Reflexes of symbolism in the masterpieces of C. Somov 1900—1910

This article is dedicated to symbolism of masterpieces of Russian artist, a member of art group “Mir iskusstva”, C. Somov. Some of his works within the period of 1900—1910 (Harlequin and Death, the sketch for the curtains for Moscow's Free Theater, a sketch for the cover of Block's book of plays etc.) are united by common principles of art space and by unity of symbolic motives, actually firstly mentioned in this article. The masterpieces 1900—1910 show us the artist's reflections about very important for him idea, it's an eternal fight between death and love. Determination of his symbolic program allows us to discover a field for interpretation of his other works, and also it let us look at the artist in the context of history of symbolism in Russia. The author of this article makes references to non-reasing archives, which are kept in the Manuscript Department of State Russian Museum