Olga and Galina Chichagova


The sisters Galina Dmitrievna Chichagova and Olga Dmitrienva Chichagova were Russian Soviet Federative [Socialist Republic|Russian] graphic artists known especially for children's book illustration. They collaborated through their entire careers, and most of their published work is attributed to the both of them.

Life and family

The Chichagova sisters were part of a well-known family dynasty of Moscow architects. Their father,, designed the historic Moscow City Hall building on Red Square, among others, and their paternal grandfather,, designed the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow.
Both sisters studied in the Stroganov Arts Academy from 1911 to 1917. In 1920, they continued their education in the famous Higher Art and Technical Studios Vkhutemas, which was home to a number of well-known artists in the Constructivist school. They themselves identified as Constructivists, and their book art strongly reflects this aesthetic.

Works

The Chichagova sisters' most well-known illustrated book is Charlie's Travels, with a text by Nikolai Smirnov.
Their illustrated works include:
  • Путешествие Чарли
  • Откуда посуда
  • Детям о газете
  • Что из чего
  • Как люди ездят
  • Для чего Красная армия
  • Почему не было баранок
  • Каждый делает своё дело
  • Далеко да близко
  • Егор-монтёр
  • Поедем
  • Советская игрушка
  • Борьба с бездорожьем
  • Музей детской книги
  • Питание

    Criticism

Contemporary children's book professionals appreciated the Chichagova sisters' artistic style, and especially its stylized depictions of industrial tools and outputs:
The drawings in these books have a particular figurative character: something from the drawings of the tools of production and the things produced by these tools. Their subject is interpreted on the large scale of the entire production, not focusing too closely on the details, and without going into particular details. Hence the style of these books and drawings: they are very clever schemes of the branches of civilization.

Later critics have also noted Chichagovas's celebration of industrial objects, even at the expense of figures recognizable in the popular culture of the time: for example, in Charlie's Travels, rather than take advantage of the beloved and easily recognizable figure of Charlie Chaplin, they instead chose to foreground his various means of transportation.
These later critics have also identified a change in the Chichagova's style:

Returning again to their beloved theme of transportation in the 1929 albom Let's Go, the artists avoid their previous schematicism: machines become three-dimensional, and the people sitting in them cease to be mere symbols; the illustrators are interested not only in the general outlines of objects, but also in the details of their construction.