Vasnetsov's painting "Alyonushka": how did it all start?

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

Vasnetsov's painting "Alyonushka" is familiar to every Russian kid since childhood: it is she who is most often used to illustrate the fairy tale about brother Ivanushka and sister Alyonushka. It is interesting that initially the artist himself called his painting not “Alyonushka”, but “Fool”. Probably, if the picture had retained its name to this day, it would hardly have been studied at school in a speech development lesson. But the artist, fortunately, changed his mind: he renamed the picture, although the word "Fool" at that time meant only "holy fool" or "orphan". What is the history of the painting? Vasnetsov's painting "Alyonushka" did not appear by chance. In 1880, he was engaged in landscapes in Akhtyrka, but the image of a fairy-tale girl lived in his head: sad, big-eyed, sad. The image did not want to fit together, until one day the artist met a simple-haired unknown girl. Vasnetsov was struck by the extent to which she was Russian, what a Russian spirit emanated from her.

Meeting a stranger led to the fact that the long hatchedThe image is finally embodied in the picture. In 1881, Vasnetsov's painting "Alyonushka" was first presented at the Traveling Exhibition. There she received the highest, most rave reviews.

Painting "Alyonushka" Vasnetsov. Description

Today the description of the painting is included in the Russian language program. On her example, schoolchildren get acquainted with the concept of "painting", "composition", some other terms, learn to express their thoughts, choose the right words. What did V. M. Vasnetsov depict? Alyonushka, bare-haired and barefoot, sits on a stone by the water. The girl is probably cold, because autumn has already come. This can be seen from the black water, a few yellow leaves on its surface, from the tree branches beginning to turn yellow in the background.

The girl's hands with thin, tightly clenched fingers lie on her knees. Alyonushka put her head on them and looks longingly into the pond. What is she thinking? Does he yearn to see his brother? Thinking about what awaits her herself? The artist reflected grief and hopelessness in the eyes of the girl with such force that even tears well up in the eyes of the audience. Alyonushka's loneliness, her confusion and defenselessness are emphasized by the landscape: behind is an impenetrable forest wilderness, starting immediately after the clearing. Ahead is a black, eye-catching whirlpool. Both the thicket and the pool seem especially black against the background of green fir trees, sedges, and trees beginning to turn yellow. But it is these trees that fence off, as if protecting Alyonushka from the dark forces of the forest. Even from the black pool grows green sedge. Vasnetsov's painting "Alyonushka" evokes a light feelingsad, but she's not sad at all. After all, if trees turn green, grass grows, then life goes on? And the sad Alyonushka can also become happy? Isn't that what she dreams about? At one time, Igor Grabar called the picture one of the best in the entire Russian school of painting. Perhaps precisely because Vasnetsov managed to convey in the image of Alyonushka not only the image of a Russian girl, but also the soul of a Russian person, capable of sadness, but not able to despair. Someone considers the picture gloomy, sad and hopeless. Others, looking at her, feel a slight sadness, because the end of the tale is well known. How do you feel?