‘The Gift of Moscow’: place and identity in the works of Tsvetaeva and Goncharova

This presentation consists of a sample chapter from the research paper ‘Navigating new spaces: representations of urban identity in Russian poetry and painting 1900-30’. The project focuses on peopled cityscapes in the works of Tsvetaeva and Goncharova, Blok and Rozanova, Akhmatova and Petrov-Vodkin, and Mayakovksy and Malevich, examining the relation between character and setting. Pairs of poets and artists have been chosen to further explore the interpenetration of visual and verbal expressions of city life.

The chapter discussed will centre on Tsvetaeva’s ‘Verses about Moscow’ (1916) and her essay ‘Natalia Goncharova’ (1929), as well as various paintings and sketches by Goncharova, including Moscow Street (1909) and Moscow Winter (1910). As the titles indicate, the principal subject is the city of Moscow (both before and after it was reinstated as a capital, following the October Revolution). Tsvetaeva and Goncharova’s depictions of the place in which they were both raised will be closely analysed, whilst their relationship to each other will be considered on a personal level and in terms of the artistic language of their works.