a certain amount of money" [Pigafetta 2009: 404]. The Filipino educator José Rizal a century ago called this passion a disease, like the smoking of opium among the Old Testament Chinese. The invincible fighting rooster in folk tales is comparable to a lottery ticket - everyone dreams of getting rich with it. In the watercolor one Indian is all tensed up in anticipation, the other clenched his fists, they are waiting for the outcome of the battle, which will decide which of them will win.

Mikhail Tikhanov was the first artist to depict the views of the Philippine archipelago, to introduce the people and customs of that country to the people of Russia. They maintain the utmost accuracy and authenticity, depicting reality as unadorned and as close to nature as possible.

In April 1843 after A.N.Olenin's death the watercolors were transferred to the Library of the Academy of Arts. There they were kept until 1941, and then were transferred to the Museum of the Academy of Arts, where they remain at the present time. Soon after they were transferred to the Library, Tikhanov's watercolors were probably pasted onto sheets of heavy paper and bound in an album. The album also contains 22 prints of Ukhtomski's engravings and "An Inventory of Paintings ..." (in blue paper cover). (in blue paper cover). The watercolors were not arranged in chronological order but in accordance with the "Inventory to the Pictures...". It is interesting to note that in the list of pictures which he appended to the second part of his book, V. M. Golovnin listed Tikhanov's works in chronological order, which was in accordance with the account used in Golovnin's work. Apparently the name of the author of the watercolours has been forgotten: neither in the "Inventory to the paintings ...", nor in the correspondence between Ukhtomsky and the management of the Academy of Arts about the production of engravings Tikhanov is mentioned. He suggested that they could be in the library of the Academy of Arts. Probably after A. S. Krotkov's inquiry the library got interested in Tikhanov and made extracts about him from a well-known work by P. N. Petrov on the history of the Academy (these extracts, as well as the letter of A. S. Krotkov, were taken from the library). Thus the artist's name appeared on the back of the flyleaf of the album: "[Tikhanov Michael.] An album of original watercolor drawings for the voyage of the fleet of Commander-in-Chief V. M. Golovnin. 43 sheets and 22 sheets of engraved drawings from them" [Schur 1974: 179]. However, in print Tikhanov's works first appeared only in 1949. Some of them were reproduced later in separate monographs, and in 1965 in the new edition of V. M. Golovnin's book 24 drawings by Tikhanov were published. However, all these publications essentially gave only a very rough idea of the watercolors of the artist, as they were reproduced in black and white. The color scheme of Tikhanov's watercolors, depicting the bright colors of the southern seas and characteristic types of inhabitants of America and Oceania, was completely missing, which, naturally, prevented the artist from appreciating his work.

Originally published as М. Т. ТИХАНОВ — ПЕРВЫЙ РУССКИЙ ЖИВОПИСЕЦ, ПОБЫВАВШИЙ НА ФИЛИППИНАХ by Y. S. Rutenko, translated into English by Tikhanov Library.

Tikhanov Library is an independent publishing company founded in Lund, British Columbia. To read about Mikhail Tikhanov and see his artwork, visit our website at www.tikhanovlibrary.com | Our book catalogue includes books by Alexis de Tocqueville, Dimitri Alioshin, and F.T. Marinetti, among other authors. We are constantly updating with new books and deals.