France unveiled a monument to Bunin
At the opening ceremony of the monument was attended by the Ambassador of Russia in France, the leaders of the municipality and the Department of Alpes-Maritimes and mayor of the city of Grasse, where the writer lived.
GRAS /the Department of Alpes-Maritimes, France/ 3 June. / Offset. TASS Dmitry Gorokhov/. Monument to Ivan Bunin opened in the French town of Grasse. The first Russian winner of the Nobel prize for literature a considerable part of his life in exile spent in the South of France.
The six-foot bronze sculpture installed in the Park of Villa Saint-Hilaire, where the city’s library. Flowers to the monument laid the heads of the municipality and the Department of the Maritime Alps, the Ambassador of Russia in France Alexander Orlov. In the children’s choir of the Conservatory of Grasse anthem of France — French and the Russian national anthem in Russian.
“Ivan Bunin loved our city, he worked on the novel “Life of Arsenyev”, which became the peak of his career, noted in his speech, the mayor, Jerome VIO. — Maritime Alps reminded him so beloved in southern Russia, especially the Crimea, where he traveled a lot”.
@villedegrasse : Inauguration de la statue d Ivan BOUNINE, en présence d’une très belle délégation officielle pic.twitter.com/7ufHJDGffY
— Ville de Grasse (@villedegrasse) June 3, 2017
Gift of the sculptor
The French head of the municipality thanked the author of the monument — President of the Union of artists of Russia Andrei Kovalchuk. “You made our city a wonderful gift,” said the mayor.
Bunin emigrated to France and settled in Grasse in the early 1920’s and spent a total of nearly two decades. During these years he created “the Life of Arseniev”, “Dark alleys” and “Mitya’s love”. Villa Belvedere — house Bunin in Grasse — in the autumn of 1933 the news came from Stockholm on the award of the Nobel prize.
“The strict artistic talent, which the writer recreated in literary prose typical Russian character”, — explained the Swedish Academy’s decision to celebrate its highest award, the Russian writer. The initiator of the award was the French Nobel laureate Romain Rolland.
Lesson poetry and humanism
“This purple blue and draughty in the branches and foliage, and dying I’ll remember,” wrote Bunin about the Russian nature in his autobiographical novel. He wrote his proizvedena in the Russian language and wanted to return to Russia. “Write in the language with which they were born and raised”, — he stressed in one of his letters.
According to literary critic Marin de Tilly, Ivan Bunin is one of those “the masters of Russian literary school, whose books can be endlessly reread”. “Open again “the Life of Arseniev” and you will not be disappointed, says French literary compatriots. — This mesmerizing novel is a great lesson in poetry and humanism”.
Russian day in Grasse
“The life of Arseniev” — one of my favorite books, — said the Senator Jean-Pierre leleu, representing the upper house of the French Parliament of the Alpes-Maritimes Department. — I am very sorry that do not know Russian and had to read in translation. But that did not stop me to understand and feel all the charm of this novel, the greatness of Russian literature.”
June 3 was a real “Russian day” in Grasse. French photo artist Olga Boldyreff devoted to the Russian classics his exhibition “In the eyes of Bunin”. It will be open to visit throughout the summer.
Monument in Grasse established on the initiative of public organization Renaissance Française, which contributed greatly to cultural cooperation between the two countries.
“Only a few days separate us from meeting in Versailles, the meeting of the presidents of Russia and France — said the correspondent of TASS, Russian Ambassador to France Alexander Orlov. — Russian-French dialogue continues, and today’s ceremony in Grasse was a clear indication of mutual attraction of our peoples.”