The post image: Varenukha and Rimsky.
Visitors of the women’s shop, after the variety performance:
The empty suit:
Hella and Behemoth:
The visit of barman Sokov:
Behemoth reading the passport:
Azazello regaling to Margarita of Berlioz’s funeral:
Natasha on the hog:
Korovyev and Behemoth:
Personally I like the managing of light and shadow to create the contrast between the objects on different planes of depth in the image — particularly in the Sokov picture. Although the artist was obviously cheating in the Varenukha and Rimsky pic.
Why is there no casting shadow of the person on the chair in the post image? Is he a vampire or something like that? Or did I found the thing the artist was cheating on?
The lack of a shadow is actually a plot point in the novel — rather early on, so not much of a spoiler. I greatly recommend the book, and it’s especially magnificent if you find an audiobook with voice artists that know how to have fun while doing their job.
As for cheating, I meant the bright outline around Varenukha’s silhouette.
It also looks like he has six instead of five fingers 🙂.
Dude please. The artist was born in 1960, the post where I got the pics from was made sixteen years ago, I had it lying around for ages. Six fingers is a nothingburger for this novel. Just read it.
It was published around 1966-67 under censorship, over twenty-five years after Bulgakov wrote it and after his death. And uncensored in 1973. The date of the illustrations is unclear, but I’m guessing the artist has read the novel and drew the pics sometime in the eighties, perhaps in the ‘glasnost’ times. The approach definitely harkens back to Soviet constructivists/modernists of ~1920s-30s and pre-Soviet artists too, infused with some anti-Soviet stylings. I have trouble putting it in words, but it’s very clearly skirting party-mandated ‘social realism’ look and militant atheism, just like the novel does. Which is precisely why these illustrations are great.
Oh, I definitely didn’t mean to come across as offensive. Please accept my apologies if I was misunderstood. Quite the opposite—I was interested in the drawings, which is why I took a close look at them. I enjoy drawing myself (see my previous posts) and am always grateful to discover something new that sparks my interest. For instance, what I particularly like about these drawings is the bold use of extremely dark tones; it gives everything a very somber atmosphere.
Then you also might be interested in “Happy Person Having a Pleasant Conversation in Public” by Randy Ortiz. And perhaps Aidan Hughes’ art for KMFDM’s ‘Split / Piggybank’.
For real though, I must say I’ve never noticed the six-fingers thing myself. Thank you for bringing it up. It must’ve been an invention of the artist regarding the supernatural happenings, unless I’m misremembering the novel (which is easily possible).
I see five
Nah, there are definitely five fingers and a thumb. But Varenukha is supposedly a supernatural being at that point, so it’s the least of his transgressions.
Afaiu Varenukha is turned into an ‘undead’ person, but he’s not the devil himself. That’s another character, I’ll leave it for the visitors to discover who it is.
CRANK THAT HOG, NATASHA!!!
