Pictures of peasant life. Peasant weddings in Russian painting

From the very beginning, the crusades, the goal of which was declared as the liberation of Christian shrines from the Gentiles, assumed the presence of serious opponents. Moreover, when the change in the nature of the crusades became obvious, as aimed primarily at conquering new lands and obtaining rich booty, the struggle against the crusaders became even more fierce. A classic example of the struggle against the crusaders is the activity of Alexander Nevsky. . Moreover, it is characteristic that the crusaders opposed Nevsky in both of his famous battles.

Crusaders came not only from the west, but also from the north

It is well known that the large European feudal lords and the Catholic Church used the crusaders to move east, to the lands of the East Slavic and Baltic tribes. However, the threat from the Crusaders to the northwestern Russian lands, to Novgorod and Pskov, came not only from the west, but also from the north. From the end of the 12th century, there was a struggle between the Russians and the Swedes to establish influence over the Izhora lands. In the 13th century, this struggle intensified: the Swedes used the ideology of the Crusades for a military invasion of the Izhorian lands (supposedly for missionary purposes in order to convert local pagan tribes to Christianity) and repeatedly ravaged the Novgorod lands themselves. One of these campaigns of the Swedish and Norwegian crusaders took place in the summer of 1240. The moment was chosen well: Rus' had just survived the terrible invasion of the Mongol-Tatar army, and even the Novgorod and Pskov lands, where the invasion did not reach, were seriously weakened both from an economic and military point of view - in the event of an external danger, they could not help troops from other principalities could come.

The plot of the Battle of the Neva is known: the young prince Alexander Yaroslavovich, who was in Novgorod as the plenipotentiary representative of his father, Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, having received news of the appearance of a detachment of crusaders, decided to act quickly. Usually, in such cases, a lot of time was spent gathering a full-fledged militia, and the crusaders often relied on this in their predatory raids: they managed to loot and hide before the Russian troops reached the scene. Alexander, however, decided to act quickly and go on a campaign only with the prince's retinue. The preparations were so swift that, according to the chronicle, not even all wealthy citizens of Novgorod who wanted to join the campaign managed to do so. As a result, on July 15, 1240, Alexander with his retinue suddenly attacked the crusader camp at the mouth of the Izhora River and, thanks to the effect of surprise, skillful actions of the soldiers and personal courage, defeated the enemy. Russian losses amounted to several dozen people, while there were hundreds of killed Swedes and Norwegians. After this crusader campaign ended ingloriously.

Ice battle - maybe not an ice battle, but a battle

If the fact that the Swedish and Norwegian soldiers who participated in the Battle of the Neva , were crusaders, it is not known so widely (usually these knights are portrayed simply as robbers), then everyone knows that in the Battle of the Ice Alexander Nevsky fought with the crusaders. In 1240 - 1242, the newly formed Livonian Order, which became a division of the powerful Teutonic Order, undertook a large-scale campaign against Russian lands. At that time, the Novgorod ruling circles expelled Alexander Nevsky, fearing his excessive strengthening. In the absence of a talented commander, the Novgorod and Pskov military leaders could not adequately resist the crusaders, who captured Izborsk and Pskov and really threatened Novgorod. In 1241, Alexander Nevsky was again called to reign, who began a military campaign against the Livonian Order.

Nevsky again managed to use the speed of decision-making and partly caught the crusaders by surprise - they did not expect such swift actions from him and did not have time to send reinforcements to Pskov, which was again taken by Russian troops. However, then it was necessary to gather significant forces, because the general battle was approaching, and the forces of the Livonian Order and their allies were a more serious enemy than the Swedish and Norwegian crusaders of 1240. Alexander gathered an impressive Novgorod militia, and also waited for the arrival of his brother Andrei with the troops of the Suzdal principality. As a result, the number of Russian troops participating in the battle on Lake Peipsi is estimated by experts at 15-17 thousand people. The Livonian Order also gathered an impressive army - up to 12 thousand soldiers.

General battle of the "northern crusade”, as the campaign of 1240-1242 was called in the official sources of the crusaders, took place on April 5, 1242 on Lake Peipsi. Rather, apparently, it still took place on the shore, and not on the ice of the lake. Since the ideally even "relief" of the lake was better suited for the battle formations of the crusaders, and the weight of a heavily armed Russian soldier was not inferior to the weight of a crusader "in full uniform". In addition, the chronicles of the crusaders indicate that the battle was on the ground. Most likely, the battle got its name, the Battle of the Ice, due to the fact that the defeated crusaders retreated precisely on the ice of the lake and there they were overtaken by the Russians. The exact losses of the Russian troops are unknown, but they were comparable to the losses of the crusaders: the Russian chronicles speak of 400 Germans killed and 50 taken prisoner. The chronicles of the crusaders mention 20 killed and 6 prisoners, but this should not be misleading: they mean full members, the elite of the Order, brother knights, without taking into account ordinary soldiers.

Alexander Babitsky

Venetsianov is called the singer of peasant life. The peasant theme did not correspond to the prevailing aesthetic views of the audience of the time in which the artist lived. His predilection for the "low genre" caused misunderstanding. The best paintings found their audience only decades after the death of the painter.

Acquaintance of children with the work of Venetsianov should begin with preschool age. I offer educational material for children about the biography and paintings of the artist.
Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov - creator new topic in Russian painting. His work was original, free and original. He created, obeying his mind, listening to his heart, and did not seek to please anyone with his paintings.

A. G. Venetsianov was born in Moscow in 1780. His ancestors were immigrants from Greece. Father Gavril Yuryevich was a merchant and saw his successor in his son. Alexey s early years drew pictures and painted from nature. It was pointless to fight his son's passion, and his father bought him the book "A Curious Artist and Craftsman." From the memoirs of the artist's nephew N. Venetsianov, it is known that little Alexei had a teacher Pakhomych, who taught him how to prepare paints, make a primer on the canvas and stretch the canvas on a stretcher. Venetsianov studied at a private boarding school, after which he worked in the Drawing Department.

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In 1802 the artist moved to Petersburg. In 1807, he entered the service of the Post Office. There Venetsianov met the famous portrait painter V. L. Borovikovsky. So the novice painter found himself in the center of artistic life and in the circle of famous Russian writers and artists. In the same year, he began publishing the first humorous leaflet in Russia, “Journal of Caricatures of 1808 in Faces,” which was later banned by censorship for satire of officials.

In 1811, for the self-portrait submitted to the Academy of Arts, the artist received the title of "appointed". This stage could be overcome by all those who did not study at the Academy. A year later, Venetsianov completed the program, receiving the title of "academician". During the Patriotic War of 1812, Venetsianov created a series of caricatures of the French and gallomaniac nobles.

In 1815 the artist married a girl from noble family M. A. Azaryeva. A year later, the daughter of Alexander was born, three years later - the daughter of Felicity. In 1818, the Venetsianov family bought a small estate in the Tver region. From the memoirs of daughter Alexandra:

“Our peasants loved papa very much, and he took care of them like a father. Our poorest peasant had two horses, but for the most part four and six ... "

In Safonkovo, Venetsianov painted pictures of peasant life and portraits. These works, created from nature, are included in a number of new artistic direction, which was based on true reflection life. Here is what he wrote about the difficult path of the artist:

"The brush of the modern painter is often driven by need and politeness, and he is forced to deviate from the truth and sully his dignity."

In 1820, the artist began to teach talented peasant children the craft of a painter. Over time, a group was formed known as the “Venetsianov School”. The teacher attached many of his students to the Academy of Arts. Venetsianov told his students:

"Talents then develop when they are led along the paths to which nature has assigned them."

He himself walked the path appointed by nature.

In 1824 he exhibited "peasant" canvases at the Academy of Arts. The Academic Council rejected the artist's sketches for a competitive painting, which would open the way for him to the title of "painting adviser".

In 1830, Venetsianov received the title of "Artist of the Sovereign Emperor." He was assigned an annual salary of 3,000 rubles and was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 4th degree.

In 1831, his wife Marfa Afanasyevna died, leaving two young daughters to be raised by her father. In 1833, the father of Gavrila Yurievich died. The maintenance of the school demanded exorbitant expenses. For 20 years, more than 70 students have passed the school. Many students became famous artists: N.S. Krylov, L. K. Plakhov, A. V. Tyranov, A. A. Alekseev, G. V. Soroka…

Wanderers, monks, icon painters found shelter in Safonkovo ​​... Venetsianov stopped exhibiting his paintings. He had to mortgage his estate, take on commissioned works: portraits and icons for churches. In recent years, he suffered from a breakdown, fainted. On December 4, 1847, the artist was carrying sketches of icons from Safonkovo ​​to Tver. On the descent from the mountain, the horses suffered, and he was thrown out of the sleigh. This trip ended in tragedy.

"Zakharka" 1825

The portrait of a peasant boy is painted from a real person. Zakharka was the son of a peasant Fedula Stepanov. In the image of Zakharka, the artist showed a small hard-working peasant. His clothes, hat, mittens were not the right size. Not according to his age, they gave him a job. The boy is holding an ax on his shoulder.

Zakharka has been working since childhood and knows that the life of the whole family depends on his work. The boy's eyes are set aside, but the concentrated look captivates with simplicity, naturalness, kindness. Soft facial features, plump lips, huge pensive eyes, a turn of the head create at the same time a feeling of naivety and seeming adulthood, harshness. Looking into the face of a peasant boy, the viewer understands that it is on such simple workers that the world is kept.

Read and discuss with the child the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “A man with a fingernail”

Once upon a time in the cold winter time,
I came out of the forest; there was severe frost.
I look, it rises slowly uphill
Horse carrying firewood.
And, marching importantly, in serenity.
A man is leading a horse by the bridle
In big boots, in a sheepskin coat,
In big mittens ... and himself with a fingernail!
- Hello, boy! - “Go past yourself!”
- Painfully you are formidable, as I can see!
Where are the firewood from? - “From the forest, of course;
Father, you hear, cuts, and I take away.
(The woodcutter's ax was heard in the forest.)
- What about the father? big family? -
“The family is big, yes two people
All the men, something: my father and I ... "
- So there it is! What's your name? -
"Vlas".
- And what year are you? - “The sixth passed ...
Well, dead!" shouted the little one in a bass voice.
He jerked by the bridle and walked faster ...

As you discuss the poem, ask your child the following questions:

• Who does the poet Nekrasov talk about in his work? (About a boy)
• What's his name? How old is he?
• What is he doing in the forest? (carry brushwood)
• Why does Vlas have big boots and mittens? (Clothes were worn in a poor peasant family all in turn)
• How does Vlas behave? What is he? (hardworking, important, formidable, responsible…)

Consider the picture of Venetsianov "Zakharka". Ask your son (daughter) to answer the questions:

• Who is in this picture? How old is he? (7-9 years old)
• What is he holding in his hand? (Tool)
• Where is he going? (He goes to work)
• Why is the boy working? (He lives in a peasant family. Peasant children helped their parents from an early age)
• What feelings do you have for the hero of the picture? What is he? (Serious, thoughtful, strong, confident…)
• What do these two works have in common? (The main character of Nekrasov's poem and Venetsianov's painting is a village boy).
• How are Vlas and Zakharka similar? (Vlas and Zakharka know how to work. They are both from a peasant family, and, despite their young age, they work hard and consider themselves adults).
• How do the poet Nekrasov and the artist Venetsianov treat their heroes? (Nekrasov is experiencing to his little hero pity and tenderness, calling the boy "a man with a fingernail." However, he admires his maturity and prudence: "The family is big, but two people. There are only men: my father, yes I ...". Venetsianov's feelings for Zakharka are conveyed in the very image of the hero. The portrait is full of emotions: the turn of the head and the boy's habitual handling of the instrument speak of a sense of adulthood, childhood give out facial features and the size of clothes).

At the end of the acquaintance with the picture, you can invite the child to learn Nekrasov's poem.

« Sleeping shepherd boy (between 1823-1826)

Summer day. The sun is shining brightly, illuminating with its rays the blue sky, a mirror-like river, green banks, wooded hills, distant arable land ... Here is a row of peasant houses with vegetable gardens fenced with palisades. A peasant woman carries water from the river. The village lives its unpretentious life, which is closely connected with nature.

In the foreground is a shepherd sleeping sweetly. He is wearing warm homespun clothes with a red belt, on his feet are bast shoes with onuchs. His right leg is extended forward, his arms are relaxed. In the image of a poor shepherdess, the harmony of man and nature is visible.

Ask the child to describe the picture. Ask him a few questions:

• What season is shown in the picture?
• How is nature depicted?
• What mood does the artist convey to us, the audience?
• What is the boy doing? (asleep)
• What does he do in his life? (grazing cows).
• What family is he from? What clothes does he have? (He is dressed in a shirt, trousers and an army coat).
• What is he wearing? (in bast shoes with onuchs).

When considering the clothes and shoes of the hero of the picture, parents should pay attention to the development of the child's vocabulary. It is necessary to explain to him the meaning of ancient words that have fallen into disuse today, such as armyak, ports, bast shoes, bast, bast, onuch ...

Word "ports" means long, narrow pants, Armenian- a peasant caftan sewn from Armenian. caftan- men's outerwear, similar to a bathrobe. Armenian- woolen fabric.

Bast shoes- the type of footwear that was used in every peasant family. They were woven from linden bast, from willow and oak bark. Lyko- young bast, fibrous, fragile underbark from any tree. Lub- the inner part of the bark of young trees. Onucha- a piece of dense cloth, wrapped around the leg when wearing bast shoes or boots.

After discussing the painting, invite your son or daughter to write a short story using the old words.

The date of the portrait's creation is unknown.

A young girl looks at the world openly and timidly. A pure, innocent soul is reflected in living eyes. A sincere look beckons with mystery. Her lips curled into a slight smile. Her brown hair is slicked back. A blue scarf carefully frames a delicate face. She does not know evil and the heavy peasant lot, believes in good, trusts people ...

This is not a peasant woman exhausted by labor, but a young beauty. Even in the way a girl holds her hand, there is a nobility of manners and feelings. The artist depicted an image full of harmony and youthful charm. He is sure that the young peasant woman brings light to the world and deserves happiness in life.

"Reapers" 1825

The picture shows a scene from peasant life, which the artist observed in the field, at the reaping work. The heroes of the picture are the peasant woman Anna Stepanovna and her son Zakharka. The reaper stopped to rest, and at that moment two butterflies landed on her hand. Her sad, tired look is striking. Doom is hidden in the eyes, a half-smile plays on the face. Holding her hand in the air, she shows the arriving beauties to her son. The boy examines them with surprise and interest. He enjoys life. The main idea of ​​the picture is that the peasants are close to nature, admire its beauty, imbued with it.

For a deeper depiction of the heavy peasant life, the artist uses individual details: a canvas women's shirt darkened from work, a sundress sewn from patches, a heat on the face of the reaper, exhausted tender hands holding a sickle, weathered fingers of a boy ... No matter how cruel fate is, the peasant woman strives to beauty. This is reminiscent of her modest beads.

“On the arable land. Spring" 1820

Early morning. A young peasant woman in a red sundress and a smart kokoshnik harrows the arable land. The first day of plowing was a real holiday. The peasants went out into the fields in their best clothes. The picture is full of allegories. The goddess of spring is embodied in the image of a woman. She smoothly steps on the arable land with bare feet. The horses pulling the plow obediently obey their mistress. On the outskirts of the field, a baby is playing, dressed in one shirt. A young mother admires her firstborn, entrusting him to mother earth. The child represents the beginning of life. On the plowed field, greenery is visible. Here, young trees grow next to a dried-up clumsy stump. In the distance, as if in a circle, another peasant woman leads the horses. This simple plot depicts the eternal cycle of life: the renewal of nature due to the change of seasons, its birth and decay.

“In the harvest. Summer" 1820

The picture is a window into the big world of peasant worries. A harvested rye field stretches to the very horizon in some places. The yellow field glistens from the sun-hot air. Visible in the distance female figures reapers. The harvest goes on as usual - haystacks are knitted.

In the foreground sits a mother breastfeeding her baby. The older children brought him to feed him. A sickle lies next to the woman. The reaper looks at the ripe field, pressing the child to her heart. She has a job that needs to be done in a short time. In this picture, the artist showed an idyll - the beauty of peasant everyday life and the charm of Russian nature, hiding all the hardships of peasant labor.

The main theme of Venetsianov's work is man on earth, his connection with nature. The artist showed on his canvases the daily activities of the peasants, their way of life, characters, relationships with the outside world. He played his first violin in painting masterfully. This is the true value of the artist A. G. Venetsianov.

Dear reader! I invite you to take a tour of the work of the Russian painter A. G. Venetsianov. I wish you and your children pleasant impressions and emotions!

The peasant - the representative of the "silent majority" - did not occupy any prominent place in the visual arts until the 19th century, before the era of social revolutions and urbanization, with which the formation of modern nations and the construction of their mythology was associated. In the Romantic era of the beginning of the century, the cultural image villager acquired a specific meaning in Europe: when the nation was understood as a collective body growing from the eternal soil, it was the tiller who began to be perceived as its purest, fullest, unalloyed incarnation. But in the public mind Russia XIX century, the peasantry occupied a very special place: it became in fact a synonym for the concept of "nation", and the rural worker turned into a moral standard for various political and intellectual movements. Our art, with unprecedented clarity, embodied this process of visual self-knowledge of the country and the formation of the image of the peasantry as the backbone of Russia.

It must be said that by the second half of the 18th century European painting knew only a few basic models of depicting the peasantry. The first took shape in Venice in the 16th century. Its appearance was sanctioned by a literary tradition dating back to the poem "Georgics" by the Roman poet Virgil, in which hard labour farmers acted as a guarantee of harmony with nature. Repaying-ni-em for him served as agreement with the laws of natural existence established from the ages, which the inhabitants of cities are deprived of. The second mode developed in the urbanized Holland of the 17th century: in the long-winded genre scenes, the peasants appeared as an amusing, sometimes rude, intemperate, and therefore worthy audience. cheerful smile or malicious ridicule that lifted the urban viewer in their own eyes. Finally, during the Enlightenment, another way of presenting the peasant as a noble, sensitive villager was born, whose natural morality stemmed from closeness to nature and served as a reproach to the depraved man of civilization.

Ivan Argunov. Portrait of an unknown woman in Russian costume. 1784

Mikhail Shibanov. Celebration of the wedding contract. 1777State Tretyakov Gallery

Ivan Ermenev. Singing blind. Watercolor from the "Beggars" series. 1764–1765

In this regard, the survivor Russia XVIII century did not show up against the European background. We can find isolated examples of images of representatives of the lower social strata, and the circumstances of the creation of some works of this kind are not always clear. Such are the cunning "Portrait of an Unknown Woman in Russian Costume" by Ivan Argunov (1784), the calmly noble "Feast of the Wedding Contract" by Mikhail Shibanov (1777) or the cruelly truthful images of the beggars by Ivan Ermenev. Visual comprehension of the "people's" space of Russia at first took place within the framework of ethnography. Atlases - descriptions of the empire were provided with detailed illustrations representing social and ethnic types: from the peasants of the European provinces to the inhabitants of Kamchatka. It is natural that the artist's attention was primarily focused on original costumes, hairstyles, physiognomic features that emphasize the originality of the characters depicted, and in this respect, such engravings differed slightly from illustrations for descriptions of exotic lands - America or Oceania.

The situation changed in the 19th century, when a person "from the plow" began to be perceived as the bearer of the spirit of the nation. But if in France or Germany of that time in the image of the “people” as a whole the peasantry occupied only a certain, albeit important share, in Russia there were two decisive circumstances that made the problem of its image a key one. The first is the westernization of the elite under Peter. The dramatic social difference between the minority and the majority was at the same time a cultural difference: the nobility lived "in a European way", and the vast majority of the people to one degree or another followed the customs of their ancestors, which deprived the two parts of the nation common language. Second the most important factor- serfdom, abolished only on February 19, 1861, which was evidence of a deep moral vice that underlay Russian life. Thus, the suffering peasant, the peasant victim of injustice, became the bearer of genuine social and cultural values.

The turning point was Patriotic War 1812, when in the fight against foreign invasion Russia, at least in the face of higher strata, realized itself as one. It was the patriotic upsurge that first set the task of visually embodying the nation. In the propaganda cartoons of Ivan Terebenev and Alexei Venetsianov, the Russian people who defeated the French were in most cases presented in the form of a peasant. But the “high” art oriented towards the universal ancient ideal was not able to solve this problem. In 1813, Vasily Demut-Malinovsky created the "Russian Scaevola" statue, which reproduced an unlikely story spread by patriotic propaganda. The sculpture depicts a peasant who cuts off his hand with a Napoleonic brand with an ax and thus follows the example of the legendary Roman hero. The rural worker is endowed here with an ideal, evenly developed body of heroes ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles. A curly beard seems to be a sure sign of the nationality, but even a cursory comparison of the head of the statue with images of the Roman emperors Lucius Verus or Marcus Aurelius destroys this illusion. Of the obvious signs of ethnic and social affiliation, only an Orthodox pectoral cross and a peasant ax remain.

"Russian Scaevola". Sculpture by Vasily Demut-Malinovsky. 1813 State Tretyakov Gallery

A new word on this path was the painting of Venetsianov. Free from the bathroom based on the ancient canon and offering ready-made solutions academic school, the artist made his own serfs the heroes of his canvases. The peasant women and peasants of Venetsianov are for the most part devoid of sentimental idealization, which is characteristic, for example, of similar images of Vasily Tropinin. On the other hand, they are immersed in a special harmonious world, only partly connected with reality. Venetsianov often depicts peasants in moments of rest, sometimes completely out of sync with their occupations. Such, for example, are the paintings of the 1820s “The Sleeping Shepherd” and “The Reapers”: a mother and son with sickles in their hands, frozen for a moment so as not to frighten away the hives that sat on their hands. For a second, a frozen butterfly conveys the fleetingness of a stopped moment. But here it is important that Venetsianov immortalizes his workers in a brief moment of rest, thus granting them the privilege in the eyes of the viewer. free man- leisure.

Alexey Venetsianov. Sleeping shepherd. 1823–1826State Russian Museum

Alexey Venetsianov. Reapers. Late 1820sState Russian Museum

Turgenev's Notes of a Hunter (1847-1852) became an important milestone in the understanding of the peasant. In them, the peasant was seen as an equal, worthy of the same close look and careful penetration into the character as the noble heroes of the novels. The trend that gradually unfolded in Russian literature of the middle of the century, which opened up folk life, can be described in the words of Nekrasov, known from the memoirs of a contemporary:

“... I increased the material processed by poetry, by the personalities of the peasants ... Before me, never depicted, were millions of living beings! They asked for a loving look! And whatever a person is, then a mu-che-nick, whatever life is, then a tragedy!

In the wake of the social upsurge caused by the Great Reforms of the 1860s (primarily the emancipation of the serfs), Russian art following literature, included in its field of vision exclusively wide circle everyday phenomena. The main thing is that it has moved from neutral descriptiveness to social and moral evaluation. It is no coincidence that at that time the everyday genre clearly dominated painting. He allowed the artist to represent a variety of types and characters, to play in front of the audience typical situations from the life of various strata of society. The peasantry was so far only one of the objects of interest of artists - however, it was scenes from rural life that allowed the appearance of works in which the accusatory pathos of the "sixties" manifested itself with the greatest distinctness.

Rural procession at Easter. Painting by Vasily Perov. 1861 State Tretyakov Gallery

In 1862, at the insistence of the Synod, a painting by the leader of the new artistic generation, Vasily Perov, "Rural Procession at Easter" (1861) was removed from the permanent exhibition of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. The procession stretching under the gloomy sky, kneading the spring mud with their feet, made it possible to show a cross-section of the rural world, where vice captured everyone - from the priest and wealthy peasants to the last poor. If the well-dressed participants in the procession only turned pink from what they had drunk and eaten, then other characters demonstrate deeper stages of degradation and profanation of shrines: a ragged man carries the image upside down, and a drunken priest, walking from the porch, crushes the Easter egg.

At the same time, a new image of the peasants' habitat, free from idealization, came into Russian painting. The most impressive example is Pyotr Sukhodolsky's Noon in the Village (1864). This is a protocol-accurate image of a specific area - the village of Zhelny, Mosalsky district, Kaluga province: huts and sheds with perpetually holey roofs scattered without visible order (only in the background is the construction of a new house visible), lean trees, a swampy stream. The summer heat caught the inhabitants in their daily activities: women carry water or wash clothes, children play by the barn, men sleep in the sun, representing the same element of the landscape as a spotted pig that fell on its side, a harrow thrown directly into the grass or a plow stuck in a puddle that does not dry out. .

Afternoon in the village. Painting by Pyotr Sukhodolsky. 1864 State Russian Museum

From Gogol's colorful descriptions of a hot rural day, this view is distinguished by the objective view of the painter, devoid of visible emotion. In a certain sense, this depiction of the Russian countryside is even more bleak than Perov's demonstratively but tendentious picture. Meanwhile, the society of that time was obviously ready for such a spectacle: in 1864 Sukhodolsky received the Great Gold Medal of the Academy of Arts for this painting, and in 1867 it was shown in the Russian department of the World Exhibition in Paris. However, it should be noted that in more later years Russian painters painted the village as such relatively rarely, preferring to represent the peasants in a different environment.

The depiction of characters from the people in the 1860s was distinguished, as a rule, by the openly declared position of the artist: it was a publicly demanded criticism of social injustice and moral decline, the main victims of which were “humiliated and insulted”. Using the well-developed narrative tools of genre painting, the artist told "stories" that were similar in their rhetoric to theatrical mise-en-scenes.

The next decade brought a more multidimensional image of the people, which is becoming more and more clearly associated with the social lower classes. Instead of a silent reproach to the educated classes, the "simple" person becomes a moral model for them. This trend was expressed in its own way in the novels and journalism of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. The socialist ideology of populism is also connected with it, with its idealization of the peasant community as not only the economic, but also the socio-ethical core of the nation. But although Russian painting was in the general ideological context of the era, literal parallels between it, literature or journalism are far from always appropriate. For example, the realism professed by members of the most influential artistic association of the second half of the 19th century, the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, can hardly be understood as a direct analogy to the populist understanding of the peasantry.

For centuries, the depiction of a man from the people in European and Russian art suggested a distance between the character and the viewer, who invariably retained his privileged position. Now toolkit psychological analysis, worked out by literature and built up by realistic painting XIX century, was to be applied to the commoner-din. “... Its inner essence ... is not some kind of special and curious, but a universal human essence, drawing its originality exclusively from the external situation,” Saltykov-Shchedrin argued in 1868. In a similar way, one can describe the aspirations of the Wandering realism of the 1870s and 80s.

Illarion Pryanishnikov. Kaliki are transitional. 1870State Tretyakov Gallery

Illarion Pryanishnikov. Fire victims. 1871Private collection / rusgenre.ru

Nikolay Yaroshenko. Blind. 1879Samara Regional Art Museum

Ivan Kramskoy. contemplator. 1876

The other side of the individualizing view was the alignment of the psycho-logical and social typology people. Ivan Kramskoy wrote in 1878: "... the type, and only for the time being, one type is today the entire historical task of our art." The search for such types of Russian painting was conducted throughout the 1870s. Among them stand out images of people, one way or another cut off from the roots, who, by their way of life or system of thought, are separated from the established way of life - a kind of children of the upheaval carried out by the reform of 1861. Such are the Passing Kaliki (1870) and the Pogoreltsy (1871) by Pryanishnikov, Sharvin's The Tramp (1872), Yaroshenko's Blind Men (1879) or Kramskoy's The Contemplator (1876), which Dostoevsky used in The Brothers Karamazov to characterize Smerdyakov:

“... in the forest, on the road, in a torn cafta-niche and bast shoes, stands alone, in the deepest solitude, a peasant wandered ... but he does not think, but “contemplates” something.<…>... Maybe, suddenly, having accumulated impressions over many years, he will leave everything and go to Jerusalem, wander and escape, or maybe he will suddenly burn his native village, or maybe both will happen together.

Barge Haulers on the Volga. Painting by Ilya Repin. 1872-1873 years State Russian Museum

The turning point in relation to folk images is associated with Ilya Repin's (1872-1873) Barge Haulers on the Volga, whose heroes were precisely people uprooted from their familiar soil. By following how the artist’s attitude to the dramaturgy of his canvas changed, one can understand how in painting as a whole there was a transition from genre narrative and a patronizing-pitying look to an image where folk organism becomes self-sufficient. Repin abandoned the original idea of ​​confronting the city's "pure" society at a picnic with "dank, terrible monsters" - from the depiction of an episode that he himself witnessed. IN final version he created a canvas, the paradoxicality of which eludes the modern viewer. Before us is a large canvas that instantly stops the visitor of the exhibition: the blue sky, the blue of the river and the sand of the Volga banks create an exceptionally strong color chord. But this is not a landscape or a genre canvas: Repin consistently refuses those compositional decisions that suggest some kind of plot plot. He chooses the moment when eleven people almost stopped, as if posing for a painter. This is actually a group portrait of people who are at the very bottom of Russian society. Looking at the canvas, we can read the characters and origin of barge haulers: from the stoic sage priest-stripper Kanin (the root of the human team) to the young Larka, as if resisting his fate (the brightest figure in the center of this gloomy row is a young barge hauler, in right -laying strap). On the other hand, eleven people, pulling a huge bark, turn into a many-headed creature, make up a single body. If we take into account that barge haulers are presented against the backdrop of a river expanse, behind them is depicted a ship drawn by them (an old symbol of the human community) under the Russian merchant flag, then we have to admit that we have before us a collective image of the people, appearing at the same time in desperate poverty and primordial natural force.

The public reaction to "Barge haulers" is indicative: conservative criticism deliberately emphasized the "tendentiousness" of the picture, believing that "this is Nekrasov's poem, transferred to the canvas, a reflection of his" civil tears "". But observers as varied as Dostoevsky and Stasov saw Burlaki as an objective image of reality. Dostoevsky wrote:

“None of them shouts from the picture to the viewer: “Look how unhappy I am and to what extent you owe the people!” ... -nom his position.

A peculiar result of the assessment of the canvas summed up Grand Duke Vladimir Aleksan-dro-vich, who bought it for 3,000 rubles. In his palace, "Barge haulers" remained until.

Vasily Petrov. Fomushka-owl. 1868State Tretyakov Gallery

Ilya Repin. A timid man. 1877Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum

Ilya Repin. The man with the evil eye. 1877State Tretyakov Gallery

In the 1870s, realistic painting strives not only to show "social ulcers", but also to find a positive beginning in Russian life. In the work of the Wanderers, it is embodied in the landscape (Savrasov, Shish-kin) and portraits of the intelligentsia (Kramskoy, Perov, Repin). It was the portrait genre that opened up the possibility of combining the typical and the specific in folk images, made it possible to focus primarily on the character of a person and accept him as an equal. These are Perov's Fomushka the Owl (1868), Repin's The Timid Man and The Man with the Evil Eye (both 1877). But at the exhibitions, the images of specific peasants were not accidentally called “studies”: the portrait still retained the status of a social privilege.

Forester. Painting by Ivan Kramskoy. 1874 State Tretyakov Gallery

Kramskoy advanced further than anyone along the path of creating a strong and independent peasant character. Commenting in a letter to the collector Pavel Tretyakov on the study "Woodsman" (1874), depicting a forester in a hat shot through, Kramskoy wrote:

“... one of those types ... who are a lot of social and political system folk life understand with their minds and who have deep-seated displeasure, bordering on hatred. From such people, in difficult moments, Stenka Razina, Pugachevs recruit their gangs, and in ordinary times they act alone, where and how they have to, but they never reconcile.

Ivan Kramskoy. Peasant with a bridle. 1883National Museum "Kyiv Art Gallery"

Ivan Kramskoy. Mina Moiseev. 1882State Russian Museum

The most perfect embodiment of this approach to the folk type was Kramskoy's Peasant with a Bridle (1883). This is an infrequent case when we know the hero of the canvas - a resident of the village of Siversky near St. Petersburg. Preceding the picture by just one year, the study bears the name of the model - “Mina Moiseev”. A man with a gray beard and a wrinkled, tanned face in a casual blue shirt crossed his arms over his chest and leaned forward, as if engaged in a conversation. A characteristic pose, leaving a feeling of the hero's involvement in some process external to the picture, and a look directed outward and to the side, do not allow us to attribute this canvas to portraits in the strict sense of the word. On the contrary, the title of the canvas, where the image of Mina Moiseev is given worthy solidity, no longer contains the name of its hero, presenting now the peasant as such. This generalized character of the image was realized by Kramskoy himself. In a letter to the entrepreneur Tereshchenko, who later purchased the painting, the artist wrote that he was offering "a large study of the 'Russian peasant', in the form in which they discuss their village affairs."

It is the portrait-type that Kramskoy creates: Mina Moiseev is depicted straightened up, in the same worn blue shirt. An overcoat is thrown over it, a bridle hangs on the elbows of the left hand. The peasant is shown with undisguised sympathy, but it is unlikely that he himself would have agreed to appear before his descendants in this form: his hair is combed hastily, his shirt collar is open, and the coarse clothes thrown over his shoulders are torn somewhere, and somewhere patched up. If the hero of the canvas ordered his image himself, he would be depicted with well-groomed hair and a beard, dressed in the best outfit and, most likely, with some sign of prosperity, for example, a samovar: this is how we see in the photographs of wealthy peasants of that pores.

Of course, the addressee of this canvas was an educated visitor to the exhibition, and Kramskoy counted on his visual experience when creating this canvas, deliberately ascetic and noble in color. The figure of a peasant, depicted knee-deep, turns into a pyramid - a simple monumental form. The viewer looks at him as if from below. This technique, in its forced version, was used by Baroque portrait painters to convey an impression of majesty to their heroes. A stick in the hard-working hands of a peasant-nin, which may well be a pitchfork or a shovel handle, seems like a staff, that is, a traditional sign of authority, and a poor mantle full of holes appears as the embodiment of artless simplicity noble man. These concise, but effective means Kramskoy forms the image of his hero as a person endowed with an unintentional feeling dignity and inner benevolent strength, “common sense, clarity and positivity in the mind,” as Belinsky once wrote about the properties of the Russian peasant.

The arrival of a sorcerer at a peasant wedding. Painting by Vasily Maksimov. 1875 State Tretyakov Gallery

1870s brought out genre painting on new level. At the 6th traveling exhibition in 1875, Vasily Maksimov showed the painting "The Arrival of a Sorcerer at a Peasant Wedding". The artist himself came from a peasant family, he knew well rural life, and the picture was based on his childhood memory of the appearance of a mysterious and somewhat sinister village character at the wedding of his older brother. This multi-figured composition, which is larger than a standard genre painting, gives the peasant plots a new dimension. The urban viewer is faced with a situation where he is completely alien, he has no key to what is happening, and the peasants - young and old - are lined up in a subtly nuanced mise-en-scene, where everything - both the measured ritual of the holiday, and the appearance of an intruder - inherently belongs to the peasant world. Maximov organizes his narration without overt action, skillfully creating the psychological tension of the situation, the meaning of which may not be completely clear to an external viewer. This is the peasants' own world, in which they behave appropriately, without thinking about an outside observer. Maximov seemed to respond to Shchedrin's expectation:

Vasily Maksimov. Blind owner. 1884State Russian Museum

Vasily Maksimov. Family section. 1876State Tretyakov Gallery

Vladimir Makovsky. On the boulevard 1886State Tretyakov Gallery

Edgar Degas. Absinthe. 1876 Musee d'Orsay

Maximov more than once later turned to village life, his most notable works told about the hard fate of the people ("Sick Husband", 1881; "Blind Master", 1884). In his " Family section"(1876), as if on theater stage, in the presence of representatives of the community, a family strife is committed - the division of property. Opinions were expressed that such a deliberately played out conflict runs counter to the traditional ways of resolving disputes within the community, but be that as it may, this canvas indicates that itinerant painting was able to challenge perfect image peasant world, constructed by the populist intelligentsia. Another conflict, dictated by the social transformations of the era, is presented in Vladimir Makovsky's painting "On the Boulevard" (1886). On a bench sit a young festively dressed tipsy craftsman with a fashionable accordion and a wife with a baby who came to visit him from the village: this is one of the sharpest images of irreversible mutual alienation in Russian painting, evoking images of “loneliness together" by Edgar Degas (for example, his "Absinthe", 1875-1876).

Ilya Repin. The arrest of the propagandist. 1892 State Tretyakov Gallery

The failure of "going to the people" - a campaign of revolutionary propaganda in the countryside, crushed by the government in 1877 - showed the illusory nature of the populist hope for the socialist and collectivist principles of the Russian peasantry. This dramatic story for the opposition intelligentsia prompted Repin to work on the canvas "The Arrest of the Propaganda", which took almost a decade. Naturally, the peasants were to become important participants in the scene. But if central image paintings - an agitator tied to a pole and therefore evoking associations with the scourged Christ - remained compositionally almost unchanged, then the characters responsible for his capture were radically transformed. In early sketches, the pro-propagandist is tightly surrounded by those who seized him. local residents(one of them rummages in a suitcase with proclamations). But gradually, Repin actually removes direct blame from the common people for the catastrophic mutual misunderstanding between the peasantry and the intelligentsia, which became the basis for the failure of the populist sermon: in later versions of the composition, the peasants gradually left the forefront, and in the final version of the canvas, completed in 1892, they are almost completely relieved of responsibility for the arrest, being present as silent witnesses in the far corner of the hut. Only one of them helps the gendarme to restrain the violent captive, and the search is carried out by officials and policemen.

Ilya Repin. Reception of volost foremen by Emperor Alexander III in the courtyard of the Petrovsky Palace in Moscow on May 5, 1883. 1885-1886 State Tretyakov Gallery

Peasant occupied central location not only in populist and Slavic-Philo views, but also in the ideology of the Orthodox kingdom of Alexander III. The state has not yet considered art as a means of propaganda, and the image of a loyal peasantry is rarely found in Russian painting. But a noteworthy exception is Repin's painting "Reception of Volost Elders by Emperor Alexander III in the courtyard of the Petrovsky Palace in Moscow on May 5, 1883" (1885-1886), commissioned by the Ministry of the Imperial Court. Although the artist was dissatisfied with the fact that a quote from the royal speech marking the beginning of the reaction was placed on the magnificent frame of the canvas, the picture successfully represents the basic myth of the reign of Alexander III - a mystical union between self- holder and tillers over the heads of the elites. The sovereign rises here in the middle of a sun-drenched courtyard, he is surrounded by an attentive crowd of foremen, in which the whole empire is embodied: great Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars and Poles. All the other witnesses of the event, including royal family, crowded in the background.

In this vein is the opening by the artists of the Abramtsevo circle of the beauty of peasant art and attempts to renew the urban culture with its help. But at the same time, they mean that now the peasant world is becoming for artists not so much a social phenomenon as a bearer of eternal, universal artistic and national values. With its power and beauty, it will be able to inspire painters for a long time to come - from Philip Malyavin to Kazimir Malevich. But his artistic comprehension is now gradually but irreversibly losing that social and political relevance that allowed Russian painting of the 1860s-80s to create a unique image of the Russian peasant as the bearer of core social and moral values.

How is the work of the Russian artist with the sonorous surname Venetsianov most often defined? Paintings depicting genre scenes from peasant life are called the beginning of the national household genre in painting, a phenomenon that would eventually flourish in the era of the Wanderers.

But the magnitude of Venetsianov's artistic talent, the scale of his human personality had a huge impact on the development of Russian visual arts not only within the same genre. This becomes especially noticeable when looking closely at his canvases.

"Portrait of a mother" (1802)

Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov was born in 1780 into a Moscow merchant family with ancestors from Greece. In Russia, they received the nickname Veneziano, later converted into a Russian surname. When Alexei became interested in drawing, his studies did not seem like something serious to his parents. Maybe that's why he didn't get a regular art education. It is believed that he received the first knowledge about the technique of painting from the "uncle" - the educator, and the main source of art education that Venetsianov received was paintings by old masters in museums and creations contemporary painters in salons and galleries.

The main genre in Russian painting of that time was the portrait, and therefore the first painting experience of Venetsianov known to us belongs to this genre. mother - Anna Lukinichna, nee Kalashnikova.

It is noticeable how the twenty-two-year-old youth still lacks painting skills, how difficult it is for him to convey volume, air and light. But something else is also visible - his ability to convey different textures of fabric, sufficient confidence in the drawing. And most importantly, he managed to convey the feelings of his model: some embarrassment and tension of the mother from her unusual role and his tender attitude towards her.

"Self-portrait" (1811)

After 1802, Venetsianov moved to St. Petersburg, where he tried to make a name for himself and start earning a living through painting. Soon he was forced to enter the service of a minor official in the postal office. A happy chance allowed him to meet the famous portrait painter V. L. Borovikovsky (1757-1825), who highly appreciated the paintings of Venetsianov and became his mentor both in the profession and in life. Perhaps due to his influence, Venetsianov petitions the Academy of Arts for the official title of painter. According to the charter of the Academy, the applicant had to submit his work. To this end, Venetsianov paints a self-portrait.

In this picture, the high level of technical skill of the artist is already visible. This is an accurate and truthful work of a true realist, devoid of romantic touch and embellishment. The psychological depth of the image created by the artist was also highly appreciated. Here and attentive focus on work, and a clearly felt sense of self-esteem.

Venetsianov was defined by the Council of the Academy of Arts as "appointed" - one of the formal qualification levels of the artist, which made it possible to obtain the title of academician after completing a task assigned by the Council. Venetsianov becomes an academician after writing a given portrait of K. I. Golovachevsky.

"Barn" (1821)

Soon after receiving the title of academician of painting, Venetsianov unexpectedly leaves the capital and service and settles in his estate Safonkovo ​​in the Tver province. Here he creates his most significant works, dedicated to the poeticization of peasant life.

Before starting work on the painting “The Barn”, the artist ordered his serfs to dismantle the front wall in a large barn where grain was stored. He set himself the task of conveying depth, similar to those that struck him in the paintings of the French painter Francois Granet. In addition to the image of the room going into the distance, amazing for that time, the carefully adjusted composition of the figures of peasants and animals frozen in various poses impresses. They are full of ancient significance and amazing poetry.

The painting was highly appreciated by Emperor Alexander I, who bought it from the artist, and also presented the author with a diamond ring. This slightly eased his financial situation.

“On the arable land. Spring" (1820s)

Many paintings by Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov are full of secrets and mysteries that are still beyond the control of professionals and art lovers. Such is a small canvas (65 x 51 cm) with an almost Botticelli title and a poetic sound commensurate with greatest masterpieces Renaissance. It is believed that this picture is part of a cycle dedicated to the seasons.

The scene of peasant labor appears as an action full of sacred, cosmic meaning. The figure of a young woman who went to hard work, wearing her best clothes, a child on the edge of the field, making the plot look like an icon of the Virgin, the mirror figure of another peasant woman leaving in the depths - everything is full of mysteries. The landscape is filled with significance and great simplicity, against which these ordinary and at the same time majestic events take place. Alexei Venetsianov, whose paintings are difficult to attribute to certain genre, is considered one of the founders of the Russian poetic landscape.

"Reapers" (1820s)

But the main genre for Venetsianov remains the portrait, and the main task he solves is the expression of genuine interest and respect for those he portrays. High pictorial skill, combined with laconicism and sophistication of the composition, enhances the impression that Venetsianov has on the viewer. the contents of which can fit into a few phrases, amaze with depth and versatility, even if their heroes are simple peasants.

On the hand of the reaper, who stopped for a moment to rest, two butterflies sat down. A boy looks at them over his shoulder, mesmerized by their beauty. The artist painted almost a snag - it seems that now the light wings will flutter and disappear in the summer heat. The main characters are just as real - their faces, hands, clothes. The feelings expressed by the young woman and the child also seem real, and most importantly, one can feel how Venetsianov admires them.

"Morning of the landowner" (1823)

The role of Venetsianov as the founder of genre diversity in Russian painting is undeniable. One of the first he tried to draw attention to the special beauty of Russian nature, paving the way for future brilliant landscape painters - Levitan, Shishkin, Kuindzhi, Savrasov. In the portrait, he showed completely unusual main characters - people from the people. But the poeticization of the everyday genre was a particularly innovative phenomenon.

It is believed that the master made his wife, Marfa Afanasievna, and her serf girls the heroines of his painting. This explains the warm feeling that permeates this canvas. There is no confrontation between the hostess and her forced servants - it is more like a family scene in which the girls have their own dignity and calm beauty. The environment plays an equally important role in the picture: the lovingly painted filling of the interior and - what is especially striking - the soft, but all-filling light.

"Zakharka" (1825)

Peasant children are frequent characters in portraits and genre paintings that Venetsianov painted. Paintings "Sleeping Shepherd", "Here are those father's dinner”, “Shepherd with a horn” depict children not as incorporeal cherubs from icons and classical paintings - these are full-fledged heroes with their own character, experiencing powerful emotions that are part of the harmony of our world. Such is Zakharka - the main character With the names and descriptions of such works of the artist, his vocation as a teacher, which left its mark on Russian painting, becomes clear.

He thought about the fate of talented children born as serfs when he saw a yard boy trying to draw something with chalk on a blackboard. Soon the “Venetsianov school” was born from this. In addition to teaching skills, he gave shelter to peasant children, fed and watered them, tried to redeem many of them to freedom. Among the students of Venetsianov - brilliant Gregory Forty and about 70 artists, many of whom graduated from the capital's Academy of Arts. The activities of the school proceeded in the face of opposition from official academicians, who did not honor Venetsianov with the title of teacher of painting.

“In the harvest. Summer" (182?)

His life cannot be called carefree, it has always been filled with work and trouble. Its end was also tragic and unexpected - Alexei Gavrilovich died in 1847, when the horses harnessed to his wagon suddenly got scared and carried away, and he, trying to stop them, fell onto the road.

Man on earth, the harmony of his relationship with nature, with the whole world around - main topic artist Venetsianov, the main essence and value of his heritage, for which his name is revered by connoisseurs and lovers of Russian painting. The picture depicting a reaper against the backdrop of a recognizable Russian landscape, which at the same time has cosmic significance, is one of the pinnacles of the great Russian painter's work.

Sergey Alexandrovich Lobovikov was born in 1870 in the village of Belaya, Glazovsky district, Vyatka province, in the family of a deacon. Graduated rural school, studied at the Glazov Theological School for two years. Orphaned at the age of 14. In 1885 he was given as a guardian to apprentice in the photography studio of Pyotr Grigoryevich Tikhonov in Vyatka. In 1892 he was taken to the real military service(released in 1893 for health reasons). In 1893 he worked for a short time in photography by K. Bulla in St. Petersburg. In 1894 he returned to Vyatka and opened his own photo workshop (in 1904 he bought a house on the corner of Moskovskaya and Tsarevskaya streets, where his photograph was placed for 30 years). Since 1899, he participated in exhibitions in Russia and abroad, repeatedly received the highest awards. In 1900 he toured Europe, participated in the Paris world exhibition(bronze medal).

In 1908 he was elected chairman of the Vyatka Photographic Society, for photographs on International Exhibition in Kyiv received a gold medal. In 1909 he made a second trip abroad, participated in an exhibition in Dresden. In 1909-1912. - chairman of Vyatsky artistic circle, did great job on the organization of an art and history museum in Vyatka (traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg to see artists and collectors, collected paintings). In 1909 he received the first prize at the competition of the Russian Photographic Society. In 1913-1914. - Vowel of the Vyatka City Duma. Since 1918 - as a member of the board of the Provincial sub-department for museums and the protection of monuments of art and antiquity. In 1918, many photo studios were nationalized, Lobovikova's teacher Tikhonov was arrested by the Cheka as a hostage and shot (at the age of 66). Lobovikov managed to avoid the nationalization of the workshop, in 1920 he received a safe-conduct from Lunacharsky. In 1921-26. Lobovikov participated in the assessment of seized church valuables, compiled a collection of 617 items of ancient utensils and asked to leave it in Vyatka (despite repeated petitions, the collection was taken to Moscow). In 1927 in Moscow took place personal exhibition Lobovikov in honor of the 40th anniversary of his photographic activity. In those same years, the work of old Russian photographers was criticized as "narrow aesthetic, divorced from Soviet reality." Since 1920, Lobovikov taught photography at the Vyatka Pedagogical Institute. In 1932, he donated his house and photo lab to the Pedagogical Institute. By decision of the institute's management, the laboratory was soon liquidated, and a student hostel was placed in the house (the photographer himself and his family had to huddle in a small part of the house). In 1934 he received an academic pension, moved to Leningrad, worked in the film and photo laboratory of the Academy of Sciences. He died in November 1941 in besieged Leningrad. In 1954, the photo archive of S.A. Lobovikov was transferred by his heirs as a gift to Kirovsky art museum. Lobovikov's house in Vyatka (Kirov) was demolished in the late 1950s.

From the diary of S.A. Lobovikova: "December 9, 1899. I pass by the house of L ... va. A pair of trotters is standing at the porch. A poor peasant in poor clothes stopped at the gate, all cold; he looked at the horses, turned away, went on his way and only sighed deeply" How many words and feelings were expressed in this "e-he-he-ee-e-e"; so deeply these exclamations fall into the soul, it becomes ashamed in front of this poor man ... He wrapped himself in a new fur coat let yourself, and what do you care about the fact that others are chilly, that they do not have warm clothes ... Yes, our souls are callous, cold - only our fur coats are warm!

A. Koltsov

What are you sleeping, man?
After all, spring is in the yard;
After all, your neighbors
They have been working for a long time.
Get up, wake up, get up
Look at yourself:
What were you? and what became?
And what do you have?
On the threshing floor - not a sheaf;
In the bins - not a grain;
In the yard, on the grass -
At least roll a ball.
From brownie cages
Rubbish dared with a broom;
And horses for debt
Divorced by neighbors.
And under the bench is a chest
Overturned lies;
And, bending over, the hut,
Like an old woman, she stands.
Remember your time
How did it roll
Through fields and meadows
Golden river!
From the yard and the threshing floor
Along the big path
Through villages, cities,
For trading people!
And how are the doors to him
Dissolved everywhere
And in the honorable corner
It was your place!
And now under the window
You sit with need
And all day on the stove
You lie without waking up.
And in the fields as an orphan
The bread is worthless.
The wind whittles the grain!
The bird is pecking at him!
What are you sleeping, man?
After all, the summer has passed
After all, autumn is in the yard
He looks through the curtain.
Winter follows her
In a warm coat goes
The path is covered with snow
It crunches under the sleigh.
All the neighbors are on them
Bread is being brought, sold,
Collect the treasury
They drink mash with a ladle.

Lobovikov's favorite filming location was the village of Fileyskoye, which stood near the city on the banks of the Vyatka River.

Lullaby

The sun is setting
And the day gets dark
Fell from the mountain
There is a shadow in the village.
Only the church dome
illuminated by the sun,
And the church is open
And the call goes on.
Bell for Vespers
Christians are calling;
Tomorrow is Sunday -
Rest from work.
And heard in the field
The bells are calling
Peasant to the village
Already drove the cows.
And in the village church
Already full of people
And sparkle with lights
Lots of candles.
Candles labor
Burning brighter than the stars
And people pray
They create in simplicity.

Ivan Nikitin
Grandfather

Bald, with a white beard,
Grandpa is sitting.
Cup with bread and water
It stands in front of him.
White as a harrier, wrinkles on the forehead,
With a tired face.
He saw a lot of trouble
For your lifetime.
Everything is gone; power is gone,
Dulled look;
Death laid in the grave
Children and grandchildren.
With him in a smoky hut
The cat lives alone.
He is also old, and sleeps the whole day,
It won't jump off the stove.
The old man needs a little:
Bast shoes to weave and sell -
Here is satiety. His consolation -
Go to God's temple.
To the wall, near the threshold,
Will be there, groaning,
And glorifies God for sorrows,
God child.
He is glad to live, not averse to the grave -
To a dark corner.
Where did you get this power?
Poor guy?