Perov Vasily. "Arrival of the governess at the merchant's house
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January 2 (December 21, old style) marks 183 years since the birth of an outstanding Russian painter Vasily Perov.
His name is usually associated with famous paintings. "Hunters at Rest" and "Troika", much less known other works, such as "Arrival of the governess at the merchant house".
There are many interesting facts hidden in the details of this picture.
I. Kramskoy. Portrait of V. Perov, 1881 |
Vasily Perov was often called the successor of the work of the artist Pavel Fedotov, with whose paintings Perov is related by the choice of acute social topics, the critical orientation of his works, the special importance of details imperceptible at first glance. In the 1860s. each new picture of Perov became a social phenomenon, his works, exposing the ulcers of society, were consonant with the era of great reforms. The artist was one of the first to draw attention to the powerlessness of ordinary people of his time.
V. Perov. Self-portrait, 1870 |
One of these works was the painting "The Arrival of the Governess at the Merchant House" (1866). Compositionally and stylistically, it is very close to the genre canvases of P. Fedotov, first of all, the overlaps are noticeable with "The Major's Matchmaking". But Perov's work is more tragic and hopeless. In 1865, in search of nature for the conceived work, the artist went to the Nizhny Novgorod fair, where merchants from all cities of Russia gathered and "spied" there the necessary types.
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant's house, 1866. Sketch |
They seem to have left the pages of A. Ostrovsky's works. These noticeable analogies sometimes even led to the accusation of Perov being secondary in relation to the writer's artistic world. So, for example, I. Kramskoy wrote about this picture: “The governess herself is charming, there is some embarrassment in her, some kind of haste and something that immediately makes the viewer understand the personality and even the moment, the owner is also not bad, although not new: taken from Ostrovsky. The rest of the faces are superfluous and only spoil the matter. "
It is hardly possible to fully agree with the opinion of Kramskoy. The rest of the characters were by no means "superfluous". The colorful figure of a young merchant, the owner's son, stands next to his father and looks at the young lady without hesitation. Commenting on this picture, Perov spoke of "shameless curiosity" - this phrase characterizes the merchant in the best possible way.
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant house, 1866. Fragment |
The merchant feels himself not only a full-fledged master of the house, but also a sovereign master of the situation. He stands on his hips, legs wide apart, his stomach outstretched and frankly examines the newcomer, well aware of the fact that from that moment on she will be in his power. The reception cannot be called warm - the merchant looks at the girl condescendingly, from top to bottom, as if immediately pointing her to her place in this house.
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant house, 1866. Fragment |
In the bowed head of the governess, in the uncertain movement of her hands, when she takes out a letter of recommendation, one feels doom and like a presentiment of future death, inevitable due to the obvious alienation of this poor girl to the dark kingdom of the merchant's world. The critic V. Stasov defined the content of this picture as follows: "Not a tragedy for now, but a real prologue to a tragedy."
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant house, 1866. Fragment |
On the wall hangs a portrait of a merchant, apparently the founder of this family, whose representatives are currently trying to hide their true nature behind a decent appearance. Although not everyone succeeds equally. The merchant's wife looks at the girl with undisguised mistrust and ill will. She herself is clearly far from the "manners" and "sciences" that the governess will teach her daughter, but wants everything "like people" in their family, so she agreed to let the girl into the house.
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant house, 1866. Fragment |
In the left corner of the doorway were servants. They, too, look at the young lady with curiosity, but there is no arrogance on their faces - only interest in the one that will soon keep them company. Probably, the girl, having received a good education, dreamed not of such a fate at all. Hardly anyone in this house understands why merchant daughters need to know foreign languages and high society manners.
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant house, 1866. Fragment |
The only bright spot in the picture is the figurine of the merchant's daughter, to which the governess was invited. The pink color of Feathers is usually used to emphasize spiritual purity. The girl's face is the only one that, in addition to curiosity, reflects sincere sympathy.
Painting * Arrival of the governess to the merchant house * in the Tretyakov Gallery
The painting "The Arrival of the Governess at the Merchant House" was painted by V.G. Perov in oil on canvas in 1866. This canvas is one of the most famous works of the artist with a satirical focus.
Every detail of this picture hides a deep meaning. The master gives a special role to the facial expressions and gestures of the characters depicted. Possessing a deep knowledge of human psychology and an amazing skill of 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 lush red dress. Having examined the new environment where she will have to live and work, seeing her new tyrant master 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 just for her. Others, the owner's older daughters, look at the new person with disdain and with a share of curiosity, trying to evaluate the girl with a glance. On the left, a servant looks out from behind an open door and also looks with great curiosity at the new governess.
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 not decorated with icons, as is usually customary in Christian homes, but with a portrait of a bearded old man who is probably the ancestor of a merchant.
Separately, it should be paid to the removal of the stern, evaluating gaze of the owner, and the location of his hands. Such a pose immediately makes it clear to an intelligent girl that in this house there will be no condescension to her.
In addition to the description of the painting by V. G. Perov "The Arrival of the Governess at the Merchant 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 the famous masters of the past.
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Vasily Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant's house.
1866. Oil on canvas.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
Vasily Grigorievich Perov is not just one of the greatest artists of the second half of the 19th century. This is a milestone figure, standing on a par with such masters as V.I. Surikov, His work marked the birth of new artistic principles and became a milestone in the history of Russian art.
In 1862 V.G. Perov went to Paris as a boarder from the Academy of Arts, 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 reminiscent of Russian reality. V.G. Perov then worked on the compositions "Holiday in the vicinity of Paris", "Organ-grinder", "Orphans" and others. But he does not meet the deadline set for him 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, or their way of life, or character; not knowing the types of folk, which is the basis of the genre. "
The creative activity of V.G. Perov was closely associated with Moscow: here he received his education, and then lived and worked in this city. Whole 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, probably because the official authorities did not favor him during his lifetime. And even at the posthumous exhibition of the artist, neither the Imperial Hermitage, nor the Imperial Academy of Arts, under the pretext of "no money", acquired any of his paintings16. Official Russia could not forgive the great realist artist for his freethinking and open sympathy for the common people.
The painting "The Arrival of the Governess at the Merchant House", along with the famous "Troika", "The Dead Man's Ways" and other canvases, also depicts the plight of people who are compelled to find themselves in a humiliating position by means of hired work. In the 1860s, Russia was turning into a capitalist country, and the new master of life - a merchant, a manufacturer, a rich peasant - stood alongside the former landlord, seeking to snatch his share of power over the oppressed Russian people.
The progressive Russian literature sensitively noted the emergence of a new predator, correctly discerned its habits, its merciless greed and spiritual limitation. The great satirist M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. In the same years A.N. Ostrovsky denounced the tyranny of the Russian "masters of life" in his plays. Following the progressive writers V.G. Perov turned his artistic weapon against the rising bourgeoisie.
In 1865, in search of nature for the conceived work, the artist went to the famous Nizhny Novgorod fair, where merchants from all cities of Russia gathered annually. Here trades took place, contracts and deals were concluded, Russian merchants traded and feasted here.
Walking along the Volga pier, strolling around Gostiny Dvor, visiting shops and caravans of merchant ships on the Volga, sitting in taverns where merchants were doing their business behind a pot-bellied samovar, V. Perov gazed intently at the appearance of the new rulers of life. And a year later, at the exhibition at the Academy of Arts, his painting "The Arrival of the Governess to the Merchant House" appeared, for which he received the title of Academician.
Everything in this picture looks unusual: a clean, bright room with lace curtains, golden stars on the wallpaper, garlands of greenery, polished furniture, a portrait of one of the representatives of the family. But the viewer immediately has the feeling that; it is just a facade, a decoration, and the true life of the house reminds of itself with the dark doorways and people huddled in them. In 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 her certificate for the title of home teacher. Her slender, slightly bent figure, outlined by a thin line, graceful; the profile of a gentle face - everything is in stark contrast to the outlines of the stocky figures of a merchant family, whose faces reflected curiosity, surprise, suspicious ill will, and a cynical, 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 did not even bother to dress decently: as he was in his home crimson dressing gown, he went out into the hallway. "Do not interfere with my disposition" - reads in all his self-satisfied figure. With his legs wide apart, the obese owner impudently considers the girl - as a commodity, the quality of which he wants to determine. There is something bullish in all his appearance, endless complacency is poured over his entire obese figure and is expressed in sleepy eyes, aimlessly fixed on the girl. What type of merchant's son is, it is easy to guess from his cheeky posture and impudent facial expression. Cynically, the teacher looks at this future "tavern buffoon" and ladies' man. Behind the merchant's back were his wife and daughters. The overweight merchant's wife looks haughtily and hostilely at the young governess, and the merchant's daughters look at the young girl with a kind of senseless fright.
It will be hard for an intelligent, educated girl in this family, and the viewer needs a little perspicacity to guess: after spending some time with the merchants' children, she will run away from them wherever they look.
The canvas "The Arrival of the Governess at the Merchant 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 ordinary peeping and eavesdropping details, this picture was extremely characteristic of the painting of those years. In the same years, A. Yushanov's works "Seeing the Chief" and N. Nevrev's "Torg" appeared. V.G. Perov not only himself formed realism in painting, but was also formed 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 Major's Matchmaking, the merchant was still currying favor with the nobility, and his most cherished desire was to marry an officer in thick epaulettes. In P. Fedotov's painting, the merchant is depicted in a pose of still respectful embarrassment. He hastily put on a ceremonial frock coat, unusual for himself, in order to meet an important guest with dignity. For V. Perov, the merchant and all his household members feel themselves to be much more significant people than the intelligent girl who enters their service.
The humiliation of human dignity, the clash of spiritual subtlety and well-fed philistinism, the merchant's attempt to "incline 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, like the first viewers of the picture ...
“The arrival of the governess” was often criticized for the dryness of the color, and even A.A. Fedorov-Davydov noted: "One of the sharpest in terms of subject matter, 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 coloristically highlighted, how softly, but definitely by color, the figures of the second plan are taken.
A special place in the artist's work is occupied by his small canvas "The Arrival of the Governess at the Merchant House" (1866).
The plot of the picture, as always with Perov, is uncomplicated, and the drama of the work itself is based not on an open, external action, but on a conflict of states. The master writes picturesquely, on the one hand, a merchant family with a servant, who, as usual, obsequiously plays up to their masters, and on the other hand, a governess, a modestly but tastefully dressed girl, whose whole appearance, for all that, betrays her by no means a philistine, but the more merchant origin. This biography is read not only in the image of the governess herself, but also on the faces of the household, for whom she is a person from another world. And therefore there is an element of mistrust and even fear in the general reaction of people to the newcomer: what will she bring with her to their established foundations, which were born, perhaps, in a peasant hut?
It would seem that the essence of the conflict is obvious. But his social exposure is just the beginning, followed by the growing psychological acuteness of what is happening. Blushing from the awkwardness of the situation, from the unusually close attention to herself, the girl finally tries to pull out a letter of recommendation from her purse, in order, among other things, to hide behind this action, to protect herself from humiliating and shameless examination of her. From the heavy gaze of the owner of the house, for whom she is an object of bargaining, from the lustful eyes of the merchant's son, from the mistrustful household members in their curiosity, on whose faces there is simultaneously surprise, and mockery, and even mockery. And she stands, poor, in the middle of the room - lonely and defenseless in her shyness and meekness, under the cross fire of malevolence.
But the achieved psychological level of artistic narration is also not yet the final goal, but only a means of advancing towards it. With just one, albeit small, but very expressive detail, Perov rearranges semantic accents and thereby transfers the conflict to other spheres.
In the interior of a prosperous merchant house, given the patriarchy of the environment, the artist did not depict a single icon. Instead, in plain sight - a portrait of an ancestor, from which, probably, the prosperity of the family began. On him, her benefactor, she prays, confessing only hypocrisy and pragmatism. And that is why the fate of a poor girl is unenviable in the cynical, stifling atmosphere of a house, where mirrors reflect only darkness and emptiness, where young life can be crumpled, like this shawl streaked with deep folds that is casually thrown, walking around, as unnecessary.
And as if to complete the moral characterization of the household, the artist depicts both the merchant family and its servants against a dark background. While the figure of the governess is projected by him onto the delicate ocher wallpaper with a golden tint on the wall, where the extinguished candles have turned white in the glow of a gilded sconce. A reciprocal coloristic move was the setting of the girl's figure on the floorboard, and in the lightest part of it, moreover, whitewashed by the glare of the folds. Thus, the governess found herself in her own, special, coloristically built space, filled with light, before which both the shadow creeping to the left and the darkness that stretches from the inner chambers of the house recede. So the psychological confrontation develops into a struggle between light and darkness, where moral purity is opposed to cynicism. And here Perov makes another takeoff. Just as the darkness in his picture is not represented by a homogeneous mass, so the merchant family is not all hopelessly hardened in their hypocrisy. The daughter of the owner of the house, a teenager, is the only character from all the household, written in light, sonorous tones that stand out from the general coloristic grayness and darkness. Everything about this girl - both the gaze directed at the newcomer, not curious, but amazed, and the eyes wide open with amazement, as if they saw something that others do not see, and some still unconscious, barely restrained impulse betray a child's soul, already reaching out to that purity, to that light that this stranger brought with her. This is how the internal conjugation of two characters - the girl and the governess - arises, defining the temporal perspective of the artistic image of the picture.
The name of the outstanding Russian painter Vasily Perov is usually associated with the famous paintings "Hunters at Rest" and "Troika", much less known other works, such as "The Arrival of the Governess at the Merchant House". There are many interesting facts hidden in the details of this picture.
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess at the merchant's house, 1866
Vasily Perov was often called the successor of the work of the artist Pavel Fedotov, with whose paintings Perov is related by the choice of acute social topics, the critical orientation of his works, the special importance of details imperceptible at first glance. In the 1860s. each new picture of Perov became a social phenomenon, his works, exposing the ulcers of society, were consonant with the era of great reforms. The artist was one of the first to draw attention to the powerlessness of ordinary people of his time.
I. Kramskoy. Portrait of V. Perov, 1881
One of these works was the painting "The Arrival of the Governess at the Merchant House" (1866). Compositionally and stylistically, it is very close to the genre canvases of P. Fedotov, first of all, the overlaps are noticeable with "The Major's Matchmaking". But Perov's work is more tragic and hopeless. In 1865, in search of nature for the conceived work, the artist went to the Nizhny Novgorod fair, where merchants from all cities of Russia gathered and "spied" there the necessary types.
V. Perov. Self-portrait, 1870
They seem to have left the pages of A. Ostrovsky's works. I. Kramskoy wrote about this picture: “The governess herself is charming, there is some embarrassment in her, some haste and something that immediately makes the viewer understand the personality and even the moment, the owner is also not bad, although not new: it was taken from Ostrovsky. The rest of the faces are superfluous and only spoil the matter. "
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant house, 1866. Sketch
It is hardly possible to fully agree with the opinion of Kramskoy. The rest of the characters were by no means "superfluous". The colorful figure of a young merchant, the owner's son, stands next to his father and looks at the young lady without hesitation. Commenting on this picture, Perov spoke of "shameless curiosity" - this phrase characterizes the merchant in the best possible way.
The merchant feels himself not only a full-fledged master of the house, but also a sovereign master of the situation. He stands on his hips, legs wide apart, his stomach outstretched and frankly examines the newcomer, well aware of the fact that from that moment on she will be in his power. The reception cannot be called warm - the merchant looks at the girl condescendingly, from top to bottom, as if immediately pointing her to her place in this house.
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant house, 1866. Fragment
In the bowed head of the governess, in the uncertain movement of her hands, when she takes out a letter of recommendation, one feels doom and like a presentiment of future death, inevitable due to the obvious alienation of this poor girl to the dark kingdom of the merchant's world. The critic V. Stasov defined the content of this picture as follows: "Not a tragedy for now, but a real prologue to a tragedy."
On the wall hangs a portrait of a merchant, apparently the founder of this family, whose representatives are currently trying to hide their true nature behind a decent appearance. Although not everyone succeeds equally. The merchant's wife looks at the girl with undisguised mistrust and ill will. She herself is clearly far from the "manners" and "sciences" that the governess will teach her daughter, but wants everything "like people" in their family, so she agreed to let the girl into the house.
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant house, 1866. Fragment
In the left corner of the doorway were servants. They, too, look at the young lady with curiosity, but there is no arrogance on their faces - only interest in the one that will soon keep them company. Probably, the girl, having received a good education, dreamed not of such a fate at all. Hardly anyone in this house understands why merchant daughters need to know foreign languages and high society manners.
V. Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant house, 1866. Fragment
The only bright spot in the picture is the figurine of the merchant's daughter, to which the governess was invited. The pink color of Feathers is usually used to emphasize spiritual purity. The girl's face is the only one that, in addition to curiosity, reflects sincere sympathy.
Painting * Arrival of the governess to the merchant house * in the Tretyakov Gallery
Not a single character in the picture can be called superfluous or accidental, all of them are in their place and serve to realize the artistic idea. Perov, like Gogol, whose work he admired, was obsessed with the idea of creating an encyclopedia of Russian types in his works. And he really succeeded.
January 2 (December 21, old style) marks 183 years since the birth of an outstanding Russian painter Vasily Perov... His name is usually associated with famous paintings. "Hunters at Rest" and "Troika", much less known other works, such as "Arrival of the governess at the merchant house"... There are many interesting facts hidden in the details of this picture.
Vasily Perov was often called the successor of the work of the artist Pavel Fedotov, with whose paintings Perov is related by the choice of acute social topics, the critical orientation of his works, the special importance of details imperceptible at first glance. In the 1860s. each new picture of Perov became a social phenomenon, his works, exposing the ulcers of society, were consonant with the era of great reforms. The artist was one of the first to draw attention to the powerlessness of ordinary people of his time.
One of these works was the painting "The Arrival of the Governess at the Merchant House" (1866). Compositionally and stylistically, it is very close to the genre canvases of P. Fedotov, first of all, the overlaps are noticeable with "The Major's Matchmaking". But Perov's work is more tragic and hopeless. In 1865, in search of nature for the conceived work, the artist went to the Nizhny Novgorod fair, where merchants from all cities of Russia gathered and "spied" there the necessary types.
They seem to have left the pages of A. Ostrovsky's works. These noticeable analogies sometimes even led to the accusation of Perov being secondary in relation to the writer's artistic world. So, for example, I. Kramskoy wrote about this picture: “The governess herself is charming, there is some embarrassment in her, some haste and something that immediately makes the viewer understand the personality and even the moment, the owner is also not bad, although not new: taken from Ostrovsky. The rest of the faces are superfluous and only spoil the matter. "
It is hardly possible to fully agree with the opinion of Kramskoy. The rest of the characters were by no means "superfluous". The colorful figure of a young merchant, the owner's son, stands next to his father and looks at the young lady without hesitation. Commenting on this picture, Perov spoke of "shameless curiosity" - this phrase characterizes the merchant in the best possible way.
The merchant feels himself not only a full-fledged master of the house, but also a sovereign master of the situation. He stands on his hips, legs wide apart, his stomach outstretched and frankly examines the newcomer, well aware of the fact that from that moment on she will be in his power. The reception cannot be called warm - the merchant looks at the girl condescendingly, from top to bottom, as if immediately pointing her to her place in this house.
In the bowed head of the governess, in the uncertain movement of her hands, when she takes out a letter of recommendation, one feels doom and like a presentiment of future death, inevitable due to the obvious alienation of this poor girl to the dark kingdom of the merchant's world. The critic V. Stasov defined the content of this picture as follows: "Not a tragedy for now, but a real prologue to a tragedy."
On the wall hangs a portrait of a merchant, apparently the founder of this family, whose representatives are currently trying to hide their true nature behind a decent appearance. Although not everyone succeeds equally. The merchant's wife looks at the girl with undisguised mistrust and ill will. She herself is clearly far from the "manners" and "sciences" that the governess will teach her daughter, but wants everything "like people" in their family, so she agreed to let the girl into the house.
In the left corner of the doorway were servants. They, too, look at the young lady with curiosity, but there is no arrogance on their faces - only interest in the one that will soon keep them company. Probably, the girl, having received a good education, dreamed not of such a fate at all. Hardly anyone in this house understands why merchant daughters need to know foreign languages and high society manners.
The only bright spot in the picture is the figurine of the merchant's daughter, to which the governess was invited. The pink color of Feathers is usually used to emphasize spiritual purity. The girl's face is the only one that, in addition to curiosity, reflects sincere sympathy.
Not a single character in the picture can be called superfluous or accidental, all of them are in their place and serve to realize the artistic idea. Perov, like Gogol, whose work he admired, was obsessed with the idea of creating an encyclopedia of Russian types in his works. And he really succeeded. Details play an important role in other works of the artist.