V. A. Kaverin’s Two Captains in Illustrations by P. Lyubaev

An exhibition from the collections of the Pushkin Reserve, A. S. Pushkin State Museum-Reserve “Mikhailovskoye,” marking the 75th anniversary of the book and 30 years since V. Kaverin’s death. Artist Petr Sergeyevich Lyubaev, a member of the Moscow Union of Artists and participant in Russian and international exhibitions, says that while illustrating the novel Two Captains his main task was to experience the emotions of its hero and, like Sanya Grigoryev, who “read the life of Captain Tatarinov...” and solved the expedition’s central mystery, to bring Sanya’s life into his drawings. The exhibition is the artist’s attempt to look back a century and imagine himself as a person of the early 20th century. The novel was first illustrated in 1940 by Yuri Syrnev, a contemporary and participant in the events of that era. Later B. Dekhterev, F. Glebov and V. Britvin created their own images of the characters. Half a century after the novel’s last reissue, Petr Lyubaev offers his vision of Sanya Grigoryev and Katya, Captain Tatarintsev and Maria Vasilyevna.