Perov Vasily. “The arrival of the governess to the merchant's house

The painting “The Arrival of a Governess at a Merchant's House” was painted by V. G. Perov in oil on canvas in 1866. This painting is one of the artist’s most famous works with a satirical orientation.

Every detail of this picture hides a deep meaning. The master attaches a special role to the facial expressions and gestures of the depicted characters. Possessing a deep knowledge of human psychology and an amazing skill in sketching portraits, the artist always creates an incredibly lively, dynamic composition that speaks for itself.

The painting depicts a young girl standing with her back to the viewer, neatly dressed in a fluffy red dress. Having examined the new environment where she will have to live and work, seeing her new master-tyrant and his proud, arrogant daughters, she stands with her head bowed, saddened by her difficult fate.

Judging by the sincerely joyful expression on the face of the girl in the pink dress, the governess was invited specifically for her. Others, the owner’s eldest daughters, look at the new man with disdain and a bit of curiosity, trying to evaluate the girl with their eyes. On the left, the servants peek out from behind the open door and also look at the new governess with great curiosity.

The scene depicted in the painting by Perov takes place in a large spacious room, in which only heavy, massive chairs are visible from the furniture, and the walls are decorated not with icons, as is usually customary in Christian houses, but with a portrait of a bearded old man, who is probably the ancestor of the merchant.

Separately, it is worth paying attention to the owner’s stern, appraising gaze and the position of his hands. This pose immediately makes it clear to an intelligent girl that there will be no leniency towards her in this house.

In addition to the description of V. G. Perov’s painting “The Arrival of a Governess at a Merchant’s House,” our website contains many other descriptions of paintings by various artists, which can be used both in preparation for writing an essay on the painting, and simply for a more complete acquaintance with the work of famous masters of the past.

Reading the picture by V.G. Perov “The arrival of a governess to a merchant’s house”
(to help when studying N. Ostrovsky's plays).

Purpose: - to teach the correct perception of a work of art,

Expand knowledge in the field of painting;

To give an idea of ​​the connection between fine art and literature when studying the plays of N. Ostrovsky;

Develop aesthetic taste, logical thinking, attention, memory, correct literary speech;

Develop the ability to listen carefully to the speaker and perceive what is heard;

Cultivate an interest in fine arts, history, and literature.

In 1866, Vasily Grigorievich Perov painted the painting “The Arrival of a Governess at a Merchant’s House.” We are familiar with the artist from his canvases “Troika” and “Rural Procession at Easter”. We know with what excitement and sincere sympathy he spoke about small people oppressed by fate. This time the film takes us to a small town, to a remote Russian province. The artist painted this picture more than a hundred years ago, but even today visitors to the Tretyakov Gallery stop for a long time in front of this canvas by Perov.

As in most of the artist’s works, the painting “A Governess’s Arrival at a Merchant’s House” is modest in color and small in size. In front of us is a room in a wealthy merchant’s house. The center of the picture and attention is a young girl. She has just finished her studies and, after a long journey, enters someone else’s house, where she will teach and raise a merchant’s daughter. The whole family poured out to meet her. The owner is a fat merchant in front. Next to him is his dapper son, behind him are all the members of the household. The servants also came running to look at the newcomer and looked out from the hallway.

What kind of people are these? How did they meet the governess? What awaits a girl in a merchant's house? The picture tells about all this in detail.

Let's try to read this story as one reads an interesting book. Read slowly to truly understand and feel the picture.

Of course, it’s not so easy to do this the first time, because we don’t yet know how to “read” a picture. Remember how you learned to read your first books. First you recognized the letters, then you began to read syllables. Only after this did they begin to read whole sentences and learned punctuation marks - commas, periods, colons. And a lot of time passed before you learned to read fluently and confidently, both out loud and silently - to read with expression, with enthusiasm, receiving joy from the page you read.

Artists also have their own alphabet, they have their own syllables and structures from which the picture is composed. And only by knowing the ABCs of painting, by learning to fluently “read” the works of artists, will you be able to look at paintings with interest and enthusiasm and deeply understand their content.

Let's start with the first, most important syllable.

What's most important?

In his painting, the artist Perov depicted nine human figures. Imagine for a moment that he would put them all in a row, like in the photograph. Of course, in such a picture we would get to know all the characters, but we would not know what is happening here, what the relationship is between these people. Such a picture would not tell us anything. And the artist needed to tell about the fate of the poor girl. The girl is the main character of the picture. So the artist placed it in the center, in the very foreground.

With her head bowed, in a modest dark dress, the girl stands facing the viewer, and the entire merchant family came out of the wide door to meet her.

By placing the figures opposite each other, the artist emphasizes the main idea of ​​his painting: he seems to be pitting two worlds against each other - the ignorant merchant class and the modest, educated girl, who will now have to unquestioningly carry out all the orders of her new masters. The plush track thrown diagonally across the floor in the picture is also not accidental: it further emphasizes the oncoming movement. The girl just came in, the merchant just stopped. What will happen now?

This arrangement of figures already reveals the main content of the picture. But if you look closely, you will see three more figures in the picture: a maid, a footman and an errand boy are looking out from the doors on the left. They look at the newcomer with undisguised curiosity, and the boy, in a long, oversized camisole, even laughs. These figures are also necessary for the artist: located on the left, they balance the group of the merchant and his family depicted on the right side of the canvas, and enrich the content of the picture. You may have sung in two voices. The first voice leads the main melody, the second voice echoes it and enriches the melody and sound of the song. These two figures, located on the side, play the role of the second voice in the picture.

The first syllable of the pictorial alphabet—the arrangement of figures in a picture—is called composition by artists. Composition is the basis of painting. It expresses the artist’s main thought, the idea of ​​the painting.

Whatever the face, the character.

When the composition is found and all the figures are placed in their places, you can draw them: write out the faces, costumes, poses of the characters.

“No matter the type, no matter the face, no matter the character, there is a peculiarity in the expression of every feeling,” the artist more than once told his students.

Indeed, imagine two people - one of them is a young man, and the other is an old man. Both are happy, both laugh, but the same feeling will be reflected in completely different ways on these two completely different faces. Let's say that one of them is poor and the other is rich, one is Russian. And the other is a Frenchman, one returned from a walk, and the other just woke up. A true artist should depict all these shades of feeling on the faces of his heroes. He must be very observant. From many faces, he must choose only one necessary face for his picture and revive it with joy, sadness, surprise - exactly the feeling that he needs for the intended scene. And the more observant the artist, the better he knows life, the more accurate and subtle the drawing, the more meaningful his picture and the more it excites us.

So we come to the second syllable of our pictorial alphabet: this is a drawing. He is the main storyteller. He talks in detail about the main character, about each character, about his past and present, talks about all the events of the film.

The girl just entered the room. Look how much embarrassment is on her pretty face. She almost turned away from us, but how expressive her whole figure was, how vividly her every movement was conveyed. Elbows pressed tightly together, fingers nervously squeezing a small handbag. The girl is excited. She tries to take a piece of paper out of her purse.

A lot depends on the letter. Probably the girl’s mother begged him from some noble patron. And now this letter contains the whole fate of the girl, all her hope for a piece of bread, for a meager hard income.

How picturesque is the girl’s dress! How easily its loose folds fit, how it fits a slender young figure, and how touching this modest dress looks next to the expensive, sloppily worn merchant's robe!

The artist depicted the owner and his family with merciless truth. This is not a caricature, the artist did not exaggerate anything, but just look at the legs of the merchant and his young son.

The merchant has spread his legs wide apart, shod in Russian boots: he stands confidently, like an owner, whose will no one in this house dares to contradict. And the son was brought up in the “European manner”: he crossed his legs with the most independent air.

Now let’s turn our gaze higher – to the owner’s hands. These are not working hands, these are the hands of a well-fed, ill-mannered person. Fingers spread out: they could only count money! The merchant had just gotten out of bed. She barely bothered to close the hems of her robe, and even then she did it somehow: one hem was higher, the other was lower.

But the main thing in the picture, of course, is the faces.

On the merchant’s face we read poorly hidden discontent. It is clear that he would prefer to hire a “real madame” for his daughter, a Frenchwoman with fashionable manners, but stinginess and merchant prudence forced him to hire a cheaper teacher. He looks intently at the governess and already doubts: will she be able to teach his daughter all the “delicate sciences”: chirping in French and strumming an out-of-tune piano.

The son's face is full of irony: this dandy with curled curls and a fashionable tie considers himself smarter than everyone else and, of course, smarter than this poorly dressed girl.

Another heroine looks out from the door on the right - the merchant’s daughter, who will be taught by the governess. There is both curiosity and fear on her face: will the new teacher be too strict? And daddy won’t have mercy if she doesn’t do her homework well!

Behind the merchant, at his elbow, stands the hostess. Having learned about the arrival of the governess, she abandoned her work in the kitchen and came to look at the girl, without even having time to pull down her sleeves. And on the left, servants peek out from the hallway. And here everyone has their own expression! The maid looks with sympathy: who knows, she knows how life is for the servants in this house, and the governess is also a servant. The mustachioed footman looks with curiosity, and the boy laughs: the girl is a stranger to him, from the city - a young lady, from the gentlemen. He finds the girl’s city dress and her timid manners funny—she won’t be able to stand up for herself. “What fun it will be,” the boy thinks, “how the master and mistress will begin to honor her and knock down her master’s arrogance!”

For his painting V.G. Perov chose the most intense moment: he depicted the first meeting of the girl and the merchant. No one has yet said a word, but the timid voice of the governess, trembling with excitement, is about to be heard. And the viewer already knows: no, the life of a modest, educated girl in a rich house will not be sweet.

All this was told to us by the second syllable of the pictorial alphabet - the main storyteller - the drawing.

What does the cardboard tell you?

Perov's paintings can be looked at for hours, and the more you look at them, the more you learn about the characters in the picture and their fate.

We met the young governess, the merchant and his family, and noticed the servants looking out from the hallway. The picture has already made us think about the fate of a poor girl in someone else's rich house. And yet we have not yet learned everything. In Perov’s paintings, not only people take part in the story, but also all the objects depicted by the artist. Perov attached great importance to objects, carefully thought through and wrote out every smallest detail. The details in his paintings are not accidental, they also tell a story. We already know that the life of a governess in a rich house will not be easy, but let’s take a closer look: is it possible to learn at least something about the past of our heroes.

To the left, near the open door, there is a suitcase on the floor with cardboard on it. It is not difficult to guess that these things do not constantly stand in the room, they are placed on the road, they have just been brought in. An old suitcase and a cardboard box are all that the governess brought with her. With their modest appearance, they once again speak of the girl’s poverty. Things are covered with dust, which means she has made a long journey. But this is not a village chest, but a suitcase with copper locks, made by a city craftsman. Even more interesting is the cardboard for hats. If you look closely, you can see a sticker from a fashion company on it. This tells us that the governess came to the provincial merchant's house from the capital, that her family had once known better times. It is possible that the girl’s father and mother had also been abroad, vacationed at fashionable resorts and brought this cardboard with them. And now, after the death of her breadwinner, the family has fallen into poverty, and the girl is forced to look for income from strangers. So a small detail reveals to us another page from the biography of the young governess.

Is there a detail in the picture that would tell us about the merchant, the owner of the house?

Look to your left. High on the wall, in a gilded frame, hangs a portrait of an old man with a full beard. Wide-faced, big-faced, he looks very much like the owner of the house. Of course, this is his father or grandfather - just like him, an ignorant tyrant. This portrait tells us a lot and, above all, that the young governess ended up in the house of hereditary merchants, where the old Testament way of life reigns, where all the household members walk to the line and don’t even dare to utter a word, obedient to the owner’s word. This is the “dark kingdom” of wealthy merchants, where a person is valued not for his intelligence, not for his merits, but for his fat wallet, for his ability to deceive, buy cheaply and sell at exorbitant prices.

The artist also carefully thought out the furnishings of the merchant's house. There are curly chairs on both sides of the arch. At first glance, it is clear that no one ever sits on them, that they are displayed for “chic”. And the wallpaper embossed with gold, and the gilded sconce with candles, and the intricate garland above the arch - all this rich, but tasteless decoration of the hall speaks of the owner’s desire to emphasize his wealth, to “show off” everyone who enters this room. And behind its ostentatious luxury hides the grossest ignorance. There are not so many objects or accessories, as the artists call them, in the picture. Their colors are dim, they are all left a little in the shadows: they should not distract the viewer from the main thing: from the action. But at the same time, each of the objects is necessary, each complements the depicted scene and helps to express the artist’s thoughts.

Music of colors.

Here we come to the third and last syllable of our pictorial alphabet. The third syllable of painting is all the variety of colors, shades of tones, spots of light and shadow with which the picture speaks to us, or, as artists call it, the color of painting.

The coloring of the painting “A Governess’s Arrival at a Merchant’s House” is modest and dim. After all, the artist is not talking about some special festive event - he is talking about an ordinary everyday day in a merchant’s house, speaking in restrained, calm tones.

But imagine that the painting, like a photograph, is devoid of colors and is painted only in black and white. Without paints, it would immediately lose its expressiveness, the characteristics of the characters would pale, and the enchanting harmony of calm brown-reddish and golden-green tones would disappear. Of course, even without the colors we would have understood what was happening in the room, but the mood of tense silence, the momentary silence at the moment of the merchant’s first meeting with the girl, would have disappeared. It is this mood that creates the color of the picture, its colors.

How does an artist use lighting and light?

The color is directed towards the central group – the merchant’s family. Look how beautifully painted the owner’s dark crimson robe is: the light falls on its deep folds, and you immediately feel that it is soft, heavy velvet. Next to the rich crimson tone of the robe, the silk on the hostess’s blouse glitters, and right there is the girl’s cheerful pink skirt. The entire group is brightly lit, and its variegated colors are emphasized by the calm bluish tone of the plush runner. By directing the light at the merchant’s family, the artist seems to point it out to the viewer, and with a flashy variety of tones he characterizes the rich merchant family.

The artist found completely different colors for the governess. He chose the most modest brown color scheme and enlivened it only with a touching blue ribbon on the girl’s cap. Her figure emerges as a dark silhouette against the background of a light wall. The noble, calm tones of her dress speak of modesty and the ability to dress suitably and simply. Thus, the artist emphasizes with colors the main idea of ​​the painting - the collision of two worlds.

The third syllable of the pictorial alphabet - the coloring of the picture - once again emphasized and completed the characteristics of the characters, highlighted the main characters even more clearly with light and tone, and created a mood with a calm harmony of colors that helps us understand and feel the picture even better.

Thus, all the artistic means of painting: composition, drawing and color, complementing each other, reveal the idea of ​​the painting.

The picture touches, excites, calls.

The picturesque alphabet helped us read the picture syllable by syllable. We found out what was happening in the merchant's house, got acquainted with the heroes of the picture, with their characters, even with the past, and tried to look into the future of the heroes.

This was told not by a thick book, not by a play that actors performed in front of us for three hours, but by a small piece of canvas. The magic of painting in one moment miraculously transported us to distant times, to the dark kingdom of provincial merchants. We not only learned about how people once lived - no, we did not remain indifferent to their fate: we were worried about the heroes, because through the drawing and paints the excitement, his pain and anxiety for the fate of the girl were conveyed to us.

You can look at a picture carefully for a long time, understand and even be able to retell its content, but this is not the only art of looking at pictures. The heart of painting is not in the arrangement of figures and spots of colors and light, but in the thoughts and feelings that the artist put into his work. To feel his excitement, his joy, sadness, indignation, anger, delight - this means “looking at a picture,” creating and experiencing together with the artist.

Irina Timofeevna Derunets,

teacher of Russian language and literature

MBOU "Novofedorovskaya school-lyceum",

Saki district, Republic of Crimea

In 1862 V.G. Perov, a boarder from the Academy of Arts, went to Paris, where he improved his skills and, as he himself writes, “advanced in the technical side.” At that time, many Russian artists who were abroad turned to genre scenes that resembled Russian reality. V.G. Perov was then working on the compositions “Holiday in the vicinity of Paris”, “Organ grinder”, “Orphans” and others. But he does not meet the deadline and asks the Academy of Arts to allow him to return to his homeland: “It is absolutely impossible to paint a picture without knowing the people, their way of life, or character; without knowing the types of people, which is the basis of the genre.”

Creative activity of V.G. Perova was closely connected with Moscow: here he received his education, and then lived and worked in this city. Entire generations of artists were brought up on the canvases of this master. Like the best representatives of Russian literature, V.G. Perov devoted all his talent and all his skill to the protection of the oppressed and disadvantaged, which is probably why the official authorities did not favor him during his lifetime. And even at the artist’s posthumous exhibition, neither the Imperial Hermitage nor the Imperial Academy of Arts, under the pretext of “no money,” purchased a single painting of his16. Official Russia could not forgive the great realist artist for his freethinking and open sympathy for the common people.

The painting “A Governess’s Arrival at a Merchant’s House,” along with the famous “Troika,” “Seeing Off the Dead Man,” and other paintings, also depicts the difficult situation of people who are forced through hired work to often find themselves in a humiliating position. In the 1860s, Russia was turning into a capitalist country, and the new master of life - a merchant, a manufacturer, a rich peasant - stood next to the former master-landowner, trying to snatch his share of power over the oppressed Russian people.
Advanced Russian literature sensitively noted the emergence of a new predator, correctly discerned its habits, its merciless greed and spiritual limitations. Vivid images of representatives of the “new Russian” bourgeoisie - all these Derunovs, Kolupaevs, Razuvaevs - were created by the great satirist M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. In those same years, A.N. Ostrovsky denounced in his plays the tyranny of the Russian “masters of life.” Following the progressive writers V.G. Perov turned his artistic weapon against the rising bourgeoisie.

In 1865, in search of a model for his planned work, the artist went to the famous Nizhny Novgorod fair, where merchants from all cities of Russia annually gathered. Trading took place here, contracts and deals were concluded, Russian merchants traded and feasted here.

Walking along the Volga pier, strolling along Gostiny Dvor, visiting shops and caravans of merchant ships on the Volga, sitting in taverns where merchants carried out their trade affairs behind a pot-bellied samovar, V. Perov closely peered at the appearance of the new rulers of life. And a year later, his painting “The Arrival of a Governess at a Merchant’s House” appeared at an exhibition at the Academy of Arts, for which he received the title of academician.

Everything in this picture looks unusual: a clean, bright room with lace curtains, gold stars on the wallpaper, garlands of greenery, polished furniture, a portrait of one of the representatives of the family. But the viewer immediately gets the feeling that; this is just a façade, a decoration, and the true life of the house is reminded of itself by the dark doorways and the people huddled in them. The center of general attention is a young girl, modestly but tastefully dressed in a dark brown dress and a bonnet with a blue silk ribbon. She has a reticule in her hands, and she takes out from it a certificate for the title of home teacher. Her slender, slightly bent figure, outlined by a thin graceful line; the profile of a gentle face - everything is in striking contrast with the outlines of the squat figures of the merchant family, whose faces reflected curiosity, surprise, suspicious malevolence, and a cynically self-satisfied grin.
The entire merchant family poured out to meet the poor governess. “Sam” was in such a hurry to meet the future teacher of his children that he didn’t even bother to dress more decently: he was in a crimson dressing gown and went out into the hall. “Don’t interfere with my character,” one can read throughout his smug figure. With his legs spread wide apart, the corpulent owner brazenly examines the girl - like a commodity whose quality he wants to determine. There is something bullish in his whole appearance, endless self-satisfaction is spread throughout his corpulent figure and is expressed in his sleepy eyes, meaninglessly fixed on the girl. What kind of guy the merchant's son is is easy to guess from his cheeky pose and insolent facial expression. This future “tavern reveler” and womanizer looks cynically at the teacher. His wife and daughters crowded behind the merchant. The plump merchant's wife looks arrogantly and hostilely at the young governess, and the merchant's daughters look at the young girl with some senseless fear.

It will be hard for an intelligent, educated girl in this family, and the viewer needs a little insight to guess: after spending some time with the merchant children, she will run away from them wherever her eyes look.

The canvas “The Arrival of a Governess at a Merchant’s House” was a typical painting for the 1860s, and not only in the work of V.G. Perova. Small in size, with a clearly identified plot taken from life with all its everyday peeping and eavesdropping details, this picture was extremely characteristic of the painting of those years. In the same years, the works of A. Yushanov “Seeing Off the Chief” and N. Nevrev “Bargaining” appeared. V.G. Perov not only himself formed realism in painting, but was also shaped by it, absorbed much of the artistic achievements of his contemporaries, but with the power of his talent raised these achievements to a higher social and aesthetic level
In Fedotov’s “Matchmaking of a Major,” the merchant was still ingratiating himself with the nobility, and his most cherished desire was to become related to an officer in thick epaulets. In the painting by P. Fedotov, the merchant is depicted in a pose of still respectful embarrassment. He hastily puts on an unusual ceremonial frock coat in order to adequately greet the important guest. In V. Perov, the merchant and all his household members feel like much more significant people than an intelligent girl entering their service.

The humiliation of human dignity, the clash of spiritual subtlety and well-fed philistinism, the merchant’s attempt to “bend pride” are revealed by V. Perov with such fullness of sympathy and contempt that even today (almost 150 years later) we take everything to heart, just like the first viewers of the film .

“The Arrival of the Governess” was often criticized for its dry coloring, and even A.A. Fedorov-Davydov noted: “One of the sharpest thematically, impressive paintings by V. Perov, this last one is unpleasant in a pictorial sense... The tones of this picture cut unpleasantly.” But here the artist amazed the viewer with his flowery sophistication: black and purple, yellow and pink - all colors shine in full force. You just have to take a closer look at how the central group is painted in color, and how softly, but definitely in color, the supporting figures are taken.

V.G. Perov died at the age of forty-eight. He was a man of a sensitive soul and a great mind, and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote the poem “In Memory of Vasily Grigorievich Perov”:

You have never been a greedy craftsman,
A despicable huckster...
On a proud brow
Self-interest is a bleak veil
The shameful shadow never fell.
And you didn’t serve whimsical fashion like a slave...

ARRIVAL OF THE GOVERNESS TO THE MERCHANTS HOUSE

Vasily Perov

Vasily Grigorievich Perov is not just one of the largest artists of the second half of the 19th century. This is a milestone figure, standing on a par with such masters as I.E. Repin, V.I. Surikov, A.K. Savrasov. His work marked the birth of new artistic principles and became a milestone in the history of Russian art.

In 1862, V. G. Perov, a boarder from the Academy of Arts, went to Paris, where he improved his skills and, as he himself writes, “advanced in the technical side.” At that time, many Russian artists who were abroad turned to genre scenes that resembled Russian reality. V. G. Perov was then working on the compositions “Holiday in the vicinity of Paris”, “Organ grinder”, “Orphans” and others. But he cannot stand the deadline and asks the Academy of Arts to allow him to return to his homeland. “It is absolutely impossible to paint a picture without knowing either the people, their way of life, or their character; without knowing the folk types that form the basis of the genre.”

The creative activity of V. G. Perov was closely connected with Moscow: here he received his education, and then lived and worked in this city. Entire generations of artists were brought up on the canvases of this master. Like the best representatives of Russian literature, V. G. Perov devoted all his talent and all his skill to the defense of the oppressed and disadvantaged, which is probably why the official authorities did not favor him during his lifetime. And even at the artist’s posthumous exhibition, neither the Imperial Hermitage nor the Imperial Academy of Arts, under the pretext of “no money,” purchased a single painting of his (all of them went to private collections). Official Russia could not forgive the great realist artist for his freethinking and open sympathy for the common people.

The painting “A Governess’s Arrival at a Merchant’s House,” along with the famous “Troika,” “Seeing Off the Dead Man,” and other paintings, also depicts the difficult situation of people who are forced through hired work to often find themselves in a humiliating position. In the 1860s, Russia was turning into a capitalist country, and the new master of life - a merchant, a manufacturer, a rich peasant - stood next to the former master-landowner, trying to snatch his share of power over the oppressed Russian people.

Advanced Russian literature sensitively noted the emergence of a new predator, correctly discerned its habits, its merciless greed and spiritual limitations. Vivid images of representatives of the “new Russian” bourgeoisie - all these Derunovs, Kolupaevs, Razuvaevs - were created by the great satirist M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. In those same years, A.N. Ostrovsky denounced in his plays the tyranny of the Russian “masters of life.” Following the progressive writers, V. G. Perov turned his artistic weapon against the rising bourgeoisie.

In 1865, in search of a model for his planned work, the artist went to the famous Nizhny Novgorod fair, where merchants from all cities of Russia annually gathered. Trading took place here, contracts and deals were concluded, Russian merchants traded and feasted here. Walking along the Volga pier, strolling along Gostiny Dvor, visiting shops and caravans of merchant ships on the Volga, sitting in taverns where merchants carried out their trade affairs behind a pot-bellied samovar, V. Perov closely peered at the appearance of the new rulers of life. And a year later, his painting “A Governess’s Arrival at a Merchant’s House” appeared at an exhibition at the Academy of Arts, for which he received the title of academician.

Everything in this picture looks unusual: a clean, bright room with lace curtains, gold stars on the wallpaper, garlands of greenery, polished furniture, a portrait of one of the representatives of the family. But the viewer immediately gets the feeling that this is just a facade, a decoration, and the true life of the house is reminded of itself by the dark doorways and the people huddled in them.

The center of general attention is a young girl, modestly but tastefully dressed in a dark brown dress and a bonnet with a blue silk ribbon. She has a reticule in her hands, and she takes out from it a certificate for the title of home teacher. Her slender, slightly bent figure, the graceful profile of her delicate face outlined in a thin line - everything is in striking contrast with the outlines of the squat figures of the merchant family, whose faces reflected curiosity, surprise, suspicious malevolence, and a cynically self-satisfied grin.

The entire merchant family poured out to meet the poor governess. “Sam” was in such a hurry to meet the future teacher of his children that he didn’t even bother to dress more decently: he was in a crimson dressing gown and went out into the hall. “Don’t interfere with my character,” one can read throughout his smug figure. With his legs spread wide apart, the corpulent owner brazenly examines the girl - like a commodity whose quality he wants to determine. There is something bullish in his whole appearance, endless self-satisfaction is spread throughout his corpulent figure and is expressed in his sleepy eyes, meaninglessly fixed on the girl. What kind of guy the merchant's son is is easy to guess from his cheeky pose and insolent facial expression. This future “tavern reveler” and womanizer looks cynically at the teacher. His wife and daughters crowded behind the merchant. The plump merchant's wife looks arrogantly and hostilely at the young governess, and the merchant's daughters look at the young girl with some senseless fear.

It will be hard for an intelligent, educated girl in this family, and the viewer needs a little insight to guess: after spending some time with the merchant children, she will run away from them wherever her eyes look.

The canvas “The Arrival of a Governess at a Merchant’s House” was a typical painting for the 1860s, and not only in the work of V. G. Perov. Small in size, with a clearly identified plot taken from life with all its everyday peeping and eavesdropping details, this picture was extremely characteristic of the painting of those years. In the same years, the works of A. Yushanov “Seeing Off the Chief” and N. Nevrev “Bargaining” appeared. V. G. Perov not only himself formed realism in painting, but was also shaped by it, absorbed much of the artistic achievements of his contemporaries, but with the power of his talent raised these achievements to a higher social and aesthetic level. In Fedotov’s “Matchmaking of a Major,” the merchant was still ingratiating himself with the nobility, and his most cherished desire was to become related to an officer in thick epaulets. In the painting by P. Fedotov, the merchant is depicted in a pose of still respectful embarrassment. He hastily puts on an unusual ceremonial frock coat in order to adequately greet the important guest.

In V. Perov, the merchant and all his household members feel like much more significant people than an intelligent girl entering their service. The humiliation of human dignity, the clash of spiritual subtlety and well-fed philistinism, the merchant’s attempt to “bend pride” are revealed by V. Perov with such fullness of sympathy and contempt that even today (almost 150 years later) we take everything to heart, just like the first viewers of the film .

“The Arrival of the Governess” was often criticized for its dry coloring, and even A.A. Fedorov-Davydov noted: “One of the sharpest, most impressive paintings by V. Perov, this last one is unpleasant in a pictorial sense... The tones of this picture hurt the eyes unpleasantly.” But here the artist amazed the viewer with his flowery sophistication: black and purple, yellow and pink - all colors shine in full force. You just have to take a closer look at how the central group is painted in color, and how softly, but definitely in color, the supporting figures are taken.

V. G. Perov died at the age of forty-eight years. He was a man of a sensitive soul and a great mind, and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote the poem “In Memory of Vasily Grigorievich Perov”:

You have never been a greedy craftsman,

A despicable huckster... On a proud brow

Self-interest is a bleak veil

The shameful shadow never fell.

And you didn’t serve whimsical fashion like a slave...