Ivanov S.V. Death of a migrant: what is actually depicted in the painting? (3 photos)

Life in the Russian village was hard. The so-called resettlement issue worried many representatives of advanced Russian culture and art in those years. Also V. G. Perov, the founder critical realism, I didn’t miss this topic. For example, his drawing “Death of a Migrant” is famous.
The settlers made a painful impression on A.P. Chekhov, who traveled through all of Siberia on the road to Sakhalin in 1890. Under the influence of conversations with Chekhov, he traveled along the Volga and Kama, to the Urals, and from there to Siberia and N. Teleshov. “Beyond the Urals, I saw the grueling life of our settlers,” he recalled, “almost fabulous hardships and burdens of the people’s peasant life.”

Ivanov spent a good half of his life traveling around Russia, carefully and with keen interest getting acquainted with the life of the many-faced working people. In these incessant wanderings, he became acquainted with the life of the settlers. “He walked with them for many dozens of miles in the dust of roads, under rain, bad weather and the scorching sun in the steppes,” say Ivanov’s friends, “he spent many nights with them, filling his albums with drawings and notes, many tragic scenes passed before his eyes.”

Powerless to help these people, the artist thought with pain about the immeasurable tragedy of their situation and the deceitfulness of their dreams of “happiness,” which they were not destined to find in the conditions of Tsarist Russia.

At the end of the 1880s, Ivanov conceived a large series of paintings, consistently telling about the life of the settlers. In the first painting - “Rus is Coming” - the artist wanted to show the beginning of their journey, when people were still cheerful, healthy and full of bright hopes. “Displaced people. Walkers." 1886 .

One of the final paintings of the cycle is “On the Road. The death of a migrant" is the most strong work planned series. Other works on this topic, created earlier and later by a number of writers and artists, did not reveal so deeply and at the same time so simply the tragedy of the settlers in all its terrible truth.

"On the road. Death of a migrant." 1889

Heated steppe. A light haze obscures the horizon line. This sun-scorched desert land seems boundless. Here is a lonely migrant family. Apparently, the last extreme forced her to stop at this bare place, unprotected from the scorching rays of the sun.

The head of the family, the breadwinner, died. What awaits the unfortunate mother and daughter in the future - this is the question everyone involuntarily asks themselves when looking at the picture. And the answer is clear. It can be read in the figure of the mother stretched out on the bare ground. The grief-stricken woman has no words and no tears.

In silent despair she scrapes the dry earth with her crooked fingers. We read the same answer in the girl’s confused, blackened face, like an extinguished coal, in her eyes frozen in horror, in her entire numb, emaciated figure. There is no hope for any help!

But just recently life was glimmering in a small transport house. The fire was crackling, a meager dinner was being prepared, the hostess was busy near the fire. The whole family dreamed that somewhere far away, in an unknown, blessed land, a new, happy life would soon begin for her.

Now everything was falling apart. The main worker died, and apparently the exhausted horse also died. The yoke and arc are no longer needed: they are carelessly thrown near the cart. The fire in the hearth went out. An overturned ladle, the bare sticks of an empty tripod, the empty shafts outstretched like arms, in silent anguish - how hopelessly sad and tragic all this is!

Migrants (Reverse migrants), 1888

Ivanov deliberately sought just such an impression. Like Perov in “Seeing Off a Dead Man,” he confined his grief to a narrow circle of family, abandoning the figures of sympathetic women who were in the preliminary sketch of the painting. Wanting to further emphasize the doom of the settlers, the artist decided not to include the horse, which was also in the sketch, in the picture..

The power of Ivanov’s painting does not end with the truthful rendering of a specific moment. This work represents a typical image of peasant life in post-reform Russia.

Sources.

http://www.russianculture.ru/formp.asp?ID=80&full

http://www.rodon.org/art-080808191839

Sometimes you have to argue with various kinds monarchists who curse the Russian Bolsheviks for overthrowing the tsar (strange thing, I know that the tsar himself abdicated the throne during the February bourgeois revolution), and destroyed the happy peasant life by uniting peasant farms into mechanized collective farms (the same collective farms that fed the country from front to front throughout the war).

They continue to resist when you tell them about the lawlessness and poverty into which the German tsars and their Masonic-liberal entourage plunged the peasants, about the regular famine in tsarist Russia, which, due to climatic conditions and the low development of the productive forces of the villagers (the traction power of animals, plows, manual labor ) was repeated every 11 years, and that Russian Bolshevism as a popular insurrectionary movement was generated by objective reasons. They say that this is disinformation and propaganda of “petrified scoops.”

I don’t want to discuss the shortcomings and merits of the “white” and “red” movements now... This is a separate and difficult conversation for a Russian patriot. I wanted to go to the turn of the 19th century and look at the life of a simple Russian peasant through the eyes of an eyewitness.

Fortunately, objective documents of that time have been preserved to this day - these are paintings by our famous Russian Itinerant artists, who are difficult to suspect of sympathizing with Soviet power or socialism.

It is impossible to challenge the history of Russian life they captured.

Perov. "Tea drinking in Mytishchi" 1862

The attitude of this Father towards the guests can be seen in the picture. The maid tries to kick them out.

In the picture the boy is about ten years old. The October Revolution will occur in 55 years. He will then be 65 years old. It is unlikely that he will live to see that. The peasants died early. Well, what can you do... Is this a happy life?

Perov. “Seeing off the dead man” 1865

There are 52 years left before the Russian Revolution.

Vladimir Makovsky. "Little Organ Grinders" 1868

Vladimir Makovsky “Visiting the Poor” 1873

The girl in the picture is about 6 years old. The stratification of society is beginning to reach dangerous levels. There are 44 years left before the Russian Revolution. She will live. He will definitely live!

Ilya Repin “Barge Haulers on the Volga” 1873

Vasily Perov “Monastery meal” 1875

By the way, I read on the Internet from one “learned historian” that the church showed maximum care for its flock.

The degradation of the church as an organization is obvious. There are 42 years left before the Russian Revolution.

Vasily Perov. "Troika" 1880

Vladimir Makovsky. "Rendezvous" 1883

There are 34 years left before the Russian Revolution. This boy must live.

Bogdanov Belsky. “Oral counting” 1895

Then they will be about 40 years old. And after 66 years, the children of these guys will challenge the most powerful state in the world - the United States. Their children will launch a man into space and test hydrogen bomb. And the children, these children will already live in two or three room apartments. They will not know unemployment, poverty, typhus, tuberculosis and will commit the most terrible crime - the destruction of their people's socialist state, the Iron Curtain and their social security.

Their great-grandchildren will flounder in the mess of liberalism, register on labor exchanges, lose apartments, fight, hang themselves, become drunkards and gradually approach a life that can be described as “Tea Party in Mytishchi.”

The result of life, which is consistently displayed in the pictures presented above, is the picture:

Makovsky “January 9, 1905” 1905

Will anyone, looking at the pictures above, argue that the people's protest was provoked by the Bolsheviks? Is it really possible to take a happy and satisfied person to a protest rally? What does “white” and “red” have to do with it? The split in society was caused by objective reasons and grew into a massive violent protest. Poverty, degradation of all branches of government, fattening bourgeoisie, illiteracy, disease...

Which of them needed to be convinced, whom to agitate?!..

What do Lenin and Stalin have to do with it?.. The split and collapse in society became such that it became impossible to govern this state.

For the last 20 years, liberals have been telling us on TV that Bloody Sunday is a Soviet myth. There was no execution. And Pop Gapon was normal guy. Well, drunken men gathered in the square and made a fuss. The police came with the Cossacks. They shot into the air. The crowd stopped. We talked with the men and... parted ways.

Then what to do with Makovsky’s painting, which was painted in 1905? It turns out that the picture is lying, but Posner, Svanidza and Novodvorskaya are telling the truth??

Ivanov Sergey Vasilievich. "Execution." 1905

Ivanov Sergey Vasilievich. "Riot in the Village" 1889

S.V. Ivanov. “They're going. Punitive detachment." Between 1905 and 1909

Repin. "Arrest of the propagandist" 1880-1889.

N. A. Yaroshenko. "Life Everywhere" 1888

No one took power from anyone. The monarchy degenerated biologically, in wartime conditions it was unable to govern the country and surrendered Russia to the Westernized Freemasons. Two months before the capture of Winter, the Socialist-Era, who sat in the Masonic Provisional Government, said: “We do not feel any threat from the Bolsheviks.” But the Russian Bolsheviks still took power.

What was it like? royal Russia at the beginning of the 20th century? It was a backward agrarian country, with a primitive system government structure, with an army that is not at all combat-ready, an illiterate, enslaved Russian people, a rotten class system and a German weak-minded degenerate tsar, terribly far from the working people.

Where in 1913 records were broken for the sale of bread abroad, and the bast Russian people were dying of hunger.

By 1917, it was a ruin killed by the First World War, with industry stopped, transport stopped, with an army deserting and cities dying of hunger!

This was a poor, poor country, where there were 2 power plants that supplied electricity to the king’s residence and his toilets. In addition, in this fucking class system there was a horde of officials, bureaucrats, landowners, capitalists and other German-Polish-French-Jewish, Russophobic liberal-Masonic scum, aware of the tsar’s narrow-mindedness and using it at the moment when it is necessary to shoot a hundred other Russian workers, then the work of those rebelling against all these inhuman conditions!

And if the second Russian Revolution had not happened, we would have collectively lost the opportunity to fly into space, and victory in the Second World War, and industrialization, and a nuclear power plant with lunar rovers, and thermonuclear bombs, and our parents would hardly have lived to see their birth.

By the way, the White Guard armies spat three times on the tsar, the monarchy and capitalism! And they spat on the working Russian people a hundred times more!

And if not for the year 17 and not for the victory of the Russian workers' and peasants' army (Russian insurgent movement), then Russia as a state would have ceased to exist even then and would have become a colony of the Entente and the United States (which supplied the white movement with tanks, weapons, food and money), broke up into the Siberian-Ural republics, the Far Eastern Republic, internecine Cossacks and other bunch of independent, insignificant principalities that, if they were with Kolchak_Yude-nothing_Wrangel, would have shared power for another 50 years.
Kolchak may be a Russian officer with a mixture of blacks, but he was such a wonderful guy that he was appointed by England nothing less than the “supreme ruler of Russia”, and at the same time an English resident. But the peasants somehow did not understand his “goodness”. And they decided that he would deservedly receive the bullet.

And if it weren’t for the Russian revolution and the “bad” Bolsheviks, who gathered the country and the Russian nation from rags by the year 23 and turned it into one big military industrial camp, we would certainly be crawling on our knees Western countries, for the right to life under the sun.

In his final courses at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Sergei Ivanov turns to acute social problems. In particular, his attention was drawn to the latter characteristic of the Russian village. quarter of the XIX century phenomenon: in the second half of the 1880s, resettlement to Siberia began.

In the image: “Displaced people. Walkers." 1886.

After the reform of 1861, a need arose to resolve the land issue. The government saw a solution in relocating landless peasants to this vast, sparsely populated region. Totally agree last decades In the 19th century, several million peasants left their insignificant plots and wretched huts and went in search of “fertile lands.”

In the image: "Misplaced woman in a carriage", 1886.

Alone, with wives and children, in small parties, taking with them their fragile belongings, on foot and in carts, and if lucky, then by railway, they rushed, inspired by utopian dreams of “Belovodye” or “White Arapia”, towards severe trials and most often severe disappointments. The tragedy of landless peasants leaving their original places, from the central provinces to the outskirts of the country - to Siberia and dying in their hundreds along the way - this is the main idea of ​​​​Ivanov’s series of paintings. He captured scenes of peasant life in deliberately dull, “mournful” in color paintings about immigrants.

In the image: “On the road. Death of a migrant." 1889.

In the mid-1890s, a new period began in the artist’s work, associated with the creation historical works. IN historical painting Ivanov has features that make him similar to the art of Surikov and Ryabushkin. The painter understands the state of the excited masses in acute dramatic moments (“The Troubles,” 1897, I. I. Brodsky Apartment Museum); “According to the verdict of the veche”, 1896, private collection), he is attracted by the power of the Russians folk characters and he, like Ryabushkin, finds beauty in the phenomena of folk life, affirms the understanding of this beauty by Russian people. Ivanov sensitively captures the pictorial quest for time; his works of these years acquire a special coloristic sonority.

In the image: "Time of Troubles" (Tushino camp)

Ivanov was an innovator historical genre, composing episodes of the Russian Middle Ages - in the spirit of the Art Nouveau style - almost like film frames, captivating the viewer with their dynamic rhythm, the “effect of presence” (The Arrival of Foreigners in Moscow in the 17th Century, 1901); "Tsar. XVI century" (1902), Campaign of the Muscovites. XVI century, 1903). In them, the artist took a fresh look at the historical past of his homeland, depicting not heroic moments of events, but scenes of everyday life from ancient Russian life. Some images are written with a touch of irony and grotesque. In 1908-13 he completed 18 works for the project “Paintings on Russian History”.

In the image: "St. George's Day." 1908

In the image: “Campaign of the Army of Moscow Rus'”, 16th century, painting 1903.

In the image: “Review of service people”, no later than 1907

The peculiar features of nervous “proto-expressionism” appeared with particular force in his images of the first Russian revolution, including famous painting“Execution” (1905, Historical and Revolutionary Museum “Krasnaya Presnya”, branch of the State Center for Social and Social Sciences), which amazed contemporaries with the piercingly desperate sound of protest.

During the armed uprising of 1905 in Moscow, he was a witness and participant - he provided assistance to students wounded in street battles right in the building of Moscow University on Mokhovaya Street. His drawings of gendarmes and Cossacks, who during the uprising were quartered in Manege, near the Kremlin, have been preserved.

Later, the artist works on the painting “They’re going! Punitive detachment" (1905-1909, Tretyakov Gallery).

In the image: They're coming! Punitive squad.

Pictured: Family, 1907

In the image: Arrival of the governor

In the image: German, 1910

Image: Village riot, 1889

In the image: At the prison. 1884

In the image: Arrival of foreigners. 17th century 1901

In the image: Boyar slaves. 1909

Biography of the artist, creative path. Gallery of paintings.

Ivanov Sergey Vasilievich

Ivanov Sergey

(1864 - 1910)

Ivanov Sergei Vasilievich, Russian painter. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1878-82 and 1884-85) with I. M. Pryanishnikov, E. S. Sorokin and at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1882-84). Lived in Moscow. He traveled extensively throughout Russia, and in 1894 visited Austria, Italy, and France. Member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions (since 1899) and one of the founders of the Union of Russian Artists. He taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (since 1900) and the Moscow Stroganov School of Art and Industry (since 1899). In the 2nd half of the 1880s - early 1890s. worked on genre paintings(in which big role landscape plays), drawings and lithographs dedicated to tragic fate Russian peasant settlers and prisoners of tsarist prisons (“At the prison”, 1885, “On the road. Death of a migrant”, 1889, both paintings in Tretyakov Gallery). Participated in revolutionary events 1905 and was one of the first among Russian artists to turn to the theme of the revolutionary struggle of the Russian peasantry and proletariat ("Revolt in the Village", 1889, "Execution", 1905 - both paintings in the Museum of the USSR Revolution in Moscow; "Stage", 1891, painting not preserved; etchings “Execution”, “At the wall. Episode of 1905”, both between 1905 and 1910).

Since 1895, Ivan turned to historical painting. People's life and features national character, their connection with the future destinies of Russia - such is the worldview basis of his historical paintings, sometimes embodying the spontaneous power of the people's movement ("Troubles", 1897, I. I. Brodsky Apartment Museum, Leningrad), sometimes with great persuasiveness and historical authenticity (sometimes not without elements of social satire) recreating everyday scenes of the past ("The Arrival of Foreigners in Moscow in the 17th Century", 1901, "Tsar. 16th Century", 1902, both in the Tretyakov Gallery). In I.’s work, a socially critical orientation is combined with the search for new compositional and color solutions that emotionally enrich the expressive possibilities of genre and historical painting. He also did illustrations.

Lit.: Granovsky I. N., S. V. Ivanov. Life and creativity, M., 1962.

V. M. Petyushenko
TSB, 1969-1978

______________________________

Sergei Vasilyevich Ivanov was born on June 16, 1864 in the city of Ruza, Moscow province into an impoverished noble family. Childhood impressions of his stay in the homeland of his paternal and maternal ancestors in the Voronezh and Samara provinces remained in his memory for a long time and were later embodied in his work.

His ability to draw appeared very early, but before entering the Moscow School of Painting and Painting, he had, at the behest of his parents, to study at the Moscow Land Survey Institute, where drawing and drafting were taught. The meeting of the future artist with P.P. Sinebatov, who graduated from the Academy of Arts, significantly changed his life. Taking his advice, he began making his own copies, and then in 1878 filed documents with Moscow school painting, sculpture and architecture, which he first attended as a volunteer. In 1882, having completed the scientific course and the figure class of the school, he transferred to the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, but in 1884 he returned to Moscow. The distinctive qualities of Ivanov's character - independence and determination - played an important role when he committed a very courageous act. In 1885 he left the school without even starting graduation papers. Passionate life topics, restless, striving for new impressions, he was not embarrassed that without a competitive painting, he would only receive a certificate for the title of art teacher. The idea of ​​making a long trip to different provinces of Russia occupied him much more. The artist wanted to see with his own eyes how the fate of the peasant migrants developed, huge crowds moving to the east of Russia, after the reform carried out by P.A. Stolypin, in the hope of finding land and better life. This long journey through the Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir, Samara, Orenburg and Voronezh provinces began in the spring of 1885. The result was a whole series of drawings, sketches and paintings about the life of immigrants, among them the most successful in terms of picturesqueness was the small canvas “Resettler in a Carriage”. The painting appeared at a student exhibition in 1886 and was bought by V.D. Polenov, who treated the aspiring painter with great attention and care. It must be said that Ivanov, also throughout his life, felt a friendly affection for Polenov. In the 1880s, he was a frequent guest at his house, participating among other young people in Polenov’s drawing evenings. “Misplaced Woman in a Carriage,” close to a sketch in its freshness of perception, was painted in the open air, not without the influence of Polenov, a master of plein air painting. The work was striking with the vitality of the scene, the bright sunlight, and the skillfully captured image of an old woman sitting in a carriage. A little later, other sketches and completed works appeared, among them: “Migrants. Lonely", "On the Road. Death of a migrant." In them the theme of hopeless peasant life is brought to the utmost degree of social emphasis and sounds as powerful as in best works Itinerants Painting “On the road. Death of a Migrant” was accepted for the XVII traveling exhibition, held in 1889.

Except artistic abilities Ivanov had a scientific mindset. During his travels, he always produced interesting ethnographic, architectural, everyday sketches and scientific descriptions. In the summer of 1886, in the Samara province, he came across Stone Age burial grounds and became seriously interested in them. Over time, he collected an interesting paleontological collection, part of which was donated to V.D. Polenov and housed in the Borok estate. Scientific and artistic interests prompted Ivanov to take photography seriously. Many photographs taken during travel were then used in the work on historical paintings. The artist was a full member of the Russian Photographic and Geographical Mining Society.

S.V. Ivanov traveled a lot. In the summer of 1888, on his initiative, a joint trip along the Volga with A.E. Arkhipov, S.A. Vinogradov and E.M. Khruslov was organized. Many drawings and sketches have been preserved from this trip. In August of the same year, Ivanov went on an expedition to the Caucasus, with the goal of visiting little-known areas and reaching the peaks of Big and Small Ararat. The book by expedition members E.P. Kovalevsky and E.S. Markov “On the Ararat Mountains,” published in 1889, contains numerous drawings by S. Ivanov. In 1896 he ended up in Feodosia, and then traveled around Dagestan. In 1898 he made a trip through the Vyatka province, then proceeded to the Kalmyk and Kyrgyz steppes and to Lake Baskunchak. In 1899 and 1901 he was again drawn to the Volga. In 1894, he found himself in Europe, visiting Paris, Vienna, Venice, Milan and Genoa, but the ancient Russian cities were dearer to him - Rostov, Yaroslavl, Vologda, Zaraysk, which he visited more than once.

From 1889, the artist was captivated by the theme of prisoners for several years. Having received official permission to visit the prisons, Ivanov spends almost all his time in prisons, sketching those there. Numerous sketches depicting stern faces and shaved heads tell this story. In 1891, for a month, he visited Saratovskaya every day. transit prison. Then, having moved to Atkarsk, where prisoners were also kept, he settled in a house opposite the prison and painted the paintings “Stage” and “Tatar at Prayer.” The latter depicts a Muslim standing at full height in a prisoner's robe and skullcap, performing his evening prayer.

Even while working on a series of illustrations for the two-volume edition of M.Yu. Lermontov, undertaken by P.P. Konchalovsky at the Kushnerev publishing house, he continued his “prisoner series.” Of the fifteen illustrations, almost all are, in one way or another, related to this topic. Illustrating the poems: “Desire”, “Prisoner”, “Neighbor”, he did not try to convey romantic character Lermontov's poetry, but interpreted them literally and reliably, using nature and those sketches that were made in the Makaryev prison.

In 1894, wanting to gain new impressions, as well as renew his art, which, in his opinion, had reached a dead end, S.V. Ivanov and his wife made a trip to Europe. The artist intended whole year spend in France, living in Paris, but the impressions received from this city and the state of modern Western art he was deeply disappointed. He wrote to the artist A.A. Kiselev about this trip: “It’s good in Russia now. Although I’ve only been here in Paris for a month, I’m starting to feel sad - there’s no space. I saw Salons and other exhibitions, and they didn’t give me what I expected; here, out of 3,000 things, I found only 100 that I could dwell on... the lack of life is striking.” In another letter to the same addressee, he sadly states: “there is nothing good here now and there is no point in coming here to study.” Three months later, the Ivanovs returned to Moscow.

However, this trip was not in vain, the heightened feeling of love for the motherland that surged in Europe and modern french painting, no matter how negatively the painter perceived it, were reflected in his work. Since 1895, he began to work in the historical genre, and his writing style became noticeably liberated. The study of “History of the Russian State” by N.M. Karamzin also contributed greatly to his passion for history.

The first subject that interested the artist was related to the history of troubled times. A large canvas called “The Troubles” was painted in 1897, in the ancient city of Zaraysk. In the picture, a raging crowd appeared in expressive poses, carrying out their cruel trial on Grishka Otrepyev. While working on it, the artist sought to recreate the era as accurately as possible, depicting in the work authentic costumes and ancient weapons: shields, sabers, axes, which he had previously sketched in the Hermitage Museum. At the Novgorod bazaar he managed to purchase several old things, and historical works, which he carefully studied, also helped: “The Tale of Massa and Herkman about the Time of Troubles in Russia” and “Tales of Contemporaries about Demetrius the Pretender.” However, despite the careful execution, this work, as Ivanov expected, was not accepted for any exhibition.

But the next one is “In the forest.” In memory of Stefan of Perm and other enlighteners of foreigners,” in which he found a successful compositional form for conveying the deep Christian idea of ​​​​enlightening pagan tribes, was taken to the Traveling Exhibition of 1899, at the same time he became a full member of the Association of Itinerants.

During these same years, in parallel, Ivanov worked on illustrations for the works of A.S. Pushkin, published in 1898-1899 by the Kushnerev publishing house. He was attracted by the opportunity in the story “ The captain's daughter" and "Songs about prophetic Oleg", which he chose to illustrate, reflect Russian history. The artist was especially interested in the image of Emelyan Pugachev. He painted several portraits for him, including his “Self-Portrait with a Hat,” called angry. But the best illustration was the one depicting Prince Oleg and the magician.

In 1901, S.V. Ivanov caused great surprise by showing his new creation at an exhibition of 36 people - the painting “The Arrival of Foreigners. XVII century”, which P.M. Tretyakov bought immediately before the opening of the exhibition. It seemed that this painting, just like the next one - “Tsar. XVI century" was written by another author. Unprecedented compositional freedom and the use of bright, almost local colors made the painting unusual and decorative. Huge fluffy snowdrifts, small log houses, churches painted with great feeling, conveying the feeling of frosty air and patriarchal comfort made it possible to fill a scene from the past with poetry and give it reality. The figures and framed faces of an old man in a long fur coat with a large bunch of bagels in his hand and a young lady whom he is in a hurry to take away are very expressive. The writer and publicist G.A. Machtet, congratulating the artist on this painting, wrote: “How the colossal genius of Viktor Vasnetsov, plunging into the lofty native epic, gives it to us in images, recreating the ideas of the people, their concepts, their “beauty,” teaching us to understand “ people's soul“- so in your painting “The Arrival of Guests” you recreate for us our past and the distant... I breathed that wild Moscow - I could not take my eyes off this stern barbarian, leading the stupid, timid Fedora away from the enemy’s “eye”.

In 1903, Ivanov visited the village of Svistukha, Dmitrov district, Moscow province, and was immediately captivated by the quiet, picturesque place on the banks of the Yakhroma River. He lived here for the last seven years, building a small house and workshop according to his design. Here he painted one of his best paintings, “Family.” It is painted on a large canvas, which certainly indicates the importance that the artist attached to his work. It depicts a line of people walking along fluffy snow through the entire village with special solemnity and grandeur. The canvas is executed in a free, impasto manner of painting using a bright colorful palette, which is dominated by white, yellow, red and blue tones. It strikes with an optimistic and life-affirming attitude. The landscape played a huge role in revealing the emotional structure of the work. It has truly become one of the main characters. Ivanov painted nature, as well as sketches of peasants, in the winter in the open air, having designed a heated workshop on a sleigh for this purpose.

In 1903, S.V. Ivanov took a large part in the creation creative association"Union of Russian Artists". To a large extent, it arose thanks to his organizational qualities and combat, decisive character. Immediately after the appearance of the "Union", the artist left the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions and until the end of his days he exhibited only here. Ivanov’s passionate character, which literally “threw him to the barricades,” was noted by everyone who knew him. During the revolution of 1905, he not only showed sympathy for the rebels, but, like V.A. Serov, created many graphic and paintings on this topic, including the painting “Execution”.

An interesting description of S.V. Ivanov, still a student at the school, was given by M.V. Nesterov in his memoirs. He wrote: “He looked like a rebel student, ragged, long legs, curly head. A hot, passionate person with sincere, passionate passions. He always helped the speech with his deliberately passionate gesture. Direct, impeccably honest, and everything about him was attractive... Ivanov, seemingly stern, often showed his youthful enthusiasm and energy, infecting others. He loved to be a horse guide in undertakings, but if any undertaking failed, he became despondent. Sometimes his comrades laughed at him for this. The rebellious nature of the “hellish arsonist”... Ardent and hot, he sometimes gave the impression of a harsh, even despotic person, but underneath this hid a very deep and soft nature.” This beautiful verbal portrait complements the visual one, executed in 1903 by the artist I.E. Braz. From him the gaze of a man looks with great sorrow and tension into this difficult world.
S.V. Ivanov suddenly died of a broken heart on August 16, 1910 in the village of Svistukha, where he had lived quietly in recent years.

An artist of brilliant talent, Ivanov was born in Ruza, Moscow province, into the family of an official. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1878-1882, 1884-1885) under I.M. Pryanishnikov and the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.

From the very beginning, the focus of his works is quite obvious: the history of Russia in the past and present. The first picture “On the road. Death of a Migrant" (1889), which brought the artist fame, was painted in the style early creativity Peredvizhniki, but the attitude to what is happening is different. The death of a breadwinner and the loneliness of an orphaned family are emphasized by the desert landscape of the scorched steppe. In the painting, the artist actively used artistic media compositions. Continuing traditions, Ivanov strove for sharply dramatic art, sensitively conveying the “beat human soul”, which was embodied in paintings about the life of peasants (“To the landowner with a request”, 1885) and “prisoner” themes (“Stage”, 1892).

Ivanov’s search for new compositional and color solutions—unexpected angles, decorative flat color spots—led the artist to participate in the creation of the Union of Russian Artists.

In 1900, S. Ivanov’s work became increasingly more noticeable influence impressionism. The transfer of the light-air environment highlights the main objects of the compositions. The artist’s works are characterized by a laconic and pointed interpretation of images.

Since the late 1890s, the artist worked primarily on paintings from the Russian past. In the past of Russia, the artist was attracted primarily by acute dramatic moments, the strength of Russian folk characters (“Campaign of the Muscovites. 16th century,” 1903), beauty ancient life(“Family”, 1910). Ivanov’s works from the life of the soaring boyars were imbued with evil irony, demonstrating historical roots such phenomena as dense philistinism, high-ranking swagger. In 1902, at the exhibition of “Union 36”, Ivanov presented the painting “Tsar. XVI century." It’s a winter day, a ceremonial cortege is moving along a Moscow street, at the head of which gridni (guards) in red caftans solemnly march. On a magnificently decorated horse, in rich clothes, rides a king, fat and clumsy, with a pompous lip raised up. But the Lyuli, buried in the snow in a fit of subservient feeling, cannot appreciate the “greatness of the moment.” Using the “calorified composition” technique, the artist brought the image as close as possible to the viewer, as if creating the “effect of presence” inside it. This work is distinguished by its bright color scheme, expressive silhouette solutions, and free painting.

In search of a new pictorial language, Ivanov became an innovator of the historical genre: his canvases resembled frozen film frames, captivating the viewer with their dynamic rhythm (“The Arrival of Foreigners in Moscow in the 17th Century,” 1901). Last job The artist became a cycle about the events of 1905 (“Execution”).