Russian painting about peasant life. S.A

Sergei Aleksandrovich Lobovikov was born in 1870 in the village of Belaya, Glazovsky district, Vyatka province, into the family of a deacon. Graduated rural school, studied at the Glazov Theological School for two years. At the age of 14 he was orphaned. In 1885, he was sent by his guardian as an apprentice in the photo studio of Pyotr Grigorievich Tikhonov in Vyatka. In 1892 he was taken into active military service (in 1893 he was released for health reasons). In 1893, he worked for a short time in the photography of 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 photographs were kept for 30 years). Since 1899, he has participated in exhibitions in Russia and abroad, and has repeatedly received top awards. In 1900, he toured Europe and 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 and participated in an exhibition in Dresden. In 1909-1912. - Chairman of the Vyatka Art Circle, did a lot of work on organizing the art-historical museum in Vyatka (traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg to visit artists and collectors, collected paintings). In 1909, he received 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 Subdepartment for Museum Affairs and the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquity. In 1918, many photographic studios were nationalized, Lobovikov’s teacher Tikhonov was arrested by the Cheka as a hostage and executed (at the age of 66). Lobovikov managed to avoid nationalization of the workshop; in 1920 he received a safe conduct letter from Lunacharsky. In 1921-26. Lobovikov participated in the assessment of confiscated church valuables, compiled a collection of 617 items of antique utensils and asked to leave it in Vyatka (despite repeated petitions, the collection was taken to Moscow). In 1927, Lobovikov’s personal exhibition was held in Moscow in honor of the 40th anniversary of his photographic activity. In those same years, the work of old Russian photographers was criticized as “narrowly aesthetic, divorced from Soviet reality.” Since 1920, Lobovikov taught a photography course at the Vyatka Pedagogical Institute. In 1932, he donated his house and darkroom to the Pedagogical Institute. By decision of the institute's management, the laboratory was soon liquidated, and the house was turned into a student dormitory (the photographer himself and his family were forced to huddle in a small part of the house). In 1934, he received an academic pension, moved to Leningrad, and 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.

A. Koltsov

Why are you sleeping, man?
After all, spring is just around the corner;
After all, your neighbors
They've been working for a long time.
Get up, wake up, rise up,
Look at yourself:
What were you? and what happened?
And what do you have?
On the threshing floor - not a sheaf;
There is not a grain in the bins;
In the yard, on the grass -
At least roll a ball.
From the cages of the brownie
I swept away the litter with a broom;
And horses for debt
He spread it among the neighbors.
And under the bench there is a chest
Lying overturned;
And, bent over, the hut,
She stands there like an old lady.
Remember your time:
How it rolled
Through fields and meadows
Golden river!
From the yard and threshing floor
Along the big path,
Through villages, cities,
For trading people!
And how are the doors to him
Dissolved everywhere
And in a corner of honor
There was your place!
And now under the window
You are sitting in need
And all day on the stove
You lie awake.
And in the fields as an orphan
The bread is not cut.
The wind sharpens the grain!
The bird pecks him!
Why are you sleeping, man?
After all, summer has already passed,
After all, autumn is already in the yard
He looks through the spinning wheel.
Winter follows her
He walks in a warm fur coat,
The path is covered with snow,
It crunches under the sleigh.
All the neighbors are on them
They bring and sell bread,
Collecting the treasury -
They drink the mash by the 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 shade in the village.
Only the church dome
Illuminated by the sun,
And the church is open
And the bell rings.
Bell for Vespers
Christian is calling;
Tomorrow is Sunday -
Rest from work.
And heard in the field
The bells are calling,
Villager to the village
I've already driven the cows.
And in the village there is a church
It's so full of people
And sparkle with lights
Lots of candles.
Labor candles
They burn brighter than the stars,
And people pray
They create in simplicity.

Ivan Nikitin
Grandfather

Bald, with a white beard,
Grandfather is sitting.
Cup with bread and water
Standing in front of him.
White as a harrier, there are wrinkles on the forehead,
With a worn-out face.
He saw a lot of sadness
Forever.
It's all gone; the strength is gone
The gaze became dull;
Death put me in the grave
Children and grandchildren.
With him in the smoky hut
The cat lives alone.
He is old too, and sleeps all day long,
He won't jump off the stove.
The old man needs a little:
Weave bast shoes and sell them -
So I'm full. His joy is
IN God's temple walk.
To the wall, near the threshold,
He will stand there, groaning,
And he praises God for his sorrows,
God's child.
He's glad to live, he doesn't mind going to the grave -
To a dark corner.
Where did you get this strength?
Poor little guy?

Art of the Netherlands 16th century
Painting "Peasant Dance". In 1567–1569, Pieter Bruegel painted a number of paintings on the themes folk life(“Peasant Dance”, “ Peasant wedding" - both in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Apparently, Bruegel managed to create one of his best genre works - “Peasant Dance”. Its plot does not contain allegory, but general character characterized by self-contained pathos and rigid rationality. The artist is interested not so much in the atmosphere of a peasant festival or the picturesqueness of individual groups, but in the peasants themselves - their appearance, facial features, habits, the nature of their gestures and manner of movement. The heavy and strong figures of the peasants are depicted on a large scale, unusual for Bruegel, creating the elements and natural power of nature. Each figure is placed in an iron system of compositional axes that permeates the entire picture. And each figure seems to be stopped - in a dance, an argument or a kiss. The figures seem to grow, exaggerated in their scale and significance. Gaining almost super-real persuasiveness, they are filled with rough, even ruthless, but inexorably impressive monumentality, and the scene as a whole is transformed into a kind of clot of characteristic features of the peasantry, its elemental, powerful force.

In this picture, the everyday peasant genre, specific in its method, is born. But, unlike later works of this kind, Bruegel imparts exceptional power and social pathos to his images. When this picture was painted, a powerful uprising of the popular masses—iconoclasm—had just been suppressed. Bruegel's attitude towards him is unknown. But this movement was from beginning to end popular, it shocked contemporaries with the evidence of its class character, and, presumably, Bruegel’s desire to concentrate in his picture the main, distinctive features of the people stands in direct connection with this fact (it is significant that before his death he destroyed some -drawings that apparently had a political character).

Another work by Bruegel, “The Peasant Wedding” (Vienna), is also associated with iconoclasm. Here is the sharpness of vision folk character increased even more, the main figures acquired even greater, but already somewhat exaggerated power, and the allegorical principle was revived in the artistic fabric of the picture. Three peasants look in horror or bewilderment at the wall supposed to be in front, outside the picture. Perhaps this is an allusion to the biblical story about the feast of Belshazzar, when words appeared on the wall predicting death for those who stole treasures from the temple and wanted to get out of their insignificant state.

Let us remember that the rebel peasants who fought against Catholicism destroyed Catholic churches. The tinge of some idealization and softness unusual for Bruegel even has a taste of bitter regret and good humanity- qualities that were not present in the clear and consistent “Peasant Dance”. A certain departure from the principles and ideas of “Peasant Dance” can also be found in the drawing “Summer” (Hamburg), which at first glance is close to the named painting. However, a complete departure from his previous hopes occurred a little later, when the master created a number of gloomy and cruel paintings (“The Misanthrope”, 1568, Naples; “The Cripples”, 1568, Louvre; “The Nest Destroyer”, 1568, Vienna, Museum), and in including the famous “Blind” (1568; Naples, Capodimonte Museum). They are indirectly connected with the first crisis in the development of the Dutch revolution.

Russian painting of the 19th century.

A remarkable painter, the creator of a unique national-romantic movement in Russian painting was Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847) , Borovikovsky’s favorite student. Venetsianov created a unique style, combining in his works the traditions of capital academicism and Russian romanticism early XIX V. and idealization peasant life. He became the founder of the Russian everyday genre. At the beginning of 1819, the artist left for the small estate of Safonkovo, Tver province. At the age of forty, it is as if he begins to work in painting again. He was attracted by people from the people, serfs, who courageously and heroically fought in the war with Napoleon, who retained their high human dignity and nobility, despite the heavy oppression of serfdom. And although later the artist occasionally returned to portraits, his main interests from the early 1820s were associated with the everyday genre. Already Venetsianov’s first paintings in the new genre: pastels “Beet Peeling”, “Reaper” - convincingly testified that Venetsianov consciously strived for realistic fidelity to the image, considering the main task of the painter “to depict nothing other than in nature, which is to obey her alone without any admixture of any artist’s manner.”

Russian peasants as depicted by Venetsianov are people filled with spiritual beauty and nobility, moral purity and inner integrity. In an effort to poeticize the Russian people, to affirm his high dignity, the artist somewhat idealized the work and life of the peasants and did not show the true hardships of serf labor. But the very fact of turning to such a “base”, from the point of view of official aesthetics, theme of peasant life deserves special attention. Venetsianov, like no other artist of the first half of the 19th century, boldly and confidently, with unusual consistency, asserted in art the right to depict ordinary peasants. Its true heyday creative talent falls on the 20-30s of the 19th century. It was during this period that such masterpieces as “On the arable land. Spring”, “At the harvest. Summer”, “Children in the field” and a number of sketches appeared.

The working peasants in Venetsianov’s paintings are beautiful and full of nobility. In the painting “On the Plowed Field. Spring,” the theme of labor is intertwined with the theme of motherhood, with the theme of the beauty of native nature. The best and most artistically perfect genre painting artist - "At the Harvest. Summer" is distinguished by its lyrical-epic perception surrounding reality. If in the first picture Venetsianov depicted spring landscape with wide expanses of fields, the first shoots of foliage, light clouds in the blue sky, then in the second the artist made one feel the height of the Russian summer - the time of village suffering - with sparkling golden fields, a sultry sky. Both canvases are painted with light, clear colors.
In 1824, Venetsianov’s paintings were presented at an exhibition in St. Petersburg, which evoked an enthusiastic response from the progressive Russian public. “Finally, we have waited for an artist who turned his wonderful talent to the depiction of one native, to the representation of objects surrounding him, close to his heart and to ours...” wrote P. P. Svinin, the creator of the “Russian Museum” in St. Petersburg. In subsequent years, Venetsianov painted many portraits of young peasant girls: "Peasant Woman", "Peasant Woman with Mushrooms in the Forest", "Girl with Sewing", "Peasant Woman with Cornflowers" and others. With all the originality of each of these works, they are united by the artist’s desire to embody new ideas about beauty in art, about folk beauty, spiritual and noble.

Venetsianov’s significance in the history of Russian art is extremely great. He was one of the first artists to devote his work to depicting peasants and established the everyday genre as an equal and important area in art. In the artist's paintings appeared folk images, filled with spiritual nobility and great human dignity.
At the same time, in the official artistic life Romanticism was dominant, united at that time with academic classicism.

In the 30s and 40s years XIX V. The leading role in the fine arts belonged to painting, mainly historical painting. Its characteristic feature was the reflection of the events of ancient history into tragic climaxes. In contrast to the historical painting of the previous era (A.P. Losenko), which gravitated towards national history with moralizing subjects, where the bright beginning triumphs over the forces of evil, the historical compositions of K.P. Bryullova, F.A. Bruni, A.A. Ivanov are of an abstract symbolic nature. As a rule, their paintings are written in religious subjects, the emphasis in the image is transferred from the central figure of the protagonist to the crowd at a critical moment.
The leading role here belongs Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852) , who combined in his work a romantic concept with the classic canon of images. Contemporaries unanimously considered Bryullov’s main work to be a large historical canvas "The last day of Pompeii". Having visited the vicinity of Naples, where archaeological excavations of the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were carried out, he finally determined the theme of his future painting. Shocked by the sight of the city buried under a layer of lava and ash during the eruption of Vesuvius on August 24, 79, he began to implement his plan.

The artist is fascinated by fidelity, sublime love and ineradicable faith in justice. The raging elements only helped to reveal their extraordinary spiritual beauty in people. The three foreground groups on the right represent these high feelings. The sons are trying to save on the shoulders of their frail old father, who cannot come to terms with the death of the white marble gods falling down from the roofs of the palaces. Their fall is perceived as the collapse of his ideals arranged life. Young Pliny, carefully lifting and persuading his mother to gather the rest of her strength and try to escape, cannot leave the most dear person in the world. The young groom, not noticing the lightning and not hearing the roar of falling stones, holds the dead bride in his arms. The best day of their lives became the last day of their earthly happiness. The idea of ​​the painting was based on a romantic emotional contrast between the perfection of the people depicted and the inevitability of their death: buildings collapse, marble idols fall, and no one, be they brave, beautiful or noble, can be saved during a catastrophe. K. P. Bryullov refuses the classicist requirements for highlighting the main character. The entire human mass becomes his hero, where everyone is an equal participant historical drama, everyone experiences the force of an inevitable natural disaster.

Bryullov was also one of the most significant and popular Russian portrait painters of his time. He is a master primarily of ceremonial oil portraits, where a person is presented at full height in a solemn setting, as well as excellent pencil and watercolor portraits. Bryullov's portraits reflect the romantic ideal of a beautiful and proud personality, standing above his surroundings. Such is, for example, “The Horsewoman,” executed in shining golden-fawn, pink and greenish-brown tones, reminiscent of lush valerine painting of the 18th century.
In its full splendor, Bryullov’s enormous talent, despite his academic training, manifested itself in two portraits of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova- with the pupil Giovannina and the little black and with the pupil Amacillia in a masquerade. In the last portrait there is simplicity of composition and laconism of color, built on rich color contrast blue and red, give the canvas a special decorativeness and at the same time monumentality. The countess’s beautiful, cold face framed by black curls against the backdrop of a bright red curtain, her attire of a masquerade queen, her young companion in oriental attire, a motley crowd of masks in the back of the hall - everything contributes to the creation of a bright romantic image.
Bryullov's name became a symbol of a new pictorial academicism with elements of romance.

Even more academic romanticism manifested itself in creativity Fyodor Antonovich Bruni (1799-1875) . The artist worked on the painting “The Copper Serpent” for fifteen years, and this is explained not only by the huge size of the canvas, but also by the difficulty of comprehending and writing the Old Testament plot, which is deep in philosophical content. The Jewish people, rescued from Egyptian captivity under the leadership of Moses, wandered in the waterless desert for forty for long years. The tired people, tormented by thirst and hunger, grumbled, and the Lord sent punishment on them - a rain of poisonous snakes. Then the people repented and began to pray for mercy, to which the Lord commanded Moses to erect a colossus and place a serpent on it. Anyone who looks at him with true faith in salvation through the Lord will have mercy.

The artist set himself difficult task- depict the varied reactions of a diverse crowd, show the degree of faith and submission to the divine will of each person. But the people represented on the canvas are more likely to be gripped by fear than filled with deep humility to the commands of Heaven. The artist’s attempt to present the action in night lighting, highlighting the figurative compositions with moonlight, gives the sound of the picture notes of symbolism and produces a mystical impression. His “Copper Serpent” belongs entirely to its era: faces merge into a crowd gripped by common fear and slavish obedience. The rhythm of the distribution of human figures, the distribution of light and shadow seems to repeat the rhythm in which the emotions of the crowd rise and fall. The religious and mystical orientation of the painting reflected the fashionable mood at court and in high society circles.

The most significant phenomenon in Russian painting of the 30-50s of the 19th century. – works Alexander Andreevich Ivanov (1806-1858) . Italy became Ivanov’s spiritual homeland, where he came to continue his studies and work. Here he carefully considered the theme of his future canvas, which he wanted to devote to a turning point in the life of mankind - the appearance of the Savior in the world. In history, he is looking for a perfect image, capable of shaking the soul of an inexperienced viewer, becoming an impulse for his spiritual rebirth. Unlike Bryullov, who sang a hymn to the wonderful man of Antiquity, Ivanov plunges into the world of the New Testament, studies the history of spiritual insight and the formation of humanity, freely making its moral choice. He really hoped that the future work could also provide answers to many questions of our time. Majestic picture “The Appearance of Christ to the People (The Appearance of the Messiah)” became the main result of his creative biography.
It took the artist twenty years to implement his difficult plan. Persistent search for composition, persistent and Full time job over nature were caused by the desire to achieve maximum persuasiveness. The skill of the academic school was clearly visible in the many preparatory sketches created, full-scale sketches, sketches (there are more than 300 of them!), relating to individual fragments of the future canvas.
The substantive center of his canvas is not the actions of the heroes, but their reasons, not a deliberate demonstration of the ideal and heroic, but barely noticeable movements and transitions of feelings (from surprise, curiosity and distrust to awe and delight). Combining in the picture two evangelical events of different times - the preaching of John the Baptist and the appearance of Christ - he achieves an amazing integrity of perception of the significant event.
People of different ages and temperaments came to the banks of the Jordan in their own way, each has their own life experience behind them, each heard something different in the words of John the Baptist, each makes their own choice. Some are gladly ready to believe the inspired words of the prophet who announced the coming of the Savior, others remain indifferent to them, and others are filled with hopes of deliverance from suffering. Despite the fact that everyone is at a certain stage of their spiritual and moral development, all together they express the universal human dream of finding truth.

The embodiment of the author's main idea is reflected in the composition of the painting. At first glance it seems quite traditional. Following the classical principle, the artist places the participants in the scene in the foreground along the picture plane, balancing both of its parts and focusing the audience’s attention on the figure of John the Baptist. At the same time, he directs the movement deeper, where the figure of the walking Christ is depicted. The multidirectional movement along and inside the space is greatly enhanced by the turns and glances of the characters turned towards Christ. This is understandable, because it is here, according to the author’s plan, that the center of the entire composition is located. All the invisible threads connecting disparate groups of people reach out to him. It is no coincidence that the cross in the hands of John and the spear of the Roman horseman are directed in his direction. Let us also pay attention to the fact that Jesus does not go to the righteous (John’s group), but to the Pharisees, accompanied by Roman horsemen.

The natural school, which has the features of critical realism and an acute social orientation, arose in mid-19th V. initially in Russian literature and appeared in the works of N.V. Gogol, N.A. Nekrasova, F.M. Dostoevsky, I.A. Goncharova, D.V. Grigorovich. Simultaneously with the new literature, whose representatives strived for “naturalness, naturalness, an image of life without embellishment,” by the mid-40s of the 19th century. A whole generation of artists appeared - adherents of the natural school. And the first among them should be considered Pavel Andreevich Fedotov (1815-1852) , whose paintings represent scenes from life, where the tragic essence of the situation is hidden under the cover of the everyday. These are a kind of moral sermons, the purpose of which is the correction of others. These are “Fresh Cavalier”, “ The picky bride", "Aristocrat's Breakfast", "Major's Matchmaking".
In the picture “Major's Matchmaking” There was a typical phenomenon of life at that time - a marriage of convenience: a rich merchant and his entire family dream of going “from rags to riches” through the marriage of his daughter to a bankrupt major. Here, the art of mise-en-scène, characteristic of Fedotov, is most noticeable: in the center, the cutesy bride breaks away from the hands of her mother, who roughly grabs her by the skirt to hold her in the room, the rest of the characters are united in groups, each of which in its own way “tells” about the patriarchal merchant life. The extraordinary precision, expressiveness of the characters’ poses, gestures, and facial expressions allow us to see for a moment the true morals of this family. In a minute, the daughter will straighten her dress, the mother will smile kindly and bow, the cook and household members will disappear into the back rooms. The characters were chosen by Fedotov with an amazing knowledge of Russian life and represent a curious and precious collection of physiognomies characteristic of the 40s.
The painting is a true masterpiece in terms of painting: its color scheme is based on an expressive juxtaposition of pink, lilac, greenish-ocher and yellow. The shimmer of thick silk fabric, the shimmer of old bronze, and the shine of transparent glass are conveyed with a remarkable sense of material. In the soft lines of the bride’s thrown back head, in her gesture, in addition to affectation, there is a lot of femininity, emphasized by the airiness of the white and pink fabrics of her outfit. In all this, in addition to Fedotov the satirist, one senses Fedotov the poet.

The painting "Fresh Cavalier" was painted in 1846. This is a painting by P.A. Fedotova conveys to the viewer an episode from the life of an official. The official received his first award - an order - and appears to us as the main character of the picture. His pride and arrogance attracts the eye. The artist depicted his hero in a caricature that makes the viewer smile. After all, the order received by an official is the lowest award that an official of those times could receive. But the main character, a minor official, sees this award as a career advancement. He dreams of a different life. The furnishings in the hero’s room are poor and explain the hero’s reaction to such a low reward.

The comical nature of the image was achieved due to the contrast of his image. In the painting he is depicted in a huge robe, barefoot, wearing curler curls, standing in a squalid room. There is an award on the robe. A serious facial expression against the backdrop of a robe and homely furnishings makes you smile. After all, the gentleman boasts to his maid. Most likely, he has no one else to show his reward to. The maid's gaze is condescending. She has not stopped performing her daily chores, and is standing next to the gentleman, holding a boot in her hands. The hero’s room is small, many things are piled on top of each other. On the dining table, which is most likely a work table, there is sausage cut on newspaper. There are fish bones lying under the table. Every corner of the room is a mess, things are piled on top of each other. The uniform is hanging on two chairs, and there are some things lying around. The cat is tearing the upholstery on one of the chairs. The hero's curling irons and curling irons, which lie right there on the table, speak of the hero's desire to be fashionable and well-groomed. But all the hero’s things don’t have proper care. The image of the hero and his desire to be higher in rank than he is looks ridiculous and ridiculous. Even the cat on the chair is thin and unkempt.

In the 60s, they began to demand from the artist “content,” “explanation of life,” and even “a verdict on the phenomena depicted.” The main thing in Russian painting was the predominance of moral and social principles over the artistic. This feature was most clearly manifested in the work of democratically minded artists. In 1863, the Academy of Arts set a program for a gold medal with a plot from Scandinavian mythology. All thirteen applicants, among them I.N. Kramskoy, K.G. Makovsky, A.D. Litovchenko, who did not agree with this program and with programs in general, refused to participate in the competition and left the Academy. Having defiantly left the Academy, the rebels organized the “Artel of Artists”, and in 1870, together with Moscow painters - “Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions”. Starting with Perov and ending with Levitan, all outstanding representatives of Russian painting were participants in these exhibitions - the Wanderers.
The Peredvizhniki artists turned their gaze to the difficult fate common man. In the portrait gallery Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy(1837-1887) There are many wonderful peasant types who express faith in the people, their spiritual strength, intelligence, talent and kindness. Best paintings artist on this topic - "The man in the bullet-ridden hat" and “Mina Moiseev.” Kramskoy’s “preaching” activities to a certain extent hindered him as a painter: he tried to solve by pictorial means what only journalism could do, and his plans did not find adequate pictorial embodiment. That’s why he moved from “Christ in the Desert” to “Mermaids”, from “Herodias” to “Inconsolable Grief”, from “ moonlit night” to “Unknown”. And yet it should be said that it was Kramskoy’s brush that created portraits of such geniuses of Russian literature as L.N., remarkable in their depth of psychological characterization. Tolstoy and N.A. Nekrasov. From the portrait of Tolstoy, an intelligent, wise and extremely vigilant man looks at us.

The plot of the picture "Christ in the Desert" associated with the forty-day fast of Jesus Christ described in the New Testament; in the desert, where he retired after his baptism, and with the temptation of Christ by the devil, which occurred during this fast. According to the artist, he wanted to capture a dramatic situation moral choice, inevitable in the life of every person.
The painting depicts Christ sitting on a gray stone located on a hill in the same gray rocky desert. Kramskoy uses cool colors to depict early morning - the dawn is just beginning. The horizon line is quite low and divides the picture approximately in half. In the lower part there is a cold rocky desert, and in the upper part there is a pre-dawn sky, a symbol of light, hope and future transformation. As a result, the figure of Christ, dressed in a dark cloak and red tunic, dominates the space of the picture, but at the same time is in harmony with the harsh landscape that surrounds it.
Restraint in the depiction of clothing allows the artist to give primary importance to the face and hands of Christ, which create the psychological persuasiveness and humanity of his image. The tightly clenched hands are located almost in the very geometric center of the canvas. Together with the face of Christ, they represent the semantic and emotional center of the composition, attracting the viewer’s attention.

"Unknown" is considered one of the most significant and famous works of Ivan Kramskoy. By giving the canvas such a name, the artist gave it an aura of mystery and intrigue. In ideological and artistic terms of the content of the image of the “Unknown”, the painter managed to create a work that stood on the verge of a portrait and a thematic painting.

Among the first Russian artists who, in the spirit of the progressive press of the 60s, turned their paintings into flagellating sermons, was Vasily Grigorievich Perov (1834-1882) . Already in his first film “Sermon in the village”, published in the year of the liberation of the peasants, there was not a trace left of Fedotov’s harmless ridicule: the obese landowner, indifferent to the priest’s words, fell asleep on the chair; his young wife, seizing the moment, whispers with her admirer, thereby demonstrating disdain for spiritual values ​​on the part of the “enlightened” society. Next picture “Procession for Easter" was quite “Bazarov-esque” in its sharpness and consonant with the darkest accusatory novels of that time.
A procession in full force with banners and icons leaves the tsesovalnik, having just treated themselves there to glory: drunken pilgrims tumble out of the tavern in disarray and splash through the spring slush; the priest, barely moving his feet, leaves the porch with great difficulty; the deacon with the censer stumbled and fell.

Both clergy and men are presented in the most unattractive form, leaving no doubt that everything in Russia is worthless and requires a radical overhaul and reconstruction. All other paintings by Perov, with the exception of “The arrival of the governess” and “Troikas,” more of a sad rather than accusatory nature, filled with sorrow for “poor humanity.” Compared to early paintings, which were distinguished by excessive narrative details, fragmentation of form and lack of a sense of color, in later works Perov's integrity appeared. Especially good portraits of F.M. Dostoevsky and A.N. Ostrovsky, great Russian writers. These works rightfully allow us to rank Perov among the founders of the psychological portrait in Russian painting - he was able to accurately and completely show the spirituality of his heroes. Despite the “ideological” nature of his art, Perov remains a very great master in the accuracy and persuasiveness of his characterizations.
One of the most expressive is the picture "Seeing off the dead man". Written

upon Perov's return from abroad, where he studied painting, it brought him the first prize from the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. The skinny horse slowly and dejectedly trudges along the hill towards the gusts of wind. In the sleigh there is a roughly put together coffin, covered with matting and tied with ropes. On both sides of him, children perched on sleighs. The girl looks sad. Opposite is a boy in a huge fur hat that slides down over his eyes. He is shivering from the cold, wrapping himself in his father’s large sheepskin coat. A dog runs next to the sleigh, seeing off its owner on his last journey, further emphasizing the loneliness and homelessness of the orphaned peasant family. We don’t see the mother’s face, but how eloquent are her bowed head and drooping shoulders! No one is around, no one is accompanying them on their last journey to the only breadwinner of a peasant family. And because they have no sympathizers, we feel the tragedy of what is happening even more. This impression is reinforced by the joyless, dull landscape: snow-covered fields, deepening twilight, low-hanging gloomy, leaden clouds. All around there is cold silence and endless, painful silence...

Among the Itinerant artists, the largest is Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) . He, like the rest of the Itinerants, saw the content of paintings in what could be read from them, so he constantly resorted to literary themes, strove to write as expressively as possible an evil satire (“Religious procession in the Kursk province”), a cheerful sermon (“Cossacks” ), a gloomy tragedy (“Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581”), an everyday scene with political overtones (“The Arrest of a Propagandist,” “Seeing Off a Recruit,” “They Didn’t Expect”). In almost every one of his paintings one can feel not only rationality, but also a burning temperament, albeit with a dose of theatricality, and absolute psychological accuracy. The characters in his paintings, very precisely positioned, expressively gesticulating, are still actors playing a role, and not deeply feeling people. Only in “Barge Haulers on the Volga,” written in teenage years under the direct impression of what he saw during the trip along the Volga, the drama is simply and clearly expressed.
From a painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga", which became highest achievement the art of realism in the 1870s, his “glory throughout Great Rus'” began. In it, he abandoned the edification and reproof usual for everyday painting, and for the first time expressed not only the suffering of people in hard labor, but also a formidable social force. With amazing skill, Repin gave a socio-psychological “biography” of the people and recreated the unique individuality of each character. In eleven figures of barge haulers, a typical portrait of folk Rus' was created, and all classes of Russian society appeared before the viewer. In a letter to V.V. Stasov about this painting, Repin wrote: “The judge is now a man, and therefore it is necessary to reproduce his interests.” It was not the barge haulers that inspired the author with contemptuous disgust, but rather respect and admiration for their inner strength and beauty. According to F. M. Dostoevsky, the canvas was revealed the real truth“without any special explanations or labels.” Dostoevsky gave the artist his greatest credit for the fact that not a single one of his barge haulers shouts from the painting: “Look how unhappy I am and to what extent you are in debt to the people.”

The multifaceted talent of I. E. Repin was clearly expressed in historical paintings, striking with the authenticity of the depiction of events and the depth of psychological characteristics. In events that went into the distant past, he looked for the culminating moments of life, dramatic situations in which the true essence of a person was most fully manifested. He was a master at showing his heroes at turning points in their lives, taking them by surprise, in moments of extreme stress. mental strength. At the same time, Repin was generously gifted with the ability to sense continuity and draw parallels between the historical past and the present.
So, the idea of ​​the painting "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan" arose in connection with the murder of Alexander II by the Narodnaya Volya. “Feelings were overloaded with the horrors of our time,” Repin wrote in those days. Repin found “a way out for the painful in history” in the depiction of the terrible moment of insight of the son-killer, who suddenly realized the impossibility of changing anything in his life. The picture clearly conveyed the idea of ​​the crime of murder, of violating the immutable commandment “thou shalt not kill.” Equally terrible are the loneliness and repentance of the crouching old man, trying to lift the heavy body of his son, and the merciful gesture of forgiveness of the son, touching his father’s weakening hand. The polysemy and versatility, the psychological depth of the work could not leave anyone indifferent.

The picture is filled with other life-affirming content “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan» , expressing the element of the people's character, the spirit of their chivalry and camaraderie. With a sense of optimism, Repin managed to convey the strength of the Cossack freemen, her inexhaustible sense of humor and desire for freedom. For the first time in Russian painting, the feeling of unity between the masses and the leader - the leader of the military brotherhood - was conveyed. In a huge canvas (203 x 358 cm), he created a kind of hymn to the national spirit, an entire “symphony of laughter.” Repin worked on this painting for more than 15 years: the work never let go of the artist’s imagination. He wrote with pleasure to V.V. Stasov about its heroes: “What a bunch of people!!! Their din and noise makes your head spin, you can’t part with them! Damn people!

I. E. Repin made a significant contribution to the art of portraiture. Successfully developing the best traditions Russian painting, in each work of this genre he revealed the “dialectics of the soul,” the complex emotional world and the unique characteristics of each individual person. In each portrait of the artist, rare observation, psychological vigilance, the desire for truthfulness, and rejection of falsehood were expressed. Repin never “corrected” individuality, did not strive to “improve” or idealize it, he did not like it when models deliberately “posed for him.” In most cases, the portrait was born in an atmosphere of lively communication, conversation, and sometimes heated debate. That is why their artistic solutions are so diverse.
Repin could paint a portrait in one session, on a sudden impulse, captured by the world of his model, but at the same time he could work long and painfully, rewriting and changing canvases more than once. With exceptional interest, he wrote about people close to him in spirit, “dear to the nation, its best sons,” with many of them he had deep friendships. Even when he painted the same face several times, he discovered something new and unique in it.
The pinnacle of the artist’s portrait art is portraits of the composer M. P. Mussorgsky and the writer L. N. Tolstoy, in which the “power of the immortal spirit” is conveyed, the impression of the integrity of the individual and the harmony of being.
The portrait has always remained the artist’s favorite genre; he turned to it throughout his entire life. creative life. Researchers have repeatedly argued that if Repin would have painted only portraits, he would have remained a great artist in the history of Russian art.

An outstanding contribution to the development of the historical genre of painting was made by Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (1848-1916). For his canvases, he chose historically significant, turning points in the life of Russia, showing their incredible complexity, tragedy and psychological depth. He fully mastered the art of identifying general historical patterns in specific, real facts and showing the sources of internal national contradictions. Creating an artistic image of the historical past, he often saw it through fate individual, who embodied the “heroic soul of her people” (M. V. Nesterov). At the same time, he drew material for his paintings from modern reality, seeing in it suitable associations, characteristic strokes and significant details. Surikov never denounced, passed sentences or made assessments. In everything he portrayed, he allowed himself only empathy and emotional objectivity.
As a master of historical painting, Surikov loudly announced himself for the first time in the film "Morning of the Streltsy Execution", in which he reflected the consequences of the revolt of the archers, who supported Princess Sophia in 1698 and opposed the legitimate power that belonged to her younger brother, Peter I. It was not blood or execution that the author wanted to convey in this work, but the people’s national tragedy, talk about the terrible price paid by people living in an era of change and falling under the wheel of history. The author saw the dramatic sound of the canvas in the “solemnity of the last minutes” experienced by the archers.
Each image in the crowd represents an individual, portrait character, which was created in an intense search for sitters and in careful work on sketches. All Sagittarius experience the tragedy in their own way, expressing defiance, rebellious spirit and indignation. On their faces and in their poses there is a whole range of feelings: gloomy silence and sorrowful farewell, stubborn anger, painful thought and dull resignation.
The emotional center of the composition is a silent duel, a “duel of glances,” a confrontation between the two main characters - Peter I and the red-bearded archer. The head of the irreconcilable rebel, not broken by torture, is proudly raised, directing his gaze, full of indomitable hatred, towards the young king. He alone did not take off his hat in front of him and frantically clutches a burning candle in his hands. Peter I is depicted against the background of the Kremlin wall - a stronghold state power. There is a feeling of greatness throughout his entire figure. inner strength and confidence in the rightness of their struggle. In this confrontation there is no right and wrong; everyone has their own grievance and their own truth. Reflecting on the reasons for the collapse of many of the undertakings of the reformer tsar, the author expresses the idea of ​​his moral defeat and tragic disunity with the people.
With great skill, Surikov painted bright female characters in whom the people's tragedy is perceived especially tangibly and emotionally. The old women sitting motionless in the road mess in the foreground, the desperately crying little girl in a red scarf, the heart-rending screaming young woman, whose husband is already being led to execution, remain in the viewers’ memories for a long time. Despite the fact that the artist in most cases does not show their faces, the viewer is conveyed a feeling of the last degree of their grief and despair. Each female image created by the painter is distinguished by stunning truth of life and psychological persuasiveness.
The artistic design of the painting is subordinated to the author’s ideological plan. Important semantic and compositional role plays its architectural frame. To the motley heads and the asymmetrical forms of St. Basil's Cathedral are contrasted with the severity of the powerful Kremlin walls, and the spontaneous mass of the people's crowd is contrasted with the strict regularity of Peter the Great's regiments. The upper edge of the picture with the domes of St. Basil's Cathedral is cut off. As if decapitated, the cathedral is perceived as a symbol of pre-Petrine Rus' and the rebellious archers.

It is difficult to find a single compositional center in the picture: separate groups are formed around some figures of the archers, symbolically embodying the elements of the people's grief. Data in various turns and angles, all of them are subject to strict internal logic that meets author's intention. Surikov said more than once that the composition “needs to be properly arranged, so that the figures do not become separated in the picture, but are all tightly connected to each other.” So the “crowdedness” of the crowd of archers can be perceived as a conscious author’s technique of uniting the people into a single, holistic artistic image.

In the picture "Menshikov in Berezovo" echoes of the “senseless and merciless” “Russian revolt” are also heard. Here is presented the tragedy of the family of a man who was once one of the most influential figures of Peter's time, exiled with his family to distant Berezov. Surikov invites the viewer to peer into the face of a man who symbolizes an entire historical era for the artist. The lonely “chick of Petrov’s nest,” immersed in his hopeless thoughts, seemed frozen in a cramped, small house. The size of his figure clearly contrasts with the size of the room, which the author I. N. Kramskoy drew attention to: “After all, if your Menshikov gets up, he will break through the ceiling with his head.” But this compositional irregularity was completely justified, since the artist really wanted to emphasize the scale of his hero’s personality. The amazing contrast between the intimacy of space and the monumental psychological scale allows the artist to achieve the integrity of the figurative solution of the work.
Nothing happens in the picture, but against the backdrop of this eventlessness, the story of the past and future is told by objects surrounding people. Surikov fills every detail with deep figurative meaning. Menshikov’s not yet grown hair is bristling, reminding that quite recently this head was adorned with a wig with lush long curls. In the wretched interior of the hut, the remnants of former luxury (a candlestick, the prince’s ring, Mary’s chain) and Siberian realities (a bear’s skin, a rug on the bed, the youngest daughter’s reindeer warmer, the prince’s boots) look very eloquent and expressive. The light of a burning lamp in ancient icons is perceived as a symbol that gives hope for change for the better.

Vasnetsov Viktor Mikhailovich (1848-1926)- the founder of a special “Russian style” within pan-European symbolism and modernity. The painter Vasnetsov transformed the Russian historical genre, combining medieval motifs with the exciting atmosphere of a poetic legend or fairy tale; however, the fairy tales themselves often become the themes of his large canvases. Among these picturesque epics and fairy tales of Vasnetsov are paintings "The Knight at the Crossroads" (1878), "After the massacre of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsians"(based on the legend “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, 1880), “Alyonushka” (1881), “Three Heroes” (1898), "Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible"(1897). Some of these works ("Three Princesses underground kingdom", 1881, ibid.) represent decorative panel paintings that are already typical of Art Nouveau, transporting the viewer to the world of dreams.

V.M. Vasnetsov. "Three heroes"

He especially appreciated the power, scope and grandeur of Russian nature Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898), who is rightly called the “singer of the Russian forest”. In the history of world painting there is hardly another artist who would so clearly, calmly and majestically show the hidden beauty of the vast forest expanses. Before Shishkin, the motif of the heroic strength of the Russian forest, its qualities, surprisingly consonant with the character of the Russian person, had never sounded so vividly in painting.
A poetic depiction of the forest, trees of any species in their various combinations, in groups and individually, in different times years: barely touched by the first greenery, luxurious in their summer decoration, sternly and dully rustling in the autumn, covered with heavy and lush caps of snow in the winter - this is what became the main and favorite theme of this artist’s work.

I.I. Shishkin. "Morning in a pine forest"

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817-1900) entered the history of world painting as a “fiery poet of the sea.” He devoted his entire life to this topic and never betrayed it. In the created marinas (by the artist’s own admission, there were about three thousand of them), he remained faithful to the romantic ideal of beautiful and spiritualized nature. If in his youth he was more interested in the serene silence of the sea, bathed in the gold of the sun's rays or the silvery light of the moon, then later he turns to the image of a powerful, raging element, foreshadowing grandiose catastrophes.
Aivazovsky’s painting “The Ninth Wave” caused a real pilgrimage of admiring spectators. A huge wave of the raging sea is ready to fall on people frantically clinging to the wreckage of the masts of the lost ship. All night the crew fearlessly fought against the sea elements. But then the first rays of the sun pierced the water, illuminating it with thousands of bright highlights and subtle shades of colors. The water seems transparent, as if it glows from within, absorbing the seething fury of the waves, and therefore giving a fragile hope of salvation. According to sailors, the ninth wave heralds the last gust of a storm. Will people be able to resist? Will they emerge victorious from a mortal battle with the raging elements? It is difficult to answer this question, but the color scheme of the picture, full of optimism, inspires such confidence.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel (1856-1910) - the brightest representative of symbolism in Russian fine art. The images he created reflected not only the spiritual searches of the master himself, but also the internal contradictions of the difficult times in which he lived. The era recognized itself in his works; he himself was “our era” (K.S. Petrov-Vodkin). It combines the philosophical nature inherent in Russian culture and the moral intensity of individual creative manner. Vrubel was one of the first Russian artists who tried to discern another, more important internal reality behind the real reality and express it in the language of painting, combining decorative and expressive properties. He saw existence split into a non-existent world of visible objects and a mysterious world of invisible entities.
Sincerely believed in world-transforming beauty, in knowledge of the essence of phenomena in the process artistic creativity, he expressed his creative credo in these words: “It is impossible and not necessary to paint nature, one must capture its beauty.” He looked for his own concept of beauty and harmony in the world of mysterious dreams, myths, mystical visions and vague premonitions. Characteristic feature creativity of M. A. Vrubel constitutes an organic unity of the real and the fantastic, symbol and myth. Only Vrubel could see reality from angles that were unknown to anyone else. He created a new reality - beautiful and tragic world, capable of development, movement and transformation. In his creative imagination vague outlines of objects appeared, which either alarmingly “sank” in a barely visible space, or suddenly flared up, flickered, shimmering with mysterious reflections of light. In this mysterious world its mythological, fairy-tale and epic characters lived and acted: "The Swan Princess", "Muse", "Pan", "Six-Winged Seraphim", “Prophet”, “Bogatyr”, "Mikula Selyaninovich", “Snow Maiden”, “Volkhova”.

M.A. Vrubel "The Swan Princess"

Painting by M. A. Vrubel "Demon Seated" full of symbolic generalizations that express the ideals and dreams of the author himself. The canvas, created based on the plot of Lermontov’s poem, was literally created by the artist. This is how he himself described it: “A half-naked, winged, young, sadly pensive figure sits, hugging his knees, against the backdrop of the sunset and looks at a blooming meadow, from which branches stretch out to her, bending under the flowers.”
Vrubel's demon is far from the traditional embodiment of deceit and evil; it is not just an artistic allegory reflecting the contradictory world of a lone rebel, rejected by the outside world and cast down from heaven for his pride. Like any symbol, this image is based on several aspects, and therefore cannot be deciphered unambiguously. What did the author want to capture in it? Your own loneliness, spirit of rebellion, anxiety and dreams of beauty? What does his rebellious soul conceal within itself, forced to remain inactive? According to Vrubel, the sad Demon is “a spirit that is not so much evil as suffering and sorrowful, but at the same time powerful... majestic.” Here is the key to understanding the essence of this image as a creature that personifies “ eternal struggle restless human spirit”, seeking and not finding answers either in heaven or on earth.
The figure, which occupies almost the entire space of the canvas, is too cramped within the picture, so the author deliberately cuts it off at the top and bottom. The Demon's hands are tragically clasped, his gaze is sad, his concentrated and tense thought is frozen on his brow. His entire figure is perceived as a symbol of the suffering of a captive spirit and absolute loneliness in the shackles of alien earthly matter. Bizarre fractures of rocks, motionless clouds frozen in the sky, glittering petals of unprecedented fairy-tale flowers and crystals, refracting the pink-yellow reflections of the setting sun in their faces, enhance the supernaturalness and unreality of this image. The color scheme, represented by a combination of crimson, violet, purple-gold and ash gray tones, also helps to create an almost unreal, fantasy world. Against the background of this grandiose color mystery, the blue clothes of the young titan look especially expressive, symbolizing the fulfillment of his hopes and ideals.

Vrubel's Demon is a deeply tragic nature, a symbol of the spirit of the times, expectation of change and fear of the unknown. It reflects not only the artist’s personal experiences, but also time itself with its kinks and contradictions. Vrubel did not consider this painting to be the final embodiment of the plan; he planned to paint his “monumental” Demon later. Soon he continued the cycle he had begun with the painting “The Flying Demon,” imbued with a premonition of death and the doom of the world. He completed the cycle with “The Defeated Demon,” which did not leave the slightest hope for change for the better, becoming a visible embodiment of the artist’s own tragedy.

After familiarizing yourself with the presented materials, you must complete the test and control tasks presented here. If necessary, control materials are sent to email teacher at: [email protected]

Look, what's interesting: there I hung a lot of paintings about nobles, townspeople and merchants, and in most of them some kind of drama unfolds: " Unequal marriage", "Bigamist", "Interrupted Betrothal". And I wrote that don’t feed our genre writers and especially the Wanderers bread, but let them write something sad, heartbreaking and instructive about the wedding plot, using this topic to apply ideas about the subordinate position of women , the merciless power of capital and all that jazz.

To which my beloved attentive and erudite readers (isn’t it cool that I banned all the evil troll-stompers? such a comfortable atmosphere in the comments, it’s really nice) quite rightly began to write, for example, this:

_mjawa : I listened to Svetlana Adonyeva’s lectures here about the traditions of the Russian North, and about weddings in particular. I learned that the bride not only had to symbolically cry before the wedding, but thoroughly, ritually cry, sob and lament for up to two weeks in a row, mourning her girlhood, childhood in her home and transition to a new unfamiliar life.
Realize emotionally and experience the state of transition, feel properly that the old life has ended forever and irrevocably, and that a new life and a new family must be accepted unconditionally, no matter what it turns out to be (negative scenarios were also spoken out, cried in symbolic form during this period) .
A happy, cheerful bride at a wedding was perceived as an open gate for the evil eye, from which she was protected in every possible way and surrounded with amulets and amulets, often strange (for example, keeping a piece of soap under her arm during the entire wedding). Moreover, all these sobs, when the bride’s legs are not supported, she wails, falls and hits the floor, tears off the girl’s ribbons from her braids - in the stories of old women about their own experience, they are “deliberate”, “according to custom”, like bodily psychopractices.
And among those same Russian writers, all the same rituals that they either saw or heard about are taken seriously and in good faith - “after all, the illiterate Herods forcefully marry off a girl, and she cries and kills herself, sick."

This is true, but based on this logic, pictures about peasant weddings where this ritual was observed should have been even more tear-jerking than in my previous material, about young ladies in white crinolines.
But nothing. There is very little tearing.
Let's explore.

To begin with, those few (very few paintings) in which the tear is still present.

Sergey Gribkov. "Wedding Blessing"

A. A. Buchkuri. Wedding train.

The next picture is sad - well, it’s just Perov. He cannot live without it, no matter what he writes.

V. Perov. On the eve of the bachelorette party. Seeing the bride off from the bathhouse

In the next picture, you can’t immediately tell whether it’s a tear or not, because we don’t read the plot at all deeper than the first level. On the website of the Russian Museum they believe that the painting is good: “In 1861, Myasoedov married the daughter of a landowner, Elizaveta Mikhailovna Krivtsova. This event to some extent influenced the creation of the canvas. The prototype of the young lady was the artist’s bride. The artist admires a sweet home scene, the characters of which immersed in an atmosphere of love."

An additional aspect to the canvas in our eyes is given by a fact that Myasoedov could not have implied: the year of creation. How long is there left before serfdom is abolished? A little more, and you'll be fine, instead of getting into the smallest details intimate life your serf slaves.

Grigory Myasoedov. Congratulations to the newlyweds in the landowner's house. 1861.

Well, that’s kind of all the hysterical stuff that I managed to scrape together.

All other paintings were painted with a completely different artistic goal.
This is approximately the same point of view from which the authors of these paintings looked at their nature - beautiful! Interesting! everyday life description of an alien world.

It is clear that in these paintings the artists are interested in “alien”, rustic, strange customs, and unusually colorful outfits. Some kind of modesty. Pictures, when we look at which we think “damn, there is some serious drama encrypted here, some incomprehensible story, a moral lesson,” and they are not there.
There are no tears, no tears.
In approximately the same way, our Vereshchagin looked at the Hindus and Tibetans with their amazing costumes.

But thanks to this point of view, we can observe all stages of the rituals associated with the wedding.

Nikolay Pymonenko. Matchmakers.
It seems like Ukrainian peasants, or not?


UPD (from here): It turns out that in a number of regions of Ukraine in the 19th - early 20th centuries, a custom was recorded: if a girl liked the match offered by the matchmakers, she, sitting by the stove, began to chop lime on it, and the more she liked the future groom, the more actively her fingers moved. The virgin in the picture hasn’t exactly removed half of the whitewash with her finger, but is very focused on what she’s doing. She is clearly not against the boy whose parents sent matchmakers.

Attention!
If the picture is clearly a wedding, but the girl and those around her are wearing rich kokoshniks, pearls, sundresses (like this), then this work is not suitable for us here. Because it belongs to a completely different genre, which was called “how beautiful life was in pre-Petrine Rus', and then this alcoholic and syphilitic ruined everything.” About weddings on similar paintings We can also talk if interested, but another time.

In the meantime, we return to our peasants and genre documentaries.

N. Petrov. Bride's viewing.

Nikolai Bekryashev. Choice of dowry
The bride, probably, with a bundle in her hands?

The next picture is very interesting.
It is quite early, the first quarter of the 19th century.
This author does not yet know how to document “like Vereshchagin”; he paints romantically, in an empire style, as Bryullov would have done.
The heroes stand in noble poses, and Achilles or Iphigenia could be depicted in a similar way.

Unknown artist. Blessing before the wedding.

The next picture is from 1889. Do you see what evolution has taken place?
You can easily restore costumes based on this canvas and go to the historical reconstruction festival.

Alexey Korzukhin. "Hen-party".
A half-naked bride looks out from the bathhouse.
UPD: _mjawa The bride walks wrapped up in a fur coat. And from the bathhouse in both paintings, another participant in the ceremony looks out and runs out after the main procession with the bride - either the younger sister, or someone filling her role. The personification of the left maiden share in the parental home.

The next picture shows a Ukrainian wedding. In general, there are also quite a few paintings on the theme of Little Russian rituals, but I don’t take them specifically, I only took this one because of the composition.
(Yes, as it turned out, someone is very concerned about this question, so I will answer here: I personally am neither Armenian nor Jewish, but a mixture of Kuban and Don Cossacks, that’s why there is so much kindness a la Nonna Mordyukova in my look, and my hand is so heavy).

V. Makovsky. hen-party

That's why an example of composition was needed - see how in the picture above the girls are sitting in the corner?
See below: Elena Kiseleva (a forgotten student of Repin) was supposed to have a multi-figure painting, but only this elaborate sketch of a piece with a group has survived.

Elena Kiseleva. Brides. Trinity Day

UPD: _mjawa Kiseleva doesn’t just have brides of marriageable age. These are already betrothed brides, as evidenced by the white thread caps under the red scarves-girlish headbands. They are already in a transitional state - they are not yet young, but their fate has already been determined.

And the composition itself should have been like this

The next picture is from 1909.
In the second half of the 19th century, especially towards the end, and then at the beginning of the 20th century, the “folk” theme was presented differently, Surikov showed that it is not necessary to be so careful, but rather emotionally, with soul. At the same time, the topic was quite fashionable, “peasants” were given to write as an assignment at the Academy of Arts for a diploma, etc.

Ivan Kulikov An ancient ceremony of blessing the bride in the city of Murom

And here is the earlier one again.

Karneev. Getting ready for the wedding

The crowns are put on the head, no one is holding them.
Double wedding on top of that?
And please note that a clear and simple wedding is practically of no interest to painters, with the exception of this author.

Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky. Wedding.

And here is a whole series of postcards about rituals.

I. Lvov. Redemption of the road

I. Lvov. Arrival of the young man from his parents to his father-in-law's house for the wedding feast

I. Lvov. Wedding celebration

This is a must know painting.
This is one of the first examples of genre painting in Russian art IN GENERAL.

Mikhail Shibanov. Celebration of the wedding contract. 1777

Description of the painting by Shibanov (from here):

On the reverse side of the painting there is an inscription by the author, explaining the plot chosen by Shibanov:
"A painting representing the Suzdal provincial peasants. The celebration of the wedding contract, painted in the same province by all the Tatars in 1777. Mikhail Shibanov."

We learn about the essence of this festival from ancient descriptions of Russian peasant life: “The agreement consists of the exchange of rings and small gifts. The groom comes to see the bride. This agreement is holy and inviolable.”
This solemn moment in the life of a peasant family is shown in Shibanov’s film.

The action takes place in a hut owned by the bride's parents. In the very center of the composition is the bride, dressed in a rich national outfit. She is wearing a linen shirt buttoned to the top, a white brocade sundress embroidered with flowers, and on top of it a gold brocade jacket with red embroidery. On the head there is a girl’s headdress consisting of a gold embroidered bandage and a veil. The neck is decorated with pearls, a necklace of large stones descends onto the chest, and earrings are in the ears. Next to the bride is the groom in a smart blue caftan, from under which a greenish half-caftan and a pink embroidered shirt are visible.

On the right, behind the bride, the invitees crowd. They are also richly dressed: women in sundresses and kokoshniks, men in long cloth zipuns. Shibanov showed great compositional skill, rhythmically arranging the figures of the festival participants and uniting them with a common movement. The group of guests is closed by the figure of a young man, with a broad gesture pointing to the bride and groom. Strict rhythmic construction in no way excludes either the living naturalness of poses or their diversity. On the left side of the picture is a table covered with a white tablecloth and laden with all kinds of food. At the table are four peasants, apparently the bride's father and her older brothers. One of them stood up and addressed the bride and groom. The figure of this peasant, slightly tilted, with his hand extended forward, is necessary for the artist in order to connect the two disconnected groups of characters. (there are still some words in the link).

***
The painting below is from 1815, it is also quite romantic and Empire style. Pay attention to the girls' dresses - the exact same cut as Natasha Rostova's, the artist perceived sundresses in this way. The gestures are also noble, like on the reliefs.

Unfortunately, Venetsianov, who lived at the same time, did not write about weddings; I think he would have done the best job.

M. Terebenev. Peasant wedding.

Finally, perhaps the most famous 19th century painting on this topic.

V. Maksimov. The arrival of a sorcerer at a peasant wedding

Description of Maksimov’s painting from here:

The artist came from a village.
The work about the wedding was realized thanks to childhood memories. He remembered an incident at his brother’s marriage. The bridegrooms stood, and everyone else could not stop admiring them. While feasting, a stranger entered the hut, accompanied by his dog; without taking off his hat, he stopped at the threshold. Those sitting were alarmed and whispered: the sorcerer has come. Afterwards, the uninvited guest was politely served a cup of drink, given a coin, and he went home. In the picture
the same plot is depicted, but somewhat modified and very detailed. There is no dog next to the sorcerer; he is also wearing a headdress, which is sprinkled with snow and with snowballs stuck to his boots and sheepskin coat.

An elderly woman approached him with bread. Shown hospitality wise woman wants to appease the sorcerer, so as not to cause grief and hear good parting words. The rest of the relatives and invitees are alarmed and scared, the children are full of curiosity. The newlyweds in the corner of the hut are still standing under the icons.

A hidden light source illuminates them with a bright glow. The light also falls on the faces and clothes of other characters, on the stern features of the old man who entered. Some of the figures are in semi-darkness and cast shadows. This creates general impression mystery, mysticism.

A. Ryabushkin. The newlyweds are waiting for the crown in the Novgorod province

A. Ryabushkin. Peasant wedding in Tambov province


Sketch for it

And here are my favorite paintings on the theme of Russian peasant weddings.
This is provincial naive art, created not by visiting city painters, but by peasant/merchant artists themselves.

Bachelorette party in a merchant's house. XVIII (?) century

Smotriny in the 18th century in the city of Toropets

Description of the picture:

“Bridesday in the 18th century in the city of Toropets” is the traditional name of a painting from the end of the 18th century, which was known and aroused interest even in the 19th century. The meaning of the rituals preserved among the Toropets merchants, the traditions of pre-Petrine antiquity, was impossible to unravel even then
Obviously, the picture does not depict a wedding, but a bachelorette party - a celebration of the end of a girl’s life on the eve of the wedding, when “from night to morning”, before the groom’s arrival, the girls gathered in the bride’s house. They are dressed up, with scarves in their hands, while the bride is dressed in a dark sundress without stripes and a white shirt, which was supposed to be worn to the crown.

The costumes of the Toropets merchants were famous for their beauty and unusualness; they combined elements of national and European dress. Women covered their tall kokoshnik with a large scarf, and mahal fans were in common use. Handkerchief or fan married women in public they covered half their face.

Please note, the gentleman came to the bottom left, wearing a camisole and a wig

***
That's probably all I have.

If anyone sees in these works also, in their specialty, for example, costume historians, please write, it’s very interesting, I’ll add it.
Do you know any other pictures about village weddings?

• My t

Peasant:

1. A villager whose main occupation is cultivating the land.

Besseldeevka consisted of only twenty-two peasant souls. ( Turgenev. Tchertophanov and Nedopyuskin.)

2. Representative of the lower tax-paying class in pre-revolutionary Russia.

Dictionary of the Russian language. Moscow. " Russian word" 1982.

* * *

The peasant of the 16th century was a free tiller who lived on someone else's land under an agreement with the landowner; his freedom was expressed in a peasant exit or refusal, that is, in the right to leave one plot and move to another, from one landowner to another. Initially this right was not constrained by law; but the very nature of land relations imposed a mutual limitation both on this right of the peasant and on the arbitrariness of the landowner in relation to the peasant: the landowner, for example, could not drive the peasant off the land before the harvest, just as the peasant could not leave his plot without paying the owner at the end of the harvest. From these natural relations of agriculture followed the need for a uniform, legally established period for the peasant exit, when both parties could pay each other. The Code of Law of Ivan III established one mandatory period for this - a week before Saint George's Day in the fall (November 26) and the week following this day. However, in the Pskov land in the 16th century there was another legal deadline for peasants to leave, namely Filippovo (November 14).

* * *

Their own and foreign observers, marveling at the greatness of the deeds of the reformer [Peter I], were amazed at the vast expanses of uncultivated fertile land, the multitude of wastelands, cultivated somehow, on site, and not introduced into normal national economic circulation. People who thought about the reasons for this neglect explained it, firstly, by the decline of the people from a long war, and then by the oppression of officials and nobles, who discouraged the common people from any desire to put their hands to anything: oppression of the spirit resulting from slavery, according to him Weber, has darkened the peasant’s every meaning to such an extent that he has ceased to understand his own benefit and thinks only about his daily meager food.

V. Klyuchevsky. Russian history. Moscow. "Exmo". 2000.

* * *

Immediately after the death of Peter, before others, he spoke about plight peasants, the impatient prosecutor general Yaguzhinsky; then in the Supreme Privy Council there was lively talk about the need to alleviate this situation. “The poor peasantry” became a current government expression.

Actually, it was not the peasants themselves who were concerned, but their escapes, which deprived the government of recruits and tax payers. They fled not only in individual households, but also in entire villages; From some estates everyone fled without a trace; from 1719 to 1727 g

There were almost 200 thousand fugitives - an official figure that usually lagged behind reality.
The very area of ​​flight expanded widely: previously the serfs ran from one landowner to another, but now they flocked to the Don, to the Urals and to distant Siberian cities, to the Bashkirs, to the schism, even abroad, to Poland and Moldova. In the Supreme Privy Council under Catherine I, they reasoned that if things went like this, then it would come to the point that there would be no taxes or recruits to take from anyone, and in the note of Menshikov and other dignitaries the indisputable truth was expressed that if without an army it is impossible for the state to stand , then it is necessary to take care of the peasants, because the soldier is connected with the peasant, like the soul with the body, and if there is no peasant, then there will be no soldier.
To prevent escapes, the capitation tax was reduced and arrears were added up; the fugitives were returned to their old places, first simply, and then with corporal punishment. But here’s the problem: the returned fugitives fled again with new comrades, who were persuaded by stories about a free life on the run, in the steppe or in Poland.
The escapes were accompanied by small peasant riots caused by the arbitrariness of the owners and their managers. Elizabeth's reign was full of local, silent disturbances among the peasants, especially those in the monasteries. Pacifying teams were sent to beat the rebels or to be beaten by them, depending on who took them. These were small test outbreaks, which 20-30 years later merged into the Pugachev fire.

V. Klyuchevsky. Russian history. Moscow. "Exmo". 2000.

* * *

A. Smirnov.Vasilisa Kozhina - partisan, peasant woman of the Sychevsky district of the Smolensk province.1813.

A. Smirnov.Gerasim Kurin - leader of a peasant partisan detachment in 1812year.1813.

Adrian van Ostade.Peasant family.1647.

Peasant woman with cornflowers.

Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov.Peasant girl with a sickle in rye.

Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi.The head of a Ukrainian peasant in a straw hat.1890-1895.

Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov.Peasant yard in Finland.1902.

Vasily Grigorievich Perov.Peasant in the field.1876.

Vasily Grigorievich Perov.Return of peasants from funerals in winter.Early 1880s.

Vasily Maksimovich Maksimov.Peasant girl.1865.

Vasily Maksimovich Maksimov.The arrival of a sorcerer at a peasant wedding.1875.

Wenceslas Hollar.Peasant wedding.1650.

Vladimir Makovsky.Peasant children.1890.

Evgraf Romanovich Reitern.A peasant woman from Willenshausen with a fallen child in her arms.1843.

I. Laminitis.Russian peasants.Engraving based on a drawing by E. Korneev.1812.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin.Peasant woman with cows.1873.

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

Ilya Efimovich Repin.Two female figures (Embracing peasant women).1878.

Ilya Efimovich Repin.Bearded peasant.1879.

Ilya Efimovich Repin.Peasant yard.1879.

Ilya Efimovich Repin.Two Ukrainian peasants.1880.

Ilya Efimovich Repin.Peasant girl.1880.

Ilya Efimovich Repin.Ukrainian peasant.1880.

Ilya Efimovich Repin.Old peasant.1885.

Ilya Efimovich Repin.Portrait of a peasant.1889.

Ilya Efimovich Repin.Peasant's head.

Konstantin Makovsky.Peasant lunch in the field.

Mikhail Shibanov.Peasant lunch.1774.

Olga Kablukova.A hundred-year-old Tsarskoye Selo peasant woman with her family.1815.

Militiaman of 1812 in a peasant hut.Lubok painting.