Тургенев и испанская культура
I.S. Turgenev and the Spanish Culture

Summary/Abstract: Turgenev spent almost three decades close to the Garcia-Viardot family. The famous singer and musician Pauline Viardot was “the only woman he (Turgenev) loved for all his life”. The Russian writer was a polyglot and he also knew “magnifica lengua castillana”. He was able to read in Spanish the dramatic works of Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Calderon de la Barca. Turgenev considered himself as being completely “calderonised”. He used to permanently re-read “the immortal novel” of Cervantes and he intended to translate it. Don Quijote together with Shakespeare’s Hamlet highly influenced Turgenev in depicting his characters. The Russian writer was familiar with the paintings belonging to Velasquez, Goya, El Greco, Zurbaran, Ribeira, Murillo, which were exhibited in Paris at Louvre, the Spanish Museum and the Pourtales Galleries. His interest in Spanish culture was also linked to the fact that in the middle of 19 century “the Spanish genius took refuge in France”, as Baudelaire wrote. The French painters could not avoid “the Hispanic atmosphere”, and their paintings were “impregnated with Spanish charm”. Eduard Manet painted in this manner and Turgenev was a permanent visitor of Manet’s workshop. It is interesting that Spanish art is often mentioned in Turgenev’s novels, short stories and correspondence.

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