Childhood (1880 -1895)

Martiros Saryan was born on the 29th of February 1880 in the Armenian town of Novaya Nakhichevan, situated near the Don river in Russia (presently in Rostov-on-Don). Saryan's ancestors originated from Ani - the ancient capital of Armenia. As a result of migration, some Armenians settled in the Crimea. At the end of the 18th century, Russian Queen Catherine the II granted lands on the banks of the Don river in Russia to armenians displaced from the Crimea by the Tatars. The parents of future artist owned a farmstead near the Sambek River. The Saryans usually spent the summer in a small house built by their father Sarkis. Saryan would recall his childhood years in the steppe with special inspiration. This was the time when an inexhaustible admiration for the versatile and multicolored nature conceived in his heart: 'I saw everything appear in the glow of the sunlight - slender corn and grass alternately, covered with myriad flowers, with bees and butterflies hovering above… All that impetuously attracted me. I was charmed. I entered the grain field dipping myself into the world of dreams. I walked for a long time and after getting tired I fell asleep on the ground like on my mother's bosom' (from unpublished manuscripts). The childish perception of the world forever designated the role of the natural sunlight and sheer colors in the artist's visual perception of the world.