The real story and tragedy of the protagonist of the picture "Troika" by Vasily Perov

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

The painting "Troika" is the best in the genre direction of Vasily Perov. It reflects the serious theme of child labor and the social situation of the 1860s. The artist was especially careful to select characters for his picture, especially the central boy, with whom the whole story is connected.

Biography and work of the artist

Vasily Grigorievich Perov (1834-1882), painter, genre painter, portrait painter, author of paintings on historical themes and teacher. And most importantly, he is a socially significant person. Perov lived at a time when the artist's indifference to social problems in Russia was considered immoral. The artist's work was the impetus for the development of critical realism in Russian painting.

Vasily Perov was born on January 2, 1834 in Tobolsk, being the illegitimate son of Baron Grigory Karlovich Kridener. Despite the fact that soon after the boy was born, his parents got married, Vasily had no rights to his father's surname and title. The surname "Perov" originated as a nickname given to the boy by his literacy teacher. The clerk was delighted with the diligence and skillful use of his student's pen, so he decided to mark this trait of the boy with a surname already known to all fans. After completing the course at the Arzamas district school, he was transferred to the art school named after. Alexandra Stupina, also located in Arzamas. In 1853 he was admitted to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he studied with a number of famous artists. In 1862, Perov received a gold medal and the right to a state-sponsored trip abroad. The artist traveled to Western Europe, visiting several German cities and then Paris. During this time, he created paintings depicting scenes of European street life.

Troika

The 1860s is the period of the best genre works in the work of Vasily Grigorievich Perov. He spent 30 years of his life developing his main direction - genre painting. And the famous "Troika" of 1866 became the most ambitious, emotional and expressive picture in this vector. The children's faces are directed towards the viewer. They reveal the fatigue, timidity and suffering of children. The canvas touches on a very serious topic of child labor, it calls on viewers and society as a whole to compassion. On the other hand, this picture is a call to reconsider the situation and take a more responsible attitude to the theme of family and childhood in the peasant environment.

Wednesday in the picture

The call in the picture is heard in all possible ways, including nature, which literally conveys the injustice of the situation described. The viewer hears the roar of a gusty wind, the crackle of a cart in the cold, hears a dog barking, as if calling for help. Children, thin and hungry, pull the cart against the cold wind, which, so inopportunely, blows right into their small faces. These eyes are no longer naive, life did not allow them to preserve their childlike spontaneity. These eyes reflect the suffering of all peasant children in their hard long-suffering destinies. The gloomy walls of the monastery create a mood of hopeless melancholy. The title of the painting is reminiscent of the Old Testament Trinity. A symbolically generalized image of an unjust world appears, which the artist rejects with his canvas.

Heroes of the picture

How serious the topic of peasant children is, so painstaking was the preparation of Perov for the beginning of work. Multiple sketches, sketches, samples of various gestures and positions of the characters. With great zeal, the artist reacted to the search for faces for children. Two boys and a girl pulling a large barrel of water with great effort. This is a fierce and frosty winter, accompanied by a blizzard and wind. It is so cold outside that the water in the barrel has frozen and the viewer even sees ice icicles. Children are accompanied by their faithful friend - a dog.

The children are clearly not dressed for the weather. Their necks are open and their feet are shod in old shoes. They don't even wear mittens, their hands are already cut with the straps and ropes of the carriage. It is enough to pay attention to the thin fingers of the girl, who lowered her eyes from fatigue and the headwind. Her fingers were to play the piano on a cozy winter evening with her family. But no … they have to pull the hard ropes of the wagon. Tough and cruel as the very fate of these children. Behind the barrel of water is held by a man, apparently the father of the children. The artist deliberately hid his face, focusing on the children. The boy on the left pulls the cart with all his might, his zeal is expressed by the not childishly strong neck, on which the artist skillfully depicted stretched muscles. Special attention is required by the central character, with whom an amazing and sad story is connected. … The artist found children for two heroes (a boy and a girl) pretty quickly. But he had to look for the central hero. Once on the street he saw an unfamiliar woman with a boy, in whom he saw the ideal for his hero. A peasant woman for a long time did not allow the artist to paint a portrait of her son (the poor peasant people believed in dark superstitions, one of which: a person drawn one day will soon die. This is what frightened the peasant mother). But after much persuasion, she agreed.

Exhibition

The canvas was ready. He was expected to be a triumphant success at the exhibition, the guests of which were shocked by the written tragedy and its sad hopelessness. Once Tretyakov himself noticed that for several days in a row the same woman approached the Troika and cried for a long time. Later it became known that this is the mother of the protagonist, in whom Perov hardly recognized Vasya's mother. She said that her son got sick and died last year. Thus, the fears of the peasant woman were partly confirmed. She wished to buy a painting with the collected funds. Perov explained that the painting had been sold for a long time. Being a compassionate man of the kindest soul, Perov presented the woman with a new portrait of the boy in memory of her son.