"Major's matchmaking": why the ironic picture of P. Fedotov made a splash in the middle of the 19th century

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The painting "The Major's Courtship" has become a business card artist Pavel Fedotov, she brought him the title of academician and nationwide popularity. When the public first saw the picture, the success was overwhelming. The whole Petersburg was rolling with laughter, people came to the exhibition more than once to see the Major's matchmaking once again. " What caused such a violent reaction and so amused the audience?

Pavel Fedotov intended to become a battle painter, but when Ivan Krylov saw his everyday sketches, he recommended that he continue to work in this direction. The audience in the middle of the 19th century. already fed up with the chanting of beauty and nobility, and ironic pictures that cause laughter were at that time a great rarity. The genre of everyday life existed even before Fedotov, but the artists focused on the life of the peasants, and the life of the merchants and nobles less often became the object of their attention. Fedotov managed to "populate" the picture with typical representatives of the merchants and the nobility and create a kind of "sitcom" in painting. Therefore, Fedotov's style was called "comic realism."

The fact is that the plot of the picture was not only well known to the audience - such marriages happened then everywhere. And the characters were so typical and recognizable that it made the whole city laugh. The marriages of impoverished nobles with representatives of wealthy merchants were a mutually beneficial deal: some received titles and titles, while others received money.

In the center of the composition is the bride, who is being wooed by the major, who, allegedly out of embarrassment, is trying to escape to another room. However, in fact, she is mincing, because, judging by the dress, she was preparing for the arrival of the groom. The mother tries to restrain and reason with the bride, and her posture and facial expression betray an imperious and strong-willed character - for sure it is she who runs everything in this house. The merchant himself modestly stands in the corner behind her and in a hurry tries to button up a frock coat prepared especially for a solemn occasion. The major is waiting at the door, he is clearly not worried about the matchmaking, because the outcome is already a foregone conclusion. Twirling his mustache and squinting slyly, he seems to be calculating future income from a profitable marriage.

The atmosphere of the merchant's house is also helped to recreate the secondary characters - a deaf old woman who is a familiar, asking the merchant's assistant about what is happening, and the cook, who performs the duties of both a maid and a footman. Champagne in this house, obviously, is not often drunk and therefore they do not know how to serve it gracefully - the bottle and glasses are lonely on a chair.

In search of heroes and a suitable interior for this picture, Fedotov walked all over Petersburg - he wanted to achieve maximum reliability. Once at Anichkov Bridge he met a "suitable" merchant - with a thick beard, solid belly and a good-natured face. The artist followed him, and then began to beg to pose for him. Later he recalled: "Not a single lucky man, who was assigned the most pleasant rendezvous on Nevsky Prospekt, could no longer rejoice at his beauty, as I rejoiced at my red beard and thick belly."

In search of an interior, Fedotov, under various pretexts, entered merchant houses: he asked if a house or pieces of furniture were for sale, if an apartment was for rent. But in the end I found a suitable room in a tavern! One of the artist's friends later recalled: “Once, passing near some tavern, the artist noticed through the windows the main room and a chandelier with smoked glass, which“just climbed into the picture itself”. Immediately he entered the inn and found what he had been looking for for so long."

Both the room and the characters look comical: the action takes place in the hall, and not in the living room or dining room, which does not correspond to etiquette, the groom appeared without a bouquet, the bride and mother are in ball gowns, which contradicts both the occasion and the time of day, the tablecloth is not suitable for eating - it would look more appropriate in the office or boudoir, the set table is too small for so many snacks.

Despite the comic nature of the situation and the characters, a warm atmosphere is created - the heroes are just hostages of circumstances, like many others like them, and the author laughs at them without malice, but with good-naturedly condescending irony. Fedotov looked for the plots of all his paintings in everyday life, and therefore they enjoyed such incredible success. A marriage of convenience is a typical plot in 19th century art. The scandalous "Unequal Marriage" - a picture that is not recommended to look at before the wedding for grooms in years