Background
Yakau was born on the 14th May in 1869, Minsk, Belarus; the son of poor artisan Mordukh Chaimavich and Sheina-Rada Ioseleuna.
Yankel Mordukhavich
Yakau was born on the 14th May in 1869, Minsk, Belarus; the son of poor artisan Mordukh Chaimavich and Sheina-Rada Ioseleuna.
Until Yakau was 11, Yakau studied at a heder (a jewish primary school where boys are taught the basics of Judaism). Then he attended a four-class Jewish trade school. Y. Kruger was sent at the expense of benefactors to Kiew Drawing School of N. Muraschko in 1883. After graduating from the school in 1887, he tried to enter the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint-Petersburg. But he did not manage to attain the right to live in the capital. Instead, Yakau went to Warsaw where he took lessons from the famous Polish portrait painter Leopold Horowitz for almost a year. From 1888 to 1895 Yakau continued his studies in Paris at the private Academie Julian.
In 1897, Yakau entered the Higher Art College under Saint-Petersburg Academy. He chose for his lessons the art studio of the Itinerant genre painter Vladimir Makovsky. Kruger`s graduation painting "For professor`s Examining (1900) was acquired by the Art Museum in Penza and published in the popular central magazine Niva.
Thanks to the wealthy relative Lea Kruger, he had the opportunity to travel to England, Germany and Belgium, to visit museums and art galleries. The miniature "Self-Portrait in a Red Beret" was sent from Paris to Minsk in 1889. In April 1895, Kruger returned to Minsk. Kruger gave his works: "Brother`s Portrait", 1896; "Portrait of Violin Player Y. G. Zhukavitsky", 1897 to the exhibitions of the Fine Arts Admirers Society in Minsk (1901-1903). From 1901, he also exhibited Jewish-themed paintings in Vilna: "Caucasian Jew", 1901; "Illui"; "Jew with a Wine Glass". Only the painting "Morning Prayer", 1891 has been preserved from this series. Impressed by the revolutionary events and Black hundred Pogroms of 1905 in Minsk, Kruger created the painting "Pogrom", which was destroyed by the gendarmes right in his studio. In November 1904, he opened private Drawing Classes with the admission of all for payment. In May 1906, the academy gave him permission to open Drawing Class which existed until 1915 in the house of F. K. Vyangrzhetsky at Petrapalauskaya Street (now, the vicinity of Tsentralny supermarket). Among who attented his school were M. Stanyuta, V. Rutsay, I. Milchin and etc.
In 1910s, Y. Kruger gave private lessons in painting, executed commissions for the church, and also taught drawing in primary classes of the private Jewish non-classical secondary school of E. M. Khaykin. Gradually he became a fashionable portrait-painter. Kruger actively drew portraits in pastel with sophisticated and "aristocratic" technique which required flawless mastery, confident hand and colour instinct.
In the early summer 1915, Yakau Kruger with his family moved to Kazan for 7 years, fleeing from the First World War and the riots. Only "Portrait of a Girl", 1918 has been preserved from that period. In the autumn of 1921, he returned to his native Minsk. Kruger began to teach drawing at the worker`s faculty of the recently opened Belarusian State University in 1921. He also taught in studios. From 1921 to 1922, he painted portraits of leaders, scientists, poets and national heroes on the instructions of the People`s Commissariat of Education. Together with other artists, Yakau went to etnographic expeditions around Belarus, making sketches of catholic and orthodox churches and synagogues.
At the first All-Belarusian Exhibition in 1925, he showed historical portraits with the Belarusian theme: "Kastus Kalinousky", "Francysk Skaryna, the First Belarusian Printer". At the second half of the 1920s Kruger was actively involved in the design of the Museum of Revolution of the Byelorrussian SSR. Also he taught at Minsk school number 8, worked at the art studio in a pedagogical training centre and as a painter-reporter for the Belarusians newspapers.
The main theme of the turn of the 1920-30s was a large series of portraits of the Jewish intelligentsia (actor Salamon Mikhaels, writer Mendele Mocher Sforim, poet Izy Haryk etc.) and collective farmers of the Crimean Jewish Agricultural commune New Life (A Scything Peasant, Jewish Collective Farmer and etc.). The style of the Soviet official portrait was gradually formed in Kruger`s commissioned portraits in the end 1920s (the portrait of the philosopher Volfsan).
In the early 1930s he entered the Organizing Committee of the Artist`s Union of the BSSR (Belarus). The image of an old artist was accurately depicted in the self-portrait "The Last Ray", 1931. Kruger`s personal exhibition dedicated to the 40th anniversary of his creative activity was held at the House of Artista in 1934. 49 paintings of various periods were shown there. The last exhibition dedicated to his 70th anniversary took place in 1939.
Until his last days Kruger, who seemed to have had a stroke at the end of the 1930s and spoke indistinctly, painted from life with young artists at the studio of the House of Artists. Only near 30 works from his rich heritage have survived the war. They consist of paintings sent to an exbition in Vitebsk in 1941 and also of works preserved in private collections of the painter`s children in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. After a posthumous exhibition in 1940 the next personal exhibition of the artist took place only in 2000.
Kruger`s graduation painting "For professor`s Examining" (1900) was acquired by the Art Museum in Penza and published in the popular central magazine Niva.
On November 22, 1939 he was awarded the title of Honoured Artist of the BSSR (Belarus) and received a personal pension according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR (Belarus) "for fruitful work, dynamic pedagogical activity and training of new talents". He became the second artist in Belarus after Y. Pen who was awarded this title by the government.
Portrait of a Strike Worker
(The painting show modernity and the spirit of the 1930s i...)
Portrait of a Girl
(This is one of the most sublime, subtle and delicate past...)
1918Y. Kupala
(The painting expresses good feelings of the artist Kupala...)
1923self-portrait "The Last Ray"
(Kruger showed himself a significant and worthy individual...)
1931Daighter`s portrait
(Eight-year-old daughter Sheina (Safiya))
1910Francysk Skaryna
(The First Belarusian Printer)
Y. Kolas
(Y. Kruger tried to convey the inner world of the poet thr...)
1923I. S. Turgenev
1883Self Portrait in a Red Beret
1889Self Portrait with a Palette
1899Brother`s portrait
1896Portrait of Violin Player Y. G. Zhukhavitsky
1897Portrait of his wife Zlata-Fruma in pastel
1907portrait of son Mark
Kastus Kalinoyski
F. Zhdanovich
V. Ignatousky
Portrait of Tamara Khadynskaya
1934I.Haryk
N.Galadzed
V. Galubok
He was a member of the board of the Industrial Museum Society under the College of Commerce, Organizing Committee of the Artist`s Union of the BSSR.
Yakau was married to Zlata-Fruma and had a daughter.
