YEREVAN, May 20. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia has issued three collector coins to mark the 150th anniversary of landscape painter Yeghishe Tadevossian’s birth, the 125th birthday of actor Hrachia Nersisyan and the 100th birthday of filmmaker Henri Verneuil.

Yeghishe Tadevossian – 150th anniversary of the birth

The 100-dram 9250 silver coin of 28,28 weight has been minted in the Lithuanian Mint in the quantity of 500.

Obverse: a fragment from Yeghishe Tadevossian’s “Justine, the painter’s wife” (1903) painting. Reverse: fragments from Yeghishe Tadevossian’s “Self-portrait” (1933), “Araqelots Church on the Sevan Island” (Sketch, 1934) paintings. Designed by Lusine Lalayan.

Yeghishe Tadevossian (1870-1936) is one of the well-known masters of Armenian landscape and portrait painting. He is an honored art worker of the Armenian SSR.

Tadevossian was born in Vagharshapat, Armenia. He studied at Ter-Hakobyan boarding house in Tiflis (1879-1881), Moscow’s Lazarian Seminary (1881-1885) and School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1885-1894). He worked as an art teacher at the Gevorgian Seminary in Etchmiadzin (1894-1895). Tadevossian participated in many exhibitions in Yerevan, Tiflis and Moscow. In1916, he assisted in creating the Union of Armenian Artists, and was elected as its Chairman. He was one of the founders of the Georgian Academy of Art (1923) and one of its first professors.

Mainly a painter, Tadevossian exposed his talent in the field of graphics, applied arts, mosaic and sculpture as well.

Tadevossian’s first works speak of a profound sense of color and loyalty to classical traditions. The landscapes created by the artist are peculiar as they express freshness and lyricism (“Aragats”, 1917, “Ararat”, 1934).

Tadevossian is a brilliant portraitist. The painter's mastery is shown in the early portraits(“A. Shirvanzade”, 1929, “H. Tumanyan”, 1933), and his last painting “Komitas”, 1935, boasts a prominent portraiture. As a contemporary of the rise of the Armenian national liberation movement, Tadevossian periodically referred to the past of the Armenian people (“Funeral Repast: Death of Artashes”, “Torq Angegh”, 1910, “Arshak and Parandzem”, 1921).

The works of Yeghishe Tadevossian are at the National Gallery of Armenia, Charents Museum of Literature and Art, the Moscow State Museum of the Oriental Art, and elsewhere.

Hrachia Nersisyan – 125th anniversary of the birth

The 8,6 weight coin of face value of 10,000 drams, made of 9000 gold, has been designed by Lusine Lalaya and minted in the Lithuanian Mint in the quantity of 300.

Obverse: a fragment of the bas-relief on the memorial dedicated to Hrachia Nersisyan (author – Stepan Kyurkchyan). Reverse: a portrait of Hrachia Nersisyan (author – Nerses Kirakosyan).

Hrachia Nersisyan (1895-1961) is a prominent Armenian actor, People’s Artist of the USSR (1956).
He received education at French and American Colleges, and at the Armenian Essayean College, Constantinople. Stage activity started as an actor in the Penklyan theater group. Starting 1919 he played at the theatre “Armenian drama” of Constantinople. In 1922, together with V. Papazyan, M.Janan and other actors, Nersisyan moved to Soviet Armenia and, starting 1923, he became a lifelong resident of Yerevan and an actor at the First State Theater (now the National Academic Theater after Sundukyan).

Nersisyan’s mastery and talent were fully revealed in his playing of Falstaff, Othello, King Lear (“The Funnier Women of Windsor”, “Othello”, “King Lear” by W. Shakespeare), Paghtasar Aghbar (“Paghtasar Aghbar” by H. Paronyan, Elizbaryan (“For the Sake of Honor” by A. Shirvanzade), Protasov (“Living Corpse” by L. Tolstoy), Mac-Gregor (“My Heart’s in the Highlands” by W. Saroyan). Since 1925 he has starred in films as Rustam (“Namus”, 1925), Pepo (“Pepo”, 1935), Davit Bek (“Davit Bek”, 1944), Ghambaryan (“Why the River is Making Noise”, 1958), Nerses Aghbar (“Tzhvzhik”, 1961).
Mastering the art of personifying with great ease and using a broader spectrum of means for expressing, Nersisyan could equally portray tragic, dramatic, and comical roles, while conveying deep emotional content. Nersisyan’s creative pathos is the compassion for the truly persecuted hero, which is emphasized in the artist’s recent roles.

Artistic profile, aesthetic value of art and emotional appeal has given Hrachia Nersisyan wide popularity.

Henry Verneuil- 100th anniversary of the birth

The 9250 silver coin of 28,28 weight and the nominal value of 100 drams has been designed by Eduard Kurghinyan and minted in the Lithuanian Mint in the quantity of 500.

Obverse: images of Order of the French Legion of Honor, Parajanov’s Thaler and Cesar prizes awarded to Henri Verneuil. Reverse: a portrait of Henri Verneuil, a videotape and the fragments of the posters of the “Forbidden Fruit” (1952) and “It Happened All Night” (1960) films.

Henri Verneuil (born Ashot Malakian, 1920-2002), a French filmmaker of Armenian origin, a writer, a member of French Academy of Fine Arts. He studied at the Applied Art School in Marseilles, and then entered the École Nationale d'Arts et Metiers in Aix-en-Provence in 1942. After graduation, he worked as a journalist, then became editor of “Horizon”, an Armenian magazine. In 1945, appearing as Henri Verneuil he published a series of articles on the Armenian Question in “La Marseillese”. Starting from 1948, Verneuil worked in cinema. He produced more than 40 films (“The Forbidden Fruit” (1952), “Maxim” (1958), “The President” (1961), among others, with the participation of world-class actors.
One of the best examples of contemporary cinematic art is Henri Verneuil’s “Mayrig”, a biographical film shot in 1991. It features the history of the Armenian family who survived the Armenian Genocide and migrated to France. In 1996, the film was awarded a César, and the script was translated and published into dozens of languages, becoming a credential for the adamant-like spirit and revival of Armenians. -0----