Russian village in original paintings, permeated with positive and valiant enthusiasm

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

The name of the original Mordovian painter who worked in the first half of the 20th century is Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov went down in the history of painting to the category of "Forgotten Names". However, at one time the images of his Russian girls were very popular not only in Russia, but also abroad. So in the 1910s, the painter's paintings had unprecedented success in the Paris Salon, where they were eagerly bought by art lovers who showed a sincere interest in Russian village life.

F. V. Sychkov lived a long and fruitful life, wrote about six hundred paintings and over a thousand sketches. The main theme of the painter's work was village life, rural holidays, folk festivals, winter fun of young people. The master's huge legacy has spread throughout the country and abroad. His works are kept in many museums and private collections around the world. And at the beginning of the twentieth century, colorful postcards issued by the Richard publishing house, which are today a rarity, were very popular.

The future artist was born in March 1870 in a poor village family in the village of the Penza province. From early childhood, he and his mother walked through the villages with a bag, which is why their fellow villagers teased the beggars. For the boy, this was so humiliating that from an early age he dreamed of learning some kind of craft in order to earn a living by his labor.

Fedot's grandmother insisted on sending her grandson to a three-year zemstvo school. There, the boy immediately showed a great talent for drawing, and his teacher tried in every possible way to develop this gift in him.

After the end of the three-year period, all Fedot's thoughts were about an art school in St. Petersburg. However, the lack of money in the family hindered the boy's dream. To earn the necessary money for his studies, the teenager worked as an apprentice in the icon-painting workshop. He painted frescoes in churches, painted portraits from photographs. The path to art for a boy from a poor family was thorny and difficult, but a great desire and determination did their job.

Seeing in the young man an outstanding talent and aspiration, fellow countrymen helped Fedot with money. And he graduated from the Drawing School in St. Petersburg, however, not in six years - like everyone else, but in three years, since he managed to master the entire curriculum in a short time.

Then he studied at the Higher Art School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at the Academy of Arts in the workshop of battle painting, which Sychkov graduated in 1900. Upon completion of his studies, he received the title of artist for the competitive work "A Letter from the War". But a diploma was out of the question, since the artist did not have a document on complete secondary education.

So Fedot Sychkov went on the creative path in the future without a diploma, but with an outstanding talent and desire to develop and create.

For several years he lived in his small homeland, which has always been a life-giving source of creative inspiration for the artist.

And in 1908, Sychkov and his wife went on a trip to Italy, France, Germany to see firsthand the works of world art. Abroad, he painted many serial landscapes and exhibited his work at the Paris Salon.

By 1917, the painter already had considerable popularity in Europe, and his work "A Teacher at Home" was awarded a silver medal at the International Exhibition in St. Louis (USA).

Returning to his homeland after the revolution, the artist began to design revolutionary holidays, write genre canvases about life in a new country. In 1937, the artist, disillusioned with the new order and, feeling his lack of demand, tried to leave Russia.

But by chance, his work was noticed and appreciated, Fedot Vasilyevich was awarded the title of Honored Art Worker of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Over the next years of his life, the artist will write a large number of colorful paintings, permeated with positive, youth, energy charge.

- this is how the artist spoke about his work.

At the end of the 40s, the artist began to have vision problems, and by the end of his life, he practically did not see. For the artist, this was truly a great tragedy.

The story of how Ivan Aivazovsky, being from a poor Armenian family, became the greatest artist of world renown can be read in the review.