The most famous painting by Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov: title, description. Paintings by Venetsianov

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

A. G. Venetsianov (1780 - 1847) - an artist of the Russian school, who studied with V. L. Borovikovsky and received the title of academician, when in 1811 he completed the competitive program - “Portrait of K. I. Golovachevsky.”

Brief information about the paintings

Initially, while living in St. Petersburg, Alexei Venetsianov specialized in portraiture. These were both custom-made works, and “for themselves”. These works have been known to us since 1801. Over the course of twenty years, he completed 18 portraits.

But, having married, left St. Petersburg and moved to the Tver province, the artist began to write genre scenes from peasant life. It was these works that brought the painter universal recognition. Its heyday refers to the 20-30 years of the 19th century. The most famous were the paintings "Reapers", "Sleeping Shepherd" and "Zakharka". Alexey Venetsianov began to work, not imitating the masters whose work he saw in the Hermitage, but depicting life as he saw it, and in the open air. This was a revolution in his work and an innovation of that time.

On the arable land. Spring

The painting depicts simple rural everyday life - a peasant woman harrows a plowed field. The day is clear and warm. The fields are spacious. The woman's move is slow.

She walks barefoot, which has a sacred meaning. The earth is divinely fertile, one must not step on it with boots, one must treat it with love, only then will it give a harvest. The young woman herself - a living personification of spring and fertility - looks with tenderness at her baby, playing with uncomplicated yellow and blue flowers. Earthly and divine merge into a single whole. And it would seem, what a simple plot - on arable land, spring - the master took, and what a complex meaning he put into it.

Shepherd boy with a pipe

In the Tver regional art gallery there is a work written on wood - "Shepherd with a horn". The boy, who had run over during the day, lies and rests in thought.

The bare foot is smeared with earth. The tenderness of his age is compared with a young birch, near which he is located. In a modest knapsack, food was at hand. Now the knapsack seems to be empty, and the boy leans on it with natural grace. His hands have not yet been coarsened and disfigured by work. What is the future of the child? You think about it when you look at it. He will repeat the path of his grandfathers and fathers, no more. And who knows what talents lie within him?

Sleeping Shepherd

This is an innovative canvas filled with different tones and therefore alive. The plot is simple. A teenager who fell asleep while sitting leaned his back against a birch. Behind him flows a river, the banks of which are overgrown with soft grass. On the other side of the river, a girl is walking through the water with a yoke onshoulder. If you look closely, you can see a part of the back, apparently, of a fisherman, in the corner on the left. And before us opened their expanses of meadows and fields. A long, warm summer day slowly drags on. This age-old Russia rises in the hills and copses in the distance. The landscape is merged with people. They, both people and nature, are natural, like life itself, because the artist worked in the open air, which was not accepted then.

Another baby portrait

Venetsianov's painting "Here are the Batkin's dinner!" captivates at first sight. Two people are sitting in thought over an empty barrel - a boy of five or six years old and his faithful friend - a fluffy dog, affectionately looking into his face.

A barefoot boy in a white shirt and a white dog are two bright spots in the picture. The whole background corresponds to the sad mood of the child, with which he propped his face with his hand, he is dark. It is impossible not to sympathize with the grief of the left hungry, perhaps not for the first time couple. Peasant children first appear in Russian paintings only by Venetsianov.

Gumno

It is impossible to talk about the artist without mentioning the work created in 1821 and which became a new stage for him. A large long room is depicted, designed to fold bread (it is poured in a slide in the center) and thresh it. The canvas depicts sitting, resting peasants and those who continue to work. Also carts and horses. Everything is in a huge shed. It is illuminated in a very unusual way. In the foreground - not bright, in the center a stream of light penetrates through the window, and at the end of the barn through the open door again bright light pours in from the street, which alsoit is seen. Perspective is hard to build. With the help of light, which has already been mentioned, and by reducing the figures and objects in the background. The floor contributes a lot to this. Very interesting are the figures of the peasants, who, sitting, leaned against the logs of the threshing floor. The color scheme is also amazing - golden-brownish, festive. This painting by Venetsianov was exhibited in 1824 and Alexander I liked it very much and bought it. The Academy received her coldly, since the topic was far from sublime.

Morning of the Landlady

This painting by Venetsianov is a genre scene depicting everyday life: early morning, the hostess in a house dress and cap sits on a chair at the table. Furniture corresponds to the time, it is made of mahogany.

Light falls from the window from the back of the landowner, her face is not clearly visible, but her silhouette is clearly visible. The floor and screen are well lit. The screen and the table divide the space of the canvas, allowing you to pay attention to the three figures and linen, which, tied, lies on the floor. The room in which the distribution of flax takes place is small, the interior behind the hostess is completely buried in shadow, deepening the space of the picture. The atmosphere is full of calm. Two peasant women listen to the instructions of their mistress and behave with dignity. Venetsianov's painting summarizes the everyday scene, typing it.

Reapers

Venetsianov wrote several paintings on the theme of the harvest: "Peasant Woman with Butterflies", "In the Harvest" and a few more. Having developed this motif well, he built the composition of a new canvas. Painting by Venetsianov"Reapers" was spied on in life when the artist wandered through the fields with a sketchbook. Mother and son ingenuously admire the beauty of butterflies trustingly perching on the hand.

The son clings to his mother from behind and does not take his eyes off the motley graceful beauties. The mother does not move, so as not to frighten them away. The boy is a living copy of "Zakharka", maybe this is him, the portrait resemblance is too strong. Both figures stand close to the viewer. They are given in close-up. The mother tilted her head slightly towards the little boy. On her face you can see a slight fatigue and affection for the child. She has a sundress, and a white shirt, and a scarf on her head, and beads, and a thin ring - all noted, admiring this pair, the artist. And two sickles can be closed in a circle that frames the heroes.

Conclusion

In his village, an innovative artist created a school for capable serf peasant children. He wanted to ransom the most outstanding student named Soroka, but the owner did not agree and decided to make him a gardener. As a result, the young artist hanged himself. Such was the difficult situation in which our first singer of peasant life worked. Moreover, the Academy of Arts did not approve of his activities - the landscape and plot of Venetsianov's paintings were too "simple" and "artless". The artist died at the age of 67, unable to control the horses that carried him and beat him to death. During his life, he wrote 85 works, which are mainly in the museums of Moscow and St. Petersburg.