Gzhel painting: folk art

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

In the Ramensky district of the Moscow province, the “Gzhel bush” is widely spread - twenty-seven primordially Russian villages randomly located among forests and fields. It was in them that the fabulous blue-and-white art of Gzhel painting was born. The art is folk, deep and traditional. There are only a few famous art crafts in Russia: Khokhloma, Zhostovo, Fedoskino, Gorodetskaya and Gzhel painting. Khokhloma painting is an artistic painting of wooden trays and various wood products. Zhostovo painting is drawings on metal trays. Fedoskino's painting technique, much more complex, is based on the use of a layered reflective ingredient. Gorodets painting is drawing a picture on a thin wooden base. It is akin to the icon painting technique, but the plots are mainly used purely mundane.

And, finally, Gzhel painting is a drawing with bright blue cob alt paint on raw white porcelain, followed by glazing and firing.

Gzhel land is poor in black soil, it is barren and it is difficult for a person to feed on it. For years and decades, people tried, plowed the land, sowed. seven sweatsdescended from the plowmen, but all in vain - the earth did not give birth. And the whole point was that immediately under the upper layer of the earth a wide layer of white clay lay, without end and edge, deep and vast. How can wheat be born here? The Gzhel people thought, thought, and gave up digging in the ground. He began to mine clay and raise pottery.

In the Gzhel region, every second person is capable of "handicraft" - at least make a barrel, at least an earthenware jug. And things went on. First, several small handicraft artels were created, then a larger pottery production was organized, and dishes began to be produced. And the dishes should be beautiful, which means that painting is needed. In a short time, artists appeared. At the same time, they learned to distinguish clay. The highest grades, pure white, were sent to Moscow to pharmacists for the manufacture of medical utensils. Clay was simpler for faience, plates and bowls, and the most snow-white, porcelain, was used for products in the classical Gzhel style, the painting of which was so beautiful that it was breathtaking.

They say that tea from a Gzhel cup tastes unique: you drink ten cups and still want to. Gzhel painting is called so because its name comes from the word "zhgel" - it means "burn", "burn". Well, a Russian person loves to rearrange letters in words. If someone says the word "omnibus", then it will definitely turn out "I'll hug." So they rearranged: Zhgel became Gzhel. In 1812, there were already 25 factories in the Gzhel bush that produced high-quality dishes. Along the way toworkshops at the factories produced toys, decorative crafts and sets for festive tea parties. Clay, different grades and several shades, was enough for everything.

However, in the middle of the 19th century, Gzhel production began to decline, partly because a lot of dishes had already been made, or maybe just a period of calm came, as happens from time to time with large factories. But the crisis did not affect art production. Gzhel painting is still in demand. Recently, specialized educational institutions have been created, whose graduates join the ranks of porcelain masters, artists and designers. Gzhel painting, whose pictures never repeat, is now flourishing again, delighting with the unique color of its products.