"Troika (Apprentice artisans carry water)"- an incredibly emotional canvas created by Russian artist Vasily Perov. Three children harnessed to a sled doomedly pull a huge barrel of water. Very often the picture is cited as an example, speaking about the difficult fate of the peasants. That's just the creation of this picture was a real grief for an ordinary village woman.
Vasily Perov I have been working on the painting for a long time. Most of it was written, only the central character was missing, the artist could not find the right type. One day, Perov was walking in the vicinity of the Tverskaya Zastava and looked at the faces of the artisans who, after celebrating Easter, were returning from the villages back to the city to work. It was then that the artist saw the boy, who would subsequently rive the eyes of the audience on his picture. He was from the Ryazan province and went with his mother to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
The artist, excited by the fact that he had found "the one", began to emotionally beg the woman to let him paint a portrait of his son. The frightened woman did not understand what was happening and tried to quicken her pace. Then Perov invited her to go to his workshop and promised her an overnight stay, because he found out that the travelers had nowhere to stay.
In the workshop, the artist showed the woman an unfinished painting. She was even more frightened, they say, it’s a sin to draw people: some wither away from this, while others die. Perov persuaded her as best he could. He cited as an example kings, bishops who posed for artists. In the end, the woman agreed.
While Perov was painting a portrait of a boy, his mother talked about her difficult lot. Her name was Aunt Mary. The husband and children died, only one Vasenka remained. She did not have a soul in him. The next day, the travelers left, and the artist inspired to finish his canvas. It turned out to be so soulful that it was immediately acquired by Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov and exhibited in the gallery.
Four years later, Aunt Marya reappeared on the threshold of Perov's workshop. But she was without Vasenka. The woman, in tears, said that her son had contracted smallpox the year before and died. Later, Perov wrote that Marya did not blame him for the death of the boy, but he himself did not leave a sense of guilt for what had happened.
Aunt Marya said that she worked all winter, sold everything she had, just to buy a picture of her son. Vasily Perov replied that the painting was sold, but you can look at it. He took the woman to the gallery to Tretyakov. Seeing the picture, the woman fell to her knees and sobbed. “You are my dear! Here is your tooth knocked out! she wailed.
For several hours, the mother stood in front of the image of her son and prayed. The artist assured her that he would separately paint a portrait of Vasenka. Perov fulfilled his promise and sent the portrait of the boy in a gilded frame to the village to Aunt Marya.
Apprentice artisans carry water”, which went down in history as one of the most poignant works of art on the theme of “humiliated and offended”.
In the twentieth of January 1866, Vasily Perov painted the painting “Troika. In the West, this picture is considered a vivid embodiment of the theme of the harsh exploitation of child labor.
Returning in 1864 after studying in Germany and in Paris, Perov settled in Moscow and decided to move away from the satirical genre, in which he achieved success and where he was promised a great future. But the artist, imbued with the ideas of compassion for the poor disenfranchised people who captured Russian society in those years, undertook to paint pictures depicting the hard life of ordinary people. In particular, he succeeded in a series of paintings whose heroes were children. Even before the "Troika" Perov painted the paintings "Orphans" (1864), "Craftsman Boy" (1864), "Another by the Pool" (1865) and "Seeing the Dead" (1865).
But it was Troika that caused a special resonance in Moscow intellectual circles, quickly gaining fame in St. Petersburg. The picture, overflowing with emotions and screaming about the plight of children forced to do hard physical labor, being hungry and cold, immediately turned out to be in demand in a society that had already read and discussed The Humiliated and Insulted with might and main. And literally in the same days when Perov painted this canvas, Dostoevsky began to publish in the magazine Crime and Punishment.
Perov's painting depicts three children who are carrying a huge barrel of water in winter, harnessed to a sleigh, like a horse troika. The faces of the children are emaciated, they are clearly beyond their strength. Behind the barrel is pushed by an adult male artisan, and even he has to exert all his strength. It takes place in the cold, and Perov managed to show this by depicting icicles on the barrel, into which water splashing over the edges turns. At the same time, the children are clearly not dressed for the weather, but this is their only clothing. And the fact that this is an everyday occupation of the artisans' apprentices is evidenced by a dog that runs barking next to the children, giving the scene an ordinary, familiar, purely everyday character.
The painting was immediately bought by Pavel Tretyakov, exhibited for public viewing and subsequently became one of the most important exhibits in his collection.
A curious story, which is confirmed by several sources, including Tretyakov himself. According to the stories of Perov's friends, the artist easily found sitters for two characters in the picture - a boy and a girl at the edges of the troika, but for a long time he could not decide how the central figure should look. But one day he met a peasant woman with her son on the street, and immediately realized that it was this boy who should become the model. The artist persuaded the woman to help, and while he was painting a sketch portrait, he learned that the boy's name was Vasya, and that he was one of the three sons of the woman who had not died, so his mother had all hope for him. The painter and the young sitter immediately agreed in character and even decided that they were not accidentally namesakes. Perov invited the woman and her son to invite them to Moscow when the painting was ready.
But the peasant woman appeared only a few years later, aged beyond recognition and completely broken. She said that Vasya died last year and began to beg the artist for a picture, for which she was ready to give all her savings and the rest of her property. Perov said that he had sold the painting to Tretyakov, and that all of Moscow was already looking at the portrait of her son. He took the unfortunate mother to the gallery, where she fell on her knees in front of the picture and began to pray. After that, the artist specially painted a portrait of Vasenka (according to other sources, he added a sketch made from life) and presented it to a peasant woman.
After the Troika, Perov developed the same theme in The Drowned Woman (1867), The Last Tavern at the Outpost (1867), Sleeping Children (1870), Old Parents at the Son’s Grave (1874) and his other works. Today, the EA Culture website publishes a gallery of paintings by Vasily Perov on the theme of "humiliated and insulted."
Troika - Perov. 1866. Oil on canvas. 123.5x167.5
The most recognizable, tragic, emotional and legendary work of the great artist has been captivating the public for more than a century and a half, forcing them to empathize and sympathize with the heroes of the work.
Along a deserted and ominously gloomy street swept by an ice blizzard, three children are carrying a huge vat of water covered with matting. Water, splashing out of the vat, instantly freezes, turning into icicles. This is how the author designates the winter cold, which makes the work even more dramatic.
Three children's figures, different, but equally emaciated, are harnessed to the wagon like a trio of horses. The face of the only girl in the team is turned directly to the viewer. The open sheepskin coat reveals an old, washed-out skirt. Eyes half-closed, face tense and unspeakable anguish. A cold wind ruffles her hair, and heavy and big shoes that are not for her age emphasize the fragility of a girl's figure even more.
The boy on the far left appears to be the youngest of the trio. Hard work seems to have almost completely robbed him of his strength. The hand hangs limply, tension is read in the whole body, and the thin pale childish neck and a look full of despair and hopelessness complete the tragic picture.
As you know, for a long time the master could not find a model for the central figure of the "troika". This is the oldest of the children depicted in the picture. According to the plot of the work, it is the central figure that bears the main part of the dramaturgy of the work. As the leader in the team, the boy tries to play the role of leader. He, overcoming pain and cold, does not show his fatigue. All striving forward, he, by his very appearance, gives strength to weakened comrades.
The unchildish eyes of the trinity of sufferers, their clothes from someone else's shoulder, overwork - the master calls on the viewer to be horrified by the plight of children, calls for mercy.
Particular attention should be paid to the surrounding landscape. A deserted street, a monastery wall (this is easy to identify by part of the gate with an image above them), two human figures - a man wrapped in a fur coat from the cold, a man pushing a barrel of water from behind. The author does not show us the faces of adults. They seem to be not present in the picture, they become only part of the landscape.
A very sad dog running nearby. Baring his teeth at the cold, darkness and twilight, he accompanies his masters, enduring all the hardships and difficulties with them.
The gray, gloomy sky is enlivened by several flying birds, also suffering from frost.
Grey, dirty snow underfoot, scattered brushwood, icy sledges. All of the above enhances the impression of the picture, filling it with an atmosphere of hopelessness, suffering and doom.
The work has become a powerful and loud denunciation, a protest against the use of child labor, a ruthless attitude towards children.
Winter twilight. Snowstorm. Two boys and a girl are harnessed to a sleigh and are dragging a huge ice-covered barrel of water along the city street with difficulty. The kids were exhausted. A sharp wind blows through their tattered clothes. Some kind person helps them pull the sled up the hill.
Perov called the picture "Troika". How much pain and bitterness in this name! We are accustomed to songs about a dashing troika, about a frisky troika, and here - a troika of exhausted children. To the name of the picture - "Troika" - Perov added: "Apprentices artisans are carrying water."
At that time, thousands of children worked in factories, workshops, shops and stores. They were called "disciples". One man who began his working life as a boy apprentice later recalled his hard labor childhood: “We were forced to carry boxes weighing three or four pounds from the basement to the third floor. We carried the boxes on our backs with rope straps. Climbing the spiral staircase, we often fell and broke. And then the owner ran up to the fallen man, grabbed his hair and banged his head against the iron stairs. All of us, thirteen boys, lived in one room with thick iron bars on the windows. We slept on plank beds. Except for a mattress stuffed with straw, there was no bed. After work, we took off our dresses and boots, put on dirty dressing gowns, which we girded with a rope, and put on props on our feet. But we were not allowed to rest. We had to chop wood, heat stoves, put on samovars, run to the bakery, to a butcher's shop, to a tavern for tea and vodka, to carry snow from the pavement. On holidays we were also sent to sing in the church choir. In the morning and in the evening we went with a huge tub to the pool for water and each time brought ten tubs ... "
So lived the children depicted in Perov's painting.
The picture was already started, and Perov could not find the right boy for her. And a lot depended on him: he immediately attracts the attention of the audience. In the spring, on a fine sunny day, the artist, as usual, wandered near the outpost, looking at the passers-by. Suddenly he noticed a woman with a boy. Approached. The boy is exactly what he had been looking for for a long time. We got talking. New acquaintances went from the Ryazan village to the monastery, got to Moscow, and there was nowhere to spend the night. Perov led them to the studio, showed them the painting he had begun, and asked permission to paint a portrait of the boy. The woman agreed.
While Perov worked, the woman told him about her life. The woman's name was Aunt Mary. Fate did not spoil her. Aunt Marya experienced hunger and poverty, she buried her husband and children. Now she has one consolation left - her twelve-year-old son Vasenka. The artist listened to a sad story, and on the canvas, with each movement of the brush, the face of the boy Vasya was more and more clearly shown. Harnessed to a heavy, unyielding sleigh, Vasya will now remind viewers of the difficult lot of many children around ...
It's been about four years. The painting "Troika" has long hung in the Tretyakov Gallery. Early one morning, an unexpected guest came to Perov - a village old woman in a sheepskin coat and large mud-covered bast shoes. She handed the artist a poor gift - a small bundle with testicles - and began to cry. Perov hardly recognized Aunt Marya. She said that her only son fell ill and died last year, and she sold all her belongings, worked in the winter, saved up some money and now she came to buy a picture where Vasenka is painted. Perov explained to the guest that it was impossible to buy a painting, but you could see it. He took Aunt Marya to Tretyakov.
You are my native! Here is your tooth knocked out! cried Aunt Marya, and knelt before the picture.
Perov left her alone. A few hours later he returned to the hall. Aunt Marya was still on her knees and... praying. She prayed not to the icon, but to the picture. The artist, with his art, managed to give her son eternal life. Perov promised Aunt Marya to paint a portrait of Vasya for her. He fulfilled his promise and sent her a portrait in a gilded frame to her village.
Few people know how the Russian artist Vasily Perov painted his painting "Troika (Apprentices Carrying Water)". For a long time he could not pick up the image of the central character, and after he nevertheless managed to choose it, he became a participant in a real drama in a simple peasant family.
Vasily Perov has been working on the painting for a long time. Most of it was written, only the central character was missing, the artist could not find the right type. One day, Perov was walking in the vicinity of the Tverskaya Zastava and looked at the faces of the artisans who, after celebrating Easter, were returning from the villages back to the city to work. It was then that the artist saw the boy, who would subsequently rive the eyes of the audience on his picture. He was from the Ryazan province and went with his mother to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
The artist, excited by the fact that he had found "the one", began to emotionally beg the woman to let him paint a portrait of his son. The frightened woman did not understand what was happening and tried to quicken her pace. Then Perov invited her to go to his workshop and promised her an overnight stay, because he found out that the travelers had nowhere to stay.
In the workshop, the artist showed the woman an unfinished painting. She was even more frightened, they say, it’s a sin to draw people: some wither away from this, while others die. Perov persuaded her as best he could. He cited as an example kings, bishops who posed for artists. In the end, the woman agreed.
While Perov was painting a portrait of a boy, his mother talked about her difficult lot. Her name was Aunt Mary. The husband and children died, only one Vasenka remained. She did not have a soul in him. The next day, the travelers left, and the artist inspired to finish his canvas. It turned out to be so soulful that it was immediately acquired by Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov and exhibited in the gallery.
Four years later, Aunt Marya reappeared on the threshold of Perov's workshop. But she was without Vasenka. The woman, in tears, said that her son had contracted smallpox the year before and died. Later, Perov wrote that Marya did not blame him for the death of the boy, but he himself did not leave a sense of guilt for what had happened.
Aunt Marya said that she worked all winter, sold everything she had, just to buy a picture of her son. Vasily Perov replied that the painting was sold, but you can look at it. He took the woman to the gallery to Tretyakov. Seeing the picture, the woman fell to her knees and sobbed. “You are my dear! Here is your tooth knocked out! she wailed.
For several hours, the mother stood in front of the image of her son and prayed. The artist assured her that he would separately paint a portrait of Vasenka. Perov fulfilled his promise and sent the portrait of the boy in a gilded frame to the village to Aunt Marya.
