Sychkov's painting from the mountains description. Artist Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov

(now on the territory of Mordovia), Russian Empire

Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov(March 13 (March 1, old style), Kochelaevo village, Penza province (now in the territory of Mordovia), Russian Empire - August 3, Saransk, Mordovian ASSR, USSR) - famous Russian (Soviet) artist, Honored Artist of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1937), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1950), People's Artist of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1955).

Biography

Born into a poor peasant family. Orphaned early.

He studied at a three-year zemstvo school in the village of Kochelaev, showed a talent for drawing from childhood, and studied drawing with the school teacher P. E. Dyumaev. He worked in an icon-painting workshop, painted frescoes in churches, and made portraits from photographs. From 1885 to 1887 he worked in Serdobsk, Penza province, for the contractor icon painter D. A. Reshetnikov.

From 1887 to 1892 he lived in Kochelaev, independently painted, painted icons and portraits of fellow villagers. In 1892, by order of General I. A. Arapov (1844-1913), whose estate was located near Kochelaev, he painted the painting “Laying the foundation of Arapovo station”. Shown to the director of the Drawing School for Free Visitors E. A. Sabaneev, the painting made an impression. Noting Sychkov’s talent, Sabaneev advised to bring the young man to St. Petersburg.

In 1892, Sychkov moved to St. Petersburg and entered the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. He was supported by General I. A. Arapov. In 1895, F. Sychkov graduated from the Drawing School and became a volunteer student at the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts. After completing his studies, the artist returned to his homeland.

In 1900, he was awarded the title of artist for the painting “News from the War.” In 1905 he was awarded the A.I. Kuindzhi Prize at the Spring Exhibition at the Academy of Arts for the painting “Flax Grinders”. Elected member of the Committee of the Society for Mutual Aid of Russian Artists.

In 1908 he went on a trip to Italy, France, Germany, bringing back many landscapes of Rome, Venice, Menton and sea views.

In 1909-1917, Sychkov’s works were repeatedly celebrated at Russian and international art exhibitions.

In 1918-1920, he participated in the design of revolutionary holidays in the city of Narovchat, at the Arapovo station and in his native village of Kochelaev.

In recent years he lived in Saransk.

Creation

The artist's main theme is the life of peasants and rural holidays. The most famous works of Sychkov:

“Portrait of Anna Ivanovna Sychkova, the artist’s mother” (1898)
"News from the War" (1900)
"Portrait of a Woman" (1903)
"Portrait in Black" (1904)
“Flax Millers” (1905, A.I. Kuindzhi Prize at the Spring Exhibition at the Academy of Arts - 1905)
"Girlfriends" (1909)
"From the Mountains" (1910)
"Return from Haymaking" (1911)
“Riding at Maslenitsa” (1914)
“Return from the Fair” (first prize at the closed All-Russian competition of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts - 1910)
"Country Wedding"
"Water Blessing"
"Waits"
“Difficult Passage” (incentive prize at the International Exhibition in Rome - 1911, prize at the Spring Exhibition at the Academy of Arts - 1913)
"Holiday" (1927)
“It’s a holiday. Girlfriends. Winter" (1929)
“Day off on the collective farm” (1936)
"Collective Farm Bazaar" (1936)
"Mordovian Teacher" (1937)
“Mordovian Tractor Drivers” (1938)
"Harvest Festival" (1938)
“Deed for the eternal free use of land” (1938)
"Back from School" (1945)
"Meeting of the Hero" (1952).

Perpetuation of memory

Since 1960, the Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts named after S. D. Erzya has housed a permanent exhibition of his works (the funds of this museum contain the largest collection of paintings and graphic works by Sychkov - about 600 works, including etudes and sketches).
In 1970, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding painter, an order was issued by the Ministry of Culture of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to open a memorial museum in the artist’s homeland. The house-museum of F.V. Sychkov was opened on March 11, 1970 in the village. Kochelaev after some reconstruction of the premises.
Mordovian Republican Art Gallery named after. F. V. Sychkova.

F. Sychkov’s painting “Pretty” was in the private collection of the famous aerodynamicist G. N. Abramovich

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An excerpt characterizing Sychkov, Fedot Vasilievich

“It’s a real march!... I knew it,” said the uncle (he was a distant relative, a poor neighbor of the Rostovs), “I knew that you couldn’t stand it, and it’s good that you’re going.” Pure march! (This was my uncle’s favorite saying.) - Take the order now, otherwise my Girchik reported that the Ilagins are standing in Korniki with pleasure; You have them - pure march! - they will take the brood under your nose.
- That's where I'm going. What, to bring down the flocks? - Nikolai asked, - get out...
The hounds were united into one pack, and uncle and Nikolai rode side by side. Natasha, wrapped in scarves, from under which a lively face with sparkling eyes could be seen, galloped up to them, accompanied by Petya and Mikhaila, a hunter who did not lag behind her, and a guard who was assigned as a nanny for her. Petya laughed at something and beat and pulled his horse. Natasha deftly and confidently sat on her black Arab and with a faithful hand, without effort, reined him in.
Uncle looked disapprovingly at Petya and Natasha. He did not like to combine self-indulgence with the serious business of hunting.
- Hello, uncle, we're on our way! – Petya shouted.
“Hello, hello, but don’t run over the dogs,” the uncle said sternly.
- Nikolenka, what a lovely dog, Trunila! “he recognized me,” Natasha said about her favorite hound dog.
“Trunila, first of all, is not a dog, but a survivor,” thought Nikolai and looked sternly at his sister, trying to make her feel the distance that should have separated them at that moment. Natasha understood this.
“Don’t think, uncle, that we will interfere with anyone,” said Natasha. We will remain in our place and not move.
“And a good thing, countess,” said the uncle. “Just don’t fall off your horse,” he added: “otherwise it’s pure marching!” – there’s nothing to hold on to.
The island of the Otradnensky order was visible about a hundred yards away, and those arriving were approaching it. Rostov, having finally decided with his uncle where to throw the hounds from and showing Natasha a place where she could stand and where nothing could run, set off for a race over the ravine.
“Well, nephew, you’re becoming like a seasoned man,” said the uncle: don’t bother ironing (etching).
“As necessary,” answered Rostov. - Karai, fuit! - he shouted, responding with this call to his uncle’s words. Karai was an old and ugly, brown-haired male, famous for the fact that he single-handedly took on a seasoned wolf. Everyone took their places.
The old count, knowing his son’s hunting ardor, hurried not to be late, and before those who arrived had time to arrive at the place, Ilya Andreich, cheerful, rosy, with trembling cheeks, rode up on his little black ones along the greenery to the hole left for him and, straightening his fur coat and putting on his hunting clothes, shells, climbed onto his smooth, well-fed, peaceful and kind, gray-haired Bethlyanka like him. The horses and droshky were sent away. Count Ilya Andreich, although not a hunter by heart, but who firmly knew the laws of hunting, rode into the edge of the bushes from which he was standing, took apart the reins, adjusted himself in the saddle and, feeling ready, looked back smiling.
Next to him stood his valet, an ancient but overweight rider, Semyon Chekmar. Chekmar kept in his pack three dashing, but also fat, like the owner and the horse - wolfhounds. Two dogs, smart, old, lay down without packs. About a hundred paces further away in the edge of the forest stood another of the Count's stirrups, Mitka, a desperate rider and passionate hunter. The Count, according to his old habit, drank a silver glass of hunting casserole before the hunt, had a snack and washed it down with a half-bottle of his favorite Bordeaux.
Ilya Andreich was a little flushed from the wine and the ride; his eyes, covered with moisture, shone especially, and he, wrapped in a fur coat, sitting on the saddle, had the appearance of a child who was going for a walk. Thin, with drawn-in cheeks, Chekmar, having settled down with his affairs, glanced at the master with whom he lived for 30 years in perfect harmony, and, understanding his pleasant mood, waited for a pleasant conversation. Another third person approached cautiously (apparently he had already learned) from behind the forest and stopped behind the count. The face was that of an old man with a gray beard, wearing a woman's hood and a high cap. It was the jester Nastasya Ivanovna.
“Well, Nastasya Ivanovna,” the count said in a whisper, winking at him, “just trample the beast, Danilo will ask you.”
“I myself... have a mustache,” said Nastasya Ivanovna.
- Shhh! – the count hissed and turned to Semyon.
– Have you seen Natalya Ilyinichna? – he asked Semyon. -Where is she?
“He and Pyotr Ilyich got up in the weeds from the Zharovs,” answered Semyon, smiling. - They are also ladies, but they have a great desire.
- Are you surprised, Semyon, how she drives... huh? - said the count, if only the man was in time!
- How not to be surprised? Boldly, deftly.
-Where is Nikolasha? Is it above the Lyadovsky top? – the count kept asking in a whisper.
- That's right, sir. They already know where to stand. They know how to drive so subtly that sometimes Danila and I are amazed,” said Semyon, knowing how to please the master.
- It drives well, huh? And what about the horse, huh?
- Paint a picture! Just the other day, a fox was snatched from the Zavarzinsky weeds. They began to jump over, out of sheer passion, the horse is worth a thousand rubles, but the rider has no price. Look for such a fine fellow!
“Search...,” the count repeated, apparently regretting that Semyon’s speech ended so soon. - Search? - he said, turning away the flaps of his fur coat and taking out a snuff box.
“The other day, as Mikhail Sidorich came out from mass in full regalia...” Semyon did not finish, hearing the rut clearly heard in the quiet air with the howling of no more than two or three hounds. He bowed his head, listened and silently threatened the master. “They’ve attacked the brood...” he whispered, and they led him straight to Lyadovskaya.

Many are not familiar with the work of such an original, talented artist. He created many unique paintings. At the very beginning of the last century, his creations were exhibited in the Paris Elephants, having considerable success.

Biography

Sychkov Fedot Vasilyevich (1870 - 1958), over the years of his life, created many masterfully executed works of art. The artist was born in Kochelaev (a village in a family of poor peasants. He lost his father very early, and his grandmother took on the main role in his upbringing.

Quite early, Fedot Vasilyevich began to develop artistic talent. He was discovered by an art teacher who worked at the school - P. E. Dyumayev. A letter was written to the painter at the royal court, Mikhail Zichy, asking him to intercede on behalf of the talented boy. In response, an answer was received about the need to study at an art academy. Thus, Sychkov Fedot Vasilyevich decided that he should study in But due to the plight of the family, the young man had to raise funds for his studies himself.

Since adolescence, the future artist painted portraits to order, from photographs. The future artist earned funds to study at the academy by creating frescoes for an icon painting school.

Key dates

In 1892, he left for St. Petersburg. At the Drawing School, General Arapov, a member of the Encouragement Society, drew attention to the self-taught artist. This happened after the painting “The Laying of the Arapovo Station” was created. It was noted by E. A. Sabaneev, who contributed to Sychkov’s move.

In 1895, the future People's Artist Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov graduated from the Drawing School and became a free student at the Higher Art School, located at the Academy of Arts. During his years of study, the basic style and theme of his paintings were formed. The life of peasant families, a reflection of peasant life, holidays - all this becomes the main focus in all works.

In 1900, Sychkov was awarded the title of "artist". It was received for his canvas “News from the War”. The year 1908 was marked by the artist’s travels throughout Europe (England, France, Germany). Traveling abroad helped him get acquainted with the work of famous artists and brought a lot of positive emotions and impressions.

Fedot Vasilyevich became an honored artist. He lived most of his life with his wife in Kochelaev. Fedot Vasilievich actively participated in the life of the region. His canvases decorate public institutions. He designs slogans and banners. The life of Fedot Vasilyevich ended in the city of Saransk. He died in 1958.

These are just a few facts from the life of such a person as Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov. A short biography touches only on the key moments of the artist’s life.

Painter's paintings

Among the works created by the artist, you can see many paintings. All of them reflect peasant life in its most varied manifestations. Looking at such paintings as “Blonde Coquette”, “Grinka”, “Girl Picking Wild Flowers”, “Girl in a Blue Shawl”, “Girl in the Garden” (1912), one can notice the amazing emotionality of these works.

The artist's collection includes about 700 paintings. People's artist Fedot Sychkov created a simple, unique environment in his works. Fedot Vasilievich used stories that were close and understandable to people. And very soon he gained national fame.

The artist’s most famous paintings: “Portrait of Anna Ivanovna Sychkova” (the artist’s mother), “Blessing of Water”, “Christoslavs”, “Difficult Passage”, “News from the War” (1900), “Portrait of a Woman” (1903), “Portrait in Black "(1904), "Flax Grinders", "Girlfriends" (1909), "From the Mountains" (1910), "Return from Haymaking" (1911), "Girlfriends" (1909), "Holiday Day. Girlfriends. Winter" (1929), "Village Wedding", "Festive Day" (1927), "Day off on the Collective Farm" (1936), "Presentation of the Act for Perpetual Free Use of the Land" (1938), "Meeting the Hero" (1952).

Sychkov Fedot Vasilievich is an artist who managed to reflect in his work all the subtleties and features of peasant life.

The main theme of the paintings

The themes of almost all the paintings are biographies of the everyday life of peasants, the peculiarities of farm life, rural holidays, folk entertainment and other important events in the life of ordinary people. It is precisely this theme that makes the artist’s works relatable and understandable.

Features of creativity

Sychkov Fedot Vasilievich depicted very different people in his paintings. But despite the specificity of the images, the image of each of them was collective. All portraits, as a rule, reflected the brightest and brightest emotions of people. The painted image is transparent and clean. In the artist’s paintings people are depicted in a good mood, their eyes are filled with light, their poses are dynamic. The brightness of the colors, the radiance of sunlight and snow allow you to create a unique image of simple peasant life. Fedot Sychkov, whose work managed to reflect a special type of beauty, became the most recognizable among many other masters.

There is no place for classical beauty in his portraits. The heroines of the paintings are healthy, strong and strong people. The works reflect the joy of life, the charm of youth, the fountain of vitality. Energy overflows in the works of such a master as Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov. The paintings are filled with strong, robust figures with blush, full cheeks, and wide smiles.

Another favorite theme of the paintings was the image of children. In them you can see how accurately the artist conveys the labor hardening inherent in village children. And this expresses the originality of the images, the inherent charm of his paintings.

Awards

Sychkov's work has been awarded more than once. At various academic exhibitions in St. Petersburg he received six awards in different categories.

The year 1905 was marked by the presentation of the A.I. Kuindzhi Prize. It was presented to Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov at the Spring Exhibition held by the Academy of Arts.

An incentive prize was awarded to Fedot Vasilievich at the International Exhibition held in Rome for the painting “Difficult Passage” in 1913. Another award was a silver medal received at an exhibition in the USA (St. Louis).

In 1910, he received first prize at the All-Russian competition for the painting “Return from the Fair.”

The main person in the life of Fedot Sychkov was his wife Lidiya Nikolaevna. She was also his muse, inspiring the creation of stories.

Lidia Nikolaevna collected various national items, authentic decorations, and household items. These were shirts, shawls, belts, beads and much more. Sychkov Fedot Vasilievich actively used all these attributes in his portraits.

Another interesting fact in the biography is that one of the artist’s paintings was in the collection of the famous aerodynamicist N.G. Abramovich. This picture was “Pretty”.

Perpetuation of memory

In 1960, an exhibition dedicated to such an artist as Sychkov Fedot Vasilievich was organized in the museum of the Republic of Mordovia. The works are presented in more than 600 copies. There are also studies and sketches. The exhibition is permanent. Recently, the museum has presented updated works of the artist.

In 1970, in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Culture of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, it was decided to open a house museum. This event is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the artist. Today in the village of Kochelaevo you can visit this museum.

Another memorable object is a bust located in the memorial and sculpture center in the city of Saransk.

The artist and time

Over the period of his long life, Fedot Vasilyevich created a huge number of unique works. Today in his museum you can get acquainted with paintings from the “Italian Cycle”, written during the artist’s trip to Rome and Venice. These are Landscapes depicting such objects as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum. Throughout his life, the artist created.

From a very young age to old age. Time turned out to have no power over the talent of Fedot Vasilyevich. At the age of 88, he painted one of his best paintings - “Erzyanka” (1952). And today the paintings cannot leave art lovers indifferent.

Such an original artist as Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov, whose biography today can help us get acquainted with the work of this wonderful and world-famous creative person, made an invaluable contribution to the fine arts of his native land - the Mordovian Republic. With all the breadth of his artistic soul, through his paintings he introduced the general public to the life and way of life of the common people, and also showed the beauty of the national costume.

Sychkov’s paintings show love for his homeland, his land, and the people around him. They have become a harmonious reflection of the way of life of an ordinary working person and his simple joys. The beauty of nature, the brightness of emotional images - all this will attract attention to the work of this talented person.

Sychkov Fedot Vasilievich

Sychkov Fedot

(1870 - 1958)

Nowadays, few people are familiar with the work of the most original artist Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov. And in the 1910s, his works were successful not only at exhibitions in Russia, but also at the Paris Salon, where they were eagerly bought up by art lovers who showed interest in the life and art of our country. Peasant girls and young ladies F.V. Sychkov’s works were close in popularity to the hawthorns of Konstantin Makovsky, although the lives and paths to art of the artists were polar different.

Born in one of the villages of the Penza province, Fedot Sychkov, whose great artistic abilities were obvious from an early age, spent his childhood in a family in hopeless need. For the young man there was one goal - St. Petersburg with its Academy of Arts. To earn the necessary funds for the trip, the teenager works in an icon-painting workshop, paints frescoes in churches, and makes portraits from photographs.

In 1895, F. Sychkov, having graduated from the Drawing School in St. Petersburg, became a volunteer student at the Academy of Arts. In 1900, he was awarded the title of artist for his painting “Letter from the War.” The theme of the life of peasants and rural holidays is the main one for the artist, although he painted many portraits, landscapes, and still lifes.

F.V. died Sychkov in Saransk, being an Honored Artist of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

_________________________

Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov

One of the large and unique parts of the museum collection is a collection of works (about 600 paintings, etudes, sketches) by the People's Artist of Mordovia, Honored Artist of the RSFSR and MASSR Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov (1870-1958), a talented, original, artist-writer of the village, who stood at the origins of Mordovian professional fine art. The artist’s cheerful, masterfully executed works, the heroes of which were his fellow countrymen, are a kind of chronicle of life in his native land.

His purpose in the art of F.V. Sychkov saw it as revealing the beauty and uniqueness of rural life, which he felt and understood more deeply than many other masters, since he came from this environment and never broke with it. “I dedicated my art to depicting the life of the Russian village,” the artist wrote.

In a contradictory era of social upheaval and complex ideological and aesthetic quests, F.V. Sychkov remained a faithful successor to the best traditions of the Russian realistic school of painting of the 19th century. The master’s artistic worldview turned out to be alien to avant-garde tendencies, the desire for constructivist forms that had no relation to the real world, and then the false pathos of art of the Stalin era. The tone of his worldview as an artist of the joys of being is closer to the aesthetics of the second generation of the “World of Art” with their cult of beauty, which triumphed over the social realism of the Wanderers.

Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov was born in 1870 in the village of Kochelaevo, Narovchatsky district, Penza province, now Kovylkinsky district of the Republic of Mordovia, into a poor peasant family. Orphaned early. He received his general education at a three-year zemstvo school, where teacher P.E. Dyumayev was the first to draw attention to the artistically gifted peasant boy. But several more years passed before Sychkov picked up a brush and embarked on the thorny path of an artist. Based on the little knowledge in the field of drawing and painting that he received from P.E. Dyumaev, and then in the icon painting artel D.A. Reshetnikova, F.V. Sychkov began to work independently, painting icons and portraits of fellow villagers. Among the early works is the painting “The laying of the Arapovo station” (1892), which was commissioned by the St. Petersburg general I.A. Arapov, whose estate was located not far from Kochelaev. The creation of the painting became a kind of exam, a test of abilities, which Sychkov passed with dignity. The general showed the painting to the director of the Drawing School for Free People, E.A. Sabaneev. Noting Sychkov’s talent, he advised him to bring the young man to St. Petersburg. In 1892, Sychkov crossed the threshold of the Drawing School, where he studied with K.V. Lebedev, I.V. Tvorozhnikov, Ya.F. Tsionglinsky.

Sychkov’s evolution from a self-taught artist to a professional was rapid. Within the walls of the school he received basic knowledge in the field of drawing and painting, and after a year of classes his skill became more confident, freer, and his drawing more accurate. Among the most successful early works is “Portrait of the artist’s younger sister Ekaterina Vasilievna Sychkova” (1893). The colossal work that Sychkov did during his year of study is visible in the way the texture of the fabric is conveyed through painterly means, and the way the colors are coordinated. At the same time, he began to paint commissioned portraits. This was due to the difficulty of his financial situation, but he also had a brilliant example of work in a commissioned portrait of the leading masters of that time. Constant work in this genre honed the young artist’s skills.

In 1895, as a volunteer, he entered the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts. Studied in battle painting class with N.D. Kuznetsova and P.O. Kovalevsky, who adhered to the democratic principles of peredvizhniki in their pedagogical practice.

The “Portrait of Anna Ivanovna Sychkova, the artist’s mother” (1898), created in the best traditions of democratic artists, dates back to the time of his studies at the Academy of Arts. In the silhouette of a small, slightly hunched figure, one feels oppressed by life. This aching note develops in a color scheme maintained in a gray-black monochrome palette.

During his studies, Sychkov painted several self-portraits. The earliest among them, from 1893, dates back to his time at the school of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. The artist carefully studies his own face, psychologically accurately and subtly expressing through his external appearance his internal state - a passionate desire to comprehend the world around him, to find his place in the artistic environment. The “Self-Portrait”, written a year before the end of the Academy of Arts, has a completely different, more secular, representative character. The large head with dark, short-cropped hair is modeled clearly and confidently. A high, clean-lined forehead, a calm look from deep-set eyes, in which one can read self-confidence and self-esteem.

Like many young painters of that time, Sychkov dreamed of studying in the studio of Repin, whom he had known through General Arapov since the time when he first arrived in St. Petersburg and entered the School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. The general showed Repin the works of his talented protégé, whom he called only “my Raphael.” During the entrance exams to the Academy of Arts, Repin recognized Sychkov and made several useful comments. More than once he turned to Repin for advice, in particular, when creating his graduation work “News from the War” (1900). Despite the fact that during his studies at the Academy of Arts Sychkov studied battle painting, after graduation he found his calling as a portrait painter and genre painter.

The end of the Academy of Arts by Sychkov in 1900 occurred at the turn of the century, with its fireworks of artistic movements and directions, a whole galaxy of creators who were most brilliant in their daring avant-garde searches. In the context of the complex era of the turn of the century, Sychkov’s work seems traditional. He did not experience mental confusion and confusion before the onset of a new one. He was distinguished by a clear position in life and firm confidence in the path he had chosen once and for all as an artist and writer of everyday life in the Russian countryside. In his artistic pursuits, he is close to the group of such painters as S.A. Korovin, F.A. Malyavin, A.E. Arkhipov. The paintings of that time, and Sychkov was an active participant in many all-Russian and foreign exhibitions, attracted the attention of viewers with the vitality of the plots, the measure of realism that was successfully combined with the lyrical sound of folk images. This was achieved not just by deep knowledge of peasant life, but by constant existence in this environment - familiar, understandable, loved. After finishing his studies in St. Petersburg, Sychkov returned to his homeland, which became for him a life-giving source of creative inspiration. In love with the colorful element of full-blooded national life, he knew how to depict the most ordinary aspects of peasant life poetically, without gravitating towards excessive literaryism in the plots. Folk festivals, mountain skiing, weddings, gatherings - this is not a complete range of themes and motifs that attracted the master. He managed to convey in his paintings of the simple-minded fun of villagers (“From the Mountains” (1910), “Riding at Maslenitsa” (1914), etc.) an atmosphere of relaxed fun and love of life.

However, it would be a mistake to reduce all of Sychkov’s work to an “eternal” holiday. His own impressions of childhood and youth, associated with a time of poverty and humiliation, determined Sychkov’s democracy, ability to empathize, and subtly understand the essence of the way of life of the Russian peasantry. 1900 - 1910s - the time of Sychkov’s creative maturity. Then he created canvases - “Return from the Fair”, “Village Wedding”, “Blessing of Water”, “Christoslavs”, “Difficult Passage” and a number of others, where the master sought to tell about different aspects of village life, acting as an attentive, observant storyteller, without embellishing realities, but without focusing on the social contradictions of the village community. Sychkov’s everyday paintings form a holistic image of a working people living on earth according to their own laws of peaceful existence. They are written easily and freely with the true skill of a genre artist. What attracts them is the brightness of the portrait characteristics of the characters, the ability to plastically accurately compose multi-figure compositions, and find expressive poses and gestures that give special emotional openness to the images.

He showed the measured labor rhythm of village life simply and truthfully in the paintings “Flax Millers” (1905), “Return from Haymaking” (1911). The artist does not dramatize, does not build a complex plot, it seems that it did not cost him much effort to transfer scenes of labor to canvas. But in this ease and naturalness of constructing a composition that appears as a living, real reality, his originality and power of talent lie. Sychkov's ability to show an everyday, everyday phenomenon in an artistic, poetic form is evidence of great knowledge, love and understanding of village life.

In parallel with the main line dedicated to the life and everyday life of the peasantry, a second line developed in Sychkov’s work in the 1900s - this line is associated with a ceremonial commissioned portrait. Sychkov was an unusually popular portrait painter in St. Petersburg at that time. Customers were probably attracted by his ability to write quickly and accurately, capturing the features of the external appearance of those being portrayed. Among his “models” are bankers, officials, and society ladies. An excellent example of a ceremonial portrait is “Portrait in Black” (1904), where the very interest in the model - this is the artist’s wife Lydia Vasilievna - made it possible to soften the salon beauty and introduce notes of a certain psychologism and decorative sophistication into the composition, which is representative in nature. L.V. Sychkova poses openly, the artist takes the point of view from below, giving her majesty, which is typical for a ceremonial portrait, but this motif does not detract from the natural, which is conveyed in a lively and truthful interpretation of the face. The portrait reveals the richness of a person’s inner world: dreaminess, enlightened sadness, echoing in their tonality the images of Chekhov’s heroines. Lidia Vasilievna Ankudinova, an elegant, fragile St. Petersburg young lady, became the artist’s real muse. The role of this woman in the fate of F.V. Sychkova was significant and invaluable. In 1903, she became the artist’s wife, sharing with him all the joys and sorrows for the rest of her life. She lived with him in the village of Kochelaevo, in the Mordovian outback, attended exhibitions, and was aware of all the events of artistic life. She was respected and appreciated by many artists - friends of F.V. Sychkova. Her pretty face with transparent blue eyes can be recognized in many of the master’s paintings. In "Portrait of a Lady" (1903), she is depicted walking along an alley with a lace umbrella in her hands. The combination of a bright red dress with blooming greenery is amazingly bold. Perhaps this is one of the few works by the master where he sought to convey in an impressionistic manner the movement of air, reflexes of greenery, harmoniously setting off the melancholy-calm state of the model. Lidia Vasilyevna often posed for the artist in the clothes of a Russian peasant woman and looked as natural in this role as in the role of a society lady. She appears in the guise of a peasant girl in the work “Summer” (1909).

Children's portraits became an interesting page in the artist's work. He first turned to them in the 900s, except for a few student sketches, where children posed for him as models. Both painted and watercolor portraits of children show the author’s serious and deep understanding of the child’s soul. What attracts them is their captivatingly sincere ability to convey the spiritual world of children in its artless simplicity and clarity. "Friends" (1911), "Girlfriends. Children" (1916), "Grinka" (1937) are fundamentally different from the portraits of peasant children painted by the late Itinerants. The social emphasis in them is softened, there is no sweetness and sentimentalism.

Sychkov's life was not rich in external events. One of his most vivid life experiences was a trip abroad in 1908. Acquaintance with the masterpieces of Western European art became a powerful impetus for the painter’s further creative activity, raising it to a qualitatively new artistic level. He brought many landscapes from Italy and France - marinas, architectural landscapes of Rome, Venice, Menton. The grandiose buildings of Ancient Rome - the Arch of Constantine, the Forum, the Colosseum appear in them as symbols of the former greatness of the ancient empire. The color scheme, based on combinations of light yellow-green and blue tones, conveys the sultry haze of the southern air, in which the outlines of ancient monuments seem to melt. However, despite the undoubted artistic merits of these landscapes, the artist’s soul is most fully revealed in works dedicated to his native places. He tirelessly painted his native village, the rickety fences, the huts that had grown into the ground, the spring floods of the full-flowing Moksha. The small winter sketches, designed in grey-bluish tones, are imbued with intimacy and warmth of mood. The landscapes are based on a deep poetic feeling, the master’s admiration for the exciting beauty of Russian nature in its modest charm.

Sychkov's creative range was quite wide. In addition to portraits, landscapes, genre paintings, throughout his life he painted still lifes: from classically clear in the manner of execution, such as “Still Life. Fruits”, created in 1908 during a trip to Italy, to his more characteristic still lifes with a landscape approach - “Strawberries” (1910), “Cucumbers” (1917), etc., in which all that sounds in a slightly different refraction the same theme of life and everyday life of the village. Sychkov loved to work in the garden. He said with pride: “I am a village man!” Knowing the way of life of the village helped him create such fresh, colorful still lifes.

He met October 1917 as a recognized established master. However, for him, as for most of the creative intelligentsia of that time, this event became a difficult test. In Petrograd, his workshop was looted and many of his works were destroyed. And yet, he accepted the new government as truly popular, participated in the design of revolutionary holidays, painted posters and portraits of leaders.

Late 1910-1920s - the time when Sychkov created mainly variants or repetitions of his early works, continuing to develop his favorite and characteristic theme of holidays, varying the plots of pre-revolutionary paintings - “Girlfriends” (1920), “Holiday Day” (1927), “Holiday Day” . Girlfriends. Winter" (1929) and a number of others. His pictorial style evolved at this time towards greater coloristic brightness. The emotional mood of the paintings was matched by an open, temperamental brushstroke. But the era could not help but manifest itself in the work of this realist artist. “Portrait of the chairman of the Kochelaevskaya party cell K.I. Chizhikov" (1919) can be seen as an attempt to create the image of a hero of modern times. However, the artist was not too inspired by the social changes taking place in the village at that time. He always strived to be independent and not dependent on anyone. This character was shaped by many circumstances of his life - the habit of relying only on his own strength, his talent, the conviction in the right of a creative person to be independent. “An artist...should not be constrained by anyone, and especially not by the authorities. The authorities, especially now the Soviet authorities, must preserve and protect talents,” these are lines from Sychkov’s petition, which he was forced to send to Saransk in the 30s, when the new authorities in Kochelaev tried to dispossess him, classifying him as an individual owner. It was a difficult time in Sychkov's life. A time of painful reflection about whether the Motherland needs him and his art. Perhaps then, in a fit of despair, he turned to his friend from his time at the Academy of Arts, K. A. Veshchilov, who emigrated from the USSR in the 1920s, with a request to help him settle in Paris. Veshchilov developed a vigorous activity, in his letters he painted rosy prospects, how they would paint pictures together in a creative tandem, how comfortable the Sychkovs’ existence abroad would be. And who knows how circumstances would have developed further if there had not been an unexpected turn in the master’s fate. Sychkov continued to actively participate in the exhibition life of Moscow and Leningrad at this time, but few people knew him in Mordovia. In 1937, the Union of Artists was created in Mordovia. Director of the Academy of Arts I. I. Brodsky took part in the organization of the Union. He arrived in Saransk and was extremely surprised that the republic did not know the work of the famous Russian artist F.V. Sychkov, who settled not far from the Mordovian capital. The painter was invited to exhibit at the republican exhibition in Saransk. Sychkov's paintings created a real sensation. Against the backdrop of semi-amateur works by Mordovian artists, Sychkov’s bright, technically advanced canvases looked like masterpieces. It was then that Sychkov, who experienced a real triumph, was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the MASSR by the government of the republic. It was then, perhaps, that doubts finally disappeared about where his place was, in his homeland or far from it. This turn in fate somewhat changed Sychkov’s relationship with the authorities. In one of his letters to the artist from Chuvashia N. Kamenshchikov, he wrote: “... I am not a Mordovian, but a purely Russian and have seen little Mordovians from my childhood, only now, over the last twenty years, I have become interested in the Mordovians and really love the past of the Mordovians, their national costumes... I am a lot in recent years I did it, depicting Mordovian life, but how could it be otherwise, because I turned out to be a real resident of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Here I was... awarded the honorary title of Honored Artist of the MASSR... given a personal pension. Well, that’s why I am connected with the Mordovians tightly and for life.” It is no coincidence that in the 1930s, when Mordovian autonomy was formed, the national theme occupied a special place in the artist’s work. However, addressing this topic cannot be considered as a nod to the authorities, since Mordovian ethno-culture has long been of interest to the master, as evidenced by numerous photographs from Sychkov’s archive. Unlike Russian peasant women, Mordovian women continued to wear national clothes during the Soviet period. Dozens of sketches and studies of the Mordovian national costume, which preceded the creation of such famous paintings as “Mordovian Teacher” (1937), “Mordovian Tractor Drivers” (1938), are visual confirmation of the thoroughness of the artist’s creative method, which was based on painstaking work, the desire for deep comprehension of the material that interested him. At the same time, in works dedicated to representatives of the indigenous nationality, the painter managed, harmoniously combining the colorfulness of the Mordovian national costume with the features of typification and generalization in the characteristics of the heroines, to create images of women of the “new formation” that were full-blooded in their poetic sound.

In the second half of the 30s, the themes of Sychkov’s art expanded by turning to Soviet reality. The canvases he created at this time, “A Day Off on the Collective Farm” (1936), “Collective Farm Bazaar” (1936), and others, are distinguished by his skill in arranging multi-figure compositions and the ability to highlight individual bright characters among the mass of characters. The above-mentioned works, in their ideological orientation, were completely in line with official Stalinist art. Certain traces of the influence of the techniques common at that time, glorifying the Soviet working man in an outwardly pompous form, can be seen in the commissioned panels “Harvest Festival” (1938) and “Presentation of the act for the eternal free use of land” (1938). Similar canvases glorifying the happy collective farm life were painted by many artists at that time. These two large-format canvases were created by the author in the shortest possible time at the request of the exhibition committee of the Volga region pavilion for the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow. In addition to the fact that the author wrote them in a short time, he was dominated by the dictates of the exhibition committee, which demanded the creation of types of propaganda and journalistic orientation, to which many masters of painting of that era were oriented in their work. At the same time, Sychkov’s work, if you isolate frankly custom-made things, is surprisingly complete. His works, with their open, jubilant joy of human existence, turned out to be quite consonant with the pathetic line of socialist realism of the Stalin era. However, despite this organic correlation with the aesthetics of that time, Sychkov’s position as a free independent person was different. He openly declares this in a letter to the artist E.M. Cheptsov: “I now also know that in order to paint pictures about the past and present close to Soviet life, we should not forget the ideas expressed by Lenin and Stalin. Well, let the youth, the new Soviet artists, write what is close to them, but we are outdated. After all, out of habit, the old is dear to us.” “Old” for Sychkov is, first of all, a folk portrait, of which he was a brilliant master even in the pre-revolutionary period. The master associated all the brightest and most beautiful things in life with the woman who became the main character of most of his not only genre works, but also a number of beautiful portraits. Sychkov’s favorite type is well-built, smiling peasant women, boldly looking at the viewer, with some coquetry and enthusiasm, with captivating sincerity and openness. Sychkov confidently models their cheerful faces with reflections of light and shadow, their reflexes are expressive, bringing special trepidation and liveliness to the disclosure of images. His strokes are precise, free, and he is a virtuoso master of glaze painting. This is Sychkov’s ideal, which is perhaps far from perfect beauty, but there is so much sparkling liveliness, vitality, and poetry in it. The master’s favorite angle is a three-quarter turn, cutting the figure either at the knees or to the waist. The most characteristic for him was a single-figure or two-figure composition. Despite the similarity of type, the portraits were solved differently. This can be a clean portrait, where the model is depicted against a neutral background. But Sychkov’s portrait is more developed - a painting where he introduces elements of the genre. The main thing in them was the natural coexistence of man with the natural world. In his portrait paintings, the landscape always plays a large emotional role. The state of nature is in harmony with the state of mind of the heroines or contrasts it. There are not many compositional discoveries in Sychkov’s works. His passion for the same motifs that run through all of the master’s work is known, for example, by the hedge, skiing from the mountains. At the same time, it cannot be accused of monotony and pattern. In these works he achieved freedom and true artistic artistry. Sychkov did not strive to depict people with complex, contradictory characters. In almost every one of his works one can feel a soft, benevolent view of the world, sincerity and humanity. It is true that a portrait is always a double image: the image of the artist and the image of the model. And although Sychkov is not considered a great psychologist, in his best portraits one can find both the depth and spirituality of the images. Sychkov’s female images carry certain features of a symbol of folk beauty and moral purity.

The phenomenon of Sychkov as a creative personality lies in his adherence to the criteria he acquired at the beginning of his creative path, loyalty to one theme - the theme of life and everyday life of the Russian village, passed through the prism of his artistic vision of peasant life as established age-old traditions. They were breaking down before his eyes during the Soviet period, but he did not want to depict that average type of Soviet collective farmer in a sweatshirt or gray jacket, which both men and women wore, and which was a visual personification of gender equality. His archive contains a large amount of photographic documentary material. In photographs from the 1940s, women dance to the accordion, dressed in gray scarves, tarpaulin boots, and baggy jackets. The faces are the same as on the master’s canvases of an earlier period - open, perky, laughing. The artist actively used photographs in his work as auxiliary material. But he depicted his models traditionally in Russian sundresses, bright scarves, and beads. He was disgusted by the official style of Soviet-era clothing. In a chest in his studio, he kept a heap of Pavlovian scarves, colorful skirts, and lace blouses in which he dressed his models. He created a gallery of brilliant portraits of Russian peasant women.

The works of the 40-50s can also be considered as the result of the master’s real devotion. It is known that at this time he had serious vision problems. For him, the artist, it was a real tragedy. But despite this, with spiritual stoicism, rejecting the illness, he continued to work. “I don’t want to be old,” Sychkov wrote in one of his letters to the artist E. M. Cheptsov. “As they say, artists cannot age; their work must always be young and interesting.” In his eighth decade of life, he created such canvases full of fresh feelings as “Return from School” (1945), “Meeting of the Hero” (1952).

For the last two years before his death, Sychkov lived in Saransk. He still worked hard, with ecstasy and inspiration. For him, painting was a real source of joy. “Life on earth is so beautiful... but the life of an artist in the full sense is the most interesting of all occupations...” - lines from a letter from F.V. Sychkova can be an epigraph to the work of this painter, in love with the world around him.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sychkov F.V. We need an art college // Red Mordovia. - 1937. - February 6. Sychkov F.V. Create for the people // Soviet Mordovia. - 1952. - November 6. Sychkov F.V. Happiness to live and create in the Stalin era // Soviet Mordovia. - 1952. - December 19.
Khrabrovitsky A. Singer of his native village: (F.V. Sychkov in Mordovia) // Ogonek. - 1951. - No. 7. Exhibition of works by the Honored Artist of the RSFSR and the Mordovian ASSR Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov: Catalog / Preface by Kostina E. M. Compiled by Loba -nova Yu. V.—1952.
Gerasimov A. Exhibition of works by F. V. Sychkov // Izvestia. - 1952. - September 3. Sokolnikov M. P. F. V. Sychkov (To the 80th anniversary of his birth) // Art. - 1952. - No. 6.
Khrabrovitsky A. Cheerful talent // Evening Moscow. —1952.—Aug. 22. Kostina E. M. Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov. The oldest Russian painter.— Saransk: Mordov. book publishing house, 1954.—79 p.
Sokolnikov M.P. Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov.— M.: Soviet Artist, 1954.—87 p.
Sokolnikov M.P. In his native land // Soviet culture.—1956.—November 15.
Kostina E. M. Fine art of Soviet Mordovia. Saransk: Mordov. book
publishing house, 1958.—S. 5-6, 18-21.
Khmara V. Singer of Mordovia: About F.V. Sychkov // Soviet Russia. —1958.—Aug. 5
Sokolnikov M.P. Singer of folk life. Essay on the life and work of the artist
F.V. Sychkova.— Saransk: Mordov. book publishing house, 1962.—47 pp., ill.
Kostina E. M. The artistic heritage of F. V. Sychkov // Art. —1970.— No. 2.
Molchanov V. Sounding colors (About the anniversary exhibition of F.V. Sychkov on the Kuznetsky Bridge) // Pravda.-1970.-July 27.
Ostrovsky D. A man looking into the distance // Literary newspaper. - 1970. - July 22. Petrovicheva N.P. Truly People’s Artist: (From Memoirs) // Moscow Artist.—1970.—July 30.
Popova E. N. Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov: Essay on life and creativity.— Saransk: Mordov. book publishing house, 1970.—188 pp., ill.
Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov: Catalog of the exhibition of works for the 100th anniversary of his birth / Author of the introductory article N. Kruzhkov. Comp. Gorina G., Dorfman N.—L.: Artist of the RSFSR, 1970.—47 pp., ill.
Tamruchi V. Give people joy // Artist. —1970.— No. 12.
Artists of Mordovia: Bibliographic reference book / Compiled by Gorina G.S.—Saransk: Mordov. book publishing house, 1974.— P. 64-73.
Chervonnaya S. M. Painting of the autonomous republics of the RSFSR. - M.: Art, 1978. - P. 5-6.
Fine art of Mordovia: Album / Compiled by Shibakov N. I., Kosinets A. A.—Saransk: Mordov. book publishing house, 1984.— P. 5-6.
Simple faces of beauty. The image of a Mordovian woman in fine art: Album / Compiled by Shibakov N. I., Fedoseenko L. B. - Saransk: Mordov. book publishing house, 1985.—S. 14-15.
Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov: Album / Author of the introductory article Surina M.I. Comp.: Su-
Rina M.I., Bukina L.A.— Saransk: Mordov. book publishing house, 1986.—136 pp., ill.
Larisa Babienko. Difficult transition: Memories of Sychkov // Ascent. Lit.-hu-
doge collection / Compiled by: V. S. Ionova, N. M. Mirskaya. - Saransk: Mordov. book publishing house, 1993.—S. 221-262.
Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov. Memoirs. Correspondence: Album / Author of the introductory article Surina M.I. Compiled by: Surina M.I., Bukina L.A.— Saransk: Mordov. book publishing house, 1998.—136 pp., ill.
Sychkov readings: collection. scientific and practical materials conf., Saransk. Publishing house of Mordovian University. 2005.-73 p., ill.

L.A. Bukina - head. accounting sector
MRMII im. S.D. Erzi, senior
researcher
Fedot Sychkov

Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov (1870 - 1958) is a famous Russian artist, a painter of a village life. He was the real founder of the professional fine arts in Mordovia. The art of the master differs with optimism, cheerfulness and rare integrity; it is devoted to one theme - to portray an everyday life of Kochelaevo - his native village. He almost lived all his life here. We can see bright, national images on Sychkov’s canvases.

Sychkov was born in 1870 in Kochelaevo that then belonged to Narovchat District of Penza Province (nowadays it belongs to Kovylkino District, Republic of Mordovia). He became an orphan in his early childhood and knew the poverty well. The teacher of drawing at Kochelaevo local three-year school was the first person to notice the artistic gift of the boy and began to encourage him drawing. Due to protection of the local landowner general I.A. Arapov the young painter obtained an opportunity to enter the Drawing School of the Imperial Association for Painters Encourage in Petersburg, and then to be a student of the Academy of Fine Arts. He became stronger in professional skills of the future painter; his artistic manner shaped here.

The main theme of Sychkov became a life of a village, its traditions, and people. After Academy, he lived in Petersburg, and worked much. In the best works of 1910's - "Women Breaking Flax" 1905, "Returning after Haymaking" 1911, "Mountain Snow Driving" 1910, "Glorifies for Christ" 1910, "Difficult Crossing" 1912 - he has managed to tell with a great love about a life of simple people and to put his own part to the development of Russian genre art.

Sychkov has met October revolution, being widely known artist. He continued to develop the themes that defined his art still in pre-Revolutionary years. The pictures of this period - “Young” 1925, “Holiday” 1927, “Girl-mates” 1930, etc. - represent episodes of folks’ festivals and a rural life. The canvases devoted to mountains driving marked with special ingenuity, invention and beauty.

One of the favorite Sychkov themes was the image of country children. He had found set of the motives allowed showing the great variety of their characters, their restlessness (“After Tobogganing” 1920, “Among Hollyhocks” 1924, “Girl-mates” 1930, “Under a Rowan-tree” 1935, “Grin' ka" 1937, "After School" 1945).

During all his artistic life, the painter paid the great attention to the creation of portraits that varied typologically. There were official-representative portraits (“Lydia Vasiljevna Sychkova. A Portrait in Black” 1904) and genre-portraits (“Summer” 1909, “A Girl at a Fence” 1910, Nastya. Knitting” 1925, “Young Woman” 1928, "Reaper" 1931, "The Folk-dancer Sonya" 1932, etc.).

Fedot Sychkov was the first among our local artists to create the bright images of the Mordovian women: “The Mordovian Teacher” 1937, “The Schoolgirl” 1934, “Mordovian Tractor She-drivers” 1938, “The Erzian Woman” 1952. During the 1930's he also made portraits of the well-known Soviet artists I.I. Brodsky and I.S. Gorjushkin-Sorokopudov.

Besides the portraits and genre pictures, the rich creative heritage of the painter includes also a set of landscapes and still lives. Sychkov’s landscapes show him as a thin lyricist and excellent colorist. His still-lives are the same images of the nature, but approached a person. The painter put them to the house, and filled it with bright aromas of a garden, a wood, a field, a kitchen garden. Many of them made on an open air: “Strawberry” 1910, “Cucumbers” 1917, “Poppies” 1925, “A Rowan-tree” 1941, “Tomatoes” 1948, etc. These works differ with composite integrity and color harmony.

Sychkov's art has a great popularity and love of a wide auditorium. We can see his works in many art museums of Russia, including world famous assemblies of the Russian State Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery. Nevertheless, the largest collection of the artist is stored in the Mordovian Republican S.D. Erzia Museum of Fine Arts (it has about 600 pictures, etudes, sketches).

http://www.erzia-museum.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12&Itemid=6

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House-Museum of Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov
in the village of Kochelaevo, Kovylkinsky district of the Republic of Mordovia

Address: 431310, Republic of Mordovia, p. Kochelayevo, Kovylkinsky district.

Directions: Route. auto from Kovylkino station to the village. Kochelaevo; route auto "Saransk-Kovylkino" to the village. Kochelaevo.

Opening hours: daily from 9.00 to 18.00, except Monday
Attention: excursion service only by prior arrangement.

Inquiries by phone: 8(834-53) 2-45-37

Entrance fee: for children (from 7 to 16 years old) - 5 rubles, for students - 10 rubles, for others - 20 rubles.

The ancient village of Kochelaevo, Narovchatsky district, Penza province (now Kovylkinsky district of Mordovia) is the birthplace of Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov, the place of life and work of an outstanding artist. Located 15 km from the regional center of Kovylkino, the village has a rich history dating back centuries. The first mention of the settlement of Kochelaev is found in scribe books of 1615-1617. The “List of Populated Places in the Penza Province” (1869) states that the village had 546 households, a postal station, a fair, a market, a pier, four potash factories, and two oil mills. This large village is widely spread on low hills on the picturesque banks of the Moksha River.

Here Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov was born on March 1 (13), 1870 in a peasant family and lived most of his life. From here in 1892 he left for St. Petersburg, to the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts with the support of General I.A. Arapov (1844-1913), who drew attention to the talented young self-taught artist. In the summer, while studying at the Drawing School (1892 - 1895), and then at the Higher Art School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at the Academy of Arts, Fedot Vasilyevich came to his native village. After graduation, the artist returned to his homeland.

It was in Kochelaev that many of his wonderful paintings were conceived and painted. Impressions of the life of his native village and beloved nature provided rich material for the creativity of the talented painter and were reflected in many ways in his works. The work of Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov is a kind of artistic chronicle of the life of his native village.

Until 1933, Sychkov and his wife, Lidiya Vasilyevna (nee Ankudinova), lived in a house built on the site of a smoking hut left after the death of their mother. But a large fire that happened on their street destroyed several houses, including the Sychkovs’ house. Unfortunately, the fire left only a workshop located in the garden and some outbuildings: a barn and a bathhouse. A living room was added to the workshop with overhead light, designed by Fedot Vasilyevich himself. The Sychkovs lived in this house before moving to Saransk, which they carried out in 1956.

In 1970, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding painter, an order was issued by the Ministry of Culture of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to open a memorial museum in the artist’s homeland, which became a branch of the Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts.

House-Museum of F.V. Sychkova was opened on March 11, 1970 after some reconstruction of the premises. The layout of the house and interior decoration were restored based on the memories of the artist’s widow, photographs, and letters.

The total area of the five-wall log house with a low porch is 82.78 sq.m. On the east side there is a workshop under a hipped roof of a rafter structure. In front of the house, as during Fedot Vasilyevich’s life, peonies, dahlias, and lush asters, which Sychkov loved to paint so much, bloom in succession.

The museum's exposition consists of memorial and artistic sections. The first is located in the interior of the living room, where the artist’s original items are presented. In everyday life F.V. Sychkov was modest and unpretentious. He lived with Lydia Vasilievna in one small room with two windows, which served as both a dining room and a bedroom.

A significant place in the room was occupied by a whitewashed stove, traditional in Russian village houses, next to which on a bench there was a copper samovar and other kitchen utensils. Opposite is a tall chest of drawers, next to it is a suitcase with which the Sychkovs traveled through Germany, France and Italy in 1808.

Near the window there is a round table on three carved legs. On both sides of which are antique armchairs upholstered in colored tapestry. On the long winter evenings the Sychkovs read a lot. Therefore, in the wall display case, museum visitors see books from the artist’s personal library: “Masters of Serf Russia”, “Carlo Rossi”. We listened to music, turned on the gramophone or gramophone. They collected a large collection of records, including folk songs, gypsy romances, arias from operas, and dance melodies.

Lidia Vasilievna loved to sew. She often posed for her husband in peasant sundresses, which she sewed herself on a Triumf sewing machine. In the right front corner is a wooden bed covered with a white blanket. Above the door hangs a massive clock in a round case, witnesses to the hectic life that the inhabitants of this house lived.

On the walls of the living room there are stands with originals and copies of letters and documents, photographs telling about the life and work of Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov. Of particular interest among them is the authentic certificate of completion of the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, received by F.V. Sychkov in 1895. Photo portraits of Fedot Vasilyevich’s teachers at the drawing school and the Academy of Arts, General I.A., attract attention. Arapov, friends and colleagues of the artist.

The biographical section also presents government awards that marked the artist’s work: decrees awarding him the honorary titles of Honored Artist of the MASSR and the RSFSR, People’s Artist of Mordovia, a certificate and medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War,” an order book and the Order of the Badge Honor."

The interior and the painter's workshop have been recreated. Here is his easel, sketchbook, brushes, palettes. The workshop is decorated with wicker furniture brought by the couple from the south, where they often vacationed in the 1940s. Lydia Vasilievna loved to sit on a sofa with cushions, covered with a bright carpet, watching her husband work, looking through magazines, newspapers and letters.

The most honorable place in the studio always belonged to paintings, studies and sketches, with which the unpainted log walls of the studio were hung up to the ceiling.

And now paintings by Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov from the collections of the Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts named after. S.D. Erzya is the owner of the largest collection of his paintings and graphic works (about 600 works, including studies and sketches of the master). And each picture depicts a corner of the beloved village: Kochelaevsky hills, huts, the beautiful Moksha in the spring flood or on winter vacation, pole fences. And most importantly, the residents of Fedot Vasilyevich’s native village, with shining smiles, rosy cheeks, glowing with joy.

In one of the newspaper publications of the early 50s, summing up his creative and life results, Fedot Vasilevich wrote: “I dedicated my work to the depiction of ordinary people. The heroes of my paintings are mainly residents of the village of Kochelaeva in the Mordovian Republic. I love to depict ordinary people not only at work, but also to show their cheerfulness, fun, and games. I think that this inexhaustible optimism of the ordinary Russian person reflects his great creative power, his firm faith in a happy future...”

(Text prepared by: Elena Vishnyakova, researcher at the Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts named after S.D. Erzya, Saransk)

http://kovilkino.e-mordovia.ru/content/view/1570

Sychkov Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov Fedot Vasilievich

The artist Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov (1887-1958) was the founder of professional painting in the Mordovian region. He connected his entire life and work with his native places, with his fellow countrymen, devoting to them all his rich creative heritage. F. Sychkov was born in the village of Kochelaevo, Penza province (now the Republic of Mordovia) in the family of a poor peasant. In his youth, the future artist worked in an icon painters' artel. The participation in his fate of a landowner from an estate neighboring the village of Kochelaevo, a St. Petersburg official, General Ivan Arapov, allowed Sychkov to enter the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in St. Petersburg. Thanks to his abilities and perseverance, he completed a six-year school course in 3 years, and then continued his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1895-1900). No one has experienced so much grief and no one has sung joy, laughter, and a lively smile so brightly and sincerely as Sychkov. Maybe he deliberately avoided the dark sides of life? No, the artist’s archive contains many sketches depicting these aspects of life. But here, for example, is what the magazine “Nature and People” wrote in 1878 in its July book about the Mordovians: “Joyfulness is one of the distinctive features of the Mordovians. In joy, in sorrow, and returning from field work, Mordovians almost constantly walk songs." Sychkov perceived with all his soul this “hidden engine” of the moral health of the people and spoke about it with all the power of his extraordinary talent.

Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov(1870 -1958) - famous Russian artist, was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Kochelaev, Penza province. At the age of twelve, the future artist lost his father.

The mother, left with her children without a piece of bread, was forced to walk around the courtyards with a knapsack, collecting “for Christ’s sake.” Showing family concern, the grandmother sent her grandson to elementary school.

School art teacher P.E. Dyumayev discovered the boy’s ability to draw and wrote a letter of petition to the court painter Mikhail Zichy.

The teacher and student waited a long time for an answer from St. Petersburg, but they did. The response letter contained advice - to send a capable student to the St. Petersburg art school, but there was no hint of what means. Fedot realized the main thing: he had to earn his own way for travel and studies.

Since childhood, Fedot Sychkov showed a talent for painting. He worked in an icon-painting workshop, painted frescoes in churches, and made portraits from photographs.

"Self-Portrait", 1893

In 1892, he went to St. Petersburg, to the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts with the support of General Arapov, who drew attention to the talented young self-taught artist.

In 1895, Sychkov graduated from the Drawing School and became a volunteer student at the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts.

After completing his studies, the artist returned to his homeland. In 1900, he was awarded the title of artist for the painting “News from the War.” The artist’s main theme is the life of peasants and rural holidays.

"Peasant Girl"

The canvases of Fedot Sychkov attract with the cheerfulness of their colors, white-toothed smiles framed by colored scarves, the radiance of the sun and snow, the aroma of field herbs...

He received six prizes at academic exhibitions in St. Petersburg.

He was awarded a silver medal at an exhibition in St. Louis (USA).

He earned an honorable mention at the International Exhibition in Rome.

And in 1908 he personally visited England, France and Germany.

But there was certainly a feeling of satisfaction from the foreign voyage as a result of what was achieved. Upon arrival in Russia, he returned to his native Kochelayevo.

"From the Mountains", 1910

"Waits"

"Girl in a Blue Shawl", 1935

Behind almost every brilliant creator is a woman who, with her support and wisdom, kept the flame of her loved one’s talent alive.

His wife, Lidiya Nikolaevna, became such a muse for Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov. She, like her husband, was keenly interested in folk culture, including Mordovian.

Lydia Nikolaevna carefully collected items of national costume and jewelry. Her collection included an incredible number of shawls, shirts, hats, belts, beads... Fedot Vasilyevich used all this wealth in his portraits.

Died in Saransk, being an Honored Artist of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic