Alexey Venetsianov short biography. Venetsianov Alexey Gavrilovich – gallery of works (106 images)

Russian Empire

Painter, master of genre scenes from peasant life

Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov(-) - Russian painter, master of genre scenes from peasant life, teacher, member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, founder of the so-called Venetsian school.

Biography

The Venetsianov family came from Greece, where they were called Mikhapulo-Proko or Farmaki-Proko. The artist's great-grandfather Fyodor Proko with his wife Angela and son Georgy came to Russia in 1730-1740. There they received the nickname Venetsiano, which later turned into the Venetsianov surname.

Alexey Venetsianov was born on February 7 (18) in Moscow. Father Gavrila Yurievich, mother Anna Lukinichna (nee Kalashnikova, daughter of a Moscow merchant). The family of A.G. Venetsianov was engaged in trade, selling currant bushes, tulip bulbs, as well as paintings. A.G. Venetsianov served as a land surveyor at the Forestry Department.

Alexey studied painting first on his own, then with V.L. Borovikovsky. In his youth he painted lyrical portraits of his mother (), A. I. Bibikov (), M. A. Fonvizin ().

DEFINITION OF THE BOARD OF THE ACADEMY OF ARTS

February 25, 1811 Point II: Alexey Gavrilov Venetsianov, an employee of the Forestry Department, according to the picturesque picture he presented own portrait, defined in Assigned; The program for the title of Academician asks him to paint a portrait of Inspector Kirill Ivanovich Golovachevsky. Protocol taker: Skvortsov On the back: Elected to Academician 1811 September 1 day.

A. G. Venetsianov. Portrait of the artist's wife Marfa Afanasyevna Venetsianova

Contemporaries about A. G. Venetsianov

P. P. Svinin. A look at new excellent works of art located in St. Petersburg. 1824

Finally, we waited for an artist who turned his wonderful talent to the depiction of one of our own, to the representation of objects surrounding him, close to his heart and ours - and was completely successful in that. The paintings painted by Mr. Venetsianov in this way captivate with their truth, are entertaining, curious not only for the Russian, but also for the most diverse lover of art...

V. I. Grigorovich. On the state of the arts in Russia. 1826

Venetsianov is known as a portrait painter and painter of rural domestic kind. He produced many beautiful things with dry paints. His works are admired for their faithfulness and pleasantness of colors and extreme precision in the execution of light and shadow. The best and, one might say, the most excellent works of their kind are the essence of his works: the inside of a threshing floor, a sleeping peasant, a village morning, a family at tea.

Gallery of works

Memory

• In 1955, a USSR postage stamp dedicated to Venetsianov was issued.

• Taras Shevchenko mentions A.G. Venetsianov in his autobiographical story “The Artist”.

See also

Notes

Bibliography

• Venetsianova A. A. Notes from Venetsianov's daughter. 1862.
• Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov. 1780-1847: Venetsianov in the artist’s letters and memoirs of contemporaries / Intro. article, ed. and note. A. M. Efros and A. P. Muller. – M.; L., 1931.
• Savinov A. N. Artist Venetsianov / Artist P. I. Basmanov. - L.; M.: Art, 1949. - 140 p. - (Masters of Russian art). - 5,000 copies.(region, superregion)
• Alexey Gavriilovich Venetsianov. 1780-1847: Album / Comp. M. V. Alpatov. – M., 1954.
• Savinov A. N. Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov: Life and creativity. M., 1955.
• Alekseeva T.V. Venetsianov and the development of the everyday genre // History of Russian art. T. 8. Book. 1. M., 1963. P. 546-598.
• Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov, 1780-1847 / Album compiler and author will enter. articles by A. Savinov. - M.; L.: Izogiz, 1963. - 72 p. - (Russian artists). - 30,000 copies.(region, superregion)
• Golubeva E. I. Venetsianov School / Design by Ya. D. Sosner. - L.: Artist of the RSFSR, 1970. - 56, p. - (People's Art Library). - 20,000 copies.(region)
• Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov: The World of the Artist. Articles. Letters. Contemporaries about the artist / Comp., intro. article and notes A. V. Kornilova. – L.: Art, 1980.
• Exhibition of works for the 200th anniversary of his birth: Catalog / State Russian Museum / Author. entry articles and scientific ed. G. V. Smirnov. – M., 1983.

Links

• Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov. Biography, creativity and paintings of the artist
• Venetsianov Alexey Gavrilovich. Biography and creativity of the artist on Artonline.ru
• Venetsianov, Alexey Gavrilovich in the library "Staratel"
• Podushkov D. L. Artist Venetsianov A. G. Life in the village. Death of Venetsianov. Local history almanac “Udomelskaya antiquity”, No. 18, May 2000.
• Podushkov D. L.(compiler), Vorobiev V. M. (scientific editor). Famous Russians in the history of the Udomelsky region. - Tver: SFK-office 2009. - 416 p.

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• Born on February 18
• Born in 1780
• Died December 16
• Died in 1847
• Artists by alphabet
• Artists Russia XIX century
• Genre painting
• Born in Moscow
• Accident victims
• Died in Tver province
• Academicians of the Imperial Academy of Arts
• Deaths in transport accidents

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• Ball games
• Tolstov, Pavel Alexandrovich

See what “Venetsianov, Alexey Gavrilovich” is in other dictionaries:

Venetsianov Alexey Gavrilovich- Alexey Venetsianov Self-portrait, 1811 Date of birth: 1780 Date of death: 1847 Nationality: Greek Genre ... Wikipedia

Venetsianov Alexey Gavrilovich- (1780 1847), Russian painter. One of the founders of the realistic everyday genre in Russian painting. Studied with V.L. Borovikovsky. IN early period painted intimate lyrical portraits, sometimes close to romanticism (A.I. Bibikov, 1805... Art encyclopedia

VENETSIANOV Alexey Gavrilovich- (1780 1847) Russian painter. One of the founders of the everyday genre in Russian painting (see Venetsian school). He created a poetic image of peasant life marked by idealization features, subtly conveyed the beauty of Russian nature (everyday life... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Venetsianov Alexey Gavrilovich- painter (1780 1847). I used Borovikovsky's lessons. He was an honorary free associate of the Academy of Arts. In 1812, together with Terebenev, he published political cartoons of Napoleon and his allies. He was the first, in time, Russian... ... Biographical Dictionary

The great Russian artist Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov was born in Moscow on February 18, 1780 in the family of a merchant. The father of the future artist moved to Moscow from Nezhin and sold tree seedlings. The boy's ability to draw appeared in childhood. The young man was especially drawn to portraits. Earliest surviving work young artist this is a portrait of his mother A.L. Venetsianova.

After completing his studies at a private Moscow boarding school, Venetsianov moved to St. Petersburg in 1802, where he joined the Postal Department. In addition to work, the young man was seriously interested in painting. Alexey got a job as a student with the famous Russian portrait artist Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky. Venetsianov studied diligently and with great enthusiasm under the guidance of the master of Russian painting. The young artist copied works of famous European painters that were on display in the Hermitage.

During this period, there was a place in the work of Alexei Gavrilovich and humorous cartoons. So in 1808, the artist decided to publish the satirical “Magazine of Caricatures”, the motto of which was the saying “Laughter corrects morals.” This magazine was to be presented in the form of engravings with text that ridiculed the vices of society. However, only two engravings were published. Just before the release of the third engraving, by order of Tsar Alexander I, this publication was banned. Previously published engravings were destroyed. The reason for such a categorical decision was the third engraving, which depicted a sleeping official while visitors were waiting for him.

In 1811, Venetsianov painted “Self-Portrait” and large portrait inspector of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts K.I. Golovachevsky, for which Alexey Gavrilovich was elected academician. Most famous work, among those painted by the artist during this period, is a portrait of his neighbor V.S. Putyatina. The image of the girl stands out from the crowd women's portraits « socialites"characteristic of Russian painting of the early 19th century.

In the years Patriotic War 1812 Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov again turns to satirical engravings. This time the satire of the Russian artist is directed against the nobility, who admired everything French. During the same period, Venetsianov painted several everyday paintings, including “At the Horse Market”, “Street Illumination”, “Revelry”, “At the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange”, “At the Haymarket”.

In 1818 Venetsianov left public service, marries the daughter of a little-known artist and leaves with his family to the Safonkovo ​​estate, which belonged to his new wife. It is here, far from the bustle of the city, that Alexey Gavrilovich finds main topic of your creativity. Venetsianov discovers an inexhaustible source of inspiration, a variety of subjects and images. The enormous contribution of Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov to the development of Russian painting is the creation of his own school, his own method. From private portraits of peasants the artist comes to magnificent artistic compositions, in which folk life, her aura, finds multicolored expression.

In 1819, the Society for the Establishment of Schools using the Method of Peer Education was organized. The purpose of this Society was to spread literacy among common people. Venetsianov was one of its first members. In 1822, for the first time, the work of the artist Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov was presented to the emperor. The painter received a thousand rubles for it, and the work itself was placed in the Diamond Room Winter Palace. The name of the painting was “Cleansing the beets.” This canvas became a kind of “turning point” in Russian painting, the emergence of a new direction in Russian art - the everyday genre. It was Venetsianov who achieved the popularity of this style of painting among the people.

Following “Cleansing the Beetroot,” Venetsianov painted the painting “The Threshing Barn,” which later became one of the artist’s best paintings. In order to more realistically convey space and light, Alexey Gavrilovich sawed the front wall of the threshing floor on his estate, seated the peasants there and depicted it all on canvas, including sections of sawn logs. For this painting, Venetsianov received 3,000 rubles, and the painting itself was transferred to the permanent exhibition of the Hermitage.

Venetsianov decided to use the money received from the sale of the painting “The Threshing Barn” to educate poor young people. The artist's students were from all classes and lived and studied with him for free. In total, more than seventy students passed through Venetsianov. Alexey Gavrilovich worked with everyone individually, took care of material support. The artist helped several of his charges free themselves from serfdom. Venetsianov's school of painting was alternately located in Safonkovo ​​and St. Petersburg, and received support from the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. The Academy of Arts belonged to pedagogical activity the painter is restrained. The reason for this was the artist’s pedagogical system, which developed the ability to see and depict the world around us in its immediate reality, and not within the framework of official academic norms and canons.

Over time, Venetsianov’s work became more and more alien and incomprehensible to the Academy of Arts. Among such paintings are “Nurse with Child”, “Reapers”, “Bathers”. In the painting “Bathers”, instead of the beauty of the naked female body academic figures Venetsianov showed the living, healthy beauty of the village bathers who went down to the stream.

In the 1820s, Alexey Gavrilovich wrote several small paintings, the so-called “peasant portraits” depicting either girls with a jar of milk, or with a scythe, with beets, with cornflowers, or a boy with an ax or sleeping under a tree, or an old man or an old woman.

In 1823, Venetsianov began creating the painting “Morning of the Landowner.” This work embodied best achievements painter. It should be noted the peculiarity of the images of peasant women, characteristic of many of the artist’s paintings: their majesty, calm dignity, businesslike expression on their faces. The prototype of the peasant women for this painting was the artist’s wife. She is a young, slender woman in a long sundress, leading two horses across a field famous painting“On the arable land. Spring".

No less famous is the painting “At the Harvest. Summer". This work is distinguished by its harmony artistic images: Venetsianov’s love for the working peasant people allowed him to depict true beauty in them.

Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov closely communicated with leading figures of Russian literature. The artist was familiar with Zhukovsky, Gnedich, Krylov, Kozlov, Pushkin. In the 1830s, the painter painted a portrait of N.V. Gogol.

In the 1840s, failures began to haunt Venetsianov’s life: he art school was not officially recognized and experienced financial difficulties. The students transferred to the Academy of Arts, which was regarded emotional artist like betrayal. The estate had to be mortgaged for debts. Soon Venetsianov suffered family grief - his wife died. To somehow improve my financial situation, the artist tried to get a teaching position at the Academy of Arts or MUZHVZ, but they ended in failure. The threat of ruin became real.

On December 4, 1847, the great Russian artist Alexei Gavriilovich Venetsianov died in an accident. On the steep, icy descent the horses bolted. The artist, instead of jumping out after the coachman, tried to stop the sleigh, but at the turn the sleigh turned over and dealt him a fatal blow.

But since most post does not repeat the content of the previous one, then I took the liberty of bringing this material to your attention.

Self-portrait, 1811, State Tretyakov Gallery

Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov born in Moscow on February 18, 1780 into a merchant family. His father grew fruit trees and berry bushes and traded them. ABOUT early years the artist is told by his nephew N.P. Venetsianov. From his memoirs (“My Notes”) you can find out that as a boy Alexey drew a lot from paintings and made portraits of his comrades with a pencil and a bristle pen. He received punishment for this hobby both from his family and especially from his teachers, whom the boy was afraid of. Once he was almost kicked out of the boarding house for this. However, perseverance won, and in the 5th grade he already “bravely won his favorite activity and painted with paints, not water paints, but oil paints, and not on paper, but on canvas.” It is known that in 1791, Gavrila Yurievich Venetsianov, having in mind his son’s hobby, signed up for the forthcoming book “The Curious Artist and Craftsman.”

Further in “My Notes” it is said about classes young artist from a certain painter Pakhomych, from whom he learned the skills of making stretcher frames, preparing canvases and priming them. But already at the first stage of learning painting techniques, the boy showed obstinacy. He painted directly on the canvas with paints, without the preparatory drawing required by the teacher. Probably, before Pakhomych, Alexei Gavrilovich had an example of another artist who worked in pastels. And not a pencil and oil painting, and pastel was the first material in which he began to work.

About undoubted talent young painter can be judged by his first known work - a portrait of A.L.’s mother. Venetsianova (1801).

In the summer of 1802, an advertisement appeared in the St. Petersburg Gazette about the recently arrived Venetsianov, “copying objects from life with pastels in three hours. Lives at Stone Bridge at the Riga Coffee House." However, without connections and acquaintances, the advertisement in the newspapers had no impact on the St. Petersburg public, and young painter returned to Moscow. Here he continued to improve his art as a portrait painter and created a number of successful canvases.
In 1807, Alexey again came to St. Petersburg and entered service in the office of the postal director. As Venetsianov himself recalls: “In free time I went to the Hermitage and studied painting there.” Soon he becomes close to the “most respectable and great” Borovikovsky and finds himself among the close students of the brilliant portrait painter, “who adorned Russia with his works,” and lives in his house.

Some time later, Venetsianov began publishing the satirical “Magazine of Caricatures for 1808 in Persons,” consisting of sheets of engravings. The third sheet, “The Nobleman,” was so sharply satirical that it incurred the wrath of Alexander I himself. The Emperor irritably ordered Venetsianov to engage in “accustoming himself to the service in which he is,” i.e. to deal with the affairs of the post office, and not with the morals of the nobility. On the day of its publication, the government banned further publication of the magazine, and the published sheets were confiscated. Venetsianov turned to the genre of caricature again during the War of 1812.

In 1811, Venetsianov received recognition from the Academy as a portrait painter, and for his “Self-Portrait” he was awarded the title of appointed. In the same year, Venetsianov received the title of academician for his portrait of the inspector of the Academy of Arts K.I. Golovachevsky with three academy students.

Portrait of Kirill Ivanovich Golovachevsky, inspector of the Academy of Arts, with three students, 1811, State Russian Museum

Striving for social activities led Venetsianov after the war of 1812 to the “Free Society for the Establishment of Schools Using the Method of Mutual Education.” It was organized on the initiative of the poets V. Zhukovsky and I. Krylov, the sculptor F. Tolstoy and the future Decembrist V. Kuchelbecker. With funds from the society, Venetsianov opened a school where he taught drawing to gifted children. This school was located on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Pupils were taught literacy, arithmetic, as well as drawing and sculpture. Many came from its walls famous artists- G. Soroka, S. Zaryanko, A. Tyryanov, E. Krendovsky. Venetsianov’s students began to be called the “Venetianov school.”

During these years, Venetsianov's house became a kind of literary and artistic salon, where the largest figures of Russian culture gathered - K. Bryullov, V. Zhukovsky, A. Pushkin, N. Gogol. On the initiative of Venetsianov, he was freed from serfdom Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko. Having painted a portrait of the landowner Engelhardt, Venetsianov managed to negotiate with him to buy out Shevchenko for two and a half thousand rubles. To collect this amount, a lottery was held in which a portrait of Zhukovsky painted by Bryullov was drawn.

In 1819, titular councilor Venetsianov, land surveyor of the Department of State Property, retired. Alexey Gavrilovich leaves St. Petersburg for his small estate in the Tver province, which consisted of two villages, Tronikha and Safonkova, with twelve servants.
Life in the village gave the artist rich material, opened new world, the beauty and poetry of native Russian nature. Already Venetsianov’s first paintings in the new genre convincingly indicated that Venetsianov consciously strived for realistic fidelity to the image, considering the main task of the painter “not to depict anything other than in nature.”
In 1820-1821, Venetsianov painted the painting “The Threshing Barn”. He lovingly and carefully conveys the interior space of the threshing floor. The first plan is illuminated with even light, then - where the lighting should fade, from the street through open door a stream of daylight rushes in from the left; in the depths - again bright light. The transitions from illuminated areas of the plank floor to darkened ones are very gradual. The shadows in the painting are transparent - this is the result of the artist’s subtle observations in nature.

The painting is kept in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. Venetsianov’s figures are sometimes not understandable to the viewer due to their static nature. But the artist preferred internal movements to external manifestations. In the picture, the first impulse of movement is created by a peasant woman sitting on the left. The perspective of the Venetsianov system is built in several steps. One of the perspectives can be called a series of horizontal lines that decrease with distance from the viewer, which are created by floor boards. Linear perspective in Venetsianov’s painting is reinforced by an aerial perspective. It is this property that connects the composition into a single whole. Color composition the picture is simply stunning. You can see living nature peasant. The canvas depicts a woman leaning her back against the logs. It shows the peasant essence.

The picture became a real masterpiece. She embodied everything inner world the artist, his whole essence, which was born in the process of examining many paintings by the French painter Granet. The artist was especially impressed by the painting entitled “Interior view of the choirs in the church of the Capuchin monastery in Piazza Barberini in Rome.” The phrase immediately comes to mind: “the paths of art are mysterious.” Venetsianov’s meeting with such a wonderful artist as Granet gave us a new theme in Russian painting, built according to all the rules of perspective. This also led to the birth of a new, professional and wonderful master.

It is impossible to talk about Venetsianov without mentioning this picture. After returning from St. Petersburg, where the young artist saw Granet’s painting, he ordered the front wall of the threshing floor to be cut out. This was necessary so that the room was illuminated with living light. Later the master began painting the canvas. The work was so exciting that by the end of the work Alexey Gavrilovich fell ill.

At the Academic Exhibition, which was opened on September 1, 1824, the painting was shown to the viewer for the first time. Many viewers immediately liked the picture; among the fans was the emperor himself. It was he who acquired the painting. Venetsianov’s colleagues did not like his work. They considered her unsuitable for the established Academy system.

The painting “The Barn” became a new word in Russian painting; it laid the foundation for all subsequent work of the artist. Behind it were created such things as “ Beet cleaning», « Reaper», « Morning of the landowner ».

Reaper

Morning of the landowner, 1823, Russian Museum

“Morning of the Landowner” was presented at the same exhibition as “The Threshing Barn”. Venetsianov gave this painting to Alexander I. At this time, a collection of works by Russian artists was created in the Hermitage. “Morning of the Landowner” is one of the first paintings to be included in this exhibition. In the newspaper Otechestvennye zapiski, when new paintings by Venetsianov appeared, Svinin noted that at last an artist had appeared who paid attention to the domestic, close to the people and heart. Venetsianov created a certain image that Svinin managed to discover. Venetsianov depicted on his canvases what surrounded him. The painting “Morning of the Landowner” depicts own house craftsmen in Safonovka. And “landowner” was written from the artist’s wife. He deliberately darkened her face so as not to destroy the typicality of the genre scene and so that his wife’s face would be unrecognizable. The artist managed to capture simplicity and spirit, creating the “effect of an open window.” Such comparisons always took place in Venetsianov’s paintings. But the subtlety of the author’s works simply fascinates everyone who managed to see them.
Description of the painting: In many works, Venetsianov’s paintings and colors seem monotonous, but in this work the author’s painting is simply amazing. The artist consistently builds color scheme using the contrast of red and brown, as well as green tones. The artist managed to perfectly demonstrate his coloristic capabilities.
The interior in the picture plays one of the important roles. In general, the interior is one of the features in Venetsianov’s paintings. The painting “Morning of the Landowner” is no exception. The author introduces mahogany furniture into the picture, which was a constant feature in the 1820s.
This painting also uses Venetsianov’s consistent technique - building perspective. The author builds it using floor boards. Perspective is a major part of Venetsianov's work. For him it is an all-encompassing concept. He does not forget about her even when he paints portraits.
The genre of Venetian paintings is not sophisticated, the subjects are not striking in their novelty. And yet the author manages to find something unusual even in ordinary situations - for example, in the distribution of flax to peasants.

True flourishing creative talent Venetsianova falls into the twenties and thirties. The top mature creativity The artist’s paintings are “On the arable land. Spring" and "At the Harvest. Summer".

On the arable land. Spring. First half of the 1820s, Tretyakov Gallery

At the harvest. Summer. Mid-1820s, Tretyakov Gallery

Venetsianov's paintings, presented at the 1824 exhibition in St. Petersburg, were warmly received by his contemporaries. “Finally, we waited for an artist who turned his wonderful talent to the image of one of our native people, to the representation of objects around him, close to his heart and ours,” wrote the magazine “Domestic Notes.”

Venetsianov created a whole gallery of Russian peasants - strong, hard-working, modest, captivating with their innate nobility and feeling self-esteem. He confirmed the right of the common man to become the hero of the picture, proved his physical and moral beauty.

Peasant woman with cornflowers. 1820s, Tretyakov Gallery

“Peasant Woman with Cornflowers” ​​is lyrically heartfelt. The girl’s thoughtful face is beautiful in its spiritual clarity. Slightly drooping shoulders indicate fatigue, large working hands rest on an armful of fluffy cornflowers. “Girl with Beetroot” is different in character - the energetic turn of the young beauty’s head. Typically Russian face With with the right features filled with businesslike concern: eyebrows knitted, lips compressed, gaze fixed. The red sonorous spot of the scarf emphasizes the temperament of the face. “Head of a Peasant” was executed with extraordinary pictorial freedom, in hot brown tones. Expression of a face inspired by thought, say big life experience, mental strength.

Head of an old peasant, 1825, Tretyakov Gallery

Children are the most at ease during Venetsianov's sessions. Their images are especially full of life and truth. Such, for example, is his wonderful portrait of Zakharka.

Zakharka, 1825, Tretyakov Gallery

This is a real, typical peasant boy, a “little man.” He is wearing his father's big hat and holding an ax on his shoulder. The face with round cheeks is completely childish, but peasant seriousness and thoroughness are already visible in the expression. Also “Kapitoshka”: a girl with a yoke, tied with a scarf like a woman, with her sly, sharp-eyed face already looks like a housewife, a sedate little peasant woman.

In 1823-26, Venetsianov painted the painting “The Sleeping Shepherd.” Venetsianov managed to paint a landscape that is filled with spatial layers. Each layer is filled with its own special tonality. The author consistently changes the color scheme of the painting, here he again shows himself to be a master of creating perspective. In the painting, the little shepherdess’s eyes are closed, it seems that he is sleeping, but the viewer feels that he is posing for the artist: the position of the shepherdess’s body, as well as the left palm, are positioned a little artificially.

Sleeping shepherdess. 1823-1826, State Russian Museum

The idea of ​​harmony between nature and people is clearly visible in the picture. Nature is calm and majestic. A fisherman is fishing, a girl with a yoke is walking along the opposite bank of the river, the expanses of fields and meadows are frozen for a moment - the picture is filled with hidden meaning, which not everyone manages to understand the first time.
Venetsianov never decided to show this painting at an exhibition at the Academy in 1824. Although it was ready before the exhibition began. The artist himself considered it too unusual. Venetsianov chose to leave the painting at home, on the estate. The artist’s fears about a possible misunderstanding of this painting were justified. Spectators of academic exhibitions, who are accustomed to the established canons of landscape, would not understand the painting, as well as many things in “The Sleeping Shepherdess.” In the picture there were no waterfalls and stones, no unusual forests, there was no correct arrangement of trees and forests, as well as people. The landscape turned out to be a naturalistic fragment of nature.
The painting became an innovation in painting. Venetsianov then worked in the open air, which was unprecedented in Russian art. Although the artist’s figure of the shepherdess itself did not come out particularly naturally, the landscape turned out to be realistic. This is what later became the basis for the sensational discoveries of Levitan and Savrasov.

“The Reapers” is the name of another masterpiece famous artist and the innovator - Venetsianov. You can also name an important main theme in the master’s work. The artist painted several works where we can see the “harvest” motif. The artist spied such a scene from life in the lives of his peasants, who were accustomed to seeing the owner wandering in the fields with a sketchbook. They were not shy, but behaved simply and naturally. But it is impossible not to notice the element of unnaturalness in Venetsianov’s painting. It has an element of smoothness, the reason for this was the long and constant posing of the peasants. Alexey Gavrilovich noticed how mother and son admired the butterflies that sat on the reaper’s hand, after which he asked them to pose for him. But nothing prevents the author - a great artist - from showing the main idea of ​​the picture - the world is beautiful. It is the peasants who can feel the world more beautifully than anyone else. At that time, this judgment was non-trivial. It was first expressed in literature by Karamzin, who was the founder of a new literary movement.

Bathers. 1829, State Russian Museum

“Here he resorted to the Academy’s traditional combination of two figures - one standing tall, the other crouched and depicted from the back,” writes E.V. Kuznetsova. - But this is where the connection between this composition and academic canons ends. Venetsianov's bathers are ordinary Russian peasant women with healthy and beautiful bodies, strong arms, and slightly reddened knees. Despite some conventionality of the image, overall there is a lively and sincere feeling in the picture.”

In 1830, through the efforts of high-ranking well-wishers, Venetsianov received the title of imperial painter, an annual salary and the Order of St. Vladimir. And the next year, after a long illness, his wife died, leaving him with two young daughters. The farm in dear Safonkovo ​​was not happy either. The estate had to be mortgaged to the board of guardians. In December 1836, the artist himself fell ill.

He writes: “At 57 years old, a man who lived not to eat, but ate to live, stumbles in the stomach of his inner existence. So, my most honorable one, on December 24, that is, on Christmas Eve, I stumbled, they allowed me ore, for the first time since I was a child, and they poured medicine into my mouth. After two or three days, I lo and behold, my snout is on the side, but even now it’s mowing, but not like that. They took away my coffee, vodka, wine, strong and hot tea, cigars, and gave me veal soup with snow, and water with cream tartare. I was ordered to live on the street, and despite the blizzard and frost, I wander - but of course, five or six times a day... I’m tired...”
Fortunately, everything worked out fine. In the forties, Venetsianov worked hard and fruitfully. Among his best paintings are “Sleeping Girl”, “Divination on Cards”, “Girl with a Harmonica”, “Peasant Girl Embroidering”. The coloring of the paintings of this time becomes more rich, variegated and decorative compared to previous works.

Cartomancy. 1842. Timing

Peasant woman doing embroidery

In conclusion, here are a few more paintings by the artist.

The life of Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov was cut short by accident. On the way to Tver, where he was supposed to paint the iconostasis in the cathedral, the artist lost control of the sleigh, which crashed into a high stone gate. Thrown onto the road, Venetsianov died before help arrived. This happened on December 16, 1847.

The message turned out to be very long, but it was not possible to fully tell about the work of the wonderful Russian painter A.G. Venetsianova. Many illustrations of his works were not included here, and it would have been impossible to do so. Those who are interested in his work will be able to find material about the artist and his work both on the Internet and in libraries. I wish them success.

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He painted portraits and landscapes, one of the first masters of the everyday genre. He was the first to create a whole gallery of peasant portraits, conveyed truthfully, however, with a share of syntheticism. The landscapes against which the portraits were depicted anticipated the searches of future landscape painters.

Venetsianov was born into a poor family of the Greek Veneziano family. His father was a merchant of the 2nd guild. About the original art education little is known about the artist. The boy's love for drawing, talent and passion for portraits showed up early and did not go unnoticed. In the 1790s, Alexei Venetsianov was sent to study at the Moscow honest boarding school. After finishing his studies, Venetsianov entered the service as a draftsman. In the early 1800s. was transferred to St. Petersburg, to the postal department. While serving in the Office of Postal Director D.P. Troshchinsky, Venetsianov continued to study painting on his own, copying paintings by Italian and German masters in the Hermitage. At the same time he takes lessons from famous portrait painter V.L. Borovikovsky.

In search of a means of subsistence, the Russian artist decided to publish the “Magazine of Caricatures in Faces,” which was subsequently banned by decree of Alexander I. Then the artist tried himself as a portrait painter, giving an advertisement in the newspaper that the artist “copied objects from life on the floor” , ready to take orders. But this also did not produce results.

In 1811, Venetsianov painted a self-portrait, for which the council of the Academy of Arts awarded him the title of appointed academician. In the same year, having presented the painting “Portrait of the Inspector of the Academy of Arts Golovachevsky with three students,” the artist received the title of academician.

In 1819, Venetsianov bought the village of Safonkovo ​​in the Tver province with 70 serfs, built a house and left the service to devote himself to art.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, the Russian artist was engaged in graphics. He, together with I.I. Terebenev and I.A. Ivanov published satirical sheets of military-patriotic content. In addition to graphics, Venetsianov turned to such a new invention as lithography. In 1818, he became one of the first members of the Society for the Establishment of Schools Using the Method of Mutual Education - a legal organization of the Decembrist Union of Welfare. The Society was faced with the task of increasing the literacy of the common people.

In 1824, an exhibition of the Russian artist’s works took place at the Academy of Arts, which was an undoubted success. After which Venetsianov wrote a work that was supposed to give him the right to teach at the Academy of Arts in the class of perspective painting. The Academy of Arts did not approve the painting; the artist, who had not undergone academic training, remained a “stranger.” But, despite this, by the mid-1820s Venetsianov had formed a group of students from the common class. Venetsianov had a natural talent as a teacher. However, training young artists was expensive for Venetsianov; in 1829 he had to mortgage his estate to pay off his numerous debts.

In 1830, Nicholas I appointed Venetsianov as a court painter, which saved him from a penniless situation. This title gave 3,000 rubles a year.

Continuing to teach young people, Venetsianov focused on working with nature, on depicting real life around him. However, he did not reject academicism. Some of his students attended academic classes, receiving recognition from the Academy of Arts and awards. In total, about 70 students were trained by Venetsianov.

Since the late 1830s, the Russian artist has been visiting St. Petersburg less and less. His new attempt to get into the Academy of Arts was unsuccessful. He continues to paint, but his paintings have begun to take on a certain sweetness. The artist’s attempts to paint in historical and mythological genres were also futile. An elderly, but still quite vigorous man, Venetsianov died in an accident when the horses carried his sleigh down a steep slope.

Famous works of Venetsianov Alexey Gavrilovich

The painting “The Sleeping Shepherd” was painted in 1823-1824 and is located in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. Venetsianov was the first artist in Russian painting who not only depicted the life of peasants, but created poetic image Russian people, in harmony with the world around them. “The Sleeping Shepherd” is one of the most poetic paintings in Venetsianov’s work. He portrayed peasant children with special warmth and lyrical elation.

In the picture there is a peasant boy who has fallen asleep in a field, on the bank of a narrow river. He sleeps leaning against the trunk of an old birch tree. In the background is a Russian landscape with a rickety hut, rare fir trees and endless fields stretching to the very horizon. The artist sought to convey peace and tranquility, lyrical love to nature and man. In “The Shepherdess” there are no traces of deliberate posing; on the contrary, the entire appearance of the sleeping boy is marked by features of lively and relaxed naturalness. Venetsianov with particular care emphasizes the national Russian type in him and gives his face an expression of genuine and touching spiritual purity. Critics sometimes reproached Venetsianov for the somewhat mannered pose of a shepherdess, but this reproach is unfair - it is the pose of the sleeping boy with its peculiar numbness, which well conveys the state of sleep, that testifies to the artist’s keen observation and the closeness of his images to living nature.

The painting “Zakharka” was painted by a Russian artist in 1825 and is in the State Tretyakov Gallery, in Moscow. Venetsianov showed the peasants in their everyday life. To working people His paintings are characterized by traits of dignity and nobility. At the same time, the artist tries to convey nature in accordance with reality.

In the painting, Venetsianov depicted a portrait of a boy, Zakharka, the son of the peasant Fedul Stepanov, taken by Venetsianov from the remote village of Slivnevo. The peasant boy, although small, has an important, business-like appearance. The image of Zakharka is very close to Nekrasov’s images of peasant children; this is their predecessor in Russian art. Well, he's a real man!

Large lively eyes look out from under a huge hat creeping over his face. In the face of the peasant boy one can read energy and intelligence. Zakharka’s strong-willed character tells the viewer that he is already a real worker in the family.

Painting “On the arable land. Spring" was executed in the first half of the 1820s and is located in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. This is one of Venetsianov’s most famous paintings; it was painted shortly after the painting “The Threshing Barn”. The original title of the painting was “Woman Harrowing a Field”, then “Peasant Woman in a Field Leading Horses”. The painting was called “Country Woman with Horses.” The painting acquired its final name when Venetsianov’s “Seasons” series was created, which included the canvas “On the arable land. Spring".

The picture looks strange if we talk about its rural reality. This can be seen from tall women compared to horses, their extraordinary grace. It would seem to be the spring season, and at the same time we see a child in a thin shirt, and wreaths of flowers, an unusual cornflower blue for this time of year. All these “oddities” sound unusual against the backdrop of the Russian landscape. This is no longer just a background. Venetsianov was the first to anticipate the events of the history of the landscape, saw the harmony of Russian fields, and conveyed the state of the spring sky, with rare clouds flying to the horizon. And all this is complemented by light silhouettes of trees. Several pairs of such peasant women with horses are depicted in the picture, completing the circle. The great mystery of the world cycle takes place on the field.

Masterpiece of Venetsianov A.G. – painting “The Barnyard”

Living on an estate in the Tver region, the Russian artist often made trips to St. Petersburg on business. On one of these trips, visiting the Hermitage, Venetsianov was shocked by the painting by F. Granet, namely the illusionistic rendering of the space of a church interior. He had an idea, using the same technique, to write the work “The Barn”. The goal was achieved - Venetsianov showed the reality around him as it is, without inventing anything. In the 1820s, a Russian artist performed a whole series paintings, following this intention. These were the years of Venetsianov’s creative upsurge. During this time he made a unique contribution to art.

The painting “The Barnyard” was executed in everyday genre. The subject of the picture is peasants working and relaxing on the village threshing floor. The poses of the peasants, their natural beauty persons It is interesting for the viewer to peer into various peasant household items. These include horses harnessed to carts and harnesses carefully hung on the walls. Lighting together with perspective creates depth, uniting the space of the threshing floor with the landscape.

• Sleeping shepherdess

• Zakharka

• On the arable land. Spring

• Barn floor

• Portrait of A.P.'s mother Vasnetsova

• Portrait of K.I. Golovochevsky with three students

• Portrait of the commander of the Life Guards Dragoon Regiment P.A. Chicherina

• Portrait young man in Spanish costume

• Portrait of an official

• Portrait of the artist I.V. Bugaevsky-Gradarenny

Venetsianov School: A. Tyranov, G. Soroka, L. Plakhov and others

Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847)

Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov - a wonderful artist of the first half of the 19th century century, who said a new word in the art of his time, a subtle painter, a talented teacher. He firmly established the theme of peasant labor in painting, glorified the personality of the Russian peasant, showed his human dignity and moral beauty.

The creative path of Alexei Gavrilovich was unlike the path of his fellow artists who passed through long term training within the walls of the Academy of Arts. Venetsianov was born in Moscow in 1780, in the family of a merchant who raised fruit bushes and trees for sale.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Venetsianov moved to St. Petersburg, where he was already accepting orders for portraits. In St. Petersburg, he took lessons from the greatest portrait painter of that time, V.L. Borovikovsky; the influence of the latter’s creativity is very noticeable in the figurative structure of a number of Venetsianov’s paintings. The aspiring artist devoted a lot of time to copying paintings by famous masters in the Hermitage. In 1807, Venetsianov entered the service of the Postal Department and soon began publishing a satirical magazine, “Journal of Caricatures for 1808 in Persons,” consisting of sheets of engravings. But this publication at the very beginning incurred the wrath of Alexander I. The third sheet of “The Nobleman” was so sharply satirical that the government on the day of its publication banned further publication of the magazine, and the published sheets were confiscated. Venetsianov turned to the genre of caricature again during the War of 1812.

In 1811, Venetsianov received recognition from the Academy as a portrait painter.

Among the gallery of portraits from the late 1810s - early 1820s, a small portrait of V.S. Putyatina. A thoughtful, fragile girl with a book in her hand, in a loose light dress, sitting against the backdrop of a landscape, seems so natural, immersed in her world, as if the viewer caught her by accident. The mood of this portrait is reminiscent of the portraits of V.L. Borovikovsky, but there is more spiritual intimacy and simplicity in it.

Tells about the significance of everyday affairs painting “Beet peeling”. The peasants go about their work leisurely and seriously. Essentially, we have a group portrait in front of us. The artist does not embellish anything, but the soft picturesqueness, gentle and subtly harmonized tones give this pastel a unique beauty.

In the first works of the new period of the Venetsians strives to master the perspective of the interior, the real relationships of light and shadow in it. IN painting "The Barn" His searches in this direction became particularly clear. With naive spontaneity, the artist strives to capture everything that he sees in front of him: a large covered room for threshing, peasants in the foreground and in the background, work horses, various tools of peasant labor. The artist was unable to connect the figures with one action; he set himself another task: to achieve utmost fidelity to nature. At the artist's request, the interior wall of the barn was cut out. This was done for the sake of the accuracy of his observations. The painting conveys with illusory clarity the linear cuts of logs and boards, spatial plans, marked by both the large-scale relationship of figures and objects, and the alternation of light and shadow.

IN painting “Morning of the landowner"Venetsianov shows the poetry of everyday human life, its modest surroundings. Part of a room in a poor house is depicted. A young landowner sitting at the table accepts work from visiting peasant women. The daylight pouring from the window softly envelops the figure of the women and is reflected on the surface of the table, cabinet, and floor. The appearance of the peasant women is full of calm and dignity: strong, stately figures, healthy faces, strong hands, beautiful clothes - red and dark blue sundresses, white muslin shirts. What attracts people in the painting is the amazingly picturesque combinations of rich tones and the freedom of the stroke itself.

To the first genre paintings Venetsianov, in which great attention given to the landscape, we can attribute a small canvas “On the arable land. Spring" Colorful harmonies make us feel the spring air, feel the joy of the awakening of nature. The landscape, delicate in mood, is captivating: the expanse of a freshly plowed field, tender grass, transparent green foliage, light clouds, high sky.

The modest landscape in the famous painting is just as poetic and spiritual "The Sleeping Shepherd"" Man is in organic harmony with nature painting “At the Harvest. Summer"; The thick scarlet color of the clothes is beautifully drawn against the golden background of ripe rye..

The artist created a whole gallery of peasant images: all those depicted were well known to him, he saw and observed them every day. They are all different in appearance and character, but in all of them Venetsianov, first of all, reveals moral purity and makes one feel true human dignity.

The artist more than once turned to the theme of the harvest, to the images of reapers. In the picture "The Reapers“a girl and a boy are depicted among the rye with sickles in their hands.. Here, as in other works, Venetsianov creates national types that carry a deeply moral principle.

A convincing everyday image found in the canvas "Girl with a calf"", characterized by lush painting and loving attention to detail.

Venetsianov's works first appeared at a public exhibition at the Academy of Arts in 1824. The names of the paintings themselves spoke about the nature of the artist’s work: “The peasant boy who spilled beetroot and milk» (“Here’s daddy’s dinner!»), « Peasant woman carding waves", "Peasant woman with mushrooms in the forest", "Boy with a dog" and so on. Academic art was then dominated by historical painting with its cult of the hero.

Venetsianov’s role in the formation of a new direction in the genre school of national painting was enormous. IN in the village of Safonkovo, the artist organized a school , where he taught drawing and painting to students taken primarily from serfs. In total, about 70 people were there. Many of his students lived with him, and he helped many to free themselves from serfdom. The artist was interested in every talent, the slightest manifestation of the ability to draw and paint. Subsequently, the students remembered their teacher with warmth. Venetsianov invested all his money in school and at the end of his life he was left without a fortune. He taught his students according to his method of working from life. Forced me to write first geometric shapes, then objects from the surrounding life, and then scenes from the life of peasants. One of the main tasks that the artist set for his students was mastering perspective. Among Venetsianov's students - A. Alekseev, A. Denisov, S. Zaryanko, E. Krendovsky, N. Krylov, G. Mikhailov, K. Zelentsov, F. Slavyansky, JI. Plakhov, A. Tyranov, G. Soroka (Vasiliev) and others. Venetsianov's favorite student - Gregory Soroka , person with tragic fate, author of the most poetic landscapes. Despite all his efforts, Venetsianov was never able to achieve his release from serfdom. The students continued the work of the teacher and further developed everyday themes in Russian painting. New characters appear in their works, the urban type - artisans, craftsmen. The work of these artists formed a direction in Russian art, called the Venetsianov school.

The Academy did not recognize everyday painting and considered it a lower genre. Venetsianov fought for the affirmation of national character in Russian art. He viewed his activities as a public duty. Possessing a breadth of views, Venetsianov inextricably linked art with enlightenment and believed that it was called upon to promote the enlightenment of people. “The art of drawing and painting itself are nothing more than tools that contribute... to the education of the people,” he wrote. In order to expand the scope of his teaching activity, to establish his method of working on location, Venetsianov sought to become one of the teachers of the Academy and for this purpose participated in a competition for historical picture from the era of Peter I, organized in 1837. He painted a large canvas "Peter the Great. Foundation of St. Petersburg". However, he did not receive the award. The Academy of Arts, sensing a direction alien to it, tried to prevent Venetsianov from entering its walls.

A tragic accident interrupted the activities of Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov in 1847: he died while riding a sleigh.