Vasily Perov was born 190 years ago. Surely everyone has seen at least one of his paintings.
These are “Hunters at Rest”, “Tea Party in Mytishchi”, “Rural Procession at Easter”, “Farewell to the Dead”, “Troika”, “Bird Hunter” and “Fisherman”. and portraits of Alexander Ostrovsky and Fyodor Dostoevsky. With what precision and skill Perov conveyed to us images and scenes from the life of our ancestors!
“Troika”. Vasili Perov. 1866
But with Perov’s date of birth, not everything is entirely accurate. He was born on January 2, 3 or 4 (according to the new style), 1834 in Tobolsk. And not everything is clear with the name of his father either: Grigory Karlovich Kridener sometimes appears as Georgy.
Since Vasily Grigorievich (Perov’s middle name is exactly that) was the illegitimate son of the provincial prosecutor Baron Kridener and the bourgeois woman Akulina Ivanova, he initially received his surname Vasilyev. The name of his godfather. That’s how confusing it is.
Plus, it’s even more interesting. He was Vasiliev until, with the light hand of a literacy teacher, a supernumerary employee, he became Perov: thus he distinguished the student for his diligence and his mastery of the writing pen.
And how he will master the brush!..
The sexton will give Perov his first fame as an artist. In 1860, the Academy of Arts awarded Vasili Grigorievich a small gold medal for the painting “First rank. Son of a sexton, promoted to collegiate registrar.” Didn’t the artist ever see this plot of his teacher?
After moving to St. Petersburg, Perov painted the paintings “Sermon in the Village” and “Rural Procession at Easter” in 1861. And he receives for the first time the great gold medal of the Academy of Arts and the right to travel abroad as an intern. But the second causes a storm of negative emotions. The Academy rejects it for discrediting spiritual ties.
“Rural religious procession during Holy Week.” Vasili Perov. 1861
Pavel Tretyakov, who buys this painting by Perov, receives a warning: sanctions are possible, the Holy Synod prepares to investigate why such “immoral paintings are publicly displayed.” Perov is promised a trip not abroad, but to Solovki.
And yet, he goes as an intern, first to Germany and then to Paris, where he creates a series of paintings. But they are not as moving as “Troika,” written in his homeland after his return. The image of three craftsmen carrying a tub of water on a sleigh is known to everyone in school textbooks. And “Hunters at Rest”? In Soviet times, this story, along with Viktor Vasnetsov’s “Bogatyrs,” would become the most popular to hang on walls.
“Hunters at rest.” Vasili Perov. 1871
For “Scene by the Railway,” written in 1868, Vasily Perov receives a prize from the Moscow Society of Art Lovers. That is, because of the way he painted the faces of the peasants who came to see the miracle: the steam locomotive. The men clearly had fun with the snow plows on the train.
Yes, the artist was extremely responsible with the details – we see such “brushes” on the locomotive in the photograph of 1864. On it, on the platform of the Tver station, there is a 3-2-0 steam locomotive, made at the Aleksandrovsky plant in St. Petersburg. These locomotives were used to service trains of “special importance”: the royal ones.
But in those days there were not even metal snowplows on real trains; They would be invented later.
Vasily Grigorievich continues to paint pictures with everyday scenes, while dedicating more and more time to portraits. But in 1881 he could not tolerate serious illnesses and he died in the hospital on the Kuzminki estate, near Moscow.
At the age of 49…
