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Video: Noble old age: Russian old women-aristocrats in the paintings of the XIX century
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
People grew up and grew old at all times, and among the noblewomen of the Russian Empire were not only young conquerors of officers' hearts who shone at balls. From comfortable armchairs, from offices, from quiet living rooms of noble houses, old women, or, rather, elderly ladies, watched the tumultuous life of children and grandchildren, from time to time plunging into memories that often turned out to be much more valuable to them than the vanity of the present. Did the noble grandmothers of former Russia differ so much from those of today?
Grandma's Stories
If the writers of the 19th century were happy to describe the character and appearance of people of advanced age, then young faces appeared in the works of artists much more often than older ones. Whether because it was easier to please young customers with a “mirror” that flattering, or the representatives of the older generation themselves avoided posing in front of the artist, but among the paintings of the classics of painting it is not so easy to find portraits of nobles in old age. It is all the more valuable now to turn to those few and often masterpiece canvases that have retained the imprint of a past life - the past both for the person depicted in the picture, and in general for the former way of life. Thanks to these masters, you can look into the world that has long become history.
Elizaveta Petrovna Yankova, nee Rimskaya-Korsakova, was born in 1768 in the family of the captain of the Semenovsky regiment. Since childhood, she listened to family stories and legends that date back to the era of the reign of Peter the Great, and Elizabeth Petrovna's own life turned out to be long and eventful. At the age of twenty-five, she married and had seven children, four of whom died in infancy. Yankova was a Muscovite, and changed during her long - 93 years! - the life of several mansions on the old streets of the capital. Thanks to the grandson of Elizaveta Petrovna, Dmitry Dmitrievich Blagovo, tonsured as a monk under the name of Pimen, "Grandmother's Stories" was born. And there, of course, the author's grandmother is mentioned - not a feeble old woman, but a dignified mistress of a rich house.
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Dmitry Blagovo describes his grandmother as follows: "".
All in the past
The life of the mistress of a noble estate was not at all idle, she had to manage a large farm, distribute duties among servants and peasants, and even in old age these ladies retained an imperious and strict disposition, enjoying special respect from representatives of the younger generations. Of course, old noblewomen were often freed from household chores, their days were devoted to "work" - needlework, conversations and memories of the past; until the end of their lives, they gave preference to the already outdated styles of dresses and types of hairstyles - those that were in fashion in the days of distant youth.
In 1878, the Itinerant artist Vasily Polenov painted one of his most significant paintings. At that time, the era of "noble nests" was becoming a thing of the past, old estates disappeared, giving way to new buildings, or simply gradually fell into desolation and collapsed. Polenov, who himself was from a family of nobles, well remembered the atmosphere that reigned in the estate of his grandmother in the Tambov province, and he yearned for her, probably, creating this work of his.
Both the old woman leaning on the hand of a young granddaughter, and the dilapidated, once rich house, which may soon give way to something new, also touch nostalgic feelings in the viewer, awaken distant memories.
The canvas depicts the same manor courtyard as in another famous creation by Polenov - the painting "Moscow Courtyard" - another masterpiece of the "mood landscape", a style to which other artists - Savrasov, Levitan, Korovin - also addressed.
Another artist of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, Vasily Maksimov, wrote his main work - the painting "Everything in the Past" - in 1889. She was a resounding success with the public, and in the same year she was bought by Pavel Tretyakov for his collection. The impression that formed the basis of the work came to the artist while working as a drawing teacher in the family of Count Golenishchev-Kutuzov in the Tver province. Maksimov began to create a picture after more than twenty years, becoming the owner of his own small estate.
The viewer sees the day of the old lady and her elderly servant, the first one is distinguished by the article still preserved and nobleness, dressed smartly and expensively, apparently, indulges in memories of the past. The maid does not sit idle now, her hands are busy with knitting, in front of her is a large massive mug, whose simple appearance contrasts with the expensive porcelain from which the master's cup is made.
Looking to the future, looking to the past
Pictures depicting elderly noblewomen are few in number, but in a certain sense they can be used to "read" the story that is hidden behind the furnishings, individual objects, the faces of the characters, and the viewer involuntarily compares what he saw with his own memories - about his grandmother, about the old house, about bygone days that are long gone, but still remain in the heart.
A completely different noble old age, much less pleasant, is shown in the painting by Vasily Surikov "Menshikov in Berezovo". The canvas depicts the former favorite of Peter the Great, exiled to Siberia by Emperor Peter II. Apparently, the thoughts of the old Menshikov are also associated with memories of the past, but bitterness from the whims of fate is mixed with them, which at any moment can cast its darling from the heights of success to hardships and disappointments.
His wife is not with him - she died on the way to the place of exile. In a year, the prince himself will be gone. And what his children are thinking is much more difficult to say, probably because, unlike Menshikov, to which only the past remains, they belong to the future, and the future is not yet predetermined.
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